Rainbow Stripes Quilt

We just returned home from a spring break trip to my parent's house and this quilt top was sitting on my sewing machine calling my name.  I used a charm pack of City Weekend by Oliver & S that I bought on a whim a few months ago.  The fabric is so beautiful and I love the combined color palette so I knew I wanted to use all the charms in the same project and I wanted to make something special.  However, I only bought one charm pack so I decided on simple stripes with lots of sashing and was able to make a baby quilt (with some left over a very small project - YEA!)  I used Valori Wells Urban Flannel for the backing which is so soft and wonderful.  If I had more patience or forethought, I would have ordered some yardage of City Weekend for the binding (I don't have a LQS) but instead I used one of my favorite fabrics - Wildwood by Erin McMorris.

To make the stripes, I divided the charms into groups of four by color.  I then sewed four charms together into a strip.  

I cut each of those strips in half lengthwise and sewed the two strips together.  

I sewed the strips to the sashing so that the strips were always on top and I could see my seams while sewing.  This made it so much easier for me since I usually end up sewing some of my seams the wrong way when I can't see them. 

I did simple straightish lines for the quilting.  I just lined up the walking foot with the side of one of the city weekend strips to sew quilt lines on the sashing and then used that line to sew quilt lines on the city weekend strip.  I think my needle was set to 1/2 inch.

And I machine sewed the binding with the zig zag stitch again.  This time, I sewed the binding to the quilt top and then also did the zig zag with the quilt top facing - I only missed about one inch and I caught every corner - major progress!  

In other crafty matters, I've decided to start trying to decide ahead of time how I'll use my crafting time during the baby's nap to avoid wasting the precious minutes.  My plan for tomorrow is to start the granny square quilt that has been on my list for a while.  I started sorting through my scraps and cutting the squares tonight in anticipation.  

While going through my scrap box, I found these:

and a few more like it.  I made them when I first got my new sewing machine to try out the fancy stitches.  I think my plan was to make coasters (not sure if that was my plan for the top one - seems a bit big for a coaster.)  I'm glad I found them - I'm going to add some batting, backing, and binding and see how it works out.  

I also need to get a plan together to figure out what I am going to try to sell at my daughter's school craft fair in May.  I've known about the fair for a while but how did it get to be just a month away?!?  I made these bags a long time ago so maybe I'll make some of these.  

It is about time I put these zippers to use.  

And then maybe some simple tote bags, a few doll quilts, and some doll sleeping bags.  I also hope to include a few crocheted items - probably just some hats and maybe a couple mobiles.  Hmm, we'll see. . . Any suggestions?