I finished binding 2 more quilts!  Really, binding is one of my favorite steps of quilting.  It is relaxing, peaceful, and just something to keep your hands busy.

The first up is my latest Boxed Blessings sample.  This is done out of scrappy civil war prints with a black box frame and binding.  I like it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the quilting, I did a basic meander.  Nothing special, but I think it always looks nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boxed Blessings is an Ingrid Barlow pattern available via your local quilt shop, me, or a PDF sent directly to your inbox.  So many ways to get your hands on this pattern!

 

 

Next up is Bloom by Thimble Blossoms.   I used all Fig Tree material for it, which I think matches the style perfectly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like how the pattern had me use fat quarters for the backing.  Makes it interesting.  I also added an extra strip that I had leftover from the front.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the quilting I did sweet little flowers and butterflies.  If my next baby was a girl, I would totally hang this on her bedroom wall!

Last week I was in a crafty mood and my hands were busy doing something many hours of the day.  I had 2 hand projects on the living room couch and any spare moment I had I picked up a needle of some sort.

I finished the top to “Bloom.” I still have to do all the machine blanket stitching around the appliques.  I’ll need to mentally pump up for that before I tackle it.  Not the greatest picture of it…should have turned the lamp off on the right side…oops.  I think if we have a little girl this would be darling on one wall of her bedroom.  We shall see in a couple weeks…

I also knitted up another “Bunny Tail” hat for a new baby.

Next item in my brain–starting to think about Valentine’s Day.  Let’s just say homemade love notes + sweet cookies + forcing bulbs!

Yesterday I actually made some good progress on a quilt.  The pattern is called “Bloom” by Thimble Blossoms and the fabric is by Fig Tree.  Actually I have a couple other projects that I want to use the Fig Tree fabric in, so I have to get this quilt done so I know how much scrap fabric I have.  Always looking to the next project…so typical.

I also found some ribbon to go around my bunny ears on “Bunny Tail.”  We gave the hat to our friends last night, and I knew as soon as I saw the baby that the hat was going to be a little big.  Total bummer.  My gauge was perfect on it and I made the 0-6 month size but…  I remembered the baby was born around Thanksgiving but for some reason that seems like forever ago, so I was thinking bigger.  Her little 7 week head will have to grow a bit.  On the positive side, the nice thing about knit is that it can fit loosely for a while and then stretch a bit.  A good lesson learned for me on this one is that I should make notes next to the pattern about how I felt on the sizing, yarn used…etc.

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter!  My parents came down and spent some time with us.  It was wonderful!  My mom and I did some power shopping this afternoon and I’m pooped now.

Here’s our first family Easter picture.  It was right after church and Elias was very hungry so we weren’t able to be too picky.

In my quilting world, here are the latest things on my cutting table…

I think it is important as a pattern designer to check out other designer’s patterns and how they package their product, word their instructions, etc.  (Plus, I need an excuse to complete a pattern without having to think about everything that goes into the actual designing of it!)  I picked up two patterns from Thimble Blossoms.

The first is called Pint Sized.

These are two of my favorite prints in the Acadia fabric line.

The second pattern is called Bloom.  Reason I bought it=I was curious how the designer instructed you to do the curve in the pattern and the flowers/circles.   And it’s just not a typical quilt pattern.

This will be a very romantic quilt when it is finished.

And the progress on my own INGRID BARLOW pattern continues with an ever growing pile of pinwheels.