June ‘18 OMG

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

My June ‘18 One Monthly Goal is again a two-parter. A couple weeks ago I started making half-square triangles for my version of Freshly Pieced’ Fire Whirl Quilt. I love Lee’s original scrappy version but decided to use solids for the violet and turquoise/teal whirls and some orange diamonds for extra pop. I really enjoy designing directly on my design board, and for this quilt, I cut a lot of 2 1/2” squares and then sliced them diagonally to create my design triangles to see what a small segment of the quilt will look like. My stepdaughter and her girlfriend are getting married next year, and as I’m making this quilt as a wedding gift for them, I’m calling it Wedding Whirl. My plan is to finish making all of the 768 HSTs this month. I don’t know how many I already have, but I’m probably close to halfway done.

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The other part of this monthly goal is to make a 15” x 24” paper-pieced butterfly using Lillyella’s Take Wing pattern that will be the feature butterfly in a quilt for my best friend. I will also be making some of Lillyella’s Charm butterflies in the next couple months, but they are not part of my June ‘18 monthly goal.

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

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May ‘18 OMG Finishes

Posted on May 27, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

My May ‘18 One Monthly Goal was to quilt Jackie’s Aviary and to finish my Rainbow Autumn Chain quilt top. I am happy to report that I did meet my monthly goal again this month, thanks to Patty’s motivating monthly link up. Because I really haven’t been in the mood lately to quilt anything, I probably would’ve bailed on quilting Jackie’s Aviary, which is the name I gave my Scattered Squares pattern test for Sarah@Sarah Goer Quilts, but since I had set it as a goal to quilt this month, I got it done. I have to admit I prefer quilt designing and piecing much more than the actual quilting itself. I think it would’ve looked better with quilting lines more closely spaced together, but I didn’t want to quilt through the birds, so I decided that quilting lines spaced an inch apart was fine. And it’s definitely more cuddly with less dense quilting. Here’s my favorite photo of Jackie’s Aviary with my handsome cat, Rusty, on it:

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And a pic that shows the whole quilt measuring 30.5” x 42.5”:

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Here’s a close-up of three of the birdies:

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One thing that I’ve been doing lately is writing the blog post address on my quilt labels in the hopes that somebody may come across the quilt in the future and want to know a little more about it. Sometimes I print them up on my ink jet printer, but I went old school with this baby quilt. I noticed my hyphen looks more like an underscore and after I took the photo below, I went over the words in the bottom line to emphasize the hyphen. It doesn’t look as nice, but I think it is clearer, which is the goal!

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The easier part of my May ‘18 OMG was to make the last block for my Rainbow Autumn Chain quilt top and sew the 16 blocks together (12 made by #IGHoneyBees2018 swarm-mates and four made by me). This quilt top went together without a hitch due to the well-made blocks by my swarm-mates. I really love how all the blocks worked together to create a beautiful color wheel. My swarm-mates were able to choose the color of their choice, and it all worked out so well. I did make an intentional choice to make the last block on the bottom row to finish up the color wheel. I don’t think this will be the last color gradient quilt you see from me!

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Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: May ‘18 OMG Finishes. Also linking up to 2018 Qtr 2 Finish-A-Long Finishes.

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Jackie’s Aviary

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

When my friend, Sarah, at Sarah Goer Quilts asked me to test a new pattern called Scattered Squares, I very enthusiastically agreed to do so because of how much I admire Sarah’s modern quilting aesthetic.

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I decided to pattern test the baby size and was excited to see that a fabric I had purchased awhile back with my sister, Jackie, in mind would work perfectly for the small squares. Jackie loved birds, so this quilt basically named itself. Below is a pic of the 20 birdie squares before they were bordered with Kona Aqua:

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This pattern was straight-forward and easy to sew, and I decided to quilt it with (mostly) straight lines spaced one inch apart. I backed it with a Joel Dewberry bird print (I like to think these are the little birds from the front all grown up 🙂 And the binding fabric reminds me of bird feed.

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Linking up to Cooking Up Quilts: Main Crush Monday.

 

Posted in 2018 Quilts | Tagged , | 7 Comments

May ‘18 OMG

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

My May ‘18 One Monthly Goal is twofold. First I want to sew one more Autumn Chain block (see my January ‘18 Queen Bee Blocks post for more information about the adaptation of Sew Mama Sew’s wonderful block). I have a total of 15 blocks (three sewn by me and 12 by my Bee Hive swarm-mates), and I am going to sew one more block in the red violet color scheme to complete a simple 4 x 4 color wheel baby quilt top. Then I plan to sew these together to finish the quilt top.

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The second part of my goal is to quilt my Jackie’s Aviary quilt top which is a Scattered Squares test pattern for my friend, Sarah, of Sarah Goer Quilts.

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

 

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April ‘18 OMG Finish

Posted on April 28, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

My April ‘18 One Monthly Goal was to finish two baby quilt tops for a set of twins who were due to be born this month. They were born on April 19th, and I hope to get their finished quilts to them in the next month or two. Their mom requested one quilt to be pink and the other purple and also mentioned a fondness for French bulldogs.  When I saw Kid Giddy’s French Bulldog block, I knew it would be the perfect center block for the quilts for these babies. Typically I’m not much of a fan of the color pink, but I do love these rich pink colors (and I’m very fond of the Libs Elliott Moon Age fabric that I used to make the petals of the Quatrefoil blocks):

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The purple quilt top also features a Libs Elliott fabric in its Quatrefoil blocks:

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

 

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2018 Qtr 2 Finish-A-Long Goals

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

I have three new projects that I hope to finish this quarter that feature Kid Giddy’s French Bulldog block. I finished making a purple quilt top yesterday with her French Bulldog in the middle:

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My second goal is to make a pink quilt that also uses Quatrefoil blocks. I still need to make another French Bulldog block for this quilt. These quilts are for a set of twins who are supposed to be born this week. You can read more about these projects in my April ‘18 One Monthly Goal post.

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I made a French Bulldog test block last month, and I plan to use it in a purple/pink combination quilt that I will keep. Below is a mock-up on my design board. But I will use a blue Libs Elliott fabric for the corner units rather than the purple and pink corners pictured below:

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My fourth proposed finish is to quilt my Random Intention quilt top I made last year for the Five Fat Quarter Fun Contest. I had designed blocks before but never quilts, and it was a lot of fun!

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From last Quarter I am rolling over two projects. The first is my Wayward Transparency Quilt Top that I hope to get quilted this quarter:

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My last proposed finish for this quarter is to quilt Jackie’s Aviary below (the little gold squares are little birds). I truly enjoyed testing Sarah Goer’s Scattered Squares pattern last year and look forward to finishing this baby quilt that I plan to hang on my wall.

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Linking up to 2018 Qtr 2 Finish-A-Long Goals.

 

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April ‘18 OMG

Posted on April 7, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

My April 2018 One Monthly Goal is to sew two baby-sized quilt tops that I will finish next month and give to one of my work colleagues and his wife who are expecting twins this month. At the baby shower at work, I gave them a card and asked my colleague’s wife to let me know any color preferences and if they have any themes for the babies’ room. She emailed me that the colors are purple for one baby and pink for the other, and while they don’t have a specific theme, they do like French Bulldogs. When I got Kid Giddy’s newsletter announcing her Doggy in the Window Quilt Pattern, I was blown away by the pattern. I think all the dogs are adorable, but I am particularly fond of her French Bulldog (especially with the light blue ears made with the French Bulldog fabric by Christopher Thompson). I decided that I wanted it to be the center block for each nine-block baby quilt measuring 36” square. I sewed up a test block that I will use in a future project (for me!), and learned a few things that I will change in these two baby quilts, like not placing one of the text fabrics upside-down!

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The other eight blocks for each quilt will be the Quatrefoil Block designed by Jennie of Clover & Violet. I finished sewing the purple Quatrefoil blocks today but have yet to start on the pink blocks or French Bulldog blocks which will be bordered by more Kona white in order to make them the same size as the Quatrefoil blocks and which will allow me to sew purple (and pink) corners on them to give the quilts a more cohesive look (that idea is from my best friend also named Mary!)

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

 

 

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March ‘18 OMG Finish

Posted on March 31, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

My March ‘18 One Monthly Goal was to cut and baste 120 diamonds to use in a future English Paper Piecing project. The cutting was easier than I thought it would be. I cut two-and-a half inch strips of ten different Alison Glass fabrics and was able to cut 14 diamonds with 3/8” seam allowances from each of these strips using the acrylic template I purchased from Jodi@Tales of Cloth.

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I initially tried to thread baste the diamonds. Last year I was able to easily thread baste hexagons for the Rainbow Hexie Pillows that I made for my office, but I had difficulty thread basting the diamonds even after reviewing two different online tutorials. So I switched gears and decided to glue baste the diamonds during a motor home trip to the Grand Canyon, and it was far less messy than I had imagined, thanks to the package of Wet Wipes next to me.

I probably won’t do anything with these pretty diamonds for awhile. I have another family vacation planned this summer. I need to learn how to sew these diamonds together by that time which I hope will go better for me than thread-basting the diamonds!

Do any of you experienced English Paper Piecers have any advice for me?

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: March ‘18 Finishes.

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1st Quarter of 2018 Bee Blocks

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

I decided to participate in the Bee Hive online quilting bee again this year, and so far it has been a lot of fun. I was the Queen Bee for January for the #IGHoneyBees2018 and blogged about it in my January ‘18 Queen Bee Blocks post. Since that post, I have received all of my blocks from my swarm members and need to make a few more blocks, so I can sew a 48” by 60” quilt top together. That is the size of my Quatrefoil Quilt that has blocks sewn by Bee Hive and Stash Bee swarm members in 2016, and it is a wonderful throw-size quilt that is currently displayed on a quilt ladder. I absolutely love this quilt—one of my all-time favorites.

Meredith, of Whats Next Ma was our February Queen Bee, and she chose the Houndstooth Block in scrappy red and navy blue. Because there were only 10 fabrics needed and required either strips or squares, this block went together fast. I had never made this block before and really enjoyed the quick paper-piecing that makes the blocks so precise. I treated myself to a few new fabrics for this block and especially love the red cross-stitch hearts with needle and thread fabric.

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Our Queen Bee for March is Jan of Cocoa Quilts, and she chose the Ripple Block which was a lovely block to make with Jan’s choices of scrappy spring and low volume fabrics. I tried to reduce the wonkiness factor when working with so many small squares and HSTs by using Best Press when I ironed my fabric prior to cutting, and I think that helped some. I have a love/hate relationship with scrappy blocks that require a lot of different pieces. For Jan’s block I used 48 different fabrics plus Kona white, and it was fun to run across scraps of fabric from past projects. But for me, scrappy blocks can take a lot more time to make than blocks with just a few fabrics. I think part of the reason that fabric selection for scrappy blocks takes me so long is the way I store my scraps. I don’t have dedicated scrap bins, and I store scraps of fabric folded inside larger pieces of the same fabric. Mostly it works well for me. I do have one short cut for scrappy block fabric selection and that is having two charm packs dedicated to scrappy blocks. Right now I have partial charm packs of Karen Lewis’ Blueberry Park and Kate Spain’s Canyon collections. I’m planning to buy two more charm packs for this purpose: Christa Watson’s Modern Marks and Rebecca Bryan’s Panache collections. My absolute favorite fabric used in this block (see below) is the Therapy low volume fabric that my sister and I designed together. Through an internet search, I gathered open-ended questions used by therapists in sessions and wrote a few myself, and my sister did the graphic design and had it printed up through Spoonflower.

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I’m wondering what works best for you as far as storing fabric scraps?

Linking up to Cooking Up Quilts: Main Crush Monday.

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March ‘18 OMG

Posted on March 3, 2018 by Quilting is in my Blood

My March ‘18 One Monthly Goal is to make 120 English Paper Piecing (EPP) Diamonds using Alison Glass fabrics. I will most likely combine them with coordinating Kona solids when I start putting my Diamond Hexie Stars together similar to the ones that Jayne of Twiggy and Opal shared a few months ago.

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Jayne cuts out her own diamond templates, and I will probably do that myself down the road, but I’ve been very busy preparing for a renovation of my quilting room, and so I decided it was easier to order some templates from Jodi of Tales of Cloth. For anyone new to EPP, Jodi has supplies, patterns, and several very helpful tutorials on her website.

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I will most likely thread-baste my diamonds as I will be basting them the last week of the month when I go on a motor home trip from New Mexico to the Grand Canyon in my brother and sister-in-law’s motor home. The upside to thread-basting is that it is easier to reuse the paper templates, though if one is careful enough pulling the edges of fabric from glue-basted templates, they also can be reused.

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

Posted in 2018 Quilts | Tagged , | 4 Comments