Block E Pieced and Sewn...

I finished piecing and sewing block E for the Quilt-Along. I am wondering if the dominant fabric on the bottom far right and bottom far left work with the quilt...hmmm...I found some fabric in the Casbah line from Timeless Treasures that coordinates with the dominant fabric in the top far right and have that ordered to see if perhaps I want to remake the blocks containing the two 'star' fabrics and use the Casbah fabric. I will decide once I have the Casbah fabric in my hands. Right now, I have just block F left to go before all the blocks are complete so I will continue using the 'star' fabrics as if nothing else, I will use them in another project at some point. I also ordered some fabric called Modern Love for Timeless Treasures. So I will have some decisions to make about the 'star' fabric once all of these arive!!!

I am pretty sure I will go with the navy sashing as all of the votes were for navy and my hubby and sweet daughter both like that one too!

Which Color???

Option #1 off-white/cream sashing: Option #2 darker blue-on-blue tone sashing:

Okay I need advice.

I first chose an off-white/cream color for my sashing on the quilt for the Quilt-Along. However, my fabrics tend more towards the traditional instead of modern and I now think that the lighter color sashing might not work. I laid out the fabric I had chosen for the binding and wonder if that looks better for the sashing. I would have to choose a different binding fabric but that is okay because I have time to do that. I think the blue-on-blue tone fabric pulls out the blues and navy blue from the other fabric and makes the chocolates and tans look warmer.

What is your opinion? Do you like the lighter color or the darker blue OR do you have another suggestion???

Block D Pieced and Sewn...

I finished up Block D for the Quilt-Along this morning. Elizabeth had a great tip on her blog site about using freezer paper to help square up your blocks in case you are off a bit. I used it with these blocks as I did get a few a bit off. It worked great!

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Today is my Princess's EIGHTH birthday!!! I cannot believe she is 8! She is sitting here behind me while I type...She awoke this morning and came downstairs where I had the breakfast nook table all decorated and had her cake and presents out for her. She was so excited and could hardly wait to tear into the gifts. Daddy was just leaving for work so she (being the sweet little diplomat) asked to open one gift before daddy left so he could see and then save the other two for when her little brother woke up so he could enjoy too! Gotta love her negotiation skills ;-)

Will post pics of the Birthday Girl later, but now I want to go spend some time with her!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBEY!!!

Block C Pieced and Sewn...

I finished all the blocks for Block C in the Quilt-Along this evening! This is MY VERY FIRST quilt so while I am nervous that I am going to screw something up, I am just as anxious to see the finished product! I think, so far so good...

My little boy loves to look at the block above (first row, middle) and decide which woof-woof, or 'gog' as he pronounces 'dog' is hiding behind the little blocks that make up that big block! He is so cute...he will say, "um, this gog is hiding behind this whittle block." Just makes my heart smile!

Block B Pieced and Sewn...

I got Block B for the Quilt-Along pieced and sewn this morning! My little boy get so excited when he sees me working on his 'woof-woof' quilt ;-)

Yesterday I went with a friend to the Quilt Show in Dallas. There were some great quilts and yards of great fabric. I reined myself in and just bought a few great fat quarters to go with my Bee Fabric and then did buy fabric for my daughter's quilt when I finish with this one I am currently working on for the Prince!

Block A Pieced and Sewn...

I got all of my "Block A's" pieced and sewn. When I went to square up the blocks, there is really nothing to square up. In fact, I measured and I am a tad under the 8.5" across that the patterns says there should be. I measured my seam allowance and it is 1/4" and my pieces are the 4.5" each so what is the deal? If I pull it apart more it reaches closer to the 8.5" so am I just not ironing flat enough? I just did not want to distort the fabric. Elizabeth says that there is minuscule pieces if any you should be trimming up so hopefully I am okay!

I had my first experience with breaking a needle on my sewing machine this evening! Luckily my hubby was here to talk me off the ledge and help me get the broken needle out and a new one in and my machine working again! (I had the wrong stitch chosen for the presser foot I was using...just hit the wrong stinkin' button!) However, (and this was BEFORE the needle breaking fiasco) my sewing machine will not feed my fabric backwards to reinforce my stitching! The last time I used the machine it worked fine but today it won't feed it towards me for reinforcement but will totally feed it properly when sewing so I am not sure what it going on with that.

On a lighter note! My sweet hubby drove me and the little Prince over to a quilt shop in a neighboring town that a neighbor of mine frequents and I found the yummiest fabric! AND all the fabrics are $4.99 per yard that is 50% of what I usually find them for! Check out the Chloe's Imagination by Tina Givens for Free Spirit that I found! Wow. I bought her very last yard. I LOVE this fabric. Now I need to find some pretty yellow daisy fabric to pair it with and some brown and yellows and off we go on another project, perhaps for the Princess!

Go check out the Chloe's Imagination pictures at the FreeSpirit Quilting Fabric site as my pictures don't do it justice with this rainy day and low lighting.

Now off to snuggle the kiddies as it is officially SPRING BREAK for us and the Princess has a whole week out of school! YAY!

Quilt-Along...

Well, I am jumping in and doing my first Quilt-Along! Oh, Fransson! is hosting it at her site. I have admired her work for ages now, always checking and keeping up with her blog as time allows. She has some great step by step directions so far - even for us newbies! There is a Flickr group so we can all see each others' color choices and progress.

I decided to make my quilt for the little Prince, since the afghan (which the finishing border is IN PROGRESS on) is for the Princess. I found a great fabric at the quilt shop that features Blonde, Chocolate, and Black Labs! I just HAD to use that and then work all my coordinating fabrics around that one:

The lil' Prince's first Lovie happens to be a Webkinz Chocolate Brown Lab! (along with his blanka blue of course!) so you see, I just had to have these little puppies on the quilt! They will also be on a large part of the backing as well as the pieces of some blocks. The complimentary fabric for this one is a chocolate marble from Moda...of course...chocolate lab lovie :-)

Here are all the fabrics I have chosen:

The photos are a bit dark as we are having some rainy days here and there is little good natural light...sorry!

Here is a shot of all my patterned fabric:

And here is a shot of all the solid marbles from Moda:

Here is what I am using for the binding:

I cut all my pieces for the quilt yesterday! I was short less than 1/8 of an inch for one of the 4/5 x 4/5 squares I need for just one fabric so will have to run back up to the shop today to get a tad more of that one but otherwise, all the pieces are cut and ready for the fun part - piecing!!!