I made this quilt for my good friend for her 29th + 1 birthday. When I make quilts, I always have colors in mind, colors that remind me of the person, either because of what they wear or how they have their home decorated. This fabric was fun. I bought just a small amount on E-Bay, coordinating cat fabric with cream and maroon backgrounds. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a solid background color that was the same shade of maroon (silly dye lots!) so somehow, I was able to contact the seller who I bought the fabric from last year and ask the name of it. And even more remarkably I found it on the internet. I ordered 6 yards, and they shipped from England. The quilt came out great!

Holidays, continued

So though today isn't a national holiday, I think it should be. Es mi cumple. :-) Therefore, I am going to write about an actual national holiday -- Christmas! My first year in the apartment with my roommates, I made a crazy quilt tree skirt as well as stockings:

(Whoops! We hadn't decorated the tree before it crashed into the TV... luckily, there was no damage!)

After I moved to my own place, I continued my Christmas decorating with a quilt (mentioned in the previous post) as well as a Log Cabin pillow:

Merry Christmas in June, everyone!

Holidays -- thanks to E-bay

So a while back, I discovered the most amazing thing. On E-Bay you can buy pre-cut squares of coordinating fabric (the sellers usually sell pre-cut blocks of fabric in sets -- usually 4 different fabrics, ten blocks of each for a total of 40 blocks). It's a great deal -- someone makes money by doing the hard part of rotary cutting block after block of fabric. After discovering this on E-Bay, I bought a set of Irish fabrics, in green and white, and decided to make a St. Patrick's Day quilt. The plan was to use it only during the month of March, but I have loved it so much I use it all the time when I wrap up on the couch. Because all the squares were pre-cut, I couldn't do strip piecing, so it did take a little bit of time (and a lot of thread) to sew the top together. I had 4" squares of green fabric and 4" squares of white fabric so I alternated the colors, not paying mind to what the actual pattern was on the fabric, as long as the background color alternated green and white. All the fabrics had some sort of Irish theme. I had been taught in my quilting classes to use a solid color for the backing, but I had found the cutest, softest leprachaun fabric that I couldn't resist for the back!!

After the success of the St. Patrick's Day quilt, I decided to try my hand at a Christmas quilt. I used the same concept -- this time alternating red, white and green squares. I did have a lot of Christmas fabric from pervious projects but I still bought a bunch of precut squares from E-Bay. I also raided my mother's fabric stash! In fact, the candy cane border, which you can see to the right, is left over fabric from the school play in second grade! Thanks, Mom!! The quilt top came out great, but I didn't want to just do a plain red or green backing. So I splurged and bought novelty fabric for the back. I just couldn't resist these adorable Christmas kitties.