The best laid plans...

...often go awry.

I've been making a bajillion quilts lately. It hasn't been quite that many, but it feels like it. I'm trying to finish as many as I can before Spring announces itself fully, and I'm conscripted into yard work for a number of months. Today I pieced together the 12th of 40 lap quilts that I'm making for family for Christmas 2017. It's for one of our little ones -- a two-year-old granddaughter. She's adorable...

Well, unfortunately this quilt top didn't go as well as I'd hoped. First of all I bought this Cosmo Forest Delight fabric...

...which I really liked. It's cute, right? How can you go wrong with bears and flowers? I'll tell you. It was nearly impossible to find coordinating fabrics. I have quite an extensive fabric stash at my home, but nothing complimented these cute bears. I ended up having to go to a quilt shop near my home, and two employees and I had to scoured every shelf to find three somewhat coordinating fabrics. Unfortunately, the fabrics we found weren't really within the color scheme I wanted for the quilt. Here's the quilt top with the pink, turquoise and puke green fabric I chose...

{Sigh.} I was really hoping to stay with pinks and reds since it's for a little girl, but both the pink and red in the Cosmo fabric is a very unusual shade. Ugh. I'm a little disappointed. I'm just not sold on that green fabric.

You'd think all that would be bad enough, but there's more. I should have chosen the same turquoise color or the pink oblong fabric for the back of the quilt, but I decided to pick something totally different to add some "fun." {Geesh.} I chose the fabric below. I thought it was a cute pattern with a lot of the same colors as the front of the quilt. It looked colorful and playful to me.

 

When I got home I noticed something odd about the fabric, so went to the computer and looked up its name. It's called Tula Pink Tabby Road Cat Eyes. You guessed it. When you turn the fabric, it looks like this...

 
That's right. It's a million cat eyes staring at you. What two-year-old is going to want to wrap themselves in creepy cat eyes? {Shudder.} Emery is bound to have nightmares for years, and it will be this granny's fault. Honestly, I think I need to take a little break from quilting and plant some pansies.

I'm really hoping that I'll like this quilt a whole lot better when it gets back from the longarm quilter, and I've distanced myself from it for a couple of weeks. {Doubt it.} BTW, the backing of the quilt is positioned so the "cat eyes" are less apparent. I hope.

Loving #3...

I am loving #3 quilt who is for Miss T., our four year old granddaughter. It measures 45"x50" -- which is plenty big for her because she is such a little peanut! I don't know what it is about this one -- it's certainly simple -- but I love the design with the cute fabrics...

I've finally figured out how important it is to have white or some other plain fabric to give your eye a rest. The white also frames all the other cute prints and colors. This is just my opinion, of course, not necessarily the experience of a great quilter.

I used a lot of my stash for this fabric. I loved picking all these shades of pink and incorporating them into something fun...

I posted a video recently on my Just Another Hang Up Facebook page about how to join the binding "tails" on a quilt. I followed the simple instructions to a "T" and it worked perfectly!

For the back I used Moda, Just Another Walk in the Woods, Forest Furries in Pink...

...and Camelot Fabrics, Wilderness Arrows White. {Love. Love. Love.}

Those two fabrics together are A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E.

Once again I used the flower long-arm quilting pattern that I've used on several other quilts. It's perfect  for little girl's quilts...

It was so warm and beautiful outside today -- in the 70's. It makes me want to plant flowers and mow the lawn. In a week or so I'll start cleaning up the yard and planning outside projects! Can't wait!

Quilt #2...

I don't intend this blog to turn into a quilting blog, but with as many quilts as I have to make in the next nine months, there will be a lot of lap quilts displayed. I just finished #2. It's for one of my teenage girls who loves pastels. It measures 50" x 62", which is a good size for an adult lap quilt. Technically, Miss G is not our grandchild, but I've never been big on technicalities. When her {step-} mom {my former daughter in law who will always be counted as mine} married this teenager's dad, I got three more kiddos to love, so this quilt is for her...

I've used the star pattern for many of the little kid's quilts, but for the bigger quilts I'm using other simple designs. My inspiration for this quilt was this pattern from Victoria Quilted Designs. I had to tweak it to the size I needed, but it's very similar...

I've asked each family member for their favorite color/s and to pick "something they like or an interest of theirs." It's my hope to use those colors and, if possible, their "interest" for the fabric choices in their individual quilts. Miss G said she liked pastels and flowers. Done.

One of my purposes for these quilting projects was to use up some of the stash of fabrics I have. In this case I was able to do that. These fabrics were ones that I used to make the baby quilts a couple of months ago. I even used two different fabrics for the binding. It feels good to use up what I have instead of buying new...

I chose a leaf pattern for the quilting for this quilt. I love it because it because it's simple and goes along with the floral theme...

For the back of the quilt I used a couple of the complimentary fabrics. I love making the back of the quilt as colorful and fun as the front...

I'll be putting the binding on another quilt today, then toward the end of the week I am flying to Florida for some time with family and fun in the sun! So excited to see family and enjoy a special weekend with my eight-year-old grandson who is getting baptized. Life is good, and I'm grateful.

- Suzanne

One down, 39 to go...

Since I arrived home from California I've been doing the proverbial sweat-shop thing and working on my goal of making a lap quilt for every person in our family for Christmas 2017. That didn't seem like such a big deal, till I added us all up. {Yikes.} This is the first one completely finished, but I have seven more waiting to be professionally quilted or with just the binding to be added! This first one is for a little two year old bundle of joy that loves "bink" {pink}. Finished it is 46 inches x 46 inches. Below it is back from the longarm quilter and ready for binding...

I'm new to this quilting thing, and as I was sewing this quilt I was thinking I should have put another constrasting color in it besides pink. It's a little Pepto Bismol-ish. Let's all just think of it as monocromatic, and call it good. This two-year-old peanut loves pink, so it might just be dreamy in her eyes. Here's the finished version...

I mentioned previously that I attended a quilt show last weekend. I looked at all those intricate quilts and realized mine are veerrryyy simple, but I love showcasing the fabrics themselves.The fabrics on this quilt are adorable. Some are from my stash and some are more recently released lines...

Moda, Just Another Walk in the Woods, Tiles A Pretty Cream...

Moda, Just Another Walk in the Woods, Forest Furries Pink

Moda, Just Another Walk in the Woods, Ruffles & Ruffles Dark Pink

Riley Blake, Snug as a Bug, Snails Pink

Riley Blake, Butterfly Dance, Caterpillar Pink

I buy most of my fabrics at Fabric.com. {This is not an endorsement per se, but I do like the ease of ordering online and getting free shipping.}

I have fallen in love with long-arm quilting. Having this quilt professionally quilted made even this all-pink-quilt come alive. The texture professional quilting adds to a piece is amazing. Here's the back of the quilt -- more Forest Furries and scraps of the other fabrics...

One down... 39 to go.

Quilt Show...

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted, and I've been very busy. I spent ten days in San Diego with a new granddaughter and my daughter's family. One of my sons and his wife recently moved there too, which is wonderfully convenient. Here's a picture of the little {5 pounds 15 ounces} peanut...

It's not very often we get a grandbaby with hair, let alone hair you can part and twist around your little finger! She is wonderful, as are her siblings and parents, and I miss them like crazy.

This weekend I went to a Quilt Show put on by an interfaith quilt group in our hometown. This group makes quilts, has an annual show and sale, and donates the proceeds to a local charity. {I'm a novice quilter, but I'd love to get involved in that group.}

Anyway, I took some photos of some of the quilts and thought I'd share them with you today...

I loved the section below. Those are vintage quilt tops that have been saved for someone to purchase and make "new." Love that salmon/peach and white one in the center...

The following two quilts were not for sale but from personal collections of quilters. They were kind enough to share with the rest of us. Beautiful...

And my personal favorite is below. I love everything about it...

Later this week I will show you one or two of the quilts I've been piecing lately. They are nothing like the quilts above, but cute all the same.