Quilting is in my Blood

Lucky Me

Posted on October 28, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

I took my first quilting class at ThreadBear two years ago and was immediately hooked. I started to read and follow blogs shortly after that class, and one of the first blogs I followed was Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl. Fast forward to the end of May 2015, and I read a blog post on Quilting Jetgirl informing new quilt bloggers there was a closed Facebook group available that offered support and technical help for modern quilters who were new to blogging (less than two years). At that time I had set up an account with WordPress but had not written my first blog post yet. I wrote my first blog post on an airplane and completed a request to join the 2015 New Quilt Bloggers group in a layover in Las Vegas, Nevada with hours left before the deadline to join the group. Yvonne was one of four mentors for the group, and she personally helped me so much with the technical side of blogging. When Yvonne wrote a post the end of 2015 asking people to consider becoming patrons and supporting the development of her quilting/blogging business through Patreon, I immediately decided that I wanted to be a patron to thank her for all her support. Now, this was not an entirely selfless choice. I have received some lovely Patron gifts including a pattern just for patrons and a mini mini quilt. And after I had supported Yvonne for six months, I qualified for a mini quilt made by Yvonne with an approximate size of 24″ square. When she asked me for feedback on what I would like, I requested a Kaleidoscope quilt using the colors of teal, aqua, coral, orange, grey, and low volume. I knew Yvonne would make something very nice, but I had no idea it would be so AWESOME!

Here’s a close-up of the quilting on the front:

Check out the quilting on the back of the quilt:

And a close-up of the beautiful quilting on the back:

For more information about this amazing mini quilt, please read Yvonne’s Kaleidoscope Mini Quilt Finish post.

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict: Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

Posted in Quilting | Tagged 2015 New Quilt Bloggers | 2 Comments

Birthday Gifts Wall Hanging Finished

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

I have an early Quarter 4 2016 Finish-Along Goals finish to share. It is my Birthday Gifts Quilt that I started in April 2015 and finished sewing the binding on 10/14/16. This wall hanging measures 36″ by 29 1/2″. One of my 2016 Mid-Year Review Goals was to improve the photography of my quilts, and I have to say that I am really pleased with the photo below that I took yesterday of this finished quilt. I took my best friend to the restaurant at Ten Thousand Waves in Santa Fe to celebrate her birthday and actually thought to bring my Birthday Gifts Quilt with me in hopes of a good photograph opportunity which definitely presented itself.

Linking up to Cooking Up Quilts: Main Crush Monday and 2016 Finish-A-Long: Q4 Finishes.

Posted in Quilting | Tagged Birthday Gifts Quilt | 7 Comments

2016 Finish-Along Quarter 4 Goals

Posted on October 15, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

I have three projects to roll over from my 2016 Quarter 3 Goals.

The first one is a project I started back in Spring 2015 with fabric given to me for my birthday by my sister, stepdaughter, and two friends. I’ve been calling this project my Birthday Gifts Quilt. I made some of the blocks from Tula Pink’s 100 Modern Quilt Blocks book, but more of the blocks are from Color Girl Quilts Super Simple Sampler Blocks. I used a quarter-inch foot when making these blocks and didn’t realize how much of the block I would lose sewing a straight quarter-inch when many of the blocks were comprised of small squares and rectangles. I ended up trimming these blocks to 6″ square (5 1/2″ finished), but it didn’t affect the blocks too much because I was still afraid of triangles when I sewed these blocks so only a two or three blocks have triangles in them. This quilt which measures 36″ across by 29.5″ down is going to be a wall-hanging. It has been quilted, trimmed, and just needs to have the binding sewn on.

My second project is my Diamond Stars Quilt. I used 9″ finished blocks in this quilt, so it went together fairly quickly. It is currently at my local quilt store waiting to be longarm-quilted.

Turning my four Fancy Foxes in a wall-hanging is the third project I am rolling over from last quarter.

I have five new projects to add to my 2016 Quarter 4 Goals:

I was Queen Bee in August for both my online quilting bees, The Bee Hive, and Stash Bee, and I chose to have my hivemates sew the Quatrefoil block. I have received 20 blocks plus two Surprise Blocks that Sarah Goer generously made me for my quilt. I don’t have a photo of the blocks yet because I haven’t pressed out all the mailing wrinkles. Adding in my two example blocks to show my choices of color and placement, I have 24 blocks. I may make one more block to make a 60″ square quilt. Below is a pic of one of my example blocks:

I also want to make two patchwork pillow covers using scraps from the Teal, Purple, and Grey quilt that I made for my stepdaughter last year:

And two patchwork pillow covers using scraps from the Japanese quilt I made for my stepson last year:

My fourth goal for the fourth quarter of 2016 is one I just decided on this yesterday. As tempting as several 2016 quilt-alongs have been to me this year, I haven’t completed any this year (and haven’t even started any new ones since early in the year due to shoulder problems). But I have been wanting to make a grey and teal/turquoise/aqua plus quilt for a few months and when I saw Quilty Therapy’s Charming Plus Quilt-A-Long post on making a plus baby quilt, I started mulling it over and yesterday decided to join in. The blocks are only 6 1/2″ unfinished, and that’s something I can get done in 15 minutes over my lunch hour or perhaps a couple blocks before I go to work. And maybe just maybe, sewing one or two when I get home from work, but that’s dicey because I’m usually done for by the end of the work day. But simple blocks like these are a possibility. And this project is doable to quilt myself giving me an opportunity to practice my straightline quilting. Here are two pics of some of the scraps/fabric I pulled today to use in this quilt-along:

At almost the very last minute for this 2016 Quarter 4 Finish-Along link-up with about three hours left until this linky party closes, I’m adding a fifth project. I’m joining Inquiring Quilter’s Berry Cross Quilt-Along. In September, I fell in love with Jennifer’s Cloud 9 New Block Blog Hop Berry Cross Block with its different colorways and layouts. I haven’t decided for sure what my color scheme will be, but I’m leaning toward the color scheme that Jennifer used in her block made with Cloud 9 fabrics: aqua, teal, light purple, dark purple, and a grey background all in solids. I don’t sew much with purple or solid fabric, but I just realized that I used a similar color scheme for my stepdaughter’s quilt a year and half ago. I don’t hold out a lot of hope that I will have a completed quilt top by sometime in December, but I hope to at least make a start that I can finish in the new year. But who knows, maybe the stars will align, and I will get in a major groove, and I’ll knock this baby out in record time 🙂

Linking up with 2016 Quarter 4 Finish A-Long Goals.

Posted in Quilting | Tagged 2016 Finish-A-Long | 4 Comments

October 2016 OMG

Posted on October 2, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

My October 2016 OMG goal is to finish one of two quilts. Hopefully, it will be my Diamond Stars Quilt (see pic below of the quilt top) for my best friend’s birthday this month. But there are things beyond my control. I talked with Michael at ThreadBear on Saturday, and he told me that he is going to have to send his longarm machine back to the manufacturer because it is not working right. He told me that my quilt will be the first one he will work on when he gets it back. Now I’m hoping that he can get the quilting done by Oct 22nd, so I can have a couple weekend days to get it squared up and the binding done.

If I don’t have my Diamond Stars quilt to work on during the fourth weekend of October, I plan to finish my Birthday Gifts Quilt (see below). Both of these quilts are 2016 Quarter 3 Finish-Along Goals.

Linking up to Red Letter Quilts: October 2016 OMG.

Posted in Quilting | Tagged Birthday Gifts Quilt, Diamond Stars Quilt, OMG | 5 Comments

September 2016 Blocks

Posted on September 23, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

The majority of my focus this year has been on my Terra Australis Quilt, but thankfully I’ve had some other obligations this year to give me a much needed break from this all-consuming (though very satisfying) project. For my Bee Hive commitment, Mischelle chose the Jagged Little Pill by Molli Sparkles. This is one of those blocks that creates such a cool secondary design. Below is my block for Mischelle:

For Stash Bee Hive 7, Anja chose a very modern, random HST block in greys, white, black, and bright orange. I loved making this block and would like to make a quilt using blocks similar to this block:

And last but certainly not least, last week I participated in the 2016 Cloud 9 New Block Blog Hop and shared my Berry Blossom Block which is an original block that I designed after seeing Terri Ann’s Dogwood Blossom Mini Barn Quilt Kit and deciding to make a modified version (with her permission) for this new block blog hop. If you haven’t looked at all the other blocks designed for this blog hop, take a few minutes to do so. You are in for a treat!

Linking up to Quilter in the Closet: Building Blocks Tuesday.

Posted in Quilting | Tagged Stash Bee, The Bee Hive | Leave a comment

Terra Australis Quilt Finished!

Posted on September 19, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

I finished my Terra Australis quilt on Saturday and slept under it for the first time last night! This is the largest quilt I have ever made measuring at 78″ x 78″. All I had left to do this past weekend was to machine sew the binding on both sides and to sew the quilt label on. I had friends who volunteered to be quilt holders, so I was able to get a couple of outside photos.

For my quilt label, I used a basic label from StoryPatches.com. I was going to use Stephanie Palmer’s custom Story Patch label with the arrows on two sides of the label, but then I decided to sew a turquoise dot border around the label so thought the plain label would look better. As you can see in the photo below, the label has a little bar code on it. It is linked to an app called stkr.it which can be easily downloaded to phones and tablets. So far I have just made a test auditory recording but plan to make a recording that will include details about my quilt including how long it took to make, size of quilt blocks and quilt, the fabric collection and designer, inspiration for blocks, the backing, quilting by ThreadBear, binding, and labeling.

This was my number one priority of my 2016 Q3 Finish-Along Goals and my only Quarter 3 finish and was also my September ’16 OMG goal. Linking up to Cooking Up Quilts: Main Crush Monday, Red Letter Quilts: OMG September ’16 Finishes, and 2016 Finish-Along Quarter 3 Finishes. I also entered this quilt into the 2016 Blogger’s Quilt Festival – Large Quilt Category.

Posted in Quilting | Tagged 2016 Finish-A-Long, OMG, Terra Australis | 11 Comments

Berry Blossom Block for the 2016 Cloud 9 New Block Blog Hop

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

I’m very honored to be participating in the 2016 Cloud 9 New Block Blog Hop hosted by Yvonne@Quilting Jetgirl, Cheryl@Meadow Mist Designs, and Stephanie@Late Night Quilter 9/12-9/14/16. Our three hosts curated the most beautiful bundle of Cloud 9 Organic Cirrus Solids. It is called “Berry Harvest” and is made up of five scrumptious colors: Amazon, Sky, Shadow, Lilac, and Iris. Cloud 9 generously supplied each participant a Berry Harvest fat quarter bundle. All of the 12 1/2″ unfinished blocks made for this new block blog hop will be collected and made into quilts for donation. Yvonne’s group got this blog hop going yesterday. If you have not already checked out their wonderful blocks, you will truly be inspired.

I am in the second group of bloggers, and Cheryl is the leader of our group. At the end of this post are links to all the other bloggers in my group. I hope you can take some time out to enjoy all the blocks created by our group.

I’m calling the block I have designed for this new block blog hop “Berry Blossom.” The inspiration for this block is the Dogwood Blossom Mini Barn Quilt Kit. Terri Ann’s mini barn quilts are such a great and economical way to add a little three-dimensional quilt art to any decor.

For my Berry Blossom block, I used all five colors of the Berry Harvest bundle.

Cutting

From the Iris (berry colored) fabric, cut one 4 1/2″ strip and then subcut: two 4 1/2″ squares, four 2″ squares, and two 1 1/2″ by 2″ rectangles.

From the Lilac (pink colored) fabric, cut one 4 1/2″ strip and then subcut: two 4 1/2″ squares and two 4 1/2″ by 2″ rectangles.

From the Shadow (grey colored) fabric, cut one 3 1/2″ strip and two 2 1/2″ strips. From the 3 1/2″ strip, subcut four 3 1/2″ squares. From the 2 1/2″ strips, cut twelve 2 1/2″ squares.

From the Amazon (turquoise colored) fabric, cut one 3 1/2″ strip and one 2 1/2″ strip. From the 3 1/2″ strip, subcut four 3 1/2″ squares. From the 2 1/2″ strip, subcut four 2 1/2″ squares.

From the Sky (light blue colored fabric), you just need one 1 1/2″ by 1 5/8″ rectangle. I recommend cutting a 2 1/2″ strip, then sub-cutting the rectangle and having a more usable scrap of fabric for another project.

The photo below shows all the different fabric cut in the required dimensions.

Marking

Next you will mark the four 3 1/2″ Shadow squares, four 2″ Iris squares and eight of the twelve 2 1/2″ Shadow squares with an erasable or a disappearing ink marker with a diagonal line as shown below:

Sewing

Sew all seams with an accurate 1/4″ seam.

Center Unit

Let’s start sewing the center unit. Place a 2″ Iris square on the left edge of one 4 1/2″ x 2″ Lilac rectangle, pin, and sew on the diagonal line as shown below. Then sew the other 2″ Iris square on the other side of the rectangle. You will need two of these. Trim the Iris squares 1/4″ from the sewn seams. Press open.

Next you will sew the middle part of the center subunit square. Sew one of the 1 1/2″ by 2″ Iris rectangles to the 1 1/2″ by 1 5/8″ Sky rectangle. Sew the other Iris rectangle to the other side of the Sky rectangle. Press both seams open. Assemble the center subunit square as shown below and sew the three sections together.

Petal Units

Place a 2 1/2″ Shadow square on the right corner of a 4 1/2″ Iris square and sew on the diagonal line. (I actually usually start sewing the corners on the left side, but for some reason, I started with the right corner. It really doesn’t matter). Trim 1/4″ from the sewn seam and press open. Then place a 2 1/2″ Shadow square on the left corner of the 4 1/2″ Iris square and sew on the diagonal line. Trim and press open. Repeat with other 4 1/2″ Iris square and the two 4 1/2″ squares.

Leaf Units (Corner Squares)

Each leaf unit (corner square) is made from two 2 1/2″ Amazon/Shadow half-square triangles (HSTs), one 2 1/2″ Shadow square and one 2 1/2″ Amazon square.

To make the HSTs, Place one 3 1/2″ Shadow square with the marked diagonal line on top of one 3 1/2″ Amazon square. Sew a seam 1/4″ away from each side of the line (see below). Repeat with the other 3 1/2″ Shadow and Amazon squares.

Cut each square into two triangles along the marked diagonal line. You will have eight triangles that need to be trimmed to 2 1/2″ triangles. I like the Quilt in a Day Ruler, but feel free to use the ruler/method of your choice.

A drawback to the Quilt in a Day Ruler is that there are still dog ears to be dealt with after trimming and before pressing, but I easily cut them off with my large but very sharp Karen Kay Buckley scissors. Press open.

Following the photo below, pair a solid square with a HST. Even though I generally press my seams open, I pressed rows 1 and 3 to the left, and rows 2 and 4 to the right, so I could nest my seams. Then complete each corner leaf unit by sewing each set of pairs together.

Assembling the Block

Use the photo below for reference. For the top and bottom rows, sew a leaf corner unit to a Lilac petal unit, and then sew another leaf corner unit to the other side of the Lilac petal unit. Press seams toward the Lilac petal units. For the middle row, sew an Iris petal unit to either side of the center unit making sure that the Iris colored are lined up. Press seams toward the Iris petal units. Then sew the top row to the middle row, and middle row to the bottom row. Press these seams open to reduce the bulk. And your block is now completed.

Mockups

I created two different mockups of what a quilt might look like made from my Berry Blossom block using Quiltography which is an iPad app that cost about $15. It definitely is not as comprehensive as EQ7, but I rarely use a regular computer much any more except at work. I could not get the tiny Sky square in the center of the block to be any smaller, so the mockups are a little out of proportion.

Please click on the links below to see the wonderful blocks made by Cheryl and the other bloggers in our group:

Posted in Uncategorized | 38 Comments

September ’16 OMG Goal–Finishing my Terra Australis Quilt

Posted on September 4, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

I finished my Terra Australis Quilt Top the end of July, took it in early August to Michael at ThreadBear to do the longarm quilting and got it back a couple weeks ago. This morning I finally got it squared up and the binding cut and sewn together. The binding is another Emma Jean Jansen fabric called Melba. In the photo below, I have the right side of the quilt turned back, so the backing fabric can be seen with my rolled-up binding sitting on top of it.

My September ’16 OMG goal is to machine stitch down the binding (front and back) and to attach a quilt label to it using one of the Story Patches labels. With this label, I’ll be able to write on the label with a permanent fabric marker and will be able to record some history about this quilt that I can’t fit onto the quilt label. This is my first time time doing this, so I’m sure there will be some learning curve time to figure everything out. I first found about these Story Patches labels from Stephanie Palmer of Late Night Quilter. I’ll be using the arrow label below designed by Stephanie.

It’s been nice having some time to work on my quilt today, but I have to tell you it’s been with a heavy heart. My cat, Bug, got out last night. She’s an indoor cat, and has gotten out a couple times before during her 11 years, but she’s always been at the door in the morning. But she has not come back home yet, and I’m very worried about her. Good vibes, thoughts, and prayers for her safe return will be much appreciated. She’s the tortoiseshell cat on the left in the pic below.

Update: After being gone a full week, Bug came home today! It’s a very happy day!

Linking up to Red Letter Quilts: OMG September Goal Setting.

Posted in Quilting | Tagged Terra Australis | 4 Comments

OMG August ’16 Finish

Posted on August 27, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

Earlier in the month at the 11th hour I changed my August ’16 OMG Goal from a kitty quilt to working on a quilt for a friend whose birthday is in October. One problem with writing a revised post at the last minute is that I was not specific about what I wanted to accomplish. For this reason, I don’t want Heidi to include me in the drawing this month for the lovely fat eighths bundle from her Etsy shop. But I am happy to share that I did accomplish the goal was in the my head, to complete the quilt top for my friend. I ended up changing the pattern, so I am no longer calling this project the Midnight Stars quilt, it’s new name is Diamond Stars quilt. Below is a mock-up of the revised design in Quiltography. I really like the middle star that was created when I altered my design.

And below is a pic that shows the middle star of the completed quilt top (along with a few wrinkles I didn’t have time to press out).

Tomorrow my friend and I are going together to ThreadBear where she will pick out the design she wants Michael to quilt. I’m thinking a variegated thread will look really nice on the peacock background.

Linking up to Red Letter Quilts August Finishes.

Posted in Quilting | Tagged Diamond Star, OMG | 10 Comments

Changing my August ’16 OMG Goal (if possible)

Posted on August 7, 2016 by Quilting is in my Blood

What Was I Thinking?

In the post that I wrote on 8/4/16, somehow I thought spending probably a minimum of 20 hours making a kitty quilt that would coordinate with my Terra Australis quilt and decrease the copious amount of cat hair regularly deposited on my bedding (and the rest of the house!) was a good idea. I have come to my senses! Just because I have a surplus of square-in-a-square mini blocks does not mean that they have to be used in a project right away. I actually sewed one block yesterday for my proposed kitty quilt, and my heart just wasn’t in it. I kept thinking of the lap quilt I’m planning to make for a friend’s birthday in October using fabric from Sarah Watts’ Honeymoon collection that is one of my 2016 Quarter 3 Finish-Along Goals. The pattern I’ll be using is Moda Bake Shop’s Midnight Stars pattern, and since I’m not using a layer cake, I’ll be making the 9.5″ HSTs the traditional way rather than cutting 10″ squares diagonally and sewing triangles of print and background fabric together.

So I’m scrapping the kitty quilt for now. I bought two different fleece throws this morning that should make fine kitty blankets and look decent on my quilt. And I started cutting my fabric for my Midnight Stars quilt which I’m glad I did because I discovered that I need more of my Bella Solids Peacock background fabric. I just placed another order with Fat Quarter Shop (and just HAD to order more yardage of my favorite low-volume fabric, Modern Background Paper Silver on White Notes to use in other projects).

Linking up again with Red Letter Quilts’ OMG It’s August. I don’t know if it is against the rules or not to change our OMG goal, but no matter what, I’ve switched gears and now focusing on my Midnight Stars quilt.

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments