Treasure Hunt

Since last week, it feels like I have been sewing nonstop around here.  This quilt using Bespoke Blooms fabric is the very last quilt that I had to finish before Christmas, and now that it's done and delivered, I can take it easy and just sew for fun.  I always try to have my Christmas to-do list finished with a couple of weeks to spare, because December is just so full!

The soft colors and prints in the fabrics create such a pretty wash of light and dark over the quilt, and you might notice that there are a few different pieces mixed in.  This quilt is a special gift for its recipient, containing small pieces of clothing from all four of her grandparents, both parents, her husband, and all three daughters.  Seeking out all of the snippets of clothing will be a special treasure hunt for her, so that's what I decided to name this quilt.

On the back I used all of the leftovers, rounded it out with strips of Kona Tarragon, and quilted with a gentle stipple.  Some of the clothing pieces contained cute embroidery, and I didn't want to quilt through those too much.  And of course, less dense quilting keeps the quilt nice and soft as well.  I decided to use Kona Silver for the binding.  I wanted to be sure that the quilt felt grown up, even with the softer colors, and the soft gray does the trick.

The back also contains a special dedication, with the recipient's name and date, as well as a quote from a favorite piece of literature.  It is placed at the top of the quilt, so that when she is covered up with the quilt and it is folded down, she will be able to read it.

This finished quilt measures 70" x 90" and though the soft colors are outside of the norm for me, they really work to give the quilt a timeless feel.  This quilt is sure to be treasured by her family for years, and I'm so glad I got to create such a personal keepsake for them.

Strawberry Season

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!  The hubs and I did our date night last night while our wild thing was at a karate party, so we've all just been taking it easy today.  I finished up the quilt for my mother in law, and as a nod to the cute little strawberries in the fabric, I'm calling this one Strawberry Season.  It measures 60" square, and will look great on her sofa.

The pattern in this one is so simple, just a nine patch variation, but really fits the feel of the fabrics.  I used almost all of the prints in the Strawberry Fields line, and because I got a full FQ bundle, there was enough to make this quilt completely reversible.

My MIL and I talked about it, and we both liked the variation of color in the full collection, rather than just choosing a couple of color ways.  For this throw sized quilt, I planned to only order a fat eighth bundle because there are so many prints.  As I was shopping though, I ended up finding a full fat quarter bundle for only $10 more.  At that price, it would have just been silly to only buy fat eighths (that's my story, anyway)!  I ended up using 36 out of the 40 prints in the line, opting to pull out the solid ivory fabric, as well as a few pinks.  Pulling out the pinks kept the quilt from being too soft, which is a good thing since it will be used a living room.

One of my favorite things about this quilt is the sketchy red binding, mostly because of my success with finding just the right red.  The shade of red in this collection is pretty unique.  The color is not very saturated, almost a pink-ish, coral-ish red, which gives it a little bit of a vintage quality.  As it turns out, I had this fabric in my cabinet, and it is just perfect!

I actually finished this one on Friday, but since I posted my February Fabric Deals on Friday, I didn't want to over-post.  By the way, if you missed that post, it has FOUR amazing giveaways (three awesome fabric bundles, and a $100 gift certificate!), so definitely hop over and enter if you haven't already.

Since finishing Strawberry Season, I've been experiencing a little bit of deja vu.  A few weeks ago, when I posted my finished Gemstones quilt on my personal Facebook page, my friend saw it and immediately wanted it for her daughter.  As that quilt was already spoken for, I told her I would make another one with the same pattern and fabrics.  So right now, I'm in the middle of getting that one done with a pillow to match.  And without a doubt, this one WILL have a berry binding!

Strawberry Fields, a Question, and NTT

Hello, all!  I hope you're having a fantastic week.  Since finishing Stems and Stones, I've been working on a quilt for my mother in law using a bundle of Fig Tree's Strawberry Fields Revisited.  She and I spoke last summer about a quilt that would match the more muted tones in her living room, and this collection is just perfect.

The warm red and brown, sage and apple green, and buttery yellow are muted shades, but not sugary sweet pastels.  Even though there is a tiny bit of soft pink, overall the fabrics are more grown up.  Because the prints and colors are smaller in scale and a little more traditional,  I decided on a pattern that I thought fit them best.  Also, since this quilt will be on the sofa and used practically every night, my mother in law specifically asked that the quilt not have a lot of white, which helped with my decision on the pattern as well.  I think it's going to be perfect for the room!

So, my question-  I don't know if there are many happier sights for a quilter than a brand new, giant roll of high quality batting.  I admit, a giant pile of gorgeous of fabric is definitely high on the list, too.  I know that's not really a question, but I'm getting there, I promise.

I love Warm Company batting, and I always buy my batting in queen sized, 40 yard rolls.  The batting is thick and warm, and quilts beautifully.  I am equally fond of Warm and Natural and Warm and White, and I just buy whichever variety I can find at the best price (this time, it happens to be White).  So my question is, have any of you ever used Warm and Plush?  I have seen it, and I'm tempted to try it out, but I have a hard time straying from tried and true.  I've thought about buying a single package to see how I like it, and I may do that, but again- habit just takes over.  If you have tried it, and can offer any opinions, I would love to hear them.

Okay then!  Time to check out a few of the amazing links from last week's party.  Mary from Quilting Through Rose-Colored Trifocals shared TWO gorgeous finishes.  I had such a hard time choosing which one to use in the feature, so I chose the quilt that Mary DIDN'T use for the thumbnail.  You really need to hop over and see both, though!

Ida Rather Be Quilting showed off her beautiful Cartwheels quilt.  Love the pop of color against the dark gray background!

and Oh. My. Goodness.  This Garden Party diamond quilt from Lori at Sewfrench is just stunning!

I am always amazed at the creativity that abounds week after week, but seriously.  Some weeks, it is darn near impossible to narrow the features down to only three.  This was definitely one of those weeks.  So much amazing all in one place; y'all really know how to keep a girl inspired.

So, time to show me what you've got going on this week!  Party on, 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!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)

Hush, Little Baby

Hey, y'all!  I feel like it's been forever since I've posted, even though my last post was only last Wednesday.    Maybe it's because I've started and finished a new quilt without even giving you a glimpse of it (sorry!).  Yesterday I finished a quilt that was really a struggle for me- an entirely low volume quilt made with fabrics that I don't love at all.

I purchased these fabrics over five years ago, thinking that they would make a pretty baby quilt.  At that time, shabby chic decor was all the rage and plenty of people used pastels when decorating nurseries.  Unfortunately, not long after, I hurt my wrist and had to have surgery, surrounded by a long quilting hiatus.

Well, a LOT changed during that break.  Fabrics with bolder, more saturated colors came out and really took over the modern quilting movement.  Since that time, this bundle of fabric has just sat in my cabinet, taunting me and daring me to put it into a quilt.

I decided that I just couldn't look at it any longer and needed it out of my stash.  So, I made a giant log cabin with THIS method, knowing that it would be a quick way to put these fabrics to use.

Because the colors are so soft, the backing fabric was a little bit tricky to find.  At first, I thought the colors were simple baby pink, baby blue, soft green, and lavender, but when I went to find a backing fabric, I had a much harder time getting just the right shade.  I realized that the hues are more subtle than I thought.

The pink is really more of a blush, and the blue is really a very soft aqua.  What I thought was lavender is actually a periwinkle color, and the green is the softest shade of sage.  I'm thinking that if the colors were just a little bit more saturated, or maybe not all used together, I would like them better.

I ended up using a soft sage tiny polkadot fabric on the backing and a shade of aqua for the binding.  Overall, the quilt has a lot of the blush color, and I really didn't want to add more.

Incidentally, I do think it looks better against the white iron bed.  This bed actually came from my great grandfather, and we are repainting it navy for my wild thing.  It was sitting in my garage, and I thought it would make a nice prop for this quilt!

I still think that even though this quilt is not my style at ALL, that it will make a very sweet quilt for a brand new baby girl.

Springtime Blooms...in the Summer

The Beast is finished!  Although now that it's done, I should probably start referring to it by its given name- Springtime Blooms.  I finished the binding this afternoon, and I hate that I'm a little late to the Friday Finish parties (hangs head in shame)- but better late than never!

Thanks so much to everyone who gave name suggestions.  The name Springtime Blooms is kind of a mash-up of lots of the ideas that were given, and since the fabric is called Spring Magic by April Cornell, I decided to throw part of that in there too for good measure.

To keep the quilting from adding to the busy pattern, I decided to quilt with a simple meandering, but I did use soft pink thread and I just love it!  I think it looks so sweet with the little pink dots in the backing fabric.

The backing fabric is Marguerite by Riley Blake in Yellow Scallops.  There is a little shop near me that makes applique t-shirts, bunting, and other fabricy gifts.  They aren't a quilt shop, but they do have a small (but awesomely cute) selection of fabric.  They also happen to be right next door to my nail salon, so I always pop over there when I get a pedicure.  And boy, am I glad I did last week!  I found this fabric on clearance for $3.00 a yard and it just went perfectly with it.  Score!!  I promptly bought the rest of the bolt.

I picked a dreamy shade of aqua for the binding, with the hope that it would bring out that color in the quilt even more.  The pink, yellow, and apple green are so "in your face" that I wanted to bring the aqua out a little bit.  I wanted the binding choice to be a little less expected, and I think it worked.

I had a couple of personal quilty victories on this one, which is good after the initial seam matching annoyance.  First of all, I managed to quilt this gigantic thing on my regular home machine (even though it was slow going) without a single pucker on the backing- not even a tiny one!  That's a first for a big quilt for me, and enough to make me jump up and down, y'all.  Seriously.  Jumping up and down.

Secondly, I managed to use every single scrap of this fabric in this quilt.  It began as a 40 FQ bundle, and even though the quilt finishes at 80 x 100 inches (a generous queen size), I still had plenty to piece into the backing.  So nothing goes back into stash (or even scrap).  YAY!!

All in all, I still don't prefer making bed-sized quilts.  I much prefer quilts that are the perfect snuggle size- about 60 x 60.  But, at least I know that I can make one this big and still have it come out looking decent.

Next week, amongst first week of school stuff, I'm getting down to business on the other two memory quilts made from my grandfather's shirts.  If you missed those at the beginning of the summer, you can check out Western Kaleidoscope and Bricks and Mortar to see what I'm talking about.  After all of this girly sewing, I have to get back into the manly quilt groove.

Slow Going

Last weekend we visited my family, and I took this stack of quilts to show-

Yes, that's 11 quilts folks.  They took up an entire seat in the car, and I almost wanted to buckle them in for safety.  I don't know if you do this, but I get awfully protective of my quilts.

Well, I should say that technically, there are 10 quilts, and one quilt top, because that stack includes The Beast.  The Beast is my name for my latest quilt.  No- not the official name that I'll put on the quilt label, but that's just what I tend to call it in my own head.  Not because of the way it looks, but because of the size and weight of it.  Last night, I basted it (basting is the devil), and tonight, I started quilting.   I had to take a picture of it on my machine just to give you an idea of how massive it is.  It is 80 x 100, which is the largest quilt I've ever made- except for my first one, but since that one's a bit of a mess, it doesn't really count.

Between going out of town this weekend, starting back to school yesterday, and the sheer size of this thing making each step take longer, I feel like this quilt is taking forever to get finished.  I much prefer my summertime "one quilt a week" schedule.

Tonight, I managed to finish half of the quilting though, so that's some progress at least.  I'm doing a simple meander so that I don't add too much busy stitching to the already busy fabric.

I can't wait to get the quilting finished and take some good pictures in the daylight!  But for now, I think I'll just rest my arms and shoulders from fighting the weight of The Beast with all of this FMQ.

One Last Summer Hurrah

Well y'all, I have to head back to school on Monday, so I've been working like mad on my Disappearing Four Patch quilt top.  I used the tutorial at Material Girl Quilts, and Amanda explains it beautifully with great pics.  The only thing I did differently, was start with six inch blocks for my four patches, rather than charm squares.  In retrospect, for such a large quilt, I may have gone even bigger.  The D4P blocks finish at 10 inches in the quilt.

*how did I not notice that this picture is blurry???  The thing is so huge that I am not taking it back outside with all of the dew still on the grass!

Let me just say this- although this pattern is not difficult, I did find it time consuming.  I guess any pattern that requires double cutting, double pressing, and double sewing probably would be.  Of course, it doesn't help that the quilt I'm making is a monstrous 80 x 100 inches.  It's a beast!

I decided to pull out my 40 FQ bundle of April Cornell Spring Magic fabrics that I've had for over three  years (since before my wrist injury).   I have to admit- I still really like these fabrics.  Even though they are florals, the colors are really vibrant and drool-worthy for any girly girl.

There was one thing I wish I had done in this quilt top, which is to trim my blocks to size.  I really don't know what I was thinking by not doing that, I think I was just overzealous to get the top done.  I just pressed them, laid them out, and started sewing them together.  That really jumped up and bit me in the behind when joining my rows.  Some of the seams didn't match perfectly, and at that point, there really wasn't a darn thing I could do.  Hopefully, the pattern is busy enough that it won't be too noticeable, and quilting will help too.

This quilt needs a great name- sooner rather than later since my label goes on right after basting but before quilting!  The fabrics remind me of English chintz dinnerware, so I was thinking of something along the lines of "Afternoon Tea Time," or "Rose Cottage," but I'm not really sold on either of those.  I love the word "garden" but I've used it in two quilt names already, so I'm trying to stay away from it.

If you have a great name idea (or even if you don't!), leave me a comment!

Polkadots and Posies

I just finished putting the binding on my HST quilt, and now that it's finished, I do like it better.  I think it will make a sweet quilt for a little girl.

It took awhile for me to get into the groove of quilting this one.  My thread broke a few times before i realized that it was wrapped around my sewing machine handle, and then there was this-

I've broken needles on safety pins before, but I have never had this happen.  I immediately freaked out, worried that I had messed up my machine, then remembered that Hydeeann from Splish Splash Stash had this happen a few days ago, and her machine was fine-which was reassuring.  I'll never make the mistake of thinking I can sew that close to a pin again!

After much annoyance, I managed to finish the stippling on the quilt (I really must try another kind of FMQ, but I just love it!).  I kept the stippling fairly wide so that the quilt would stay soft and drapey.

With the polkadot backing and binding, as well as some polkadots in the April Cornell fabric, I've decided to call this one Polkadots and Posies.  I almost called it Pocket Full of Posies, but with my previous Ring Around the Rosy quilt, I thought that would be high on the cheese factor.  This label is one of the neatest ones I've done (writing on fabric neatly is harder than it sounds).  If you're wondering how I make and attach my labels- without hand stitching and without the stitches showing on the front, you can find a tutorial HERE as part of the Beginner QAL.  It's really easy!

I managed to use every single scrap of this fabric by also piecing the backing, so it is 100% gone!  It always makes me happy when I don't have leftovers (those multiply when you're not looking, you know).  I went with asymmetry on the backing, and I'm happy I did!  It's much more interesting!

Well, I still have a huge (40 FQ) bundle of April Cornell's Spring Magic that I need to use (again, very pretty fabric, but not exactly my style lately).  I tried to find a single picture of all the fabrics, but the best I could find after so long is a link to the Moda brochure HERE.  Once I use that, that will be the end of my shabby chic fabrics!

ps- don't forget, tomorrow is Needle and Thread Thursday!  I hope you'll link up!

HST Quilt on a Mission

I am on a mission.  A mission to make quilts of the FQ sets I already have sitting in my stash without buying more fabric.  Except backing fabric.  Or any fabric I see that is so awesome that I cannot live another day without it.  Or any fabric that is fabulous and is on sale.  But I digress... A serious mission, I tell you!

So in the name of resourcefulness, I pulled out some fabric that has been sitting in my stash for over three years.  Now, that sounds like a long time, but I had wrist surgery a year ago, and in trying to avoid that surgery, I took almost two years off from quilting before that.  That was a bummer.  So, in my defense, if you subtract all of the time I wasn't actually quilting, the fabric hasn't really been sitting around that long.

This is April Cornell for Moda fabric and I think it's called Poetry (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) except for the gingham which is from my stash.  It really is amazing how my taste in fabric has changed.  Not that this fabric is unattractive, because it's actually very pretty, but I'm fairly sure I wouldn't buy it today.  Lately, I've been drawn to more bold colors with a more graphic vibe (think Soul Blossoms or Carnaby Street).  That being said, it was just sitting in my cabinet and not hideous, so something really had to be done with it.  It would be ignored no longer.

I decided a simple HST quilt was in order since I've never done one.  Raspberry Limeade was a chevron quilt, which I know is kind of the same thing, but for some reason, I don't really count that since the finished look is totally different.

It really needed a fresh burst of white to make the colors pop since they are muted and the white HST's I threw in just weren't cutting it, so I added a white border, which also had the added bonus of making it a little bit bigger.  I think it makes it feel a little more fresh.

What about you?  Do you have fabrics sitting in your stash that don't wow you anymore?  What are they?

By the way, week 3 is underway at Plum and June's New Blogger Blog Hop.  Check out the fantastic blogs up this week!

                                                            

Leigh Ann @ Ella's Cottage

Stacey @ The Tilted Quilt

Sarah @ Quilt Candy

Jackie @ NW Patchwork

Liz @ Beadqueene's Bits and Baubles

Erica @ Happy Fabric

Stephanie @ Simple Sewendipity

Lauren @ Seraphym

Amy @ Cloud CouCou Crafts