A Couple of Recent Quilt Finishes...

As we near the end of the year, it becomes more and more apparent that my quilting accomplishments for 2013 are all but over.  However, I do have a couple of finished quilts I haven't shared here, so I thought I would share them today.

First, I finally finished my Bento Blocks quilt, and I really like it.  A lot more than I thought I would.  It is so colorful and bright that it just makes me happy.  I had thought I would probably donate this one to Project Linus, but I may have trouble parting with it.

I just quilted this one with a basic stipple.  Funny how sometimes it's nice to go back to basics.  I love how the red polka dot and plain white borders tone down the madness of the bentos.

And best of all, this is a 13 in 2013 finish.

I also finished my Wonky Cross quilt.  These are the blocks I won in the ECMQG block lottery last summer.  I finished it off with a gray (yes, gray!) border and a fabric I really like called Peacock Gardens from the ModKids collection by Patty Young at JoAnn's.

I quilted it with swirls in the body and a herringbone in the gray border.  It's pretty hard to see the quilting in the Peacock Gardens border, but I tried the Bernina #4 stitch that I've seen people use, and it turned out OK. 

Here is the back, so you can get an idea of what it looks like.  It's a pity it doesn't really show up on the front.

I really love the way these blocks coordinate and how great they look together.  I appreciate the effort the ladies of the guild put into these blocks.

And now that Christmas is over I can share the quilt I made for my daughter for Christmas.  The pattern is Wallflowers by Allison Harris (Cluck Cluck Sew.)

The fabric is mostly Lush Uptown by Erin Michael which I purchased from my favorite fabric shop, with a bit of Denyse Schmidt Florence and a couple of random color collection FQ bundles from Pink Chalk.

I wanted to highlight the motifs from the Lush Uptown collection and the Wallflowers pattern was perfect for showcasing the lovely designs in the fabric.

 It is king size, so I sent it out to the fabulous Sarah Russett for quilting.

So that's it for my most recent quilty adventures.  Once my Christmas company leaves, I hope to get started on some new projects, perfect for the new year.

All the best!

An Apple A Day...

Two weeks ago yesterday dawned  dark and stormy.  A perfect day to stay inside and sew.  After I finished my Outfoxed quilt, I decided I still had some quilty time left before I had to go pack for our trip, so I dug Little Apples out of the WIP pile.

The blocks are sort of a log cabin/bento-ish style of my own design.  I had a charm pack, a jelly roll, and a package of fat quarters I won from Pink Chalk fabrics.  This fabric is so cute, I wanted to do as little cutting as possible. 

I used buttercup Kona for the sashing and a simple white border. I seem to be getting a little better at getting the sashing to line up, which makes me happy.

 The binding is random-sized pieces of left-over jelly roll strips.

I quilted it in a square pattern to accent each block.  I didn't mark them or anything, so they're free form and pretty random.  I kind of liked the contrast with the predictable nature of the blocks.

The backing was blue little apples yardage with some pieces of the fat quarters added to the side to make up the width.  On this quilt, I really like the asymetrical look of the squares down the side.

I'm pretty excited about another quilty finish.

If you're looking for Little Apples precuts, you can still find them at Westwood Acres.

What have you been working on lately?

Yesterday...

I've had several quilt tops in progress for a few weeks - some longer than others, of course, and yesterday, I  managed to finish them.  I was pretty jazzed to get the tops pieced, to be honest.  The down side is that now I have to sandwich them.  I really love the piecing and I don't mind the quilting or binding, but the sandwiching is my least favorite part.

Is there a part of the quilt process you're not especially fond of??

I know that sandwiching is a necessary part of the process, but the older I get, the less I like it. Maybe it's the crawling around on the floor.  I did see a method to do it on a table top and pin it in sections, using binder clips to hold it taut.  I don't have a suitable table, but someday I just may invest in one.  Since we put in our hardwood floors in 2007, crawling around on my knees has been anything but comfortable.

This is another quilt top from Camille Roskelly's book Simplify made from American Jane's Fairy Tale Friends fabrics by Moda.  It uses a charm square pack and a honey bun, along with the sashing.  I used a bone sashing on this quilt, although it looks white in the photo.  It's a little smaller than my normal quilt, but would be fine for a child.

I love the fabric.  It's so bright and fresh, although my photography doesn't do it justice.  I bought the charm pack last fall from my daughter's little shop, Westwood Acres, but it wasn't until I found the honey bun that I knew it was the perfect fit for Camille's pattern, "Square One". 

I've had some of Aneela Hoey's Little Apples sitting around here for awhile.  I met Aneela at last year's Quilt Market in SLC and it was such a pleasure.  I love this fabric.  I had a charm pack, a jelly roll, and a fat quarter bundle that I actually won from Pink Chalk Fabrics and I have been debating what to do with it for months.

I wanted to showcase the fabric, so the pattern had to be something that wouldn't require me cutting this adorable fabric in to teeny little pieces.  In the end, I kind of did my own thing. I surrounded each charm square in a length of jelly roll, and then joined 4 of them into a reverse bento-ish square, with the jelly roll to the center.  I really liked the blocks when they were finished.  I used a narrow yellow (Kona Buttercup to be exact) sashing because the blocks had so much white, and I wanted them to stand out.  I tried a border of randomly sized jelly roll pieces for the outer border, but it was just too much.  I finally decided that the white was perfect.  It's so fresh and clean, it kinda thrills me.  (There I go with my brights on white thing again - it doesn't take much to get me excited!)

Those of you who have visited here a time or two know that gray is just not my favorite color, but I rather like it in this line, although it does kind of remind me of winter, rather than summer.  Even so, I was pretty pleased with how the top turned out.  I'm looking forward to quilting this one.

 My final finish yesterday was this little "Sweet Pea" quilt, again from Camille's book.  I had a charm pack of Lizzie House's Outfoxed from Westwood Acres and a Kona charm pack I got in my swag from Sewing Summit last fall.  I was playing with my stash when I noticed how well the colors went together.  One of the things I really like about Amanda and Weston's shop is that you can get charms and jelly rolls of fabrics that aren't manufactured that way.  Sometimes it's fun to just play with a little bit of something, and not make a big investment.  They painstakingly cut them and make them available for sale.  It's like having them do most of the work.  I love it!  I'm not sure you can get Outfoxed charms anywhere else. 

Some of the prints in this line are just so cute.  I love the foxes and the hedgehogs!  There are only something like 25 pieces in Outfoxed, so I needed a pattern that mixed them up pretty well.  The way the charms are sliced and switched in "Sweet Pea" was perfect.  Some of the blocks used two solids, and some of the blocks had solids mixed in with the Outfoxed charms .  I wanted the Outfoxed fabric for the border, and had a difficult time finding yardage of the Outfoxed print in the brown "Outsmarted" color.  I finally found it and placed my  earlier this week, and it arrived in yesterday's mail.  Perfect timing, don't you think?

I love the little bow on this one.  I bought some brown polka dot ribbon, but it was way too busy, so in the end, I settled for the orange.

The Sweet Pea pattern calls for scalloped borders, but you don't cut the scallops until you finish the quilting.  And I neglected to enlarge the pattern 133%, so I'm going to have to make a run to Kinko's - but not today.

Guess I'd better get busy.  I think I'll go put on a movie and lay these babies out on the floor and get started with the sandwiching.  Once that's done, I'm home free.

Happy quilting!

I'm a Winner!

You know, I have often said that I never win anything, and for most of my life , that has been true.  But this year, I have actually won a bit of blog candy.  First, I won some Aurifil thread from Leona's blog.  Leona was one of my first swap partners, so I started following her blog, and of course, you can't come across a giveaway without entering, right?

Then, I won this great pillow from my friends Yvonne and Renee, after entering the giveaway on their blog. 

Then, yesterday, Kathy from Pink Chalk Fabrics emailed me to tell me that I had won a Little Apples Pencil FQ Set.  Can you believe it?  That's pretty amazing to me - the girl who never wins anything.  To be honest, I don't even remember entering, but there seem to be a lot of things I don't remember lately.  But won't this be fun?  Can't wait.

And if you want to touch me so my luck will rub off, just let me know.  {grin}

Make Mine Modern

Don't forget to enter my Blogiversary Giveaway.  The Week 3 giveaway is here.

Yesterday was the deadline to mail my items for the Make Mine Modern swap, and I squeaked in just under the wire.  I don't know why I waited until the last minute to finish this up, exactly. This was a long swap - I think it started in January - but it just took me a long time to decide on something I thought my partner would like.  I finally decided on a sewing apron "tool belt" because it seemed like something my partner could use.  I hope she likes it.

This photo was taken before I modified the scissor loops.  Sadly, I didn't take an "after" photo.

The pattern is loosely based on the one in the One Yard Wonders book by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins.  I thought I followed the dimension directions pretty closely, but it doesn't look very much like the one Tracy at Pink Chalk Fabrics has on their blog.  I love that they are reviewing the patterns in the book.  Their reviews and creations are what motivated me to actually buy the book, although it was on my Amazon wish list for maybe about a year.  Anyway, I really like their practical approach, and having the benefit of their experiences as they re-create the patterns in the book.

I modified the pockets somewhat, and added a little pinwheel pin cushion to the front.  I also modified the scissor loops, because they just seemed too big.  My partner said she was pink-deprived, and I think this should satisfy her pink craving.  The back is canvas, so it is very sturdy and should hold up to a lot of use.  Also, the canvas should prevent pins in the pin cushion from stabbing the tender flesh underneath.  I hope.  That was the thought anyway.

The hoop was a lot of fun.  I knew from the beginning I wanted to do a hoop.  I think I was inspired by all of the wonderful hoops I saw in the {Scrappy} Hoops Swap.  I didn't participate in that one, but my daughter did, and there was such an abundance of creativity in that swap I was blown away.  At the time, I was just being introduced to Flickr and swapping, and all of that genius amazed me.  Still does in fact.  I woke up one morning a couple of Saturdays ago with this quote on my mind.  I have no idea if I have heard it somewhere before, but I couldn't get it out of my mind. If you know where the quote came from, let me know.
 
I showed BD#2 and WH the hoop when I finished it, and both said, "shouldn't it be 'said and done?' and I was like, "That doesn't rhyme.  You just don't get it."

Then I showed my co-worker, who is into needlework, and she immediately said, "Oh, that is SO me," so maybe you have to be into fabrics and stitching to "get it".  Anyway, it was a fun hoop to do, and I hope my partner likes it.  I worked it on Kona (ivory? off white?) and it was such a great fabric to work on.  I will be doing more embroidery on Kona.  It has just enough body to make stitching a breeze. The last embroidery I did was on linen, and that was not a great experience.  The linen kept stretching in odd directions.  So much so that I nearly gave up.

I included a little pinnie

and of course one of my hexie needlebooks, which are so easy and fun I just can't NOT include them.  And the fabric of course.  The ones I sent are some that just make me happy.  I hope they make my partner happy too.

So, there it is.  The swaps seem to be winding down a little.  For the summer maybe?  I still have plenty going on, but somehow I miss the ones that are finished.  I've really been enjoying them.

And now, for my Saturday plans....  BD#2 is making a quilt from an Origins charm pack and some yardage Santa got her for Christmas, and we have a couple of dresses in the works.  I thought she was staying until Monday, but she is leaving in the morning, so we've got to get busy.  She also wants to go pick some strawberries and  make some jam today - she wanted blueberries, but they're not ready yet.  So it should be a busy Saturday.  I love that she's starting to enjoy sewing and quilting.  And that BD#1 enjoys it so much.  It's fun to share these things I love with my girls.

Progress Report

Yesterday's post presented my "to do" list for the weekend.  It was filled with UFOs.  Only 5 items, but one had a deadline and one had been languishing here since Christmas.  Another one was (is) a problem child and the fourth was the simplest of tasks.  The last one (these are how they are now ordered in my brain, but not necessarily in the order I listed them for completion yesterday) is just too creative for an everyday sewing day.  I am afraid this last one needs the extra burst of adrenaline that a deadline presents in order for me to actually get to work on it.

So here is the progress report....

The Central Park Whirly Wheels quilt is finished!!! (Please say "Yay!")  This is the one with a deadline and needs to be at Pensacola Opera by Tuesday.  I thought it would be a simple matter to complete the quilt - after all the top was done, and it didn't take any time at all to fix my mistake with the cornerstones.  But sadly, when I laid the quilt on the floor to start the "sandwich" process, my backing was 2 inches too small all the way around.  I finally decided to piece a center strip for the back.

I used the fabrics I had the most of along with a few random squares to break up the monotony.  I put a Lawn Zoo square smack dab in the middle, just for grins.

Then there was the label fiasco.  I tried to do a label with my Sharpie marker on a piece of white broadcloth, but that was a mess.  I KNOW I bought label fabric, but could I find it???  No, of course not - at least not until I had already done something else.  Said label fabric has since been located and is still in its virgin packaging, waiting for me to lose it again for next time.

Meanwhile, my printer was out of black ink.  I found a tutorial on the net on how to use an inkjet printer to create quilt labels, but it only referenced black ink.  Naturally, this required a trip to Office Depot.  WH says that Wal-Mart is cheaper, but there is no way I would go near that place at 1:00 on a Saturday afternoon!!

I finally created a fabric label with a piece of Heat N Bond, a piece of broadcloth, and (since the printer apparently didn't like the weight of that combo) a piece of cardstock stitched to the top.  That actually fed fine, and my printed labels turned out pretty well.  I used a scrap to bind the edges and sewed them on the quilt before it was quilted.  I'm still not sure I like it, but I couldn't think of a way to sew it on after it was quilted except to hand sew it, and that is always just a last resort for me.

Anyway, once I got the label done, it was on to the quilting.  This quilt is so busy, I thought it really needed a less-is-more approach, so I just quilted the sashing and the main part of the pinwheels.  Still, it took me 3 hours or more to quilt it.  I really hate the quilting part....  Well, no, I love to see a quilt when I'm finished, but I always feel like I just wrestled a bear when I'm done.  There's just no easy way to maneuver all that fabric through the throat of my machine without getting a major workout in my arms and shoulders.

So, I'm glad it's finished.   And I really like it.  I hope the folks at the auction do too - and pay big money for it!

I finished CPWW early enough in the evening that I decided to go ahead and work on project number two.  This is a quilt BD#2 and I started at Christmas.  Santa gave her a Fandango charm pack in her stocking, and she decided to make Camille Roskelly's Sugar Rush quilt with it.  The pattern was designed for jelly rolls - not charm packs - so we had to make a lot of it up as we went along.  BD#2 pieced the top herself up to the 1st borders.  We didn't get to the scallops, so I did those and the 2nd border a few weeks ago after work one night when I was feeling creative.  I think I thought it would be super hard, but it was actually very easy.  I really like doing the blanket stitch on the machine.  It was really fun.

This little baby was already sandwiched, and just waiting to be quilted.  I hadn't made a label yet, so I made it at the same time I made the CPWW label.  I didn't realize until I made the label that Fandango is a Kate Spain fabric too.  I must really like her!

This fabric is also very busy, but the white in the scallop calms it down a lot.  I had fun playing with different quilting techniques.  The squares are done with FMQ in what is essentially a quotation mark design.  I don't know if that's a bona fide FMQ technique or not, but it is what it is.


The gold is FMQ'd around the flowers, sort of.  Or maybe you'd call it a pebble stitch.  Maybe.  The white part of the scallop is loosely quilted in rows that start out echoing the scallop but gradually get to be more shallow.  The green part of the scallop exactly follows the curve of the scallop 1/2" apart.  The bottom has 7 rows and the top has only 5.  Why, you ask?  I don't know, I just felt like changing it up a little.

This photo is remarkably good considering I took it with my phone!  Why is she taking pics with her phone when she has a perfectly good, in fact really awesome, camera?  The battery is dead.  What!  It has to be charged?  Who knew?

The backing is quilter's flannel.  BD#2 wanted it to be WARM.  I can't really blame her considering it was -18 or something in Idaho this winter.  Of course it's a little late in the season, but I think she'll find this baby is warm enough!  Once again, though, the piece of fabric I had wasn't big enough to fit the top, so I had to improvise.  This one has a pieced border all the way around the back. 

Since I mostly had FQs of this fabric, the binding is pieced too.  I got a little carried away when I was making the binding...  I think I could have used it to bind TWO quilts.

The Sugar Rush pattern has 3 flowers appliqued on the front, and I really didn't like the way the flowers looked.  I thought it was just too busy.  To me, the flowers just seemed to blend right into the background, so I was going to try some solids for the flower scallops.  I did have an alternate plan, but in a text message conversation, BD#2 said she liked it just the way it was.  It's her quilt, and who am I to argue with her?

At her request, I stitched them on and another project finito completo!  (Say "Yay!" again, please!)

The third project didn't take long at all.  I got those 27 blocks squared in no time.  Here is my pile of shavings.  They seem almost too pretty to throw away.  The blocks are in the mail tomorrow!!  (Please say "Yay" for the third time - thank you!

  Sadly, I did not get to either of my other two projects.  I spent a lot of time thinking about how to finish the Kumari Gardens place mats.  I still really want them reversible.  I kept thinking, if only I had about a yard of a pretty floral, I would just put it on the back and they would be reversible.

Well, lo and behold, what should arrive in yesterday's mail but my Pink Chalk fabric order.  (They were having an awesome sale last week on fabrics I've been eying for months!!)  And what should be in that order but some Erin McMorris Weekends.  And for some unknown reason, I bought a whole yard of it. 

I think this will look durn cute on the back of those placemats.  I was about ready to slice into it when I realized everything else was pre-shrunk, but this wasn't.  I didn't want to take a chance, so into the washer it went.




I didn't get to the mini-quilt at all, but I have the idea rolling around in my head.  Unfortunately, what's in my head doesn't always execute as well as I would like.  Oh, well.  I'll get to that.

What I did do was make 3 of the cutest little hexi needlebooks from this tutorial.  They were easy, and pretty fun! I think mine are a little larger than the tutorial, but I didn't measure.  I just cut down a hexi pattern I had from another project.  The appliques are from some sewing themed fabric I bought a couple of months ago

They were easy, and pretty fun!  Easy as

 One...

Two...

Three!