Oct ‘18 OMG

Posted on October 2, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

Floating Hexagons Quilt

No shock to my regular blog readers, I have another two-parter monthly goal, but at least I haven’t blogged about either of these projects before! My first priority to get my Floating Hexagons Pattern Test Quilt bound. I was so honored to test this lap-size pattern for Sarah@Sarah Goer Quilts. This pattern is perfect for contrasting solids. I chose two of my favorite Kona solids, Cerise and Berry, for this quilt.

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The quilting was done by Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting, and I just love how the diagonal plaid quilting motif looks. This is the second quilt that Melissa has quilted for me, and she does such a great job for a competitive price and fast turn-around.

I want to make this quilt again featuring some fussy-cut prints (maybe cats, Christmas prints, etc). Check out Sarah’s Petting Zoo version to see how great this pattern can look with colorful prints from a favorite fabric collection.

Christmas Baubles Quilt

Part two of my October One Monthly Goal is to make a Christmas mini quilt that I have wanted to make for awhile now. It is the Christmas Baubles Quilt by Jen Daly featured on Moda Bake Shop. I’m using the same Kate Spain Jingles prints along with the white on white snowflake background that Jen used. I haven’t decided yet if I am going to make a pieced border or not.

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Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: Oct ‘18 OMG.

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Wedding Whirl Finished!

Posted on September 30, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

Just nine days ago, I wrote a post about finishing my Wedding Whirl Quilt Top. And today I am writing about this quilt being totally finished and ready to be sent off to the newlyweds tomorrow (see my above post for a great photo of the cute couple). Melissa of Sew Shabby Quilting did the long arm quilting, and I was totally amazed at her quick turn-around. I shipped the quilt top off of Sept 17th and received it back on Sept 28th. The quilting pattern is called Splash of Love, and I love the stylized hearts and waves in this motif. It just looks perfect!

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A friend of mine took the above photo which shows off the true colors of this quilt along with the quilting pattern, but it does not show the full 60” x 80” quilt with Kona Charcoal binding. However, it is better than any of my pics, so I’m using it!

Below is a close-up of the Kate Spain batik backing that shows some of the quilting:

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And I love this close-up that show the lovely texture of the Splash of Love quilting:

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Linking up to From Bolt to Beauty: Brag About Your Beauties. This project was also one of my 2018 Qtr 3 Finish-A-Long Goals. Linking up to 2018 Qtr 3 FAL Finishes.

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Sept ‘18 OMG Finishes

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

My September ‘18 One Monthly Goal was another two-fold goal. Part one was finishing my Alison Glass Feathers quilt top made with her gorgeous (though challenging to sew with due to heavy raveling) Kaleidoscope fabric, and I did get it done and dropped off to ThreadBear for longarm quilting a couple weeks ago:

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The second part of my Sept ‘18 OMG was to make three simple 16-inch paper-pieced pillows to go with the Butterfly Quilt that I am making for my best friend. I quilted these pillows using a wavy ribbon quilting pattern this past weekend and sewed on the envelope backings today:

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Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: Sept ‘18 OMG Finishes .

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Blogger’s Quilt Festival—Pink Quatrefoil French Bulldog Quilt

Posted on September 23, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

Many thanks to Amy of Amy’s Creative Side for hosting the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. In June 2018 I finished two Quatrefoil French Bulldog Quilts for a set of twins born in April to a work colleague and his wife. For the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, I’m featuring just the pink quilt. Below you can see the inspiration for this quilt with the family’s French Bulldog with twins on the quilt. I love his paw on the quilt!

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Because I’m not much of a fan of light pink (except on adorable babies!), I used several deep pink fabrics including one of my all-time favorites, Moon Age Cerise by Libs Elliott, for the quatrefoil petals. I was so excited to find the French Bulldog pattern designed by Kid Giddy to use for the center of the quilt.

The parents were very pleased with the quilts for their babies and decided to hang the quilts in the twins’ nursery.

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Linking up to Blogger’s Quilt Festival—Fall 2018 Edition

 

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Wedding Whirl Quilt Top Finished

Posted on September 21, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

In June I wrote a blog post about starting to design a quilt for my stepdaughter, Alisha, who got engaged to her girlfriend, Wendy, earlier this year with the plan to get married in early 2019. I used a pattern called Fire Whirl in the Scraps, Inc. book that was designed by Lee Heinrich and decided to use solids in teal, turquoise, and red violet with splashes of orange. I chose fabrics using my Kona solids swatch card, and I have to say that several of the fabrics that seemed like they would work well together when I looked at the tiny swatches did not look so good together when the yardage arrived. By process of trial and error, these are the Kona solid colors I ended up choosing for my version of Fire Whirl which I named Wedding Whirl: Teal Blue, Caribbean, Breakers, Dark Violet, Geranium, Magenta, Torch, Flame, Violet, Berry, Turquoise, and Peacock.

I then spent the next couple months making over 750 HSTs (3” unfinished) and starting to sew blocks together, and in August I sewed the blocks into rows for the top half of the quilt. Oh my word, there were SO many seams to match!!! My Aug ‘18 OMG Finishes post shows a lovely shot (minus a pesky shadow) of the half quilt top with my out-of-control sunflowers. (Below is the a photo of the whole quilt top finished on 9/16/18).

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I had a sneaky feeling that the engaged couple might not be able to wait until next year to get married, so I decided to prioritize getting this quilt top finished and started sewing the blocks for the bottom half of the quilt in early September. And then a week ago, I received a text that they had eloped. Below is a photo of the happy married couple (my stepdaughter, Alisha, is the lovely bride in the wedding gown).

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So the following day, I did a long day of sewing with my best friend, who is a fabric presser extraordinaire, to get the quilt top finished. And because Michael at ThreadBear, who is usually my long-arm quilter, was so backed up with quilt tops to be quilted, I sent it to Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting who is highly recommended by Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter. I’ve actually sent Melissa two quilt tops in the last two weeks, and I can’t wait to get my quilts back from her.

Linking up to From Bolt to Beauty: Brag About Your Beauties.

 

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September ‘18 OMG

Posted on September 1, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

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A couple months ago I had my niece, Kim, choose a quilt for me to make for her birthday in October. I sent her links to look at that featured several quilts that I would like to make someday. Kim chose one of the quilts that has been high on my quilty bucket list: the Alison Glass Feathers quilt made up in Kaleidoscope fabrics, and she requested the quilt be made in the same colors as the pattern photo. I had already purchased a fat eighth bundle of Kaleidoscope fabrics, so I used the pattern photo as a guideline for my own fabric choices. Many of the colors in the Kaleidoscope collection are very close, so I’m sure that at least a few of my choices differ from the beautiful quilt shown in the pattern photo. I was able to put my own stamp on this project by making a design decision to change out the blocks in the pattern that had narrow sashing within the blocks. I had made up one of those blocks and didn’t like how it turned out. Furthermore, I felt stressed while making it which is NOT what I want to feel when quilting! So I modified two template patterns making sure that they would fit with the overall design. The fat eighths bundle was more than sufficient to make most of the blocks, but I did buy 1/4 yard cuts from Stash Fabrics for all the long single-colored fabric blocks. Above is a photo of the 55 blocks on my design wall. This month I again have a two-parter One Monthly Goal. The first part of my September ‘18 OMG is to finish the Kaleidoscope Feathers quilt top using the blocks above, including my least favorite paper-piecing task—removing all the papers (and I’m sure many of you can relate!)

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Photo by Quilts by Catherine (Used with Permission)

The second part of my goal for this month is to make three simple paper pieced butterfly pillow covers that will coordinate with the Butterfly Quilt that I am making for my best friend. The above pattern photo is used with permission, and here is a link to the Butterfly Square by Quilts by Catherine pattern (available on Craftsy and at her Etsy shop). I am going to use Kona Teal for the background for all three pillows. The butterflies in the left and right pillows are going to be made with Kona Turquoise fabric, and the middle butterfly will be made from Kona Dark Violet fabric.

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: Sept ‘18 One Monthly Goal.

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Aug ‘18 OMG Finishes

Posted on August 25, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

August has been another busy quilting month, and I did get the one and a half quilt tops finished that I set out to do in my August ‘18 OMG goal-setting post. The more time consuming project was finishing the Butterfly quilt top for my friend. I have to say that designing and sewing the seven panels so that the small butterflies could tilt at different angles gave me a deeper appreciation for all the work that pattern designers do on a regular basis. This quilt has more negative space than what I normally prefer in my quilts, but once the variegated quilting is done, three fairly simple paper-pieced butterfly pillows are made that will be placed at the back of the daybed, and a small solid color kitty quilt is finished, I think it will be a pleasing and not-too-busy combination. Below is a photo of the quilt top that shows five of the smaller butterflies (on my full-size bed) that will hang down on the front side of my friend’s daybed.

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And here are the far left and far right blue butterflies that I could not capture in the above shot:

The other part of my August One Monthly Goal was to sew the top half of the Wedding Whirl quilt that I’m making for my stepdaughter and her fiancée. Below are two pics of this half quilt top (that definitely needs a more thorough pressing). I really like the second one that shows all of our beautiful sunflowers and cosmos flowers, except that it also has a shadow of one of the swing stand supports. I thought about taking another photo this afternoon after the sun had moved further west, but it’s crazy windy outside now, so I’m calling these photos good!

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Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: August ‘18 OMG Finishes.

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August ‘18 OMG

Posted on August 1, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

My August ‘18 One Monthly Goal is to finish one and a half quilt tops. The half quilt top is the top half of the Wedding Whirl Quilt that I am making for my stepdaughter and her wife-to-be. The finished quilt will be 60” by 80” with a total of 48 ten-inch finished squares. Since my main design board will only easily accommodate the first four rows of this quilt, I decided the best strategy would be to make all the blocks for the top half of the quilt and sew them altogether and start on the bottom half next month. Below is a photo of 18 blocks that make up the first three rows:

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The other part of this month’s goal is to finish the Butterfly quilt top that I am making for my best friend for her 60th birthday in October. This quilt will actually be a daybed cover, and the Seven Butterfly Charm Blocks pictured below are going to staggered on the front flap that hangs down from the daybed:

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I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to accomplish my friend’s request to have the small butterflies tilting at different angles, and I decided to make a rudimentary paper-pieced block to encompass each butterfly. Below is one of the butterflies in a rectangular block that measures 11.25” by 18.25”. It is a bit klunky and would benefit from more angular pieces, but I’m not at that stage yet in my paper-piecing design skills. And when it is quilted, the quilting will give it a softer look.

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Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: August ‘18 OMG.

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July ‘18 OMG Finish

Posted on July 26, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

My July ‘18 One Monthly Goal was to make six more paper-pieced butterfly charm blocks that will be used in the Butterfly Quilt I am making for my best friend. Below is a photo of all seven butterfly blocks placed amidst some pretty Cosmos flowers.

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They sure were fun to make and the pattern is free to download from Lillyella’s website.

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: July ‘18 OMG Finishes

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2018 Qtr 3 Finish-A-Long Goals

Posted on July 11, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

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