The Border Quilt QAL {Sawtooth Stars}

My quilt is growing at a rapid pace! Check out the information about The Border Quilt QAL here!

This "round" of blocks is sawtooth stars! Here's my quilt with all of the stars added:

Since I'm working from scraps and not from yardage, I thought I would share a little more in detail about the process I use to make scrappy yet coordinated blocks for this section of the quilt.

First and foremost, I separated my scraps into one pile of lights and light-mediums and a second pile of darks and dark-mediums for my backgrounds and stars, respectively. From these piles, I sorted the fabrics by size to make sure I had enough of a fabric to make a full block (or two or three or four!). Most of my blocks were made in pairs and all of the blocks but the red star blocks in the corners have the same fabric throughout the block. 

I also employed multiple techniques to make the flying geese based on the sizes of my scraps. For many, I had fabric wide enough to use the fast flying geese technique. For others, my scraps weren't wide enough so I used the stitch and flip technique. Even though the stitch and flip technique isn't my favorite, it allowed me to make use of a wider variety of scraps. 

Originally, my plan was to quit after my "round" of stars, but I have plenty (PLENTY!) of scraps for the next round of the quilt -- friendship stars! I still need to add my next round of solid fabric as the spacer border, but I will do that when I start my friendship stars next week. I think I only have enough Kona Champagne for one more spacer border!

Happy Wednesday!

Sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday Let's Bee Social, And Oh Scrap!

Christmas Countdown {78 Sewing Days Left!}

There are 78 sewing days left until Christmas! Today I've put together a helpful compilation of a bunch of *free* tutorials for Christmas and holiday themed projects! As always, any pattern is a holiday pattern if you use holiday-themed fabric -- let your imagination go wild!

Jingle Bell Rock Throw Quilt from Moda Bake Shop:
This one is my latest MBS pattern! I've seen a few in-progress versions of this quilt and I can't wait to see more!

Rail Fence Table Runner:
The perfect pattern for those leftover 2.5" strips or for a quick and easy gift!

Frosty Cabins Table Runner from Modern By The Yard:
This is one that I'm actually planning to make another version of sometime this winter!

Bowtie Wreath and Countdown to Christmas 6" blocks from Moda Bake Shop:
Be creative and come up with your own setting for the entire collection of 6" blocks from last December's block-a-day "Advent calendar" on MBS!

Star of Wonder Table Runner:
Another simple table runner that's perfect for gifting!

Sparkle Tree Skirt:
This tutorial would work with any 6" finished block swapped out for the Ohio Star blocks!

Ribbon Candy on Moda Bake Shop:
If you're feeling festive, this is the quilt to try! Amanda designed and made this quilt and I have it on my bucket list to make myself.

As always, if you make something from one of our tutorials be sure to share a picture with us!

Happy Monday!

Of Borders and Babies {Shopping Spree}

It's the last quarter of the year, and that means it's time to focus on finishes, finishes, and more finishes so that there just might be the possibility that I could end the year with less than 15 WIPs. I'm also itching to get some quilts out of my house, either by gift or by sale, so I have fewer to move when we manage to buy a house.

So the logical thing for me to do was to go fabric shopping, right? Right -- because everything I bought (well, nearly everything) has been for finishing projects!

I have complained to a number of people recently that I have given seven baby girl quilts in a row and we've had no baby boys in our circle since a coworker had a boy over two years ago! Well ask and ye shall receive -- friends are having TWIN boys later this year. And of course, my already-made, ready-to-gift quilts won't work! So I'll be making matching baseball themed baby quilts out of this adorable Peanuts fabric:

My plan is to use our Ready, Set, Soar! pattern to make matching quilts with baseball appliques. I might use different colors for the bindings and backings. 

I also recently learned that a new to me quilt shop moved into my town and this past weekend was their big pre-quilt market sale! I had a lovely time visiting Charlotte's Cottage quilt shop, chatting with the owner, and picking out border fabric for not one, but two quilts!

I picked out the burgundy floral for my Double Delight quilt. The blue geometric print will be the final border on my Drift Away quilt.

I also might have just picked up a few things on sale just for stashing...

When I put the flower pot print in my cart, I had no idea how large the print was! I have a larger cut of this -- 1.25 yards -- so it might get used for a backing of some sort.

Happy Friday to you! No finishes here this week, but feeling a little bit accomplished with projects I can't share yet! 

Needle, Paper, Scissors {Paper Piecing with Island Batik!}

As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics to use and share with you!

If you've followed me for any length of time, you know that I absolutely LOVE foundation paper piecing! I've been looking forward to this challenge since we got our project calendar all the way back in January.

When we got our July shipments, I decided that I wanted to use the London Fog fabrics to make a new version of our Christine's Kitchen pattern. This pattern was our 2017 QAL -- when I made my original version, I also used Island Batik fabrics in greens with a cream background.

This time around, I pulled out the yardage and strip pack of London Fog and decided to use a grey solid for my background.

This is one of the projects that I started while I was at quilt camp in August. I used the larger cuts of two different fabrics from the line for the piecing of the larger pieces and used the dark strips for the accents in each block. Here are the first three blocks that I made:

For the largest blocks, I made half with the floral print and half with the speckled print. For the smaller blocks and the center coffee pot, I used just the 2.5" strips for the piecing. This meant that for a few of the blocks I had to get creative in piecing the blocks -- like for the sugar bowl and creamer where I made them look "dip dyed" instead of just one color for the majority of the block.

Here are most of my paper pieced blocks for this project all laid out together:

Next up will be making the applique flower blocks and then putting the whole quilt top together. I cut all of the background setting pieces before I started the blocks, so putting together the top will be quite quick!

Interested in the Christine's Kitchen pattern but scared to commit? We have a two block preview that is free on our Craftsy site! The preview only contains the pattern for one teacup and one coffee pot and has no setting directions, but is a good way to practice paper piecing with scraps until you're undertake the full pattern!

Sharing at Let's Bee Social and Needle and Thread Thursday!

Brutal Honesty {October 2018}

How is it October already? Summer zoomed by and September was gone in the blink of an eye!

My goals for September were to finish my September Island Batik project, which I did, and to start quilting my Magnolia Mystery quilt, which I did not start yet. I really had a slow month on the quilting front so there's not a lot of progress here.

Quilting in progress/taken to be long arm quilted:
1. Blocked Rainbow Quilt -- Being long arm quilted, return date TBD
2. Donuts quilt -- My mom is going to quilt this on her mid-arm, return date TBD

Completed tops:
3. Magnolia Mystery QAL -- I wasn't sure what color grey thread to use to do the quilting and needed to stock up on thread anyways, I ordered this pack of thread (not an affiliate link) which has three different colors of grey. I think I'll end up using the darkest one, but have the medium shade just in case that one is too dark. I still need to get batting for this one too.
4. Breezy Blooms C2C Bee -- No progress

Tops partially finished:
5. Double Delight -- No progress
6. Drift Away Scrap Quilt -- No progress
7. Bonnie and Camille C2C Bee Quilt -- No progress
8. Romantic Garden Quilt -- No progress
9. Monthly Wall Hangings -- No progress
10. Pineapple Stash Bee Blocks -- No progress

Just blocks and units:
11. Sew Kitschy Blocks -- No progress
12. Cubicle Quilts -- No progress
13. Happy Houses blocks -- No progress
14. Birthstone blocks -- No progress
15. Radiant Jewel Quilt -- I finished all of the diamond blocks and have started on my star blocks.

Quilt alongs and long term projects:
16. Monthly Island Batik Ambassador projects -- Our September theme was Starstruck and I made a baby sized version of my Twinkle quilt! I am making progress on my all blue version of Christine's Kitchen and will be showing that off this month!

17. The Border Quilt QAL: The first two installments of the QAL happened in September! I now have a quilt center with a bunch of borders. I'm hoping that I have enough fabric pulled for at least one and hopefully two more rounds around the quilt. The next round is sawtooth stars and I have started on that.

New projects: NONE! (Yet! I ordered fabrics for two baby quilts that I need to try to finish this month.)

The rest of the year will be focused on finishes and getting some of these quilts out of bins, baskets, and piles and into loving homes elsewhere. My husband and I are in the process of looking for our first home (!!!) and I'd rather not move all of the quilts currently in our possession.

If you or someone you love is interested in purchasing a quilt that you've seen on Little Bunny Quilts, please email me (littlebunnyquilts@gmail.com) because I am willing to part with many of the quilts I have made in the last two years. It is not cost-effective for me to list everything that I'm willing to sell on Etsy with their current listing fee structure. Click on the "Finished Quilts" tab above to see finished items. At this time I am only accepting baby quilt commissions on a limited basis.