Check out this Basic Grey loot..

Look at this darling pile of goodies Megan and I got in the mail from Basic Grey! Seriously, my heart just hopped from my chest!

Giant gorgeous flowers, pretty vintage looking buttons. Endless possiblities...pillows, flowers, I already added buttons to this dress!

 I have been thinking of making one of those coffee filter ruffle wreaths, and add some of these flowers to it?

Then these cute canvas sampler you get to decorate with cute fabric scraps. See here for more inspiration. I shall be making mine up soon!

Thank you Basic Grey! Keep my address on file!  :)

In a few weeks Megan is going to be doing a giveaway with one of these fun Canvas boards. 

Central park flipside quilt from Stitching by starlight...

Darling quilt submission from "Stitching by starlight." Angie is a cute crafting quilting mommy. Here are a her 2011 finished projects, and a few fun tutorials.  I love this quilt and fabrics. I have a few of these prints, I want to break them out! Hope you find this quilt as cute as we do!

central park flipside

Earlier this spring - just shortly after my return to my quilting hobby - pictures of Kate Spain's Central Park started popping up. Like many, I immediately fell in love. Of course, I was also having a hard time justifying the price. With two boys, it's hard for me to allow myself to buy things that will be just for me. You know..."giiiiirly" things. (Said with a nasal tone only a 7 year-old boy could produce.)

So, I put it off.  I thought to myself, "I can wait 'till it goes on sale".  Then Rachel did me in.  When I saw Flipside, I knew I couldn't wait.  I had my jelly rolls and pattern with the week.   The strips were cut within two weeks, and then they sat.

And sat. 

Fast forward through the summer of WIP busting - in which I finished five other projects, woo! - and I finally get going on it.  In the meantime, though, the invitation to our favorite babysitter's bridal shower came.  I knew in my heart what I needed to do, but I didn't want to.  It was *my* quilt.  MINE.  [Insert stubborn little two year-old foot stomp.]

But I couldn't.  It's just her.  The colors, the design, the appreciation.  She truly was the best babysitter ever.  She started sitting for us when she was about 14 and our oldest was about two.  He's 11 now.

She's gone on our beach trips, jumping up to change diapers before I would even realize the baby was crying.  She's took on the additional responsibility of sitting for other kids on the trip so the parents could have an adult night out.  She made sandwiches, sat in the sand, and endured the endless teasing from the men in the house - including ice-water bucket tosses and dunking in the ocean.  She fixed breakfast so we could sleep in.  She loved my kids like they were her own.  In short, she's made it practically most assuredly impossible for anyone to take her place.

She deserved this quilt.

I finished it the morning of the shower - nothing like the last minute to get something done. We were at my BFF's lake house, so I had an awesome backdrop for pictures.

The piecing, as expected, went by in a snap.  The sashing and large blocks made it easy to put together.  I used leftovers from the strips to piece the back, too.  

I bought a generous helping of that backing fabric - I think it's my favorite in the entire collection.  I think I even have enough for a tote bag.  :)  A friend of mine suggested quilting with the back facing up - going around the flowers and leaves.  If I would have had time, I would have done just that - how gorgeous would that have been???  (Will be keeping that in mind for the tote bag.... ).

So anyway - I was a nervous wreck at the shower and, wouldn't you know it, my package got put at the end of the gift table.  Yup...last gift opened.  I was practically pacing.  See, she's an interior designer now.  Full of all kinds of knowledge about creativity, color combination, print selections, and all that designer-y stuff.  What if she hated it????

When it was finally my turn, I walked up to the front with my camera and jokingly told her, "they don't carry these in Target."  Her response was, "I've seen what you do and I was hoping this didn't come from a store!"  (Boy, that made my heart sing!)

Well, she loved it.  In fact, she told me the other day that she's been using it quite a bit.  Probably because I had given her the, "this quilt was made to be used" speech.  In fact - I told her if I found out she wasn't using it, I was taking it back.  And I wasn't kidding.  ;o)

So, now my Flipside is gone.  The quilt I just had to have is no longer for me.  It's in good hands, deserving hands, loving hands, but not my hands.  Wouldn't change it for the world, but it's funny how things sometimes turn out.  Bittersweet, I guess.

Good thing I got a Terrain bundle this week.... bwahahahaaa!

Fabric Tuesday #55 link up some cuteness!

Fabric Tuesday.

Haven't been crafting much. I have been on a big house cleaning attack.  Which is good, because I hate cleaning, and things get a little out of control. Plus I am in the  mood to decorate lately, so I just haven't been doing much  quilting. I am planning on some serious crafting and sewing in October, so I will make up for all the time I wasted cleaning!

These projects from last week really popped of the page for me. Love them!

From Lisnweary quilts, love the hot balloons!

Cute HST quilt from The spunky diva.

Amazing double wedding ring quilt! 37,907 hand stitches!!! all hand appliqued! From bolohead. AMAZING!

Darling "Ruby Hex Quilt" with a great tutorial!

Sunni from "Love Affair with my Brother" (I admit I had to check into what that meant, as witty as I think I am, sometimes I am rather slow getting the joke)  She is talking about her brother sewing machine.  Anyhow, Sunni has a great blog, full of tutorials and fun! She also just celebrated a birthday, she just turned 25 (again), and she is giving away some Heirloom from Joel Dewberry. LOVE this fabric, so make sure to go sign up!

The Ruby Hex Quilt!
This has been an exercise in embracing my mistakes. Lucky for you, I did so you don't have to!

When I got this fabric, I was ecstatic. I love the colors, the patterns, the mix. If you only heard the color story, you might question if it would really work. But as soon as you see it, you know.

I thought that it would be perfect for a back-to-school shirt for Ellie. I was going to do a solid color bodice, with a button placket, and a zigzag pattern on the bottom of the blouse. I drew up some sketches, picked out my strips and got to work.

Ouch! It didn't work. I should have planned more. So I am saving that sketch for another day (and another jelly roll). After realizing that I needed a new plan, I tried desperately to salvage what I could.
I did more than salvage it! I made a gorgeous hex quilt for Mae.

Get More!


You will need:
Ruby jelly roll
2 yds Kona white or coordinating solid
backing fabric
long ruler with 60 degree markings

Block Assembly

To start off, vacuum your strips. (What? You don't do that? If you have a fussy machine, you should!)

Group your strips in pleasing sets of 6. You will need 24-30 strips. (I used more because I butchered the first set!)

Offset your strips as you sew them together. I used the 60 degree line on my cutting mat. If you don't have that, just offset by 1" each.

Press the seams to the side.

Using your 60 degree mark on your ruler, cut the ends of the strips off.

Flip your ruler and cut again at 60 degrees creating an equilateral triangle.

Keep flipping and cutting until you use your entire strip set. If your offset was perfect, you should get 6 triangles. If you only get 5, don't stress. You have plenty of strips!

Be very careful when handling and sewing your triangles. They have 2 very large, bias edges that will stretch if you aren't careful. Don't let that scare you away. If I did it, you can do it for sure. Starch is your friend, but be sure to starch prior to cutting the triangles. 

Do this with your other strip sets until you have 24 triangles.

Here is a possible layout.

Maybe it looks too much like radiation?!

I mixed all of my triangles on my design wall until I liked the arrangement!

design wall (i.e. tacked up batting!)

I wanted more space between my hexagons, so I added 4.5" strips along the outer edge of each triangle. I chain pieced these and then trimmed to match the angle.

Using your best triangle as a template, cut triangles of your solid. Do this with long strips using the 60 degree mark on my ruler as I did with the strip sets.

Another option so that you aren't stretching the bias edge of your "best" triangle, is to use that triangle to make a paper template. I taped pieces of printer paper together to accomplish this.

Cut 8 triangles.

Cut 2 of those triangles in half, so that you have 4 halves.

Quilt Assembly

Now to get down to assembly.  Sew 3 triangles together to make a half hex. Make 8 half hexes.

Iron your seams to the outside. You can sew right above that point!

I had a few skipped stitches, so I added a 2nd line of stitches.

Sew 2 half hexes together to make a whole. You need 2 whole hexes.

Cut one of those wholes in half like so.

If your sewing machine is chewing up your points, use a bit of paper or post-it.

One of the beautiful things about this quilt is that you simply match the seams. No need to offset!!

You should now have 1 whole, 2 weird halves, and 4 regular halves.

Lay your hexes and solid triangles out on your floor or design wall.

When you add your triangles, the points will overlap a little. That's good. It means you cut them to the right size!

Because of the nature of the way I made this quilt (imagine stumbling around in the dark) I don't have as many photos as I would like to make this tutorial. If you have questions, don't hesitate to e-mail me.

I marked the sewing lines. (I'm so sorry to do it like this!! Is it awful?)

Starting with your center hexagon, add 2 solid triangles on the top left and bottom right sides. (Red lines)

Add solid triangles to your weird half hexagons. (Pink lines)

Assemble your center column. (Yellow lines)

For each side column, assemble along blue lines and then green lines.

Join your columns at the black lines.

Ta-da! Your completed hex top. 

It really wasn't that complicated, right?

Baste, quilt and bind your Ruby hex top!

I used straight line quilting to make even more triangles!