Ring Around the Rosy quilt and Divided Basket

 I got my baby quilt done early that was my OMG for August at Elm Street Quilts.

I really needed to get a move on it with this quilt and basket. When I originally decided to sew a quilt for my coworker, I did not even know that she was having a shower. Then, all of a sudden, an invitation appeared in my mail bin at work. That left me about 3-4 weeks to get the whole thing done. Plus, we have been going camping so there were days that I could not work on it. But I did achieve my goal.

This is the quilt outside on my bush. I pieced the top using the Ring Around the Rosy pattern from Charming Baby Quilts by Melissa Corry

 

 For the background, I decided to use Powder Blue Grunge

I had actually won a $50 Gift Certificate at Mountain Creek Quilters.

I purchased the Powder Blue Grunge, along with some other fantastic items from their shop. I, also, ordered the thread from the shop that I used to quilt this. I had just ordered the fabric before getting the shower invitation and they had super-fast shipping so it worked out great.

Here is a closer photo on my swing in my backyard. I used Noah's Ark fabric which I thought was very colorful. But there were a few low volume prints so I guess that made me decide to use the blue background instead of white. It was easy enough to quilt just by doing a cross-hatch from corner to corner in the blocks.

Also, for the back of the quilt, I decided to use the panel that was part of the same collection. I just loved the alphabet and animals. I was a little unsure of what color to "frame" the panel with. In the end, though, I think the gray color worked out ok. I figure that it may sometimes get dirty if it's laying on the floor so I didn't want to use white. 

 I had purchased fat quarters so that I would make this Divided basket. I think that these baskets are useful and it makes a nice gift, by putting the diapers in them.

 

The front and back of the basket was a darker color Grunge that I had in my stash. I did not have exactly enough of this blue Grunge so, if you can see, I used a piece of the light blue raindrops to piece the front of the basket (underneath the pocket). It worked out fine that way.

Here they are together on my swing. These gifts have been presented to the Soon-to-be Mom at the shower this past Sunday. I think that they will be useful gifts for any new Mom.

I am linking this finish to Let's Make Baby Quilts August 2020, also.

 Needle and Thread Thursday

 

August OMG - Baby quilt and Basket

I will be going to a baby shower in August for a coworker this month. The way this whole Coronavirus situation  has been, I did not think that a baby shower was even going to happen. Although, right before I had received the shower invitation, I had purchased this fabric to make a quilt for the baby. So, of course, I needed to get started on it right away. 

I had decided to sew the "Ring Around the Rosie" quilt from Charming Baby Quilts

Here is one of my finished blocks. This is the Noah's Ark fabric that I purchased

For my August OMG at Elm Street Quilts

I will be trying to get the quilt done. Plus, I want to make another Divided Basket

I like to put diapers in the basket because they fit so well and every new mother can use more diapers. Will be linking this to One Monthly Goal

A Virginia Tech Quilt -The Orange Effect

My nephew graduated from Virginia Tech in May; however, no commencement came about thanks to COVID-19. I had decided back in the winter to make him a quilt. I chose the Push-Pull Quilt Along by Quilting Jet Girl. And here is my finish.

It was awesome that I won a $50 gift certificate from Needle and Foot, also! Quilt-Alongs can be fun and often times, I even win something.

This quilt is very big and I quilted a wavy line up and down. It was quite the project. In looking back, I had considered sending it to a long-arm quilter. Possibly, I should have done that and it would have turned out much nicer. I guess I am hesitant to send quilts to a long-arm quilter, only because it makes me feel that I did not make the whole thing myself. Oh, well, it is definitely a usable quilt.

Here it is shown on my Queen-size bed. I am thinking that my nephew's bed does not have a foot-board so the design may show up better. The foot-board kind of takes away from the design, a little. My son said the quilt top looked cool (he has not yet seen the completed quilt), so I'll go with that. 

Here is a photo of the backing. I kind of miscalculated on the maroon yardage so I had to go back to the quilt shop for an additional yard. This photo is not showing the full top with the solid maroon. It is approximately the same size as the bottom. By the time I pieced the back, there was probably less than 2 inches on both top and bottom.

The sides were very good, but I had a hard time basting because of the shortness of the top and bottom. In the end there was just enough space that the binding fit on which I gave a huge sigh of relief.  I did the basting on one of our very hot 90-degree days and I literally had sweat pouring off of my forehead.

I have not mailed this quilt to my nephew yet. I may try to fill in a few more quilt lines just to kind of squish it down some. It seems quite puffy. In reality, it is quite heavy, also. I think it must be the batting that I used. My local JoAnn Fabric had only 2 types to choose from in the king size. I'm going to have to remember down the line to NOT buy this type of batting again. Problem is, I threw the packaging away already. Oh, well, par for the course.

I am linking to Elm Streets July Finish OMG. My original post was here.
I am glad that this one is finished. Thanks to Patty at Elm Street Quilts

This helps me stay on track with my goals.

Quilting plans for my Push-Pull quilt top

I have finished my Push-Pull quilt top and would now like to finish the quilting for my July One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts.

Here is a photo of the completed top:

I have been doing fairly well keeping up with my One Monthly goals. July usually is a pretty busy month for me, but I have promised my nephew that I would have this quilt completed by the beginning of August. That way I can mail it to him.

This is a rather large Queen-sized quilt. So my plans are to quilt a wavy line down the center and just quilt wavy lines to each side up and down. This way, I won't have to do much marking of the quilt top. It will be slow-moving and I'm sure I will be doing some wrangling through my machine, but hopefully, I will get it completed.