Following the Bouncing Ball

I am currently working on 4 quilts.  And when I say working on 4, I mean I have sewn on all 4 in the last day.  It's kind of like following that bouncing ball that helped you read only you are bouncing from quilt to quilt.  So, why am I bouncing so crazy like??  Well basically because all of these quilts need to be done at about the same time, which is of course, ASAP!!  (although, even though it is a little crazy, I do like the variety :)

The first 2 are my Braided Irish Chain examples for the class I am teaching in January.  I didn't think I needed them until Jan. so they have been on the back burner.  But I got a a little notice requesting them to be in a quilt show to generate buzz for the retreat / class and so now my deadline has been moved way up :)  Like as in I scheduled to rent some time on a long arm on the 11th of next month to quilt them :)

So obviously, they are being moved to the front burner :)  Notice how my pin box is totally empty sans 1 pin.  That's because last night I pinned all of my seams on this huge stack of piecing. Nothing like a little pinning to unwind while watching old reruns.  This is becoming the norm around our house.  The kids go to bed, and we watch old reruns while he surfs around all the sports from the day and I either blog or do some pinning or ironing.  Time spent together, even if we are each doing our own thing :)

Next, is my little Indie project.  I finished piecing the back together yesterday and now it is waiting to be basted  and quilted.  Just a little sneak peak before the full reveal next week :)

And lastly, I am playing with some Mama Said Sew.  This project is turning out to be so much fun!!!  I am loving piecing it and keep working on a block or 2 in-between things because it just makes me happy :)

And lastly, the rundown.  I am not "working" on all of these, but they will be next up to bounce between as soon as these 4 are finished :)

Designing Stage

• Circle Meets Square Quilt
• Turnovers Quilt
• Modern Squares Quilt
• Baby Blocks Quilt

Piecing Stage

• Jessi and Me Quilt 
• WIC with MSS Quilt
• Braided Irish Chain - Queen and King 

Quilting Stage

• Solids Quilt for Free Motion
• Tetris Quilt-A-Long
• Indie Quilt

Completed Stage

• Sew Bee Create Quilt  - Spinning or Spiraling
• Ashlyn's Quilt - Dreaming of Paris
• Fab Little Quilt Swap Mini

Sheets for Backs??

First off, thank you to everyone who left wonderful insightful comments on my post from yesterday on whether to change my header or not.  You sure know how to help a girl out.  For the moment, I will be sticking to plain and clean.  Because like so many of you pointed out, when it comes down to it, that is what I like, and for the moment, that is what I like :)

So what do you do when you get to the back of your quilt??

My backs are usually decided by what type of fabric I have on hand.  If I have large scraps left over then I normally do a pieced back with all sorts of fun random piecing.  I do this because I like to use up those prints.    If I have just a little bit of scraps leftover, I usually do a fabric WOF back with maybe a strip of the leftover scraps in it, if I am feeling up to it.  (Although, mostly I do this if my quilt is over 80" and I just need a few more inches to baste it, this happens mostly in twin size quilts :)  And my little baby blankets are almost always just a piece of fabric that is a yard and a half making a 44" square, mostly because it's easy.

Here is the pieced back I put together this afternoon.  It falls into that large scraps left over category so it got turned into what I think is a pretty fun pieced back.  (These prints are from Pat Bravo's Indie collection and there's a quilt underneath the back that I will be sharing soon, yup, tutorial coming your way :)

But when I am finished this quilt, I am then moving onto finishing my King Size and Queen Size Braided Irish Chain quilts.  I didn't order backing fabric for them at the time I bought the fabric for the front.  And the last few days I have been thinking about what I wanted to do for the back.   And I admit, the thought of piecing those huge backings made me cringe a little.

So this morning, when I got my little Daily Steals email and they had King Size Sheet sets on for $15.00 (screaming deal) I had a little light bulb moment.  I thought to myself, the last time I was down at the little long arm shop, I saw 2 ladies who had used sheets as backing.  And then I thought some more and realized lots of quilters use vintage sheets for backing.  So I went for it. (It was one of those timed deals so it's not like I could dwell on it for days.)   I bought 2 sets and am planning on using the straight sheet for backings.  And I suppose I will have some extra pillow cases.   (The deal lasts for about another 6 hours if you want to grab some for yourself :)

So here is my question for you today???  Have you ever used a sheet for a quilt back??  If so, do you have any pointers for me??  Any help would be appreciated as this is totally new to me :)

Changing the Header???

So I have noticed lately that a lot of the fabulous blogs I follow have been changing their header's to add pictures of some of their favorite projects.  It's becoming quite a trend!!  So I am wondering, should I jump on??  What do you think???  Do you like the header clean and crisp or would you like to see a few photo's with it.

OR

(Of course, I would make this second one look a little nicer.  This is just to give the idea as I didn't want to throw a whole lot of time into it if you prefer the first :)

So, basically I can't decide, I love the nice clean look, but I worry that it doesn't show a whole lot about what this place is about.  Then again, I have a hard time deciding on "Favorite's" as about everything I make is my new favorite, and I don't want to be editing the header every other month.  So basically I am just going back and forth :)   So what do you think??  Throw out your opinion and help a girl out :)

Love It, Pin It, Win It! with the Moda Bake Shop

Alright, for all of you Pinterest lovers out there, The Moda Bake Shop has cooked up a special little contest!!!  It's called

And here's how you play!!!

LOVE IT
Browse through the Moda Bake Shop recipes and choose your favorites.  (I can't believe in browsing through just how many MBS tutorials I have made over the past 2 years, kind of like a little trip down memory lane :)

PIN IT
Pin and re-pin photos of your favorite recipes on Pinterest with the tags #modabakeshop #modafabrics #lovepinwin. Be sure your pin is linked to the recipe itself, and not the MBS home page. You can enter as many times as you like, but the winning pin must have the three tags {#modabakeshop #modafabrics #lovepinwin}.

To see how to do this you can visit my Love It, Pin It, Win It board here.  And if you like a few of those tutorials you can simply repin them, tags already done,  easy as pie :) 

WIN IT

Six random winners will be chosen from the tagged photos. The grand prize is a set of the ingredients to make your favorite recipe (fabric will be from what is currently available).

And

You can also write up a blog post explaining why you've chosen your favorite recipe and link it up here. Five winners will be chosen from the linky party to win current Moda pre-cuts.  (perfect for those that want to participate by might not be "pinners") 

The contest runs from September 14-22 (closes at midnight CST).

*Caution - some photos on the MBS can't be pinned due to the Chefs' copyright settings. Just choose another!


And since no post is complete without a picture, I thought it would be fun to make up a little mosaic of my MBS tutorials.  You can find all of these recipes here, at the Moda Bake Shop.  Now go get pinning!!!

Crocheting

So here's the deal,  I am not a big fan of hand stitching.  In fact I pretty much detest it.  So much so that whenever I have to hand tack down a binding for a quilt to be published I ask my Mother In Law to do it for me.  (Yes, I just admitted that, and yes, I have the most amazing Mother In Law!!)  But I am torn because I love seeing on everyone's blog that they have a little hand project to do while waiting for buses or watching kids play sports.  Then, last week my amazing Sister-In Law, Charlotte, was visiting and we were chatting away and she pulled out her little bag of crocheting and proceeded to crochet while chatting.  And I thought, hey that can be my hand project!!!

So I have decided, the next time Charlotte is in town, I am getting a 101 crash course on crocheting.  I figure I can start small.  Like dishcloth small.   Charlotte has made me dishcloths in the past for Christmas and now I can never go back to the dime a dozen ones.  I love the crocheted dishcloths, so maybe it is about time I learned to make them instead of always hitting up Charlotte :)  Fortunately for me, (and you) Charlotte has just produced a new PDF pattern that has not 1, not 2, but 3 of my favorite dishcloth patterns and the pattern is only 3 bucks.  (I bet you didn't see this little plug coming, what can I say, I love my Sister :) 

Ya, notice these from the picture above.  They were a gift to me.  Lucky me!!!  And I am determined to figure out how to make these on my own!!!

And who knows, maybe one day I will be able to make something a little more fancy, like this beautiful blanket Charlotte made for Jocelyn at her birth.  (And can you believe, Jocelyn will be 1 next week!!!  I will be sure to post about her on her birthday :)  

And if you aren't into learning how to crochet, you can always just pop on over to Charlotte's Etsy Shop and see what she has :)  I'm just saying. (okay, last plug, I promise :)

I am off to work on a new quilt :)  It will be for a tutorial in a little over a week, and since I am currently pressing the fabric to cut, I best get going :)  But I will leave you with a little sneak peak on what to expect :)