Color Splash!

I'm pleased to have finished the "Color Splash" Quilt Top that I mentioned in this post, and this post, and this post.

I had a lot of fun with the crazy-quilty "made fabric", and I like the way the blocks all seem to "float" on the light background.

   

 

A lot of my inspiration came from these awesome quilt pictures at psiquilt.com, and the tutorials on posts like this at 15minutesplay.com

It was a lot of fun to go from my first few blocks, and my first few tries at layout ...

  

...to a lot of finished blocks, and a lot of blocks in a layout ...

... to a finished quilt top! (This thing is huge! 74" x 96"!)

I'm listing it on eBay as a quilt top, so that somebody can buy it and have fun quilting it! Take a look at it at this eBay listing, or check out my whole list of auctions.

The crazy-quilty-look isn't usually my favorite style, but I LOVE the way these crazy-quilt blocks turned out with the color-coordinated scraps turned into a block. I'm definitely planning to do more with this style ... Stay tuned ...

Random Yo-Yos ...

A couple of years ago, a friend mentioned that she'd love to learn how to make old-fashioned yo-yo quilts ... neither she nor I had ever made a yo-yo, but we both thought it would be fun. As it turns out, each of us went home and searched Google for the how-to details!

I recently rediscovered my stack of little yo-yos, and I'm once again delighted with the fun randomness of these. Even though I usually like an "organized" feel to my quilting, I'm loving the non-organized look here.

Lots of these fabrics make me smile, because they remind me of what else I made with that fabric, or where that fabric came from ... I love the colors and the circles and the spaces between ...

Since the Christmas Hexagons are just about done, I needed some hand-work to put in my favorite bag-to-grab-when-I'm-going-somewhere ... Recently, I pulled out the fun, random yo-yos and worked a little while.

One of the fun things about sewing when other people are around (which is all the time unless everybody's asleep) is that sometimes, somebody wants to learn "how you do that". That's neat, because usually they discover that it's not hard, and it's pretty fun! My middle daughter sat with me and made a couple of yo-yos ...

Right now, I'm sewing the random yo-yos in groups of 16, so that they're partially assembled, with some flexibility in how I eventually work the layout.

I also have some blue yo-yos happening in another project-bag ....
Maybe I'll blog about those another day ...

Take Your Time Tuesday at So Happy is a fun spot to mention hand-stitching work like this ... So I'm planning to link this post to this week's Take Your Time Tuesday ...

Fabric Tuesday at QuiltStory is another fun place to see fabric projects of all kinds, and I'm linking this post to this week's Fabric Tuesday, as well. (Click the button below for the most recent Fabric Tuesday).

Mini Kaleidoscopes ...

This weekend, I finished up a cute Mini Quilt Top ...

There are a lot of things I like about this kind of Kaleidoscope. This is the "stacked posies" kind, made from just 4 identical squares. Easy to cut. Quick to sew. Here's my little stack of pieces ready to sew.

I love the symmetry, and the beautiful simplicity ... Here are a few of my favorite blocks ... and they're all made from the same floral fabric!

Layouts are fun ...

Setting them diamond-style meant that in addition to setting squares, I needed triangles for the sides ... Here are the blocks sewn to the setting squares, ready for the triangles ...

Stitched up, with borders in the same floral print and the same white-on-cream as the background ...

And, now the Kaleidoscope Mini Quilt Top is listed on eBay, so that someone can have fun quilting it! See this eBay listing, or if that link doesn't work, try this list of all my eBay items.

I love seeing mini-quilt projects come together. Elizabeth at Pieceful Life has a weekly spot for bloggers to report on their latest Mini-Quilt projects. If you have a minute, stop by and visit this week's Little Quilt Monday ... I'm linking this post there ... Have a great Monday!

Advent Calendar Time ...

Last week, I mentioned some of what's been on our kitchen markerboard ...

Since we try to keep something spiritually encouraging, or at least inspirational, on our kitchen markerboard, I might write a few Saturday posts related to what's been on our kitchen markerboard lately.

Right now, our markerboard still carries a Thanksgiving theme, since an attitude of gratitude should always be in season ...

But for this month, next to the markerboard is our Advent Calendar ...

This Advent Calendar was given to us a couple years ago by a friend (Thanks, Heather!) and the kids LOVE it! 

In each pocket, I put a little piece of paper, with a couple of Christmas-related Bible verses, and the title of a Christmas carol to sing. Each day we open the one for the day (and sometimes the one for yesterday, if we forgot!) and one of the kids read the verses, and we sing the first verse of the song.

Even though it's a simple thing, it's been a great way for us to get some more Bible into our day, to keep some more Bible in our Christmas celebration, and to open some more Christ-centered discussions in our conversations.

"Made Fabric" circles, Christmas Quilt progress

Lately ... I'm working on more crazy-quilty "made fabric". Fun! The other blocks I made were giant 12" blocks, so these small ones (less than 6") were really fast and fun. 

Here they are before trimming ...

And after trimming ... aren't they cute?

I'll probably make a few more in different sizes, and then applique them on a neutral background. I don't have a lot of experience with applique, so I'm thinking about the merits of a couple of simple applique methods I've found ...  The cookie crumbs one at 15minutesplay's blog ... and the one that I saw SOMEwhere a long time ago, something like this dryer sheet idea ...

In other news ...

The Christmas hexagon quilt is getting there ...

Here's the background, all ready ...

Aaaaand, this is the hexagon portion just laid on top ... need to baste/pin, add batting, backing ... I'm excited that it's almost done!

Christmas Hexagons Layout

I'm really pleased to have FINISHED the hexagons for the Christmas Quilt! If my calculations are correct, that's 364 hexagons (but who's counting?!)! I'm pleased with how this is turning out!

So, now, it's time for working on layout ...

I've decided to do the solid cream color for the rectangular "background" behind the hexagons. The Christmassy plaid with the metallic gold threads is going to be cut on the bias as a border. More cream for an outer border, I think. Near the top of the photo is the backing fabric, which is a white-on-tan floral, (but it's actually a much darker color than it looks in this picture). 

I'm excited about getting near the end of this project. I'll probably do the assembling and quilting by machine, just to make sure it gets done sooner, rather than later!

[UPDATE: To see the finished product, see this post. ]

I've mentioned this quilt in progress a time or two at Take Your Time Tuesday ~ which is a weekly group of links especially for sewn-by-hand projects. So I'm linking this post to this week's Take Your Time Tuesday at So Happy... 

And, when Wednesday rolls around, I plan to link this post to Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced ... Click the button below to see some other great works in progress!

Mini-Quilty Coasters ...

Lately, I've wanted to try some more free-motion quilting ... without the pressure of a big project. 

So, I decided to make some rag-quilty coasters. With free-motion "quilting" attaching just two layers of denim (no batting). 

Quick and easy, relatively speaking. And lots of fun!

So, with some fun sewing, and a lot of clipping ...

I made some little coasters ...

And after washing them, the edges turned out cute and fuzzy ...

 

If you have a minute, stop by and visit Little Quilt Monday at pieceful life ... I'm linking this post there ... Have a great Monday!