MORE English Paper Piecing!

Remember the fabric from this post?

And remember how I mentioned in yesterday's post that I'm always on the lookout for my next English Paper Piecing Project?

I think I've found it!

After getting some inspiration from this blog and especially the vintage mini-quilt mentioned at this blog, I decided to start the next project (as if I need another one!)

You can't tell it from the pictures, but each short straight seam is 2 inches. (Each side of each hexagon, and each side of each triangle and square is 2 inches.) That's HUGE compared to my usual English Paper Piecing sizes ... so, I think it'll go fast. 

Not sure what this project will turn into, but I'm having fun so far! 

I'm linking this post to this week's Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story. Check out the links there for some great project inspiration!

Vintage-Inspired Diamond Stars

... are coming along!

I'm pleased with the progress!

I like the color variety, and I even like the occasional shocking reds and blues that give it some extra interest.

For size reference, this is 35" inches at its longest, and 27" at its widest ... I'm still deciding where to go with it from here ... Enjoying it all the way. 

This one's taking a while, but still, for some reason, I'm always on the lookout for what my next English Paper Piecing project might be! :-)

I'm linking to Little Quilt Monday at Pieceful Life:

Here's a link to this week's Little Quilt Monday.

Another Fleece and Jeans Quilt!

In the past few months, I've made a lot of jeans quilts. I finished another one this week! 

This one is for my youngest son. He's the only kid that didn't have a fleece-backed-jeans-quilt yet.

So he's a happy guy. He's had his fleece blanket on his bed for a while, so I (finally) sewed up the jeans, and stitched them onto his fleece. 

As always, I've had fun with all the jeans-y details on the quilt. 

As usual, these are partly jeans we've used, and partly thrift-store jeans. (Love it when they have those 50-cent sales!) For a change, I decided to alternate big squares (cut at 13") with my usual small ones. 

For other jeans quilt history, click the "Jeans" label in the sidebar ... This makes my #5 jeans quilt for my kids ... plus I've made occasional other jeans quilts for gifts ... 

Anyway, now that each of the kids has a super-cozy, fuzzy fleece-and-jeans quilt ... for some reason, we're thinkin' that the grownups around here might need one ...

Working on that ... more details later, but here's a sneak peek ...

Finish It Up Friday is happening at Crazy Mom Quilts, and Sew and Tell Friday at AmyLouWho ... Links are below ...

This week's Finish It Up Friday

and

This week's Sew and Tell Friday 

Happy Friday to you!

Organized Randomness ...

A while back, in another post about little quilts, I posted about the fun randomness of my yo-yo quilt project. 

Progress is happening, and I've found a way to organize the randomness just a little. 

Just enough to give it some consistency.

Oddly, if my calculations are correct, putting green yo-yos between each of the 16-patches will make the quilt take more green yo-yos than colored ones. I've got lots of green, though, thanks to a couple of great upcycled bed sheets that were recently given to me for my quilt projects ... Nice!

Another view of the same yo-yos ... 

Yeah, this project is going to take a while. 

Enjoying it, though!

I'm linking this post to this week's Little Quilt Monday at Pieceful Life. Take a look at some other fun little quilt projects happening over there!

Very Pink Irish Chain quilt top ...

A while back, I mentioned the cutting and sewing processes I'd started for some Irish Chain quilt tops.

Here's a quick look at some more of the quilt-top-making process.

After all the sewing and slicing that happened earlier, there was a lot of this going on ... 

... stitching those units together ... to get this effect ...

... multiplied by about a dozen ...

Along with about a dozen of the mostly-darker-pink blocks ...
all laid out on the carpet ...

 ... and sewn together!

It's a 39" x 58" Quilt Top that's listed on eBay for somebody to have fun quilting some day.

Things I love about Rag Quilts ...

A few months ago, I decided to try making some rag quilts ...
I'd seen some online, and after seeing a friend's rag quilt in person, I decided rag quilts would be worth a try.

Here are some things I love about Rag Quilts ...

The cozy, furry flannel ...

Lots of raggedy ruffles ...

The smooth back of the quilt ...

 Compared with the ruffly, messy front of the quilt ...

Rag quilts are casual and cozy and lots of fun!

This one's 40" x 56", and it's listed on eBay right now ...

A couple things finished ...

A couple of new things are listed in my eBay auctions today ...

a fun, pink, Irish Chain Quilt Top for somebody to quilt ...

and a cozy, fuzzy, Flannel Rag Quilt  ...

[Update: I blogged in more detail (more pics!) about these items here and here.]

More details are in the eBay Listings ...

Since I'm so pleased to have finished these this week, I'll be linking this post to a couple of my favorite Friday-finish link parties ... 

This week's Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

and 

This week's Sew and Tell Friday at AmyLouWho

Progress ...

I've had lots of works in progress ... Here's one ~ The vintage-inspired English Paper Piecing ... 

I think the colorful part is about a third of the way done. Then there will be the white/off-white border (a little wider than shown), and probably another row or two of colored diamonds, and more white/off-white ...

Another view of the same layout ...

I've finally made a little progress on the flannel rag quilt, and pink Irish Chain quilt top, not to mention my leaders and enders ... and I've got a big stack of denim happening for my jeans-quilt-project ... but, those will have to be other posts for other days.

Work In Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced shows lots of other quilters' works in progress ... I'm linking this post to this week's Work In Progress Wednesday. Check the link or button to see the latest!

Vintage-Inspired Edges

On my English Paper Piecing, I made one whole star this week. Yay. (Compared with a whole bunch of stars last week! Oh, well.)

On the bright side, though, I decided something important and got started on that: The edges. I decided what to do for the edges around the diamond-star-hexagons. More diamonds! (Big surprise, huh?) Diamonds in a bunch of different whites and creams.

I'm going for solids for the edges, no prints. I'm loving the subtle variations in texture and color. I think it works well with the vintage inspiration.

So, this week, I cut a ton of fabric diamonds in white and cream.

This is the perfect use for my stack of miscellaneous white and cream fabrics ... (In fact, a friend recently gave me some leftover bed sheets that nobody is using ... lots of white and cream. Wonderful! Just right for this project! And, I'm barely making a dent in the stack ... more projects in the works, as always!)

While I was at it, I cut some white and cream squares and rectangles for the continuation of my Leaders & Enders project ...

So, overall, I'm pleased with getting some progress made on the English Paper Piecing project. We'll just call it the "Vintage-Inspired" diamonds quilt, since the percentage of "actual" vintage in the project keeps changing ... but I'm totally OK with that, and I'm enjoying the look of this quilt already!

Quilty inspiration from other people's projects has made me a better quilter. I love to get ideas and inspiration from other people's work, and to share any tidbits I can. So ... when I can, I add links at the ends of some of my posts, to places where people are sharing their work. I'm linking this post to Little Quilt Monday and, when Tuesday comes, to Fabric Tuesday. (Links for this week are below.)

Elizabeth at PiecefulLife has a fun Little Quilt Monday link party every week. Check out this week's Little Quilt Monday for some other quilters' neat projects happening there. (You have got to see the little quilt Elizabeth blogged about this week - she made it from a Bobbin Lace Doily! Brilliant!)

Here's the link for this week's Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story!

Finished Green Floral Kaleidoscopes!

Remember these kaleidoscopes from this post? The picture was taken at least two years ago. 

These kaleidoscopes have finally become something useful! My new favorite living-room quilt!

This was the quilt top I just couldn't sell. I was going to, and I sold a few similar ones on eBay, but decided this one was definitely a keeper. 

I found a great backing fabric on sale a few weeks ago that's just right ... 

And, with a chance to do some late-night-quilting this week, I got it finished up! 

I did some simple (un-perfect) free-motion meandering all over, and straight lines on the border. The backing was just the right size to turn the backing-edges around to the front. (Which was a good thing. Because I forgot to buy any extra for binding!) 

Here's a little before - and - after ... Pin-basted, then quilted.

Needless to say, everybody at my house has had fun trying out the new quilt that's on the couch. (Although the kids did protest my putting away the Christmas Quilt that has lived in the living room since I finished it in December! Time for a spring quilt!)

So, my springtime living-room quilt is done! It's 65" x 56", which is a great size. Not too big, not too small. 

And, no, I don't generally make myself seasonal quilts. But when I realized how nice it was to have a Christmas Quilt around, a cozy quilt that was already in the living room when anybody wanted it, I decided I could probably come up with a springtime quilt. So, here it is. We probably don't need a summertime quilt, although the kids think the yo-yo project would fit the bill for a summer quilt! (I think that one's going to take a while, and I'm not convinced that yo-yos would make a sturdy enough livingroom quilt. We shall see.) And, my daughter's quilting project looks like a good fall quilt. She thinks so, too, and that should give her plenty of time to work on it.

One more look at the springtime quilt ...

When I first started following quilt blogs, Crazy Mom Quilts caught my eye, and I've been loving that blog ever since. Great inspiration. Crazy Mom Quilts has a fun link party weekly, called Finish It Up Friday. I'm linking this post there. Check this week's Finish It Up Friday for links to lots of other things that other quilters have been finishing up this week!

Another fun blog with a Friday link party is AmyLouWho ~ At her weekly Sew and Tell post, you can see pics & links for some great projects that have been in the works & finished this week.
Here's the link for this week's Sew and Tell Friday.

Have a great Friday!