Vicki's Crafts and Quilting

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Pixie Squares

Finally my Pixie Squares quilt is finished! OK I didn't start it that long ago, but still I am glad I have a finish. It all started when I won a jelly roll of RJR's Pie Making Day.

I love this line and it patiently waited while I looked at pattern after pattern trying to find just the right one to make. In May I was browsing online and found Pixie Squares by Whistlepig Creek Designs. It's modern and will fit the pattern wonderfully. It is an instant download so I got right to work! Did you notice RJR's jelly roll are actually called Pixie Strips and I used it to make Pixie Squares!

Before long I had this much done, and then I stalled on it to do other projects. However I needed my design wall, so finishing the piecing of the top became my June OMG goal.

And by the end of June the top was finished. And I had met my OMG goal.

But the neat part was I won this bundle of Puzzle Pieces Fat Eighths from the OMG and Green Fairy!! Now what will I make with this-at this time I have no idea, but not to worry I will get around to it:)

Then July OMG rolls around and I decided I needed to get the quilting done this month so it doesn't get to be a UFO. But wouldn't cha know I forgot to get a post up for the OMG. But it still got done!

A freehand allover feather done on my Funquilter was the perfect element to get it done and give it texture and movement. My quilt measures 53" x 53".

I love the polka dot lime green that I picked up at SR Harris on my way home from the MN quilt show in June. This was also used as the binding.

Don't forget tomorrow starts Christmas in July there is quite a line up of blogs. Wednesday is my day...

Linking with MCM, Monday Making

Friday, July 20, 2018

Leaf table runner and QAL

One day I was playing around in EQ8 and came up with this table runner. It sat on my computer and on my brain for a few weeks before I got around to stitching it.

I quilted it and then raw edge appliqued the leaves on. Since they are batiks I am not worrying about if they ravel so I straight stitched them on.

I like it so much I made another! What do you think should I write up a pattern for it?

I am working along with Sarah's 12 days of Christmas QAL, I am doing mine smaller. This will also be my July challenge for Island Batik fabrics. I hope you will come back next week to see my finish. Here are my first blocks all pieced.

Look who I found sneaking up to eat my spirea!!

Linking with Foto Fun, Friday Finished or Not, and TGIFF

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Cornicopia

Yes I am still on a fall making journey! And not done yet:) This is the second panel I worked on last week and finished the binding Monday. This is how the panel looked when I bought it. So pretty isn't it. But you know what comes next for me...out comes the rotary cutter and I begin chopping it apart;)

Once the squares are all cut to size, they get set aside while I add a solid black border. And then

I made strip sets of gold, orange and a black with tiny metallic gold specks. This of course has to equal the size of the small panel squares. This is a much simpler border treatment than last weeks panel received. But I think this is still pretty effective.

For the quilting, straight lines in the gold and orange while the metallic speckled black received some special attention with U turns to set it off even more. And sticking to my usual interior quilting of a hook swirl finishes this one up nicely I think.

Keeping this post simple and to the point-another one done. Onto quilting some table runners today.

Happy Wednesday everyone!!

Linking with Midweek Makers and WIP

Monday, July 16, 2018

Crushing on Fall

Here is the first of the fall panels that I have been working on. This one is completely done and I am pretty happy with how it turned out. If you have followed me for a while you know I love to take a panel and add somewhat of a fancy border to them. Here is what this one looked like after I cut off the scroll line design that was at the top and bottom of the panel. This one didn't need much straightening up either. Sometimes panels can be really wonky. The ones that are easy to straighten are ones with some background so you have area to work with to cut it straight and not loose the design.

Here I have added a 1.5" inner border and a skinnier orange border before I started adding my orange and cream flying geese border. The black inner border added just the right number of inches to make the geese border come out just right.

The geese have flown into the right formation!

Next came a strip set of cream, orange and another cream for the outer borders. The corner stones in checked orange and black pull it all together. The black binding completes this wall hanging at about 38 x 32.

And of course it had to have some fun custom quilting! I like to keep the interior panel piece simple with hook swirl freehand quilting.

The borders got the fun stuff quilted on them. My favorite ones to do are the U turns in the orange geese and a loop in the cream geese. Another favorite is the ribbon candy that encompassed the orange and cream strip borders that is centered in between some straight line quilting.

I will definitely use this border treatment again on another panel. In fact it might be used on the identical panel that I found in my stash. I either forgot I had bought one before heading to Paducah or I just really like it that much I bought another, LOL Well the other one has a black background so it will look a bit different;)

I did get some sewing done this weekend-on other upcoming projects. I hope you managed to get some in also. It was so humid here it was no fun to go out and do anything. Oh wait I have one more thing to show you that I made this weekend.

I have been wanting to get back at beading bracelets. There are so many cute ones on pinterest and this was a pattern from Reggies Creations on Etsy. So I decided to purchase the pattern after discovering I had some beads that would work perfectly! It was fun and easy to do. A nice break from sewing too:)

Linking with MCM, Design wall Monday and Monday Making

Friday, July 13, 2018

Progress

I feel I made a little progress this week. At the beginning of the week these 5 snowmen runners were waiting their turn to be quilted.

And by Wednesday morning these 4 were totally done. On my longarm, I put on a red snowflake fabric long enough to quilt all 4 of them. Why not all 5 you might ask...well if you look closely at the photo above you will see that the far right one didn't get it's last grey border yet! I forgot to do them and moved onto piecing something else😕 How's that---blossoming flowers with snowmen!!

Who can resist such a cute face! I will be listing them in my Etsy shop soon.

Strawberries have been a good buy lately so we have been enjoying quite a few. I happen to have some on hand and our raspberries are in their third year and are yielding something worthy of freezing a few.

But I decided to put some fresh ones with the strawberries for a very delicious fruit pizza. YUM!

Mama turkey brought her chicklets out for a walk through the backyard. At first I only saw one baby and then they just kept popping up out of the grass and ferns. I couldn't get all 12 of them in the same picture!

Yesterday and today I worked on some fall panels, turning them into wall hangings. Stay tuned for the finishes next week.

Linking with Sarah, TGIFF and Foto Fun

Monday, July 9, 2018

My newest love...

On Saturday, late in the afternoon, my 2nd box for this year from Island Batik arrived. It's my newest love-you'll see why in the photos!

As an Island Batik Ambassador we are given 2 boxes of the most delicious fabric that we use in our monthly challenges. It was like they were reading my mind as lately I was hoping I would get some gorgeous purples and teal and boom here it is in 2.5" strips with coordinating yardage!! And don't you just love the new checkerboard batik that will be out this fall. It's cute name is Check it Out.

A 17 pound box, that's a whole lot of fabric.

There was a fabulous 10" stacker set of brown, black and gold, 5 yards of Custard neutral and some black, grey and white solids-I didn't even know they had solids!

And Hobbs also sent along batting for us, which is just super wonderful. There is a wool one, a wool/cotton blend and also a cotton one. Thank you Hobbs!

And we are not done yet, more fabric to be seen!! Another 10" stacker, these are Paisley Dot, I have used these before in the 2.5" strips and also in Fat Eighths. So fun and bright. Also a set of half yard cuts of blenders. Are we spoiled or what---I love being spoiled, LOL OMG even Auriful sent along more thread, there are small spools of several different weights for us to play with. Thanks Aurifil!

Nope I am still not done showing you what they sent... Oh wait it's a surprise, I can't show you yet. BUT you can come back and see what I make with it in January. It is fabric being released at Fall Market so in January our projects will be made with the surprise fabrics for a big blog hop. It is exciting!!!

Thank you Island Batik for all the wonderful fabrics and for treating us like Queens!! I love being an Ambassador and hope to continue doing it:)

Linking with my favorite Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday linky parties that you can find on my left side bar.

Friday, July 6, 2018

Working ahead for fall

In early June I was piecing these cute runners, I had started the pumpkin blocks while I was in Paducah. There were enough made to piece 5 runners.

They are pretty addictive and the pumpkins will use up some orange scraps. The pattern is by The Cottage Rose. Not affiliated, but she sure has cute patterns. In fact I picked up some new ones at the MN quilt show a few weeks ago.

Quilting them was pretty fun too! I mostly quilted them the same, the only variation was in the black sashings between each pumpkin. The U turns are at different widths there. I love the green leaves and tendrils that I quilted beside each pumpkin stem.

Have you heard about this blog hop coming soon! My day to post is July 25th so I hope you will come back and check out my project:)

Monday, June 25, 2018

Island Batik Modern challenge

Another month has rolled around, and as an Island Batik Ambassador the challenge was a Modern crib quilt. Ooooh Modern, I love, I can do this. I had so many ideas rolling around in my head it was hard to settle on just one! But I finally did it. The design is settled on, the fabric is picked out. Get ready, set, go!

First things first, make strip sets with pretty colors! Then trim then into rectangles setting the strips on the diagonal.

Next add white sashings. Then a deep purple one so they stand out beautifully on the lavender background. And from there I forgot to take pic's of the other steps. This was truly build the quilt as I went. Meaning I did not have the sizes figured out ahead of time. So somewhat improvisational.

And before long it was pieced and the quilting done.

All the piecing was done using the Aurifil thread that was provided by them. The beautiful batiks were provided by Island Batik. And Hobbs provided the batting.