Blogger's Quilt Festival - Monkey Around

I had a hard time picking another quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival, but I finally decided on this one!  This is a fun baby quilt made from a line called Hello World by Abi Hall for Moda.  This is a pattern I designed that I usually make with a light background fabric, but for this one I used a dark fabric and I think it came out looking terrific!

One of my favorite things about this quilt is the two different sizes of Monkey Wrench blocks (also called Churn Dash).  I just think it really adds to the fun look.

I fussy cut the animals for the centers of the small blocks, and they are so cute!

So fun!  I think this would be a great quilt for a little boy.  I quilted swirls all over it - fast and easy.

Thanks for looking!  If you like my pattern it is available in my Etsy shop - just click the picture below.

Click here to buy this pattern!

Make sure you go check out the rest of the posts for the Blogger's Quilt Festival - and add your quilts to the fun, too!  You might find a new blog or two to enjoy as well as lots of gorgeous quilts!

November UFO number one: Monkey Around In Jungle Fabric

I finally feel caught up enough to give myself permission to work on some of my own projects over the weekend - I kept walking by the quilts tops I had ready to quilt and sighing because I couldn't get to them last month!  I am challenging myself to get as many of these quilted as I can by the end of the year.  Somehow I keep trying to clean out my sewing room and it feels like quicksand, the more I thrash around trying to get free, the deeper in I get!

This is another version of my Monkey Around pattern.  I made the top as a shop sample and it never got quilted - then when it came home it got put in the finished top drawer and it took a while before it got chosen to be finished!  I believe the jungle print (as well as some of the others) is a Sandy Gervais fabric.  The green fabric has a subtle banana print - don't know how many times I've picked up this piece to use in something than put it back because I didn't want banana's in my quilt.

Part of challenging myself to get these tops all quilted up is also challenging myself to use up the odds and ends of thread that I have accumulated.  You know, those partially used spools that you don't know if you have enough to quilt a whole quilt with?  I wasn't sure if I had enough of either of these greens, so I used one on the top and one for the bobbin thread.  And you know what?  I had plenty to finish the quilt and still have thread on both spools!

I quilted this in a swirl pattern, the orange swirly design in the trees inspired my choice.  My goal for most of these quilts is just to get them finished, then put them up for sale in my Etsy shop.  I purchased a roll of 80% pellon batting and am really liking the feel of it.  It's a little loftier than Warm and Natural.  I haven't washed one up yet to see how I like it after washing it.  I'm a big fan of the way Warm and Natural crinkles up after washing!  I'll let you know when I do get a quilt washed with the Pellon, though.

 My photo prop, Mr Bear approves of this quilt!  He says it would be perfect for a little boy to snuggle with!

The backing is a reproduction print with toys.  Do you know how hard it is to find a fun back that doesn't have flowers?  I was so pleased to pull this one out of my stash!  It's now available for purchase:  Monkey Around in the Jungle.  It would make a great Christmas gift for a little boy, I think!  47 x 47 is a great toddler quit size.  Use the coupon code ILUVQUILTS to save 10% - or look for my storewide sale next week.  Time to get some quilts sold and off to new homes!

A Monday of Quilting!

I was so excited to get the new fat quarters for the background of my March quilt! They will work nicely - I really like some of the patterns in them.  The blue ones went in to my stash - this is one quilt that has no blue in it.  Wow, I can hardly believe I am making a quilt with no blue, that doesn't happen too often!  Anyway, it has some nice yellow, green, and tan prints that work really well with the rest of the prints.

I made 16 blocks today for this quilt, so good progress!  Only four more and I'll be halfway done - woohoo! I definitely should be able to finish the top by the end of this month.  It takes me about an hour to make 4 blocks (9 inches square finished) so by the time I finish all 80 blocks for the center I will have quite a bit of time invested in this quilt.  I guess I need to start looking for a backing for it now.

I managed to take some nice pictures of my newest baby quilt - I made my Monkey Around Pattern using owl fabric.  It came out super cute!  I did some easy straight line quiting on it for the fun of it.  It came our really nicely. I enjoyed doing the quilting, but don't think I'd want to do this on a quilt that would be much bigger!  By the end it was a lot to fit under my machine's arm and control to keep straight.  

Here is a picture of the quilting in progress:  

I didn't measure, just eyeballed the distance between lines.  The staight lines in the pattern and blocks made it easy to keep them faily straight

And this is a picture I found in my cameral of the quilt top I finished in February.  I just ordered a backing for it - feathers! I thought that would be fun with the cats on the top of the quilt.  We'll see if I like it when it comes in.  I have plenty of quilts that need backing, so I'm sure it will work on something if  don't like it for this one!

The roman shades I've been working so hard on are now finished and installed!  So this week I get to have fun quilting....and boy, do I need it!