WIP Progress update!

Hey my friends! I've been a little MIA from my blog the last couple of weeks. We went on a little family trip and I just wasn't ready to post anything but I'm here today and I have somethings to share!

First! If you follow me on instagram (@emilylaraesews) you saw me post last Friday that it was a day nearly as good as Christmas, pick up quilts from the quilter day! I dropped off two and my mom dropped off one and it was so exciting to get them back and run my hands down them. You know you do that too.

So here they are!

First is my Winter Wonderland quilt. (I talked about it more here). My mom offered to get this one quilted for me for my birthday. She was tired of knowing it was sitting in my closet just as much as I was! I picked a swirling snowflake pattern, it just seemed fitting, and it turned out AMAZING! Even better than I had hoped it would! For the backing, I used a print from Hello Darling by Bonnie and Camille. I'm a sucker for their fabrics and the red was just too good to pass up! Now I just have to decide what to bind it with. A solid? A stripe? The left over backing fabric (which I've pretty much ruled out, that seems too boring.) Basically, I'll take any suggestions at this point!

 Next up is a quilt my mom did. Its the perfect 10 pattern from Swirly Girls. When I say that my mom did it, I really mean that I did almost all of it. I cut it out and laid it out and did the majority of the sewing. My mom helped piece some of it and put the borders on. Oh and she paid for the fabric. Apparently, I have zero skill in the center the quilt in the frame department, but here it is. It is bright and cheery and whimsical and so much fun! My mom decided to have a swirly Christmas tree as the quilting pattern and it fits the feel of the quilt just perfectly! I'm sure my kids will be snuggling under it this Christmas season.

Lastly, but certain not least! Is this fabulously cute Fireworks quilt I made using Art Gallery fabric. I hadn't ever really used Art Gallery before but I'm hooked. Its just so smooth and high quality. I had to replace my needle because it was just a little too dull to sew with! I've never made a quilt with so.many.points. before and my blocks definitely got progressively better as I went on. Some of them I'm even really pleased with! I couldn't resist using the butterflies on the back. I'm thinking this quilt will be on my daughters big girl bed. So perfect! I picked a loopy quilting pattern for this one and I adore it. Seriously. Too good.

Have you made it this far? okay!

Next I've been working on a Modern Maple quilt. Originally I had wanted to get it done in time for fall but since fall is now strongly upon us, I guess its going to be done for next fall! Ha! A long while back, I bought a bunch of Flea Market Fancy fat quarters. I bought them with the intent to make the perfect ten quilt, but then started doubting that choice (are you sensing a theme in my quilting?) so it went in the bin of pretty fabric. Well, I saw a bunch of maple quilts and knew that was my pretty fabric's destiny! So here are the 7 blocks I have done now! I need to have 16 of the large (12 inch) blocks and 36 or the small (6 inch) blocks. I got settled on a layout that I liked and then I realized that it is pretty much identical to a layout that Lori Holt has in her book Farmgirl Vintage. So! that is exciting, and I'm really looking forward to getting it done!

So that means my round up of things to finish:

bind winter wonderland
bind fireworks
finish blocks of modern maples
hello darling fireworks quilt


Looking forward to it!!

Wip Wednesday

Hopscotch and a Win!

Hi. My name is Emily. It has been 3 days since I purchased my last bit of fabric.

I'm not a hoarder, I'm a *ahem* collector. I collect the pretty fabric with every intention of doing something fabulous with it right away. And then I doubt that my plan is really the best use of my pretty fabric. So it goes into my drawer of pretty fabric and there is waits.

Well. One day I'd had enough of that nonsense. I pulled out a jelly roll I have had for months (years?) and decided it was time to get cracking! I wanted to make a Hopscotch quilt from Thimble Blossoms and my Sweetwater Reunion was just the fabric for it.

I got the top sewn together pretty quickly. I mean, it has A LOT of pieces to it. But thats jut part of what makes it so special right?!

Triangles all sewn together, but not into strips yet ^^^

And like MAGIC, the strips all sewn together ^^^

Back and binding all picked out ^^^

And then I decided that straight line quilting was the way to go. Worst. Idea. Ever. Don't get me wrong, I totally love how straight line quilting looks once its done. But it took For.ever. Hours and hours of sewing line after line. And probably two spools of thread. 

This was at the half way point. I wasn't totally sure I was ever going to finish. But I just kept going and one day had a marathon of sewing. I think it took me four hours straight to finish the quilt, but I was determined and nothing was stopping me from finishing that darn thing!

Somewhere along the way I decided that this quilt would be for my dad. He is such a great man. Supportive and kind and loving to everyone. I knew it was something he would love. I also decided somewhere along the line that I would enter this quilt into the State Fair. This meant that I needed the binding to look good, and that meant it had to be hand sewn down. Normally I do the quick and dirty method, and just sew it on but I'm never totally happy with how that looks and so I knew I needed to be able to make sure it looked great. 

Don't you just love that floating triangle on the back side? I think its a fun little addition to the quilt.

My dad came over to visit two weeks ago and I told him that I had a birthday present for him and that he could see it early, or he could see it once the fair has finished. He wanted to see it right away and he loved it! 

Last night we were finally able to get over to the Fair and see if I won anything and I got a blue ribbon, first place, in my division!! I was super excited to see that! I'd geared myself up for no ribbon at all so that was exciting for me! So now my dad has the pleasure of owning a first place quilt! HA! 

I'm linking up!

http://www.estheraliu.blogspot.com

Don't you just love fall?

I do. I love the crispness in the air. The leaves changing colors. The smell. The smell that takes me back to elementary school days, knowing that winter was coming and SNOW. Crunching through leaves to go trick-or-treating. The traces of snow on the mountains, snow that hasn't yet made it to the valley floor. The beautiful colors of the leaves on the trees. I love it.

Anyway, this post isn't really supposed to be about fall. Nope. I wanted to show off another project that I have recently finished. Back when Liam was brand new, I stumbled on the perfect boy fabric to make him a quilt. And then I found the perfect pattern for a boy quilt. Of course, switch up the fabric and it would be an equally adorable little girl quilt. Anywho, I grand plans to make if for him quickly but then things happened, and we moved, and I started this little business online that took off way faster than I ever thought it would and that kept me pretty busy. But I was looking through my collection of quilt tops that I have finished that I need to finish completely and I found his! I decided it was time and I went on the search for a back for the quilt. A handful of quilt shops later I had my fabric and I went for it. I quilted it on my little machine at my mom's house and did up the binding while watching some tv. I think I'll give it to the baby for his birthday this month. (WHAT?! He is NOT turning one this month... ) I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. And I finally learned how to connect the loose ends of my binding correctly and it almost turned out right... practice makes perfect. I think I'll start a little tradition. Blankets from mom at the 1st birthday... and who knows when else. Well here it is...

I love the chevron print and I love the orange and blue combo. So perfect for a little boy! And of course, I had to take a couple of pictures of the little rugrat climbing around in the grass:

I think he likes it... :)



a little christmas... and the baby too

so I've been workin on a quilt. I think it is pretty great. some of the blocks have been a little tedious... and some have made me downright angry...

today I finished them all! and I'm going to be sewing them together shortly, but of course, I had to take a picture first!

I'm so excited to put this on my couch this christmas season! I love the way its turning out! Now lets see if I can get it done before christmas comes HA. I just don't know how I'm going to quilt it yet....

Oh and when I plugged in my camera I found these little pics:

How could I not post them?!



oh no, what have i done!

delicious. peach jam. yum. now... to do something with those frightening looking bananas...

halloween halloween halloween

its my favorite for one reason only.

i LOVE halloween decorations.
love love love love love them.

so i made some decorations tonight!

so i decided to make these letter blocks. i'm going to put "boo" and "eek" on them eventually. thats the next step in the project. i love them!!! hooray for halloween!

how i stay busy

so after i made my quilt the other night i decided to just keep going and see how far my crafting motivation could take me.

i think i worked at a fabric store for much too long becuase i have endless projects purchased and waiting to be completed. one such project was a table runner i wanted to make for july 4th. i wanted to have it done to put on my table this year but just never got around to it. so i pulled out the fabric and went to town!

i'm really happy with the way that it turned out. i have another one that i just need to finish sewing the binding on and then i will have two! i don't know what to do with the second... maybe start selling them? hmmm... anyway, i now have july 4th, halloween and thanksgiving table decorations!!!

i love them all!!!!