Another baby quilt- green and gray!

The soon to be New Mom asked for greens and grays as her choice for colors for the baby quilt.
This piece was found in my stash.  I love the green and gray!

A 2 inch border of green check on a white background and a 6 inch border of dark grey were added to the print to make a good size back.  If you like to speculate as to why the borders look wavy, that would be b/c it is not ironed, or squared up yet.  I kinda just let it fall to the floor so I could take a picture.

The small tumbler die for the GO was used to cut scraps.  Special thanks to the other gals for getting this cut out at quilt group.  I was supposed to kit them up for the  to sew- my bad.  I was only going to do a couple of rows and hand it off, but these are so easy I just kept going.  I sew my 'row' together in a loop and then cut either a green or gray in half, that gives me a straight edge on the sides.  When I get the length I want I sew the top row to the bottom and cut one row in half.  That gives me a 1/2 block across the top and bottom to match the sides.

I had enough of the dark gray left to do a small border on this top.  I should then be able to  quilt it all together in time for the baby shower in a few weeks.

wedding quilt Lg Tumblers

This is by far one of the fastest tops to make.  Last night our quilt group got together and shared fabrics.  I die cut using the large tumbler and my GO.  I tend to make quilts what ever size they turn out to be.  Today I was 'dealing' the prints out to make packets for the gals to sew and return.  My niece was over at the house and she suggested adding the yellow background print.
I think it just really turned this top into something to be proud of!  To top off the 'way to go' moment, this entire top was sewn in under 2hrs.  (that is fast even for me- lol)  The borders were found already cut out just waiting for the right project (thanks Kelly)
Special thanks to LaDonna for bringing a king size sheet for me to use on the back.  We are ahead of schedule on this one.
I warned the ladies that this might be faster to sew on my own then kit up and share.  They have forgiven me this time.  (Seriously, Krystal and I were just going to sew a couple of rows, it was hard to stop)

One way to speed up this sewing is to go random with the fabrics.  I dealt fabric out to 8 piles, then stacked the piles on top of each other, then count out the number I am shooting for (in this case 8)  There were different amounts of each material so I wanted them spread out through the top.

My grandson even helped me chain piece some rows- he cuts and shuffles the two-sies.  I sew a row and then sew the last piece to the first making a tube.

When I get a couple of tubes made I scissor cut through the block to open the row up.  One row gets cut on the colored blocks and the next on the background block.  I don't worry about how the colors lay b/c I like the random look.

Now to find time to get this future keepsake on the frame and quilt it-   cw

Lg Tumbler Borders on a focus fabric- quick and easy future gift quilt

Years ago I made up kits of fabrics for future TO DOs. Tonight I had a little time to kill waiting for hubby to get home and opened a baggie to see what I could do in an hour.
I giggled when I read my - notes- on this one, quickly threw them away and cut large tumblers. The fabric I had purposed for the back is now the center.
I don't even know the size, I will figure it out when I go to quilt it.
Nice way to spend an hour and a half!

I know I am not the only one that pulls fabrics for a quick TO DO and then buries them under other higher priority projects. One summer I had a young girl visit me while her mom worked,  we sorted fabric and made kits. I remember joking that she would probably be married before I got around to some of our bundles.
I still have 4 drawers Full of misc cuts. We cut 6" WOF from favorites and bagged them up in sets of 24 (at the time I liked to make Dresden Plates) Now that I have a GO and misc dies I have been wishing I had time to cut more kits.
This week I pulled out two bags from that summer and die cut tops.
Tonight I threw together a quickie, large tumblers bordering a center focus fabric. It made me smile to think of Zoe and the summer she helped me "clean" my sewing room.
She has been married two years already, guess I can predict the future- lol 

My original notes suggested using the focus fabric for the back and doing Dresden Plates for the front.  Evidently back then I out grew my DP phase.  I don't remember how I acquired this matching collection.  I used it all.  Less then a handful of material left over for the scrap box.
I hope to gift this quilt soon- hold me to that-  cw

Large Tumbler - Andrew's b-day

6-1  Andrew got to see the top today and has given me approval to quilt it.  He also approved the back. yeah, I might just have time to get this one done by his B-day on the 7th!

This what Andrew picked out for the back.  The characters are raw-edge appliqued to the pieced material.  I had an Aladdin sheet picked out b/c I liked the colors and he said, No Thank you, I would prefer if you did something different.  (I can use the kid sheet some other time I guess)  We looked through all the panel pieces I have and this is what he wanted.-

update:  Andrew called me and said go ahead with the snake border, he also likes the idea of spiders and a frog.  He wants his middle name to be "Danger" so add that to the front too.

Then I asked if he 'wanted' anything else-  he answered, yes, a T-Rex and a Bear and a Goose and a Fish (can the goose look like it is eating the fish?)-  sure

Oh and can the Bear be a Polar Bear and can he have a Monkey on his back?

(I seriously don't know if his mom is putting him up to this or what-  I took notes and will do the best I can to meet his expectations.  I think several of these critters can be appliqued on the back using kid prints)

Andrew giggled and said- bet you will be up all night working on my quilt-  I answered that I would love every minute of it, just like I love him every minute!

I am working on a quilt for grandson, Andrew's 6th B-day in June.  He picked out the fabrics, I cut them with my large Tumbler Die on my GO.  I think some of these prints are left over from when I made skater shorts for Andrew's uncles, many years ago.

He decided he wanted his name on a RED border and he wants a RED back. 

I wanted to try my chisel die out to make a border.  The more I played the more I think this looks like a snake!  Karlee said to keep the snake and add some spiders.  She is sure Andrew will like spiders and snakes.

I asked her if she would like a snake on her next quilt- and she said NO!

I will check with Andrew and/or his mom before I get too far along with this border idea.

I am cutting everything from scraps/stash so I don't have enough to border the whole quilt the same.

I do have enough of the RED to do the border just in RED if that is what he wants.

Like a Butterfly......

I too shall awaken in my own time.

I don't know which was more fun, sewing the strips for the tumbler borders, or cutting the left overs for the scrappy words.

Hopefully this top will be one of the ones I quilt this year. I have a new to me butterfly pattern I want to try out.

Fed Ex Driver Delivers GO in the Snow

Fed Ex called me to confirm the delivery of my new GO (and additional dies!).

Due to the snow, I asked him to park up at the road and I would meet him.

He did and then carried my 30+ pound box down to the house for me. What a nice man.

There was no school again today and a couple of the grandsons were over to help me.

Tyler opened the box and started taking out the dies.

When he saw this large Drunkard's path he held it up and asked: "Are you going to make some underwear?"

I said, NO- this is for my quilting.

He responded: "But you could make underwear if you wanted too right?"

That kids cracks me up! I might just take a couple of the outer shapes and make him a pair of underwear out of them- or maybe NOT.

I was able to get the applique on one side of my scrappy butterfly top.

The phrase is suppose to be: Just like the Butterfly, I too shall awaken in my own time.

After cutting letters and playing around with the spacing. The first line now reads: Like a Butterfly (saved myself from sewing 6 letters)

now I need to decide if I will edit the rest too. Any one have any good ideas for the rest of verbiage?

strings and tumblers make a nice scrappy border

I did not get to sew as much as I had hoped to this evening.
We are getting another snow storm, which for me is an excuse to stay home from work (yeah) but I ended up doing computer stuff all day (darn reports) and missed out on getting to sew more strings together.

Maybe tomorrow night I can get back to this border-

I an sewing sets of strips and then sub-cutting them into the small tumbler die shape.

They take on a scrappy crumb block look.


This die works on my BABY GO. I have ordered the larger die and it should get here tomorrow!

I have a whole new found love of strips and strings knowing that I can now get more use out of them with the new cutting system I ordered.

These blocks take 5 strips each and I am cutting both horizontal and vertical tumblers.

I have one side done and a bunch ready to sew up for the border on the other side.

I finally figured out what saying I want to put on the last border.

I have been cutting out scrappy letter to raw edge applique.

Salmon pink is not my 'color' but I am learning to like it.

This top is growing on me and hopefully will be a bed size quilt sometime in my life time!

The outer border will be wonky letters and say:

Like the Butterfly, I too will awaken in my own time.

For some reason I love that saying. Kinda makes me sound profound and sarcastic both at the same time! Wont this be fun to sleep under.- cw