Finished Blue Breeze Baby Quilt

Last night I was able to get all but 18 inches of the binding for this quilt done and I finished it up this morning (pre-coffee!). Introducing Blue Breeze!

This quilt is for my former boss who is having her first baby in March! Little boy will be here in just a few weeks!

I used the Summer Breeze pattern from Scrap Basket Surprises but didn't add the borders around the sides.

I quilted this one with a large meander in white and used aqua for the backing. For the binding I used a solid blue fat quarter and turned it into 2" double fold bias binding. I usually use 2.25 or 2.5 inch binding, but I had to go slightly skinnier because otherwise I would have been short on my binding.

I machine stitched it to the front and hand stitched the binding to the back and now it is ready to go to its new home!

Stats:
Name: Blue Breeze baby quilt
Pattern: Summer Breeze from Scrap Basket Surprises by Kim Bracket
Fabric: Lanakai by Dear Stella
Quilting: all over meander in white
Backing: Aqua flannel
Binding: solid blue 2" double fold bias binding

Sharing at Finish it up Friday!

WIP Wednesday {Even More Baby Quilts}

So somehow I have three baby quilts going right now. How did that happen?

The Blue Breeze baby quilt is all quilted and should be finished for Friday! Hooray! No pics yet, but here it is all pinned:

I might have to go to the store to get some binding fabric for this one since I used all of the jelly roll strips I had in the top. I'm thinking cobalt blue -- what do you think?

And I started a Jelly Roll Jam 2 baby quilt (using fat quarters instead of a jelly roll) and here are all of the blocks laid out!

This was very fun, fast, and easy -- and I had to cut all of my 2.5 inch strips too!

I've also been working on my pink and brown version of the Bear Tracks pattern but to this point all I have done is cutting. Hopefully next week I'll have blocks (and maybe a top!) to show -- especially since the baby this one is for is due in two weeks! Eek!

In other news, I'm excited to share that today is my last day at my current job and I start my new job on Monday! I'll be working closer to home (hooray!) and will be going back into the lab working with nanoparticles (which is what I did in graduate school) and I am very excited about the change! It's always hard to close one chapter and start another, but it is definitely time for a change and a move up!

Happy WIP Wednesday!

Blue Breeze {WIP}

My blue Summer Breeze quilt has continued to be a good break from all of that FMQ that I have been doing on my star quilt.

Here are the little pinwheels:

Here they are in the finished blocks -- these were super zippy to put together!

Here's the top all laid out together -- somehow I miscounted and ended up with four extra rail fence blocks!

While I was slightly interrupted and had to stack all the blocks up before I put the top together, I managed to keep everything in order perfectly -- check out the adorable-ness that is this quilt top!

I am about 90% set that I will be using navy blue to back and bind this one to tone it down a little bit. I will definitely quilt it in white or light blue on the front, but I think that if I do a navy backing, I might also use navy in my bobbins. What do you think -- do you like to quilt with two different colors front and back or do you mainly stick with one color for both?

Sharing at WIP Wednesday!

In Blue.

Blue is definitely a wintry color and a good color to start with in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2016. 

My eleven Farmer's Wife blocks for January are now completed -- hooray!

I am so happy with how these turned out. Making these 6 inch blocks is so much fun. 

I actually used up about half of my true blue scrap pile making these blocks. After finishing these, I toyed around with the idea of starting a second RSC16 project but I decided against it because 1. a 50% reduction is pretty stellar and 2. I need to have at least some blue options for Stash Bee blocks throughout the year. 

My other new blue project, the Summer Breeze baby quilt is currently my main piecing project. I am excited that I'll be able to piece the top completely from my stash -- which is always a bonus! All of my rail fence blocks are completed and I have more than half of the pinwheels completed. The pinwheels will have a 2.5 inch border of white strips to make the blocks 8.5 inches so that will be the next undertaking once the pinwheels are done.

Despite it being mid January, we have yet to see real winter arrive in Maryland. It has been in the teens and twenties on and off, but no real snow to speak of. It tried to snow -- when it was 40 degrees. There's a little dusting from Tuesday night, but that's it.

I am just fine with this, but everyone I know is itching for snow, especially Park Ranger Husband. Driving in the snow gives me palpitations because last winter I was in an accident so I'm really only ok with the snow if it means that I get a snow day and the next day the roads will be clear to drive. Plus a snow day means a sew day for me, so I'm always hoping for that. :)

Sharing at Scrap Happy Saturday!