New quilts and a Featherwieght

A few months ago, my mother in law requested a baby quilt for a friend of hers, who is due in January. 0 input, just make something nice. So, I dug through my stash and made a trip (or 2 to my LQS). This is the current result.

I have 4 finished blocks, 20" square. Now I just have to decide which order the blocks go in and find a place big enough to sandwich the quilt.
The best part of this project is the seams.

Normally I have a horrible time with 1/4" seams and getting the corners to come out perfectly. As you can see, not this time.
My little secret?

My GMIL let me borrow her Singer Featherwieght! I had not realized how much trouble using a sewing machine designed for sewing clothes was causing. (I have a Singer Fashionmate) The Featherwieght has a 1/4" foot and the proper markings. Amazing how much easier the seams are now. (excuse the mess, my dining room table doubles as my sewing table. Yet another reason I wanted to borrow the Featherwieght. Moving mine all the time gives one a backache.)

Weights and Bag

I finished the Stitchmap course! The last step was making a drawstring bag to hold all the weights. I learned a lot from this course. I usually buy kits and use the stitches chosen by the designer. To make them beginner friendly (I assume), they typically only include back stitch, outline, and variations of satin stitch. Blanket I was familiar with, as I use it for applique. The rest were quite fun to learn (open and closed chain, stem, and split to name a few) and it was great seeing the different uses for the stitches, past what I normally work with.

For the new baby quilt, I have made a bit of progress and am now on ironing this pile.

Fat quarters do not divide up into squares. To offset the rectangle, I used a blue and white blender that nicely matches with everything. The pile are all HSTs, going in 2 directions, to create a cross pattern around the zoo centerpiece.

This one is an almost finished.

There is just a little bit of brown in the lower right and a little back stitching for edging on a few areas and then a frame. Intended for my MILs birthday.

Sunday Stash

Thought I would have a little fun this week and join up with Molli Sparkles Sunday Stash Link up.

I don't often have new purchases to post, as I typically buy when I am starting a new project. A few weeks ago my MIL asked me to make a baby quilt for a friend of hers, that is due in January. After going through my stash, I just needed a contrasting fabric. So, I bought a yard of these cute little guys at my LQS.

They are perfect for this quilt. 

To the owls, I am adding some cute Zoo fabric and some dragonflies. I had bought the dragonflies for another project, but being a destash I got 3 yards, when I only needed 1, so I have plenty.

My lazy sunday project is organizing my fabric into Quiltology.

To give you an idea what I am working with. I have managed to pick up quite a bit of fabric and am inputting it into Quiltology. Quiltology is a quilt creation app for the iPad. So each piece is entered with a photo, a size, name, manufacturer, and colors. Later I can create quilts and blocks and insert the photos to see what the finished item will look like. While I am enjoying the app, I see a large time investment inputting my stash to get started properly. If anyone has an easier/faster way, let me know. =)