Snowbound Quilters are Never Bored

The view of my latest quilt project from a vintage Kodak Duaflex camera.




 

With the recent snows in February and March I was able to work on projects that had moved to the top of my "to do" list. Continuing my mantra, "Every baby deserves their own quilt," I completed two projects that have upcoming deadlines. The projects included starting and finishing two baby quilts because the babies are due at the end of  March. I was able to shop my stash and use some of the fabric I already had to complete these projects. I will post those completed projects later because I like the quilts to be a surprise for the new parents.

I also completed a quilt top with liberated stars and log cabin blocks. That quilt is pictured through the viewfinder of the Kodak Duaflex camera. It was my son Sam who came up with the idea of taking photos of the viewfinder of the antique camera by using an iphone. We had a lot of fun taking various photos this way so I wanted to share. The quilt top is now being quilted and I will share when that top is completed.

Although we are in the third month of the year, I have made a vow to use more of my stash for 2015. One of my quilting friends created a challenge. When making a quilt  at least 70 percent of the fabrics should come from your stash. I thought that was great idea because it gives you the opportunity to still shop for new fabrics. Just pair a bit of  the newly purchased fabrics with what is in your stash.  This is a great challenge and a great opportunity to do a bit of destashing. With the 70 percent rule I hope to post photos of some great quilts created in 2015 with this challenge in mind.

Happy Quilting!

Jiffy Baby Quilt for the Little One

My Jiffy Baby Quilt goes together quickly.

Another baby arrives and this time I put together a quick quilt I call my "Jiffy Baby Quilt." Just by looking at the photo you can get an idea of how this is a simple quilt. This is very liberated and can be made from pulling fabrics from your stash and scrap bags. When I cut the colorful strips of various widths I cut the white background pieces at the same time and stored them together until I was ready to sew. Just make sure your rotary cutting blade is sharp because it will be going through 3 or four thicknesses of fabric. 

I love the name "Jiffy" in this quilt for several reasons. One is it reminds me of my youth and learning clothing construction with "Simplicity Jiffy" patterns. The patterns always had only one to four main pattern pieces and were perfect for beginners or for constructing a new outfit quickly." Jiffy"  also reminds me of  the cornmeal mix. This is a great product for the beginning cook or the cook in a hurry. I love that the iconic box label has remained the same for years. Here's to the word "Jiffy."

Back to the quilt. I started this quilt by picking out a backing fabric first. Sometimes I do that because it helps me to narrow down what colors will be on the front of the quilt. I chose the cute owl fabric because..... it is cute.

The cute owl fabric is the back of the Jiffy Baby Quilt.

The owl fabric has great colors so it was easy to find coordinating fabrics from my stash for the front. The other reason I like this style of quilt is because I can have fun with the quilting. I use my home sewing machine to quilt. Baby quilts fit nicely under the throat of my machine and this quilt measures 36"x38" so there is no need to piece the back.

 I quilted each strip of this quilt using a different quilt pattern. It is a great place to try out new designs. The other thing I like to do is include the baby's name and birth date in the quilting. This is a personal touch that I hope makes it special for the family.

This is a close up of the quilted name , weight and date of birth.

A close-up of  some of the playful quilting stitches.

Please try making your own version of "Jiffy Baby Quilt." I would love to see what you come with, you can email me at this link.

As you know I am working on my Hipster profile. (Owls are hipster and so is Instagram.)  I would like to invite you to follow me on Instagram @sundayfarmingquilter or go to this link. I will be tagging some of my blog photos to share with others.

A New Year. Time to drag out the UFO's

My pile of UFO's awaiting completion... or not.

Since it is a new year I felt compelled to drag out my UFO's. In case you don't know, UFO stands for Unfinished Objects in the quilting world. These Unfinished Objects are also called WIPS in other parts of the country and Canada, which stands for Works in Progress. Whatever you want to call them, you don't have to be quilting long to collect these great fabrics and patterns that are intended to be finished ........ sometime.

After looking over my UFO's last week I gave myself permission not to finish them. What has happened along the way is my style and taste changed and to work on these projects would no longer be exciting to me. So I am moving on. I am going to cabbage the fabric and it will become part of my ever grown stash of fabric. That way the fabric may find its way into a project down the road, just not the original purchase project.

My New Year did begin with finishing a few UFO's that needed completing. I took the advice of Radio Personality Dave Ramsey. Dave advises people on financial matters and suggests listing debt smallest to largest and then attack the debt in that order. So I listed my projects smallest amount of work needed to largest amount of work needed and my attack has begun.

First I sewed labels on two quilts then finished blocks for an on-line block swap. That worked out well. Three projects complete in less that two hours. Then I moved on to finishing a baby quilt top. Next week I hope to finish some birthday gift projects and do some quilting. I'm already feeling better about my projects for the new year. Happy quilting to all in 2014. And don't forget to give yourself permission to rethink your list of UFO's.

It's time to search out all quilting UFO's.

Birthday Dresses for Little Nieces

Front view of the birthday dress.

Back view of the dress. It has two covered buttons.

Being the Mother of boys it's not very often I get to make girl clothes. But now I have little nieces that are helping fill that need. Recently I pulled out my clothing construction skills to make this cute little dress. It is one that my soon-to-be 2 year old niece can wear all year because the fabric has the number "2" all over the print. These prints by Jone Hallmark for Free Spirit caught my eye and I had to have one in each age. The line is called ABC's and 123.

In my stash I have fabric for ages 2,3,5,6,7 and 8. (The store was out of age 4.) So it is no surprise what fabric I will be using for each birthday to come. The dress pattern I used is Macy Giggles. I purchased the pattern at my local quilt shop and the pattern includes instructions for sizes 2 through 14. The pattern is an Izzy and Ivy Design. The instructions are easy to follow but I think the sizing runs a little big.

My stash of birthday prints.