Miami Beach Art for the New House

sheisajackofalltrades is getting a new home! My husband and I just bought a wonderful new house in Miami, but that means we’re leaving the beach, which has been our home for the past 2 1/2 years. I’m so excited about the new house- we’ve been working hard on it, cleaning, getting it all ready to move in. I will, however, greatly miss living on Miami Beach. It’s such a great city. It’s full of great restaurants, cool hotels, fun free activities, a bike share we use a lot, and so much else that we’re really going to miss.

So we decided a few weeks ago to take a bike ride down to Ocean Drive and take pictures of a lot of the old art deco hotels down there. Art Deco is my favorite type of architecture, and I thought it would be fun to bring a piece of Miami Beach in our new house… here are the three we’ve chosen to frame.

A change in craftiness pace

I, along with pretty much all crafters, have gotten pretty addicted to Pinterest. It’s really an amazing way to organize all your ideas, other peoples ideas, and come up with new cool things to make.

I ran across this pin the other day, of this:

Cute, right?

So I decided to make my own, inspired by that:

 

It may be tweaked a bit, but I’m pretty stoked about how it came out.

Closeups:

Go Gators Go Packers quilt is finished!

As promised, here are the pictures I took today

The front:

The back:

A close up to the quilting – I outlined the grey sashing on the blocks, as well around the block on the inside. So it’s a little wonky, but it matches the front nicely. I’m a big fan.

And the tag… they’re keeping her name a secret, so I just left a place for me to write her name in later when she’s born (February! WooHoo!)

Other things I like about this quilt : the solid color sashing, but with a fun corner using all four colors. The bright green back – I originally wanted grey, but I am really happy I went with something bright. How fun and random it is. And lastly… I enjoy the fact that I burned through a lot of my scraps 🙂

 

The joys of a freshly washed quilt

My favorite part of finishing a quilt is taking it out of the dryer, when the fabric shrinks up and it looks a little more worn and ready to cuddle with. I just took the quilt I made for my niece out of the dryer, & I’m in love with it. I’ll take more pictures this weekend, but here’s a sneak peek 🙂

Wonky log cabin blocks – done!

I have completed the top and bottom of the Go Gators/Go Packers quilt for my soon to arrive niece. And I think it’s awesome. (not to brag or anything, but come on- it’s awesome, right?)

The front:

I decided to go with a special block in the bottom corner that was made of all four colors together

I was dead set on the backing being grey, but couldn’t find anything I liked at the fabric store, so I went with lime green.

I pieced together strips of the same fabric from the front – I’m quite proud that there are no repeats on the back :). I also angled the strip on the bottom to match the angle of the sashing on the front.

Next step… the quilting. One of these days I’m going to learn to tackle free motion quilting, but for now, I think I’m going to quilt in grids along the grey sashing, and along the square in the middle of each block.

One day, I’ll make my own

I’ve still never made a quilt to keep for myself. I always want to make off with pretty much every quilt I’ve ever made, and this one is no exception.

The Wonky Log Cabin Go Gators/Go Packers quilt is coming along wonderfully. After a lot of thought, I decided to lay the blocks out diagonally, with grey sashing in between.

The yellow row is up next, and I’m deciding if I should do orange in the other corner, or make new blocks that are all of the colors combined. Thoughts?

Wonky Blocks Continue

The weather in Miami Beach has looked a lot like this lately

Rain and nastiness. Perfect weather for this

While watching this

BTW- I’ve been waiting for years for this show to be on DVD, now it’s streaming on Netflix. My TV life is complete

And my resulting efforts look like this:

I’m quite pleased how my Go Gators, Go Packers quilt is turning out!

The very symmetrical loving pattern side of me is cringing looking at these blocks, but the side of me that hates measuring seams and exact sizes of strips and blocks is loving it. I’m going to work on the green one next, and figure out how I want to lay out the pattern. But Charlotte is begging me to sit with her and finish up reading my book, so I really should oblige.

Wonky Log Cabin block

I had so much fun making my string quilt– I’m a fan of quilting that is a departure from really traditional fabrics and patterns. They’re fun, and a little wild, especially for a kid.

I found this link on patchworkdelights, and I decided to make a similar one for my new niece. Here’s the first block I tried with the blue fabrics…. thoughts?

A new little girl!

I found out the spectacular news yesterday that I’m going to be an aunt to a new little baby girl in March. So, of course, out came the fabric stash. I’m attempting to make this a stash busting quilt since I have a huge basket of fabric on my desk. I kind of have a fabric addiction. My brother is a Gator fan, sister in law is a huge Packers fan, so I’ve decided on orange, blue, green & yellow. I think I have enough of that….

I might have to buy a little more yellow, but I should be set. Can’t wait to see this baby!

I have lemonade!

I finished what I lovingly called the Lemonade Quilt yesterday. Thanks to the fact that  my company observes Columbus Day, I had the day off and spent the majority of it sewing with Charlotte. Although she is of absolutely no help in the sewing process, she’s so darn cute that I have to let her sit on the quilt while binding it, smooshed up against me. Sigh. I love my dog.

I loved the way it turned out. I was a bit hesitant about the binding, worried that it would look too  busy, but I think busy was the right look for this quilt.

The front:

The back:

Close up of the binding:

The tag:

And lastly, Charlotte admiring her my handiwork.