Quilt back...

New bed pillows...

I really like the way my pillows turned out. I used a blue & white striped fabric from ikea for the body and this yellow & gray Denyse Schmidt fabric for the piping. I'd still like to make a few more pillows...not sure what I want them to look like though. Any suggestions?

Quilt #2...

I finished my quilt! It fits on my bed perfectly, and I love it. The pattern was borrowed from Cindy, but can be found here. I had it quilted by Corey Starkey, a local quilter, and I think she did a wonderful job. She did exactly what I wanted and kept it affordable for me. She even finished the quilting in a week! I could hardly believe it.

So here's the part where I talk about a few things I wish I would have done differently...I wish I would have kept the pieced border, instead of going with the gray. While I was putting the quilt top together I felt like a pieced border would be too much pattern, but now I think it would look nice. I also wish I would have gone with my original thought and used a darker gray binding instead of the blue patterned binding that I chose. Oh well. I think every quilt I make will leave me wishing I'd changed a few things, but overall, I absolutely love it! It feels so good to sleep under something I've made. My goal now is to make sure that every bed in my house has a handmade quilt on it. I think I can do it!



Straight-line quilting both on the diagonal and in the ditch...


Clam Shell pattern on the border. I really love this pattern. It was Corey's idea to use it, and I don't think I could have picked anything better...

Painting...

Painting sure does make me tired...hence the lack of posts. I spent the last 2 days painting the master bedroom & bathroom. The color is nothing exciting, just a nice light brown color...but I like it.

Completed Quilt Top...

...now I need to figure out how to quilt it.

My quilt...

I've finished the blocks for my quilt. I actually finished them about a month ago, but never posted, oh well. I'm taking a break from this project for awhile...I've got Henry's 1st birthday present to start on! I'll post pictures of that tomorrow, it's a fun one.

64 blocks...

64 blocks have been sewn together. The corners don't meet perfectly, but they meet perfectly enough for me. It is only my second quilt, after all.

I sewed these together with the help of my Grandma Net. I was nervous about doing it by myself and wanted her to help me get started. It's fun to sew with her anyways. Hopefully I'll have more progress to report this weekend.

The layout (part 1)...

My first blocks...

Let the cutting commence...

I've started cutting up my darks. I usually hate cutting, but for some reason I'm quite enjoying it right now....

I've had to get a bit creative with how I work. I moved Henry's changing pad cover off of his dresser (old kitchen cabinet) and used that as my cutting station as he played on the floor. This actually seemed to work out quite well. This may very well become my non-nap cutting area. I've decided to cut in stages since my quilt is so large. I will cut approximately half of what I need and, sew those into blocks, and then I will cut and sew the rest later. We'll see how it goes. So far so good though :)