Friday, March 31, 2017

OMG March: Quilted Froggy!

I finished my One Monthly Goal for March--to machine quilt by scrappy Mr. Froggy! 


I did large pebbles in the blue to create a water look (using blue thread). 

And just stitched lines in the frog (in green, of course!). 

For the outer border, I resorted to my favorite quilting motif, which I learned from Angela Walters' Free Motion Quilting book. It's fun to do and I love how it looks! 

It feels so good to get these goals crossed off my list; especially the machine quilting goals, because like all of us, I have way too many quilt tops waiting to be quilted! 

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts and pondering my April goal...


Monday, March 13, 2017

Block Happy! Winter Edition

It's been a long time since I've shared do.Good Stitches blocks that I've made! I'd like to make a couple of these quilts myself...

July 2016

August 2016

September 2016

October 2016

November 2016 


December 2016


January 2017

February 2017

March 2017





Friday, March 10, 2017

The quilt that wouldn't take "no" for an answer

Have you ever seen a quilt design that grabbed you and you just had to make it? As in, right then? 

On Wednesday, while browsing online, I stumbled across this Exploding Star quilt by Sarah from Confessions of a Fabric Addict. (BTW, if you're not familiar with Sarah, check out her blog! Each spring she puts on the Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge, encouraging quilters to make and donate a quilt. It's a great event!)
Sarah's Exploding Stars quilt. Find the tutorial here.

I couldn't get this quilt design out of my head. I needed to make it. I browsed through my Painter's Palette Solids stash and picked out colors. So much fun to pick out all these happy, saturated brights. My only constraints were I needed to find four colors with enough fabric to cut the large stars. I had 2-1/2 yards of a light gray hanging around, so I was set for background. 

I had Thursday night all to myself, so I got started, letting this quilt leapfrog all the other things I should have been doing (dishes, work, sleeping...). 

I made one star block completely, and then worked on the remaining three assembly-line style, which went faster. I don't love trimming HSTs, but I do love how that pile of bright scraps looks!

I started sewing at 9:15 and finished the last star block at 12:30. I would have loved to do more, but it was time for bed. I can't wait to finish it! 


Thanks, Sarah, for such a wonderful design! 

Monday, March 6, 2017

OMG March: Mr. Froggy

I've got my March goal for One Monthly Goal over at Elm Street Quilts! And totally by coincidence, it's green! 

Three years ago, on a family trip to Disney World, I took a photo of a tile floor in a bathroom, thinking it would make a great quilt. 


Three years later, the idea became a quilt top, in large part thanks to my mom. She's a quilter as well, and always happy to pitch in with some sewing help. I sent her the directions for making the quilt, as well as a bag of green, blue and white scraps. 

Here's what she returned to me: 
(Thanks Mom!)

My March goal is to machine quilt Mr. Froggy. After spending a long weekend staring at Jacquie Gering's walking foot machine quilting, I'm eager to try out some of her designs!

Sunday, March 5, 2017

QuiltCon Recap - Part 2

My second demo at QuiltCon was Making Wonky Mini Four-Patches. 
I used these cute precut 2-1/2" squares--Paintbrush Studio calls them Paint Chips--to make two different styles of wonky four-patches. 

Here's a pic from the first demo (I had another super helpful "Vanna" holding my quilts). 

A look at the quilt--Four-Patch Parade. I made teeny wonky four-patches (1-1/4" finished) and inserted them into gray and white strips. 

Love the quilting--done by Diane Oakes--she even included little machine quilted four-patches for fun!

Larger wonky four-patches, made by combining four 2-1/2" squares and then cutting them wonkily. A simple but fun mini quilt. 

Friday, March 3, 2017

QuiltCon Recap - part 1

The Hashtag quilt wasn't the only design I had at the show. I was asked to do two demos, so I created samples using the Painter's Palette Solids.

My first demo was Mod Illusions: The 3Ds of Quilts Made with Solids. The quilts you see below demonstrate the principles I talked about. 

Here's me, mid-demo. The Modern Quilt Guild provided me with a "Vanna" to hold up quilts while I talked. (thanks, Chelsea!)


Here's what the demo crowd looked like:

 And just to keep things real, here's a selfie from earlier that morning. I am a water girl, not a coffee drinker. But after a late arrival in Savannah the night before, I decided to sugar up with a chai tea latte. I noticed the lovely stain on my shirt after I got to the convention center. Yikes! Thankfully our hotel was right next door, so I could pop back and change before the demo! 

Here's the "In & Out Log Cabin" quilt, which shows how you can create the illusion of peaks and valleys with value changes. My friend Diane Oakes quilted it. 

A close-up of the quilting, which I love! 

My "Woven Hashtag" variation--a larger version of the block from the Hashtag quilt, but each strip uses four different values to create a gradated illusion. (Diane quilted this one as well.)

"Mod Tumber" - This might be my favorite. Short tangent here. When I first started quilting (17 years ago!), I fell in love with the tumbling block concept. Some wise soul suggested that not be my first quilt. The tumbling block ended up so far on the back burner that I didn't make it until this one. I love the 3-D effect here! And sidenote--if you're considering a tumbling block quilt, definitely use triangles for the black parts in my quilt rather than sewing Y seams! Much easier!

I sewed this quilt the day before I left for QuiltCon, so I quilted it myself. 


Thursday, March 2, 2017

Everyone's a Star Quilt Along - Week 5

I'm over @Sewinlovewithfabric today showing how to assemble the Everyone's a Star Quilt Along using Contempo's Zentastic fabrics. 

I assembled this by adding sewing the sashing strips and squares to each block, rather than assembling sashing rows separately from block rows. 
(Check out the blog post to see a visual.)

p.s. Notice those lovely brown leaves in the background? That was yesterday. Today there's snow on the ground. Happy spring?