Lemon Lime Quilt Top

I'm ready to share my second finished quilt top with you! I wanted to wait until I had the back done, but that whole "never finish what I start" thing is kicking in just a bit right now.

Something else I've learned since starting to read quilt and craft blogs is that it's okay to have many unfinished projects at any given time. It even has a name too, WIP's! I feel a little less guilty now about so much unfinished business around here. (note to self: it's good therapy, must read more blogs).

Remember I'm a big Joel Dewberry fan? This one is made in greens and yellows from his Notting Hill collection. I've started calling it my lemon lime quilt to distinguish it from my first JD quilt.

It's based on this pattern here. I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I took it slow and got everything to line up nice I think.

This pattern introduced me to the HST. I had no idea you could do so much with those! Yep, the HST and me are on good terms now, don't even need to spell it out. ;)  I found this tutorial on The Cottage Home blog and have recently tried out pinwheels. Will share soon!

Speaking of patterns, it seems I've been collecting them lately like I stash fabric. I just found one that I completely forgot I purchased! I also plan to pick up this one from Tracy Jay soon. She's offering 20% off her patterns with coupon code SpringMarket to earn a little spending cash for quilt market.

This reminded me of how soon the Spring market is coming... and that maybe she'll run in to Moses there. Yep, he'll be attending our first market ever!! We are SO excited. I won't be attending because someone has to stay back with our little ones, plus I don't fly. Shh, don't tell anyone...

My first completed quilt!

I’m so excited!  I just received my first completed quilt back in the mail yesterday!! I had the top done months ago and finally decided that I just loved it too much to let it sit around my house and fray away. Thanks so, so much to Deana in Canada for finishing it up for me. ;)

The fabrics are from the Modern Meadow collection by Joel Dewberry. I've had these plus some of the blue colorway stashed from before we even started purchasing by the bolt. The pattern is based on one from  Sweet Jane's shop. Seems like a simple design to put together, but it really helps to have and I usually need at least a starting point.

Deana quilted it on either side of the blocks which I love. I'm generally not one that likes quilting lines running all across such beautiful fabrics. There are always exceptions, of course. For the back I chose a solid, non-directional print from the same line. I was hoping to make the piecing job easier. :)

Here's the before:

Yep, she even did the boarders and pieced the back for me. I know, I know, so I didn't have it completely finished when I sent it to her. (Did I say a BIG thank you Deana, so, so much!?) 

I’ve never completed a quilt of this size before. It’s just a throw size, but hey, baby steps, right? Quilting is new to me and what I’m discovering is I think it’s going to be a good fit. I’m one of those “never finish what I start” people and one of the great things about quilting is that I don’t have to! All I need to do is the top and then send it out to be quilted and bound. Why didn't anyone tell me this a long time ago?

And guess what? I already have my second quilt top completed that I’ll be sharing soon. Remember I said I’m huge fan of Joel Dewberry (hint, hint)? I just need to get a back made for it and I will send it out for finishing as well. 

The quilting bug has definitely hit me. :)

A closer look and a sneak peek

As promised from my last post that I'd share some fabric photos! I was cutting this for an order recently from the Cream and Sugar line and snapped a couple quick photos to show you the scale of these little teabags. They’re just about 1 to 2 inches tall and wide, so it’s perfect for small projects. It comes in two different colors. This is the oatmeal color shown.

I also snapped the animals from the Safari line. You can see here what a fat quarter looks like and how many animals would be on it. We’ve been selling out quickly and, unfortunately, the manufacturer is sold out of a couple prints already and will not be restocking. Bummer! We have enough for two fat quarter bundles plus a little yardage though still if you hurry!

Okay, now the sneak peek! Our Free Spirit/Westminster sales rep visited recently bringing with him lots of goodies to show. With just a few weeks left until the spring quilt market I figured I’d give you a small peek of what we're likely to see there and what we'll be stocking from Free Spirit.

Tula Pink is coming out with a new one called Acacia. Our rep had actual fabrics of this line to show. Yay! We've listed these prints in our Coming Soon section of our site. You can sign up within any listing to be notified when it's available for purchase. Due to release in September 2013.

I’m ecstatic that Joel Dewberry is also coming out with another collection! I’m a huge fan.

Bungalow is due to release in September 2013 as well. I'll list these in our shop as soon as I can get some graphics.

 


Last one to share... Hand Drawn Garden from Anna Maria Horner! A smaller collection at just 14 prints, due to release in July 2013. Also will list in the Coming Soon of our shop once I get graphics.

And now you see how we select our fabrics. Mostly from printed cards and online graphics, just like you do! Always so much nicer in actual fabrics, right?!

Back to School

Well yesterday was our first day back to school, and boy was I exhausted by the end of the day! No, I don't home school, but just getting up early to take them after sleeping in for 2.5 months was hard!

I'm down to just me and Levi home now. Gabriel and Savannah were super excited to go back. Gabriel said, "Forget my shows, I want to see my friends!" And can I admit that I'm just as excited as they are to go back to school? Sure, I enjoy having them home, but I could use a break from all the bickering brotherly/sisterly love. ;)  I also love this time of year because it's leading up to my favorite season, Fall! I just love all the colors the season brings.

I'm also excited for the fabric lines coming this Fall! Everyone ready for some Jennifer Paganelli and Joel Dewberry??! Here's a few sneak peak pics. Happy Land From Jennifer P. is due to release in October. It has 23 prints.

Notting Hill from Joel D. is due out in November. It's a monster of a collection at 36 prints. 

We will offer both collections for preorder. Still deciding the best way to do it however. My preorder tab on the blog here was having technical issues, I'm sure due to user error. It has been removed for the time being. I may just do a blog post closer to release with the images of the prints here... 

Before I get too far ahead of myself though, we still have other great prints coming this month and next! We will be receiving all of the Riley Blake dots shortly. 

 Also due to release any day is Bella from Lotta Jansdotter for Windham.

 And for September we'll be receiving Rock n' Romance from Art Gallery!

We have more collections lined up for the coming months, so if you don't see something here and are wondering if we'll be stocking it, please feel free to ask!