Friendship Star Baby Quilt

Every year my husband and I travel south in January.  We live in Petersburg, which is located on an island in Southeast Alaska.  The only way to get on or off the island is to fly or take a boat. We pack our truck with our dog and necessities and travel to either Prince Rupert, BC, Canada or Bellingham, Washington on the Alaska Marine Highway System.  Once we get to the mainland, we drive to Anacortes, Washington and pick up our 5th wheel trailer and head toward the sun.  Last January I packed a small tote with quilting projects so I could sew along the way.  The trip to Bellingham is 2.5 days and it can be pretty gray outside and uneventful, so a quilt project is perfect for the journey.  I made this friendship star on the ferry between Petersburg and Bellingham.  Once the top was finished, it went into a bag and put in a safe place.

I pulled this friendship star quilt out of the UFO pile recently to get it ready to quilt.  

 I chose this lemony yellow and white dot for the backing fabric.  Don't you hate it when this happens.   This quilt was about 45 inches wide and the fabric is 42 inches wide.  I didn't want to cut another piece of fabric for just 3 inches, so I decided do a little piecing for the backing.

I pulled out my my stash of '30's reproduction fabric, which is pretty limited. 

 As I was digging, I found these 2.5" squares.  I decided to make a nine patch strip with the squares.

 I put the strip right down the middle of the backing fabric.

I layered the batting and quilt onto the back.  I folded the batting and top in half and put the center fold on the center of the 9 patch strip.  This quilt is ready to go.  It is back in the UFO pile-but it's ready.

Linking to:  NTT, Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop,  Finished or Not Friday, Oh Scrap, 

Coral Baby Quilt

My newest baby girl, granddaughter #3, Helmi Rae was born on Valentine's Day this year.  Her little nursery is coral and white.  She needed a little quilt to match the nursery decor.  I used fabrics the Dreamin Vintage collection by designer Jeni Baker along with other fabrics from my stash to make this quilt.  I put minky on the back of the quilt.  The key to quilting with minky is to spray baste and pin baste.  

I quilted it pretty simply, with a stitch in the ditch around the border and an x in each block.  The fabrics are the focal point of the quilt.  I didn't want the quilting to overpower the thing.

This is the fabric bundle I used for the quilt, with the large floral print for the border.  

I also used a coral prints from Blend, Michael Miller,  and Riley Blake.  The coral border is a Michael Miller Batik.  All of these fabrics can be found at Runnstitch.Etsy.com

Linking To:

Let's Bee Social Sew Cute Tuesday Home Work  

Quilting: It's A Process

This week I worked on two quilts.  I was hoping to get the Quilt for Eric finished so I could show and tell, however, the quilting part took a little longer than I expected.  It is completely quilted and ready for the binding.  I used my walking foot and straight stitches for this quilt.  There was a lot of stopping and starting, which is time consuming.  I like the stitch my walking foot makes.  I am not confident with free motion.  I guess that means I need more practice...right.

 A couple of years ago I attended a mystery class.  I picked out In The Beginning fabrics by Jason Yenter, which I loved but it turned out that they didn't necessarily work for the mystery.  After I pieced the top, I quickly put it together with a backing and started quilting, using a quick and dirty spiral.  I wanted to just get it done.  I quilted about a quarter of the piece and then put it in my UFO pile.  You know how it is when you spend time on something and you still don't like it.  It just gets tedious and it's easy to move on to something else.  Well, this week, I took that quilt out of the UFO pile and took the quilting out.  I like the fabrics in this quilt.  It's so muddy, you really don't see any pattern at all.  I think with a little quilting, the pattern may emerge.  I am going to attempt making something of this quilt.  I'll keep you posted.

Linking To:
Craftastic Monday Link Anything Goes Monday #73 Sew Cute Tuesday Linky Tuesday Fabric Tuesday WIP Wednesday Let's Bee Social #33 I Quilt Needle and Thread Thursday Link A Finish Friday Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Fabric Frenzy Friday #27 TGIFF Weekend Link Party