Half way there!

I love quilting because it is never the same!  I rarely do those quilts with 59 matching blocks, there are so many things to try that I just don’t have time, grin.

I’ve been catching up on my “Just Takes 2” free BOM from Sentimental Stitches and Dear Jane and we have half of the blocks now.  this week I’ve found time to sew and now I’m only behind the “hard” blocks, grin.  52 of 104 blocks have been posted – I cannot wait to see which blocks still lie ahead!

This is the second grouping; isn’t it great???  I have a few blocks to finish before I can assemble mine.  It is turning out soooo pretty – I’m glad I chose to stay with “reads” red and white, although I have seen some other lovely color ways. 

I am totally in love with this quilt!  This has a been a great chance to increase my skills and try blocks I never would have tried.  When I die, I hope this will be one quilt that the “kids” will hold on to and not put in the dog bed, grin.

This is a quilt I will keep for myself; I love it already!

Robbie Marie

Bye Bye Myrtle!

Tonight is the bi-annual Miniature Quilt Auction for Columbine Quilt Guild.

I decided to make something different this year, after all, everyone can make a miniature quilt, so I made Myrtle.  Myrtle sits in a quart Mason jar filled with wooden spools of thread which her skirt and apron conceal.  She is wearing pearls from a necklace of my mother’s from the early ‘50s.

 

The quilt Myrtle holds in her arms is a real quilt.  It has all the parts of a real quilt.  It has a machine pieced top, batting and a coordinated binding.  The quilting was stitched by machine and hand; the binding was finished by hand.

My husband says Myrtle looks just like me, grin.  At least our hair is the same color!  I had my hair cut last week, so she can’t look like me!

I DO love Myrtle and hope she finds a happy home!

Robbie Marie

Vintage Pink and White Runner

I have been inspired by modern quilt makers using straight line quilting to quilt their pieces.  Most quilters seem to use semi straight lines as apposed to perfectly spaced ones, but I’m not quite that free yet, grin.

I decided to try the method on a vintage striped sheet.  I added pink sheet patches as focal points; they are not pieced in, but simply quilted down.  I added a lot more lines than I had initially intended.  I had planned on stitching the lines between the colors, but decided to stitch down the center of each line as well.  I used light pink thread in all areas thinking it would tie the piece together.  The back and binding are also vintage sheeting.

I cannot wait to hear what YOU think!  Take a look!

Hippity Hop

Remember this??

I finished it!  I had thought about making it a pattern and putting it on Etsy, but didn’t figure I’d sell them anyway.

So, since I wasn’t selling the pattern, I decided to add cross hatching to the background.

I like it!!!

Robbie Marie

Lookin’ good -

My little table runner is looking cute.  I think I’m going to like it!

Robbie Marie

Finished

The baby quilt I was making is finished!  I like it!  It has a minkee-type back and Thermore batting.  I used a pantograph called Bumpity to quilt it so it wouldn’t be girly.  The quilt is very soft and washed just beautifully.  I hope they get a lot of use out of it.

Best wishes, new family!

Robbie Marie

Baby quilt on the fast!

A baby boy has been born!  He is joining his family with so much anticipation and joy!  A wonderful life lies ahead of their family.

I don’t know the family actually, but I know a bit of their story and I wanted to give them a quilt to express my joy and to congratulate them.  I have no doubt that the best is yet to be!

I wanted this quilt to be a real boyish quilt.  I haven’t worried about about a quilt this much in ages!  Every idea I had was flawed.  Last night I had the blocks done… but it still wasn’t right… off to re-do half the blocks.

I think I have it right now.  What do you think?  I think I should have just followed a pattern instead of making something up, again and again, I sure would have saved some time!

The back will be a white striped minkee-type soft fabric and I’ll do an overall quilting pattern on my quilting machine.  I think the binding will be black and white checks on the bias, but I reserve the right to change my mind, again!

Robbie Marie

New Quilt

This is my latest quilt.  I collected the new gray fabrics, from a Marcus Brothers fabric line called “Come Quilt With Me.”

I ordered the pink from that line off of the internet, but when it arrived it was too bright, so I substituted a duller pink that matched the pink in the fabrics.

I backed this quilt with a wonderfully soft and lofty fuzzy flannel sheet – NO seams, either!  It is bound with the same white cotton that is on the front of the quilt.

I bought a special pantograph for this quilt with squiggly lines.  It looks so fun on the soft flannel.

Hubby and my daughter LOVE this quilt.  The new grays are getting so popular.   It is a fun quilt! 

It will be in my Etsy shop this next week.

Robbie Marie

Tutorial to Ta-Da!

I just adore the amount of information and inspiration on the internet!  I’ve never taken a quilting class; I have learned most of what I know from the seat of my pants, but I feel I have learned much from the internet, too.

Case in point.  I saw a tutorial at Moda Bake Shop and thought it looked like fun!  I had a spare charm pack in my stash that wasn’t committed, grabbed it, and got started.  I made all of my squares, but couldn’t decide on a layout.  I was also held up because I could not find ANY fabric in town that matched at all for borders and backing… I finally found a fat quarter and then a piece large enough for my back.  A week later I was still playing with my squares; they just weren’t popping!  By kept at it and found that by outlining the patches with brown I found the definition I was looking for.  Yup, floating the brown border on the background and piecing in the orange triangles was a bit of pain, but I like the effect!

I stitched in the ditch around both sides of the brown stripe and quilted half circles in the orange border with orange thread.  The center was simply free-hand stippled with cream thread.

This was my inspiration at Happy Zombie: don’t you love the colors?

This will link to Monica Solorio-Snow’s tutorial at Moda Bake Shop: 9-Patchtastic Quilt.  Enjoy!

Robbie Marie

Nichole Webb Inspiration

This is one of my favorite wall hangings.

The pattern is called “Here comes Santa Claus” by Nancy J. Smith & Lynda S. Milligan of Possibilities. 

I got the pattern at a long arm quilting group pattern exchange.  I didn’t know how to quilt the open spaces behind Santa until I saw this video by Nichole Webb. 

I confess, I stitched the holly using polyester machine embroidery thread and when I was done I did not like the color!  It was too light.  What did I do?  I colored each stitch with a darker green fine Sharpie marker.  Yup, I did!  Now I love it!  The Sharpie is permanent and the piece was saved without froggin’ (ripping out) all the background stitches just to change the color.  Win Win!!

Holly Bough by Nichole Webb

It was easy and fun!  If you like her videos, here are 2 more, her Lobster Claw Flower and Swirly Hearts.  Have fun!

Robbie Marie

Sold another quilt on Etsy!

It’s hard to see my quilts go, they all feel like part of me somehow.  This particular quilt is going to Hawaii.  The nice lady is also getting my striped pillow.  It is so cute and really looks great with the sheet quilts.

Here is the quilt she is purchased:

My Etsy shop – I have another quilt, but it isn’t up yet.

Robbie Marie

Another Vintage Sheet Quilt

I’ve had this quilt finished for several weeks.  I had intended on getting it up on Etsy ASAP, but haven’t yet.  Here is a sneak peek!

I pulled my favorite sheets for this quilt.  I have one block with green dots that are that ‘30s green, love them!  I used a cute simple sheet for the back that is snugly soft.  I quilted it with a simple pantograph, per several suggestions.  Maybe it is a bit more different feel.  It is bound with the same fabric as I used for the back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This snuggly quilt measures 42” x 48”.

Robbie Marie

Piper’s Blanket

Do you follow Kellie Wulfsohn’s Don't Look Now blog?  I do!  I adore her sense of color, humor, and design.  Kellie shares several free patterns on her blog and teaches you her applique and quilting methods.  You can find this pillow pattern here:  Flower Garden Pillow Tutorial.  The second pillow is mine, it was a lot of fun to make and gave me a chance to try out her technique.

Luckily, we can now purchase Kellie’s patterns here in the United States at Twiddletails.com and a few other venues; I had to order my first one from Australia.  This pattern is Pretty in Pink.  My daughter and I made a wall hanging using the large pillow pattern and adhering fussy-cut fabric pieces to an artist matt board; it really turned out cute.

 

Using the purchased pattern and the pillow as inspiration, I made a simple baby quilt for Piper keeping with the theme for her room.  She loves the minky back and ruffled pink ribbon.  Mommy made cute flower pictures to match for Piper’s walls, too.  Her room is darling and very girlie!

I have also made this little pillow from another of Kellie’s tutorials called Honey Bunny; have you ever seen anything so cute???

Kellie’s blog is worth the visit, I hope to see you there!

Robbie Marie

Gnome in the Trees quilt

Christmas is coming and it’s fun thinking about getting my trees up and all our traditional things that make it “that” time of year again!

I made this wall hanging to fit on a little wall I have, it always makes me smile!  The trees and gnome are stitched in the ditch and the outlined trees are hand stitched. 

I was inspired by this tutorial at the Purl bee: Little Forest Quilt tutorial, isn’t it cute??  YOU can make one, too!

 

Robbie Marie