Round Robin Quilt - a Final 2017 Finish

Woo hoo! This one has been on the to-do list for a looooong time. My VMQG Round Robin #1 Quilt is done!

I introduced the idea of a monthly round-robin quilt activity to the guild in 2014 and we had a blast! Each month, participants added borders to a quilt top that had been passed to them, using that month's prompt for the theme (stars, plus blocks, improv log cabins, triangles etc.) and whatever colour scheme the quilt owner specified in their writeup/via their starter block.

I love me some grey and scrappy brights so that's what I used to kick off my quilt, and it was the theme I asked my fellow Robins to keep with. I made 4 quirky quarter-circle strips to be my starter block.

These photos show my starter block, altered in a later round to add the outer spikes. I love it!

I was happy with the quilt top I got back at the end of the 10-month program. I did have to do a small amount of surgery to reconfigure one round that overwhelmed the top in a way that didn't work for me, and I added a few rounds to bring the quilt to lap size. I LOVE IT SO MUCH!

Each person who added to the quilt top took such care to make it beautiful, I was so overwhelmed. It makes this quilt all the more special knowing so many of my guild mates contributed to it.

The quilt was quilted by me on the shop's longarm in a decidedly improv/make it up as I go along kind of way. I'm very pleased with the results.

The binding is scrappy just like the quilt.

I'm so happy this is done so that I can snuggle under it by the fire. It was my final finish of 2017, and one of my Q4 FAL goals.

Josie in Pink: A Memorial Quilt

I sure do enjoy the Bloggers Quilt Festival put on every year by Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side. There are many, many beautiful quilts to admire - grab yourself a cup of tea or coffee or whatever and take some time to enjoy them.

My entry to this year's festival is called Josie in Pink. My dear friend and coworker Nicole lost her sweet Schnauzer furbaby Josie last year, and we talked about my making a memorial pillow or quilt. I presented the quilt to Nicole this past weekend so I can now share it with you!

Nicole's decor is pinks and greys so I fired up good ol' YouPatch and played with a photo of J-Doggie, colouring it in pinks with a grey background.

Josie in Pink measures 36" square, and the smallest of the pixel squares finishes at 3/4"! A feat of precision piecing to say the least. The piecing was intricate and time consuming but I'm so happy that all of the pieces came together beautifully.

I admit this quilt sat basted and unquilted for a loooong time while I pondered how I wanted to quilt it. Finally, I settled on two all-over patterns: one in the background using grey thread and one in the pink using pink thread. I am really happy with the results.

When I finally decided how I was going to quilt it, it came together very quickly.

Can you believe this backing fabric was just sitting in my stash? The colours match exactly - a completely serendipitous discovery! Obviously, it was meant to be.

I hope you enjoyed your visit here as well as the other lovely quilts that are being shared as part of the festival!

Winter is Finished!

That title is true in more ways than one! Winter - the season - is finally done here in my part of the world. But more importantly, my first Bee Sewcial quilt, Winter, is also done!

This quilt is a collaboration quilt - all of my Bee Sewcial partners contributed one large or two smaller blocks to this quilt. If you look at this blog post, you'll see my original prompt, where I asked them to make minimalist winter landscape blocks using shades of grey with white. I took the blocks, puzzled them together and then fretted about the quilting.

I won't bore you with the long list of Finish Along quarters that this beauty showed up on my Goals list. Suffice it to say that the top has been assembled since late 2015, I believe.

For the quilting, I marked a couple of the lines, and then eyeballed some walking foot quilting in more or less equal intervals, keeping some parallel and others in wavy points. I used Aurifil 50 weight in a light grey colour (2600).

I actually bound the whole thing and then decided it needed more quilting so out came the 12 weight cotton thread in the same colour. My hands weren't happy with that thick thread but I love the effect! I might even add some more but I needed to call this one done after so long.

I have my sisters in creativity, the Bee Sewcial group, to thank for this amazing finish. Every month, I am in awe of their skill and creativity. How lucky am I to be inspired and challenged by these amazing women!

This is a Finish Along finish as well! Hooray! No more putting it on my list! Wheee!

Gee's Bend Mini

This mini quilt was begun in a workshop with the quilters of Gee's Bend at QuiltCon 2015. The supply list said to bring old clothes as material for the workshop so I took myself to the thrift shop and got some jeans and a plaid shirt. I also collected up some amazing red corduroy fabric my Mother-in-Law passed along to me. Plus leopard print because, well, the fact is that I have more than my fair share of Edith Prickley in me when it comes to the quantity of animal print I have in my wardrobe.

 

It took me so long to move it past the stage I got to in the workshop, because I planned to add to it and make it bigger, yet I never seemed to get around to it. Thus it sat for a long time.

Finally, I decided that I wanted it finished more than I wanted it bigger so I went ahead and got it quilted. By hand, of course, because the piece really is an homage to those amazing quilters.

I did exactly zero marking before diving in and simply stitching where it seemed there needed to be stitches. I quite like the wonky nature of my stitching.

It finished up to be not-square and rather than add to it to square it up, I just went with the shape.

I also tried a wide binding first introduced to me by Latifah Saafir in her Glam Clam workshop for VMQG. I *love* how it looks, and I'll definitely be using that size binding again.

This mini was on my 2016 Q4 goals list in the Finish A Long. Have you heard about FAL? Click on the link up top to find out how to join in. There are prizes! There are cheerleaders! Come and join the fun!

MQG Swap: A Tale of Three Quilts (photo heavy!)

Last year, the Modern Quilt Guild announced a mini quilt swap. I had sworn off swaps for a couple of years because of time constraints and the fact that I wanted to focus on sewing for me as opposed to others.

But with my new life and new schedule (i.e. not working for the time being), I figured I had a bit more time to invest. So I signed up.

Partner information got sent out, Instagram swap teams were set up, and all was going along swimmingly. I mulled for a while, then settled on a design and fabric. An in-progress shot:

Before long, I had a pieced top. Since it's just a mini, I was able to get it layered and quilted quite quickly. I decided to block it after quilting so that I could coax those curves into submission. Everything was great until I was binding and noticed something that made my heart sink:

The blue flowers on the fabric (which I hadn't prewashed because I was using pre-cut charm squares) had run quite a bit.

I tried to fix it but I was terrified I would make it worse. After several nice commenters on Instagram said that it was lovely and I should just send it anyway, I decided to do just that.

I think these rounded corners are a cool element:

 

But just in case my partner was unhappy with the blemish, I made a mini backup quilt using a gorgeous paper pieced pattern from Anne Play Crafts called Contour Feather.

I quilted both minis using Aurifil 40 weight thread in a warm pink (2425) that looks quite bold against the Kona Pepper background. I like it!

 

Finally, I added a label (identifying info blanked out of course):

So this post is titled a Tale of Three Quilts. We've covered two. Now for the third. When I filled out my swap registration, I indicated that I would be willing to be a swap angel: someone who makes an extra quilt for someone whose original partner had to drop out of the swap.

I'd wanted to try Debbie A Quilter's Table's Cross Cut blocks ever since she did her quilt along, and serendipitously, the design seemed to work with what my angel partner was looking for.

I do love a low volume scrappy background!

For the quilting, I eyeballed the first, smallest curve, then just followed the previous stitched line - also eyeballed - until the whole thing was done.

It is quirky, just like the quilt.

For binding, I used some of the low volume fabric and did a single fold binding to reduce bulk:

I'm glad that I could help out to ensure everyone who signed up for the swap and made a quilt gets one in return. I hope my partners like their quilts!

I Hate These Quilts

To be more specific, I hate that the reason these quilts had to be made: Cancer. There are a group of us who met in prenatal classes and the newborn support group that came with it when G was born. One mom called us the Supermoms and it stuck. One of the Superkids, a girl G's age, was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. This one hit close to home, obviously. I cannot begin to imagine what Annabelle and her mom and dad and little sister are living through right now.

But I'm doing what I can to help: making stuff.

Annabelle likes purple these days so I emphasized that colour in her quilt:

I quilted some extra love into it and even named the quilt LOVE.

Here's a better view of the overall freemotion quilting I did (on my Juki 98Q, Aurifil thread all the way):

For a quick and durable binding, I attach to the back and stitch to the front by machine.

The blocks are Amy/Badskirt's, upsized to 20" finished.

This will be packaged in a matching pillowcase:

The second quilt I made is for Annabelle's sister, Cassidy. Cancer affects the whole family and I wanted Cassidy to know she was thought of too. Blue Hugs:

 

I constructed Blue Hugs using the Quilt as You Go method, in which I pieced and quilted the large blocks at the same time, then connected them using a thin sashing:

 

 The back of a QAYG quilt can be pretty fun, too:

 

Here's its pillowcase:

 

Get well soon, Annabelle!

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2016 (Original Design): Points East

Points East is my second Blogger's Quilt Festival entry for 2016. I'm entering it in the Original Design category.

I made this to enter into one of the MQG's fabric challenges. MQG members could sign up to receive a half-yard cut of Riley Blake's Sashing Stash print, which contains different motifs that you can fussy cut or strip cut or whatever you'd like.

I began by mulling for quite a while, and finally settled on a design that incorporates a wedge. Here are the beginnings of my experimentation:

When I decided I liked it, I went ahead and pieced the top, keeping in mind that my niece was expecting her second baby later in the summer and that I wanted this quilt to be for her so I kept it at baby size.

Notice at the bottom of this picture that the selvages are still visible. When I piece a quilt using fabric cut WOF (width of fabric, selvage to selvage), I don't tend to trim the selvages off first unless necessary. For instance if the pattern required precise piecing, I'd definitely trim. But in this case, I was putting the top together on the fly and I knew I'd be FMQing it. So, I left the selvages alone and trimmed after quilting.

Speaking of quilting, I quilted it with free-motion designs using my Juki 2010Q, which I love.

Binding was made with the leftover challenge fabric and voilà! A 40" x 50" baby quilt I called Points East because the wedges kind of look like direction arrows.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. Feel free to cruise around and take a look at what I've been up to and definitely make sure you visit the Blogger's Quilt Festival to feast your eyes on the beauty of hundreds of quilts!

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2016 (Modern): Dancing in the Moonlight

Hello! I believe the Blogger's Quilt Festival is in its 6th year - amazing! Thank you so much, Amy, for putting it together! This small quilt is the first of my two entries in this Fall's Blogger's Quilt Festival.

Dancing in the Moonlight was pieced improvisationally. I enjoyed leveraging the contrast of the purple against the neutrals to play with the two parts of the quarter-circles. I shared the quilt on social media when I finished it earlier this year for a challenge. Well, I *thought* I'd finished it. 

After looking at it for a while longer, I realized I wanted to add some hand stitching to increase the texture of this quilt. Using Aurifil 12 weight cotton thread in a creamy white colour (2310), I added several lines of stitches about ¼" away from some of the machine quilting lines (done with Aurifil 50 weight in white).

NOW it's finished. 

I'm experimenting with the side of our new house as my new photography spot.

The fabrics are all Northcott Colorworks Solids in the colourway dictated by the original challenge. I totally loved what came from having a restricted palette and a restricted amount of each fabric to work with. I'll have to try that approach again, I think.

I've decided to put this into the Modern category. Go and see the many, many amazing quilts that are being shared as part of the festival at this link: Blogger's Quilt Festival.