Hi there!  Today I want to share a baby quilt that I actually finished a couple of months ago.

The pattern is called Merry Pinwheels and this is the second Merry Pinwheels quilt I've made.  If you're curious, you can check out the original one HERE.

 I made this because I really wanted to see what this pattern looked like in non-Christmasy colors! 

Plus, I thought a pinwheel quilt would be so cute for a baby.

I based the color scheme on the sweet yellow, pink, and copper-brown ditzy floral print in the middle row above. I just love that print and thought it would make for a unique color palette for a baby girl quilt.

I tried to use a nice variety of prints including florals, plaids, checks, stripes, and geometrics.

I had everything in my stash for this quilt except the binding fabric. I love it when I get to make a quilt predominantly out of my stash.  Feels so good to use up what I have!

I inherited this pink stripe fabric from my grandmother after she passed away.

I love incorporating pieces of her fabrics into my quilts!

This copper-brown floral fabric is a favorite. And the yellow background fabric is 

from my first fabric collection, Treasured Threads.

The quilting was done by Jen Ostler in Highland, Utah.  She is awesome.

Jen used one of my favorite, go-to pantos called Interlocking Orange Peel by Karlee Porter Designs.

When I was making the quilt top, it was a little tricky to spread out similar colors and prints to achieve balance.  But I just kept moving the blocks around until I found a layout I was happy with.

I really enjoyed working with this color palette and all of the sweet prints.

Merry Pinwheels is perfect for confident beginners and comes with instructions for 5 different-size quilts. You can use your stash (like I did here) or 2-1/2" x 40" wide precut strips.  It's very versatile!

You can grab the Merry Pinwheels pdf pattern HERE or the paper pattern HERE.

I'd love to hear what you think about this baby quilt version of Merry Pinwheels!

Thanks for stopping by today and happy quilting!

One Last Hoorah and Some Fabric

 My trip to Big Sky Country was wonderful.

I got to visit with two of the best sisters in the world.

We had such a blast river rafting, boating, hiking, eating and laughing (all with kids in tow).

During one of our "mommy/sister" excursions we stopped in to a cute little fabric store in Missoula.  The Selvedge Studio is a quaint store but packed with lots of charm!  I'd seen it several times over the last few years and am sure glad I decided to stop in this time!  In fact, I'm pretty sure I shocked my little sis with how quickly I could accumulate a dozen bolts of fabric. 

 I picked up a few cuts of these fun prints (1/3 yard cuts to be precise). 

As well as 1 yard cuts of these beauties.  Who knows what I'll make with them but it was fun to mix up the stash a little.  And for me, fabric is the perfect souvenir :)

 The second the kids and I got home from Montana, we freshened up and headed off to "Back to School Night" to meet the kids' teachers.  It looks like it's going to be a great school year!  Tuesday, it was time for them to make their way to school (yellow bus style).

I sure love these guys.  And I'm sure going to miss them.  

But it's time for momma to get some work done around here!

How are you feeling about Summer winding down?  Excited?  Sad?  Is anything going to change with your schedule?  What are you looking forward to?  Well, I hope your summer was as good as ours!

Happy quilting!

Amber

Stashy

I feel bad that it's been so long since we've talked.

You know how summer goes.  It's been busy, busy around here and it doesn't help that a lot of the projects I'm working on lately are ones that I have to keep on the down low.

I am still having a blast on Instagram though.  

If you're an IG-er, you might get more up-to-the-minute posts from me on there.  My username is gigis_thimble if you care to follow.

But today I thought I'd do a stashy kind of post.

I've been told that I don't have much of a stash.  I guess I usually just buy smaller pieces of fabric.  And I try to use what I have.  But my little stash seems to growing lately.  And I kinda like it.

Here's my rule of thumb when trying to decide how much fabric to buy:

When I like a fabric but I don't know what I'm going to make with it, I buy a fat quarter.  If I think a fabric will be a great background then I usually buy 2-4 yards depending on what size quilt it might go in.  If I think it will be a cute binding then I buy up to a yard depending on the size of quilt it might bind and whether it will be on the bias or not.  Otherwise, I try to only buy the exact yardage I need or that a pattern calls for.

Here are some of my grays that I'm collecting 

for a gray and white "someday" quilt. 

I like to keep my fat quarters organized by color (mostly).  You probably do too, right?  However, you can see that my newly acquired Happy Go Lucky pile (on the top right) is still together as a line since it's so new and I have almost the entire line.  I'd like to keep it together in case I make a quilt out of it someday.

Keeping things arranged in color order helps me to know my inventory.  I can easily see what areas I'm lacking in (so I can beef up those stacks when I feel like buying) and for what areas I'm good in.  A lot of my stacks are getting "two deep" now :)

As you can see I don't use a lot of purple.  And, I've got a small little collection of 30's reproductions (which I don't use very much either but I sure do think they're cute).  A few small pieces of my 30's prints are from my grandmother (Gigi) so I'm kind of hoarding those :).

 I don't have a lot of Charm Packs or Jelly Rolls for that matter (but who doesn't love a good jelly roll?!?  They're so dang cute! :)

I do have LOTS of Layer Cakes though!

Above, you can see some of my collection of background fabrics.

And below are some more of my larger, more colorful cuts of fabric.

And here's one more stack of fabric I'm hoarding.  

Some of Tasha Noel's last couple of lines (The Simple Life and Little Red Riding Hood).  And for some reason, I bought third yard cuts of those beauties?!?  Don't ask me why :)  Oh yeah.  It was cause I liked them.

Oh, so here's one of my other rules of thumb:

I only buy the fabrics that I love from a line.  If there are a few I'm not in love with then I don't buy them.  And I'm not afraid to mix and match from different lines too.  I think that's what makes a quilt fun and interesting.  And one of a kind.  And who doesn't like that? 

So that's pretty much my stash.  And my rules of thumb.

I just thought I'd share.  I like to see what people are buying.  Thought you might too.  So.  What are you buying/hoarding?  And what are your rules of thumb?  I'd love to hear...

Happy quilting.

~ Amber

Quilty things that make me happy...

Do you ever sit down at the end of a day wondering what the heck you did all day?  Well, yesterday was one of those kind of days.  I spent waaay too much time taking pictures of things I love and editing them on PicMonkey (a new photo editing site I stumbled across the other day). Neither of those things were on my list of "things to do" but it was fun and fun is good :)

In order to take some decent pictures though, I had to do some rearranging of some of my "stuff".  Don'tcha just love your "stuff"?  I love my "stuff".  I know it's not good to love "stuff" but it kinda just makes me happy and I thought I'd share some of my favorite quilty "stuff" with you today...

Matching pennant banners that my daughter and I made a while ago.

(During one of her mini sewing lessons.  I say "mini" because she only lasts about 5 minutes before she's bored.  Believe me, I'm treasuring the moments...)

Selvages.  For a someday project...

 This sewing bird clamp was a gift given to me by a non-quilty friend.  It was probably the most sweetest, thoughtful gift anyone has ever given to me.  Completely out of the blue.  And perfectly lovely.

My somewhat new Ikea cabinets.
Organizing always feels good...

I like quilts and I like stacks of quilts.

A small collection of old wooden spools...

A sturdy, level place for cutting...

Thank you Martha Stewart and Home Depot :)

So these are some of the things I'm especially grateful for right now.

What about you?  What are some of your favorite quilty treasures?

~ Amber

 

Just To Be Safe

After my last post I decided I did need some new fabrics to freshen up my red and white collection for my Farmer's Wife quilt.

So here's what I came home with after hitting up one of the local quilt shops that day:

I've found that the dark reds really add some nice contrast to my quilt and help to break things up a bit (and, in the right shade, are a little hard to come by so I was really happy to have found those!)  The medium colored tone-on-tone reds will create a restful place for the eye to land.  The gingham, well the gingham, was just too cute to pass by (but may be a little hard to work with.  I've found that I like the smaller prints best for all the tiny pieces used in the FWQ blocks.  Plus, there's a lot of contrast in that one.  But it's sure dang cute so I will definitely try to make a place for it :)  I like the small red and white floral print because of it's small scale and not too much contrast (it's a 30's print so I also like that it's not super cutesy).  And finally, the two light background fabrics will add a nice contrast to all the reds I'm using.  One, a stripe which will hopefully add a playful element and the large scale floral will bring in some nice movement. 

I don't normally prewash all of my fabric but I've been trying to with this quilt  (just to be safe - since reds usually tend to bleed more than other colors).

When I'm concerened about bleeding I throw in some Shout Color Catchers into the wash (again, just to be safe).  I've got a couple of boxes of them by my washing machine and throw in two or three to catch any extra dye floating around.  Works every time :)

Here, you can see all the dye they soaked up when they were used with my new red and white fabrics.  That's quite a bit, eh?  Glad that didn't go back onto some of my lighter fabrics! 

You can find Shout Color Catchers by the dryer sheets at your local grocery store.  (I'm not getting paid for this recommendation.  I just really like them :)

Anyways, I got a few more FW blocks done this weekend.  Still have 900 more to go but I'll show some pictures soon of my progress.  It's coming right along!

Happy quilting!

~ Amber

Air Quotes

Whenever I refer to my job or going to work I have to use air quotes because I always feel a little bit silly getting paid to do what I love.  Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of not-so-fun things about my job (like filing taxes and stressing about whether a pattern is 100% perfect) but to "get" to buy fabric and design and make quilts as my job ~ well that's just a dream come true. 

On those rare occassions that my husband walks into my sewing room during the middle of the day ('cause he works from home) and he can see that I've been sewing for hours I say - with an ashamed look on my face - "I'm working" so he doesn't think I'm a complete slacker because I'm not cleaning or cooking or at a 9 to 5 boring office job that pays me lots more than I make now.  He's supportive, but still...it just feels a little weird.

[L to R: Calli, Heather, Me, Sachiko, Amy and Erika]

So Wednesday night, I had to bail on all other responsibilities because I had a

"work-thing" I just had to go to.  Well, that work thing just happened to be a party.  At a fabric store.  Where they gave a discount.  And served cupcakes.  And gave out prizes.  A party that was designed for us to mingle with other local crafty blogger friends and that just so happened to be located across the way from Cafe Rio (a local mexican fave) and two doors down from a self-serve frozen yogurt shop.  And I may or may not have had half of a pork salad, a red velvet (mini) cupcake and cake batter fro-yo with Reeses Peanut Butter Cups on it, afterwards. (Cafe Rio, red velvet and Reeses PB Cups are three of my favorite things so don't get even me started.  We can have a whole conversation on Red Velvet.  Especially the Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory.)  Anyways, I'm just saying... may or may not have. 

[L to R: LuLu, Natalie and Heather]

What more could a girl want, you know? 

A night out with the girls, fabric, cupcakes???

[Somehow these little guys made their way into my bag.  I mean, I paid for them, but otherwise I had nothing to do with the fact that I walked by a big table and mentioned something about a quarter and some lady cut me a generous 9 inches of each one,  handed them to me and sent me on my way!  What was I suppose to do!?!]

I really do have the best "job" in the world.

Red, White and Blue

With Spring Break, a new puppy and tax season coming to a close we have been keeping quite busy around here.  I have snuck in a little sewing time though so I thought I'd share a few projects with you.  Coincidentally they all revolve around red, white and blue...

First, I made a few more of my red and white Farmer's Wife Blocks:

In our FWQ Club, we've started out with the easiest blocks and are progressively moving up to the hardest blocks.  This month's block technique: half square triangles.  I haven't had to use templates for the 12 blocks I've made so far.  Instead, I followed Lori Holt's tutorial for how to make easy half square triangles. 

#12: Broken Sugar Bowl

#16: Calico Puzzle

# 34: Flock

#9: Box

#20: Churn Dash

#21: Contrary Wife

I am having SO much fun making these little 6" blocks!  I've got 12 down and 99 more to go!  Ha!

A couple other projects:

The other day, my mom and I made new ironing board covers using my friend's really simple method.  We each made ours in about 10 minutes.  I was so excited since this was my first attempt at making one and it turned out to be so easy!  I called it the lazy man's ironing board cover pattern, but my mom suggested we call it the busy woman's ironing board cover so I think we'll go with that!

Also, over the last week, I've made LOTS of progress on my red, white and blue Scrap Jar Stars quilt.  There's still much more to be done, but I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  With a total of 42 blocks it's taking me a while!  Here's the math: 336 half square triangles, 42 sixteen patches and 168 corner blocks.  I can't believe I'm actually sticking with it (sometimes I wonder what the heck I got myself into!?!)  But by trying to get one step done every day (or every couple of days) I am seeing it come together.

I picked up a few new fabrics the other day.  This time I focused on blues/navys.  Does anyone else think good blues are hard to find? 

I sure LOVE this honeycomb pattern by Robert Kauffman [#12033] right now.  It makes me happy.

Anyways, thanks for stopping by.

Happy Quilting everyone!

~ Amber