Inspired by Amanda’s Neutrals Quilt and Farmer’s Wife Quilt-a-Long, I decided I would make a neutrals JQB quilt.

I have been tweeting and instagraming photos of the blocks as I make them. Here is what I have so far.

JQB #1 Yosegi nikuzushi (Simple pairs)
This one I made a little scrappy because all I could see when looking at this block was a swastika & I’m totally not into that!

JQB #2 Yosegi gokuzshi (Simple fives)

JQB #3 Yosegi kawari nikuzushi (Simple pairs variation)
I love how striking this one is in black & white.

JQB #4 Hirasan kuzushi (Simple three lines form)
The Alexander Henry fabric makes this one creepy…and I like it.

JQB #5 Kurume kasuri igeta (Kurume well curb)

JQB #6 Yamato kasuri igeta (Yamato well curb)
I really like this one too, even though the double gauze makes it a little wobbly.

The book has a few sashiko blocks too. Sashiko is perfect for on-the-go handwork! I’ve drawn up #85 Raimon (Spiral) so I can pull it out & work on it whenever I have a few spare minutes. Oh, and I’m using sparkly floss!!

Okay, maybe that’s not exactly how the story goes…

My friend Lizzy’s daughter and my dog do have the same name but, I’m pretty sure she found that out after she fell in love with the name. I must agree, Hadley is a pretty great name.

Anyway, new baby means new quilt right?

I have been trying to use fabrics from my stash instead of buying new stuff. That’s hard for me to do but I managed to use all stash fabric for this little baby quilt.

I took my inspiration from a photo Lizzy posted on Facebook of Hadley’s nursery.

I love that mirror and lately I’ve been attempting a lot of machine appliqué. It seems to be a quick way to make a big impact.

I wanted a cute print inside the frame and choose A Far Far Away print from Heather Ross. I cut out one of the repeats and sashed it with white. I used the size of the print to determine the size and shape of the frame.

Armed with my inspiration photo and a roll of freezer paper I started drawing. I drew my rendition of the mirror’s frame and cut it out.

I ironed my template on to some pretty pink voile and trimmed the negative space.

Then sprayed the frame with that quilty adhesive spray & stuck it on the quilt top. I started zig-zagging….. And zig-zagging…… And zig-zagging….

Voile is not the easiest fabric to appliqué. I almost zig-zagged my fingers a few times. (I need one of the purple thangs. That’s what their called, have you seen them? I need one.)

I needed this quilt done fast because I tend to wait ’till the last minute for my projects. Procrastination = zero thought in actual quilting design. I went with quick stipple in the background. I was going for echo quilting within the frame…it went horribly wrong. I didn’t have time to re-do, so that’s how it stayed. Oh well.

The quilt was well received and I think it’s pretty darn cute.

I backed it with AMH voile. Luxe!

June 1st I became a storm chaser trying to get home from work & came face to face with a tornado. That tornado tore through Massachusetts and devastated many families. Luckily, our home was spared any damage, while our neighbors weren’t so lucky.

A couple of weeks later my Mom had a conference in Washington, DC. My sister & I tagged along.

At the end of June, I hit a milestone while on a boat. BF & I went on a cruise to celebrate my 30th birthday! Strangely, it was our first real vacation by ourselves. (We’ve been together for almost 8 yrs,)

Then BF’s Mom returned home after two years in the Peace Corps.

That same weekend we went to the Long Island Philharmonic concert in the park with a bunch of BF’s family.

Next up was a party to meet our niece, BF’s god daughter, Addison.

In July we drove to Nova Scotia for BF’s cousin’s wedding.

On the way home we stopped at the Bay of Fundy, which touts the highest tides in the world.

In August we went to NY again, this time for our friends Mike & Megan’s engagement party.

Next it was off to NH for BF’s brother’s wedding.

Then rushed home to batten down the hatches for Huricane Irene’s arrival. We were spared yet again, only a few trees & small amour of flooding near us & we lost power for about a day. We passed the hours without technology by playing my new favorite game, Bananagrams.

Somewhere in there I attended a few wedding & baby showers, found out at least three more friends are having babies and squeezed in the tinniest bit of sewing.

I’ve been making a bunch of diaper clutches.

I’ve also finished at least one quilt that I can remember & a few blocks for another but that’s for another post!