Jeans + Fleece = Awesome Quilt!

I've been blogging about making quilts out of jeans and fleece. While I was working on the latest one, I was also sewing together a lot of denim that looked like this ... (And you can't tell it from this photo, but those denim stripes are each about 16" long) ...

I couldn't really blog about it at the time, because this one was a birthday present for my oldest daughter, who DOES read my blog! 

Lots of diagonal quilting ...

And around the edges, lots of cute girl-y denim details ...

 

For another birthday Princess ...

Since this is a project I finished this week, I'm linking this post to amylouwho's Sew & Tell Friday ... So, if you're visiting from Sew & Tell Friday, HI & thanks for visiting! Click the button below to see the other great projects that are linked to Sew & Tell Friday!



AND, one of my favorite quilting blogs, and one of the first quilting blogs I started reading regularly is Crazy Mom Quilts -- Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts has a Finish it Up Friday link party going on, so I'm including a link to this post there, as well. HI to all of Amanda Jean's fellow quilters, too! It's so fun to see the other projects being finished up! Thanks for sharing!

A Non-Quilting Project ...

It's been a while since I've done any knitting ... Actually, I haven't done much since the last time I went to my kids' basketball practice. That was in February. But I have two mostly-knitted socks that I'm going to love. (I followed my sister's advice and got two sets of double-pointed needles, so I could alternate between two socks & finish them at roughly the same time.)

Basketball starts again this month. (We highly recommend Upward Basketball, by the way!) My kids will have weekly practices ... Which means I can knit during practice again. Maybe nobody will notice it's the SAME knitting I was working on last year! :-)

Denim Quilt ...

A few days ago, I wrote about the Fleece and Jeans Quilt I made ages ago, and the new one I've been working on. Here's the latest on my newest Fleece and Jeans Quilt:

One bright red fleece blanket, 66" x 90" ...

One hundred forty denim squares ...

A package and a half of shiny new safety pins ...

A lot of late-night and early-morning sewing ...

A Denim Jeans Quilt ...

for a little Princess ...

I think she likes it. I think all her siblings like it, too. As you may recall from my earlier post, only one of her siblings has one. I think I've got my work cut out for me!  :-)

P.S.

The Quilt Story blog has a "link party" called Fabric Tuesday, and there are lots of impressive projects to see, so when Tuesday comes, I'll plan to link this post to Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday. Click the picture below for more ... 

More English Paper Piecing Hexagons

Newest hexagons for my Christmas Quilt ...

Here's how it's looking ... Once I sew these two in, along with the white/neutral one from my earlier post, then I just have three more hexagon-flowers to add. (See the resemblance between the quilt top and its "pattern"? Fun, huh? Really, the pattern is paper-sized, and the quilt is about 3 feet wide.)

After I finish the quilt top, I "just" have to stitch this part to something (I'm debating between two different cream/tan sheets I've got for background), then add some sort of border (I'm debating between sewing a bunch of leftover red-white-green squares together, or stitching on some random hexagons as border), then add batting and a backing (I'm debating between the "elegant" Christmas fabric, the Veggie Tales Christmas fabric, and the "other" sheet that I don't use for the background on the front.) So, yeah, plenty to do.

Stay tuned for more on the Christmas Quilt project ...

Since this IS a work in progress, I'm hoping to link this post to Work In Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced ... So if you're visiting from Freshly Pieced, HI, and thanks for stopping by! I love the inspiration of seeing what others are busy sewing. Have a great week!

AND, since this is a "made by hand" project (so far, anyway), I'm linking this post to a new Take Your Time Tuesday at So Happy - So, thanks to Kristen for the encouragement on needle-and-thread projects, and Hi to anyone visiting from her links!

A Christmas Mini Quilt ...

This is a new addition to my homemade Christmas decorations ... It measures 13" x 13".
Here's how this Mini-Quilt came to be ...

Not long ago, I found a great deal on some little glass Nativity figures. They came with a little mirror to sit on, but I thought something quilt-y might be a nice addition ... 

The Mini-Quilt Challenge at amylouwho provided just the mini-quilt motivation I needed.

(Click on the picture below to see what I'm talking about.) 

(Also, I'll probably link this post to "Little Quilt Monday" at Pieceful Life when Monday rolls around.)

So, I started playing with my scraps. I wanted a lot of white, and something with red-and-green squares. I still wasn't sure about an overall shape for the mini-quilt. 

After making some nine-patches out of 1 ½" squares, I decided to try for something sort of circular in the center, with the nine-patches around the edges ... So I ended up with an octagon in the middle, and 8 little nine-patches around the edges. I had some (too big) triangles left over from another project, so I put those in the extra spaces ...

Got it all stitched  ...

When I trimmed the excess off of the giant triangles ... I also cut the backing at the same time ... With the 8 triangles, and the 8 nine-patches, it became more than just an octagon ... more like a hexadecimal polygon whose name I don't know. (Is there even a name for that shape?)

Since I wanted this mini quilt to be like a little doily, flat enough for the glass Nativity figures to stand on, I didn't want to add puffy batting ... So I used a piece of white sheet for the backing, with no batting in between the layers. After cutting, I "basted" the quilt top to the backing layer with safety pins.

For the binding, I made some bias binding out of the same white sheet. I folded the bias binding in half, and stitched both raw edges to the quilt-and-backing "sandwich". As I was stitching the binding on, I gently rounded the corners of the polygon, to give the finished piece a rounded edge.

After stitching the binding on, and turning the folded binding-edge around to the back, I quilted in the ditch around the edge, and again around the edge of the center octagon.

Voila! It measures 13" x 13".

I'm really pleased with how this Mini-Quilt turned out. 

Making some of my own Christmas decorations helps me look forward to Christmas a little more, and helps me enjoy the process of teaching my kids more about the true meaning of Christmas.
"For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10)

Still working on "Made Fabric" blocks ...

Recently, I had time to put together a few more 12" x 12" blocks of "made fabric" for a quilt top ...

 

Since I'd already made some primary-color blocks, and some secondary-color blocks, I wanted  some other colors ... so that there would be 12 blocks, each with a different color-scheme ...

These colors came out well ... The crazy-quilty idea is lots of fun. One of my daughters was helping me sort colors, and she was amazed at how many scraps I have. Yes. Yes, I do. But I'm using them! See?

The ivory borders are all sewn on, like the others, so these are ready for whatever's next ...

Mini Quilts are fun ...

Have I mentioned that mini quilts are fun? They are.

 A few days ago, I heard about this, and it sounds fun, too:

So, on Friday, I'll be telling you about my newest mini quilt project ... which I just made last night!

And, on Friday, you can check out the other awesome entries that will be featured in AmyLouWho's Mini Quilt Challenge (click the picture link above).