New Year New Quilt Along!!!

Not long and we will be in the year of Two-thousand and Twelve! 

I know its an old cliche "time goes by faster the older you get" but its soooo true!!!

Where did 2011 go??

So looking on to the 'Horizon' of 2012 and new projects, I came across Jenna 

at Sew. Happy. Geek. and she is hosting a quilt-along for 2012, what fun!! 

Does this look like a fresh fun start to the new year?!?!

Well, it does to me!! 

I have picked out my fabrics, or at least the main players in this quilt...

Horizon Morning Tides by Free Spirit 

(did you catch the pun/play on words earlier? yea, I know I'm a goof ball)

I love purple and yellow together, so cheerful!!

I will be adding in some solid kona cottons, maybe white, purple and yellow. 

That is if I can find them locally?

What projects are you planning for the New Year?

What I've been up to

Here is a quick pic of a toddler apron I am working on.

Sharing the Mug Rug Love...

Erin at 'Two More Seconds' is hosting 10 days of mug rug madness. Now I have known about mug rugs but never made any, well Erin got me excited about these cute little quilts. Also a friend's birthday was coming up and she loves turtles, sooooo ta da.......

Two little turtles

I used Moda Spirit by Lila Tueller that I had in my stash.

Machine pieced, raw edge appliqued and quilted all in one afternoon.

I drafted the shape of a sea turtle and then re-traced the individual shapes, as in the head, body, two arms and legs - are they called arms and legs or flippers?  anyhoo...   onto card stock to use as templates.

I fused the fabic for the turtle shapes with paper backed fusible web and traced all the pieces, cut them out and then removed the paper and fused onto a strip pieced base rectangle of 9" by 6.5"

Freemotion outline stitching on all the turtle shapes and then made the quilt sandwich (you know layer the backing, batting with top and pin) and freemotion quilted the background.  Trimed to 8.5" x 6" and rounded the corners, then added bias binding.

They were quick easy and fun to make!!

(blurry pics from my cell phone)

Now, I kinda like the idea of mug rugs!

Even in the heat of summer you can have some quilty goodness with you where ever you go!

Spring Deserves a New Quilt and a New Hobbie

Last year Randi at 'i have to say...' hosted a Quilt-Along call 'On the Road to Spring' and what simple and quick quilts everyone made.

(Randi's finished quilt)

I am gathering up supplies for the 'Bottled Rainbow' quilt-along and this may take some time, its a leisurely quilt-along ya know!! :)

In the meantime we have a new addition, or I quess you could say a new hobbie - a mini camping trailer. I am getting supplies gathered up for the new camper and I need a blanket for the bed. I just can't see going out and buying something when I have so much fabric. I remembered Randi's quilt-along and knew that was the answer. All I would need to get would be the solid fabric for the squares.

The quilt is originaly 60"x50", this is to small for the camper bed so I did some math.

Original quilt is made with 100- 3.5"x 3.5" squares and 100- 7.5" x 3.5" rectangles.
5 of the rectangles and 5 of the squares in each row, alternating rows of 20 rows to = 60" x 50"

Let's make the rectangles 'A' and the squares 'B'
A-7.5 x 3.5 (finished size 7x3) and B-3.5 x 3.5 (finished size 3x3)
Using this example to resize the width of the quilt

For a 60" wide quilt I would need 1 more each A and B for each row, for 70" I need 2 more each A and B than the original quilt.

For a 70" wide x 81" long quilt:

If there are 7 each of A and B in one row it would be 70" wide (7x3=21, 7x7=49, 21+49=70)
If each row is 3" tall then I need 27 rows to be 81" tall (27x3+81)
How many rectangles and squares, 7x27=189. 189 rectangles and 189 squares. (for the 60" wide x 81" long quilt I would need 162 each A and B)

Next how much fabric? Determining yardage

Block A -189 random print fabric rectangles 7.5 x 3.5
I can get 5 rectangles from a strip of 44" wide fabric, cut 3.5 across the 44" width
or if I cut a 7.5 strip across the 44" width I can get 12 rectangles.

If using yardage instead of fat quarters (see below on fat quarters) out of how many different fabrics can I get the 189 rectangles I need?

From the 3.5" strips:

7 fabrics - need 27 rectangles - 6 strips of 3.5 x 44 or .75 yards (makes 189 rectangles)

8 fabrics - need 24 rectangles - 5 strips of 3.5 x 44 or .5 yards (makes 192 rectangles)

9 fabrics - need 21 rectangles - 5 strips of 3.5 x 44 or .5 yards (makes 189 rectangles)

10 fabrics - need 19 rectangles - 4 strips of 3.5 44 or .5 yards (makes 200 rectangles)

Or the 7.5" strips

8 fabrics - need 24 rectangles - 2 strips of 7.5 x 44 or .5 yards (makes 24 rectangles)

9 fabrics - need 21 rectangles - 2 strips of 7.5 x 44 or .5 yards (makes 24 rectangles)

**there seems to be a lot of waste if I figure 7 or 10 fabrics using this method**

7 fabrics - need 27 rectangles - 3 strips of 7.5 x 44 or .75 yards (makes 36 rectangles)

10 fabrics - need 19 rectangles - 2 strips of 7.5 x 44 or .5 yards (makes 24 rectangles)

*But if I have a fat quarter I would need to cut 2- 7.5 x 21 strips and then cut the 7.5 x 3.5 rectangles. Well if one 7.5 fq strip will give me 10 rectangles:

Each fat quarter would give me 10 rectangles. I would need 19 fat quarters.

From all this I learned that the best cuts are 7 or 9 fabrics in the 3.5" strips or the 8 fabrics in the 7.5" strips from the yardage or go with 19 fat quarters.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Block B - 189 solid fabric 3.5" x 3.5" squares. I can get 12 - 3.5" squares from 1 strip, and with 16 strips I can get the needed 189 squares (actually makes 192 squares 3 more than I need). I need 1.75 yards of solid fabric. I think I am going to use Kona cotton in Ivory.

I have 7 print fabrics in brown, green and blues in 1 and .5 yards cuts, and a few fat quarters so I will be using a mixture of these cutting styles. But all in all I need 189 print rectangles.

I always seem to make things more dificult that they are!!

Yummy, yummy color all stitched in scraps!!

Bottled Rainbows {ticker tape quilt-along} by Stitched in Color.

What a lovely idea!! Pop over to Rachel's blog Stitched in Color and check it out!!!

Maybe for once I can join in - "it's a leisurely quilt-along inspired by Rachel's own bottled rainbows."

See, she even said it too!! Leisurely - I think I can handle :-)

Transition Look from Fashion under $100

She hit the nail on the head with this look from Fashion Under $100  for transitioning into spring. Even though the look is for a reader who wants to wear jeans to her bridal shower, this is a great look for early spring! Skinny jeans can come off looking to casual/rocker but the tunic style top with the bow detail pumps it up to lady like feminine. Adding the flats doesn't call to much attention to the jeans, so this lets the girlie top and accessories do all the talking.

Simplicity 2456 view B with the addition of the tie would be just about exactly the same as the Blouse from Ruche and unlike the Ruche top this pattern comes in plus sizes!!!

Now off to find a pair of black flats in a size 9.

Beautiful BOM!!!

When I saw Erin's My Tweets block of the month I was breathless!!!!

Absolutely Stunning!!!

This the center block. Isn't it lovely!!!

Please stop by her blog for the most beautiful eye candy ever!!!

Quilt-y China

If you google 'Dresden Plate Tutorial' you will find many amazing toots. Even Patterns for great kitchen accessories, like this from Kim Walus featured on Moda Bake Shop.

Love the plate chargers using wool felt.

And if you use google for Dresden Plate images you can see so many fun ways to use the quilt block.

Like little girl skirts by Crafter Hours.

And look how cute this bag is by Fibermania.

All pretty awe - inspiring!!

My Blogger Love is Waning

I am very sorry, I seem to have lost my blogger love. Not sure why or what is up I hope others can understand or simpathize.

Gotta kick it in gear, and get motivated!!!

Anyone else feeling this way?