Bloggers' Quilt Festival: Miss Kate in the Stars

Have you seen the wonderful quilts that are being shared in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side? They're awesome!

I've already shared one quilt in the Large Quilt category, and now I'm sharing a little something in the Mini category! Regular readers of my sporadic blogging have seen Miss Kate in the Stars before, but since we're allowed to share two quilts, I thought I'd share this lovely again.

I made this for Jade (Stitch Mischief) in a mini quilt swap we did at the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. More details are here in my original blog post, but Jade loves Bonnie and Camille so I was so happy to put a charm pack of Miss Kate to good use in a quilt for her. The design is a block by Judy Martin called Star Struck, which I adjusted slightly so that I could use the full charm squares, and so that I didn't have to figure out flying geese math. The mini is about 18" square.

I am particularly happy with the quilting I did on this quilt. Lots of loops, and some feathers, too.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the Festival!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival Fall 2014: Liberty Goes to the Circus

I do so enjoy the Bloggers' Quilt Festival hosted by Amy Ellis twice a year at Amy's Creative Side. She rounds up great sponsors and creates a fantastic online quilt show for our viewing and inspiration. It's wonderful!

My BQF entry this year - in the Large Quilt category - is called Liberty Goes to the Circus.

I was gifted a half-dozen packages of Liberty of London tana lawn fat quarters by my neighbour who's in the clothing design business. He'd had them hanging around in his office for a while and one day offered them to me. I could barely squeak out a thank you, knowing what I did about how precious Liberty fabric is.

I paired each FQ with a coordinating Kona solid...

...and used this tutorial to create a total of 42 St. Louis 16-patch blocks. I hoped that the brightness of the solids would unify the disparate patterns and backgrounds of the various Liberty fabrics.

I do believe the solids did their job of unifying the whole thing. Having said that, however, I'm reminded of my sister and brother-in-law's first home that had different coloured carpet in every room in the house (colours included burgundy, purple and royal blue) and she commented that it seemed like the previous owners used "Circus" as inspiration when they were choosing their décor theme. Which is why I'm calling this Liberty Goes to the Circus.

The quilt is the biggest I've made - 87"x101" and I wasn't able to use my usual strategy of pinning the quilt to the wooden arbours in our courtyard (seen above) for photography purposes. Instead, I had my husband hang it over the railing of our top balcony.

It's free-motion quilted with an neutral(ish) Aurifil thread in 40 wt (colour 2324) in a petal/leaf motif in each square.

The backing is a fabulous Martha Negley print plus a little bit of Jay McCarroll Habitat and an extra block.

I was originally going to use a dark solid of some kind as binding, but instead I went with a favourite "neutral" of mine - Kona Curry. It is a surprisingly versatile shade, and provides a nice pop of colour there (like this thing needs more colour ha ha) along the edge. Plus, this lighter shade will wear a little more nicely than a darker fabric that will fade after many washings.

I puffy heart love this quilt, and it's mine alllll mine. Except when the kid steals it for afternoon reading/snuggling purposes.

Thanks for stopping by for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival! This quilt is entered in the Large Quilt category.

Finish Along Q4 Goals

Hmmm. What to do, what to do? I've got many MANY more WIPs than there is time in this final quarter of the year. It's a bit hard to predict everything I'm going to work on. I know some that are "for sure" additions to the list but I want to make this aspirational.

1. My top priority right now is making an Elsa costume (of course) for my sweet G. For the longest time, she insisted she would be an Enchantress and had even drawn up a diagram of what her gown was to look like, together with an additional drawing of the cloak and wand that were required to complete the outfit:

I think that's like 6 pockets - yikes!

At this point, I'm kind of glad I get to sew with a pattern (even if the yoke has to be adjusted to look like the "real" Elsa dress and I have to make a detachable train/cape because ELSA'S CAPE ISN'T ATTACHED IN THE FRONT MAMA ONLY IN THE BACK AND PLEASE USE SNAPS SO I CAN PUT IT ON AND OFF):

2. A mugrug for a coworker. It's designed, the fabric is chosen, and it's next in line after the Elsa dress is complete.

3. I signed up for the fabric for the Michael Miller Spring Cotton Couture challenge from the Modern Quilt Guild - there's a special category in the QuiltCon show for these quilts. I've got a design and more fabric on the way. November 30 is the entry deadline.

4. Oh, hello, fully basted Wonderland quilt that just needs quilting. You're going to be one of my Loon Lake retreat projects in November. Stop looking at me like that. I know you've been on the FAL list every quarter this year, okay? I feel like this is your quarter.

I see on Flickr that this photo was taken in JUNE 2012. *sigh*

5. My Mod Mood quilt was begun at QuiltCon 2013. Going to try to get it into a finished state to enter into the QuiltCon 2015 show. I'm hoping the FAL and the show will be motivation to finish. Here's where I got by the end of the workshop:

6. Digging deep into the past for this collection of bee blocks. I got these blocks in 2011! Wow, I wouldn't have guessed that long ago but there you go. These colours go with our bedroom so I really want to make the blocks into a bed quilt. I may revise my original design (numerous blocks with the "boxes" of varying size) to something a little more quick to finish. Stay tuned; in the meantime, kindly admire my bee mates' handiwork!

I think that's enough for now. There are a couple of other projects that are only at WIMM (Works In My Mind) vs. WIPs so they aren't quite at FAL goal status: a new tote bag for work with some fabulous Melody Miller linen/cotton blend fabric; an item for my partner in the Teeny Weeny Swap, a swap the VMQG is doing with two Australian MQGs (FUN!); possibly also a Super Tote.

Plus, I've ended my online bee embargo and you'll hear more about that in coming months - this blog is kind of a WIP/UFO that isn't getting enough attention but ironically, when I have little things to share - like bee blocks - I tend to write more frequently.

Linking up this list to the Finish Along linky over at Katy's blog. There's time to join if you want. The more, the merrier!

Finish Along Q3 Wrap Up

I think I start every single one of these Finish Along posts the same thought: Wow, that quarter went quickly!

But it did! School got out two weeks early and started three weeks late because of a dispute between the teachers' union and our provincial government. The kids were finally back in school the week of the 22nd. That put a crimp in my productivity because my alternate Mondays off were not enjoyed sans enfant.

But I did get some stuff done, though not everything on my list (of course):

1. Road Trip Case. YES! I sewed with vinyl! It wasn't awful!

2. Circle of Geese bee quilt. YES! Renamed Love is All Around, it's with its new owner and rumour has it she wanted to call me at 7 am Eastern time (so 4 am my time) to thank me!

3. Michael Miller Petal Pinwheels Challenge. YES! It's on reserve for when I need a baby quilt sometime in the future.

4. Liberty + Kona Solids St. Louis 16- patch. YES! Sneak peek photo only; full post to come soon but I wanted to make sure I linked up this finish (this post counts for it in the linky).

5. Wonderland Sampler and Wonderland Quilt: Nope and nope. But that's okay. They'll get done but not before I deal with making an Elsa dress for someone for Halloween (not me).

Thanks, Katy for the Finish Along - there's so, so much work involved and I'm so grateful. It's a wonderful motivator for me. There's no way I would've made time to make myself a quilt (which is what the Liberty 16 patch is) without it.