hexagon tree skirt

A few days ago when I was looking for something to sew I decided I'd better get to work on my tree skirt. I cut out the red strips and planned it all out last year. So all I had to do was figure out how to make it (or remember how I had decided to make it) and sew it all up! The most difficult part was cutting those large angles correctly. I had to do that a few times. I used an IKEA sheet as suggested by Amanda. It is so much cheaper than muslin and nicer too. Here it is all washed and crinkled. The binding is disco dots by Michael Miller.

I love it! It goes perfectly with my stocking which are also red and white with black and white binding.

hexagons

I've been dying to sew something! So last night while we were watching a movie I made some more of these.

I will eventually make a quilt with them all, but I'm not sure when that will be. The idea behind these is to use scraps AND to put fabrics together that aren't from the same line (something I need to work on). This techniques is called English paper piecing. There is an excellent tutorial for it here. I buy my paper shapes and there are lots of other shapes available here.

I also started working on the back of my wonky star quilt so that I can start quilting it someday. I'm still not sure how I want to quilt it. Any ideas?

the top is finished

Sometimes I'm really motivated to finish something. Other times I get bored and start 10 new projects. Last week I felt like finishing my wonky star quilt top. And I got it done the day I decided to finish it! Most of the fabrics in this quilt are from the swap group I joined a few months ago. I love them. Who knows where this quilt will end up. Maybe Dan will get his girl someday and it can live here.

a new project

To get my mind off things. It is pink. I've never made anything pink. Who knows who it's for, maybe me, maybe a future baby (maybe mine, maybe someone else's). For now I'm making it and that's all I care about. I love how it's turning out!

finished a quilt!

I finished binding this quilt yesterday while watching the Tour de France. Yay! It's been on my list for a while now and it's finally done!

a quilt top!

Well, I have finally sewn together my red and white quilt top! It was a beast! All those triangles to cut, sewing them all together for strips (25 in each strip plus the little ends), then trying to sew together the strips when they're all different lenghths! I cut lots of tips off of triangles because it was so frustrating. I also didn't have enough strips and had to add about 9 inches to the bottom (but I didn't want to do any more triangles so I did the strips). I think it turned out pretty nice despite all the issues and how long it took. Now all I have to do is quilt and bind it! (That may take another year or so . . . )

new quilt

Okay - I figured out what I'm going to start. This is my current bed quilt. It took me 2-3 years to make/finish so it's been on my bed for around 8 years or so. I still love it, but when spring and summer come around, it seems too dark. (This picture is kind of washed out, the background of the quilt is navy).

I've been wanting something for a long time that has a white background. So here's the fabric I'm working from, and the quilt will look a something like this. What do you think?

amy butler quilt 2

I hate it when I finish a big project (spending lots of time and money on it) and I don't love it. That's how I feel about this quilt. I don't love the quilting (which I paid someone else to do), I don't love how all the prints together seem pretty crazy. I do love the back, the binding, and several of the fabrics on their own. Oh well. That's how it goes, right? Maybe I'll put it up for sale in my shop. What do you think? Honestly.

backing (above)

oh yeah

I'm so happy that I've finished most of my unfinished quilts! This last one needs a bunch of strips sewn together and then needs to be quilted and bound. I'm so excited to start something new! (I might not be able to wait until this one is done.)

solid strip quilt done!

I finished binding another quilt! Like the last quilt I posted, this one was quilted by a machine quilter who charges very reasonable prices. It came to me in the mail near Thanksgiving and I was able to put the binding on last week.

I think this might be my favorite quilt ever (the quilt I made for my bed is a close second.) I've also been finding all these cool, new quilt blogs with great ideas so I'm thinking I'll start something new soon.