My Next Project

This weekend was our local shop hop.  It covers 13 shops all over the South San Fransisco Bay area.  It's the third year I've gone and somehow every year, despite our plan, we end up pushing ourselves and visiting all the shops in two days.  My husband actually loves the hop, so he's a very good companion.  Last year I picked up these Kaffe Fassett prints for a quilt but didn't buy the background fabric for it.  I got it this year though and this will be my next project, hopefully.

The pattern I plan to use is from the book Open a Can of Worms by Debbie Caffrey.  I love this book and have made several quilts out of it.  One of which for some reason I have never blogged about but almost have the top done for.  More to come on that one soon! 

One of my very first quilts was a table runner made from this pattern.

Is is my only use of oriental prints ever.  I like them, just have never really gotten too into them, despite the fact that I love this runner.

I got loads of other stuff on the shop hop that should keep me busy for quite some time.  I think I am going to need to get busy working on some quits!

Monkey Tumble

So I promised a picture of my Monkey Quilt last month, but it's taken me until now to get the top put together.  So...here it is!

It's about 40 inches square...my favorite baby quilt size.

It's a little hard to see in this picture, but I also included bow ties in a few of the blocks.  I got the pattern for the bow ties from the current issue of Quilt Almanac 2011 which is a great issue!

The idea of the bow-ties is to be able to attach small toys for babies directly to the quilt like this.

It was a little awkward to get the blocks set up right, but I think it will be fun when it's done!  Now to get it quilted and bound sometime very soon.

Friday Night Sew In

Since tonight was the Friday Night Sew In I decided to work on a few projects.

The first was the table topper from Me and My Sisters Design new book 3 times the Charm.  I got the top together, but I'm going to have to make a trip this weekend for some backing fabric, as I have no backing fabric anywhere around.

I can't wait to get this one finished and on the table!

The second project I worked on was a new one.  Using all of the extra triangles from my Birdies Quilt top, I decided to make a set of placemats. 

For some reason I have always struggled with placemats, but these seems to be turning out fairly well.

Not bad for a nights work!

June UFO...All Finished!

The number for June was #8 which was a quilt I started almost exactly a year ago while on vacation. It was made using a Moda layer cake.  Since I skipped last month I must have been motivated this month because I finished it already.

Here's the finished top, minus the borders.

It definitely needs some borders, but they will have to wait until I find the right fabric and we are back to having two incomes.

I started this almost a year ago while on vacation.  Vacation ended and the top sat in a box until now.

 At the beginning of the month half the blocks had been pieced.  It didn't take too long to finish off the rest and piece it together.

I'm on such a roll!  Can't wait to get a few more tops finished this month.  Maybe I'll even get motivated to work on last months UFO.

A few finished tops!

So, the last few weeks have been a whirlwind.  The hubby and I took a cruise to Alaska with both of our moms.  It was fun, but it's also nice to be home.  I haven't yet sorted through the 400 pictures we took, but I'll share a few when I get around to it.  The scenery was beautiful, and my non-crafty mom even found me a quilt store and loaded me up with new projects.

The day after we got back, my hubby lost his job.  It's a little frustrating, but not completely unexpected.  And at least we got his week of paid vacation first.  So, he's been busy looking for a new job and is much happier, so I've been sewing.  This last weekend I got two tops done.  The first was my strip quilt.

It turned out larger than I expected, but I love it!  I can't believe how quick and easy this quilt was.  We'll except for getting those border pieces to line up just right.  I think that took more time than putting the top together.  There will certainly be more of these in my near future.

Since the weather has finally turned nice, we've been grilling.  I love grilling season!  Here's tonight's dinner.  Plank grilled fish and corn with a chipotle butter.  Hmmm!

I also finished my June UFO, but I'll keep that one for my next post.  :-)