Finish it up Friday!

This quilt is a year in the making.  I started this quilt a year ago after my husband saw the quilt kit being advertised in a booth at the Maine Quilt Show.  The pattern is Sew Spooky.    By the time Halloween rolled around I had only just finished the top.  So I put the top away and just decided to quilt it sometime before this Halloween. 

The kit came with just the fabric for the top.  He picked out the binding, back and the thread colors.  His favorite holiday is Halloween so this quilt was mostly for him.  

I used Isacord thread for all the machine quilting.  I gave him options for the quilting designs and he picked those too.  I think he has pretty good taste, don't you?

The pumpkin block is my favorite. 

Don't you just love the binding he picked?   

Here are some more close ups of the blocks. 

Yes my barn quilt is on sideways.  :-(. I didn't notice til I had the quilt almost done.  I might fix it but I think it adds to the silliness of the quilt.  

I love this quilt.  It's so soft and cuddly.  I used Hobbs 80/20 batting.  

Today I am linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts!   

WIP Wednesday!

I have been spending some time working on some WIP's from the past few months as well as another new project!  I had a finish in the last week and I will blog about that on Friday.

The biggest thing I have been working on is my Jamestown Landing quilt I started in May.  All I have left to do before assembling it is the string blocks.  I have the rest done.  Well, except the border blocks.  I have about 50 string blocks left to do.  I have gotten a bit more brave with my neutrals.  Bonnie considers anything that has a light background a neutral.  At first I was using just fabrics that read as beige, tan, white, etc.  I needed more strings so I went through my scraps and had to stretch a little. This is one of the blocks I ended up with.

My husband hates it but I love it.  I know it isn't as adventurous as Bonnie would be but for me the x-mas fabric and the music fabric was quite a stretch for me. 

The second project I have been working on is one that I am super excited about! Its Postcard Cuties for Winter by Bunny Hill.  I preordered the kit back in the spring and I got it towards the end of August.  I started it that very day.  I have quite a bit done on it for having not blogged about it yet but we are still catching up from moving and the kids starting new schools.

I have all the background blocks done and I am slowly working on the hand work.  It has wool snowmen that I am blanket stitching on and then some embroidery.

This block is just missing a few embroidery details.  Like a face!  :)  I love everything about this quilt and its pattern.  The fabric line, Snowman Gatherings by Primitive Designs is amazing.  The kit I got from Bunny Hill was amazing.  It came with some yardage, a jelly roll, and a charm pack.  I have about half the jelly roll left after using it for the blocks.  And a bunch of the charm squares.  If you noticed I have used some of the strips in my Jamestown Landing quilt!  They match my colors for that quilt exactly!  Plus I have a bit of a snowman obsession so it wouldn't be right for me to do a scrap quilt without at least one snowman in it.  My goal is to get this done by Christmas.  It will be my tv watching project. 

This week I am linking up to Freshly Pieced. 

Finish it up Friday!

I just have a quick little finish for you this week.   I spent the last week machine quilting a quilt for my husband.   It's almost finished but I have to finish hand stitching two sides of the binding down and take some good pictures.  Here is a little teaser.

Sometimes my hands get sore when I do a lot of hand stitching so I took a few breaks to get this wallet done.

 I picked this pattern up a few weeks ago when we took a road trip to the beach.  There is a quilt shop I like to stop at about 20 mins from where we go.   It's called Cotton Weeds Quilt Shop and its in Freeport Maine.  It is a cute little shop with so many samples of all their patterns.  

The pattern is called Whimsy Wallet and it's by This and That.  I love how it came out.  There are a few things I could have done a little better.  I used medium weight interfacing instead of the heavy it called for.  I just couldn't find it locally or maybe it was there and I just didnt' know it.  Pellon interfacings can be a little confusing sometimes.  So needless to say the wallet could stand to be a little more stiff.  For the outer fabric on the wallet I used a fabric from the line, Cuzco by Kate Spain.  I am not sure what line the inner fabric is.  It was pulled from my stash and it didn't have it on the selvage.  I am pretty sure I picked it up at Marden's on sale.  Marden's is a salvage store in my town that has the most amazing fabric department.  They have top of the line fabrics from past seasons or shops that have closed out for only 2.99-4.99 a yard.  If you are ever in Maine you should check them out.  There are about 7-8 Marden's stores spread out over the state.

In this picture you can see that the card pockets are a little tight.  When I top stitched around the wallet my machine didn't like being so close to the edge.  There are a lot of layers right there.  So it made the pockets a little smaller.  My cards fit but its close.  Maybe they will loosen up a bit.

I love how the zipper pocket came out as well.  I surprised myself there.

A few notes about the pattern.  I don't think its for beginners.  It was sometimes hard to follow.  I can imagine it being difficult for someone who has never made a bag or pouch.  At times I questioned the pattern a lot.  I just had to tell myself repeatedly to just do what it says.   I am not crazy about the handle on it.  Next time I make one I might leave that off.  But overall I love it.  I even discovered this morning I can put my iPhone in there too.  There are big pockets behind the card pockets and behind the zipper pouch.  Its going to be great for quick trips when I don't want to carry my purse.

Today I am linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts.

P.S.  Craftsy is having huge sale on their classes.  The last day is tomorrow.  Don't forget to check it out!

Craftsy Sale: Up to 75% Off All Courses, Fabric and Yarn!

Friday Finish!

It's been awhile since I have been able to post a Friday Finish.  I actually finished this about a week and a half ago but I didn't get a chance to write a post last week.  My kids started school this week so we had one last really fun weekend to end the summer.  This wall hanging is done with a pattern by Cynthia England.  It was 18" x 18".  If you have never done one of her patterns you should give it a try.  Initially, it looked super hard and overwhelming but she breaks her patterns down into small sections that aren't so bad when you only worry about them one at a time.  This pattern is probably not for someone new to paper piecing though.  Some of the pieces were really small and it really mattered where you placed directional fabric.  I love paper piecing and I still needed to take breaks from it after every few sections.  There were more than a few times where I said I wouldn't make another piece that was so intricate.  But after seeing it done and being so happy that it came out so well makes me rethink that.  This one was a gift and I hated giving it away.  It looked so good on my wall.

Here are some close ups.  See his cute little feet? I I didn't do very much quilting on this.  I just quilted around the squirrel and the leaves with Mono Poly Superior Thread Clear.  I loved this thread.  I have had problems with invisible thread before but I didn't have any with this one.  

The detail work was done with hand embroidery.  I used 2 strands of black DMC thread.  I love the little acorn in his paws.  

I am linking up to Finished it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.  I can't wait to see what everyone else is up to.  Its been awhile since I have been able to keep up on my blog reading!