Scrappy String Quilt in Thimbleberries

I sold a quilt like this awhile back, and the buyer asked me to make another one to give her mother.  I finally have it done!  The fabrics are all Thimbleberries except the blacks which are a mix of quilt-shop fabrics to fill in.  

Usually I freehand quilt in cream thread on Thimbleberries fabrics, but I figured black would be better since the border is black.

The blocks are foundation pieced on white muslin.  I drew a line 3/4" from the center of the block as a guide for placement of the center black strip.  Other strips were added at random after this.  Without a printed foundation piece, the strips do not line up when joined with the other blocks, but that is the beauty of this strip quilt - the look of using up old scraps.  

Here is the pile of blocks.  The requested quilt uses only 16 blocks, but I do not know how to make so few blocks at a time, so I made over 50.  I am the type who jumps into things with both feet and often end up overdoing it and burning myself out.  Quilting is no exception.  Why make 16 when I could make 50+...?  Weird, I know.  It took me a lot longer to have this quilt ready for my customer, but guess what?  I have blocks to assemble two more quilts all ready to go!!  

Ready to trim the blocks to size.  I am learning that the foundation piece can become misshapen during the sewing process, so they ended up 1/4" smaller than anticipated.  And of course a fabric foundation is not removable and adds to the thickness of the top.  I found these 10" paper piecing squares at Missouri Star Quilt this week and plan to try them out.  They have a video on YouTube on how to use these papers, and she didn't mention them changing shape or sizes when sewing.  And they tear off so nicely!  Plus, they are super duper cheap compared to using fabric, even cheap muslin.  I can't bring myself to use an old phone book and get my hands dirty!

Here is a finished 6-1/4" block.  I made a nice dent in my scrap pile with these blocks, yeah!!

Quilt Stats:

• Pattern:  Scrappy string quilt
• Size:  27.5" square
• Fabric:  All Thimbleberries fabric, excepting the blacks from a LQS
• Batting:  100% Hobbs cotton
• Backing:  Thimbleberries deep red with golden stars
• Quilting:  All over meandering by hand on my old Bernina 830
• Binding:  Double fold Thimbleberries in deep purple, attached by machine
• Value:  Cozy!

Available in my Etsy shop, Busy Hands Quilts!!

Log Cabin Wall Hanging Quilt in Pinks and Blues

I recently had a request for a quilt similar in size and color to a quilt I had sold in my Etsy shop.   It was the fourth quilt I sold in my shop almost two years ago.  Here it is below.

This is what I came up with.

I can see an improvement in my quilting over the past two years with straighter blocks and quilt edges and smoother quilting.

It was great to get reacquainted with these fabrics again.  I haven't used Thimbleberries for awhile.  I sold most of my Thimbleberries collection and have only strips and scraps left.  I have another request for a string quilted wall hanging in Thimbleberries, so I will be working with these fabrics again very soon.

Quilt Stats:

• Pattern:  Log Cabin with scrappy border
• Size:  28" square
• Fabrics:  Quilt-shop quality fabrics including Thimbleberries, Robert Kaufman, Connecting Threads, etc.
• Batting:  100% cotton Hobbs
• Backing:  Unbleached natural muslin
• Quilting:  All over meandering on my Bernina 830, my grandmother's vintage sewing machine.
• Binding:  Double fold scrappy border with mitered corners, attached by machine
• Value:  Very pretty!

This quilt was a custom order from my Etsy shop.  I will be listing three more nearly identical to it in the near future.

Millie's Room Re-Do

Millie's wish for her 12th birthday was to re-do her bedroom.  She was ready to paint over the pink walls with blue and green, and no, not pale blue and green either!  I'll show her your walls when the room is completed over the next month or so.  She also wanted new quilts in a rainbow of colors.  I have a love of bright rainbows,  as well, as evidenced by the rainbow quilt in my room.

This is the yummy stack of fabrics I got from Fabric.com when they had their 30% off $200 sale.  Thirty yards of Kona solids for $150.  Not too bad!  I am sure the clerks at Fabric.com were wishing they didn't have to process my order ... this is 60 half-yard pieces of fabric!  Yes, 60 different colors!  And don't forget, if you sign up for Ebates, you get a 4% cash rebate at Fabric.com and varying % rebates at many, many online retailers.  I get a referral credit if you sign up with this link.

Her top bed bunkbed is a twin.  I plan to use the Arithmetic Pattern for this quilt.  It should use all of the 60 fabrics at least once.  I haven't figured out yet exactly how many fabrics are required and whether or not there will be duplicates, and there just might be duplicates because I am NOT buying more solids for this project!

The bright green on the top right below will be the curtains that go around the lower bed on her bunkbed.  The curtains create a "cave."

Below are the 18 fabrics she selected from the 60 for her Wave Quilt.  It will be a full size for the lower bunk which is full size.  This pattern is by Oh Fransson!  The free pattern is available HERE.  I have made this quilt before, and you can see that one HERE.  One change I made to the pattern is to cut the white strips 1/2" longer so that attaching them to the sides of the waves isn't so fussy and can just be eye-balled without measuring.  It doesn't take any extra fabric, just uses the WOF strip more completely.  I have the rainbow wave quilt already made, and she is currently on Mrs.Singer's rails awaiting quilting.  It is amazing ... beyond amazing ... totally stunning!  I can't wait to show it to you!!

Where Have I Been?

Silence here on the blog certainly does not mean I have not been sewing.  I've just been taking a hiatus from blogging and making things for my Etsy shop and instead focusing on spending more time with my family and making projects for US.  I want to thank a faithful reader who reached out to me to make sure I was okay during my month-plus silence here on the blog.  It turns out she lives across the Canadian border from me just a hop and a skip!  We share a common love of quilting and Celtic Thunder!

Over the next while I will be showing you what I have been up to and plans for what I'm making next!  To tide you over until then, here is a picture of Lily!

May I introduce to you Lily, our 8-month-old Beagle / Australian shepherd puppy.  Here she is helping us celebrate Millie's birthday.  She will do pretty much anything for a treat, and we are taking advantage of that and teaching her many tricks, this being one of them.  You can put anything on top of her nose, tell her to "leave it," and she will leave it there until you tell her to "get it."  If it's food, it will be gone with a flick of her head and a snap of her teeth as she catches it before it hits the ground.  The napkin wouldn't fit on her nose, so she patiently tolerated us putting it on her head.  Contrary to this picture, she doesn't have a chair at the dining table, but rather lies down on her rug until we are done eating and then gets her treats as a reward for lying quietly while we were eating.  She is smart ... she is spoiled ... she is loved!