This has been a nice week. Hope the same goes for you. I joined the 2015 New Quilt Bloggers group that is being hosted by Quilting Jetgirl, Childlike Fascination, Late Night Quilter, and Meadow Mist Designs. So far, we are all getting to know each other. There are about 70 bloggers in the group which is a load of blogs to familiarize myself with. I really like the writing style of many of these bloggers and can tell already that this is going to be a fun project. The goal is to work together to improve our blogs. There is always something to be learned from a group such as this. I so appreciate the work of the four bloggers that put this together.
Even with the huge amount of time I spent reading these new blogs, I have a minty green finish this week. I came across a pattern on Pinterest from Canoeridge Creations. I love Megan’s patterns. This is the second one I have used. Her “Fireworks” mini quilt pattern was used for my Allison Glass mini swap. This free pdf pattern is called “Firefly” and it is a fun, quick project. It took no time at all to cut the fabric and piece the top (maybe a little over an hour?)
I had some solid minty green fabric and a large piece of white Kona that looked great together. The pattern is basically a series of stripes. Each color has a set of stripes that decrease one-half inch with each strip. They begin at 5.5 inches and decrease to 2.5 inches. The size of the stripes alternate such that one color begins with the widest and the other color begins with the most narrow. I like the effect.
I felt this quilt did not warrant an all over FMQ pattern. Initially I quilted straight lines on the white stripes. I wanted to keep it soft, thus didn’t want to densely quilt it. Without measuring or marking, I used the walking foot and/or the edges of the strips as my guide. My pin basting wasn’t tight enough and I ended up with huge fold in the backing fabric. Ugh. Ripping out that part of the quilting was really the longest part of making the quilt.
My thought was to quilt the white and leave the green blank. Feeling unsure about that decision, I put it out there to my Facebook quilting community and asked what to do with the green. I really didn’t want the quilt to be dense, I wanted a puffy soft feel to it. Someone suggested doing a very wide, edge to edge zig zag on the green. That was genious. Perfect.
I tried to FMQ the first stripe. I marked it and used the free motion foot. Yuk. I hate quilting straight lines without the (stabilizing) help of the feed dogs. For the rest of the rows I marked them with a Frixion pen and a 90 degree trianglular template that I already had. Using the walking foot, I quickly quilted the zig zags.
The back is a very simple Timeless Treasures print that has the perfect shade of green in it. I bound the quilt with the solid green to retain the simplicity of the quilt top. I listed this quilt in my Etsy shop.
In keeping with my goals for June, I did get the batik quilt (my ALYOF goal) pin basted and plan to start quilting it this weekend. I am using an all-over pattern of a leafy vine from Christina Cameli’s book. Crossing fingers for this one!
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Linking to Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts as well as Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.
Oh, I really like the simplicity of this design, both in the fabric and the pattern. Great finish despite the challenges you mentioned.
Thanks! It was a fun, easy finish. Just what I needed. Now on to the next project!
B.
You will learn SO much in the New Blogger’s blog hop! I did it last year and learned a ton. I think the even better part of the hop was meeting so many different bloggers. I have developed some really great friendships from the hop!
Your quilt is VERY cool! The different sized stripes really do give it a cool effect. Great choice for the quilting! Beautifully done!
Hi Judy,
Good to hear you had such a nice experience. I am really enjoying the process so far. There are so many really nice people out there, right?
Thanks for the kind words about my little quilt. It was a very fun, simple project. Nice to have a quick finish sometimes!
Take care,
Bernie
Beautiful job Bernie!
Thank you!! You are so kind.
B.
I love that shade of green! Your quilting is just right and adds the perfect touch.
Thank you!! That is so nice to hear.
Hope your week is going well Linda.
Take care,
B.
Simple elegance. Love it.
I think the quilting you chose in the green adds a nice bit of movement to the quilt. The backing is so fun! I hope you have a good time in the blog hop; I made so many wonderful friends last year that I am thrilled to be co-hosting and hopefully sharing some of the great things I received.
Thank you Yvonne. Deciding how to quilt a project is the absolute hardest part for me. I am happy how this worked out though!
Take care,
Bernie
Nice to see you are taking part in the new blogger hop, Bernie. Sure to be a lot of fun! I was in it two years ago and made so many new friends. Your latest finish is a super sweet and simple quilt with big impact. Love the solids and the pattern!
Thanks Lorna. It is a great way to meet others and get my blog out there a bit. So far everyone has been very kind and supportive and we are learning a lot from each other. That’s what it’s all about, right?
Take care,
B.
Very nice simple quilting. Sometimes simple is the best way. I just did straight line quilting on a twin quilt using just lines. a group of three, a gap, a single line, a gap, a group of two, a gap and back to the beginning. I varied the gap width and it is impressively effective. Had I seen this post and the zig zag too I might have gone that route instead or as well!!
PS love your blogiversary prize. So unique in the quilt blog world and a lovely gesture.
Ali, I love the idea of the grouping of straight lines. I can just see how that would look — I will give that a try on a project. Thanks! Using just simple straight lines, there are about a billion ways to be creative. 🙂