Playground Quilt

As many of you know, we are in the process of making a big move. With a few glitches along the way, things are coming together and we will be heading south at the end of this month! All that's involved has cut into my sewing time a bit, but I have managed to sit down at the machine here and there since my last post. Sewing has been a nice distraction, although I've limited myself to some fun, easy projects.

I recently finished this quilt... The pattern is from Camille Roskelly's book "Simply Retro", called Playground.

I started with a nice bundle of "Hello Bear" by Bonnie Christine for Art Gallery. The dotted background in this collection is awesome and I quickly had to order more as I'd love to use it again.

The backing is one of my favorite prints from the collection and the binding is a navy with all kinds of different textures in it. A good print to stash!

I went with straight line quilting, mainly because I was looking for an easy finish. But, honestly, I am a huge fan of straight line quilting. It gives wonderful texture, without distracting from the patchwork in the quilt.

With the fabric and the simple design, this quilt feels very earthy and organic to me. Maybe the perfect throw for my family room in South Carolina?

I've been sorting through my fabric {actually hope to have a destash sale on IG next week!} and decided to start piecing a nice scrappy quilt. I've had this pattern on my to-do list for years. It's from "Sunday Morning Quilts" and was a great mindless project to sew. It's not my usual style, but I really love it. I started with Maureen Cracknell's line "Wild and Free", then added lots of coordinating stash fabric.

And finally my "Fireworks" quilt. The blocks are cut out, and I'm finding this a great project to work on when I have an hour or so to make a block...

The next 3 weeks will involve lots of packing! Luckily my STLMQG friend, Paula, helped me fold and pack all the quilts. I'm not going to admit how many boxes there are :)

I'm signing off the blog for the rest of July. I'll be back in August, blogging from South Carolina and hopefully back to sewing! Have a great month!!

Read More

Sparklettes

I have a finished quilt to show today!! It seemed to take forever to quilt. Granted, there is quite a bit of negative space and I chose a fairly dense background quilting fill. So I'm super happy to have it done and couldn't be more pleased.

The pattern is "Sparklettes", from the book Fat Quarter Style. It's found on the cover, but you may notice that I changed the setting up a bit. I added background strips to the sides of the blocks to square them up and alternated the direction of the elongated star.

My original plan was to make the quilt just like the one in the book, but after I changed my mind I found that I didn't have quite enough backing fabric. Adding a pieced strip stretched it out to fit.

And that's what I've been up to!

Read More

Glamclam Quilt!!!

I had to include those exclamation points in the title of this post. I'm so thrilled with this quilt! I love the modern vibe of this traditional design. I love all the awesome, colorful Cotton + Steel fabrics. I love the backing, which is a Cotton + Steel lawn. I love the quilting and the texture it created on the quilt. And I love the feel - so soft and cuddly.

Yes, I think I like this one...

The Glamclam is an amazing free pattern by Latifah Saafir and available on Craftsy. I used the 8" size.

You may remember I did my super easy, mindless organic quilting in vertical rows...

For the backing I chose a Cotton + Steel lawn that had this great border on one edge. It created a cool stripe on the back and I'll definitely be using lawn or voile again for a backing. A little more expensive, but the drape and feel of the quilt is amazing!

I was a little reluctant to try this one because of all the curves, but it really was very easy. The big curves are gentle and the pattern templates are so perfect, even providing notches for matching up the curve. If you've been on the fence with this one, I say give it a go!

Read More

Swap Buddy gifts...

I think I mentioned that I've joined a Bonnie and Camille swap on Instagram. We're making 2 blocks a month for 2 different members and we've each been assigned to make a special gift for a secret Swap Buddy.

Here are my May blocks - very simple, but one of my favorite blocks - Maple Star.

May was my month to spoil my buddy, so I made her a mini of my Bursting Star quilt. It uses 1 1/2" strips. It took a couple of practice pieces to get the fabric placement I wanted. You may notice it's a bit scrappier than the original.

Along with some goodies of the chocolate kind and some of my favorite pen and paper supplies, I made my favorite pin cushion. I think these are so cute and you can store different types of needles in each "bubble". The dish is a painter's palette, found on amazon or art/craft supply stores.

I think she liked everything and it was such fun to make some secret gifts and a new friend!

Read More

What I did on my retreat!

I was on my semi-annual retreat last week! It was fabulous! The weather turned more Spring-like and addition to the food and fun, there was lots of sewing!

I started this quilt. The pattern is from Fat Quarter Style. I modified the blocks a bit (big surprise!) to make them square and plan on setting them together like this.

I also finished the top of my "Scattered Blossoms Quilt" from the book Playful Petals. Ten of the blocks were made by some Bee friends, so I just had a few more to make.

Also on my retreat agenda was this tote bag. It's the small Art Student Tote by Anna Maria Horner. It was a breeze to make! All her patterns are so well written. I'd really like to make the bigger version now.

Three of my retreat-mates finished  (or almost finished) a Garden lattice quilt from my book, Simply Modern Christmas. I never tire of seeing this pattern done in different fabrics.

And this week I've started to machine quilt "Fletching", "Broken Arrows", "Jarts" quilt. You girls came up with such great names - now I can't decide which I like best :)

It's a lot of turning with the Zigzag lines, but totally worth it. The perfect quilting design for this one!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Read More

Goings on in the Sewing Room

Sorry - it's been over a week since I dropped in here! But it doesn't mean I haven't been busy stitching away!

I went to Quiltcon last week! It was my first and so inspiring! I took a class on Friday with Elizabeth Hartman and made 3 blocks from her newest book Patchwork City. Most of you know that I've been quilting for a long time, but I love this art because it seems there's always something to learn or a new perspective on this old craft. She talked a lot about fabric selection and showed her awesome method of using freezer paper templates. And to keep my pledge of not having any UFO's, I came home and finished the blocks into a mini quilt. I definitely want to think about some new fabric choices to make one of the larger quilts from the book!

Just before I left, I started cutting out a Glam Clam quilt using mostly Cotton+Steel. It's been on my list for this year and a couple of Instagrammers got me all fired up. It's a lot of curves and I sewed a few together before cutting out the whole quilt just to be sure I was ready for it. It really goes together easily. I'm doing the 8" size and the pattern is free on Craftsy.

I've got a backing ready for my latest quilt. I made 3 giant blocks (they're 19 1/2" x 18") to stretch out a piece of yardage that I wanted to use on the back. Hope to start quilting this week. And thank you for all the name ideas! You guys are so much better than me at coming up with names! I'm leaning toward "Fletching". It always has looked like a part of an arrow to me and I had to look up the term, but I think it may be perfect!

And finally, I've been getting prepared for a retreat next week. As always, I'm looking forward to it and hoping for a touch of Spring in the air! The blocks are from Fat Quarter Style and the fabric is Joel Dewberry's newest line Flora.

And that's what I've been up to! How about you?

Read More

Cracker

A friend invited me over for a sewing day on Monday. I didn't have a project ready to piece {well, I actually did, but I wasn't in the mood for it}. So I went to my 2015 project list and decided to start on a traditional block called Cracker.

It was block I had pinned on Pinterest and there's a great tutorial at Simple Girl, Simple Life.

I used my typical method of choosing fabrics for a quilt - so I thought I'd walk you through it today.

I started with a line called Wildwood by Elizabeth Olwen. I love her art and had purchased her earlier line Grey Abbey. So I added some of those. I also found that she is designing some fabric for JoAnn's, so off I went and found a couple of additional prints. Also scored a backing with a coupon!

Then I pulled some fabrics from my stash to add to the mix. I was looking for similar colors and a similar feel. I didn't want the pieces that I was adding to dilute the look of the original designs. So my additions tend to be very basic and geometric. Dots, stripes, tone-on-tones.

And here is how they all looked together...

I made a few blocks to be sure my measurements were correct and that I liked the size and scale...

And it turned into a productive day! Fun too!!

Read More

Flowering Snowball Quilt

I shared a glimpse of my Flowering Snowball Quilt and several of you asked for more info. I'm back today with more pictures and the scoop on just how to make it!

I started with several pieces of Emmy Grace by Bari J for Art Gallery fabrics. It became my color inspiration of greens, blues, pinks, gold and grays. Then as usual, for variety I added lots of coordinating prints from my stash {and because, really, I have to use some of this stash!}.

The pattern is from Mary at Molly Flanders Makerie. You can find the full schedule of posts here. I chose to buy templates and got them from Custom Plastic on etsy. If they're not listed, you can just send Rodney a message and he will list them for you.

The only change I made to Mary's instructions was the pressing of the seam allowances. For half the blocks I pressed the seams toward the print fabric and for the other half I pressed toward the white fabric. I alternated the two blocks in the quilt so the seams were easier to match up. And it seemed to work perfectly...

I'm so enamored with the circles that form when you put the blocks together!

Up next is quilting this one and I'm seriously considering hand quilting it - very simply - just echoing the pattern. 

You can see more Flowering Snowball quilts on flickr or Instagram using the hashtag #floweringsnowballalong

Linking up to Molly Flanders Flowering Snowball Along!

Read More

A Special Sampler Quilt

I started making these blocks in January of this year. Six-inch Sampler blocks to turn into a special quilt for me. My pile of 63 blocks...

The idea came from the Farmer's Wife QAL craze of a few years ago. I decided to simplify and primarily used this book - 501 Rotary Cut Quilt Blocks by Judy Hopkins. The blocks will alternate set straight and on-point, so I kept a list, recording each pattern as I made it, hoping to avoid any duplicates.

The goal is to complete the quilt by my birthday in December. You see, I have a big one coming up - it ends in a "0". 

2014 also marks 30 years of serious quilting for me - feels like a milestone. I took my first quilt class in 1981. I had a baby and a job which didn't leave much time for quilting. The baby became babies and the job continued, so sewing time was pretty nonexistent. In 1984, I kept the babies, but quit the job and nap time became quilting time. And the story began - fabric collecting, quilt guilds, sewing and working in a quilt shop - all became a big part of me.

As I've worked on these blocks, it's been fun to think about how things have changed and how they haven't. I still have favorite blocks - stars and pinwheels - and I still have favorite colors - blues and greens. But I have evolved as a quilter.

As I made each block, I carefully chose my some of my all-time favorite colors and fabrics, both old and new...

I tried to add some whimsy and a surprisingly new favorite color for me - purple...

I added at least one fabric from all of my favorite designers...

And as organized as I felt, ended up with 2 blocks of the same pattern...

Ten of the blocks were made by five very special friends. I think I need to have them sign at least one of their blocks.

Some of my collected lines - Flea Market Fancy and Bonnie and Camille.

I'm excited to sew the blocks together, and I'm hoping it doesn't look like a hot mess. If it does, I guess it will be my hot mess and I know I'll love it!!

Read More