I can’t believe we’re already a week into August! It’s true that the older you get, the faster time seems to pass, but I feel like we just had Memorial Day, and here we are, racing toward Labor Day. Honestly, though, it feels like that every year to me, and I think it’s because when my kids were little, they would get out of school at the end of May/beginning of June, we’d take a few days during the early summer to spend some time together, then they’d go to their dad’s house for a few weeks and boom! It was time for them to go back to school. I don’t miss my kids being in school anymore, but my internal calendar still marches to the school calendar that I knew for 45-ish years.
I finally finished the baby quilt! I am so happy, and super excited, that it’s done.
I quilted the entire thing with a designsbyjuju.com design, and while it’s far from perfect, I thought it was just so darn cute! This isn’t the best photo, but maybe you can get an idea of how it looks.
I made a scrappy binding, incorporating the left over fabrics from the blocks. I then used a feather stitch to attach it to the quilt, as you can see in the photo above. Overall, I am very pleased with the way the quilt turned out.
This was my first time using the end to end quilting designs that have been introduced in the last few years, but it won’t be my last. Since I first started quilting more than 20 years ago, I’ve looked for ways to include embroidery in my quilts, both as featured blocks, as well as to quilt my projects. I will say that the end to end quilting designs have made that a lot easier. Hats off to Julie at designsbyjuju.com for her great designs!
I’ve fallen behind my $5 quilt block quilt this year, so I plan to get caught up this month, at least on the regular blocks. This year, they’ve added an advanced block you could sign up for if you were interested, and of course, I was. So far, I have three advanced blocks and I haven’t started a one of them, but I did get my block for this month completed, so I won’t have to pay for that this month. I’m doing the Tula Pink color way and I really like it so far.
I ordered the full Tula Pink fat quarter bundle fabric line from fatquartershop.com when I started the program a few months ago, because I want extra fabric in case I mess something up. I obviously will not need all of the fabrics I received in the bundle, so I’m trying to come up with ways to use them. I recently bought the new Lori Holt book, Scrappiness is Happiness, and I’m considering using them in one or two of those quilts. I am loving this book, so if you haven’t ordered one yet, I highly recommend it. In fact, I liked it so much, I ordered one for my mom and had it sent to her last week.
I used Stella to make my $5 quilt block this month, as well as to finish the baby quilt, and I am really enjoying it. She is a dream to sew on, and the embroidery is just super simple. Of course, this isn’t my first, or even my second, Brother sewing machine. It’s more like my fourth, but I have to hand it to Brother engineers – they certainly know how to make a machine user friendly, that’s for sure. I am getting ready to start another quilt, and I will be making it from start to finish on Stella, so after that is done, I will write a full review, but seriously, this machine just makes me so happy every single time I sit down to use it.
Also look for an update on my studio in the coming days. I’ve spent a lot of time reorganizing it and making it much more functional, and I cannot wait to share it with you. I always love getting to see other people’s sewing spaces, and I hope you will enjoy mine.
Well, that’s really all I have to tell you for now. Until next time, keep on sewing!
Texas Quilt Girl 