Author Archives: alisonshirley

About alisonshirley

My true love is cross stitch, but I also dabble in a few other needlearts and love to quilt and craft in general.

Metropolitan Fair Mini Quilt

My first quilt finish of 2019! I admit it’s been a slow start to the year. I have been working on projects, it’s just been difficult to acutally finish anything.

I decided to call this mini quilt Metropolitan Fair after the fabric line.

This was my first mini quilt and it was super fun to make! And it was made entirely from left over scraps of a previous quilt!

Overall, I am totally in love with this little guy! My plan is to make several mini quilts to hang on the wall in my entry way and also in my sewing room.

Happy Quilting! -Alison

A Welcome Addition

I got to welcome the newest member to my family this month!  I purchased a new sewing machine and I’m super excited about it!

My wonderful husband cut out an opening in my sewing table to accommodate the larger machine so it is flush with the table top and I can have a larger quilting area! It is going to be perfect to try out some free motion quilting! I can’t wait!

I LOVE my little Janome DC2010, but it’s throat area is only 6 inches and that makes quilting anything above a crib size quilt a hassle.

So, I found this Babylock Jazz II with a 12 INCH THROAT!! What?!?!?!!?

I can’t wait to crank out a queen or king size quilt on this baby!!

I am going to keep my beloved Janome and use it for piecing and as a “travel” machine since it is smaller and lighter than the Babylock.

I already have a couple of quilt sandwiches ready to go!! Woo Hoo!!

Happy Quilting! -Alison

Mini Quilt Top Finish

My mini quilt top is finished!  I love it!  I think it is so cute!  The mini quilt will finish 12.5″ by 18.5″.

I finally figured out what fabric line this is! It is Metropolitan Fair by Barbara Brackman for Moda. These little HSTs were the leftover scraps from a quilt I finished years ago when I was new to quilting and didn’t even think about documenting anything. But, as luck would have it, the leftover scrap of backing fabric had just enough selvage to help me figure it out. Yay!

I just love the back! It makes me so happy to look at it. Is that weird?

I explained in an earlier post that this quilt has not cost me a dime. I am using leftover scraps from previous projects, so it is beautiful and free! You can’t beat that!

I thought I might try hand quilting as this is such a small project. I figure I need to get some practice in before I tackle trying to hand quilt my hexagon quilt which I anticipate being a monster of an undertaking!

Happy Quilting! ~ Alison

Who’s bowl is that?

I whipped up some quick fabric bowls this week with some Dr. Who fabric I’ve had in my stash for a few years. These are super easy and super quick to make.

These started as 9-inch, 13-inch, and 18-inch squares sewn together with batting and quilted.

Then, just box the corners, fold over and tack down the flaps, and voila! Super quick!

Progress on my Mini Quilt

A bit of progress has been made on my first mini quilt! I have trimmed and trimmed and trimmed these little HSTs.

And this is what I have so far.

I do so very much love this little project! It is a great project to have handy when you only have a few minutes to spare in the craft room. I can spend just ten minutes trimming here and there and it adds up quickly!

My little pile of trimmings.

And the best thing: the whole project will be completely free! The HSTs are leftover from a previous quilt, of course, as well as the backing fabric I will be using (from same quilt as the HSTs), and the batting will be a scrap leftover from another recent quilt. So, this little project has been super helpful as a declutter-er of all the stuff in my craft room that I just can’t seem to throw away!

Now that the cutting is complete, I can spend the next two days rearranging the blocks to make sure everything is perfectly laid out. Then see that two of the same fabric are too close together and spend another two days rearranging. And so on, and so on, and so on. . . Can anyone else relate to a little OCD?

Happy Quilting! -Alison