Woodland Animals Baby Quilt

My cousin is having her fist baby next month and she and her husband aren't finding out the baby's gender. How fun is that nowadays!?  One of nature's most wonderful surprises :).  Her shower was last Sunday and I was so excited to give her a quilt that was practically still warm from the dryer. 

37" x 52"   ~~  Hands and feet are an illusion.

The colors for their nursery are brown, tan and cream with the theme of woodland animals.  Awwww ... can you say "cute??"  I found the woodland animal print at Joann Fabrics and that led to a simple patchwork quilt filled with the beautiful colors and some framed blocks with fussy cut woodland animals. 

Baby quilts are so fun and enjoyable to sew.  Small enough to layout and quilt easy enough, yet can be large enough to show off a pattern.

Quilting lines in place

Hand quilted with perle cotton #12.

I posted most of the progress pictures on my instagram feed if you would care to follow the (mis)adventures of me and my Rottweiler in our quilting journey.  She's still my assistant but she has slowed down recently.  Most of her help comes from the sidelines now as she is loath to get off of her orthopedic bed.  I've really gotten into the habit of only posting my finished quilts on this blog.  I feel like over the years I've pretty much touched on every topic I can in a quilting blog so I was starting repeats.  Also, it's such a hassle to drag out my real camera to take pretty pictures and then hook it up to the real computer, download, etc. etc.  My iPhone does take nice pictures but for some reason they always looked washed out and grainy on here.  Why???

I think you should move the polka dot print over one space

The big reveal!  It  was a hit :)

Scrappy Trip Baby Quilt

Yes, I succumbed to the peer pressure on instagram and jumped right into the Scrappy Trip craze.  How could I not?  What a sweet quilt to make and then to get to instantly share your progress in the instagram group was so fun.  

34" x 44"

I had won a jelly roll of Fig Tree California Girl by Moda a while ago and this project was a perfect reason to finally break it out.  I still have some strips left over to make a little pillow or a mini-quilt later.  

 Hand quilted with Perle cotton #12 in inter lapping circles.  

I think I've seen this called an orange peel pattern.

Just had to add a gratuitous shot of the assistant :)

I have to say that I've been a little lax with the progress pictures for the blog with the almost instant gratification of posting to instagram.  I'm quickly hooked and love to peruse other quilters feeds for ideas and inspiration.  I'm BaileyGirl_5  if anyone wants to follow me (please ... PLEASE! I have the least amount of followers of anyone I know).  Sometimes getting some feedback is the perfect thing to keep me motivated. 

I just found out that my son's friend is going to be the father of a baby girl in just a few weeks (surprise!) so I think this quilt will find a nice little spot to call home very soon.  

Zig Zag Value Quilt ... Well, my attempt at a value quilt

My last quilt of 2011 is completed as a birthday gift for my sister.  I used a Moda Origins layer cake and just matched light to dark for half square triangles.  Many, many layouts ensued but I settled with the classic zig zag.  You can NEVER go wrong with the zig zag.

Hand quilted with #8 Perle cotton in black and cream.  Since I learned how to trim half square triangles I have to say my points came out much pointier.  I always say that points don't matter ... but when you get a few sharp ones in a row you really want to brag a little. 

I backed it with the top sheet from my son's set.  Thanks trusty Assistant for ripping up his bottom sheet.  You and I make a great team!  

 I'm looking forward to getting my sewing area set back up and starting something new.  Better get back to scouring Pinterest for some inspiration.

The Assistant is on the job

I'm all set to pin baste a sweet little patchwork but can't decide on my quilting lines.  Diagonals lines to make diamond shapes?  Straight lines to make squares on the squares?  I don't know just yet and can't pin until I commit to a design.   

Jada and I were discussing this and she said she was going to "sleep on it."   Alas .... no pinning for a while. 

What could be better?

Hand quilting a cozy, warm quilt while snuggled on the couch with your best friend.  Netflix on the television, snacks to share nearby and the ability to be part of the family unit.  Ahhhhh..... 

 
How can I ever go back to being hunched over a machine by myself while struggling to feed (jam) a large quilt evenly through a small space? This is definitely more time consuming but I am loving the chunky look of the perle cotton and the accent it adds to the overall look.   For a while I had a feeling I was in a self imposed contest to see how many quilts I could produce, but now I'm enjoying the slow process and the added personal touch.

Today I made my second ever bee blocks and Jessica chose a ticker tape block.  These were fun and reminded me of fitting a puzzle together.

I hope she likes them!  Being in a bee is such a great way to connect with other quilters and get to experiment with new blocks.  I'm debating about joining another bee but don't want to overextend myself and start freaking out at piles of envelopes.  How many are you in and how do you handle them?

Peep Love

The Assistant needs a lot of attention. 

This is how the Assistant helps me while I'm handquilting.  She lays her head on the quilt and gives me "the look" until I pet her.  This gives me a chance to rest my wrist and give my fingers a break so I guess it does serve a very important purpose.  She knows what she is doing. 

This weekend I was so pleased to find out I was tagged for the Stylish Blog Award by one of my favorite bloggers, Carolyn, of Fake it While you Make It, a blog that not only full of awesome quilts but  lots of interesting takes on crafting and life in general.  The rules of the award are that you share seven things about yourself and this works out perfect for me since I don't have one single "post worthy" topic going on right now.  Sooo, without further ado .... seven quilty things about me:

1.  I'm hand quilting for the first time and learning as I go.  I'm now wondering if I should have bound it first.  Also I found I don't like a hoop, it goes much easier just pin basted and on my lap.

2.  I love to bookmark things of interest I find on the internet. Quilts I admire, tutorials I want to use in the future, cool haircuts, interesting paint jobs, etc.  But later I have a hard time going through my folders to find what I want.  I just found a new site I love pinterest where you can pin these links to bulletin boards you create.  Perfect!  Not only it is easy to find what you are looking for, you can open your boards on any computer you are using PLUS you can see what other people are pinning.  At this time the site is in a beta stage so you need an invite to start a board so please let me know if you want one.  I promise you'll love it!

3.  I'm attracted to plain quilts with lots of solids and rich, earthy colors.   But I found that over the summer I bought lots of fabrics of pinks and peaches.  Now I have a stash that does not match my personality or my tastes ... yet I almost bought some pink fabric today.  Haven't figured out why I do that yet. 

4.  I have major gift regret when I think of the quilts I've already given to people. As I learn and my skills increase I cringe when I think of the quilts I was so proud of and gave away.  Now I want to take them all back and replace them with better ones. 

5.  I've realized I don't like pre-cut packs like layer cakes and jelly rolls.  I'd rather pick and choose the fabric and cut it myself.  Plus they're expensive!

6.  I hate putting the walking foot on my machine and I hate taking it off.  I pretty much hate everything about the walking foot. 

7.  The next quilt I make is going to be just for me.  I'm  excited to start, but I'm paralyzed with indecision because there are so many designs I've been wanting to try.  I think I'll just have to sit down this week and start cutting and sewing and see what emerges.

In the spirit of the award I'd like to tag some of my most recently subscribed to quilting blogs.

A Fish in Water

Joy in Everything

Mandyloon
 Andie Johnson Sews
Shiner's View 
Greenleaf Goods 
The Happy Bumbler 

Check them out!  They're some awesome quilters. 

Sick little girl

The assistant is down

I wouldn't share this with too many people but I know I have a lot of animal lovers among my bloggy friends. My poor assistant hurt her leg last week. We're not sure what happened but last Sunday she was limping pretty badly. Being a large dog and prone to strains I didn't think too much of it at first .... especially when she seemed to be getting better on Tuesday. But soon she was not putting any weight on her back leg again. She has been very lethargic all weekend and today we made an appointment for her at the vet for tomorrow afternoon.

When someone just can't communicate how they feel I'm left feeling so helpless. I hope she understands that we are taking care of her and will not let her be in pain much longer.

Hope Valley Pinwheels

My Hope Valley Pinwheel quilt is complete!  I'm very happy with it and my sewing slowly and carefully experiment seemed to be successful.  As hard as it is for me to admit ... I guess taking your time is the key to a good quilt turnout.  Bummer! 

On Sunday the ORBC group is starting our next quilt-a-long.  We're making a hexagon quilt and I just bought my very first jelly roll and layer cake.  I loved this Frolic fabric and can't wait to find out how we are using it.

This fabric makes me happy!

  

Best friends ....  

On a personal note:  Easter turned out to be a sad day for us.  We had to take my boyfriend's dog to the emergency clinic and have him put to sleep in the morning.  It was very sudden and unexpected and very, very sad for all of us .... including the assistant.  Her nubby tail hasn't wagged once since we came back without him.  He had a great life and lots of love in his twelve years but we sure wish he could have stayed with us a while longer.  He left a big old hole in our hearts.

Quilt Sandwich Day

What??  Move again!!

Today was quilt sandwiching day at the Bailey Girl household.  Normally it's a little challenging with the assistant testing everything out and having to be moved constantly, but today it went much smoother.  In fact, it was almost delightful! 

 A while ago Cheryl at Naptime Quilter did a post about a little quilting tool called a kwik klip.  It shuts the safety pins when you're basting and totally saves your fingertips, and more importantly, your nails.  I saw it at Joann's Friday and since I had tons of coupons I ended up getting it for three dollars!   I usually have sore fingers for a couple days after all that pinning and unpinning but no more.  Thanks Cheryl!


Now on to the part I'm terrified of ... the machine quilting.  I've been so careful with this quilt and even re-ironed the top and bottom before I stretched and smoothed and basted.  I just hope it goes ok with no puckering or machine jamming or crazy giant missed stitches and  then too tight stitches.  Before I start I'm totally taking apart the machine and cleaning out fuzz and then putting in a nice new needle.  I hope I appease the Quilting Gods with all that careful preparation. 

Wish me luck people.  I'm scared!! 

One last shot of it all pretty before I totally screw it up