Scrappy Trip Around the World

Did anyone else get all excited seeing Scrappy Trip Around the World Quilts pop up all over the net, jump on the bandwagon and then lose steam?  Anyone else out there with a whole bunch of these blocks growing dusty next to your sewing machine?  Just me?  Everyone else finished theirs like, a year ago?  hmm.... that's embarrassing.  Oh well.  It's time I finished this trip.   

I've seen so many pretty Scrappy Trip Around the World (from here on out referred to as STATW) quilts and just can't decide how I want to put it all together. 

The traditional route: 

Or this one, which I think has been the most popular lately:

A little bit different: 

 

 Or zig zags:  (This version is inspired by a quilt is nice. )



Which would you pick? 

Return of the Polkadot Quilter

Anyone out there? 

I've been away from this blog for about two years and a half years and I'm ready to return. 

Here's where I've been in a nutshell:

These four kiddos (and their Daddy) are my life.  They keep me running from sun up to sun down.   And sometimes from sun down to sun up.    I think I had just had #3 when I last blogged.  And then #4 came along and well, that's where I've been. 

 

After a few years of changing diapers almost non-stop, (You think I'm being overly dramatic?  Maybe just a tad.) I'm ready to flex my creative muscles again. 

 

I did squeeze in a little bit of quality time with my sewing machine here and there,  but actually taking the time to take pictures, and then sit down and blog was just more than this non-super mom could do. 

 

So, I've got a little catching up to do.  And then I can move on and try to keep up with this little craft journal/blog of mine.

I decided to make a family tablecloth for my inlaws for Christmas. Here are the results after many frantic evenings of sewing and hoping to get it done in time. I'm really happy with how it turned out and hope they like it.

(These pics aren't the best and some of them were taken before I decided to get out my iron.)

The flowery corners are all from patterns I bought at patternbee.com ( i love that site).

One of the short ends has the first names of my inlaws and the other short end has our family name.

The two long ends contain all the names of children, spouses and grandchildren. (There is room for more- it just won't be quite as evenly spaced.) Each family is grouped together and sewn in a different color.

New Baby= New Quilts

Baby #3 is finally here! Little Eliza decided to surprise us 2 weeks early. She's perfect and I wish I had more time to just sit around and drink in her sweetness.

Eliza's timing was wonderful.

I'd completely had it with my third trimester! My poor hubbie- every other word that came out of my mouth was something mean and snappy towards him. All I wanted to do was nap. And its so nice to have use of my mid-section again.

But if she'd come one day earlier she wouldn't have had a baby quilt to come home from the hospital with. Monday night I finished the binding on this quilt and in the middle of the night Tuesday (early Wed) my water broke. She must have known that the quilt was ready and it was time to be born!

I LOVE how this quilt turned out. These are the fabrics I used. Lots of strawberries and pink.

And of course, my wonderful mom came and spent a week with us to help ease the transition from 2 to 3 kids. She brought a beautiful quilt too. Isn't it so lovely in its pale, purpley-ness

Definitely Back in the Quilting Mood

So here's my other BIG project I've been working on lately.

This was inspired by philistine made on flickr. If you haven't checked out flickr lately- run over there right now and prepare to be inspired! Philistine made is one of my favs! I'm always impressed with her fresh color choices.

I wanted to keep my colors summery so I stuck to aquas/lighter blues, pinks, oranges, yellows/golds, grassy and lighter greens and a little brown.


This has been such a fun quilt to work on. I'm such a scrappy quilter at heart. The more fabrics in a quilt, the more fun they are to make!

I plan to have this one (the top atleast) finished in the next month before the baby comes.

Rosey 9 patch

This quilt is finished and ready to ship off to our newest little niece/cousin. All the fabrics in the 9 patches are little roses/flower patterns out of pink with the teeniest bit of green here and there.

The rosey fabric on the back is my favorite. I'm really happy with how this turned out and hope its new owner will love it too!

Thinking Pink

I've been such a blogging slacker lately that I haven't mentioned the fact that I'm pregnant with #3!

[Perhaps I'll just say that's my reason for not blogging. Yep, that's it. ]

In a few more months we'll have another little girlie around here (feel free to leave baby name suggestions, by the way) and I've been thinking pink when it comes to all things creative.

Buying pink fabric

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Making girlie quilt tops.

This one is actually for a new niece. I've been saving up rosey, flowery fabric for awhile and since her middle is Rose I thought it would be a good fit. More pictures to come when its quilte. Hopefully they'll be better ones. Good grief to my photography skills!


And this one is for the girls in my family. Big Sister, Little Sister and Me. :)

This is my current favorite quilt and I can't wait to get it finished and ready for two little girls to snuggle under! Its not quite twin size. I'm thinking it'll probably need a companion quilt out of the same colorful scraps. Definitely more pics to come of this one.

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