Year in Review - Saying Good-bye to 2020

Hello friends!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, even if it did look a little different. Granted, everything has looked different this year and, I'm sure it will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, but there is a light at the end of this long tunnel. Hopefully, when we look back on 2020 many years from now, we will have some good memories to offset the bad.

So let's get to what happened this year.

I didn't set many goals this year other than use up some of my thrift store sheets (🗸), get my quilting studio done (🗸), and try different quilt patterns (🗸).  

Not bad. I also made 12 quilts this year and, only one of them was a Plus quilt.

   

              

                                                                                                                                                    It's definitely been a colorful year. I'm still working on the string blocks that I talked about in my last blog and still having fun making them. I'm pretty happy with all the quilts that I made this year. Looking back at these quilts, I've come to realize that I really like scrappy quilts. So maybe that's what I'll do next year. We'll see.

One thing I plan on doing in 2021 is looking at updating my blog. Maybe moving over to WordPress. 

I haven't decided yet, but I'm not happy with how difficult it is to get pictures where I want them. It can be very frustrating. But we'll see what happens.

Well, that's it for now.

Thank you so much for reading and following along this year.  Here's looking towards a fantastic 2021.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Camille

It's a String Thing

Hello friends!

It's almost Christmas. Are you ready?

I am!! For the first time in many years, I'm a little ahead of schedule. All the presents are wrapped and under the tree. 

This is the first year since I started quilting that I didn't have to put away all my quilting stuff. We use our loft for the Christmas tree, which was also where my quilting space was. But now I have my quilting room, so guess what I've been doing? You guessed it. I've been working on a new quilt.

I've always wanted to make a string quilt but didn't think I had enough scraps. Well, that's not a problem now. So I finally started one and, I'm enjoying the whole process. I can definitely say I will be making more in the future. 

Now a few pictures...

Blocks on the design wall in no particular order.

My working space before I started. (It does not look like this now!)

I'm making a total of 72 string blocks. I have no idea how long this will take to complete, but that's okay because I'm not in a rush to finish. I'm just enjoying the process and we'll see what I end up with.

Thanks for stopping by...and I'll see you in 2021.

Wishing you a Happy Holiday and a joyful New Year!

Camille

Sunshine Bouquet - A Half Hexie Quilt

Hi everyone!

I have a finished quilt to share with you today. 

I had so much fun making the first large half hexie quilt (Wildflower Bouquet) that I had to make it again. This time I made it in shades of yellow. And I think it came out great.

Most of the fabric is thrift store sheets, though I did throw in some quilting fabric.

The quilt came out a lot bigger than I had first intended. But that's okay, more quilt to love. It's a whopping 75" x 86". Not the biggest quilt I've made but still pretty big.

Unfortunately, you can't tell in these pictures, but for the binding, I used green to represent the greenery that surrounds a bouquet. There are a total of 25 different fabrics used for the petals and 21 fabrics for the flower centers.

I started the quilt on 10/12/2020, the quilt top was finished on 10/26/2020 and had the quilting finished on 11/02/2020 and, the binding finished on 11/9/2020. 

The quilting is the same that I used on the Wildflower Bouquet quilt, straight lines that create triangles along the quilt. Love it!

The backing, as always, is a thrift store sheet.

As I mentioned before, this quilt will be a Christmas present for one of my favorite people, my son's girlfriend, and I can't wait to give it to he

Well, that's it for now. Until next time...

Thanks for stopping by!

Camille

WIP - Another Half Hexi Quilt

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to stop in to give you all a peek at what I'm working on right now. In the last post, I mentioned that I was going to be working on a Christmas present quilt. 

I don't want to say too much right now...other than, yesterday I finished the quilt top and I love it. 

Here are a couple of pictures...

So, now I just have to baste it and then quilt it. I have the backing and binding picked out, so I should be able to start all of that tomorrow. I'm planning on hand sewing the binding instead of sewing it all on by hand, so I should be finished in a couple of weeks.  And will share it with you all then.

Until then...

Thanks for stopping by!

Camille

Stone Toss - A Half Square Quilt

Hi everyone!

Today, I'm sharing photos of my finished HST quilt.  It's called Stone Toss and, I just love how it turned out.

The quilt is a gift for one of my BFF's sons, who recently purchased his first house.  I wanted this to be a surprise, so the only direction I received (from his Mom) was that his favorite color is grey (just like me).

So with that, I settled on the direction I wanted to go - half square triangles. And then I went looking for fabric. After much searching on Etsy, eBay, and Amazon - I settled on a Kona Stormy Skies fat quarter bundle, a Cold Snap 5 Karat Gems pack (Wilmington Prints), a Stonehenge Graduations in Graphite fat quarter bundle(Northcutt), that worked really nicely with the gems pack, and a couple of fat quarters thrown in from my stash.

There was no plan or pattern used for this quilt, other than wanting to use HST's and that it be masculine.

First, I figured out how many blocks I needed to make a quilt that was at least 72" x 81". Answer = 288.  I cut 144 'background' squares and 144 'focus' squares and spent a couple of days making a lot of HST's. (Which I truly didn't mind. I think I might be the only quilter who likes making HST's including the trimming.) 

And then I put them all up on the design board.  No overthinking it, no second-guessing myself, I just put them on the board. I even let blocks with the same colors touch each other in quite a few places. Oh my! 😮 But I think it gives the quilt some interest and gives the eye a place to land amongst the randomness of the design.

The backing and binding are from my thrift store sheet stash.

                                

             

The quilting is something new for me. I did horizontal lines at 1.50" apart. I think it really allows the design to shine.

The quilt measures 65" x 76" and the layout is 16 x 18. 

And I can't wait to give it to him...hopefully sometime this month.

That's it for now...

This week, I'm starting another quilt. A Christmas present that will be a half-hexie quilt in yellows. Can't wait.

Until next time...

Camille

Work In Progress - Half Square Triangle Quilt

Hi guys,

Just a quick post to let you know what I'm working on right now.

In my post titled "Sparkle Punch and more ...",  I indicated that I had a quilt planned once I was done. 

Well, this isn't the one.  

Instead, I'm making a quilt for one of the sons of my BFF.  I found out that he put in an offer on a house that was accepted. So I decided to make him a quilt as a housewarming gift. 

After finishing Sparkle Punch, I bought some fabric in his favorite color - grey. I fell in love with a fabric collection called Stonehenge Graduations Graphite by Northcott and ordered it -  even before I had decided on a pattern, though I knew I wanted it to be made of half-square triangles.

I've been working on it for about a week and I have half of the quilt top done.

Here's a quick peek ...

I'll share more next week.

Thanks for stopping by...

Camille

Sparkle Punch - A Finished Quilt

Hi everyone! 

I have a finished quilt to share with you today! My Sparkle Punch quilt is finally finished and I have lots of photos to share with you today. I am pretty happy with how this quilt turned out especially after the rocky start it had. But now that it's done...I LOVE IT!!

I used a total of 20 fat quarters with a few fabric scraps to make up for my math deficiency.  All from my fabric stash.

The background fabric is a grey sheet that I also used for the binding. The backing is a sheet that was sold as a drop cloth for $1.00 and I think it goes perfectly with the overall colors that I used in the quilt.  And yes, the sheets were purchased at my local thrift stores. 

Have I ever told you why I like using sheets? If not I'll fill you in on my secret. Thrift store sheets are cheap, big enough to use as backings, and whatever fabric I have leftover from my quilt tops go into my fabric stash. Win-win.

The quilt finished at 60" x 72".  I chose to do a simple stitch in the ditch quilting design and, I sewed the binding by machine.

Final thoughts... I love this quilt but I don't know if I will make another one using this pattern any time soon. It is very time-consuming... 384-star point units and... I hate math. If you would like to make one yourself the pattern is Sparkle Punch and you can find it here.

Well, that's it for now. On to the next one, which I've already started. I'll tell you all about it in my next post.

Until then...

Thanks for stopping by!

Camille

WIP - Sparkle Punch

Hi everyone!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. My weekend was busy...I got to do some thrifting on Saturday and then spent the evening with my BFF and her family celebrating her birthday. It was a GOOD day!

On to Sparkle Punch... All the squares are up on the design wall.

But it wasn't without a little hiccup.

Do you remember in the last post, I mentioned how the directions were a little confusing? I made all the Star Unit Points and, there were not 384 of them. I was way off.

So, I had to pick more fabric from my stash and cut a lot more squares.

My advice...if you decide to make this quilt go to Elizabeth Hartman's website and use the free tutorial there.

I spent yesterday morning labeling all the squares. That's a total of 480 squares. But I think it's necessary to keep the orientation correct and everything in order. 

So tomorrow I get to start sewing them all together.  Who knows how long this will take but, I'll keep you posted.

Have a fantastic week and thanks for stopping by!

Camille 

Sparkle Punch and more...

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to stop in and update everyone on what's being going on in my quilting room. I finally decided on a quilt pattern and have actually started working on it. I used the pattern Sparkle Punch by Elizabeth Hartman. I found the pattern in Love of Quilting magazine, issue July/August 2012. (Thrift store find.) But you can also find a tutorial on her website.

The quilt uses 20 fat quarters which I picked out of my fabric stash. I'm using a thrift store sheet for the background. I'll probably use a sheet for the backing too, but I haven't picked that or the binding fabric out yet.

This pattern is rated as Intermediate. I wish I had paid more attention to that as the directions are a little confusing. But I think once I get everything up on the design wall, it will be fairly straight forward as the layout is based on the plus quilt. (And we all know how much I love my plus quilts.)

Here are a few pictures of the fabric/cut pieces.

                          

There are a total of 384 Star Point Units. To help with all the cutting I decided to bring out my newest helper. A Cricut Maker that I brought myself for my birthday.

This was only the second time using the Cricut Maker (the first time I made a birthday card) and the first time using it to cut fabric. I really like how it turned out, though the learning curve is pretty steep.

I purchased the Cricut Maker after researching fabric cutting machines and decided on it because of the numerous things you can do with it. It was well worth the price compared to other cutting machines.

So, for the next few weeks, I will be working on Sparkle Punch. But once that's done, I already have my next quilt planned. I'll tell you about that later. 😊

Until next time...

Camille

Seven Months Later...

Hello everyone,

I started this quilt on January 12, 2020, and blogged about it on January 27th (here). Today I'm excited to show off the finished quilt with lots more photos. Without further ado, let me introduce you to my Christmas in July quilt.

The quilt pattern is Squares & Stripes by CluckCluckSew. The quilt is easy to make and, I'm sure I'll make it again in the future.

All the fabrics for the quilt top, including the binding, are from JoAnn's, Walmart, and my stash. I love Christmas fabrics, don't you?

The quilt backing was one of the reasons this quilt sat for seven months. But when I found this red and white sheet at my favorite thrift store, I knew it was what this quilt needed.

 

The quilt design is my go-to diagonal grid pattern. And I love how it turned out.

Well, that's it for now. Thank you for stopping by. Have a wonderful weekend.

Camille