OMG! Is Finished!!

My goal was to finish this quilt by early November...

Victory is mine! It's done. The pieced center part of my quilt has 72 Shoo Fly blocks and 71 Double 9 Patch blocks. The original pattern "Omigosh!" by Susan H Garman is larger with over 100 of each block. My finished quilt is 60" x 70".

This is the pattern I used. Next step was to choose border fabrics.

These were all possibilities for the border but I didn't choose any of them for various reasons. (Although I did like the yellow with a narrow red accent, lower right.)

I chose to use an aqua print with a cream accent stripe for the border.

One reason for choosing these was the fact that I had yardage of both so I could use them for the back too! I pieced the backing and added a lovely purple too.

The quilt was spray basted and ready to quilt on Halloween.

Haha Mummy thread from King Tut!!

My old faithful Bernina 1530 is sometimes temperamental and won't sew the lefthand stitches of the wavy line so I stopped and quilted it on my newer Bernina. I left these stitches in the quilt because I love my old machine and don't fault her for skipped stitches. She sewed the bulk of the quilt already!

Snap Chats I sent on Halloween included this one while I was adding the borders.

I finished the quilt on Thursday November 2nd. I used the purple for the binding.

I love the bright orange Sassafras tree in the background. It earns it's place in our yard by it's gorgeous fall colors each year.

The pattern looks complicated but the directions are clear and the method is easy.

Final size is 60" x 70".

For my gecko followers...yes! there is one fussy cut square!

Link to Finish it Friday.

Omigosh! in Batiks

Next project started is this Omigosh! quilt designed by Susan H Garman. I'm using all fabrics from my stash so I rummaged around and found some fun things.

This roll of Jelly Bean Batiks by Laundry Basket Quilts is from 2014 and the 5 yards of white may be older than that! Good thing fabric doesn't have a shelf life!!

One inch strips sewn together to make tiny 4 patch squares.

This is just some of the plethora of units I needed to make the 4 patches.

These baskets contain pieces to make the tiny 9 patches.

I made loads of these tiny 9 patches while on vacation. These finish at 1 1/2"!

I made some into the double 9 patch blocks to see what it would look like.

To finish the 4 patch blocks there must be extra white all around it. I figured out a way to cut the excess "wing tips" off BEFORE sewing it to the 4 patch. 

The reason for that is so I could easily chain piece the units.

This is a sneak peek of what my finished blocks will look like. These blocks are 4 1/2" finished.

These are the 4 patch units for the Shoo Fly blocks. ALL of these need to be trimmed to 2" square. I've got plenty left to do but my goal is to finish this quilt by early November.

Birthday Color Books

We've been invited to a birthday party for the 2 little girls next door. They both turn 1 this fall. Their birthdays are 2 week apart so the party is right between. I pulled out my pattern for Alyssa's Color Book and made  books for Lily and Taliyah.

Alyssa's Color Book pattern was from 2010 when my niece, Alyssa, was turning 1.

These are Lily's color pages.

These are Taliyah's color pages.

Prairie point tabs.

To get even spacing on the tabs I clipped them descending in half inch increments.

These are the cute labels I added inside the back cover.

Happy 1st birthday to Lily and Taliyah.

Finish it Friday link up.

Indoor Snowball Fight In August

August is a nice hot time of year (in Maryland) to make snowballs and be thinking cool thoughts. So another Indoor Snowball Fight is born.

This bag is red, white and blue because it was made for my neighbor and her marine husband. They now live in San Diego, CA so they will be seeing VERY little snow!!

Snowballs are made out of 2 layers of white flannel.

I sewed around the outside edge but left a small hole to turn right side out and stuff them.

The bag was very quick to piece and quilt and the snowballs were equally quick to make.

Once the balls were stuffed I added eyes, mouth and noses with permanent marker.

Snowballs wait happily inside the bag.

A simple label...and...

Finished. A happy snowball fight just waiting to happen! Enjoy!!

"Among Friends @ Spool Girls" Finished

 "Among Friends" was started back in June of 2016 with my quilt bee Spool Girls.  Post about it is here. The pattern is simple friendship stars but in my opinion way too many triangles!! I really don't know how I got talked into doing this quilt. I ended up making 300 star blocks that are 3" finished. 

 (I could have sworn that I had made more stars than that!)

The quilt measured 46" x 60" before washing.  (43.5 x 58 after washing.)

I HATED all these seams! Pressing them open to reduce the bulk was a PAIN.

I machine quilted it through the light background areas.

The center of this star has 2 dogs. (They look like Loralai and Sasha!)

Here is a girl with a cup of coffee.

And my favorite gecko!

Another gecko!

My lovely label was inked by Sandra Chin, one of the Spool Girls.

The backing is a Judy Rothermel print from the "Macie's Journal" line that I found at Zooks in Intercourse, PA. I liked it because it looks more like a 30's print than Civil War but technically it was released with the Civil War line so this is my one and only quilt made nearly exclusively with Civil War fabrics.

I finished assembling the stars into blocks while on vacation in NC. And then I came home and was cleaning up my sewing room and.....

GASP look what I found TODAY!!! Star blocks that were hidden in this basket!!

Now I have 93 loose star blocks and my quilt is already FINISHED. Boo.

 Oh well, these will be used in something fun for sure!

Finish it Friday link up.