A lot of things happen....

A lot of thing happen in 10 months, like having a baby.  In September my husband and I were thrilled to find out that we were expecting our first baby! It was a long 10 months full of sleeping and other joys that accompany pregnancy and finally our little girl arrived at the end of May just a few weeks ahead of schedule!

In the time that I was pregnant I did very little quilting.  In fact I think I only made 2 quilts.  One for our little girl, and one for my twin brother who had a baby just a few months before us!

So I lost my beautiful sewing room turned into a beautiful nursery.  Here is the quilt for our little one.

So pretty!

I even expanded my horizons and made matching drapery!

Pretty nifty eh?

Hopefully now that our baby is here I will have a little more time for quilting...ha! I have got a few projects on the go so more to come shortly!

Quilt #9?

Long time no post! That is the life of a public school teacher. I had 9 weeks of leisure and then September was very busy for a month! Luckily it is now October and I am getting into the swing of things.

So my goal this summer was to make 10 quilts and read 10 books in 9 weeks.  I have a feeling that was a little over ambitious...but I came close (with the quilts anyways).  Unfortunately, I selected to leave all my bigger, larger quilting projects for the summer (and books that were equally as lenghtly!).

So I ended up making 9 quilts in 9 weeks (not bad me thinks!) but I only read 5 books (could have done better there...maybe next summer I should learn how to read and quilt at the same time!).

My 9th quilt project was not really a quilt at all but a set of placemats.  I bought this fabric awhile ago and made one and hated it, got frustrated and threw it in a box never to be seen again.  But I wanted to practice some of my different quilting patterns so I got the box out and made 10 placemats.  If I do say so myself, I think they turned out pretty well!

Quilt #9 - here is the front of them

And here is the back so you can see the design -loops, stars, and swirls!

So there you have it.  9 quilts in 9 weeks. Summer challenge complete.

Feeling Optimistic!

I got this fat quarter bundle online from The Fat Quarter Shop when I was ordering a bunch-o-fabric for my summer quilts.  If you order over $200 the shipping is free...so of course I had to do that! I saw this bundle that was put together by Rachel Griffith who has her very own very cool quilting blog.  I loved all the patterns and prints that she put together.  So I found a very cool pattern to go with this bundle and VOILA you have quilt #8!

Quilt #8 - Rachel Griffith "Bloggers Choice" bundle

Christmas in August!

Well, even though it is not even close to Christmas time I couldn't help myself.  Dr. Seuss came out with a new line of fabric in the theme of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"! It is one of my favourite books and I thought it would make for some awesome Christmas presents.  So I ordered just a small sample of the fabric collection so that I could see what it looked like. I have made one little quilt so far but I think I see a few more of these in my future!

Merry Grinchmas!

Quilt #7 - How the Grinch Stole Christmas

2,688

The next project is one that I have been thinking about making from the minute I laid eyes on the pattern.  The only problem is this quilt happens to have 2,688 pieces! I knew that this would be a time consuming project so it was perfect for my summer of quilting.

This pattern is from the "fine arts" series designed by Emily of carolina patchworks and comes with a number of famous paintings.  I selected "Starry Night" by Van Gogh because it is my favourite!

So here is a picture of all the little  pieces (they alone took over 3 hours to cut!)

And so it begins....

 And several days later I finished!!! As I was ironing it I found a mistake (I'm sure there are more than one...) but for the number of pieces this quilt took I thought 1 wasn't bad :P

I have not quilted this quilt yet...I am debating getting it professionally quilted. I think I want to hang it in my master bedroom and I might want it to look more fancy than what I can do.

So I'm going to hold off on it for right now and see if I can practice some more free motion quilting designs on some smaller quilts first.

So here is the final project for now!

Quilt #6 - My favourite so far!

Ohhh ohh I'm half way there!

I will post quilt #4 and #5 of the summer together because they were both made by request for a family member.  My sister-in-law requested a Dr. Seuss quilt of her very own as a gift for a friend who is expecting a baby as well as a new quilt for her master bedroom.

So here is the Dr. Seuss quilt!

Dr.Seuss Cat in the Hat - Quilt #4

And the quilt for the master bedroom was made with fabric called "calypso swing".  I started with these fabrics because she liked the colours and choose some nice coordinating fabrics so that the quilt wouldn't turn out to be too "girly". After all, my twin brother also has to live with this quilt!

Once the fabric came in I spent hours trying to find a patterned that would be just perfect .... but with no such luck.  Finally, I decided to try to make my own pattern.  It is very simple but if I do say so myself I think it turned out awesome!

Pretty in Pink - Quilt #5

Do you see prime hiding in the corner? He seems to always find a way into the picture!

Vintage at it's finest!

During my quilts of summer project I started to quilt some of the tops that I had been saving.  This one in particular I was saving because it was one of my favourites and I wanted to wait until I became more confident with my free motion quilting.  I bought this pattern from Carolina Patchworks a long time ago and it was the first video game pixel quilt that I made.  It turned out really well and I couldn't be happier.  I have made a few of these cool video game quilts and hope to one day use them to decorate the basement. Next on the list of video game quilts to be made, Pacman!

Quilt #3 - Super Mario Bros.