March ’17 OMG Finish

Posted on March 26, 2017 by Quilting is in my Blood

Two and a half years into my quilting journey, I continue to learn something with every single project. When I admired Libs Elliott’s random HST quilts, I did not focus on them being made with solid fabrics. And another great example of a random HST quilt is this one made by Anja@Anja Quilts, again made with solids. I think this Imprint collection by Katarina Roccella would probably have worked better with a simple hourglass or star pattern. All that being said, I am happy with my Quasi-Random Imprint HST quilt, but I spent a lot more time designing it than I thought I would.

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Taking a photo of it yesterday in Northern New Mexico’s spring time wind was crazy. I snapped this one pic and then the wind blew it over the fence to my neighbor’s yard. Luckily I had a reacher handy and was able to quickly snag it before it got carried off even further. This flimsy is now at my local quilt store, Thread Bear, waiting to be quilted. We haven’t made a decision yet on how it will be quilted. I’m thinking large spirals might soften all the angles or possibly an orange peel design. Please feel free to make quilting suggestions. I’ll be stopping by to talk with Michael at Thread Bear in a week or so.

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: March ’17 Finishes

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March 2017 OMG

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Quilting is in my Blood

My March 2017 One Monthly Goal is to sew the half-square triangles (HSTs) together for my great-niece, Rachel’s high school graduation quilt. I cut 144 six-inch squares from Katarina Rocella’s Imprint collection to sew together to make the HSTs. I wanted a random look for this quilt, so initially I blindly pulled two squares at a time out of a bag to form the HSTs. About a half-way through, I changed my strategy and started intentionally putting the squares together to provide more balance to the quilt. Below is a sampling of the HSTs in no particular order:

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My plan is to sew the HSTs into groupings of 16 that will form nine large 20 1/2″ square blocks that will then be sewn together to complete the 60″ square quilt top that I will have long-arm quilted next month.

It has been such a pleasure working with this gorgeous fabric collection, and the feel of the fabric is so luxurious. I’m saving even the smallest scraps of these fabrics!

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: March ’17 OMG Link-Up.

 

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Feb ’17 OMG Finish

Posted on February 25, 2017 by Quilting is in my Blood

My February 2017 One Monthly Goal was to make a quilt top out of the Quatrefoil bee blocks received from The Bee Hive and Stash Bee members (with Surprise Blocks from my friend, Sarah Goer, and four blocks made by me). I had hoped to make a 60″ square quilt, but a few of the blocks were too small, so my Quatrefoil quilt top is now four across and five down. It is a very nice lap quilt size, and I love the depth of color in the teal/turquoise petals and the different variations of lime corners that form diamonds. Down the road I plan to make a big pillow with four of the unused blocks after I have trimmed them down to about 12″ square.

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I finished this quilt top this morning, snapped a quick pic, and then got it packaged to ship to Amy Ellis of AmysCreativeSide.com. She had a one-day quilting sale that I was lucky enough to take advantage of. I’m asking her to quilt a mazes motif in a medium grey that I think will look especially awesome in the low volume sections. This is the first time I’ve ever shipped off a flimsy for quilting, but at least I’m only shipping it a couple states away. In the 1990s my mom used to send her quilt tops to the Philippines for quilting!

Have you ever sent off a flimsy for quilting before? If you did, were you a little nervous to entrust your precious quilt top to a courier or post office?

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: Feb ’17 OMG Finishes.

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Feb ’17 OMG-Quatrefoil Bee Blocks

Posted on February 4, 2017 by Quilting is in my Blood

My February 2017 One Monthly Goal is to sew together my Quatrefoil bee blocks that I received from Bee Hive and Stash Bee hive members when I was queen bee this past August. I have enough blocks to sew a quilt top that is five blocks across by five blocks down. Two of the blocks I will be including were surprise blocks (pictured below) made by my friend, Sarah, of Sarah Goer Quilts.

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I’ve finally started to press out the mailing wrinkles, and some of the blocks will need to be squared up before sewing together the quilt top. I hope to start playing with the layout tomorrow.

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: Feb ’17 OMG.

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A New Work in Progress

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Quilting is in my Blood

I purchased fat quarter bundles of Katarina Rocella’s gorgeous Imprint collection in both colorways about a year ago not knowing what I was going to make with them and recently decided to use this fabric in a half-square triangle (HST) lap quilt for my great-niece, Rachel, who will be turning 18 and graduating from high school in June.

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I’ve been very drawn to some of the random HST quilts I’ve seen on Pinterest like the ones made by the fabulous Libs Elliott who uses code to generate quilt designs. I will be using a much less sophisticated method of combining fabrics for this HST quilt. I have cut 144 six-inch squares from the 20 fat quarters (at least 7 from each), and I will blindly pick out two squares at a time to sew together out of a bin once I mix the squares up really well, not worrying about combining a light print with a medium or dark print. My only rule will be to not sew two of the same fabrics together, although a few interspersed squares might add some interest.

The quilt will be 12 five-inch finished squares across by 12 five-inch finished squares down. I hope to have all my HSTs made by the end of this month.

Linking up to My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday.

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January ’17 OMG Finished

Posted on January 30, 2017 by Quilting is in my Blood

My January 2017 One Monthly Goal was to finish my modified Fancy Forest quilt top. This quilt is for a birthday present for my sister-in-law, Sharon, who will celebrate her 65th birthday in April. Sharon truly is a kid at heart, and she fell in love with the four fancy foxes I made last year, so I decided to add three Hazel Hedgehogs and two thistle blocks to make her a small custom quilt.

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The quilt top measures 33″ x 43″, and after it is quilted and I square it up, the finished quilt will measure about 32″ x 42″. I thought about putting one or more borders to increase the size but decided I’d rather sacrifice size for a cleaner aesthetic. Because it is a smaller size quilt, I thought about quilting it myself with straight lines, but I’m going to let Michael at ThreadBear work his magic. Below is the fabric for the back which I think is perfect for Sharon especially since she loves bears.

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Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: Jan ’17 OMG Finishes and Cooking Up Quilts: Main Crush Monday.

 

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Table Runner, Placemats, and Napkins for my Sister

Posted on January 23, 2017 by Quilting is in my Blood

For my sister Jackie’s birthday this year I made her a table runner, eight placemats, and eight napkins using charm packs and yardage from Brigitte Heitland’s Zen Chic Reel Time fabric collection and adaptations of two of her patterns designed for this collection. I made the Tea Time table runner a little smaller than specified on the pattern, so it could fit if Jackie only used six of the placemats plus the table runner. Below is a photo my sister took after receiving her birthday present.

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The placemats for my sister are a modification of Brigitte’s Little Break placemat pattern. Each placemat has a different configuration of 2 1/2″ squares cut from 5″ charm squares. I then sewed a thin inner border of solid grey fabric and the same outer border of Reel Time Metro Dots Black on each placemat. The backing for each placemat is Lenses in Slate.

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I wasn’t sure how I wanted to bind these placemats. I thought about using the cheater binding I use for mug rugs (using the backing as the binding), but I decided I wanted to the back and the binding to be different, so I read a lot of online tutorials and emailed Yvonne@Quilting Jetgirl several times asking her questions about binding placemats since she’s made so many cool ones. Search for placemats on her blog, and you will be amazed at all the different ones she has created. I was going to cut my binding strips the usual way selvage-to-selvage and use one and a half binding strips for each 11″ x 17″ placemat using single-fold binding to reduce the fabric bulk. Then I decided to use my AccuQuilt machine to cut 67″ long strips using the lengthwise grain for 1.5″ wide strips of binding which meant that I only needed to have one binding join for each placemat. I had planned to use a decorative stitch to sew the binding down on the front of the placemats and table runner, but I didn’t like how it looked, so I ended up hand-stitching the binding down.

There are many mitered corner napkin tutorials available online. For the napkins I made for Jackie with Reel Time The End fabric, I used a tutorial from  Splendorfallsmc.blogspot.com that I saw on Pinterest, but when I tried to go into the original post on Bloglovin’, I discovered that this post had been removed. I’d like to make some more napkins sometime but may try a different method next time. If you know of a good mitered corner napkin tutorial, please share.

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This is my first finish of my 2017 Finish-A-Long Quarter 1 Goals.

Linking up to Cooking Up Quilts: Main Crush Monday.

 

 

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2017 Finish-A-Long Qtr 1 Goals

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Quilting is in my Blood

I just have three goals for the first quarter of 2017. I am carrying over one of my 2016 Finish-A-Long 4th Quarter Goals and plan to get my Quatrefoil Bee Block quilt sewn together and have it quilted. I’m thinking of trying the Susie’s Magic Binding method of binding with this project.

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I am also working on a modified Fancy Forest small quilt for my sister-in-law’s 65th birthday in April. It is actually my January 2017 OMG Goal to make three Hazel Hedgehog blocks and two thistle blocks to add to my four Fancy Foxes and get a 48″ square quilt top done by the end of this month.

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My final Qtr One goal is to to finish a secret sewing project for my sister, Jackie, that I started almost a month ago. I’m in the process of finishing up eight placemats, a small table runner, and eight mitered-corner napkins for a birthday present for Jackie using charms cut into 2 1/2″ squares and yardage from Zen Chic’s Reel Time fabric collection. Last night I asked my sister to NOT read any of my new blog posts until after she receives her present (which she agreed to do). I do plan to get this project done this Martin Luther King holiday weekend, so it will definitely be my first Qtr One finish, and she should receive this birthday gift by the end of next week. Below is a pic of one placemat and the table runner that need the binding brought over from the back and hand sewn down on the front.

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Linking up to Capitola Quilter: 2017 FAL Q1 Goal Setting.

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January 2017 OMG

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Quilting is in my Blood

I’m very excited about my January 2017 OMG. I hope by the end of this month to have the quilt top done for the small quilt I am making for my sister-in-law Sharon’s 65th birthday in April. She loves the four Fancy Foxes I made last year, and rather than using them in a wall-hanging for me, I am going to use them in the quilt for Sharon. This month I am planning to make three Hazel Hedgehog blocks and two Thistle blocks. All of these blocks are designed by Elizabeth Hartman for her Fancy Forest quilt. The quilt for Sharon will just have the foxes, hedgehogs, and thistles, and I am planning to make it 48″ square, possibly with a border around the edge.

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Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: January ’17 OMG Goal Setting.

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Dec ’16 OMG Finish with Mystery Extras

Posted on December 31, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

I’m late joining the December 2016 OMG Finish Linky party, but I actually finished my block and the mystery extras I promised to share about in my December ’16 OMG post within the first week of December. Not everyone knows that prior to being bitten by the quilting bug two years ago, my main creative outlet was making mosaics from glass and tile. I shared about the different kinds of mosaics I’ve made in my Quilting in Glass post. The mystery extras I made for my Bee Hive swarm members and also for two other quilting/blogging friends who have been incredibly supportive of me (Sarah@Sarah Goer Quilts and Yvonne@Quilting Jetgirl) were simple ornaments replicating the Ohio Star block made from nipped pieces of mirror glass glued on top of 2″ wood squares then grouted with black sanded grout with the sides and back stained with wood stain. I have to tell you that photographing mosaic pieces makes taking pics of my quilts a super easy task (and yet I still complain about quilt photography and dream of sending my quilts to Kitty@Night Quilter to have her take gorgeous photographs of my quilts in beautiful nature scenes). Below is a pic of the 13 ornaments I made earlier this month:

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And here is a pic of the last block I sewed this year for The Bee Hive:

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I wrote a post earlier this month with pics and links to tutorials of all the blocks I made this year for Stash Bee and The Bee Hive for anyone interested–Quilting Bees 2016.

So this is my last post for 2016. Wishing everyone a happy 2017.

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