blocks blocks and blocks

I've joined the 4x5 Modern Quilt Bee for another round this winter. I find bees like this to be a little hit and miss as you don't know if the blocks you'll be getting back are going to fit in with your idea, if the colours will work.... And you never know if you're going to have the fabric needed to make blocks for your hive mates.  For example this round, one hive mate wanted orange in her block and another wanted cream.  I have almost no orange except in scraps and pretty much no cream, so I really had to dig.  My first attempt at cream was a fail - I posted a picture and she wanted something lighter.  Anyway, I did get them done, and I hope they'll work for my hive mates.

These are the blocks I received last round and one more I made.  I was going for magenta/plum with navy and a touch of yellow with a low volume (no taupes or creams) background.  The top two blocks don't really fit in with my idea, but they might get use elsewhere.

These are the blocks I made for this round.  I decided to make something other than a star and then found a photo on Flickr of a jumbo economy block.  Decision made.

I don't think I showed this here yet, but I received this mini in the Doll Quilt Swap.  

I am completely in love with the colours and the design.  It's already hanging with my other minis and my quilt wall is growing.

On the side, and very sporadically, I'm still sewing outfits on comission.  This outfit is, obviously, for a little girls who's turning 2.  Her mom wanted a rainbow outfit and an appliqued shirt with a cupcake and the number 2.  

 

As always, I hope I get to see a photo of the birthday girl wearing her outfit.

I'm still plugging away at my Feather blocks too.  These particular blocks almost had me beat, but in the end I'm winning.  I think I only have 5 or so more to do like this and then it's on to some easier ones. 

I'm kind of excited to see these all together.

a finish and a start

I joined the Doll Quilt Swap for this round kind of selfishly as I hope to have a mini quilt wall one day.  Of course when you join a swap you don't only receive but you also have to make.  That's always fun too as I make things I probably wouldn't have tried before.  Like these economy blocks.

I was so stuck on how to quilt this mini because everything is so square.  I finally decided to do a cathedral window type quilting over the squares to add some round shape to the quilt.

I finished it off with some straight hand quilting on the diagonal to add some more movement.  I bound it with black and white spots to match the black and white print around the centre.

It finishes at 17" square and I'm ready to send now once I gather a few extras.

I also made a start on my Feathers Quilt!  This excites me because it's for us - I get to keep this one and put it on my own bed.  

I'm going with jewel tones on black Chambray and I love how it's turning out so far.  Somehow it's kind of tricky to get a good photo of the colours.

I'm caught up on the quilt along - done A-D blocks.

my finish

Do you call a quilt top a finish? Or do you wait until it is quilted and bound and then call it a finish? I think I will call finished tops a finish. 

The pattern is modified from Modern Designs for Classic Quilters, Kelly's Must Stash pattern.

My diamonds are a little different shape (user error...) and finished size is 34"x43"

I made this top using mostly scraps that I was going to give away because I had used lots already and was a little bored with them.

It was fun to find and arrange fabrics that flowed from one colour into another.

Like this pink bordering on lavender aka purple to tie these colours together.

This quilt will be going to the Pregnancy Care Centre in Edmonton as part of Fabulous Home Sewn's sew along.

moving along

Hey look! I did manage to get a photo of my girls wearing their coordinating outfits. K in her new dress and D in her ruffly skirt. 

The dress fit perfectly and she managed of course to get chocolate on it while nomming on her cupcake.  

I also printed off all the paper piecing papers for the Feather QAL.  

That is one large stack of papers!  I am upsizing the quilt size to a queen without upsizing the feather pattern.  I'm adding on to the bottom and side of the original quilt size to make a quilt that should end up finishing at 88"x100".

These are the final colours I'm going with.  I originally had yellow in as well, but it got lost in translation - aka I didn't have a space for it when I coloured in my block map.  But I'm fine with that as I wasn't so sure about the yellows anyway.  

Can't wait to start!  

Actually, can't wait to be done!

a birthday dress

My baby turned 1 today. 

She is such a character - so different from her sister.  K is loud, moody, pushy, and a go-getter whereas D was soft, quiet, 'emotionless' (so some said, but I knew better), and calm.  It is so much fun to have two such different characters running/crawling around my house.

For her birthday, I made K a sweet little dress.

  

The dress is an Ottobre pattern and I'm so proud of how professional it came out.  My invisible zipper really is invisible!  And the piping lined up perfectly to boot.

The bubble is prefect and the dress is completely lined so there are no exposed seams. 

I made D a coordinating skirt from another print from this line.  I don't know what line it is, but I know I bought them together to match.  I always thought coordinating but not matchy was cute for sisters and this is the first time I'm doing it for my girls.

Will definitely need a picture of that.

falling in

I've recently made my baby girl a winter coat for church. Silly, eh, to make a coat specifically for Sunday.  We go to church twice on a Sunday and since we were kids, we always had a neat coat for church.  And I suppose I just can't shake the habit.  I have a 'neat' coat, and so does my husband.  Just fitting the baby had to have one too ;)

The pattern is from the 6/2012 issue of Ottobre.  I made a size 80 (the size K wears now) and it's a bit big. 

I'm particularly impressed that I remembered to add satin in the sleeves so her clothes don't ride up to her armpits. It wasn't in the pattern, and that is the only change I made besides leaving off the ribbon at the waist.

I didn't have any velvet ribbon to put at the waist and now I regret finishing it off before ordering ribbon (aka waiting two weeks for velvet ribbon from the States).  Oh well, it's still so cute on her since K has such chubby cheeks and the coat is a little bubble.

I've also decided to participate in the Feathers QAL over at The ADD Crafter.  This quilt will be for our bed!  I had started one for our bed before, but my husband thought there was too much pink.  What!?  Not manly enough?!  

Anyway, so this quilt will be jewel tone scrappy with black Andover Chambray for the background.  Now I just have to decide what range of colours to include.  

The top row is all the bits minus orange, the second row has some orange pieces included, and the bottom is basically the top pared down.  I think either the top or middle one appeals most to me.  Then the quesiton is how to put them together!  Just pick totally random, or make some order out of it.  Put like colours together, or just mix them all up.  Planning always takes me forever.

Last, and if you've come this far, it's Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day {Week} hosted by Sew Mama Sew.  Last year I didn't participate, and this year I waffled, thus the late jumping in on the game.  I'm always wondering who comes by to enter giveaways - just people looking for freebies and they enter every giveaway they find, or people who really read blogs and enter only ones that they would find useful for themselves.  

I think I fall in the second group.  I am a blog reader when I have time, but I'm not much of a commenter.  I'm the silent stalker.  I also don't enter every giveaway open, but enter only ones that would be useful to me or someone I know.  

In any case, enough yapping, you want to know what I'm giving away!  I have two prizes, and I'm following Kristel's idea of giving one out randomly and one out to a specifically international/Canadian entrant.  

Here are the two prizes:

1. A pack of 42 5"charms chosen from my stash - they may or may not include these.

2. a 6" charm pack of Essentials 

To enter leave a comment telling me what kind of sewing machine you have.  I recently bought a Janome 2030QDC second hand.  The lady I bought it from only used it for the class and to make one shirt, so really, it was new.  Before that I had a Brother I had bought from Walmart - yeah, classy.  The only thing that machine lacked was throat space.

What do you sew on?

{Please also let me know if you are a US entrant or international/Canadian.} 

Giveaway ends Dec. 13 8pm MST. 
---CLOSED---
Winner will be announced as soon as Little D is in bed :) 

Winners have been contacted and have responded, so now I'm announcing them.
#52 Kellie Marie
#114 DeborahGun

add more to the list

If you've come here from the Blogathon Canada hosted by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop, welcome to my blog!  I'm not always very regular here, but I do post sporadically.  I'm more active on Flickr as that seems to be more mom friendly.  It's easier to post a picture with a couple words than it is to write up a post when you have two little ones around.  If you're on Flickr, my name there is Principiessa.  (I chose that name because my husband, who is Dutch, claims to know some Italian and this is the word he, ahem, knows.)

I have a bunch of WIP's going on now and I want to show that I am actually working on them!  Some are over a year old, but I'm slowly chipping away at them.  

I'm still busy with my Hexy MF.  I'm not pregnant anymore (phew) so it's much easier to sew on this one.  I have only to attach 4 more flower to the stems and I'm ready to quilt, or sent it off to the quilter.  

I'm finishing the binding on my Stack n' Whack quilt.  Only two sides left to bind and I keep thinking to myself - Just get it done already!  

My Simply Solids Triangles Quilt is still a top, and I still haven't decided on a border or not.

To add to the pile, my Get Your Hex on bee blocks are almost all here and they will need a plan too!

it's so hard to take a good photo when winter is here.

This project is smaller and has to get done sooner as it's due to be sent in January.  I've become a mild swap addict and this bit of piecing is going to become a doll quilt for round 14 of the Doll Quilt Swap.

I've fallen in love with this block, and I'm not even sure what to call it!  Is it square in a square, or fussy cut squares.  If someone could help me out to find the real name, that would be great.

Anyway, I've gone with Moda Cheddar and Kona Slate for the surrounding squares and bits of Heather Ross for the fussy cuts.  I'm thinking of backing it on magentas to match the centre mermaid square and than bordering the whole mini with some low volume fabrics.

everything is a bit too bright in this photo...

I'm so on the ball with this project.  I can't send until January and I'm ready to get the whole thing done now.  I hope I'm not doubting myself by the time it's time to send.