Happy National Quilting Day!

What are you going to do today?  I am looking forward to making more progress on quilting the Brothers and Sisters quilt! 

It took me a while to decide how to quilt all the blocks, but now I am on a roll and have just more than half of them done.

I'm doing curves and swirls - I think it adds a nice softness to the blocks.  

After the blocks are done I have borders to figure out.  Three plain and one pieced.  The pieced one I will do like it is in the book, but the plain borders I need to figure out.  I'm sure an idea will come once I get there!

This is a huge quilt, so I'm glad I was able to get the centers done fairly easily.  Thank goodness for that extra throat space that my Juki has!  I'm using light delft blue in 50 wt for the quilting, and it looks perfect.  I bought two large spools because, like I said - this quilt is huge, and I don't want to run out.  Plus I will be making matching shams as well.

Hope you have a great day, and especially that you get to do some quilting!

New Projects coming up!

So....it's been a long two days working at the quilt shop (Threads That Bind).  I finished quilting a shop sample on our rental long arm machine - Lenni.

Isn't it pretty?  I didn't make the quilt top, just quilted it.  I've been going back and forth as to whether I want to transition into owning a long arm machine myself.  After using this, I realize that I do like the freedom of using my Juki for the quilting.  In order to quilt those squares I either had to make sure I had the quilt rolled just right or re-roll in the middle of the block.  On my Juki I don't have to worry about that.  On the other hand, doing all the outlining was a breeze on the long arm!  For right now I am thinking since I have access to this machine, I don't really need to have one of my own.  Here's a close up of the various quilting motifs I did.

I did all the quilting free motion - outlining the floral design in the main print, clamshells in the blue, swirls in the green and a wavy grid in the yellow.  The swirls were the hardest!  Interestingly, the swirls are one of the easiest designs for me when I'm quilting on my Juki.  I think it's just the different way the machines work!

I brought home some of these to make a shop sample.  This is Botany by Kelly Ventura for Windham Fabrics.  Love the colors in this!

Today is a catch-up day at home, then hopefully a good weekend of working on some quilting projects!  One of the side effects of working so many hours at the shop is that it makes me want to make more quilts, so I have ideas bursting out of my head - need to get them down on paper so I don't forget!

I'm also catching up on my blog reading this morning.  You definitely want to check out the Creative Spaces Blog Hop that started this week!  I love knowing that I'm not the only one whose sewing studio looks like a hot mess!  I actually forced myself to clean up one side of mine last week because I could barely walk in there.  I can sum up my mess with one phrase:  "too much stuff!"  But I love it all!  I am gleaning some great tips from the blogs on the hop, though, so maybe there is hope for my problem!

I drew the winner for my Island Batik Scrap Bag!  Congrats to Collette - I'm putting together the package today and will get it out in the mail shortly. Thanks to everyone for participating!  Lots of fellow blue fans out there, but a lot of votes for the other colors as well.

Have a colorful day!

Some Quilting Fun!

Besides finishing up my Christmas in July project for Island batik, I have spent a good part of my week just having fun.  I opened up my drawer of orphan projects and pulled out a pile of blocks, looking for a quick and easy project to work on just to enjoy some simple sewing and quilting.  The first one I pulled out was a block in red and green that was 15 inches square.  I looked in my stash and found the perfect shade of green - added them for borders and layered it for a quick quilting job.  I picked a red thread and did a swirl hook design.  I was so happy with this I went on to quilt my CIJ project with the same design!  Here is the finished quilt:

Well, that was so much fun I had to find another project to work on the next day!  I picked a mini snowball and nine patch block that was ready to go.  I quilted this one in swirls:

How could I stop at this point?  Yesterday I pulled out another block - May Roses.  Feeling creative, I added a border to my block, set in on point with one of the fabrics in the block, then another border.  Really had fun with the quilting on this one.  I did some flowers, adding leaves, echoing and spirals.  Yes, I did enjoy the quilting a lot on this one!  Small quilts are the best for playing with free motion practice!

Besides quilting for fun, I also put together a sample for Threads That Bind - a Fall Charmer table runner using a Welcome Fall charm pack.  I did a quick swirl pattern on this in orange.  Bold thread seems to be my choice this week!

No quilting today, but I did put together a couple of tops for quilting later.  I've really enjoyed some good creative sewing time this week and it has done me a world of good - I just feel happier and more at peace.  Sometimes it's good to just make something with no real expectation or purpose in mind for it!  Of course, I've added the first three to my Etsy shop, but I really just made them for the fun of finishing something quickly.  Next week I have some deadlines again, but I hope to add in some fun quilting as well.  I still have a good pile of orphan blocks to deal with (wink)!

I'm linking up with Myra of Busy Hand Quilts for Finished or Not Friday:

Come join the fun!

Is It Really June Already?

I can hardly believe that May is gone and it's already June!  It didn't help that I caught a head cold and it kind of kicked the snot out of me...literally!  (Sorry for the bad pun, I just could not contain myself)  I am totally behind on everything right now, so need to do some catching up.

First of all, it's time to draw the winner for my Miniature Quilts Magazine giveaway!  Maryellen McCauliffe is the lucky lady - I'll e-mail for your address and get this magazine in the mail first thing tomorrow.  Maryellen is not only a fellow Quiltsy Team member on Etsy, but she also is the one that encouraged me to sign up as an Island Batik Ambassador.  She has had a rough few months so I'm sure this will brighten her day a bit.

I spent last week working on quilting this quilt top - a real scrappy and bright project with lots of crazy prints.  I used purple thread and added a purple binding because it's my clients favorite color!

This one was a bit of a challenge because the top was not very flat.  It is all hand pieced, and the blocks are supposed to be 18 inches, but you could tell there was a lot of easing going on as they were sewn together!  I quilted it with hearts and loops and am very pleased with the results.

The best part is that this won't be a top sitting in a drawer or on a shelf anymore.  It's a finished quilt, ready to be snuggled under, wrapped up in and loved!

I got an exciting message on instagram yesterday!  I am the winner of the #eq25 social media prize this month.  Don't forget to use the hashtag if you post a picture of a project - you could be a winner, too.  I'll be blogging more about that on the 10th of the month - I learned more about using the custom set tool and am excited to share about that.

Today I am doing some random sewing and thinking about what I would like to get done this month, so I'll save that for another post.  I've been continuing to work on my rag quilt project and have a big pile of sewn blocks, but lots more flannel to cut up!  There is a new Ambassador Challenge for Island Batik this month - modern quilts, so that will be fun.  I know what I am making, just have to get sewing...so I think I will leave you there for now and continue on.  Have a wonderful day - go get some sewing done, too!

Blue and Silver Christmas Round Robin

I'm keeping up my momentum and working away at my rather impressive pile of UFO's. Today I finished this one, it's a round robin quilt I started with a group of friends years ago.  I've been dragging it out and working on it in bits, but finally have it finished!  It's got a nice array of quilting on it - and I am quite pleased with myself. 

If you have never participated in a round robin, I would highly recommend it!  For this one there were only four of us and we were all making Christmas quilts.  We didn't have any rules for the different rounds, just do what you like.  Each of us had an ideal finished size as the only guideline.  I did the beginning feathered star on mine.  My colors were blue, white, silver, with just a bit of red.  I added the last border after a lot of searching for the right fabric.  It's a pretty piece with a village scene and trees.  I had to cut all my borders just right so everything would be right side up - I don't often make quilts with an up and down so it was a bit tricky!  I did feather quilting on the star.  You really can't see it at all in the blue because of the matching thread, but the white shows up pretty well.  It's not perfect, but it was good practice!

 

All the borders are really special!  The first border looks like prairie points, but all those triangles are appliqued!  I just quilted that border stitch in the ditch.  The next border has the same dark blue as the triangles in my star.  I had a hard time finding thread to go with the red, but eventually settled on a shiny Sulky rayon thread.  Then I didn't know how to quilt the blue squares.  I thought I would try some free from snowflakes in silver thread.  Worked great!  They actually look more like bows on packages, but I like it.

The white border with squares was fun (and challenging) to quilt.  I was going for a "frost" kind of inspiration.  I was really pleased with the results!

The final border is just done with swirls because it doesn't really show.  The binding worked out nicely.  It was a blue batik with swirls of white dots.  I think they look kind of like snow!  Isn't the fabric pretty?
Excuse my darkish pictures.  I didn't finish until after 6 and I lost the good light!  But I did want to get pictures.  I'll try for some better ones later this week.  I was just excited to get this done and wanted to post it!

I've got several custom orders to work on next week, but do have one more quilt that is basted and partly quilted to finish up.  Yay for productive weekends!

Winter Solstice Quilt Finished

Despite a night of little sleep (poor DH was not feeling so well!) I got myself together this afternoon and finished quilting up my shop sample of Winter Solstice.  I'm pretty happy with it - I was trying out some different quilting designs, so there was a bit of a learning curve and some ripping out.  In the end it came out and I will be using it in my Beginner Free Motion Quilting class to show some things you can do with basic meandering, loops and spirals.

 I suspect that it was a mistake to quilt the background first.  I had a few issues with extra fullness in some spots and I think I might have avoided that by quilting the other sections first.

Love doing those loop the loops to fill the triangles - I only got mixed up in the direction I was going one time :)

 Not the best example of my free form feathering, but overall they look really good!  They don't have to be perfect because they are all unique and handmade!

And a peek at the back.  I love the look of all the different quilting designs on the back.  This is going to be awesome when it gets washed, I just love all the crinkly goodness of a washed quilt, do you?  The next quilt up for finishing is my Christmas round robin that will go on my futon this year for the holidays!  I got out the burgundy thread and even did a few stitches while dinner was cooking.  I am really ready to cross this one off my list, and  I'm getting through the list pretty fast. Then it'll be time to start a new one.  List, that is.  There are plenty of quilt tops, and UFO's around here for several!

A little quilting...

I got to do a little quilting today...I got all the white background done.  Tomorrow I'll work on the colors!  It will be a fun Christmas quilt when it's finished.  This is another project from Angles With Ease.  Sorry for the pathetic photo.  It looked a lot better on my phone :/

 I think my husband is catching that bug that's been dragging me down all week, so it'll be a good day to take it easy and do some stitching :)  I feel bad that he doesn't feel well, though.  Should have kept my germs to myself!

Fall is In the Air

After a beautiful summer we are definitely full on into fall.  Cold, rainy weather has taken over, I keep telling myself there are definitely some lovely Autumn days coming, at least I hope!  We had some good storms come through over the weekend and lost some shingles off our roof - not a good sign for the coming winter, for sure.

I kept busy in September and finished several quilts.  I had three quilts in my quilt guild's show - no ribbons this year.  It makes me really want to work on some projects like my Crazy Jane and get them finished!

 I quilted this top that was made as a shop sample last year.  Love the fabrics in this.  I ended up deciding to do a simple meander on this, but it could have been really pretty with a nice custom quilting.  Not a lot would have shown since the fabrics are pretty busy, though.

 I got this bed runner back from the quilt shop as well.  I had to re quilt some of it because I had some tension issues.  I'm much happier with it now!

Love the way this one came out!  I quilted this with an allover swirl design.  Another quilt with busy fabrics - seems like simple quilting just works out best for these.  I have another finish to show, but need to take some better pictures.  Hopefully I can keep it up next month.  I would love to make a big dent in my overly full drawers and turn some UFO's into Quilts!!!

Bollywood Bliss - Daisy Garland Sample

If you follow me on facebook, you will recognize this quilt, I've been posting as I work on it and about the challenges I've had working on it.  One of the challenges that I didn't post about was the fact that in between the time that I cut the fabrics for this quilt and the time I started working on it, I totally forgot what fabrics I intended to use where in the quilt!  The border, background and star points were easy, but then I had two shades of green and a yellow that I really didn't remember what my plan was for placement!  I ended up leaving the yellow out entirely because I didn't like it, and used the softer green in the chains, and the bright green as the inner border.  Another thing that I didn't do was to write down what the fabrics were.  And since I ended up using almost every inch of fabric I had, it was a bit of a challenge to figure out when I was finished!  Luckily I had a couple of small scraps of selvage with just enough writing to jog my memory - Bollywood Bliss by Quilt Poetry.  They are from the Pink Sari colorway.  The background fabric is Quilters Sateen in White.  It's lovely!  (A little hard to photograph, though.)  I also used the green clocks from Hideaway - one of my favorites in the quilt shop right now.

Check out the binding - I decided to go with a two color binding because I didn't have enough of either one on hand to bind the quilt.  Plus it was a fun technique to learn!  Well, I didn't quite have enough of the green anyway, so ended up going back to Threads That Bind for a 2 inch strip to finish up.  I got the tutorial from this blog post - 52Quilts.  Next time I will alter the measurements a bit because the binding was a little wider than I really like, but it was really easy and looks fabulous!

I was inspired by those pretty swirly vines in the border for the quilting - looked though my copy of Doodle Quilting by Cheryl Malkowski and found just the idea I needed for the quilting in the background and narrow green border - she calls this design C's or Scrolls (page 14).  I left mine pretty open, next time I think I will I will try to quilt them a little more densely.

On the border I quilted Teardrop 123's + Finger Feathers + Echoing from page 73.  The busy fabric in the border hides the quilting, but that's ok - it made it easy to practice this design without it having to be perfect. Though it would have been easier as an overall design because the border is only 5 inches wide so made it a challenge to keep the design flowing!

I made this a new sample for Threads that Bind to sell my Daisy Garland Pattern.  It's fun to see how different a pattern can look in different fabrics!  I'm blessed with a good vision for that, but I know that many people like to make a quilt just like the one they see, so I'm happy to be able to provide a new inspiration for them.  This pattern uses some fun quick piecing techniques, so is great for beginners or anyone who doesn't like to have to cut out dozens of little pieces and sew them together (me!)

This quilt measures 48 inches square.  Makes a great wall hanging, but would also be a good Baby Quilt or small Lap quilt.

Spring Cleaning

Though it doesn't feel like spring yet here on the Oregon Coast I've been inspired by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville to do a little sprucing up for the season.  After all, by the calendar it is spring, and after Easter, so it must be time to get out all the sunny spring household items, right?  But I am sticking with the flannel sheets for a while yet!  I finally am taking off my Christmas Quilt (I know, I know...I intend to make a proper winter quilt soon!) and replacing it with the sunny blue and yellow Round Robin Quilt.

This one was made from an internet swap.  It was a row by row swap, and we each included our own fabrics.  Each participant made a row of 8 inch blocks for each quilt in the same pattern.  My poor box got lost a couple of times, but eventually I got it back with all the lovely rows ready to sew together into a bright and cheery quilt!  Each row is signed by the maker.  My husband thought it was odd to have a quilt with peoples writing on it, but I like remembering all the people who worked on it.  I am no longer in touch with any of them, but it was really fun making the quilt and working on all the other ones that passed through.  I believe that somewhere I have a journal that traveled with it, I should see if I can find it!

This is the first queen size quilt I ever machine quilted, all the previous ones were done by hand.  I used my 1979 Kenmore and it was a super tight fit in those middle strips, but we made it!  All of the white is stippled down, with a bit of outlining, etc in the colored pieces.  The batting is Warm and Natural and I love the old fashioned feel and look of this quilt.  It gets softer and drapier every time I wash it!

It  measures around 88 x 92 inches, a bit small for my current pillow top mattress, but I still love it and enjoy having it on my bed for spring.  The label is getting a bit faded, but I can see that it was started in April of 2002.  It must have been finished before September of 2003 because I showed it at the Sea of Quilts show of that year. 

This is what's on my bed today !  Now I will go document it in my Quilt Album program so that I won't have to try to decipher that faded label again!

Make sure you go to Bonnie's Blog to see everyone else's quilts or to add what you have on your own bed! - What's On Your Bed?

Audrey's Garden Quilt

This is the current shop sample that I just completed - I really think it's pretty! The instructions were so-so, they were a little complicated because the original pattern calls for more fabrics, and I just used a few. My blocks are all the same and the original pattern had three different colors of blocks. I thought the technique for making the tulip side sections of the blocks was great, though! I must remember this for future use! You start with a square in a square block and sew squares to it, cut apart, sew another square, and voila - a very slick technique for sure. Still need to label it, I've been trying to make sure to label them as I finish them so I remember the details. This quilt has Quilter's Dream Poly in it

.

I also worked on some new items for my Etsy Shop. I am almost out of checkbook covers, so plan to spend this week working on some of those. I made 4 checkbook covers and 2 wallets out of Arabella from P&B fabrics today. I had fun quilting it with viney swirls to match the design in the fabric. I was using orange on the back, but when my bobbin ran out just switched to the green I had used for the Audrey quilt. It looked really neat on the red backing! I did stick with the orange on the front, though. This was a fun quilting design to do and makes a nice overall design.

Here is one of the checkbook covers:

All in all a nice afternoon of sewing!

Twiggy

One of the reasons I started this blog was to document my quilting journey and have a way to keep up with the different quilts I have made. I am not much on keeping track of paper or photographs, so this seemed like a way that I could write about my creations and not have to search all over for my journal every time I wanted to add to it! I have fallen a bit (lot) behind lately, so I am going to try to catch up here and there. I finished this quilt in April as a shop sample. This is a smaller version of the Squares on Point quilt from the book Big Blocks, Big Quilts.

I really liked how the blocks floated on point and the way the backgrounds and blocks varied in their contrast with some blocks being light on dark, and some being dark on light. It was fun working with a layer cake and I was really surprised at how versatile they can be. There wasn't much fabric waste, which is important to me because at the cost of fabric now I don't like to have to throw away any at all!

The only problem I had with making this quilt at all was that the measurements for the setting triangles were incorrect. I informed the publisher of the error, but haven't checked back to see if they've posted a correction yet.

Because the name of the fabric line is Twiggy, it made me think of wind blowing through trees, so that inspired my quilting design. The border is a different line, but the colors were perfect for the border, and I had the perfect blue and green thread to match the colors of the fabrics. I found a great wood-grain fabric in the clearance section for the back, and used warm and natural for the batting.

So now I have found that not only do I love jelly rolls, but I love layer cakes, too. Is there no end to the pre-cut madness? Good thing we don't have the sweet rolls at our shop, but I have been eying some eye-catching log cabin quilts that would be great using the smaller strips. Well, that may be something I can buy using the gift certicate I won from the Fat Quarter Shop because I participated in the Blogger's Quilt Festival! How exciting - I am not known for my good luck, so this was a great surprise to me, and I have spent the last few days trying to decide what to get. I am absolutely in love with Patisserie, but there are some really good deals in the sale section, too! Decisions, decisions! My friend told me don't get the sale fabric, get what you really love because it's like a gift, but I can't decide what I want the most - yardage, pre-cuts? and what will I make with what I buy? Yikes, this is a hard choice, but I'm sure I will be thrilled with whatever it is I decide. When the goodies arrive, I'll show it all off - and the project I make!

It's a good idea to...

Check your e-mail before you go to bed! I almost didn't, but now am really glad I did because otherwise, I might have missed my day in the spotlight at HandmadeFuzion! So, I ended up staying awake until after midnight because then I just had to add a few more listings that I have been meaning to get done, and double check my listings for typos (which I probably missed anyway because it was after midnight!)

I have to say nice things about Handmade Fuzion because even though I haven't had any sales there yet, I think it is an awesome site to buy and sell handmade. It is juried, so you know that the product you get will indeed by handmade by the artist - which is the point of buying handmade, right? The administrators of the site are awesome, prompt replies to questions, and they added a special subcategory in the quilt section just for me! Isn't that great? I was very happy! I am excited to be included on the website, and hope for great things for it - it's very exciting to get in on the ground floor of a new venture and I can't wait to see how it goes.

My current project is a sample for the shop (we are getting ready for Quilt Run 101 which means lots of new samples and things to catch the eye of all those quilters!). Here are a couple of very bad pictures. Which you will see a lot of in the near future because the rain is back on the Oregon Coast. That high pressure system that was giving us glorious weather has moved on, but we need the rain, so no complaining!

The fabric in this quilt is Natural Garden by Holly Taylor, and for some reason it has not sparked a lot of interest, yet. We are hoping a sample will show everyone how lovely this line is and will help sell the remaining jelly rolls we have. I love the rich reds in this, and added a similar red as a narrow inner border, then the brown with green birds as the outer border. I got it basted yesterday, and halfway quilted! I am quilting it with a soft green on the top and off-white on the back. I'm simply doing a large meander to get it done quick, most of the samples do quite well with a simple desing, but for my own quilts I like to go a little crazy and quilt them more.

This picture also shows how messy my sewing room is at this moment. Yes, I did start cleaning then I started sewing and accumulating new projects. Time to start spending more time in the sewing room actually sewing, instead of time in the sewing room on the internet! I also need to finish a lot of half done projects, and get rid of a lot of extraneous stuff. I think you will be seeing some e-bay auctions coming up for some books and magazines, and who knows what I will do with all the extra fabric! Yes, I have my work cut out for me, but when I put my mind to it, I can really accomplish a lot in a short time. Time to put my mind (and body!) to it!

Zippity doo dah!

My, oh, my what a wonderful day! Finished up two samples for the shop out of Sandy Gervais' new line. It's red, white, blue and very cheerful. I totally enjoyed working with this line. While I was working on them I took a few pictures of my method of preparing for quiting so I could share it.

The first thing I do is press the back, using a little spray starch, then tape it wrong side up on my dining room table. I don't tape it too tight, just enough to make sure there are no wrinkles or ripples.

The batting goes on top of this, smoothed down and flat. I didn't have a piece of batting quite large enough for this project, so I pieced two sections of batting together to make one. Some people like to make a curved edge to stitch by layering the pieces one on top of the other and cutting a curved line with a rotary cutter, but I simply make a straight cut on one side of each piece and zig-zag together. You do have to make sure the batting pieces are the same type of batting, but this is a great way to use your extra leftover pieces.

The next step is to press the top and put it right side up on top of the batting. I use my hand to smooth out the top and make sure the seams are lying the way they should. Then I get out my mug of little safety pins and get to work. I pin about 6" apart, which is about the measurement of my thumb and first finger spread out. Once I get everything pinned I trim the edges about 1" away from the edge of the quilt. This helps prevent me from stitching any long pieces to the back of the quilt (yes, sometime this happens when I am going along at a great pace and don't pay attention to the edges). Now I'm ready for the quiting!

More new samples are coming, some pretty florals came home from the shop with me today!