Flea Market Fancy mini quilt

This little quilt is four firsts for me.

1. It's my first mini quilt, measuring 16.5" square.

2. The first quilt I've made using my Flea Market Fancy fabrics. 

3. The first hand quilted project I've finished. Emphasis on finished.

4. And, my first time to quilt with Pearl cotton. I used DMC size 8.

I got most of the quilting done poolside last night while Shea was at swim team. I probably looked like a dork quilting beside the pool (in the shade of course) but, oh well. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I really like quilting with the pearl cotton. It's quick and I love the look of the chunky stitches. 

I liked this little quilt last night when I finished it, but I love it this morning seeing it with fresh eyes. The quilting doesn't look as bad (crooked and uneven) as it seemed to me last night. I can't wait to hang this in my sewing room in the next house. There's something about it that makes me smile. I think it's the happy colors!

And, yes, the Flea Market Fancy is even better out of the stacks!

It's just fabric. Right?

I'm so close to finishing my quest to collect all the Flea Market Fancy prints. I was daydreaming earlier about what kind of quilt I'll make when my collection is complete. Some very talented quilters have created some gorgeous quilts with this collection. Among my favorites are this one, this one, this one, and this one. Breathtaking aren't they! I can't decide what I want to do with mine yet.

I'll probably mix some solids with the prints to make what I have go a little farther. Maybe I could get two quilts out of my stash by adding solids. After matching up a few prints to some Kona solids earlier, I decided to actually cut into some of the fabric as a bit of a primer to making the "real" quilt. Silly isn't it! It's just fabric! Anyway, I used Kona strips left over from the Paintbox quilt and some FMF scraps that I've acquired through swaps.

It turned into my first mini quilt! They are little improv wonky stars. Don't faint, but yes, that is actually polyester batting. I'm going to hand quilt this one and hand quilting through Warm 'n Natural (or other mostly cotton batting) is tough. Visually, I like the loft of polyester, so I'm going to try it out for this little wall quilt and see how I like the way it needles. I'll show it to you when I'm finished. Hopefully that will be sometime in the very near future.

Once upon a time...

a boy, a girl, and their wee one lived in a cute house in the city. The boy was a home builder who had meticulously rebuilt the 1925 bungalow they called home. Their house was walking distance from the elementary, middle, and high schools the girl attended and the hospital where she was born. The university the girl graduated from was much further away, about five miles from their city house. She had very deep roots in their neighborhood. The couple were surrounded by family and friends who lived nearby.

One day, the boy and girl had a crazy idea and wondered what it would be like to live in the country. They put their city house on the market and it sold very, very quickly. The couple leased a house about 25 minutes outside their beloved city and prepared to build a country house.

But things in the country weren't as blissful as the couple had hoped. They desperately missed the conveniences of city life and the girl was saddened by all the precious time she was losing by driving back and forth to the city on a regular basis.

A few months after moving to the country, the couple made the decision to uproot again move back to the city. But where would they go? They had sold their lovely city house.

The couple decided to take on the massive renovation of a 1940's rental home they owned in the city. After all, the boy was a home builder and they had completed this type of project twice before with great results.

So, in the heat of the Texas summer, the project began. They hope the house will be completed before school for the wee one begins in the fall. The couple are very excited about moving back to the city and are praying that things go smoothly and that they are able to stay on schedule.

OK, seriously. All sarcasm aside, I was going to start another blog to document our next house project, but I can barely keep up with one blog, so maintaining two might throw me over the proverbial edge. I hope I won't lose you if you are here for crafty things, but I'm so excited about moving back to the city and want to share our house journey with my family and friends. I might put together a post of before and after photos of our last house. I adore old houses and love that with my husband's skills we are able to give them new life. (And, I can't wait to decorate and landscape this next "old" house!)

And for those of you who are here for some crafty eye candy...

The 193 hexagons I basted on Memorial Day. I'm almost out of pre-cut papers and I still have a huge stack of squares remaining to baste. I also need to cut into my stash. I think my hexagon quilt is going to be larger than originally planned because I want to include every single one of these lovely fabrics!

Paintbox Quilt Top

On Saturday, I attended Dallas Modern Quilt Guild's Saturday Sew. It was such fun to meet fellow bloggers and to spend a day in a room of ladies who love to sew and quilt. I had been putting off the sashing for the Paintbox quilt, so I took it with me on Saturday. I arrived in the morning with a stack of 80 blocks and two yards of Kona charcoal and left with a finished quilt top. It was a super productive day.

I really like the way it turned out. I must credit Kim with the charcoal sashing idea. I was thinking of hand quilting this one and a fellow hand-quilter at the Saturday Sew had the marvelous idea of quilting in in full color. 

This morning I matched up Kona cottons to DMC cottons. My dilemma? Buying 37 DMC pearl cotton balls at approximately $2.50 per ball (plus shipping) is a little too much to spend on quilting one quilt in my opinion. So, I think I may try using the variegated pearl cotton because I could likely get away with using only 14 colors/balls. I bought some size 5 pearl cotton skeins yesterday (because they are readily available and only $1.50 each), but I don't really like hand quilting with size 5, so I'll have to order the size 8 balls if I can't find them locally. The one shop I can think of that may have them in stock is closed today for the holiday.

Shea is out of school for the summer and has spent the last four days swimming. The temperature is already in the mid 90's here in Texas and the forecasted high for Saturday is 102° (39° C). Ugh.

If you are in the states, I hope you are enjoying your long Memorial Day weekend. Remember to take a moment today to honor those who have paid the ultimate price while serving our country.