Here, Fishy Fishy!

My college roommate, Vanessa, is now a marine biologist.  When we roomed together, she would sometimes squirt me with a plastic fish when I entered our room.  When Munchkin was born, Vanessa sent him an amazing mobile with fish that she knitted.  When I found out Vanessa was expecting, I knew that the baby quilt had to be fish.  Baby Spencer arrived last month and I am finally ready to send this his way.

I was inspired by this quilt by Cathy from Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting.  She used her leftover "crumbs" to make blue fish.  I knew I wanted my fish to be all colors.  I've been saving leftover pieces of my I Spy fabrics for a while.  I color sorted them and then just went to town!  I had a really good time with this quilt.  There are 3 or 4 fish made from bigger pieces, but almost all of the 30 fish are using up scraps. Specifically, I Spy scraps.  The very best kind!

The background fabric is Kona Pepper.  I quilted it using a blue variegated thread by King Tut that I already had.  I really like the wavy lines as quilting, and while I don't usually like my quilting enough to intentionally make it visible, I like it in this quilt. 

The back is a fabric I bought in Alaska on my honeymoon.  I have 3 different 1-yard cuts of fabrics by Sue Coccia, all from the Animal Spirits line.  I love them but hadn't used any since buying them 4 years ago, and this ocean-themed print seemed perfect for this quilt.  I did have to use a few bits of solid green & blue to make it large enough, but I didn't get a good picture of the entire back.

At one point while I was working on the binding I held the quilt up for my son (not quite 3 years old) and asked him what it looked like.  I was hoping for him to validate that these were clearly fish.  Instead, he started shouting out the things he could see.  "Tiger!  Monkey!  Banana!  More Monkey!"  I'm calling that success!  After all, what good is an I Spy quilt if you don't play I Spy?

Finishing this quilt was my One Monthly Goal for August in the OMG linkup hosted by Heidi of Red Letter Quilts (goal setter #35).  This quilt was also on my list of Q3 goals for the globally hosted Finish Along.  I will also eventually be linking up with Cynthia's Oh Scrap! and She Can Quilt's Scraptastic Tuesday.

This is seriously one of my favorite scrap quilts I have ever made.  I hope Vanessa & Spencer love it!

August Quarter Log Cabins for Sandy

Queen Sandy asked for quarter log cabin blocks in bright summer colors.  I wasn't entirely sure what her version of bright summer colors entails, but hopefully at least one of these three fits!

This was a quick & easy block.  I also sent 2 extra bock centers, one of he green mottled and one of the yellow.  I've long had a log cabin quilt on my bucket list. Some day!

Next month is my turn as Queen and I am so excited!  I've known what I wanted to ask for since I signed up, but I was worried someone from my hive would ask for it before my month came around and I didn't want people to have to make it twice.  But I am now in the clear and working on my test blocks!

Finished! Car Trash Bags

My friend Snow & I share a longing to have a VW bus.  Neither of us has one, and both of us have husbands who think that a VW bus is a bad idea, safety hazard, etc. So it's likely neither of us will ever actually own or drive a VW bus.  But we can dream!

Snow recently scored a layer cake of VW bus fabric, and she generously gave me a square of each print.  The car trash bag I made myself several years ago from a pattern in the book One Yard Wonders is literally falling apart at the seams and I have been meaning to make a replacement.  So why not bring a little VW bus into my Honda Fit?

I had enough fabric to make one for Snow, too.  Mine is on the left and hers in on the right. The photo above is one side, and the reverse is below.

I am not a big fan of text in my fabric, but Snow is, so she got the word-heavy prints.  The solid is Kona Espresso.

I've made adjustments to the original pattern, including lining my bags with PUL.  I also don't use the clip in the original pattern, because I tie mine between the two seats, rather than hang it behind one seat.

Honestly, these ties came out a little short.  Husband suggest that I add some velcro to the ends instead of tying, and he's probably right.  I don't think I have any right now, so I haven't done that, but if after having it in my car for a while I think there is not enough slack, I will do that.

A car trash bag replacement was on my Q3 list of goals for the globally hosted finish-along.  The second bag for Snow is a bonus :)

August OMG

My roommate in college, Vanessa, had a baby boy last week.  I've had a plan for the baby quilt for a while and have been working on creating fish out of my I Spy "crumbs," inspired by this quilt from Crazy, Sane, Crumby Quilting.  I now have 30 fish.

My August One Monthly Goal is to turn these 30 fish into a completed quilt.  I'm linking up with Heidi at Red Letter Quilts for her awesome motivational monthly challenge.

Finshed! Heart Quilt for Pulse

I set finishing my heart quilt for the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild's drive for Quilts for Pulse as one monthly goal, and I didn't think I was going to make it before the end of July.  I was a little over half done with the binding going into Saturday, and I didn't think I'd have much time to hand sew over the weekend.

But last night my MIL was with Munchkin and Husband and I went to a minor league baseball game.  I had the quilt with me to do the binding in the car on the way there.  We arrived at the game an hour early, so I decided to take it in with me and work on it before the game. So even though it was 6pm outside in the sun in July in North Carolina, I had that quilt on my lap and when the game started, I was sweaty and thirsty but I only had about 20 inches left.  Totally do-able to finish today! (I did not sew during the game, for those wondering.)

I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.  The pattern is Summer Love, a tutorial by Quilting in the Rain.  I added a few inches to either side of each row so it would get to the preferred size as requested by the Orlando Guild.  It finished at 56 1/2" x 51 1/2".  (I'm about 3 1/2 inches short.  Does that count as off a smidge?)

The solid is Kona Citrus.  It's very, very yellow.  I like it.  But it's a very yellow quilt.

The back is left over from the back of a quilt I made my friend Jen years ago. I was a little short, so I pieced it with some rainbow stripe that is leftover from the back of a quilt I made my son and a piece of the Kona Citrus.  I love the backing fabric and I really think it captures the rainbow look that the Orlando Guild wants in these quilts.

As mentioned, this was my July goal for the motivational linkup OMG hosted by Heidi at Red Letter Quilts.  (Goal setter #24)  This was also on my list of Q3 goals for the globally hosted Finish Along. And I will be linking with Julie's linkup for Hello 2016, Goodbye UFOs at The Crafty Quilter.

Orange!

Alternate title: Orange You Glad I'm Starting to Catch Up?

I am woefully behind on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by So Scrappy.  I got a little spare time today so I decided to put at least one month behind me, since the month itself is long gone.  Here is my orange butterfly, which should have been done in April.

Orange is not my color.  I only did one butterfly in orange, and even then I had a lot of repeats in the block.  But I'm pleased with how it turned out, and even more pleased to be slightly less behind than I was this morning.

July string blocks for Sarah, plus a hive crash

Queen Sarah asked for sting blocks.  I love string blocks!  This is my first time making them without a foundation, but Sarah suggested using a 12 1/2" square ruler to be sure none of the strings came up short, and that worked great.  She requested that blocks be left untrimmed, which was hard, but I did as I was told.

Sarah asked about some of the projects that these scraps came from.  There are scraps here from:

• the wall hanging I made for my grandparents' 60th anniversary
• Munchkin's baby quilt 
• 4 wedding quilts for 5 friends from college (Vanessa, Devin, Geoffrey, and Mark & Erin)
• my first project using a zipper

It's amazing how long remnants can continue to pop up!  I had a lot of fun with these blocks.

Regular readers here will know that I love novelty fabrics.  Love, love, love novelty fabrics.  So when Tracy from Hive 6 asked for a block featuring 5" novelty squares, I had to crash.  I knew that I could potentially spend hours on fabric selection going through my 5" I Spy squares, so I grabbed a container that just had extras from fabrics I'd bought (as opposed to from swaps) and went with my gut.

Tracy asked her hive for blocks that represented each of them.  I went with monkeys with monkey babies, because Husband is monkey-crazy and we have our own little monkey. Glasses because it was one of the first novelty fabrics I bought for an I Spy swap, I wear glasses, and they are associated with my profession (librarian).  Ice cream sandwiches because, well, because ice cream sandwiches are awesome and that fabric is awesome.  The requirement was at least one string block and I used purple batiks, because that plus novelty fabrics sum me up pretty well.


I also included a 5" of a sewing machine print hoping that Tracy can use it in another block or another project.  Because that machine represents us all, right?