Charming Girls & Guys March Goals update

So I managed to complete most of my goals this month--yay!! Both little quilts are bound. I'll show the backs too, to prove there are no tape tricks being used, not that any of you would ever suspect me of such thing :) The Freshcut was a really fun quilt to make, it starts like this: and then you cut it in 3 pieces, sew it back together into this: My little leader ender quilt in Freshcut I already showed you here and I don't want to bore you too much. I started my King size top and got half the blocks made. The pattern is Comfy Cozy put out by the Cozy Quilt Shop.
I goofed up and made 41 blocks when what the pattern actually said was use 41 fat quarters and make 2 blocks from each arghhhhh!! I didn't catch it until they were all on my wall and I was thinking hmmmm doesn't seem quite big enough....duhh. That's o.k. my goal was just to get it started and that I did! My Between Friends quilt is still awaiting borders, but again, my goal was just to get the "innards" done this month. This is the combo I've decided on: My fail was the twisted 9 patch quilt...didn't get the borders on and so obviously didn't get it quilted either! April is going to be a borders month....YUCK!!!! As soon as the Comfy Cozy quilt came down off the wall I had to start making some "liberated" blocks with my new crazy fabric. Which I went back to Rosie's and got more of. Because I decided my original trip did not get me as far out of my box as I wanted. Here they are all color coordinated: I got busy making some liberated baskets with Kathie's help and encouragement, thanks Kathie :) She was so sweet she even offered to make a block and take step by step pictures!! She has the most adorable liberated basket quilt in the works! I really love making these...this is my favorite so far. And I will leave you a picture of what's on my wall right now....pretty crazy, huh?

Liberated Quilts!

Tuesday this scrumptious little stack of books arrived at my door. I sat down and read straight through Liberated Quiltmaking II, then read about halfway through Collaborate Again, jumped up and made a beeline for Rosies, one of my favorite local dealers....um I mean quilt shops. Not my usual shopping spree picks but these books just lit a fire under me to make something BRIGHT. I never knew solids could be so fun! If I had to choose between the 2 books? I couldn't. Just go buy both of them, really! They're practically half off at Amazon so it's really like you're just getting one...add in free shipping and no sales tax....see how I get in so much trouble? These two quilts are the ones I want to start with.... one from each book. I really like the way Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again is set up. In the back they have pictures of the finished quilts with the pages of "the parts" they've used to make it. The parts are in the middle and reference the quilts they are used in. The front is all about each author and their philosophy, inspiration, etc. It is chock full of inspiring photos. Gwen's book, Liberated Quiltmaking II, is set up in a similar way and as you read it you can hardly sit still you want to jump up and run to your sewing room and just get going!! Kaffe's book is his usual wonderfulness...here are some pics to whet your appetite. I'll stop now so you can go order your books :)While you do that, I'm going to go cut some of these:
I almost forgot...I got inspired to buy the Gwen and Freddy book here at Belinda's...go look at her amazing design wall full of yumminess...seriously. Now you're for sure going to buy the book :)

Happy National Quilting Day!

Taking a quick break from sewing to post about what I did for the Friday Night Sew-in. I had planned on getting my borders on my Bf quilt but I didn't get my other blocks off my design wall in time. So last night I finished sewing together my Comfy Cozy blocks and got my wall cleared. I also quilted the centers of my little Fresh Cut scrap top, and got all my cutting done for another bigger Fresh Cut quilt. O.k. back to work. Hope you're all getting some quilting in today!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm afraid I don't do much decorating for St. Patrick's Day. Not very good since I"m a quarter Irish. At least Winston is making an effort at being Green today!This Friday is the March Friday Night Sew-In!! Check it out here and join in the fun! It would be a great way to kick off National Quilting Day on Saturday! You are all planning on celebrating, yes? I'm going to try and put my borders on my BF quilt...I think I'm going with the #4 inner border and either #2 or #4 outer border. Cheryl is working on hers on Friday also and hopefully Sharon will join us...we're twisting her arm lol! I haven't been able to get it back on the design wall to try out the first option because I've had another project hogging the wall. I've been working on turning these strips into these blocks. I am hoping to get them sewn together or at least off the wall by Friday...wish me luck. The sun is shining and I want to take a good book to the beach or plant flowers or anything outside! Maybe I should bring my sewing table out there lol!! Look at my cute new pincushion Deb made for me (Who by the way has gotten so stinkin' skinny I almost didn't recognize her!)isn't it adorable? I tried to make these cupcakes once a couple of years ago and failed miserably so I was excited to finally have my very own! Thanks Deb!
O.k. off to locate some green food coloring...

Border decisions

My rows are sewn together on my Between Friends quilt! And may I just thank my Big Sis one more time....or maybe two or three more times? I really loved making this quilt! You know how some patterns just go together sooo easy? Now I'm debating borders...part of me wants to make a pieced border but the bigger part of me wants this done and quilted and on display! Here's what I'm debating between so far...I have a favorite but I'd love to here from you all.
#1.
#2.
#3.
#4.It's cold and dreary and pouring rain...so what could be better than sewing all evening?
O.k. off to choose fabric for my next project!!

Charming Girls & Guys March Goals

So I have been very forgetful about getting my Charming Girls and Guys goals up in time lately. This month in an effort to get my goals up in time, I started planning ahead....well on Feb. 28th. Then I was so excited about one of my projects I started sewing early Monday morning and all thoughts of posting my goals flew out the window. Thankfully I was reminded to get my butt in gear by all of you organized ladies who have been putting your goals up on time.I have been wanting to cut into my piles of Swell for sometime now and I have found the perfect project for it: Between Friends by Darlene of Quilting Daze.
I knew when I first saw the quilt that I had to make it and later when I fell in love with American Retro I thought I had found the perfect pairing. Sunday when I pulled everything out to take pictures for this post I just couldn't decide if it would work or not. I emailed Darlene and we chatted back and forth about it...she was very patient with my ADD lol!! I changed my mind every other email. I went to the kitchen to grab some coffee and walked by one of my very favorite little quilts that I made a couple of years ago from the scraps of my first Swell quilt. I have often thought about making a larger one and all of a sudden I just knew I had found the perfect pair, yay!!! Cheryl had mentioned a while back that we should pick a project for our Swell and work on it together so that we could encourage each other and we had decided to be on the lookout for patterns. So Cheryl and Sharon and I are all going to work on this quilt together...so much fun! Thank you Darlene for sharing this wonderful pattern!!
Onto the rest of my goals:
Put borders on this twisted nine-patch that I made last month...maybe quilt it?Hand sew the binding on these two little quiltsDecide on a pattern and start making blocks for a king size quilt for my bed (finally!) Maybe use my American Retro?Make another top from my(way too much) leftover Fresh CutMake a little leader ender project with my little squares of Fresh CutReady, Set, SEW!!Have a great weekend everyone!!