Smoky Mountain Hike

Bigger blocks rock, y'all.  I have always loved the Road to Tennessee pattern, but I've shied away from making one because traditionally the blocks are pretty small, and sometimes I'm just a little bit lazy.  It's okay. I admit it.  When I got the woodland themed fabrics for this baby quilt though, and saw that the animal prints were fairly large, I figured they would work well to size up the traditional RTT block.  I love how it turned out, and how quickly it went together!

I used just nine different fabrics, with four 8.5" squares cut from each one. The white corner squares were cut 4.5." The blocks finish at 8 inches, making the entire quilt 48" square.  I think this is a great use of bigger prints, or even a small bundle of fabric that may be difficult to mix with others.

When I took this photo, I intended to just give a close up of the stippling and a few of the prints, and I only realized later that this pic actually shows all nine fabrics.  I think they all play so well together, considering that they are mixed from my stash, and not from a single collection.

The backing is pieced with wide stripes, using up most of my leftovers, and that darkest navy blue just begged to be used in the binding.

The slate blues and smoky grays in this quilt, along with the woodland animal prints, inspired the name, Smoky Mountain Hike, and it is going to look amazing as the focal point in the nursery.  With Thanksgiving approaching at breakneck speed, I am so glad I was able to check this one off my list!

Needle and Thread Thursday!

Happy NTT, y'all!  Over the weekend, I finished up my Mardi Gras quilt, and planned to get started on a baby quilt for a friend next.  Well, sometimes the best laid plans get thrown out the window.  The nursery is decorated in shades of slate blue and gray, and has a modern woodland theme going on.  My friend actually asked specifically for fabrics with bears and/or deer in it.  She even had these two fabrics in mind if I could find them.

    

The first is called Bear Hike by Birch Organics, and the second is called Buck Forest, from the Hello Bear collection.  I finally found them from the same shop to save on shipping (in the right colors), and they just arrived today!  Waiting for a specific fabric to arrive in the mail is torture when you're trying to stay on a schedule, not to mention when you're working up to a holiday.  Anyway, now that I have everything I need, I love the fabric pull for this baby quilt.  It's going to be so sweet.

In the meantime, flexibility is the name of the game.  I decided to go ahead and knock out the next quilt on my to-do list, a camouflage quilt for a friend's son, who is an avid outdoorsman.  From cutting to binding, this quilt went together in just a couple of days (with a couple of late nights), and I'm delivering it to her tomorrow!

If it looks familiar, it's because she saw a photo of this quilt I made for my brother in law a couple of years ago and fell in love with it.  There are just a couple of differences between the two quilts.  First, I found a fabric that has a marble print in shades of brown, and decided to use that for the square frames, rather than solid Kona Chocolate.  I also chose to make a scrappy binding on this one.  I think both of these choices add some depth and texture to the quilt.  The backing is solid Mossy Oak camouflage, and I quilted it with chocolate brown thread.  This finished quilt measures 60" x 60," and I think it will be just perfect for taking along on a camping or hunting trip!

Without further ado, check out a few highlights from last week's party that really caught my eye (it was especially tough to pick this week).  Judy from Sew Some Sunshine linked up this ultra-modern hexagon quilt.  So unique!

Valerie from re-engineered shared her Clovers and Jam quilt, and I love the earthy colors in this one!

and finally, Greta from Material Detachment showed off her finished Pickle Dish quilt.  I absolutely adore this pattern, and the orange and green combo is so much fun!

Okie dokie, friends!  It's time to link up your latest masterpieces, or masterpieces-in-progress!  I can't wait to see what you're sewing these days!

Oh, and one more thing- NTT will be taking a break next week for Thanksgiving, but will return on December 2nd.  I hope all of you in the US have a wonderful holiday filled with family, food, and fun!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

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5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

Mardi Gras Revelry

Mardi Gras Revelry is finished, and I am so happy to report that it is packaged and ready to ship out today!

This quilt was so much fun!  I am not really a novelty fabric kind of girl, but for Mardi Gras, a touch of ostentatious is perfect.  I mixed themed fabrics with others from my stash to balance it out though, and I'd say the mix is about half and half.  I definitely wanted the colors to be distinct, because from even the slightest distance, the purple, gold, and green prints could have ended up looking muddled in the quilt without other, more solid fabrics to break them up.  The individual prints are a little difficult to distinguish in the photo of the entire quilt since they are smaller, but you can see them better here (pretty proud of my triangle points too)-

There are feathers, masks, and fleur de lis prints, as well as more traditional prints in Mardi Gras colors, like the chevron, stripe, checkerboard, and polkadot fabrics.  A few of the prints have some gold metallic accents (but not too many).  Then there's my most favorite fabric- the Mardi Gras leopard print!  When I bought the fabrics for this quilt, I almost left this one out because I felt like it was almost too over the top, but I am SO glad I decided to include it.  I love that it is a themed fabric, but so unpredictable.

Speaking of buying these fabrics, I really had a hard time finding everything I needed from one shop.  I was determined to stay with the traditional colors of purple, gold and green, along with black and white.  When I started shopping, I was surprised to find that lots of Mardi Gras fabrics have many different colors in them, and I knew I didn't want that for this quilt.  I also didn't want to pay shipping costs from five or six different shops to get the variety I needed!  A quilt shop in New Orleans, Mes Amis Quilt Shop, came to my rescue.  They are not an online shop, but they do have a website, boasting that they keep almost 30 Mardi Gras prints in stock year round.  They were more than happy to take a phone order and ship the fabrics to me, but since they are a brick and mortar shop only, they didn't have photos of each of their prints readily available.  They were kind enough to text pictures of their bolts to me, 5-6 at a time, so that I could decide what I wanted to order.  Now that is customer service.  (ps- this is NOT a sponsored post, I am just extremely grateful!)

I made use of every single bit of the fabrics in the pieced backing, and finished it off with a Kona Purple binding to frame all of that loud print.  The finished quilt measures 56" x 72," so it is a really great throw size.

I think the combination of the fun fabrics, along with the diamond pattern reminiscent of harlequin masks came together pretty perfectly on this quilt.  And I think it truly captures the spirit of Mardi Gras!  It's glitzy, loud, ostentatious, and so much fun-  perfect for the season where those of us from Louisiana "laissez les bons temps rouler,"  or let the good times roll!

Needle and Thread Thursday!

Happy NTT, friends!  If you missed it, I finished up the queen sized Ambleside quilt and posted the finish HERE, and for the last couple of days, I've been working on something new.  We are smack in the middle of the holiday season, and I'm working on a quilt with a holiday flair-

Not what you were expecting?  We all get so preoccupied with Thanksgiving and Christmas, but if I asked you what holiday comes after Christmas, I know many would probably say Valentine's Day.  That is, unless you live (or are from) Louisiana.  For us, Mardi Gras is next!  Mardi Gras day falls on the Tuesday right before Lent, but we actually let the good times roll for an entire season, beginning on January 6th.  This day is also known as Twelfth Night, Three Kings Day, or Epiphany.

Many Louisiana folks decorate their homes for Mardi Gras, and some even take the decorations off of the Christmas tree and replace them with ones of green, purple, and gold (not me, by the way).  This quilt is for a friend in Louisiana who wants a Mardi Gras quilt, and was very clear about the fact that he had no qualms about it being loud and busy.  After all, Mardi Gras is a glitzy holiday, so why should a quilt to celebrate it be any different?  I chose to make a diamond pattern because it reminds me of harlequin masks, which are often used in the decor of the season.  I just need to get this top squared up, and get going on the backing!

Alrighty then!  Check out some of the highlights from last week's fabulous party!  Afton from Quilting Mod shared this fun mini-

Beth from Cooking Up Quilts showed off this quilt, called Snap, Crackle, Pop!  Isn't it awesome?

and Heather from QA Creations linked up her newest quilt, Forging Steel.  Gorgeous!

So, maybe you're working on holiday projects of a different kind; or maybe some holiday gift sewing; or maybe just something fun for yourself?  I can't wait to see!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

Nostalgia

I finished this my Ambleside D4P quilt this morning, and though the lower volume hues are outside of my norm, I really fell in love with the delicate prints and soft colors.  Every fabric in this sweet collection makes me think of vintage linens and lace, or embroidered handkerchiefs.  Although the florals are updated, they look like they could be right at home on a bed during a bygone era as well.  Because of the timeless florals and simple pattern, I decided to name this quilt Nostalgia.

If you missed my last post, this quilt will be a Christmas gift for the parents of a family member (by marriage).  Since the recipient's favorite color is yellow, I was asked to make the binding and backing yellow.  I really prefer for my binding and backing to be in contrasting colors so that when the quilt is turned over, both are distinct, so right away, I knew I needed to figure something out to be happy with it.

My solution was to use wide yellow stripes on either side of the scraps, then smaller green stripes down the length of the quilt.  By doing this, I was able to minimize the binding and backing blending together.  I used the same yellow fabric for both backing and binding, so it doesn't look strange on those small places at the top and bottom of the quilt where they do meet.  I think the backing and binding are a win-win- lots of yellow, but still plenty of contrast.

This finished quilt measures 80" x 100," so it will cover a queen sized bed generously, and the quilt, including the scraps on the back, used up every single bit of a 40 FQ bundle- hooray for zero leftovers!  These soft, dainty prints were so nice to work with, I just might have to choose lower volume fabrics more often!

NTT and Ambleside

Happy Thursday, all!  I can't believe it's November already!  Thanksgiving is just three short weeks from tomorrow, and Christmas... well, I don't even want to count.  I have way too much to do!  For the past few days, I've been keeping busy with the Ambleside FQ bundle I got a couple of weeks ago.

These are just a few of the 80 blocks I have to make, and they aren't even pressed yet.  This quilt will be a queen size (80" x 100"), so I have some marathon sewing sessions planned to get these knocked out.  These D4P blocks aren't difficult, but they are a little more time consuming than you would think.  I guess that's true of any block that you have to sew twice.

This quilt will be for my cousin's wife, who wants to give the quilt as a Christmas gift to her parents (I don't think there's a less convoluted way to say that).  She saw my Springtime Blooms quilt and wanted a quilt with the same pattern, and with fabrics that have the same softer colors.  I think the Ambleside collection fulfills those needs nicely.  So far, I have 55 blocks finished, and I'm hoping to get the rest sewn tonight and tomorrow so I can get the top put together.

Last week's party was ahh-mazing!  Y'all are really kicking your awesomeness into high gear with the holidays approaching!  I'm positively swooning over this warm/cool AMH Dresden Plate quilt by Maryse Makes Things-

This Modern Maples quilt by Cardboard Boxes and Paper Hearts is such a pretty tribute to the season-

and Cathy at A Quilting Chick linked up a brand new Moda Bake Shop pattern, Night in Old San Antonio (or NIOSA) for short- gorgeous!

I can't tell you how much I love browsing your projects week after week (even if I don't have time to comment on all of them).  Y'all truly inspire me.  Let's link up, friends!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!