Oops, I did it again.

I'm not supposed to be buying any more fabric.  I've spent a small fortune in the last couple of months on fabric.
However, this purchase was not my fault.  My two older sisters, who have been bossing me around since I was a kid, bossed me into buying it.

It's a gorgeous organic fabric called Robotic by Rebekah Ginda for Birch Fabrics.  And soft?  I'll have to keep my sewing room door closed so no one sees me rolling around on it.  The baby's parents were both science majors so I think it's perfect.
I bought it last week at a quilt show in Manchester, NH from the lovely ladies at Sew Fresh Fabrics.

They also had a few sale items in their booth.  I bought this great bundle of Simply Color.

I wasn't going to buy it, but my daughter pointed out that I had some birthday money that my mother had given me and she insisted that I should treat myself.  So, technically, this purchase was also not my fault.  I didn't want to disappoint my daughter.

I did, however, finish a project this weekend.

My daughter also had a birthday.  She does a lot of stitchy work so I made her this neat case.  I used some charms and yardage of Noteworthy along with a bit of Lucy's Crab Shack.

There's a pocket on one side to hold the hold the hooped fabric.

And there's a vinyl zippered pocket on the other to hold the threads and scissors and stuff.
The pattern is called Tag Along by This & That.  I wasn't thrilled with the directions and had to redo a few things, but it finished nicely.

So, no more fabric buying for me (except for the white Kona I need) until the next quilt show in early November.

Joyful stitching,
jane

On the Plus Side

That's what I've named this quilt.

I used the Comma fabric line and the "It's a Plus" pattern.  Both are by Zen Chic.
I wanted to have this quilt finished in time to hang at an exhibition at the Lowell Quilt Festival that the BMQG has been lucky enough to be part of.

I finished in time, but just barely.  The setup for the show was Wednesday afternoon.  I basted the quilt Saturday night and started the quilting on Sunday morning.    I liked the way the suggested quilting pattern looked and decided to go for it. What could be easier than straight line stitching, right?  Silly me.

Each square is quilted individually.  There are four continuous rows of stitching.  That means I had to turn the quilt 15 times for each square.  There are 80 squares.  Yes, I turned the quilt 1200 times.  Just ask my back and shoulders.   Did I mention this quilt is 65" x 85"?  
I timed myself and figured it took about 5 1/2 minutes for each square, depending on where the square was located on the quilt.  That comes out to about 7 1/2 hours of stitching to fit in with a full-time job.

My original intent was to use just a black print for the binding.  However, when I went to piece the binding, I realized that a couple of strips must have fallen off my table and into the trash barrel. The same barrel that had been emptied first thing in the morning and whose contents were now on a joyride in the back of the pretty blue trash truck.  I gathered some scraps trimmed from the back and added them to the black strips.  A happy accident! I like the way it looks.

The back is a mix of a fat quarter bunch that I won at retreat, some leftover blocks and a little bit of yardage.  And, on the plus side, this quilt is one of my finishes for the 3rd quarter Finish-A-Long.

Now on to some fun stuff!

I bought this cute bundle of fat quarters at the Lowell Quilt Festival.  It's called "Don't Be Crabby" for Robert Kaufman.  The pattern I plan to make is from Simply Retro by Camille Roskelley.

Joyful stitching,
jane