More Indecision

I started this last night. I made all the blocks, cut to finished in 3.5 hours. It's almost like instant gratification quilting. The fabric is the 'Oz' line by Sanae for Moda. Now I can't decide on a setting.
This is why quilting is a group sport. Sometimes you just can't make up your mind! I can't decided between setting options 1 and 2. Thoughts? I welcome opinions from my quilting and non-quilting friends/family alike!
Option 1, offset with wide orange strips:

Option 2, orange sashing with corner squares:

The photos aren't that great, but I took them in the basement last night. If I had my quilt wall up, the pictures would have been much better. Ahem.....

The first of many

I'm so excited! My Rouenneries Stone Soup wall hanging is done! Thanks so much to all of my quilting and non-quilting friends for their border help. I went with the red, obviously. But then Shelleybean left the idea of a red flange with the tan block print (option 3) after I had the top all done. I thought that was a GREAT idea, because as many of you know, I love a flange!!!! If you don't know what a flange is, this is a great explanation (and it looks like they have some fabulous quilting how to's).

Binding Guru Karen dropped it off Tuesday night and I promptly washed it to get it all wrinkled and quilty. I was a little concerned about how the linen blend would wash, but it turned out nicely. I think the linen gives it a nice texture. I have at least 4 quilts I want to make with this fabric.  

I quilted straight lines through the light colored squares, which I think makes it look like the dark squares are more complicatedly (is that even a word?) pieced, like they are really a sqaure in a square instead of just blocks. I used my water soluble interfacing technique to quilt the feathers in the setting squares and the outer border.

The backing is from an old Moda 3 Sister's line called 'Wuthering Heights' that I had in my stash. 

Now I just need to find the right place to hang it! It will have to be somewhere where I see it often.

I also whipped up this cutie patooty bag. I don't think it's possible to not smile when you see Girl Scout cookies. The fabric is from Kaufman's 'Girl Scouts' collection. I couldn't resist it, having been a girl scout myself. I made the bag for my friend's daughter, who, it goes without saying, is a girl scout! I'm also going to make one out of the pink cookie material for her to give as a prize to the cookie salesgirl who sells the most cookies in her troop. And I have the green cookies to make myself a little something. I made the pattern up as went along to try to highlight the fabric. I'll have to make the little racoon badge stand out on my bag. I loved that badge as a child.

And even though I do not do the whole Valentine's Day thing because of my V-Day curse, the hubby suprised me with these gorgeous hot pink roses and sushi for dinner. Wasn't that nice of him?

Bag bling

Remember this purse:

And how the Girly Girl needed a little something?

Ends up, it needed a wool flower pin:

Much better, don't you think?

I cut the flower shapes with my Sizzix die cutter that I have to use for my card making. It also cuts fabric if you get the large sized dies. Sweet, huh? Just like Alton Brown, I love a multi-tasker!

Happy Valentines Day to all those who celebrate it. I don't, since I'm trying to avoid my bad things always happen to me on or within a day of Valentine's Day curse.

Knitting bag fun

Thank you all so much for the input on the Rouenneries border dilemma. I went with the red, which was the favored fabric. I wish I had seen the comments about the flange and the inner red border before quilting it, and you know me, I love a good flange and multiple borders! Heck, I could have done a flange and a border! Drat, it's too late now since it's at Binding Guru Karen's getting, well, the binding stitched on. I'll have photos when it returns home to me.

The red is gorgeous in it's own right, and I'm quite pleased with it. I had a bunch of itty bitty 1.5" squares left over, so I made 9-patches out of them and am in the process of assembling them into a small wall hanging as well. I just L.O.V.E. this line of fabric! I think the last one that I truly loved this much were the Seaside Rose and Paris Flea Market collections by 3 Sisters for Moda.
My friend Sue at TTD would ask me if I want to marry it, and yes, I think I would marry Rouenneries, if it were possible to marry a fabric line. Of course I would bet that fabric monogamy would be difficult to maintain long term.

In addition to finishing up the first of many Rouenneries quilts to come, I also finished a knitting bag for a friend. My friend has had a rough couple of years with her husband's illness and his passing and I like to be able to give her something to smile about. She's a real trooper, but I know it's been hard for her. She recently took up knitting, and when I saw the 'Carry Me' knitting bag pattern by Bunny Hill, I thought it would be nice to make for her to kick off her new hobby. 

It was supposed to be a Christmas present, but I didn't have time to finish it with all the other Christmas projects due, so I decided Valentine's Day would also be a nice time to give it to her.

I also included a lovely skein of wool that I got at Unique Yarns during my quilt guild retreat out in Rockford last fall. It's local grown? sheared? and spun.

I'll tell you, this store makes me want to take up knitting. I just can't possibly take up another thing now though.

I used the Minnick & Simpson 'Wiscasset' line by Moda. It's really more the colors in the side and button close up photos, then in the full frontal one. I had the flash on for the front one and it bleached the colors out a bit. The ribbon is from my Stampin Up! ribbon collection. I liked how the blue was the lighter blue featured in the fabric. Can I just say how much fun it is to make fabric covered buttons? I could make them all day!

I made this card for her as well.

And because everything is better with a Bumble:

The cutest calendar ever!

I bought this ridiculously cute calendar at Mitsuwa, a Japanese grocery store near my day job, in December. I totally couldn't resist. It's a bird-like creature and his friend's adventures around the world. I can tell where most of them are, but December 2009 has me stumped.

Does anyone out there have a guess as to where in the world the little bird creature is as he drops his doughnut?

I also acquired this darling embroidery book at their bookstore. The nice thing about an embroidery book is that you really don't need to read the language it's written in to understand the pattern. If you know a bit about quilting, you can usually figure out the quilting patterns as well.

Undecided

I need help! (Most people who know me would agree with that, in a highly sarcastic tone of voice to boot.)
I just couldn't wait to make my queen sized Rouenneries quilt, so I broke down this week and cranked out a wall hanging made out of 2 charm packs. I used the pearl linen/cotton blend for the setting, but now I'm totally in a quandry as to which fabric to use on the outer border.
Opinions are extremely welcome!

Option one - Red floral:

Option 2 - Gray border:

Option 3 - Tan border:

Option 4 - Block Print border:

Crazy sewing

I've been uber inspired to sew the last couple of weeks. Here's what I finished last week:

This is the Joy of Sacks pattern by Tammy Tadd, made out of Moda's tooled leather look vinyl and Studio E's 'Urban Angel' line.

I made another of my Taddle Table Runner and embroidered wool candy hearts and appliqued them to the middle of the runner.

I also made a quilted pillow out of the brown linen fabric that I designed and screenprinted over the summer. This was a gift for one of my bosses. I think it turned out really well, especially since I've never made cording before. I did break down and buy a cording foot for my machine. It really made it easier to get in close to the cording.

I also made two Girly Girl purses in the pink from the Deb Strain 'Sent with Love' fabric and Micheal Miller's zebra and another with the tooled leather vinyl.  I added the buttons with ribbons cris-crossed over it. I thought it was a little plain with out anything so I sat there and stared at it for a while and the fabric covered buttons popped into my head.

This is giant ric rac that I braided together and stitched down.

I think the tooled leather purse needs a little something up top, so I have a wool felt flower pin in mind for it.
I have to say that the vinyl was not easy to work with, but I think I've got it figured out now. You can't pin it because the holes stay permanently. I had to use some clippy things to hold it together as I sewed.