Flowering Snowball

2014 may be the year of curves and quilt-alongs and using some of the long-hoarded stash.

I joined the Flowering Snowball QAL. This one has been on my list ever since I pinned it from Molly Flanders Makerie.

I started with a new collection - Emmy Grace, by Bari J for Art Gallery - and pulled from my stash in teals, pinks, greens, gold and charcoal, 50 fabrics in all.

Instagram photo

I splurged on a template set from Customplastic on Etsy. It made for some quick cutting!

And super easy to piece blocks! My 12" block has very gentle curves. Pinning the curves makes the sewing a breeze! The tutorial is here and the QAL starts here.

In other goings-on, I've pin basted and started quilting my Gypsy Kisses. So far so good!

Instagram photo

And the garden is flowering too!!!

Read More

Oh My Lucky Stars!

In January of 2013, I decided to join in on the Lucky Stars BOM hosted by Elizabeth at Don't Call Me Betsy. My experience with paper piecing had not been good. I'd tried it many years ago, pretty much trying to figure it out on my own {which was probably my first mistake}. My first paper pieced project was a very complicated Poinsettia wall quilt and although I finished it, I vowed to never paper piece again.

A couple of years ago, one of our talented local quilters, Marsha Bray, taught a paper piecing class for my guild. It's not your typical method, but one that uses freezer paper with no sewing through the paper and no tearing off the paper. I loved the method and dabbled a little bit.

The Lucky Stars quilt was the perfect opportunity for me to jump in with both feet! A monthly block was just enough to keep me going and I can now say that I can paper piece without reading Marsha's instructions! If any of you are local to St Louis, she teaches it at the Quilted Fox.

This week I put the last binding stitch on my quilt. Pretty proud of this one!

Love all the variations on the star...

Can I have a favorite? It's this one...

Twelve in all...

One of my favorite AMH prints on the back!

A year long quilt is a tough one for me. My color scheme changed as the year progressed. It turned out nothing like I had originally planned! But I think it came together well!

What can I paper piece next???

Read More

X and + quilt

I'm sure you've seen the x and + block - it's a very trendy pattern at the moment. I knew I would make one at some point, but couldn't come up with a fabric/color mix that suited me. Then I saw this one in American Patchwork and Quilting magazine {Feb '14} designed by Pat Bravo of Art Gallery Fabrics.

The plus signs are done in solids which really makes them pop and the colors create diagonal lines across the quilt top. It's not as readily noticeable, but the solid aqua/teal/mint backgrounds create diagonal lines in the opposite direction.

A little shot of the back of the quilt - a great black and white print from Ikea...

I started with a line called Rapture by Art Gallery and added some coordinating prints from my stash - many of them turned out to be older Art Gallery pieces.

The awesome wave quilting was done by Abby Latimer and turned out to be the absolute perfect design for this quilt...

So now it's one of my favorites!!!

Read More

Gathering Flowers Quilt finish

I've been working on the Gathering Flowers Quilt off and on for a couple of months. The cutting is slow and the piecing is curved, but all and all it was a pretty simple quilt to put together. Even considering that I changed my mind on the background fabric after completing 8 blocks!

It's a really cute block and I used a different fabric for each wedge - a lot of scraps and pieces that have been sitting in my stash waiting for their perfect debut.

So here's a tip I found helpful in piecing the block:
I find that when I'm piecing curves, often the fabrics tend to distort a bit simply because you're pulling on them to piece the curve. For my background {template 4}, I added 1/2 to 1" to the long edge of the template which creates the outside edge of the block. Once the block is assembled to the point of quarters {4 squares}, I trimmed each square to 9 1/2" {for the 18 1/2" block}. The top of the "wedge" piece should fall 2 1/4" from the trimmed edge. This is the point you want to match carefully to create the circle in the block.

I switched my background to a subtle gray tone-on-tone with white...

I had fun pulling fabrics in shades of green, blue  and a bright pink. Ten of my twelve blocks...

Read More

Nutmeg Stars Quilt

I've been talking about this one for a while - and now my Nutmeg Stars quilt is quilted, bound, fini! I thought the beautiful foliage would be a great backdrop for this quilt of blues and greens!

I used a FQ bundle of Color Me Happy and some earlier pieces by Vanessa Christenson along with a few stash fabrics.

The pattern is by Fig Tree Quilts and you can find out more about the pattern and how I changed it here.

I quilted it fairly heavily with swirls and pebbles in the background...

and bound in one of my current binding favorites - Art Gallery Squared Elements.

Pretty happy with this one!

Read More