WIP

This quilt is made of Anna Maria Horner Skipping Stones and some Tula Pink Eden fat quarters.  My original thought was to make a king size quilt for our bed; however, half way through I decided it was too scrappy for the bed.  Since I had enough blocks for a good size throw quilt, I thought it wouldn't be a waste if a quilted it up. 

This quilt will be a gift to my mother.  She has been anxiously waiting for me to make her a quilt and with her birthday in February, I should be able to finish it just in time.

I designed the block myself.  For each block you need:
Light (low volume) fabric - 4 - 7.5*3.5, 4 - 4.5*3.5 and 1 - 4.5*4.5
Color fabric - 8 - 4.5*4.5 and 4 4.5*3.5
Finished block is 18" square.

Unicorn Baby Quilt - finish #008

We I was excited to find out that our friends were expecting a baby.  I was even more excited to find out they were having a girl.  I had been wanted to make the baby quilt in the Quilters Mixology book with curved piecing for a long time.  I used plastic template sheets to make the templates.  I traced the template with a washable pen and cut out the pieces.  Angela Pingel's method of sewing together curves worked well.  The only adjustment I did was add a pin to the end to make sure I ended up in the right place.  I decided to go all out for the quilting.  I love the way it turned out and can't believe that I was able to make this quilt in less than 2 years of quilting!

Quilting complete, just need to bind

Technicolor Galaxy Finished #007

I finally finished the Technicolor Galaxy quilt and was able to gift it to my grandmother.  This was a long project.  I enjoyed the project; however, I learned that I prefer to work on one thing at a time.  So waiting for each new lesson for the quilt slowed down my process.  I'm glad it's done and I learned so much.  I highly recommend this quilt for any new quilter or quilter wanting to try new techniques. 

X and + Quilt Finish #006

We have been busy moving and I'm finally getting around to posting the finished X and + Quilt.  I finished this back in November.  Thanks to KathleenQuilts's Free motion Friday for suggestions on how to quilt my quilt.  I love the way it turned out!

X and + Quilt Top finish #006

I'm in love with my newest quilt top creation, the X and + Quilt.

I bought a bundle of the Cotton and Steel Tokyo Train Ride fabric that included 13 or so fat quarters.  I really wanted to create a quilt using all those fabrics in 1 quilt.  After much searching, I came across the X and + quilt block and thought it would be a great block to use fat quarters with!  Check out Petals and Pins X and + quilt HERE

Here are some close ups of the blocks.

You can find the Tutorial for the block HERE

The block measures 12 inches square once complete, so I didn't need too many to make a decent size quilt.  I decided to go with 30 blocks (5 blocks wide, 6 blocks long). In a perfect work, this is a 60 in X 72 in quilt.

This block was pretty simple to do.  Along with the Tokyo Train Ride, I mixed in pink fabric from Tula Pink's True collection fabric and pink fabric from Tula Pink's Elizabeth fabric.  I also added in some Doe Carolyn Friedlander's third fabric collection Doe by Robert Kaufman.  I love Pileofabric for buying fabrics (it's where I got Tokyo Train Ride, Elizabeth and Doe from).  Follow Pileofabric on instagram for great specials.  I bought the Tokyo Train Ride collection on a buy one bundle get one half off deal!  The neutral fabric used in all the block came from by trip to Hancock's of Paducah, also a great place to buy fabric in person and online.

Now I am working on the back.  I will be piecing the back.  As part of doing this quilt block, you end up with lots of little triangle scrapes. 

I decided to sew them together into little HST (half square triangles) and then make rows of flying geese.  I think I'll have enough to make 3 rows of flying geese to make vertical stripes on the back.  I'll link them together with some other fabric I have yet to choose.

 I'm looking forward to trying some custom quilting.  Check out Kathleenquilts.com.  Each Friday, she provides suggestions for custom quilting and she featured my quilt on August 21st.  Check it out HERE!



Heirloom Quilt for a friend

I lived in California until a was seven.  My mom's best friend, Sherlyn, had 3 kids around our ages that we spent all our time with.  My mom recently went to California to visit Sherlyn and was bragging to her about my quilting (as all moms do).

 

Sherlyn's mother had hand pieced a quilt top that Sherlyn had always wanted to get quilted.  Sherlyn's mother, Charlotte, created the quilt while caring for Sherlyn's mother-in-law who had Alzheimer's.  This quilt top means a lot to the family since it has memories of both grandmothers.   The quilt had been stored in a plastic bag in the garage for years since she didn't know the first place to start with getting it quilted. 

Sherlyn was impressed with the pictures my mom shared and asked if she thought I would be willing to finish the quilt for her.  It would be a great heirloom for the family, especially completed. 

 

 

I took on the challenge, reminding them that I am new to quilting, so it would not be perfect. 

 

 

The quilt top was not complete.  It was just a bunch of random blocks that Charlotte had put together.  I had to cut off some so that it would be squared off. The fabric used was a real mixture of fabrics (not much quilters cotton that I'm used to).  I decided to do an overall quilting design that might help pull everything together into a unified quilt.  When taking Leah Day's Craftsy class, Free Motion Quilting a Sampler, I found that the wondering clover design was pretty easy for me to do.  I thought the flower like clover would complement the quilt well.  So that is what I did.

 

 

Picking the backing was a little more difficult.  Sherlyn expressed that some of the fabric used in the quilt top was not her taste, so I went with a more contemporary fabric, with some of the colors from the quilt top.  That way, if she didn't like the top, she would reverse it and have a different look. 

 

 

For the binding, I went with a fabric I found in Paducah, KY when we did a trip there to Hancock's of Paducah.  (By the way, if you haven't been to Hancock's of Paducah, this place was amazing!)  I think the binding really complemented the quilt top.

 

 

This was by far the largest quilt top I tried to quilt.  Luckily my Singer 8500Q has a large throat, I was able to work on the quilt with ease.  The middle was a little difficult; however, I think the machine would be able to fit a much larger quilt.  The final size is approximately 90x85. 

 

 

I can't wait to ship this off to Sherlyn. I hope she is really happy with it and her family will treasure it for years to come.

Photo Shoot

I finally got an opportunity to photograph my finishes.

001 My first quilt ever:  click here for blog post

002 A quilt just for me: Click here for Blog post

 005 Manly Quilt for my Husband: Click here for Blog Post