give me liberty! sew-along reveal + link up + giveaway

Boy, this day really got away from me! In all fairness, I spent most of it in bed until now, as I'm home sick with the not cool kind of tummy ache. Not that there's ever a cool kind. But this kind is the really not cool kind. Now to get that thought out of your mind, here's my Give Me Liberty! sew-along project, lounging about amongst the violets.

It was originally going to be a big pillow, but I switched gears and made a little mini quilt instead. I plan on hanging it either in my sewing room or the living room if I can find the right spot for it! Though it looks pretty cute under my great grandmother's kitty tea pot and sugar bowl there on the sideboard. That's the antique piece of furniture Jon's family got us as a wedding gift, which I'll have to properly show off sometime soon!

I used two layers of batting so it would be puffy and quilted a diagonal crosshatch through the half square triangles. The backing is Millie's Closet "floral bouquet" in green, (another FQS 50% off bargain buy) and I bound it with a brown civil war print that I absolutely adore and would buy a lot more of if I ever saw it again. I'd like to put a little label on it, when I get a chance.

The Give Me Liberty! sew-along link up is over Nicole's blog, Bold Goods, today. She's posted a lovely baby quilt and interesting thoughts on it's design and construction. Go check it out, will ya?  We had a lot of fun hosting this thing and can't wait to see your projects! Don't worry, they don't have to be finished, and I think she's leaving it open for a whole week in case you're not ready just yet.

And since there are a bunch of half square triangles left over, I thought I'd offer them up in a little giveaway of sorts. If you've recently sewn up anything using Liberty prints and would like to post about it and our link-up, anyone who links up will have chance at nabbing my remaining 40+ 2.5" trimmed, Bloomsbury HST units. Keep in mind they're tiny and have bias edges, but man their cute. I'm secretly hoping no one enters so I won't have to part with them!

I'm also linking up with Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday :D

itty bitty grannies - a mini quilt

I'd been doing very well at resisting the urge to join in on all the granny square hoopla, started by Jolene (Blue Elephant Stitches). Find her awesome tutorial here. I loved everything about this block but knew I shouldn't start a new project when I have so many going already. Then Katy (Monkey Do) offered up an alternative strip piecing tutorial and I caved.

I wanted to do something quick and easy, just to get granny-squaring out of my system, so I pulled out some scraps left over from my 1930s quilt and pieced some itty bitty 3.5 inch blocks. I decided four was enough for me and made a little mini quilt, just for fun. It begged to be hand-quilted, so I gave that a go. This mini finished at about 8 inches square.

Nothing about this thing is perfect, obviously. I was pretty careless with all of it, just playing and experimenting and whatnot. The quilting stitches are uneven, and perhaps overdone. I put the sashing together all weird-like. The center of each side sucks in towards the middle, probably since the blocks are on the bias and the sashing is not. Is that why? Let me know if you have any insight.

Oh, and then there's that one block I accidentally trimmed the seam allowance off of. After a bit of cursing I decided to add some pink and call it good. It works for me. I like it. A lot.

Here's a look at the backside.

So, all in all I think this little guy is cute as a button and worthy of lounging about on my desk at work. Maybe I'll even set a coffee mug on it from time to time :D

Linking up with Megan's {sew} Modern Monday, Jenna's Manic Monday, and Elizabeth's Little Quilt Monday and Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday.

A mini gift!

By some freakish stroke of luck I managed to click on a post by Jen (Jen of all trades) within seconds of her posting it. The title "purging" caught my eye and I couldn't not see what she was talking about.

Turns out she was on a mission to get rid of things that were cluttering up her space, this little mini quilt being one of those things. I loved it. I wasted no time in claiming it as mine! It arrived a few days later and is now hanging on my office wall at work.

Eventually when I get my sewing room back it'll be hung up in there, a cute little reminder of how awesomely talented and generous my blogland buddies are. Thanks so much, Jen!

Rose Star Mini Quilt - Finished

I went ahead and made a mini quilt out of my most recent rose star block, thinking it would look cute on the wall in my sewing room (once I get it back) or on the center of a table in case that never happens.

I echo quilted it, 1/8in from the seam on one side, 1/4in on the other. Why? Because I messed up and didn't notice right away. By the time I figured it out I decided to just keep going and pretend I'd done it that way on purpose (oops, so much for that plan).

I have a scrolly/swirly black and white dot print (by Alexander Henry maybe?) and thought it would look cool as binding. I was right (duh) and I'm super happy with how it turned out.

The back is leftover sheet material that my mom found at a thrift shop. It's 100% cotton and I used most of it for the backing on my punctuation quilt. I just need to put binding on and that one will be finished. I guess I should get on that...

I'd like to give a shout out to my pal, Elizabeth! She wrote a killer sweet post where she linked back to my blog not once, not twice but THREE times, lol! I was über pleased and am stoked she's joined in on the EPP bandwagon. Do yourself a favor and go check out her blog, Occasional Piece.

Okie dokie that's all for now. I'm linking up with:
Megan's {sew} modern Monday
Elizabeth's Little Quilt Monday
Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday

Thanks for stopping by!