An Ocean Odyssey

It's finished.  What I've been calling the crab quilt.  It measures approximately 36"x42" and was made for our friends who own and operate a seafood restaurant and are expecting a baby this fall. 

I attached the binding incorrectly, so as I was hand-stitching it I had to rip out and redo all the corners by hand.  That'll teach me to rush. 

The main fabrics are "By the Sea" by Johnny Karwan for Clothworks.  The plaid I used for the binding is a designer fabric fabric from JoAnn - the blues and greens matched perfectly. 

Close up of the quilting - I used a horizontal continuous line pattern that looked to me like water, and of course I had to quilt a VT into one corner.

The quilt's off in the mail now, since I won't be able to make the shower - I hope it gets lots of love and use!

I'm Still Here!

Just busy.  Lots of life happening.  Let’s see . . . Kiddo had some sinus/allergy head cold last week, this week I had the same thing. 

 

I got all the rest of the fabric for my clamshell quilt – I actually had tons of cream and green and not enough red.  Extra clamshells will be made into another little project once I’m done with the throw quilt.

 

I worked on organizing my patterns by type (and weeding out ones I don’t want anymore to sell).  I started an Excel sheet to keep track of them and help avoid double purchases (it doesn’t happen often, but it has happened in the past), so I’ve been working on that.

I got the crab quilt basted, marked, and finished quilting it last night.  I should finish up attaching the binding by machine this evening, and I'll hand stitch it in the car tomorrow. 

I cut out two little fleece baby hats from leftover Celtics and Patriots fabric.  I’m hoping to get them sewn up early next week.

 

This weekend is a ladies’ weekend with women from my mom’s side of the family.  It will be the first time I’ve been away and having fun by myself since Kiddo was born (and he’s almost a year old).  We are just going to hang out and work on crafty projects, so I am taking: the crab quilt to bind, clamshells to work on, and the fabric for the guest room quilt to cut for my next leader-ender project.  Plus a couple of romance novels for when I’m tired of fabric . . .

 

Lots of other things going on (including a butt-load of new and continuing projects), but that’s for another post. :-)

Keep on swimming, keep on swimming

As I was sewing the crab quilt top together this week, I wound up at the bottom of my leader-ender pile.  So I had to dig into the project tub and get the other squares out.  I was so happy to be on the last bit of component piecing.  Since then, I've finished all those and have started making up the little four patches that will become 16-patches.

Once I finish this leader-ender project, I’ll have to figure out another one!  I have several possibilities from which to choose.  *I thought I'd use the proper grammar to make my English-teacher Mom happy.*  

The crab quilt top is finished, the bias binding cut and pressed (I hope I have enough - there's extra fabric if I need to make more), and the back components are pieced.  I'm hoping to get the back pieced this evening.

I found that I had the perfect baby/toddler hat pattern in my stash, so I cut out the needed pieces and will be sewing a couple up with the leftover Patriots and Celtics fleece scraps after I finish piecing the crab quilt.  I ordered the stencil, but it's not here yet, so the actual quilting will have to wait.  Please hurry stencil, I'm working against a deadline here!

WIP

Blocks finished, squared up, sorted, and in the process of becoming a top . . .

*Chair Dance* :D *Chair Dance*

I had an epiphany about the baby quilt!!!  I was thinking about how I have the brighter solid-looking fabric, and then the more vividly patterned fabric with the light background, and how I wanted to use a sashing/background fabric but wanted *POP* and contrast. 

I had thought if only there were some way to surround the light/patterned fabric with the bright/solid-looking fabric . . . and then this morning at like 5am Ka-pow!  Economy blocks! – the simple version (I guess a lot of people call it Square in a Square, but I have always seen that as the Economy block). 

The blocks will be set on point with sashing in between.  I had planned on doing a pieced backing, and I believe I will still be able to!  Yee-hah!  I’m excited to finally have a solution!  Don’t you love all the exclamation points?!?! 

Here are my 6 half-yards of fabric . . . I told you it was themed . . . The colors on the bottom are brighter than they appear in this picture.  Fabric is By the Sea by Johnny Karwan for Clothworks and was purchased from Fabric Shack and Over the Rainbow.  Do you know how hard it is to find cute crab fabric?

Now I want to start cutting and piecing blocks!  But I said I was going to work on the green skirt tonight . . . guess I should do that.  Oh well, now that I have a plan, I can let the crabs rest for a bit while I work on the other priorities.  I love white solid sashing, but what do you think?