Stars!

This time of year is tough for me. With the clouds and the rain that come this time of year, and the short days... it feels dark ALL the time! But, a girl's gotta blog. If I wait until spring to blog about projects, I'm just not going to remember! And so I go with crappy, poorly lit pictures. Which is a shame, because this is such a bright and happy quilt!

The design is "White Stars" from Julie Herman's book, Skip the Borders. I changed it up just a bit with a 9-block layout instead of 12 in order to keep it a more baby-friendly size. Mine ended up at about 48" square.

I didn't follow the instructions in the book, instead opting to use the "No Waste" method for Flying Geese blocks (as shown here). I had to do a little math to figure it out, but it saved sooooo much time and fabric. And it worked like a charm.

I knew I wanted purple and grey (I used Kona Shadow) and that I wanted to use this pattern. As I was looking about my local quilt shop, I came across a happy fabric with little animals with umbrellas from David Walker. When I saw that, it inspired me to pull the aqua and pink to coordinate. Then I used that cute animal print on the back. I love how it all came together!

I spent a lot of time quilting this one. I was very influenced by the quilting on the sample in the book, which was quilted by Angela Walters. I chose to use a paisley-type filler to give lots of texture to the solid fabric stars (from the book, Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters). Then I again took inspiration from Walters's Craftsy class, "Dot-to-Dot Quilting" and used that to create some motifs in the surrounding blocks. Throughout I used Aurifil 50/2 thread #2600 (Dove).

I wish I was able to get better pictures of the quilting... I was having a tough time getting any decent pictures that day, so I'm thankful even to have gotten these. I've gone ahead and attempted to draw in my quilting design on the photo above so you can get an idea. (Thankfully, the quilting looks MUCH better on the quilt than my feeble Paint Shop Pro drawing skills indicate!)

And the label. Baby's papa commented how glad he was that there were care instructions included on the label. He seemed in a bit of disbelief as to how his 3-week old baby manages to require so much laundry. I had to laugh at that. :P

Hopefully little Penelope will enjoy snuggling with her new quilt!

Sunrise Coins - Blogger's Quilt Festival, Spring 2015!

It's Bloggers' Quilt Festival time again! I'm excited that I have something new to share for this one...

Every so often, I am compelled to make a quilt "just because." No recipient in mind, no real need, but just because I really want to make it. Such is the case with this fun design by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts:

It is called "Framed Coins" and can be found in the (incredibly awesome) book, Skip the Borders. This is actually the third project I have completed from the book. I am a fan.

Can't say as I was horribly original with this one. I pretty much did the exact same thing as in the book, just with red/oranges instead of greens (thus I've given it the name "Sunrise Coins"). But-- it was all from my stash! Woo!

It measures 72" x 72" so I have entered it in the ,"Large Quilts" category.

I had fun with the quilting though! Aurfil Mako 50/2 thread was used throughout. I started by stitching in the ditch around the colored frames and each group of coins (2370, "Taupe"). Then inside the coin sections, I used a grey thread (2600, "Dove") and did a flame-y all-over type thing (inspired by the "Allover Leaves" design found in the book, Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters-- another awesome book!). Then for the colored areas, I used contrasting thread and free-motioned the straight(ish)-line frames. In the red, I used orange (2150, "Golden Poppy"). In the orange, I used red (2250, "Red"). In the peach I used coral (2255, "Dark Texas Orange"). In the coral, I used peach (2220, "Salmon"). I was really pleased with how it all came together!

The back is a fabric I've had in my stash since about 2000. It is such a beautiful print and it just seems to work so well with this quilt. I am also proud of having tried something new with the binding on this one. Most of the binding is black and white polka-dot. But there are two sections where I changed colors of binding to match the adjacent blocks. It was fun trying something new, and I think it looks pretty snazzy too.

It almost feels kind of cheater to call this one a 2015 finish as all but the binding was done last July (and I was too lazy to re-do the label). But the last stitches didn't go in until this year, so 2015 it is!

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my quilt. Have fun enjoying all of the other fabulous entries!

Right now...

There's a number of things I want to blog about, but I am feeling overwhelmed at where to start. Since I have to start somewhere, here is what I've been doing this week:

Here are a few quilts that need binding, including my Raspberry Rabbits BOM, a quilt for Little Bear, and my Framed Coins (which I finished quilting on Sunday, 6/29). Okay. Technically, I've not actually been doing any binding this week, but this pile has been weighing heavily in my mind. I really need to just. do. it.

Anyway, after all of the intense quilting my Framed Coins, I needed something quick and easy-- a palette cleanser:

I threw this together on Monday, from cutting to basting. It is the "Playpen" design from the Me & My Sister Designs book, Crazy for Baby. Now it is ready for quilting.


After getting the baby quilt put together, I was ready to jump into something new:

A triangle quilt! The Sassy Quilter's Triangle Quilt Along caught my attention back in April, but I just wasn't ready to join in at that point. But triangles have remained on my mind, so I've finally started in on one. I used Julie Herman's Hex N More ruler to cut 4.5" equilateral triangles and Electric Quilt to help me figure out how many I needed. The print fabrics are all from Patty Young's Sanctuary collection from Michael Miller Fabrics that came out a few years ago. The solids are Kona cottons in Glacier, Medium Gray, Spring Green, and Bahama Blue. I've pieced all the rows and am now working on joining those rows together.

Now I am off to squeeze some limes. We're making margaritas. Woo! Happy Independence Day!

When the mood strikes...

Not a lot has been happening here in Crafty Musings land lately. I have been lacking motivation to baste or quilt. So even though that pile of unfinished stuff continues to taunt me, I finally decided I just need to get sewing again. So I'm starting something new! Woo!

I'm going with another Julie Herman (of Jaybird Quilts) design called "Framed Coins." It is from her book, Skip the Borders. I'm definitely getting my money's worth out of this book-- this will be my third project from it!

I'm hopeful that I may even get it put together in time to join in with the Jaybird Quilts Sew Along being hosted by Sew Sweetness. Everything is cut and I have until June 13th, so it is possible, right?

Boxed-In

This is the fifth of my recent roll o' fabric quintet:

The pattern is "Boxed In" from Julie Herman's book, Skip the Borders. I checked this book out from my local library and have since purchased my own copy. So many of the designs speak to me. It is a fabulous book!

Of all of the quilts I've made from the roll o' fabric, this one is definitely my favorite.

I quilted the heck out of this one. I started by doing some stabilizing straight lines with my walking foot along all of the box borders. Then I quilted all of the squares-- each one has that sort of flower design. Finally, I quilted circles through all of the solid green parts. Throughout, I used Aurifil Cotton Mako 50/2 in Dove (#2600).

The quilting makes me happy!

Even the backing makes me happy. This hummingbird print has been sitting in my stash for quite some time. I was delighted to find that the colors in the print actually coordinated with the colors in the top. Yay for stashbusting!

The Project Linus label is stitched on already, so the quilt is good to go (pardon my sideways pic).

Happy!

"Floating Triangles"

Oh, my gosh! It has been a busy couple of weeks! Spring Break involved many adventures-- but blogging was not one of them. But, I'm back and ready to continue with the Project Linus roll o' fabric parade of quilts. This is the third of the five I recently finished:

The design is from the fabulous book, Skip the Borders, by Julie Herman (of Jaybird Quilts fame). It is called "Floating Triangles."

It really is such a neat design! It speaks to me. And I appreciated that I didn't have to stress out about cutting off any triangle points.

I kept the quilting pretty simple, beginning with straight lines around the focal spot where the triangles come together in the lower left corner, and then more straight lines up the main paths from the outside of the diamond to the outer edges of the quilt. Then I stippled over the center of the diamond area and everywhere else. I used Aurifil Mako 50/2 in White (#2024) throughout.

Another uninspiring back here... just trying to use that stash!

There's that happy Project Linus label. And this is another machine-finished binding as well. I was feeling brave though and attempted a contrasting rainbow variegated thread (Superior Threads King Tut 40/3 cotton, #921). My machine binding skills are still not as consistent as I'd like, but I am definitely getting better with practice.

I really like this quilt! Hopefully it will make someone else just as happy.

And another!

Still feeling determined to use up the dreaded roll o' fabric, I jumped into another project last weekend. Today I have another completed top:

This is another design from Skip the Borders by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts. It is called "Boxed In." Putting it together took me a little longer than I expected (I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me that sewing 384 little squares together would not take time... but it didn't. Ha!), but it was worth it. I'm really pleased with the result. Just look at how crazy bright and happy it is!!! It still needs to be trimmed to square-off the edges, but I plan to do that after quilting it.

I've got to say, I am really diggin' Ms. Herman's book! There are so many appealing designs with very clear, easy-to-follow instructions. There is actually another design in there that I've already pulled fabrics from the stash to make-- but that one will have to wait a bit. I'm still feeling the drive to use up this roll. I have a plan in mind and a fresh pile of fabric to make it happen:

I picked up these lovely Kona solids from Pink Chalk Fabrics last week. So happy!!!

Weekend warrior!

I'm not sure what got into me, but last weekend was an epic quilty extravaganza! After finally getting around to completing my True Blue top (woo! but I don't have a picture of the top yet... hopefully soon!), I was feeling the need to start something new.

Knowing I wanted to start something fresh and small (i.e., something I can finish in a relatively quick manner), I wandered aimlessly through my stash of patterns and fabrics. Then I stumbled across a roll o' fabric. I acquired the roll in 2009 from a Project Linus work party. There were actually two rolls, and my friend Evelyn threw down the gauntlet and issued a challenge: whoever can get through the roll first wins! I have no idea how much fabric is actually on this roll-- only that it is one, very long, continuous cut, approximately 5.5" wide from selvedge to cut edge. Shortly thereafter, I finished up three quilts (one, two, three) using the fabric and it felt like I hadn't even put a dent in the roll. The roll has been sitting on my floor (buried and out of sight) since that time.

So I spot this roll just sitting there on my floor and inspiration strikes. I immediately started pulling fabrics from my stash and put together this first top:

The design is from the book Simple Quilts from Me and My Sister Designs: Easy as 1, 2, 3 by Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson of Me and My Sister Designs. This is the "Easy as 10" design. It only took a few hours to cut it out and put it all together.

Feeling motivated at this point, I decided to make another. I took a few more brights out of my stash (27 in all) and made another:

This design, "Floating Triangles," is from Skip the Borders: Easy Patterns for Modern Quilts by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts. It was definitely more involved than the first top, but overall, it too went together pretty quickly. In making the half-square triangles for this design, there was lots of trimming. So I decided to sew the trimmed corners together resulting in a pile of smaller (2.5") half-square triangles.

Now that I had this pile of 2.5" half-square triangles, clearly I needed to do something with them. So this time I created my own design to use them up:

And by the end of the weekend, I had finished up this top as well.

And check out the giant roll o' fabric now:

Woo! It finally looks like I'm making a dent!

Three tops! And I'm still feelin' the itch to make that roll disappear. I wonder how many more projects it's going to take?