Dino quilt

I finally got the top all pieced to my dino quilt. This was completely done off the cuff, as you can probably tell by how the blocks rotate as various angles and the blocks are not always centered. It was mostly fun to do, but I had to rip out more than a few seams when I realized that my blocks weren't going to end up anywhere near the right size (8.5" square) or even worse, anywhere near right angles.

I'm still trying to decide whether to put a border on the whole thing. So far, theoretically it is 40" x 56", so not a bad size for a kids cuddle quilt. I didn't make it with anyone specific in mind, so it will likely be a donation quilt. I hear they have more girl quilts than boy often, so when I saw the half yard of this dinosuar fabric in my stash (I have no idea where it came from), I thought AHA.

Flag Quilt

I saw this lovely flag quilt on a blog I read and was almost instantly smitten with an I could do something like that.  Of course, then, once I got started, Pounce felt that she needed to help me.  You can see you very helpful she was being!

But, I did finally manage to get it done without too much kitty help and here it is, finished by Friday!

Now, I just need to get it hung on the wall.  I realize it is past 4th of July, but I can always be patriotic, right?

quilted bag

I guess I took these pictures sideways, since the handles of my bag are off to the right (not very visible, being navy blue against the dark wood).  But this is my latest project and it is finally done.  

This side was an orphan block.  I made it in a workshop on learning paper piecing.  What I mostly learned was that paper piecing can be a real pain.  I still don't understand why the first 2 went together fine, but on the 3rd quarter, I had to redo I piece at least 4 times!  After that experience, I wasn't about to make any more of this particular design.  So, making it into a bag made sense.

Now for the other side of the bag.  Hmm.  No orphan blocks that really looked right with it, so I had to make a block.  I found a block of this design (but non-compatible colors) and decided I would do another of the same type.  

It took me forever to find a pattern for this - finally on the 3rd time through one of my drawers, I found the template to cut the pieces out.

Overall I'm rather pleased with this, though I wish I'd remembered how much of the side seams gets taken up.  I would have made the side borders wider.

Challenge Quilt DONE

My challenge quilt is finally done and back. I actually finished it up last week, but I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Now I just need to get it hung on the wall before spring is over.

The challenge was to depict your birth day, so 27 letters for the my birthday and spring to indicate March, when spring starts. I know Easter isn't always in March, but it is sometimes and has been on my birthday before.

Tied Blanket

This was a really quick and easy project. I bought this fleece kit a few weeks ago on sale and have been waiting for a good time to work on it (needed the dining room table cleared off, but I didn't want to tie up the table). I needn't have worried - I finished the whole project this afternoon and evening, even with a lot of help from both cats!

Pounce kept trying to investigate while I was trying to spread it all neatly out - I had to leave the area to get her to leave. Then once I got it spread out and cut (MUCH faster with the rotary cutter than with scissors), Shadow came over to help me with the tying.

Ready for Spring

Can you tell that I'm ready for Spring???

I thought that "W" looked okay, not great, but ok when I was putting it together. Now, looking at it here, I'm not so sure about it. I may have to redo it.

Finished by Friday - I can finally show these

I actually finished these up before Christmas, but since they were presents for family who sometimes read this blog, I didn't want to spoil the surprise.

This is a tote bag I made for my MIL. It's lined and quilted. I used a sturdier twill for the bottom.

These are lined shopping bags I made for my 2 SILs. The lining on the pepper bag is really a shocking lime green, but it seemed to go so well with the peppers (and you don't see a lot of it at once) that it really seems to work.

I made these mostly from a pattern I found.  I didn't quite follow it exactly, though - on the blue one I made first I misinterpreted the pattern and made the handles more narrow.  Then when I made the second one I changed the way I did the bottom - I didn't do the gusset, I folded the bag on the inside and sewed crosswise to create more of a bottom (similar to the tote bag above).