Sunday, April 3, 2011

you know you've had a good day...

...when the receipt from buying fabric looks like this:


Savings!

(You don't want to see what the other end of the receipt said.)

What did I get?


And a king-size batting.

What are they?

The black is for the back of the wedding quilt.

The rest are for a baby quilt.  She's having a boy!  The print on top will be the back and I pulled colors from there.  The blocks will be elephants from the pattern found here.

I can't wait to start, but first everything needs to be washed. 

And I should get started on the UFO project for the month, right?

I remembered I had leftover off-white from the Bliss/French Kiss project and since it's finished, I can use it!  (Yay for UFO finishing releasing fabrics!)

After looking through applique books from my mom, I decided on the Whig Rose pattern.  This is what is on the original quilt, but there are infinite variations of this pattern so mine won't be exact.  One of the books has 16" blocks, so I started there, as my blocks are 17".  I'll share more on what I used soon.

So I started cutting...


...and made some bias tape (not shown because the kitties think it is string, so it's hidden).

I cut the backgrounds and folded and pressed them so I'll be able to line everything up neatly when I'm ready to sew pieces on.


And then bagged up pieces for each block and pinned them to their appropriate backing.  This may look a little OCD now, but I know it will pay off later.  (Any of you spent an hour looking for a single leaf, only to give up and cut one and then find it 10 minutes later?)

But what a lot of pieces...20 leaves per block, 5 yellow centers, 4 small red flowers...yikes!  It didn't look that hard in the book!

I'll lay them out one block at a time and hope to be able to spend at least a little time each night working on them.  They'll be nice to do while sitting with the hubby during TV time.

I'm going to force myself to hold off cutting pieces for the baby quilt until next weekend.  (Otherwise, that's all I'll want to work on and I absolutely love those fabrics.  Every single one of them...well, maybe not the white, but it's pretty boring when you set it next to the rest of them.)

Happy quilting!
Katie

9 comments:

Sandy said...

I love the new baby quilt fabrics, and your applique blocks seem to be coming together very quickly. Good for you!

Sandy

canuckquilter said...

I'd have trouble holding off on making elephants in those lovely fabrics! The applique will look lovely when it's done though, and all the organising you did will make it go more smoothly.

Unknown said...

I love the new fabrics you picked out;) Took a gander at the elephant pattern...too cute;)
OCD on the applique?? I understand....it works in the long run against missing pieces and time lost searching;)
Have fun, and Happy Quilting!!

Liriopia said...

Well, you're right, the applique organization is a little OCD'ish, but, hey, if it works for you, go for it. I'm a little like that, too, but it saves so much time in the long run, LOL. Love the new fabrics!

Liri

Marsha B said...

Everything looks like so much fun to play with! The baby quilt will be adorable! Your applique project will be a challenge. I like to organize my projects, too. It is easier to get it all sorted before starting the sewing. I don't like looking for missing pieces, either. They always show up right after I make a new piece! So, being a little OCD does work well for some things!

Connie204 said...

I love the baby quilt fabrics. Can't wait to see it done. Your applique pieces are really terrific. Good Job.

Beth said...

Your fabrics are so cute. I can't wait to see an elephant out of those fabrics.
Your applique is going to be pretty. I like to organize myt pieces and bag them too. I just hate wasting time looking for a missing piece. AND why do they always show up right after you give up looking and cut a new piece???
Not sure if you have a JoAnn Fabric near you or not, but the packaged batt and the batt on a roll are 40% off this week.
Happy stitching.

A Left-Handed Quilter said...

Katie - I can totally relate to putting everything in separate baggies! I have CDO - it's like OCD but with the letters in alphabetical order like they're supposed to be! (haha)
^..^

---"Love" said...

NICE Savings! Now if they would only hand it to you, right??! You got some cute fabics! I use plastic bags for everything --- even to sort scraps! *grin* ---"Love"