1 weekend, 2 finished quilts

This was a gloriously long weekend with plenty of time to work on finishing my quilts. I've been quilting them for the past week, practicing first on a couple pillow fronts and then taking the dive into actual quilts. This was my first time quilting ever, thanks to my new Janome 6260QC. I love, love, love it. The free motion was such a cinch, felt like I've been doing it all my life. So I practiced on the pillows, then moved onto my Mod Sampler Quilt. I figured I could do an okay job on mine so when it came time to do my sister's quilt, hers would be a step above okay.

The good news is it worked, and I'm completely satisfied with how the quilting on both quilts turned out. And now onto some photos:

Brianna's 20th birthday quilt. She requested a stripy quilt with pink and orange fabrics. So hello, of course, Amy Butler Midwest Modern. I had some pink stuff left from this quilt, and I ordered the rest from eBay. I used Kona White sashing. The finished size is approximately 50" X 60". I made 12 huge blocks that had 8 stripes each (4 white, 4 colored) and then put them all together. It was one of the fastest quilt tops ever!

I was inspired by the Denyse Schmidt Hop, Skip & Jump quilt, but decided to go at it myself. As scrappy and random as it may look, I planned and planned and planned for this quilt. And even then, somehow my plans got a little messed up. But luckily the scrappiness of the quilt lends to easily fixing mistakes, and fix I did. My dad, ever the mathematician, will probably be the only other one to notice my mix up.

I also made a matching patchwork pillow to go with her quilt, but sorry, no pictures yet. She doesn't know about the pillow, so that will be a nice surprise.

I also made a pillow to match my Mod Sampler Quilt with leftover scraps.

I just love the way my Mod Sampler turned out, so bright and cheery, perfect for my couch this spring. I don't have any full pictures of it yet, it was rainy today when I finished the binding. (On a side note, two quilts worth of binding to sew on by hand = very sore fingers!)

I used a mix of Amy Butler and Heather Bailey fabrics with Sugar Snap on the back. The sashing is Kona Snow, the binding is a plain pink, the same I used on my sister's quilt. This is the first time I used plain binding and I like the simplicity it brings to an otherwise busy quilt. My husband appreciated the balance the white sashing brought to the colorful blocks. I swear if he were to design a quilt, it would be all solids, maybe 3 colors. I should ask him to design a quilt, just to see what he would come up with.

Now, because I love to see quilts all cuddly and crinkly:

Alright, time to watch Jon & Kate battle it out on the season premiere. I think I might grab some knitting to keep my fingers busy...

My Enlightenment

If you are visiting my site for the first time, welcome! Many of you may have linked from the Made by Rae Spring Top contest. Don't forget to vote before tomorrow night, mine is TOP J in the Top 10! And some of you may have found my ruffle top on the Sew, Mama, Sew! Blog. Feel free to leave a comment to let me know you stopped by :-)

My favorite new top isn't the only exciting news in my life....

Yesterday Curt picked up my new sewing machine from the local sewing shop. I've only been looking for a year now.. haha. After looking around the internet and asking other sewers, I made an impulse decision to buy the Janome 6260 Quilter's Companion. I haven't used it a whole lot yet (I had to work last night) but so far I love it.

I've been working on my Oh, Fransson Quilt-Along sampler quilt and it will be my first quilting project on my new machine. The highlight of my life: the ability to free motion quilt, finally! That was the #1 reason I needed a new machine, besides the fact that my old one is a Brother low-end starter model that I got for my 19th birthday. My parents didn't think I'd stick with sewing, so they didn't want to invest in anything expensive. Somehow I've been sewing with that and managed a few quilts, but now I feel like my possibilities are endless.

Tonight I'm going to start cutting fabric for my sister's birthday quilt. I gave her the choice of a bag, a quilt, or something else I could make her, and she choose a quilt. I would have too. So per her request, a pink, orange, yellow & white quilt based on Denyse Schmidt's Hop, Skip & Jump quilt. I don't have the pattern, but I was planning on winging it anyway a~la Kathy's baby quilt at Pink Chalk Studio.

Now I just have to double check my math and get cutting - pictures to come. I ordered a bunch of different Amy Butler Midwest Modern 2 prints in the color scheme to throw in with my stash of pink Midwest Modern prints left from this quilt. Plus I'll probably add some random scraps from Heather Bailey for good measure.

Wow, how exciting! I'm going to get to work right away.