Friday Finish: Four Square quilt

Popping in to quickly post a quilt top I just finished.  Other than the four large squares, these are all scraps from my son's graduation quilt.  I just love these fabrics so much and don't want to move on to another project.  

Four Square quilt top measures 48" square

The design idea came from the bathroom tile in our hotel in New York.  Those center and cornerstone blocks have squares that finish at only 1".  I'd like to do another quilt with those little 16 patch blocks.  Who knows....I have enough Carolyn Friedlander scraps...I may just do that!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.  Have a wonderful weekend.  

Thanks for stopping by,

Friday Finish: Passport Holders

Happy Friday everyone!  I am working on a couple of bigger gift items, but I do have a small finish to share this week.

hanging passport holder

My daughter needs a hanging passport holder for an upcoming school trip, and of course a plain store bought one would not do.   I followed (for the most part) this tutorial found on Pinterest to make one for Ally and her best friend.

the back

This London fabric bought at QuiltCon is perfect as that is one of their destinations.  The other fabrics are Cotton + Steel and Carolyn Friedlander.  The cord was something found in the process of cleaning up my sewing room closet.

crappy cell phone photo

I made these two as an experiment to see how they would turn out with plans of making another set a bit bigger to also hold a cell phone.  You never know with teenagers, so I was quite happy that the girls like them!

love the red zipper!

 I'm not sure what they are supposed to put in that plastic vinyl section.  I don't think advertising their personal information is a good idea.  I guess it would come in handy if using as a badge holder though.  Does anyone have any good tutorials for a hanging passport holder that is bigger and has an extra zip section?

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.  Thanks for stopping by,

Sew Sisters

Our Gruber's retreat group formed a Sew Sisters quilting bee with the new year and we are off to a beautiful start!

oversize bear paw block

Terri started us off in February requesting a huge (27.5") scrappy bear paw block.  I had a great time selecting fabrics which had a special meaning for her.  There are some Anna Maria Horner (one of her favorite designers) prints, martini glass, Florida flamingos, kitty cats tigers, music themed, and scraps obtained while on retreat.

Dresden 

Cindy requested colorful dresdens with a black center.  I'm in the MCM Bee group with her too and made a different color way for that one which I will show in a later post.

Large x-plus block

For Doris, we made oversized x-plus blocks with text/low value backgrounds.  It's always fun when I can use these Riley Blake glasses.  I also cut into my recent purchase of Makower iron print fabric.  I should have bought more of this.  Love it!

Michelle has requested us to make our favorite quilt block for her month of May.  I'm still thinking on this one.  Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by,

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Spring 2015

Welcome to the Spring 2015 edition of the Blogger's Quilt Festival!  It's the perfect time to showcase a favorite quilt, and best of all no sewing on pesky quilt sleeves is required!

"Soar" flying geese quilt

This time around I am sharing the flying geese quilt I made for my son's college graduation quilt. As soon as Carolyn Friedlander's Doe fabric was released, I bought every print in every color way with a quilt for my son in mind.   I eventually went with flying geese as it seems appropriate for this milestone.  I have to say though, family members (the nonquilty ones) were confused as they didn't see any geese pictures in the quilt;-)!

This ledger print is one of my all time favorite fabrics.

While most of the fabric in this quilt is from Carolyn's Doe line, there are also fabrics from her Architextures and Botanics lines.  The binding is a ledger print and the backing is the wideback widescreen in black.
{{How cool that the fabric for his Florida State University graduation quilt is designed by Carolyn who is a Florida local?}}

Accuquilt for cutting

I cut all the flying geese blocks with my AccuQuilt Go!  This was a huge time saver.

wall basting

After playing around with various design ideas, I went with a basic alternating columns of geese going up and then back down.  I originally wanted something more unplanned if you will, but in the end it just looked a mess.

 I pin basted the quilt on my wall.  Has anyone ever tried that?  This was a first for me, and I really liked the method.  If anyone is interested I could do a more detailed post later.

The quilt needs to be in the picture too?!

 I used my walking foot and Aurifil #2846 40wt to quilt organic lines going down the quilt.  Matchstick quilting was my first choice, but as I was determined to bring this quilt with me to graduation, the lines were spaced a bit further apart ;-)

Photo shoot on campus

Quilt stats:
Name:  Soar
Pattern: Flying Geese block
Finished Size:  54"x 72"
Fabric:  Carolyn Friedlander Doe, Architextures, Botanics; binding Architextures Ledger print; backing Black Widescreen
Quilting: Organic lines with my walking foot; Aurifil #2836 40wt for quilting; Aurifil #2021 50wt for hand stitching binding

Contemplating the universe

I bragged about my son in yesterday's random post in case you're interested.  I'm linking this post to Blogger's Quilt Festival {large quilt category} and Crazy Mom Quilts finish it up Friday.  Be sure to check out all the beautiful finishes in both locations.

Thanks for stopping by,

Really Random Thursday: Celebrations

I'm so happy Cindy has reinstated her weekly random posts.  My life is a series of randomness!

Saw this on Instagram...I NEED this!

This past week we celebrated Mother's Day, a couple of milestone birthdays and my middlest's graduation from college.

Proud family!

We weren't all together on Mother's Day Sunday, but the next best thing was seeing the grandparents attend Eric's graduation.  Here we are at the Honors Medallion Ceremony prior to the graduation.

Vanilla, Italian Creme and Red Velvet

Making the honorees serve their own cake

A few days prior to graduation was cousin Zach's 16th birthday...a few days after graduation was Ally's 16th birthday, so it was only natural that we celebrate with three cakes!

I think that's Eric!

Back to the graduation...our son is right there...can you spot him?!  Not content to graduate Summa Cum Laude, he was only one of thirteen that graduated with a perfect 4.0 (did you know an A- is not a 4.0?...crazy).  He worked extremely hard and earned every one of those A's.

He did it!

Thank goodness for the jumbotron when it came time for him to receive his diploma!

Class of 2015!

Eric's ceremony took place at night, so we had to get the classic picture in front of Westcott Fountain another day.

The school could make a lot of money by providing professional photographers here.

We waited until Sunday when the line wasn't that long.

Throwback Thursday to when I graduated from FSU.

Thirty-one years ago the line obviously wasn't an issue.  I told my husband we started a trend...ha!

Found on Facebook

At another college graduation ceremony there's a trend to decorate the caps.  I scrolled through quite a few to find our friend's son's cap and found this one that is my favorite.

Throwback Thursday to when Max was a cover boy

Oh, and Max also had a birthday.  He's a whopping 11 years old.

Hilarious!

Clever book title spotted at Barnes & Noble while gift shopping.

experimenting with the meme generator

If you made it this far, I thank you!

Tune in tomorrow....

Come back tomorrow for blogger's quilt festival where I reveal pictures of Eric's graduation quilt.
Thanks for stopping by,