Sunday Stash (on Monday) #29 - birthday buys, part 3

My final birthday buy to share is from Craftsy as part of their spring sale.  I don't have any real favorite designers, although if pressed I'd have to say I tend to like Joel Dewberry's lines (I'm VERY SLOWLY working up a Swoon with Bungalow).  So when I saw this Triple Barn Star kit in Birch Farm listed in the sale section I decided to go for it.

Here's what came in the kit, along with white for the background and an electronic copy of the pattern:

30 fat quarters?

I was a bit confused by all the FQs, because the kit description (I thought, I can't find it anymore) listed the fabric requirements in terms of yardage.  The PDF of the pattern, though, lists "20 or more FQ" as what is needed for the stars, with an additional 5/8y needed for binding.  Since I got 30 FQ, I'm hoping that I can set aside some of them to use for the binding and use the bulk of the FQ for the stars.  Fingers crossed.

Anyway, here's some more photos of the various prints.  As far as I can tell there is one of each of the prints in each colorway, with the exception of the "chicken coop" print, which has two of each.

Top left: Barn Owl; top right: Horse Blanket; bottom left: Prism; bottom right: Lightning Bugs

Chicken Coop - two of each print.  Will possibly save these for binding?

Top left: Feedsack; bottom left: Dutch Oven; right: Hydrangea

Top: Chrysanthemum; bottom: Antler Damask

So that's the end of my birthday buys!  Although, as I mentioned last week, Craftsy had another sale last weekend (I need to stop browsing the sale section!) and I made a couple more purchases.  But I'll save those for another Sunday.

Linking up (belatedly!) with Molli Sparkles!

Sunday Stash #28 - birthday buys, part 2!

I forgot I was going to be out of town last week, so this week is a double share!  I'm still going through my birthday purchases, and have one more to show you next week.  And then maybe a couple of things the week after that, because Craftsy went and had another sale.  Darn them.

So yes, I bought several things from Craftsy a few weeks ago, including a quilt kit of Amy Butler fabric from her Love line.  The accompanying pattern is for a garden bricks type layout, which is nice and simple and I figured would be good for post-baby sewing when my brain might not be working so well :)  Plus, I thought the colors would be a nice change of pace from the usual "girly" color palates if needed in the future.  I've not purchased any Amy Butler before, but I'm glad that this pattern uses larger blocks, as the prints are also larger scale.

"Love" this selvedge!

Getting away from Craftsy for a moment, Southern Fabric has "daily deals" and I decided to hop on board with one of those.  This is a layer cake of the Mist colorway from Violet Craft's Brambleberry Ridge.  I bought it thinking that it would be more of a grey-grey, and therefore more boy-friendly, but it's definitely got a violet-type tinge, to me at least, which, with the gold shimmer, puts it more in the girly camp.  I also decided to splurge on a partial layer cake because Sarah had just posted a new method for making 16-patch checkerboard blocks that I thought looked kind of neat.  You pair your layer cake pieces, and each pairing makes a pair of checkerboards.  The bundle has 18 squares, so I'm hoping I can incorporate two more from my stash so that I can have a final layout of 4 blocks by five blocks.  We'll see.

These are the only ones with no shimmer.

All the gold is shimmery!

Shimmery trees and shimmery birds.

Next week I've got another quilt kit to show.  I've never purchased kits before - I'm hoping it works out well!

Linking up with Molli Sparkles!

A quilt for baby Jack

As I mentioned previously, I've got a new baby nephew due any moment now!  My husband and I went home to Maryland for a baby shower this past weekend for us (well, for Bean), which was the perfect opportunity to deliver Jack's quilt to my brother and sister-in-law in person.

I followed Melissa's tutorial, called Playing the Scales, and am pleased to report that this project came together relatively quickly.  The only deviation I made from her instructions was that I did a lot more laying out in advance than just grabbing and chain piecing.  And I only managed to flip my rows around, necessitating unpicking, twice!

The quilt is backed in a green and black paisley (no idea of the name, sorry), a grey print from JoAnn's, and a Cloud9 print that came from the remnant bin at JoAnn's (no selvedge, sorry).

I quilted on either side of each vertical seam, which was simple but not that speedy as there are a lot of columns in this quilt!

I finished the quilt about a month ago, when we had a foot of snow on the ground.  That's kind of unusual for Louisville, so I figured I should try and take advantage of the situation for some "artsy" quilt photography.  And, to show the ever-changing moods of Mother Nature in March, it's now 70 degrees and sunny today!

And here's Lindsay testing out Jack's quilt to make sure it's up to par.  I love it when quilts are used!

And speaking of used, she recently posted an Instagram pic of big brother-to-be, James Michael, with his quilt by Aunt Kacey - is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen??  (You can find me on Instagram at kpwarren07.  I'm trying to be a more regular poster, but I'm already a regular viewer!)

 

 

Linking up with the other folks over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict!

Sunday Stash #27 - Birthday buys!

My birthday was this past week and I celebrated by treating myself to some fabric!  (I also ended up with a terrible cold, so the fabric really was a highlight to an otherwise icky day.)  I hit up a Craftsy sale and also sprung for a Southern Fabric daily special, but I'm going to spread the buys out over a couple posts so that it doesn't seem quite so glutinous :-P

I got two charm packs of Ready, Set, Go by Ann Kelle/Robert Kaufman.  Two reasons for this purchase: 1) if Bean is a boy, I'll make his quilt from these because the colors coordinate with the other brights in the nursery; 2) if Bean's not a boy, it's never bad to have boy-friendly prints on hand.  I especially like the bright color palate, as well as the mixer prints and the bicycles.  I actually almost bought some yardage of the bicycles to make a crib sheet!

Craftsy also had some Aurifil thread sets on sale, so I got the white-black set.  I've started sewing with the spool I got from my Fabric.com purchase a while back, and while I'm not completely a convert, it is nice how the thread is so thin and takes up less space in the seam allowance.  I think others have commented that it's also less linty, but I don't know that I've noticed that yet.

So that's week 1 of the birthday buys!  I think I'll milk these purchases for three more posts - a whole month of birthday fun!

Linking up with Molli Sparkles, and mourning the loss of one hour of sleep thanks to Daylight Savings Time...

Awesome wishes - a completed top

A while back (pre-pregnancy), I started this top with the intent of donating it to the Louisville Modern Quilt Guild's charity quilt drive.  Given that I just finished the top last week, it should be pretty clear that I missed that deadline.  In fact, I haven't been to a meeting since they announced the drive, although I did donate my Ed Emberley quilt via my LQS, which is a Project Linus drop-off site, so I wasn't a complete charity slacker.

This quilt is done with only a jelly roll!  (It annoys me when a tutorial is for a "jelly roll quilt" that uses extra fabric for the top and not even the whole roll.) The line is Wishes and the pattern is called Awesome, hence the Awesome Wishes quilt.  And now that it's a top, I think it will remain that way until a recipient is needed.  I've mentioned before, it's just easier to store tops (I fold them over a hanger in the closet) than completed quilts.  The tutorial directs you to set aside 5 strips for binding, so I've got that covered, but it will need a backing when the time comes.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict!