2012 - Project of the week - Week 2!!!

So two weeks of 2012 down, and two projects conquered! It feels fabulous to be using up some of my stash, and I'm honestly realizing I didn't have as much fabric as I thought I did. Still... I have plenty, I know, but it's not going to be as hard as I thought it would be to work through some of my faves.

I am, of course, already eyeing what fabric I might just have to buy next. The Moda Bliss line by Bonnie & Camille is seriously speaking to me. Seriously. But I must refrain... for now.

This weeks project was the second little girl baby quilt for baby dedication at church in June. I used most of the same fabrics (with one addition) and the same sized simple squares. Instead of a "Trip Around the World", I turned the blocks on point and tried to place the blocks in a random pattern. I guessed at the number of blocks I would need (I know, smart) and had ONE (seriously, only one) block left over when I was done. Two narrow simple borders were added, and I just did straight line, stitch-in-the-ditch quilting. I really like how it turned out. It's not "girly", but I think definitely appropriate for a girl.

 The finished product. I think it's somewhere between 42" and 44" square. It ended up being JUST too wide to use a width of fabric for the back, grrr. But it needed the little border to set it off. The half-square triangles all around the outside edge are from the two darkest fabrics, and I think they frame it nicely.

 I finally used up the very last of my pink sanddollar fabric from my Verna quilt. Sadface. I love that fabric!

 Since I'm trying to use up fabrics, I didn't have a lot of options for the binding. I had to use whatever I had enough of! I like the brown polkadots, though, and they won't look dirty if it's well loved!

 Here you can see the other flaw in my plan to use up fabric. Being just wider than a width of fabric, I had to piece the back a little, but I only have a tiny bit of the green paisley left, soooo.... the back is pieced a little. I kind of like a pieced back (clearly, if you've ever seen my Verna quilt. Hmmm, have I ever posted that?).

The opposite corner, you know, how it's supposed to look! You can see the quilting here too. Really simple straight lines, and I outlined the borders to finish it off. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, and even more pleased that I'm both using things up, and keeping up with my goals.

Martin Luther King, Jr. day is tomorrow, so no school for me or Quinn. Ben's taken the day off, and the boys are planning to do a little sledding now that we finally have some snow. Ashly's coming over to take some maternity photos, yay! Looks like it should be a lovely day.