stars and stripes lap quilt

so this quilt had been on my "to do" list forever, and when it came up that julia with red rainboots handmade was planning to do a sew along, i was all about that!  i easily had blue and red scraps in my stash, and bought the perfect backing on clearance a few months prior, so i just knew i had to jump on in and do it!  plus, this would FINALLY be a quilt for me again.  which had a whole lot of pros, but a few cons as well.  well, just the one con being that it tended to fall down the totem pole as far as priority goes...  more on that later!
i like the idea of seasonal quilts to have for couch sitting and TV watching, so having a little bit of summer time good ol' american spirit was the perfect vibe to have.  plus, we current have a red couch in our living room with my teal accented stuff all over the place, so it was clearly a match that was meant to be!
like i mentioned before, i had the fabric bits for the flags already (just needed a good white since i chopped it all up for another project) but while i was out shopping for the background fabric, i found the adorable tic tac toe fabric as well as the red with white polka dots.  clearly, it was meant to be!  i booted some red ones i wasn't 100% sold on, which made me end up liking things so much more anyways.  the blues were all pulled from my stash, 100 blocks quilt as well as the stash from my fussy cut sampler.
i was hoping to find that super cute tic tac toe again for binding, but when i went back they didn't have the yardage anymore.  i do like the simplicity of the red/white to tie in to the quilt without being super IN YOUR FACE as if it were a striped print.  the flags remain the focus all over, as they should be :)
the downfall of this all came by being a quilt for me when the sew along had ended.  i kept up with everything down to the very last finished top post (i think mine was quilted even by that point) but i just could NOT get the binding on in time for whatever reason!  i was easily prioritizing other projects, which made this one sit and sit and sit some more.  i made and attached the binding at a maker monday, got it all completed, and then for whatever reason, burying the broken threads from quilting it just didn't happen.  i probably had a stack of three quilts waiting on binding alone (which FINALLY two of the three are done.  FINALLY) but i definetly missed the time frame of which to have this thrown on the couch for the 4th of july.  it is now nearly pumpkin quilt season!  but much like the pumpkin quilt, being completed after it's "season" just means it will be ready for next year, right?  which is something i've been saying about my christmas quilt as well... oops.
once everything was purchased for this quilt, it went together SO easily that i could definitely see myself making this quilt again if someone asked (or if i felt obligated) to do so.  i feel like sometimes i play safely "by the rules" so my colors were all as listed on the pattern (but lets be real... they're SO GOOD) but it was so fun seeing the different variations of this quilt done on instagram.  there were pride flags, blue line flags, traditional flags and more!  maybe i'll take a little risk the next time i make it?  who knows!
pattern information: stars and stripes by thimble blossoms (camille roskelley)
quilt count: 122

atomic kitty cat baby quilt

this summer sure felt like a wave of baby quilts passed through.  or maybe i just got vary spur of the moment ideas to make great things happen in a short period of time once baby shower invitations arrived in my mailbox.  because if you know me, you know i cannot show up to a baby shower uncrafty in one way or another.  this first quilt was for an extra special someone who dates back to the early 90s, as lacy was one of my very first friends from kindergarten!
she announced she was pregnant, and i instantly knew i had to make her something animal themed.  then, to all of our surprises, she kept the baby gender a secret until they arrived in to the world!  how to make an appropriately gender neutral quilt was the big question on my mind, and then i remembered this pattern i saw time and time again on instagram, and knew it was time to make it happen.
the atomic kitty pattern by paula steel quilts was just as adorable as it was easy to piece.  everything is either a square, a half square triangle or a flying geese block, and the trickiest part was keeping them in order!  i pulled fabric from my stash to make these colorful kittens, and it ended up being perfectly gender neutral as i hoped. keeping these rainbow colored kitties bright and cheery, with a hint of sparkly black did just the trick. originally i was planning to just use prints, but these kitties just needed some grunge and dimples fabric mixed in to the bunch!
this was another experience with machine binding, which i am getting more and more confident with each time i do it.  the red helped frame the quilt nicely, plus it was a print that i had enough of that wasn't used in the kitty faces at all!  i finished a day or two before the shower, so i didn't long arm it.  instead, i used my trusty chalk liner and walking foot to grid these kitties out.  having a more structured straight quilting also helped the kitties remain the main focus.
the backing was a perfect rainbow kitty mix, which tied in perfectly with the front.  i don't think joann's could have done a more perfect print for me to stumble upon to go with this random quilt idea.
and the verdit?
a sweet baby BOY was born just weeks after the baby shower, but a month before his due date.  he came in happy, healthy and ready to venture out in to the world!  it has been so fun to watch my dear friend become a momma (to a furless child, that is!) and cannot wait to meet him :)
pattern information: atomic kitty quilt block - paula steel quilts
quilt count: 121

garden snails 2.0

in the midst of all my "i'm going to catch up on my blogging!" hooplah, my laptop decided to give me a big fat OH NO YOU WON'T when it came to getting things done.  so after multiple chats with adobe representatives to get my serial numbers for programs to load on to my desktop and reinstalling my good friend "blogstomp" on there as well... we are back in action!  the same can't be said for my photography website... but that's another story for another day.
it is a little poetic that my first long arming experience at meissner's was practicing on my first garden snails quilt from the sew along hosted by gnome angel, and this 2.0 version was done at my last session there.  yes, that is exactly how long this quilt has been sitting around, quilted and waiting for binding.  the binding went on earlier this year, and then it sat some more.  it didn't have a home to rush off to, because i ended up loving it so much, i'm keeping it for myself.  granted, it is in no way any size to keep me warm... so some future child will be gifted with a snail quilt from years before.  its weird, its adorable... so there.
the main differences about this quilt compared to the first version is the background as well as the paper pieced shells.  i had a lot of fun making the scrappy shells for these, alternating in with the solid batik shells that i am STILL working my way through all the scraps from.  the bodies of the snails come from the scraps of my disgust halloween costume (which also got pieced on to the back as well)
the quilting pantograph is called "malachite" which in a sense gives it a wobbly snail trail kind of look.  it was actually fairly easy to quilt, and the wobbles just made it look a little more all over the place in case of mistakes.
this was also one of my first attempts at machine sewing binding, and with this one, i also used elmer's glue to help hold the binding in place instead of just wonder clips.  i can't remember who i saw that trick from on instagram, but shout out to them, it totally worked!  i finished this during the instagram quilt fest in march... so that goes to show you how long i have been delaying photographing and posting.  oy!
>revisiting this quilt (combined with a recent conversation about my closet shelf bowing from weight and fabric collecting and fabric using are two different hobbies) made me realize how much i enjoy stash busting to make quilts... which is clearly something i need to get underway.  i have so many pieces waiting to be used, which will help me validate the future of buying more (quality) fabric!
pattern information: garden snails by pen and paper patterns
quilt count: 120