Tumbling Rubies - Quilt Top DONE!!!

The Tumbling Rubies quilt top is finally done!!  I'm so happy with how it finally came together!  Its the perfect size for a lap quilt and will be stunning once I put the binding on (in my most humble opinion anyway!).  I was going to do a boarder but I think I want to showcase the fabric and the scrappiness of it rather than trying to put a solid boarder around the entire thing.  

All total there are 15 rows of 14 tumblers per row - thats 210 tumblers that I pieced together.  I cut all the pieces on my Accuquilt with the help of my niece a few months ago and I couldn't imagine cutting them by hand.  My hat is off to anyone that hand cuts tumblers or any shaped fabric pieces for that matter.  I do straight strips with my ruler and have been accumulating a few Accuquilt dies along the way for any shapes I like or need!!!  I tend to make mistakes with my ruler and that just leads to frustration.

I need to stop taking nighttime pictures of my quilts - they always
look yellow!  I might retake a few pictures tomorrow with some
sunlight to give a proper view of the fabrics colors.

Its such a fun and cheery quilt!  I cant wait to find some backing fabric, I think thats a 'next week' project and then I can get to quilting the top.  I'm not sure if I want to keep it simple or actually attempt to machine quilt something.  I've never machine quilted before but I wouldn't mind trying something on this quilt I just have no idea what would look good.  I love the look of circles but I don't think that would go with the tumbler blocks.  Maybe squiggles....outline quilting.....stippling.....???  I have no idea.  Anyone have any suggestions?!

Its so nice to have the top done, its been a work in progress for a few months now and I can't wait to get it finished and onto the back of the couch so I can snuggle up under it while I watch TV or rock Baby C to sleep.  

Applecore Block

I have been eyeballing the Applecore Die from Accuquilt since before I got my cutter back in May but the curved piecing had scared me enough to stay away from it for a while! I had mentioned to my SIL that I really wanted to try the Applecore die and she surprised it for me for my birthday in September.

The die cuts REALLY well, it has little notches that you are supposed to line up with the different pieces so they sew together easy.

I wound up spending quite a bit of time on YouTube learning how to do curved piecing - I saw quite a few different ways (and each way seemed a little more confusing than the other!) to line them up so I decided to pin them together and hope for the best!!

It looked super wonky....

The first few seams I messed up a little bit and had some puckered seams but since it was my first time with curved seams I think it turned out ok. I'm positive it could have been a whole lot worse!

After I did the first row I decided that I could make a few more rows to see how difficult it would be to piece more than one seam together at a time.  Plus cutting fabric on the Accuquilt is way too much fun - especially with a 4 year old helping.

I finally decided that doing a 9 patch quilt block would be good enough until I figured out what (if anything) I wanted to do with the fabric.  I think I'm going to make another 9 patch block of different fabrics and make it into a doll blanket for the girls.  Miss L is seriously into her babies lately and I'm sure she would love to have their own blankets to cover them up with. 

I'm not sure what the heck I did wrong on the last applecore piece - it lined up perfectly when I was sewing it and the seams all the way across all line up but it has some overhang.  Leave it to me to get some funky edging on a new project.

All and all I think I did a pretty good job for my first time trying to do curved seams.  Thank you YouTube for being there to help me out - I would be lost without you!  Hopefully I can tackle the backing and Miss L can have a cute little blankie for her babies.

Tumbling Rubies - Newest quilt on the go!!!

I haven't been sewing much (at all!) the last little bit - between being VERY pregnant, really sore, and exhausted I haven't been able to get much sewing done.  I'm on the final stretch and have less than two weeks to go (Due date is August 18th) so I figure if I can get through these next 10 or so days I'll be able to get back at the sewing thing in a little bit once life gets somewhat back to normal - or at least less crazy than it will be right after the baby is born!!!  

I fell in love with some Ruby fat eighths fabric by Bonnie and Camille from Moda a few weeks ago at my local quilt shop and have been dreaming about turning this fabric into a 3 1/2" tumbler quilt since I brought it home.  The fat eighths were AWESOME for cutting - all I had to do was iron them, fold them in quarters and slide it through my Accuquilt.   

The only downside to the Accuquilt is the scraps - sometimes I feel the leftovers are a bit much BUT that being said I LOVE the fact that all the cuts are uniform.  I'm going to go through the scraps in a little bit and see if I can cull some of the big pieces and be able to put them in my scrap pile and then toss the super small scraps (I keep telling myself its not hoarding.....its saving expensive fabric for another project that I don't have figured out yet!!!).

My cute little tumbler pile - soooo cute!!!  I am getting 12 tumblers from each fat quarter and I cut up 12 fat eighths so I have 144 tumblers already.  I know that I am cutting WAY more tumblers than I need for this quilt but I figure that I can either make a few little throw pillows to go with it or make two small lap quilts for Christmas gifts.  I was also thinking that maybe I could make some cute doll blankets for the girls babies that they keep carting around in preparation for their little brothers arrival lately!  

I still have 24 more fat eighths to cut through but they'll be waiting for me to cut another day!!

I just had to share this:  We had my youngest daughters birthday party last weekend and her auntie and uncle gave her a gift in a huge bag - leave it up to her big sister to put it on her head and run around the living room with it on!!  

Thanks for stopping by - hopefully I'll be able to post again soon - and maybe with some baby news!!!!

Rag Quilt - Progress!!!

Well I got some cutting done last night and ran out of steam - its amazing how that can happen when you are almost 36 weeks pregnant!!!

I was able to cut up the 6 fat quarters that I want to use as the main body for the quilt and zip them through the rag quilt die for the Accuquilt in no time.

I quite like the fabric combinations that came in the fat quarter bundle.  I'm just going to arrange them in a random pattern on the quilt top and then edge the entire thing in a dark green flannel I picked up tonight.

I have decided that I'm not going to put batting in the middle of the layers - its mostly going to be a throw blanket that will go down for tummy time or to cover the stroller so I don't need it to be too thick.  Plus I figure since its my first one I'll keep it somewhat simple so I don't get too caught up in the details so I can finish it before the little guy makes his appearance!

Rag Quilt Planning

So my super awesome SIL went on a trip to the west coast for a wedding last weekend and along the way she stopped to scout out some fabric at some fabric stores along the way.  I NEED to go on these trips with her since she comes home with the cutest, awesomest, most lovely fabric that I can never find in Calgary.  She also finds the sweetest fabric bundles - I can never find good fabric bundles for kids - so I think she and I need to head out for a girls trip to get some fabric for me and build up her yarn stash (because stash building is more fun when its done in groups!!).

Not that I need yet ANOTHER project on the go I've fallen in love with some flannel that my SIL brought back from BC and I decided to make a cute little Rag Quilt for the baby (yes I'm feeling bad that hes not even born and I've made him one blanket already, pondering another one and my oldest still doesn't have her baby blanket done yet - but I digress!!!).  I've been dying to make a rag quilt for years but I've always done other things with my fabric rather than make a rag quilt so now is the time to give it a try!

I'm going to use the green dinosaur fabric as the backing so its all the same fabric and then I'll use the 8 fat quarters as the top of the quilt. I'm thinking that I'm not going to put batting in between the fabric or should I?!  (If anyone wants to weigh in and give me some 'to add batting or not to add batting' advice it would be greatly appreciated!!!!!) to keep it a little lighter.  I still haven't figured out the dimensions of the quilt but I'd like it to be a little bit bigger than the Tumbling Dots quilt I made a few months ago so he can use this quilt a little longer.

I bought the Accuquilt 5 1/2 inch rag square die - everything I have read or when I have spoken to people they say that this die is the most fabulous thing ever since it saves so much time when assembling a rag quilt.   I was forewarned to make sure that I have my lint brush handy since the die will create a TON of lint.....maybe I'll make sure my vacuum is close by too!

I think I'll start tackling this blanket tomorrow night when the girls are in bed - I'm really looking forward to being back sewing again!  I just need to finish planning how I want the quilt top to look with the 8 fabrics - pattern or random - and how big I want it then I'm ready to go!!!

Tumbling Dots Quilt - Top Complete!!!

I've been a sewing/cutting machine the past few days (with plenty of rest and relaxation in between!) and have managed to get the entire quilt top finished for the Tumbling Dots quilt that I'm making for our newest addition that is due to arrive in August.

The other day I managed to cut up all the tumblers for the body of the quilt so today I managed to get the yellow boarder tumblers cut.  Through a bit of trial and error I think I have finally figured out the easiest way to cut the tumblers with the least amount of waste - but I'm sure I can still find a better way - wasting fabric kills me!!  At least I'm getting some good scraps out of the deal this way!

The rows all laid out on the table before quilting them together.

The finished top.  I still have to square up the sides and find some backing in the near future but I'm quite happy with how it turned out!  Its approximately 30 x 40 inches which is a great size for throwing down on the ground so the little guy will be up off the carpet and on something nice and cozy.

I think I'm going to do echo quilting to finish the top but I've never done it before so I might try out a quick trial run on some scraps before I attack the entire quilt top and bite off more than I can (or want!!) to chew!

Tumbler Quilt Top

I managed to make a little progress with the little guys tumbler quilt top today. I had tried a few different layouts but I really liked the repeating pattern that I finally came up with (they aren't sewed together just laid out for designing purposes).  Its a little smaller than I was planning on but it still should be big enough to lay out and have the little guy hang out on and be comfy.

One day I'd love to make a bigger quilt with a ton of different fabrics but I think thats something that would work better with a twin or bigger sized quilt.  Until then I'll keep rocking this quilt out and get it onto the finished list!!

I still have to cut the bright yellow as the boarder tumblers (to go all the way around) and then I'll bind it with the bright green to add a bit of pop.  Hopefully I can get to the boarder fabric tomorrow and start sewing it all together after that.  

I need to come up with a name for this blanket - rather than Boy Quilt #1!  I'm thinking maybe Tumbling Dots?  

Baby Boy Quilt Designing

Wow - its been a bit since I've posted here, sorry about that!  Between being sick for a bit last week and life getting in the way I've been a little lax in my Blogging.  I have however finally decided on what to do for a quilt for our little boy that is due in August - a flannel Tumbler quilt using my Accuquilt GO cutter.  I'm still trying to find 'the quilt' to make for him but I can't decide on fabrics or the style of quilt I want to make so I'm going to make this Tumbler quilt as a start I've got something on the go for him at least!!!  I really want to make a log cabin quilt but any time I think of trying to pick out THAT many fabrics it makes my head hurt so I guess I'm not ready for one of those yet!

My SIL picked up most of this fabric when she was in Lethbridge a few weeks ago and I've been trying to figure out what I could do with it for the little guy since I don't want to waste such awesome fabric on something just because....  Then it hit me - TUMBLERS!!!  One of the biggest things that drew me to the Accuquilt was the big Tumbler die and now I have a sweet little project to try it out on!

I'm thinking I'm going to use the 5 fat quarters in the middle as the main body of the quilt (no its not going to be very big!!!) and I figure I can get 6 Tumblers from each fat quarter = 30 Tumblers.

I think the yellow fabric on the bottom will be a filler fabric and I'll just a few extra tumblers cut from that fabric to fill the space in between the fat quarter tumbler squares.  I think I'll need between 6-10 of these yellow tumblers.

Finally I'm thinking I'll use the green fabric on the left to edge the entire top of the quilt for two reasons - to make it bigger and to help make it a little more cohesive.  I may have to go out and get one or two more fat quarters or something to make the quilt top a little bigger if it seems too small when I start to lay it all out.  Its really just a big work in progress right now!!

Finally this is a picture of my written down ramblings...!!  I've got a ton of these little sheets of paper with my scribbles down for measurements, ideas, designs....anything like that.  Maybe I should invest in a little note book or something?!

Hopefully I can slowly start on the cutting tomorrow and see how it might fit together with the fabric that I have.  Who knows, I might have one or two other fabrics that might fit in that I have hanging around in my stash and if not a shopping I will go!!

The Happy Summer Wall Hanging

So I managed to make a little bit of progress with the Happy Summer Wall Hanging yesterday - its still a work in progress since I've changed the design three or four times already and I'm sure I will a few more times before I finally finish it.

Originally I thought it would be cute to just do random traingle-squares and have a central square pattern to anchor the wall hanging together but the more I used the Accuquilt to cut my triangles the more I realized that I could make some cute pinwheels so I could have some sort of a pattern to make the piece  a little more cohesive.

I only managed to get four of the ten pinwheels put together before I got frustrated from sewing the wrong squares together and needed to put it away before I got angry and did some damage with my seam ripper!

I'm still not sure how big its going to be or what other twists and turns it might take over the period of time it takes for me to finish it - until then its just cute and all the bright colors are making me pretty happy on this gloomy Thursday!!

A Happy Summer Wall Hanging

After rummaging through my scrap bin last night trying to figure out what I can make without running to the store (which I can't do!) to grab either some elastic for a skirt, background fabric for a few quilts I'd like to start, buttons for embellishments...... the list could go on.  I stumbled across my leftover Oh Cherry Oh Jelly Roll fabric and had a lightbulb moment!  I realized that if I put a strip of the jelly roll on my Accuquilt Go triangle die it just fits and I don't have any extra cutting to do!  Pure Awesomeness!

I think I'm going to attempt to make a little summer wall hanging using a Ohio Star-type design but for the most part I'm just going to wing it and see how it goes!  ;)  Probably not the best course of action but I'm feeling a little rebellious lately and I am going to attempt a few things that I've never tried before on this little wall hanging to mix things up!

There are 14 different fabrics that I will be mixing up to make different squares - super cute fabrics!!

The red flower fabric on the right is going to be the 'filler' between the triangle-squares.

Time to get sewing before the girlies get home from Grandmas house in an hour or so!!