Quilting is in my Blood

I realized a couple days ago that I hadn’t written a post yet about finishing the comfort quilt for Kathy, who is the sister of my best friend, Mary. Kathy tragically lost her 49-year-old daughter, Sandra, to a stroke in June. Sandra was an extremely vivacious person who loved life, especially after she became involved in Christian ministry in her 30s. Mary and I designed this quilt together. The first part she wanted to include was the “God Rays” which I free-style paper-pieced on 11 x 17 sheets of copy paper.

The bright sun in the above photo washed out the center Angel panel. Below is a pic that more clearly shows the beautiful angel. I actually like how the narrow yellow sashing arches over the angel.

We also included two cookie cutter angels using a pattern by Amy@ During Quiet Time, two half-square triangle crosses, and a country style church (pattern purchased on Etsy). Amy of Amy’s Creative Side did the quilting even faster than her typically quick turn-around, so that we could send this finished quilt off to Kathy as soon as possible. I’m happy to report that Kathy loves the quilt and is considering framing it. At 52” x 53”, it would make a fairly large piece of wall art!

Linking up to Meadow Mists Designs Favorite Finish Monthly Link-up July 2019, and I will also be linking up to the 2019 Finish-A-Long linky party in October as this is one of my 2019 3rd Quarter Finish-A-Long goals.

My July 2019 One Monthly Goal was to finish my Vertices quilt top.

I wanted to love it for so many reasons!

• It is made with a wonderful fabric collection, Loved to Pieces, designed by Mr. Domestic.
• My favorite colors of turquoise, teal, and aqua  are prominently featured in the quilt top.
• The fabrics are all Art Gallery Fabrics with their luxurious feel.
• I stretched my paper-piecing skills by drawing out different equilateral triangle templates (some from Melody Miller’s Cotton+Steel Picnic quilt pattern) on graph paper and then sewing on the photocopies.
• I used my light tablet for the first time to place a tricky inner piece of one kind of equilateral triangle.

But when I laid out blocks on my bed, the layout felt too chaotic to me. So I decided to add light green sashing/borders to insert some calmness and order.

Which I think it did, but I just wasn’t crazy about it. That night as I was lying in bed feeling “twired” (you’ve probably heard of this “new” feeling—tired but still wired—unfortunately a feeling I experience more often than I would like), I realized that the quilt I REALLY wanted for my bed is a version of Robin Pickens’ half-rectangle triangle Harlequin quilt which is inspired by Saija Kiiskinen’s take on the Harlequin quilt using Mr. Domestic’s Loved to Pieces fabric collection. I absolutely love Saija’s version (See her quilt here) but decided that I wanted my quilt’s irregular triangular borders to be made with solids featured in the quilt: Pure Elements Tile Blue, Fresh Water, and Cozumel Blue.

The next day I photographed my Vertices quilt top and put it away. I think I will finish it next year for a donation quilt.

I bet you all can guess what my August One Monthly Goal will be!

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: July ‘19 Finishes.

I have several new goals for the third quarter of 2019. First up is my Vertices quilt that uses fabric from the Loved to Pieces collection by Mr. Domestic along with coordinating solids. For the last couple months I’ve been working on equilateral triangle blocks for this quilt. When I laid out the blocks on my bed to arrange them, the overall effect felt chaotic to me, so I made a design change. I’m not going to add half-rectangle blocks to the beginning and end of each row. Instead I’m going to use light green sashing and borders to insert some order.

My second planned project is to make a much calmer complementary half-rectangle block throw-size quilt to my Vertices quilt that also uses Loved to Pieces fabrics and some of the half-rectangle blocks I’ve already made:

In keeping with the turquoise color scheme, I’m going to make the following projects:

3) A Sparkler Mini using the pattern that Yvette@Quilting Jetgirl wrote for the Summer Sampler 2019. Below are my fabric choices for this project (Jade Green, Capri, Aqua, and White):

4) I’m going to use similar solids for a baby-sized quilt using Kristi@Initial K Studio’s Reflection pattern. The fabrics will be Sea Glass (on order), Aqua, Azure, Capri, and White.

5) I have yet another project on my to-do list that will use leftover Loved to Pieces fabrics and possibly some of the solids pictured above. It is a baby-sized “kitty” quilt for my cat, Bug, using Jaybird Quilts’ Alphabet Soup Bonus Pattern: Name Quilt. I have the book and the specialty rulers, and I think this will be a fun project to make.

6) And last but definitely not least, I will finish the comfort quilt pictured below for a friend who tragically lost her daughter last month:

Linking up to 2019 Qtr 3 Finish-A-Long.