Success!

IMG_1424.JPG, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

I not only finished the top but I even pieced the back. And I do mean pieced since I only had 5 yards of flannel and I needed 6 yards. How did I not guess that I would need 6 yards? I always guess 6 yards. Luckily, I had a big long left over strip from my grandpa's quilt which made up for it. Bins of flannel to the rescue.

I treated myself to a couple of purple-y blocks and retreated to the more easily heatable house.

Solstice Strips

Solstice Strips, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

I'm spending some time this weekend working on a quilt to celebrate the winter solstice. It's one of my favorite days of the year because I'm not so secretly solar powered. December 21st is the shortest day of the year which means the days only get longer from there. And yes, I know that 25 days after the solstice, the daylight will be just as short as it was today but it's the knowledge that the next day will be just a little sunnier that makes it okay.

Plus isn't that a fun collection of purple strips to work with? I'm faking the self control today by not sewing them together until I have a Christmas project top completed though but my design wall is emptied and ready for the new blocks.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Colors of Fall

IMG_1321.JPG, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

or so I've heard. We don't have a lot of trees that change colors in San Diego and since we've had some rain, the roses are all blooming like mad again. I've been sewing away on Christmas and Solstice gifts all weekend but it'll be a few weeks before I show anything from that.

I'm taking better/more pictures though. And thanks to much tweaking of the settings and tricking the card with a friend's Mac, my camera uploads the pictures as I take them. A backup to my home computer and a copy to Flickr. If I get a few more kinks worked out, this bodes very well for posting on both my blogs now.

Safety First

Safety First, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Matilda is usually eager to go into the sewing room ever since she once found a treat in there (never mind that she's the one the left it in there). Tonight I worked on a present and vacuumed the sewing room at the same time, thanks Roomba! While the Roomba is very helpful, it also could go crazy and attack us at any time. Lucky for me, I've got someone watching my back. Of course, she finds it best to watch from my chair where it can't get to her. So I perch on the edge and she worries and leans on me. But I'm happy to say, the robot behaved, the floor is clean and almost half the blocks are done.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Brooke's, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

My Blogger's Quilt Festival post is about the quilt I made my sister for her 30th birthday. Well, I gave her the top for her 30th birthday, I just didn't have the skills to quilt it until she was almost 33. I learned the importance of a good sewing machine for applique as this one had a lot of it. I used interfacing on the long white strips and probably should have used something a little thinner, but it held it together well enough.

Check out the rest of the posts at Amy's Blogger Quilt Festival.

NOLA Placemats

NOLA Placemats, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Here's the finished placemats just in time for the birthday party. The rainboots are the back and the front of each has a scene from NOLA.

NOLA Placemats, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

NOLA Placemats, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

NOLA Placemats, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

NOLA Placemats, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Holy Scraps

Holy Scraps, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

In a search for backing fabric last week, I found a bag of scraps. And a box of scraps. So I got out the bins for sorting. I now have 3 bins of blue scraps and could probably make a dozen quilts just from these bits.

As ever, it's nice to see all the pieces of former projects.

Really Good at Math

White Stack, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

I am, as the title of this post suggests, good at math. Ask my mother. Mom, you can comment directly on the blog instead of emailing me if you want to back me up on this one.

So with my math skills and my rotary cutter, I misjudged the number of squares one might need from the rolls of fabric and I know have enough 3 inch squares (in pairs) for a 70 x 85 inch quilt

AND

a 40 x 63 inch quilt

AND

a 28 x 18 doll quilt

at minimum, since I suspect the number of squares out in the sewing room will have doubled by the time I get out of work tomorrow.

I also found the rest of the backing flannel for the Whirlygiggle II, which is another showcase of my math skills because for the last two weeks, I thought I was short a bit. Nope, I have close to a yard remaining. Not counting the big scraps. Ah well, if I don't get 6 yards to back a quilt (even a baby quilt) I'm sure to run out.

Fair and Square

Fair and Square, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

I didn't mean to finish this quilt top (apparently held up by a very tall robot) so quickly but when the instructions are great and the green squares were already cut, things move fast. I won the squares in a giveaway from Amanda Jean of crazy mom quilts in August but since it arrived during the big deadline push, I only managed to get some Kona khaki for the sashing and tucked it away (but in a pretty gold box so the sparkles would call me back). This weekend I decided to get some of my projects moving so I listed eight that I want to get done for various deadlines this year and resolved to work on them all a little bit each week. This week for the Fair and Square, I wanted to cut the sashing strips. Check.

To be honest, if I had the right color thread, I'd be out there quilting it right now. Thanks to my flannel stashing powers I have enough of a green flannel to back this.

Striped Binding

Striped Binding , originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Here's a roll of binding for one of my gift type projects. I do like a happy striped binding although I've long since given up trying to match up the stripes when I'm sewing the strips together.

With all the projects I've got in line, I think I'll be able to put together the coin quilt from leftover binding bits.