Triangle finish!

I seem to be stuck on triangles lately!! And I have a finish to link up!
Here is my triangle quilt...

The fabric is Moda PB&J...love it!

I just used straight lines to quilt it..echoing the triangles, and then straight (sort of straight!) lines in the borders.

And when you are making a triangle quilt, you have to cut off all the edges to make it square. It seemed like such a waste, so I sewed them all together..

and made a strip of interest on the backing. .

The backing fabric is a fun "cheater print" that looks like patchwork...cute (and easy !!)

This quilt is to be given to some friends in Calgary, who took my daughter, her boyfriend and dog in after the flood. (Yes, she is still homeless...at least 3 more months while they rebuild the condo!!)

 Linking up to TGIFF...today over at Pippa's Patch.

Star Surround continues...looking good

This week our homework was to sew all the blocks together...so exciting!

I love it...it looks great, if I do say so myself
(Thank you Melissa!! )

Do you ever not listen to your GPS?

I feel a bit like I do when I ignore the advice my GPS so patiently gives me!!

Thank you for all your feedback on my granny squares. I tried out several options, and finally decided on this one...(the contrast is actually better in real life)

I know the blue sashing was more popular, but somehow this just appealed to me.  It looked softer somehow, and this was a baby gift for my niece, so I thought soft was good.
Anyway...it is bound, washed and added to  the pile that is ready to go now !!

remember "granny squares"??

Remember when everyone in blogland was making \Granny Square quilts??  Maybe a year or two ago??

Well, I really liked the look of them, and started saving up some scraps and cutting them up to try one out. I am always a bit behind the trends!!

Anyway, I found some of those cute little mini charms on sale half price, and thought that would be perfect...easy peasy!!  So I picked a few up and gave it a try...

I used some neutral fabric from my stash for the outer ring, and trimmed them down square..

I had enough from 3 of the mini charm square packs to make 9 blocks, so it will just be a baby size quilt.
Now to choose the sashing! I have two options, the first is neutral, similar to the outer ring... with the darker blue border..

The second is a darker blue sashing, with the neutral border...

what is your vote??


Linking up to WIP Wed, and TN&TN...check them out too  :)

Friday finish catch up

I haven't accomplished a whole lot in the past while...l

But I have finished a few little baby quilts. Some of these are gifts, and some are to give to the Children's Cottage in Calgary, and some are just because! :)  You have seen most of these in progress before.

This was my first machine appliqué attempt..

And this was my second one...  both of them now repaired with a zigzag stitch after washing :(

Then just a quick and easy strip quilt...

And one of my favourite..

this little hour glass in pink..

So I am linking up to TGIFF over at Amy's Crafty Shenaigans today..
                                            

Star Surround QAL continues..

here is this weeks homework...

complete!!

My very first stars! Not so hard after all!!
Next week, it will come together!

Machine Appliqué lesson learned!

I have been having fun with some little baby blanket appliqué!
But...When I put them in the wash....well...it didn't do so well!

I must have not been careful enough with the interfacing, or maybe used to light a weight of iron on fusible?? Not sure what the problem was, but I was pretty disappointed :(

Now what?
Well, I was not about to rip it all apart!! That was for sure. I really liked the look of the blanket stitch but it just pulled through the fabric in places....and that was after just one washing !!
So I used a zigzag stitch to reinforce the appliqué.

It looks fine on the front, but you can see the stitching on the back..

Normally this would be inside the quilt, under the backing. But I guess the baby wont really notice !
These were really meant as practice quilts anyway, so lesson learned. It is still pretty cute !

I think that I will use a zigzag stitch instead of the blanket stitch from now on, especially for baby quilts that will get put through the wash frequently. Like I said...lesson learned!

If I can do this...anyone can !

Flying geese!  The next part of the Star Surround QAL over at Happy Quilting!  But after my recent obsession with HST, these didn't seem nearly so scary!  (I have tried them once before, but sorry Sharon...that little quilt is still on my UFO pile!..I will have to get back and finish that.)

Melissa has provided really great instructions and lots of pictures to make it super easy.

So here are my set of flying geese.....

And I should get extra points, because I made these in a hotel room!! I love  my little baby Jan (little travel Janome) :)

Cant wait till next week!  It's not too late to join in....these aren't hard to make! 

Star Surround Week 3

I have been keeping up with the "homework" for the Star Surround  QAL over at Happy Quilting. 
It is not too late to join in...we have only made the first HST, and so far so good!!

I am making the smaller blocks, so my HST were trimmed to 2 1/2 ".
I have a small 2 1/2" ruler, that I thought would be good to use for this...

I like using it to quickly see how big my scraps are, when I am sorting through my scraps..
But I found that it was just too hard to stabilize when I was cutting...over and over and over and over again!!
So I tried a larger ruler and that was so much easier!!

So I have all my HST done and ready for the next step! Yeah!

Of course I also have a pile of trimmings..

Which will go directly into my trimming box..

And will be used to add to the stuffing for my charity bears!

 I love using up every little scrap for something useful!