Jackhammering...and NTT

Well friends, I wish I could tell you that all of the lightning strike hullabaloo was finished, but the hits just keep on coming.  Many, many more things were damaged by the strike than we initially realized, the most severe of which was the main water line in our concrete slab.  Did you know that in many older homes, the grounding wire was actually tied to the (highly conductive copper) plumbing line?  Smart, right?  Yeah...

I had absolutely no idea that a lightning strike could cause a pipe leak in the slab of my home until I saw water seeping up from my baseboards and tile and did a little research.  So here I sit, watching and listening to someone take a jackhammer to my kitchen floor to find and repair it.  I just keep reminding myself to be grateful for the fact that we are all okay...and thank the Lord for insurance!

Clearly, I am back in business with internet, so I am happy to *finally* get to reveal my Stacked Squares quilt.  I am calling this one Secret Lagoon.  The colors are so peaceful and soothing, which I really need these days, ha!

I used all of the scraps on the back, along with some green ombre Moda Marble fabric, as well as the softest shade of blue Kona.  It's hard to see, but I quilted this one in variegated green thread, which adds a lot of dimension to the quilt, and the lighter shade of navy in the binding is a perfect frame to finish this one off!

This quilt was made with a free Moda Bakeshop tutorial, found HERE, but instead of using precuts, I modified the pattern to use fat quarters or quarter yards.  Since several of you have asked, I'll go ahead and include my quarter yard and fat quarter cutting diagrams for you again-

I am working on another little quilt with the smaller scraps from this one, and it is almost finished.  Things just need to calm down a little bit so I can get it done!

With all of the crazy in my world right now, I almost forgot the highlights from the party tow weeks ago.  How could I do that??  This quilt by Sew Preeti is a beauty!

This Plus Plus by New Creative Side is lots of fun!

and even though the 4th of July has passed, this one by Pretty in the Port Quilts is fresh and summery!

Okay friends!  Since it's been two whole weeks since we last partied, I just know there is going to be so much awesomeness linked up this week;  I can't wait to see.  Be sure to link up more than one project if you need to!

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!  :)

One Thing Leads to Another

Well a few of my latest quilts, namely my two Ole Miss quilts and my LSU Love quilt, have prompted another friend to ask for a team quilt for her son- 'tis the season for gifts, you know!  She asked for the Stacked Squares pattern for the quilt, and only wanted a tiny bit of team fabric (fine by me!).  She was also open to the addition of a few more colors than just the traditional red and navy to add some dimension.

Ole Miss sometimes wears retro helmets that are actually powder blue rather than navy, and occasionally the team sports shades of gray as well, so I incorporated those colors in the design, and I really love the depth it added to the quilt.

As I mentioned before, the season for gift sewing is in full swing, which means that I am also working on a couple of secret projects.  It's always tough for me to keep these kinds of projects off of my blog (I am the worst secret-keeper), but at this time of year, there's just no way around it!

Another thing I can share though is that I just got a full fat-quarter bundle of the Ambleside collection, and I have a great plan for these sweet colors as soon as I finish up this latest quilt.

Geaux Tigers!

For those of you who are not from Louisiana, "geaux" is how we LSU fans spell the word go- not all the time; just when we get extra excited about sports, which is often.  It's just one of those quirky things that gives a little nod to the French influence in our great state, and I love that it's unique to us.  We're smack in the middle of an undefeated football season and school spirit is running pretty high right now, so when a friend from college contacted me and asked if I would make a twin sized LSU quilt for him, I jumped right on it!

I decided on the Stacked Squares pattern since I wanted something modern and definitely not feminine.  I never seem to tire of the illusion that this pattern creates!  I had to size it up to make a twin, which means that I had to make 30 different blocks in order to make all of the partial squares work out properly.

For the stacked illusion to show up in the quilt, the blocks need plenty of contrast, so I decided to add a little bit of gray and white to the mix.  Plus, as much as I love purple and gold, it can get overwhelming pretty quickly.

I must confess that I exhibited the ultimate in quilt photography laziness today with this pic.  I did actually press the top before taking it outside, but you'd never know it!  Autumn has definitely arrived here, and the leaves have begun to fall, scattering themselves across my backyard and deck.  I was in such a hurry to get this photo taken so I could start basting, that I just spread the quilt top right over the existing leaves, hence all of the bumps and wrinkles.  Oh well.

From the moment I started shopping for the fabrics, this one has been so much fun to create.  It is all basted and ready to "geaux," so quilting will be happening soon!

A Fresh Finish

I finished my Fresh Stacks quilt on Saturday evening, just in time for my quilt guild meeting on Sunday, and I love how it turned out!

When I posted the photo of the finished top, a reader pointed out all of the different designers represented.  Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Pat Bravo, Denyse Schmidt, Kate Spain are all there, plus some.  I didn't even consider that when I pulled the fabrics for this quilt, but I think the way they all play together is lots of fun!

I used up all of the scraps on the back and found this navy and teal tile print for the backing.  I love how the darker fabric makes the apple green and yellow pop.

Blues and greens are some of my favorite colors to work with, so I really enjoyed making this one.  This quilt measures 64 x 80" so it's either a really large throw, or a small twin size.

I have my fabric pulled, and a plan all sketched out for my next quilt and pattern, and I can't wait to get started!

Fresh Stacks

After a whirlwind week of basketball practices, games, karate, and of course schoolwork, my wild thing is off at his very first overnight church retreat, which gave me some uninterrupted sewing time this morning.  I put together my newest stacked squares quilt top, and I am loving the fresh color palette.  By the way, the original Moda Bake Shop pattern uses a layer cake and jelly rolls, but I have adjusted the measurements to use yardage rather than precuts, and if you're interested, you can find it HERE.

After I finished my last quilt, I wasn't really feeling any inspiration for another project.  Don't get me wrong, I definitely wanted to sew, I just didn't know what I wanted to do.  Even with the marvel of pinterest and the blogging universe, nothing was grabbing me as something I just had to try for myself.  I found myself scrolling through past quilts and just trying to decide on one that I might like to make again.  I don't repeat designs very often, but I'm glad I settled on this one.  I really do love the way the colors play together, and the 3D illusion of the pattern is really cool.

I've learned that just sitting and mulling things over doesn't really work for me.  I'm much more of a snap decision girl, and apparently pushing through with a repeat design was exactly the inspiration kick I needed because I have also sketched and planned out my next quilt.  Got to love it when creativity strikes!

Stacked Squares Love

I have been in love with the illusion of the Stacked Squares quilt pattern for awhile now, and I've finally gotten around to making my very own.

Although I have loved the pattern, it is written using a layer cake and two jelly rolls.  I don't know why, but that seemed like a lot of fabric for a throw sized quilt.  Using precuts is certainly easy, and patterns for them are often written to judiciously use up every bit of fabric, but not always.  Since this pattern only uses 23 of the layer cake squares, and of course, since I didn't have a layer cake and two jelly rolls of a single fabric line on hand, I decided to make some modifications to the pattern to make it work for my stash.

I have had a FQ bundle of Garden Party Tango (with a few other fabrics from stash) that was just begging to be used in this pattern, but figuring out how to make it work was a challenge.  The biggest difference in my Stacked Squares quilt and the Moda Bakeshop pattern is that my center squares are only 8 inches finished, making my finished blocks 16 inches.  This makes it possible to make the quilt from 23 fat quarters (or quarter yards) and I don't think it detracts from the illusion of the pattern at all.

If you'd like to make a Stacked Squares from FQ's or quarter yards, here's how I did it-

Choose 23 coordinating fat quarters or quarter yards.  From each print, cut-

1- 8.5" square
2- 2.5" x 8.5" strips (for the inner border around the square)
4- 2.5" x 12.5" strips (two of these will be for the inner border, and two for the outer border)
2- 2.5" x 16.5" strips (for the outer border)

for FQ cutting (18 x 21")-      *diagram not to scale

or if you are using quarter yards (9 x 42.5")-   *diagram not to scale
**Make sure you have enough width in your fabric.  Some bolts are a little shorter, but I have used plenty that are wide enough.

You are cutting one complete block from each fabric.  So, after you mix up the fabrics in a way that is pleasing to you, you will have 23 complete blocks, each with three contrasting fabrics.  Even though the quilt technically only has 20 blocks, you will need all 23 to make all of the "partial" squares work.

My finished quilt top measures 64" x 80" (a twin size!) which is actually a little bigger than the Moda Bakeshop pattern.  Pretty cool, considering that I downsized the center squares!  Let me know if you decide to try this pattern out with these measurements with your own stash!