Fleece Crib Blanket....Quilted

This weekend I got a total of 4 pot holders finished and have several more that just need the binding finished up on them. I just love making these little things. Today I finally braved the camo fleece crib quilt that I was so nervous about. I've worked with fleece and minkee before but not together and this brown has about a 1/2" nap so I wasn't sure how well that it would quilt or even if my machine would quilt it with a batting between them. Would you believe that it quilted up perfect!?!

The camo fleece is actually the front and the brown fuzzy is the back. I loaded it on the frame with the brown on top because I was afraid that the longer nap on it might mess with my bobbin.
Anyway, not one problem! I was so happy! No thread breaks, no skips....nothing! Now why can't everything else go that smooth??? I still need to square it up and do the binding on it. I also need to make the matching bumper pad for the crib and two camo pillows.

I'm starting to work on some Christmas gifts now. Tonight I plan on cutting out one of those little fabric panel story books for my great nephew. He just turned "1" a couple of weeks ago. I've never put one of these together but they don't look that hard. That will be one thing that I can mark off my list.

Kristie

If only I had the time...

I had such plans for today but that all changed last night when Hunter woke up vomiting. :( It was a long night for us both, we spent most of the night on the couch and he ran back and forth to the bathroom throwing up. Needless to say, he did not go to school today. When Hunter gets sick he wants his "MOMMY" which is great for me. I don't like for him to be sick but I do love that he thinks he can't be without me. My sister works at the local pediatrician's office and I was telling her about him this morning and she said that they had a ton of kids coming in with the same stomach bug. Anyway....he seems to be feeling a little better right now he just says his "belly feels hot"

I had planned on quilting that camo fleece baby blanket this morning and loading another one on this afternoon but Hunter comes first. So I just thought I would update you on what I do have done. Remember my 4 Patch Flips that I was cutting out? Well, I cut 3 out of 4 out and got the blocks pieced for them. Hopefully this evening I can get at least one of the tops completed.

Here are 60 blocks enough for 2 lap quilts of these warmer tones.

Here is the pile of 30 bright blocks. Here is where I was trying to arrange some of them. I will probably try to get this one pieced tonight since I have already figured out my block placement with it. Then I just need to dig out borders for all 3 of them.
I still have my pile of blue scraps that I will cut out the 4th one in a few days. So in the end I'm hoping to have 4 lap size quilts to have on hand for last minute Christmas gifts, and not to mention I've cleared a ton out of my scrap basket.

I ran on to my box of pot holder blocks that I was working on last Christmas. I pieced a bunch of blocks from my string bin to make some pot holders for gifts and of course a few for myself. :) I found 22 more of the string blocks today that I had put away. I squared them up and they are ready to finish. I actually thought about piecing a few more and just making another lap size quilt but just decided to stick with the pot holders since I already have the 3/4 other lap quilts going. Here I went ahead and dug out some scrap cotton batting and my insulbright batting and layered them with some scrap backings that I had leftover from machine quilting. This orange was leftover from Hunter's Halloween quilt.

I'm hoping to work on the potholders later tonight, if I have time and Hunter is better. I didn't have enough scrap cotton batting for all 22 of them I think I ended up with 8 or so.

I'm sure I'm not the only quilter to feel this way but I am just itching to start a ton of new projects. Some of them I don't even have fabrics for yet, others are BIG projects that I think I would only to be able to work on it and nothing else. I want to start on this Red/White Quilt, I want to work on Andrew's Red and White Quilt, also that Scrap Quilt on the cover of Quilt Magazine. I've slowly started cutting on this one, just a little at a time as I am cutting other things from my Civil War stash. Oh and I can't forget.....I need to finish this. I have all 224 blocks pieced and sew into blocks of 4, now they just need to be pieced into a quilt top and the borders added. Oh......and I need to try to find more of this navy fabric so that I can finish this quilt. My mind is going a million miles an hour but my body can't keep up! :(

All of the leaves have turned their pretty fall colors. This is my favorite time of year but it always seems like it just goes from Summer to Winter. I will Fall would last a little longer. I took a few photos from the yard. Yesterday it rained and today it is windy and most of the leaves have fallen. :(

I guess that is all for this post, I need to get supper finished, work on doing some laundry and all of that stuff so that I can get back to quilting tonight...

Kristie

Working on 4 quilts at once...

I was up in my sweat shop on Saturday loading a quilt on the frame and I kept looking at my scrap basket. My scrap basket holds anything smaller than a fat quarter and everything that has not been cut up into smaller squares and put away in tubs. When starting a scrap quilt this is the first place that I go before cutting into my yardage. My basket was running over! I had fabric piled around it. So last night I decided to start cutting my scraps to clear my basket out. Well I didn't get it cleared out but at least it is more tolerable. This is the "after" photo. I decided to cut my scraps up to make a few "4 Patch Flips" I've made a couple of these quilts in the past and they are quick and easy to do. Here is a blue and pink one.

And this one is just made from scraps.
So I decided to cut out a couple of lap size 4 Patch Flip quilts. My plan was to make the lap size and have them on hand for Christmas, never know when you will need a last minute gift. Anyway.....3 of them cut out and a pile of blues to go through for another one. So in the end I should have 4 of them.

Last night I had trouble sleeping so that is what I did. Now these quilts are so simple to cut and sew that I actually got a lot done. I was up cutting and sewing until 3am!

First I dug out all of the brighter fabrics that were in the basket. I had several pieces from various other projects. I don't use these fabrics often so I just kept moving them around in my basket so it was time to get rid of them! I'm more comfortable using warmer tones. So the funny thing is, I had this pile laying on the table this morning while Richard was having breakfast. He asked what I was working on and I told him my plan. He looked at this pile of brighter pieces and said "You are donating that one somewhere....right?" Giggle....he doesn't like the fabrics either! Anyway I have enough of these brighter pieces for one quilt. I have enough cut for two quilts using these warmer tones.And here is the stack of "blues" that I plan on cutting later for a 4th quilt.

This what I was loading on the frame Saturday. A lady bought some camouflage fleece and some fuzzy brown stuff, I'm not even sure what it is called. As you can see in the photo that it has a longer nap. She wants it crib size and also wants batting in it too. I've never tried to quilt something this thick with my machine so I'm not sure how it will go. I haven't started it yet but that brown seems really stretchy! I've quilted "minky" and didn't have a problem but this is soooo much heavier than that. Hopefully I will work on it tomorrow. I've been dragging all day from lack of sleep so I don't figure I would be in the mood to quilt it if I started having problems with it so I will wait til tomorrow. I also had a lady drop off another quilt to be quilted. It is a king size and really pretty. It is a log cabin and that is one of my favorite designs. I'll show a better photo of it as I load it on the frame later. It will probably be a couple of weeks, I had to order the backing and I'm waiting for it to come in. Over the weekend Richard and I worked on the drywall. This is a photo of bathroom #1. My job was to mud all of the screw heads and Richard all of the hard stuff...the corners and seams. My job was easier so now ALL of the screw heads are covered in the whole house and ready to sand when he gets the corners and seams done. Anyway, I didn't do the screws around the tub because it will have the tub surround over them.

And a photo of Hunter sleeping. He got up at 5am Saturday morning so that Richard could take him deer hunting. He was soooo tired later in the day and fell asleep on the couch with his Halloween quilt. I got the binding done Saturday morning. Anyway he didn't get a deer. He was getting ready to pull the trigger and forgot to cock the hammer back on his gun so it wouldn't fire. By the time he got it pulled back the deer was gone. :( Oh well he is a trooper and loves going hunting.

Well my post ended up being longer than I had planned....sorry if I bored you. :) Now I have to go finish up my sister's birthday cake! She turned 27 today! I baking her a "Better Than Sex Cake" also called "Paul Newman Cake" I call it the "Paul Newman Cake" it sounds nicer than the other. LOL! It is soooo yummy! Mom is working and they celebrated Chantal's birthday last weekend. Mom bought the stuff for this cake and asked me to bake it for her since she would not be here.

Kristie