Waste Not...Want Not

When I opened the package that held the fabric gems that Amber sent, the first thing I noticed was that some of them had wonderful pieces of the selvedge printing on them. I knew right away that I wanted to incorporate them into the block. I hope that works for you Amber. It's pretty straight (at least for me). I thought wonky might be too much with all the fun fabric. I attempted to feature the little horse too...cut off his nose a bit, but he's still a player in the block. Thanks for all the fun fabric (i'm sorry I didn't get to use it all)...it was great to play with!

Rebekah's Quilt

Jon was away for the weekend on a backpacking trip, so I spent most of the weekend basting, quilting and binding my Common Threads quilt. It was nice to have a large block of time set aside to finish up this project. And, it was equally nice to be able to finish up two big quilt projects in two consecutive weekends and clear up this unfinished business from my sewing room!



I was under a little bit of pressure with the quilting, because the new fabric marker that I bought was disappearing ink, not washable ink. By yesterday afternoon, I was really straining to see the last remnants of the lines while I was quilting.



I had a lot of help this weekend from my two little kitty friends. They were partially acting like they wanted to hang out with me and partially waiting by the side door wondering when Jon would arrive home.



I did the majority of the quilting in the loopy line style seen in this wedding quilt from glittergoods. The distance between my lines of squiggles was 2.5". I used red thread on the white top and bottom of the quilt. Then I stippled the individual blocks with white thread. This part really pained me to do because it meant quilting over some of the embroidered details that a few of the blocks had. In the end I was glad that I did it because it blends in with the quilt and it makes the blocks look like they all belong to the quilt.



I used a red and white polka dot fabric for the binding and then black fabric for the backing.



The quilt was made for a full-sized bed and is approximately 80" x 90". It fits our non-puffy, non-pillowtop mattress perfectly.




Here it is resting peacefully in our guest room. The little kitties made themselves right at home and made me thankful for using black fabric on the back of the quilt where all of their white hair won't show up!


Thank you all for coming up with such creative, unique and interesting blocks! It was so much fun to put this quilt together and I love looking at all of the details that you included in your individual blocks!

Blocks for Carissa

Here you go Carissa:

I think I need to find more striped fabric to play with because this one is my favorite.

A little embroidery to bridge the gap between the two focus fabrics.

This was the first block I sketched out. The embroidered motifs jumped out at me right away.

A little foray into hand applique for me.

Every one is a different size and I'm excited to see how Carissa joins all of them. I hope they all give you sweet dreams during naptime.

A car block

This is for Carissa. She's making a car quilt (for her car), and sent out some really gorgeous fabric. Simple, interesting, very cool. I'm not the only one who thought to use the lined chalkboard fabric as roads, but I do love the idea.

Mine is meant to be an aerial view of a highway; the colored dots represent houses (it's crowded!). It's a simple square, but truth be told I quite like it. I hope Carrisa does too!

A monochrome block for Liz

I've been (incredibly) remiss in my Common Threads blocks. New city, new job, sometimes it all just catches up to you, you know? Not to worry though, I'm back, and making strides!

This block is for Liz. I loved the monochrome fabrics, and I love the modern pallet of the colors. As a (brand) new quilter, I decided to make this block an exercise in precision (something I working on) and went for a 4 x 4 square, trying really hard to cut accurately, and sew accurately.

And? I'm pretty happy with it! I had fun coming up with the final arrangement, and I hope Liz likes it!

Two More Blocks for Carissa

Here are two more blocks for Carissa. I loved the fabrics she sent out and the idea of a car quilt is brilliant. I hope you like them!

Better Late than Never

Ok so I'm a little late...but I have mailed out all the fabric bundles. I just need to give you all a plan as to what to do with them.

I was trying to think up something fun and original but my brain wasn't co-operating so I decided on scrappy log cabin blocks.

You can make them wonky - or not.

You can add some of your own fabric - or not.

I found a few on Flickr that I like...here, here, here and here.

I had a hard time knowing how much fabric to send everyone so if you need more, please let me know.

And the block should be anywhere from 10"-12". I'm planning on using them to make a queen-sized quilt for my bed so I'll have to make some to add in too. 

I'm going to use a solid sashing in between the blocks (like this) so don't worry if they aren't even - I'll add the sashing and trim them to the right size.

If you have any other questions, just send me an email!

OK - can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.

**I'm a little spacey while writing this since I am on muscle relaxers for a sore neck....hopefully it all makes sense.

blocks for Carissa

I came up with these two blocks for Carissa's car quilt last night. I had lots of fun playing around with this fabric. I love the colors and the prints that she put together. I added the orange/maroon block fabric to the bunch to complement the rest of the colors in the quilt.



I ran out of fabric on this block. I was originally intending on adding a white border to it, but due to my miscalculations, I ran out of fabric. Feel free to add a border to it or keep it how it is.

blocks for carissa

another month under my belt. carissa, i so enjoyed working with the fabrics you sent. thanks! the first block was inspired by the handwriting fabric. i couldn't help but think of the little slates that my students used to use, so here are 4 little slates filled with perfect handwriting practice.






















for the second block i was inspired by your idea of a car quilt and so i went with roads, specifically an 8 lane interstate. can you see me veering off? the "veer" was a little harder than i expected, but it was fun to try. both blocks are rectangular. i think you said that was ok.

my blocks for Carissa's car quilt

here's the block I made for Carissa's car quilt:



hope it's not too literal.

since I had extra fabric, I also made a bonus block, pretty similar to the inspiration block posted:


I ended up using a lot of scraps from my own collection, but all of the colors can be found within the white print. a pretty interesting set of colors in that print - colors that look good together but that I wouldn't have otherwise combined.