crazy summer, crazy quilts

Sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed. With 8 people staying at the house this summer just keeping the fridge stocked is a big job.  When my life gets this crazy I can't concentrate enough to design a quilt.  I just want to relax with old familiar patterns. These comfort me and I still get some sewing done. Here are 2 quilts I made this week using my favorite crazy quilt pattern:

I used fat quarters from Amy Butler's Gypsy Caravan and Jenean Morrison's Grand Hotel. I had leftover fabric so I made pillows to go with the throws. I really love the Grand Hotel fabric and am fighting the compulsion to buy more:)

Where does the time go?

It seems like I just posted here, but really it's been awhile. Sometimes days blur together for me. My youngest daughter turned 7 over the weekend and we celebrated both days. The baby is totally spoiled :) I did manage to satisfy my sailboat quilt craving. Here are the last 2 in the series:

 I've wanted to do a pirate theme for a long time-- so much fun!
The fabric is a perfect wave pattern; I was almost sea sick sewing it:)

 Another motif I've been wanting to use is the big dipper constellation. Here was my opportunity:

 This quilt is a crazy rag quilt. I'm tweaking my pattern so that I can make a bunch for the holidays. I sooo want to make a profit this year from my shop. Is that even possible for a quilter?

detour from wedding quilt to sailboat quilt

Had to put aside the wedding quilt because I didn't have the backing fabric. So I decided to work on some of the ocean quilts that I've been dreaming of. I so miss the beach. It's been a couple of years since I've been there and it makes me sad that another summer is here with no beach in the plans.

 To make up for missing the real thing, I am going to make lots of ocean quilts. First up is a set of sailboat quilts. I imagine 4 quilts in the group, each one a bit different but the same size and the same basic design. The first one finished is "sailboat at night" :

Here is an attempt to show the process to get to the finished quilt:

You can just barely see the original drawing of the sailboat for the pattern. I try to use simple drawings to translate them into appliques. I put out all the fabric at the same time to see which ones look best together.

trying to fulfill the process pledge

I was investing time surfing the net today.(Investing sounds better than messing around avoiding chores and necessary projects, which is what I was really doing and you knew it, right :)). Anyway, I stumbled across this blog where quilters commit to revealing the thought process behind the quilts they make. I decided to try to do a better job sharing the convoluted, lightning fast decision making that goes into my quilt design. haha

I hope neither of my 2 readers get really bored but here goes:

My next project is a wedding quilt for my niece, Kelsey. She wants black, white and grey colors. The rest is up to me. I already made one quilt for her but decided it wasn't right so now I'm agonizing unnecessarily over this one. It should be queen size which is a bit larger than I like to make. I want to make a wedding ring using the bottom fabric for the rings. 

 The problem is that I want to make the rings in a complete circle but that would use too much fabric, sooo I'm thinking of ways to make half circles that will conserve the fabric and still be pretty quick to sew.

Was that process enough for now? That's as far as I've got. Now I have to stew on it some more.

Still zig zagging

Here I am still in a zig zag chevron mood. I've made 6 of these quilts so far, a record batch for me. I'm going to make at least one more, I think. They are just so much fun. They are fast to make and I love seeing the colors blend together. I don't even have a favorite, I love them all-- like a litter of puppies but it's a litter of quilts :)

in a chevron mood

I'm in a chevron stripe mood. I've been making lots of time consuming, large, kinda difficult quilts lately and I needed a change of pace. Plus, I was getting low on inventory for lap quilts, so I wanted to make a few new ones. Adding to that, I've been noticing chevron stripes everywhere lately and I've been trying to figure out how to make one in a rag style. Most of the patterns involve cutting lots of tiny triangles and sewing them together to get one big chevron stripe.

Who has patience for that? Not this quilter. Why would you cut up pieces to sew them back into a pattern when you could just cut the fabric in one large strip and sew it on the top?  But then, I'm an applique lover who avoids piecing whenever possible, sooo. Here are my newest lap quilts, chevron style.

The bottom one is a favorite because it has my favorite designer, Alexander Henry, and my favorite Alexander Henry line, The Ghastlies. Here's a detail from the quilt:

butterfly quilt finished and for sale

In spite of the massive storm and power outage, I finished the butterfly quilt! It turned out very different from the original plan. I had the idea of a print for the borders but it looked like too much pattern, too busy. A quilt is almost never too busy for me, so that was unusual. It also seemed like too much pink. When I tried the solid aqua flannel I knew it was the one :) But I couldn't resist just a curve of color in the center of the borders.

power back on after storm yippee!

Power just came on! It feels like Christmas :) The storm was scary. It sounded like a tornado. I grabbed the girls and head for the lower level of the house because we were upstairs getting ready for bed. Fortunately, no damage but some branches and a tree down over the driveway, which hubby cut up yesterday.

 
We have a generator for the well but no air conditioning or internet so it was uncomfortable. I'm not sure which bothered me more-- maybe I'm an Etsy addict lol