This one is for my best friend and I can’t wait to see it finished!  I think it may be my favorite quilt yet.

OK, I think I need a bit more coffee and maybe for nothing else to break for a while.

Browsing Spoonflower is risky business for me.  It’s just too many cool ideas in one place, and it seems that I’m incapable of “just browsing”.  A yard of this linen/cotton blend fabric makes four “Property of Downton” tea towels so you can stock up or share, or you can make just one with a fat quarter.  I decided to share.

If you’d like to make an easy but professional looking tea towel, there’s a great tutorial for mitered corners on The Split Stitch.

The result is a pretty wrinkly towel, but since it’s a linen/cotton blend it’s going to get softer, better and more relaxed with each washing.

Things that get better with use?  Awesome.  And it makes me smile, so I’m going to count this one as a win.

Lucy and Chad are having a baby.  This means that Skylar is going to be a big sister, so when I made a baby quilt, I saved the leftover squares and made a little doll quilt for the soon-to-be big sister.  While Mom takes care of baby, Skylar can be right beside her, caring for her own little beanie baby, or whatever toddlers play with now.

While the baby quilt looks like squares on point, it’s actually made from the exact same hourglass blocks in the doll quilt, just arranged differently.  The tops are pieced from just two yards of ombre fabrics, one in green and one in pink.  I wanted the colors to flow in opposite directions, so it moves from dark green/light pink to light green/dark pink.  I love the effect!  Sometimes it even seems that the colors are “floating” one over the other.  If you want the same fabrics, I used Simply Color by V and Co. for Moda.  (Click the link to view the ombre jelly rolls — someday I MUST get my hands on one!  How gorgeous is that?!  I may need an aqua and gray quilt of my own … )

And oh, the crinkle!

This fabric was a joy!  And now that Ansley’s little diamond quilt is finished, it’s time to move on to new/old projects.  Thankfully, it just never seems to end!

In progress binding photos make me happy, probably because it means the quilt is nearly done.  I’m just loving this little quilt, and I hope it will make its future tiny owner very happy!

A small part of my weekend will be spent getting to know my new pin loom from Purl Soho.  When I ordered this loom,  I pictured it as a quiet craft I could take along on summer vacation, something to keep my hands busy while away from the sewing machine.   How sweet will it be to sit on a cabin balcony, soaking in the view of the Smoky Mountains while weaving tidy little coasters?  (My family simply cannot comprehend my idea of a great vacation, which is why there will also be zip lining.)   Now that the little loom is here though, I’ll probably have a stack of coasters long before vacation.  Anyway!

Have a great weekend!

No time to quilt it today, but I did get the top pieced.  There will even be a similar-but-different doll quilt that carries on the ombre effect for the baby’s older sister.

If only my arms were longer, you could see more!  The pink and green remind me of watermelon or roses, both of which are welcome this time of year.

And I always love the stained glass effect of a quilt top viewed from the back.  Even on such an overcast day, it just makes me happy.  The pattern of neatly pressed seams with the light filtering through is the reward of a job well done!  (Well, you probably have to sew to understand that one.)

I tend to think of quilts as my big “background project”.  Smaller projects jump in, like gifts for Mother’s Day and birthdays, and once they’re done I go back to my quilt in progress.  But baby quilts, much like babies, have a timing all their own.  My current quilting project is on hold again, this time so I can work on a little quilt I’m calling Ansley’s Diamonds.

I’m using hour glass blocks set together so they’ll form diamond shapes.  The added bit of interest with this quilt is the fabric which has a nice ombre gradation to it.  I’m using just one yard of green and one yard of pink, but because of the shifting coloration there are lovely variations in value.  The blocks pictured here combine the darkest green with the lightest pink, but they’ll shift across the quilt to reverse to a paler green and deeper pink.  Hopefully that will create a feeling of movement, something that will draw the eye back and forth over the pattern.

This one is maybe a bit different for another reason — I really don’t know the recipients all that well.  I met Lucy at the gym and she’s just so sweet, and her husband Chad is, too.  They’re young and kind, having their second child but still just starting out, really.  (At least it feels that way to someone who’s been married 22 years!)  Anyway, I’m a believer in positive reinforcement, so for their kindness alone baby Ansley gets a quilt.  And if I’ve done my math right, her big sister will get a little doll quilt from the leftover squares.  Otherwise I suppose I’ll be making a scrappy doll quilt!

Useful just around the house, but just think of how much easier it will be to handle all those power cords during travel!

It really doesn’t take much more than that, a couple of rectangular scraps of fabric and velcro.  Mickey makes organization more fun.

And like any other useful, quick craft, once you start you’ll quickly have a stack to share!

And apparently, everyone wants these!  These would be great to make in bulk when you have some free time, ready to wrap up when you need a quick gift.  (I’m thinking they’d make nice teacher gifts, helpful for summer travel over break!)

Our tiny little quilt guild (Lisa, Mary and me) met and connected our contributions to the “To Boston with Love” exhibit that will be displayed at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.  This project was sparked by the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild and has spread to include quilters from all around the world.  Small kindnesses matter, especially when can we add them all together.  I can’t wait to see photos of the flags on display!

And then we celebrated Mother’s Day!  My Mom and Mother in law each got a set of personalized organizer travel bags.  My Mom will be taking a big trip this summer and I’m hoping her bags will get a lot of use.

I’m getting a little carried away making a set for my best friend now, with some paper piecing, inset zipper pocket and cute quotes.  Then maybe there will be a set for me.  (And then it will really, really be time to get back to quilting.)

My own Mother’s Day gift was a gorgeous locket, and we took new photos to go inside. I can’t even tell you how crazy I am about these people.  I am well and truly blessed!

I’m getting ready for Mother’s Day and I don’t think my Mother in Law reads my blog, so I feel somewhat safe posting here.  (And if you see these before you get them Linda, Surprise!)  My Mom is getting the same thing, but we discussed sizes and so on to best suit her needs.

This set of scrappy travel organizer bags clips/unclips to a ring so you take only the ones you need with you. I made them in graduated sizes, color coded, with mesh “windows” so you can see the contents without having to dig through them all to find something, and I threw in lots of extra little sewing details to make them stronger and a little nicer looking. I even sewed in little travel related quote tags inside the bags as a special little surprise. This is one project I’m definitely going to make for myself, too!  My best friend has been wanting something that will help her store all of her many gadget cords when she travels for work, and I think this would do the trick nicely.

Just in case you sew and want to whip up some of your own, I got the little clips from Natalie and Stacey’s Etsy shop, the mesh is from Fabric.com and the zippers are from the fabulous Zipit Etsy shop.