A lovely year of finishes 2015-Feb goal met

I am so excited to have my Feb goal met for ALYOF 2015!  I'm 2 for 2 :-)

This is a table runner or wall hanging that will hang at MQS(Machine Quilter's Showcase) in May in Cedar Rapids, IA.  Our local long arm group provided us with the fabric, and one of our members(my friend) came up with the piecing design. She wrote up instructions for us and even had the pieces all cut for us. We then pieced it so they would all look alike, except we could substitute (I didn't) one of the aqua pieces with one from our stash and we could decide where the GFG block should be placed within that strip. Then we all go quilt them up however we envision it.  I had so much fun quilting it!

Lots of people have been using a double batt so they get more texture to their quilting and I have always wanted to try it. So.... I decided to experiment on this

little piece of gray leftover before I quilted the real piece.  I love the effect of Hobbs 80/20 with a layer of Hobbs wool on top, leaves great definition to the quilting! This little guy measures at 6 x 13.














And now onto the real one... I am pretty confident that members of our guild don't follow my blog so I am OK with showing it now. Ghosting in the hexie's gives it a whole new look. I am very happy with how it turned out.  Inspiration for quilting the hexie's came from Angela Walters book Shape by Shape book.

 It measures in at 19x42 using the above mentioned battings. Glide thread in a very light grey was used. This was quilted on my Nolting FunQuilter using Deloa Jones' Castle ruler for straight line quilting with stitch regulator on. Quilter's rule nested circle is how I got the curved shape in the hexie. The ribbon candy and U turn quilting is all freehand.

So if you are going to MQS be sure to check out all the other quilts for comparison, it will be so fun to see how others quilt up theirs!


Linking with ALYOF,

Free-Motion quilting book review and WIP

I hope this post is as fun for you to read as it was for me doing the Free-Motion quilting! And let me tell you it was a ton of fun!!
Christina Cameli from A Few Scraps and CT Publishing was gracious enough to send me a book and let me do a review of her newest book called Step by Step Free-Motion Quilting. I absolutely loved her design on the cover and that is what got me looking into this book further.

 Christina shows you 9 simple shapes and how to turn them into over 80 wonderful designs. This book is well worth the money!  As you can see I stitched this design on a traditional table runner, but these designs would be wonderful on modern quilts as well. I will have another blog post next week with designs on modern quilts.
I really like how Christina draws out the basic steps for you, then explains it in words and finally shows how the allover would look. This is a clean, simple, easy to follow book for anyone whether you are a beginner, intermediate or have been free-motion quilting for years like me!  Some simple designs but also some more challenging. So if you are looking for some new fun designs go check out her book.  She also has another book out called First Steps to Free-Motion Quilting. You can find information on her blog-see link above.  These designs would work equally well on a  long arm or on your sewing machine.
So here are some more wonderful designs I stitched out that I want to share with you just to wet your appetite for more!  One thing to remember is when doing all overs like these is to echo your way out if you get stuck in a corner or find a little bare space that needs a little more stitching.

I also want to mention that Christina has several video tutorials on free-motion designs on her blog. Linking up with several of the linky parties this week.

I dug this WIP out of the box yesterday and worked on it. This was started about 4 years ago at a retreat and I only had about 9 of the blocks done and put it away. So yesterday I put them on the design wall and little by little got several more blocks together. They really are simple and quick to do, I just needed the desire to get this out and try to finish it up!  I still want another column and row of blocks, then some borders. Hopefully it will be a flimsy soon.

Glad to have more finishes

So glad to have 4 more finishes to show you today, and really glad to have them out of my closet!  I have been showing you so many little baby quilts lately so I am going to switch things up a bit-these quilts are a tad larger :-)  These will go to project Linus since they are small lap sizes.

This is a Villa Rosa design, I love those sweet little laminated cards. If you need a quick easy quilt you really need to check these out. For a while our local quilt shop was having a monthly VIP and we got a free pattern from Villa Rosa just for attending! But all good things must come to an end and she now has a different program.

I freehanded a curly half flower design on it. I had extra green 2.5" strips so I have a scrappy green binding.



















This was a preprinted Mother Goose panel and I added the diamond red and yellow border along with the blue ones.  This panel was really wonky so I had a hard time when squaring it up, so it's their printing not my cutting/sewing-just so ya know, LOL

A disappearing nine patch with butterflies, I used the Angel Wings pantograph to quilt it because it looks like butterfly wings to me :-)

And another preprinted panel. I bought this one several years ago, when I was pretty new at longarming, so I could practice Pam Clarke techniques and never did it till now. Since then, I have learned I like free handing all overs or doing custom block work with rulers best. So that is what I did-all ruler work on this one. I used one of Renae Haddidin's amazing arc's for the block,  a smaller curved ruler for the flying geese border and a small squiggle ruler for the blue sashing.  I did piece and add the top and bottom (red and yellow) half square triangle borders along with the blue ones so it would have a little more length.

























There are lots of inspiration in the linky parties each and every week, and we all love it when you come look and maybe even leave us sweet comments ;-)  So go get inspired by checking out the links on the left side bar!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Here is my seasonal corner for Valentine's Day. It was a pre-printed panel that I took apart and rearranged the little blocks in the borders and added the Pink and brown borders to complete it. I have blogged about this before but I just wanted to show it for Valenties day and how perfect it looks with the flowers my sweet hubby brought me last night!  I needed a bright spot in the day as this nasty head cold has me down. But not out!  I will continue to do a little quilting here and there.

As long as it is hearts season...I have no shame in showing you my first two quilts I ever made!!! This was way back when we used cardboard templates, drew around them and cut the fabric with scissors~yes that might date me a bit, hehe. But I am sure I must have only been 2 at the time, LOL. All the hearts are appliqued on and yikes this was poly cotton fabric, and notice it is only tied. And it doesn't show wear, but then it doesn't get used much either.

Now this one shows lots of wear, another poly cotton, but this one got used bunches in it's early life.
It has been stored for a long time but I just had to get it out and take it's pic so it wouldn't feel left
out ;-)  Back in the day when we only had poly cotton, cardboard, and scissors, I cut all those dresden plates out and appliqued them onto a sheet. And that my friends is hand quilting to represent the block divisions!!  Oh the back is also a sheet. I wouldn't be surprised to find a blanket used for the batting either as my mom did that a lot.   Wow we've come a long way baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wishing everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!

Linking with a 'new to me' linky party Show off Saturday

It's Friday and I have a finish!!

     Well I might have finished it yesterday, hehe. This is the quilt I was working on for WIP Wedensday. It was so fun to quilt it up. I just couldn't help doing some custom on it. I am not that happy with the orange borders but it still passes for a donation quilty hug for a little baby.

    In case there are some new people checking this out, I am a long armer with a Nolting 17" machine on a Nolting frame. A great combination for me!  I have an extended base on which allows me to do ruler work easily. I used Deloa Jones's Castle ruler for all my straight line stitching, freehanded the circles and double hook swirl. Curvy rulers were used for the stitching in the orange sashings and border. Glide thread in white and lime green, and Signature orange thread were used on this 36" sq. quilt.



   

 The pink and green were leftover parts from this X Block quilt.  You can see the in progress of how I utilized the leftovers here.

 I love the striped binding, I had won it late last year and I can't find the paper who says it is from. If it was from you please tell me!!  It was 4 fat quarters of stripes, pink, orange, blue and green ones. I love them for bindings and there was just the right amount for these size quilts.

Linking up with Creative Goodness and Fabric Frenzy.

WIP-Wednesday

Just a quick post today as I want to finish up this quilt and move onto the next one. This is another donation baby quilt, but it was begging for custom don't cha think!!!  Anyway I am having fun with it.

Linking to Let's Bee Social and WIP Wednesday, see all the links and go get yourself inspired!!

Three more little ones

 I hope that no one is sick of all the little neonatal 36" quilts I have been showing! But I just feel so good about getting so many ready that I wanted to share three more :-)  The first 2 are a Wood Valley 3 yard design that I made smaller to get the size I needed. The original pattern is here.  As you can see I quilted echoed question marks on one and the other I let the fabric 'speak' to me and I quilted stars on it.

And one more heart quilt using this pattern.  I had lots of fun with the quilting on this one.  Some freehand of That Loopy Thang and an oval template to make the borders.

 Joining Linky Tuesday,  Fabric Tuesday and Let's Bee Social on Wednesday.  Go grab a cup of coffee and then grab some eye candy at the linky parties!

Stiching on Sunday

I attended a quilt show an hour away from my home yesterday and came home inspired to work on something today. So rather than start another new project, (which is what I wanted to do!) I decided to quilt up this scrappy runner I had pieced a couple weeks ago at retreat. The quilting design is a variation of a peacock that I have done before. I will call it wandering peacock, it was a design I saw on a quilt at the show yesterday. It went so fast I still had time to get it bound, so a finish for me today!!

The pattern for it can be found here. Mine finished at 48 x 14, quite a long one. I pieced one more and I think I left that shorter by leaving on one section of the dark fabrics.  The dark fabrics are Kansas Troubles-some are from a charm pack I bought and some are from Lyne at KT which I won back in Dec. I added the lt. beige background fabric from my own stash.

Linking with Oh Scrap! and Scraptastic Tuesday-links on the left!

February goal for ALYOF-2015

I need to get this quilted and turned in mid March so this will be my February goal for ALYOF 2015. It is a table runner or a wall hanging whichever you would like it to be. When done there will be several others very similar hanging at Machine Quilters Showcase (MQS) in Cedar Rapids, IA in May.  Our local longarm group is doing a comparison challenge where the runner is all pieced much the same.  Then we all go quilt it secretly to see how different it can then look.  The colors of the hanging didn't come out very good, it is light gray and then different aqua prints make up the hexagon. You can see the shadows of the quilt underneath, I was too lazy to take the big quilt off the wall so I used this as my design wall to hang it up for a quick pic!  Next I will do up some drawings with my bamboo tablet for the quilting ideas and then get to it!!
You can find the link to ALYOF on my left sidebar so you can check out others goals.

7 Neonatal quilts turned in

Monday night was my quilt guild meeting and I turned in 7 Neonatal quilts! Last year I had a personal goal of doing 12, at the end of the year I only had 10 totally done and turned in. So 2 of these 7 are to finish last years goal. But I am ahead already this year, what a great feeling!! Now onto the pictures ;-)

The pink heart has loops, the blue one is a Dwirling design from The Pajama Quilter.

Love working with the brights. I was trying so hard to just do an allover on these to keep them soft and to get them done! However, as you can see I just couldn't resist doing a little custom on the one on the left :0)  It is still nice and soft.

A little close up

 

The top 2 quilts in this last picture is a free pattern from http://woodvalleydesigns.com/3YardPatterns.htm  I just used less blocks to make a 36" quilt.

The bottom quilt is a pattern from Me and My Sister designs from the book 3 Times the Charm. The perfect size for a Neonatal quilt. It is such a warm feeling to give to this worthy cause. Just think you are wrapping a baby in quilty love!  I encourage you all to do a donation quilt of some kind

Hope you are having a great quilty day and don't forget to check out the inspiration at the linky parties on the left side bar. I am linking to Let's Bee Social, Needle and Thread Thursday and Fabric Frenzy.

Scrappy Disappearing 4 Patch

    A week ago this afternoon I was just returning from a quilt retreat where I had so much fun with friends chatting and yes sewing!!  I did actually get a lot done. This quilt, however, I only managed to piece a few blocks of. Why you ask, well I couldn't find a way to press that made me happy so I thought I would wait until I got home to search the internet more.  This is a disappearing 4 patch(D4P) and yes I could get the pressing so the units within each block nestled but I couldn't get each block itself to nestle to the next one. So if anyone knows the correct pressing please tell me!!

     

There didn't seem to be any answer on the internet that I saw anyway. So some of the seams got twisted in the back, but who see's the back! I decided to let it go and just do it, done is good, LOL. Lots of steam and the quilting will make it behave :-)  It is made of all scraps, some mine and some given to me by friends(thank you to them, I loved putting their scraps to good use), this quilt will be a donation one after I get the quilting done. The measurements come in at 48.5 x 64.5.  I started with 5" squares. There are tons of tutorials on the net if you are interested in making one. 

That was my main project last week, although I did work on a couple other things I will show you later this week.  What did you work on last week?

Linking up with Oh Scrap and Freemotion by the River. You can get the link on my left sidebar to check out the eye candy this week.

January goal met

Woohoo I met my January 2015 goal for Lovely Year of Finishes!  I started piecing my Grandson's I Spy quilt on New Year's day fulling expecting to take a week of piecing. So I was very surprised when it only took 2 days!!  Plus 90 minutes to load it on my frame and quilt it. You can read it's short story here if you like :-)  The grandson's were over a week ago and we played with it a little. The oldest seemed to enjoy looking for the things I asked him to.  We'll have more opportunity to play next week.

I quilted it with Dwirling which is a design from The Pajama Quilter DVD, a very fun easy design to freehand.

Now I better get busy and decide what my February goal will be.

Linking up with:

 http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com/2015/01/party-time.html

 http://fortworthfabricstudio.blogspot.com/2015/01/fabric-frenzy-friday-48.html

http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2015/01/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-interlocking-stars.html

Scraps and Retreat

I just got home from a 4 day quilt retreat last night. So totally exhausted but I got lots done and I wanted to show you 3 of those today. I took many easy things along to work on and I managed to finish piecing 5(almost 6). I felt pretty accomplished to do 5 even though some are small(baby or table runner). And I managed to have lots of chat time with good friends :-)
This first one is a scrappy strings one from Scrap-palooza. I was going to make it with red blocks, green blocks and blue blocks, but when I got 6 green ones sewn I decided I liked the look of all green for this quilt. It will be a donation quilt when I get it quilted.  Please forgive the creases, I just pulled it out of the suitcase!

I also took along a bunch of light blue charms I cut from my stash to make these 2 baby boy heart quilts for our local neonatal. Last week I showed the finished pink version. 

Linking up with  Freemotion by the River, Oh Scrap, and Let's Bee Social.

Scrappy Heart quilt

Linking up my scrappy charm heart quilt with Oh Scrap. Cynthia had posted her smaller hearts a while back and a link to the bigger heart using charm squares. So I thought one big heart and a border would be a perfect size of 36" for a donation quilt for our local neonatal unit. So I dug out several scraps of pinks and and my 5" sq ruler and wow in no time at all I had this yummy stack of pinks cut. I layered several to make it quick cutting.  And once I had the pinks done I might as well do the blues too for future quilts. Since there are so many charm quilts one can make I just cut up a lot of the pastels so they will be ready for future projects.

I decided to make the heart look like it is floating in the center so I added a small white border before the outside pink one. This is so simple-try one!!  Here is Cynthia's heart block and The big heart from the FatQuarter Shop.

I am editing this to say check out the link parties I am joining this week along with Oh Scrap there is Freemotion by the River and Let's Bee Social.