Ride Em Cowboy

If this quilt had a twin, this would be it. With a new baby and the adjustment that comes with it, I haven't had much time for quilting lately. But I was in the mood and decided to whip out this one in a couple of days. 

I made this for a friend who is expecting her first baby boy. I wasn't planning on doing anything for her baby shower because I was going to be out of town. But this pattern comes together so quickly and I had all the fabric on hand. I just had to.

I’ve been saving this fabric in case we had a boy. That ship sailed so I thought I might as well send it to a good home.

 Simple straight line quilting in charcoal gray. 

 I love this stripe. I snagged it on sale from fabric.com and I'm so glad I did. I have tons.

I wasn't at the party to see her open it, but I hope she liked it. 

Gingham Baby

I can't take credit for this quilt. It's basically an exact replica of one I saw on Cluck Cluck Sew over a year ago. I received an invitation for a baby shower about 10 days in advance, so I thought it would be fun to whip out a simple baby quilt for the sweetest first time mom. And I had every piece of fabric on hand, including binding, so I had to do it.

Baby quilts are so satisfying. I think I had this one done, start to finish, in two days. PS, I'm listening to Les Miserables on audiobook while I sew. I'm loving it. Even though it's sooooo long. I'm 42 hours into it so far.

 I was going to try something less girly for the back, but I couldn't help myself with those hearts. 

 I love those little cats and pandas. 

Girls are so easy to quilt for.

Striped machine binding. Again. I'm getting better at binding, using the Elmer's glue method. It's so quick and clean. 

This makes me excited to get going on my baby girl's quilt! Less than three months until my due date and I haven't started a thing. Must be the third child. 

Witchy Way

This baby has been in the works for at least a year. I found a pattern for bird houses in this book, so I just used the idea and made it wonky. I pushed and finished it for the county fair in September. 

It ended up winning judges' choice, which was a shock. I guess they liked the cute witches. I preferred the other quilt I entered, but I'll take it! It's always fun entering.

 Those sugar skulls are so awesome. Love them. And I found them at Walmart, believe it or not.

 Steve likes it.

I debated and debated on the quilting. I ended up throwing it back and doing some swirly stars. I thought it fit the Halloween theme. 

 This might be my favorite block. 

I just don't get it when people say they hate Halloween. I mean, look at that face.

Candy Corn

Our little county fair was a few weeks ago. I decided to enter this so last minute. As in, it was in my mind on Thursday and I finished binding it on Tuesday (not sewing on Sunday, of course). I thought another triangle quilt would be fun, but I did some color play with this one. I love how it turned out.  

I used a ton of halloween prints. I like the vintage stuff more than the cutesy stuff. 

My little local quilt shop had these panels and I couldn't say no! I love the back so much. 

That skeleton is my favorite. 

I was stressing about the binding. I really wanted an orange stripe. I even made a special trip to the store to look, but no luck. One day I was organizing my sewing room and I came across tons of this striped binding. I forgot I made like 80 yards of it ages ago. It was like the quilting gods smiling on me and plopping it into my lap. It totally makes the quilt. 

I mailed this one to my sister, who is equally obsessed as I am with Halloween. One year she dressed up as a taxidermic mounted moose head and took her kids trick-or-treating.

I could only gift it to someone who loves Halloween as much as I do. Glad it went to a good home. 

Gnome for Christmas

I went to unpack my Christmas decorations this year, and I found this! I totally forgot I finished it this summer and packed it away.

This is the very popular Scrappy Trip Around the World block. I started these blocks almost three years ago (!) and I finally forced myself to finish this summer so I could enter it into my local county fair. It looks so much harder than it really is. I would highly recommend it. It's a fun way to change things up.

I ordered this Michael Miller fabric special for the back. I planned on the direction of the print running the opposite way, so I ended up having to line up the pattern and piecing it the best I could. I love it. 

(You can see on the very edge of this picture that the little elf is pieced.)

I love this figure 8 quilting. Something new and fun. 

The judges' best comment was on my binding: "Best binding we've seen all day!" That's a huge complement, especially remembering what a hot mess my binding used to be. 

I love snuggling under it by the Christmas tree.

Low Volume [+]

I declare this as my favorite quilt ever. I give all my quilts away. I didn't even have a lap quilt for my living room. So I set out to make this one. I loved this pattern ever since my amazing quilting sister in law made this one for my second daughter. 

 They are made of little log cabins. See? I loved mixing all the low volume prints on this. It was a great way to use up scraps. And it kept me interested for all 39 blocks.

 I used my left over strips to make a rainbow back. I love this back. 

 I entered it into my local county fair, and the lady shrieked when she saw the back. She loved it. 

 I've been hoarding those horses for forever. The best thing about quilting for yourself is that you can use every precious piece you've been saving. I tried a new figure eight quilting. It was super fun. A new favorite alternative to stippling.

 Houndstooth hand binding for the win.

I scored a blue ribbon on this baby. The ahem, older women, ahem sometimes don't understand my modern point of view. Haha. They also thought the quilting was "distracting" on the dark pieces on the front. I disagree :)

But I like challenging myself. It makes me slow down and really take time on binding and matching my points up. Until next year, county fair.

Skull Candy

I know this isn't a quilt, but I had to share. I made this for a friend's birthday and I had serious pause before I gave it away. I love it so much. But she loves Halloween just as much as I do, so I was happy to send it to a good home.

I found the idea here. I used my Silhouette to cut out the skull and just followed the tutorial pretty closely otherwise. This skull candy fabric is from Walmart. Can you believe!?

Not a lot of quilting going on around here. I just finished two little girls' halloween costumes. Eeek! Have I mentioned I love Halloween?