Rhapsody in Blue

I finally got Rhapsody in Blue done!  It's been a long process and I have been working on it for many months.  It's a bit out of my comfort zone as it is more of a crazy quilt than a traditional pattern and for a long while it lacked a place for the eye to settle.  I finally resolved to add sashing and finish it up.  Overall I'm very pleased.  My hubby just loves it, but that's where his right brained mind is always attracted to these sorts of patterns and my logical left brain can't quite grow comfortable with the lack of pattern.

The quilt actually does have a pattern in a sense.  There are two sets of identical blocks throughout, although they are turned in different directions.  Can you spot them?

Since the front of the quilt was so crazy, I decided the back needed to match, so it got randomly pieced from leftover fabric to create this!

I think one of my supervisors likes it too.  She sure was interested.  This is Kaity Lu and she rarely sits still long enough to be of much help, but she hopped right into the picture to check things out.

I also got the blocks done for one of my baby quilts.  I'm still working on a name for this and trying to decide whether or not to add another row, so for now it is just sitting on my design wall waiting while I start on the blocks for the other baby blanket. 

I also made it to the store this week to buy lightweight stabilizer to start my scrap quilt.  What a busy week it has been!  No wonder I'm so worn out.

Shopping in the big city

Today was a nice sunny day, so what better thing to do than drive over the hill and go to one of my favorite shops to search for fabric for the two baby blankets I need to make this month.  The first is for my friend in Kansas who is having a baby girl and decorating her room in brown and pink.  So bring on the brown and pink!  Which also happen to be two of my favorite colors.

The second baby quilt in line is for my co-worker who is having a baby at the begining of May.  She and her husband are waiting till it is born to find out if it is a boy or girl, so I have to go gender neutral.  It's been a bit of a challenge, but I finally settled on a jungle theme today.  She's not much into pastel, so here's what I settled on.

I think it will match most of what they have picked out for their nursery already, I just hope it doesn't look too "boyish" if it turns out to be a girl.

Now which one to work on first?

Rainy Friday Quilt Land

It's amazing how a quiet day off work and a dusty sewing machine can translate into a really productive and fun day.  While I haven't gotten much sewing done in the last month I have done some shopping!

For Christmas I received the book Once upon a time in X-Blocks Land.  It has some darling patterns that I have been dying to try out.  All the patterns are simple blocks cut at angles using an angled ruler.  I picked up some pastel fabrics while on sale earlier this month to make a crib sized quilt that I will donate or save for a gift.

The first pattern I picked from the book is called Once Upon a Dream (they all have fairy tale related names).  It is composed of simple 9 patch blocks that I then cut using the template ruler to create square blocks on point.

The result once they are all put together with borders is this!

Now what to do with the quilting????

Finally Over February

Wow!  What a busy month February has been.  My poor sewing machine has been gathering dust for most of the month, as we have hardly been home.  Now that the month is over I have finally gotten around to finishing up my Valentine's Day project just in time to put it in a box to pull out next year.

I haven't yet pressed out the wrinkles or finished the binding, but I think it will look great on our coffee table.  It's 24" square, so it fills the center of our over-sized table.

The hearts and leaves are raw-edged appliqued and I free motioned small hearts in the pink borders and four overlapping hearts in the center.  It's one of my first attempts at free motion quilting and it didn't turn out too bad.  I love the look of free motion quilting and am dying to learn to hand quilt, but haven't yet found anyone in my area to teach me or the time to teach myself.

In the meantime this month I've been keeping myself busy on my lunch breaks by virtual shop hopping.  I found this site http://www.fabshophop.com/ and have spent the month checking out all the quilt shops available on the web.  Even my husband got into trying to find the rabbit hidden within each website.  You can even win prizes!

Now, back to the sewing machine!