Monthly Archives: March 2018

Scrappy HST Finish

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This finish was long in the making.  I started making large (9″ square) scrappy HSTs in the beginning of 2016 as my RSC16 project.  They were a lot of fun to make and I easily finished the quilt top by the end of the year. Then I promptly pressed it, hung it neatly in the closet, and closed the door. It languished for all of 2017, poor ignored quilt top.  I think I left it there because I felt it was too small and I wasn’t sure what to do with it.

At the beginning of this year, I decided to make a stack of 5″ squared scrappy blocks.  Without any plan, I figured I would somehow use them for a border.  After making the blocks, I figured out the size rectangles I needed to space between the squares to create the border.  For the most part, this worked ok.  But you know me and quilt math…..  When I laid out the border and it looked like I would be coming up short, I just expanded one or two of the scrappy blocks to compensate.  I hope this doesn’t offend anyone.  It doesn’t bother me. 🙂

In fact, I love it.  I am wild about this quilt.  It is my kind of project. Imperfection works in this sort of quilt.  I am pleased with the colors, the polka dot background which provides a nice spot for the eye to rest, the border of gray dots between the HST’s and the scrappy border – all of it!  This one took a long while to come together, but it was worth the wait!scrappy HST I took it to the long arm shop and quilted it with a meandering loopy motif.  Some little spirals, some large loops and some small ones. It left the quilt with a nice, cozy drape. This was a lot of fun to quilt and took no time at all.

For the backing, I chose Newsprint in a wide back. This was designed by Carrie Bloomston and is probably my favorite backing. When I ordered my first bolt of it, I was pleasantly surprised to sell the bolt within weeks.  I just received a second bolt so I have it in stock again.  Because it is such a fun print, I also take the wide back and cut fat quarters and 1/2 yard pieces. Each of these (wide back, fat quarter, and 1/2 yard cuts) are available in my shop.

scrappy hat quilt

The binding is a print by Lotta Jansdotter called Aliisa from her Lemmikki line. I really like this fabric but looking back, I don’t know if it is the best match for the quilt.  The color is “slate” but when it is next to Newsprint and the gray dotted background, it has a very blue tone.  Because the quilt is so scrappy, I decided to go with it anyway. I like the angular pattern of the print. So, I think it is ‘good enough’.  I did go back to the listing though and update my description to explain about the blue hues this fabric has. If you are intrigued by this one, click here to see the shop listing.

I can happily check this one off the list and report I am down to three unfinished quilts in the closet.  Well, that is not including either of the RSC18 projects I am working on. Not too terrible!

Tomorrow I am off to see my kids in Vermont.  Probably no blog posts until I get back – unless I change my mind.  😉 I am so excited to see my grand daughter.  She started walking last week and it will be so fun to watch her toddling around.  Like I mentioned in my last post, any Etsy orders placed by 3:00 Friday (today) will ship.  If placed after that, they will ship on Monday, April 2nd.  The last time I was gone like this, I promised to refund half of the shipping charge for orders placed in my absence – sort of a thank you for being patient and waiting until the 2nd for shipment.  Same goes with this trip!  Place the order and just know I will pay half of your shipping cost.  Thanks so much for understanding!. It is a bit difficult to be a grammy to a little girl in Vermont when you live in California!

 

Linking to Finish It Up Friday and a few others.  All are listed at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

blogger bundle

March Blogger Bundle by Yvonne Fuchs, Quilting Jetgirl

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Yesterday was the first day of spring though for much of the country it doesn’t feel like it.  Today I want to provide a glimpse of spring with this month’s Blogger Bundle.  Curated by my friend, Yvonne Fuchs of Quilting Jetgirl, this bright, cheerful bundle is filled with vivid color. On the off chance you aren’t familiar with Yvonne, she is a blogger, modern quilter and pattern designer who lives in Southern California with her husband and Puppy the cat.  I met her several years ago and since then she has been a constant source of information and inspiration to me and her many readers. She is involved with the Quilters Planner, was a leader in the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop for several years, and is actively involved with the Modern Quilt Guild.  All that being said, the most valuable facet of Yvonne’s work is her effort to build community within both the quilter’s on-line and ‘in-person’ communities. I greatly appreciate how Yvonne tirelessly supports each of these.

Let’s look at the bundle she curated!  It contains fabric from across lines in shades of pink, yellow and green.  There is a delightful ‘rainbow’ component to this selection which includes pieces fro Art Gallery Fabrics, Windham Fabrics and Henry Glass Fabrics. Yvonne chose to use pieces designed by Maureen Cracknell, Carrie Bloomston (one of my all time favorite designers), Kim Diehl and Dana Willard.

As usual for me, the bundle surprised me.  I can totally see putting the pink arrows with the two rainbow fabrics.  But when she added the cheddar yellow (from Maureen Cracknell’s Garden Dreamer, and the grassy green and rich rust fabrics from Bloomston’s Dreamer line, the collection became richer and more sophisticated.  I was pleasantly surprised by this. Each month, working with these quilters, watching them pull colors together, I learn more and more.

For more information, please click here to read Yvonne’s Blogger Bundle post. She has one bundle to share with a luck winner too!  As before, this bundle is available in my shop and is on sale today through Friday. (One thing to note:  I am leaving Friday night for a week with my son and his family.  So orders placed before 3pm on Friday will ship by Friday afternoon.  Orders placed after that will wait until my return and will ship on Monday, April 2nd. If you have questions, email me at [email protected] or leave them in the comments.

Thank you to Yvonne for creating this pretty bundle and brightening our day with it. It will no doubt add color to many quilter’s stash!

Stash Post

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It has been a while since I wrote a stash post.  But a few weeks ago, a friend of mine kindly gave me a large collection of fabric. It was in mid-February when we were in the thick of making doll quilts for A Doll Like Me.  My friend, Susan, emailed me and said this was a particularly busy time for her so she couldn’t make any doll quilts.  However, she had a lot of fabric that would be perfect for this sort of project. She asked if I would like to have the fabric. Who could say no to that?

There were two large bags of fabric and another bag of patterns.  The patterns were for making doll clothes for 18″ dolls, the same size as those made by A Doll Like Me.  Some of the fabric was not right for children’s quilts or doll clothes so I carefully sorted it and what I didn’t think I would actually use was donated to a local thrift shop. But there was much that I kept!

These  bandana prints are large pieces of yardage.  I think a whole cloth quilt would be super cute with these and there is also plenty to use to back a number of little quilts.

Susan has a daughter who is Julia’s age and I could tell that many of these pieces had been used to make clothes and costumes for Sarah (she is really into ballet and performs a lot.)

These pieces are both minky and large enough to back a few doll quilts, making them extra cuddly. It will be a fun project to try because I have’t worked with minky before.  The smaller size of a doll quilt makes for a manageable project to attempt. It was so kind of Susan to gift all of this to me and I have it washed, folded and waiting for the next project for A Doll Like Me.

Another bit of fabric I want to share was found at a local thrift store.  When  poking around at a thrift shop, I often take a quick look at the clothing to see if anything appeals to me from a fabric standpoint.  You never know what you will find! A few weeks ago I saw this hand made blouse.  It isn’t something I would wear but I really like the fabric which features the work of George Seurat, a French painter from the late 1800’s.

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, by George Seurat

The painting featured in the main fabric is called A Sunday on La Grande Jatte and was painted using Seurat’s well known technique, Pointellism, a process of creating with very small dots of different colors which then read as a solid color when viewed. This work of art hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago and I loved it when we visited there several years ago. I have a little print of it hanging in my sewing room. So…. when I saw the shirt I decided to upcycle it. 

After a quick wash, I careful cut it apart and ended up with this little collection of fabric based on Seurat’s work. It made me feel bad to take it apart after someone put out the effort to sew a shirt with it, but I knew I wouldn’t wear it.  As quilters often do, I cut it apart so I could sew it back together and make something unique.  I did a quick search on-line to try and figure out who printed the fabric (no selvages were available) and was not successful.  I am looking forward to deciding how to use this though. I think I will add some solids and then what???  There is likely enough for a table topper or a mini. I am sure I will come up with something. It was a such great find for $2.00.

I hope you will be back on Wednesday when I post the Blogger Bundle for March.  Curated by Yvonne Fuchs of Quilting Jetgirl, it does not disappoint!!!

Linking to several blogs – check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

 

It’s National Quilting Day!!

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This year National Quilting Day and St. Patrick’s Day coincide! This is the best for me because I can combine two of my favorites, fabric and all shades of green.  To celebrate this momentous occasion, I am hosting two giveaways; one on Instagram and the other on Facebook.  If you are interested in throwing your name in the hat to win a fantastic bundle of green fat quarters, head on over there.  Also, I have a few bundles of these gorgeous greens listed in my shop – today only, they are $17!

I will draw the winner tomorrow morning.  Good luck and Happy St. Patrick’s Day/National Quilting Day!!

Modern Plus Quilts Blog Hop

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The release of Modern Plus Sign Quilts, written by Paige Alexander and Cheryl Brickey is being celebrated with a blog hop this week and next. I am so happy to take part in celebrating this book.  I have long been a fan of plus quilts and made one a while back.  I called it Positively Floating and you can see it here. Adding a book devoted to modern interpretations of plus quilts is the perfect thing for my collection of quilting books.

There are a couple of things I really appreciate about this book. One is the ease of most of the patterns Paige and Cheryl designed.  I am not usually one for fussy quilts with tons of pieces to cut and points to match up.  While there are some advanced, challenging patterns in the book, there are also lots of options for simpler designs. Also, there is a nice write up on the history of plus quilts which I really enjoyed.  Finally, with many of the patterns, the authors included an illustration of a suggested layout for cutting the pieces such that you get the most out of the fabric needed. This is really helpful for me as I just don’t have a strong ability to see spatial relationships and often (more often than you’d think) will cut my pieces and find I don’t have quite enough fabric.  This is because I don’t always choose the most efficient cutting plan.  Part of me attributes this to the fact that for years I sewed clothing, not quilts.  Clothing patterns always show the best way to lay out the pieces on the fabric – so I never had to figure this out for myself.  Anyway, I think this was a great addition to the quilt book and you don’t see it in many books that are published.

Let’s move on to the quilt I made.  This is the pattern called Postage Plus.  It is based on a postage stamp quilt (basically small patchwork) used to build the plus.  The oversized plus is set into a bold pattern of stripes.  This gives a very modern result.  The book shows a quilt with a gray and white background which is looked really clean.  When I chose to make this pattern, it was so I could use up an older Moda jelly roll that I purchased from a destash last year over at Academic Quilter.  Using strip piecing with a jelly roll made this quilt a very simple project to assemble.

The quilt came together so quickly.  I love using the stripes to bring out the brown and green shades in the patchwork. The colors make me think of ice cream for some reason.  Lime sherbet or coffee ice cream, which would you choose?  I would go for coffee ice cream every time!

You might notice I am sharing a quilt top, not a finished quilt.  If you are a fan of Instagram, you probably saw the posts where I was unhappily removing a large amount of long arm quilting gone bad.  Ugh!  I took this quilt top and loaded it on a long arm at my friend’s house.  For whatever reason, I couldn’t use her machine and obtain a good result.  It just looked horrid. I am far from a perfectionist and will often leave issues such as wobbles, mistakes, or points that don’t quite work out in the quilt. (Maybe I am too lazy to fix things like this). But this was bad.  Even the lazy quilter in me couldn’t just ignore it.  So I stopped, after quilting about 25% of the top, removed it from the frame, took it home and unpicked it.  Really, it wasn’t too awful a task and I am happy I fixed this.

I am eager to load it on the machine at the same shop where I have been renting time.  I have an appointment on Friday of this week and will be able to quilt this up then.  Off topic here, but take a look at the blue skies we enjoyed yesterday.  It was a gorgeous day and I am lucky to have taken photos then.  Today it is fierce, pouring rain – not a day to be outside.  Sure changed dramatically over night!

In closing, I strongly recommend Modern Plus Quilts.  The book is top notch with creative patterns of varied complexity , nice tips and clear information – a book well done.  The blog hop goes on all of this week and through next week.  Paige and Cheryl are offering giveaways each day so be sure to hop over there and enter the giveaways.  Lots of fun happening in blogland these days!

Below is the schedule for the hop
Monday, March 12
     Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs
     Paige @Quilted Blooms
Tuesday, March 13
     Signature Plus
          Soma @Whims and Fancies
          Ann @Brown Paws Quilting
          Kitty @Night Quilter
     Tribal Plus
          Sophie @Luna Lovequilts
          Afton @Quilt Mod
          Shelley @The Carpenter’s Daughter Who Quilts
Wednesday, March 14th
     Plus Surround
          Jayne @Twiggy and Opal
          Jen @A Dream and A Stitch
          Abigail @Cut&Alter
     Kaleidoscope Plus
          Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl
          Sandra @mmm!quilts
          Karen @Run Sew Fun
Thursday, March 15th
     Postage Plus
         Linda @Flourishing Palms
         Bernie @Needle and Foot
         Liz @Savor Every Stitch
         Stacey @Stacey in Stitches
     Rick Rack Runner
         Michelle @From Bolts to Beauty
         Patty @Elm Street Quilts
         Melanie @A Bit of Scrap Stuff
Friday, March 16th
     Row Addition
          Myra @Busty Hands Quilts
          Izzy @Dizzy Quilts
     Transparency Chains
          Christa @Christa Quilts
Monday, March 19th
     Faceted Rings
          Jessica @Quilty Habit
          Cindy @Hyacinth Quilt Designs
          Jennifer @Inquiring Quilter
     Petal Plus
          Julie @The Crafty Quilter
Tuesday, March 20th
     Message in a Bottle
          Tish @TishNWonderland
          Judy @Sew Some Sunshine
          Emily @The Darling Dogwood
     Cute as a Button
         Wanda @Wanda’s Life Sampler
          Karen @Tu-Na Quilts, Travels and Eats
          Katherine @Sew Me Something Good
Wednesday, March 21st
     Celestial
          Anja @Anja Quilts
          Kate @Smiles From Kate
          Sue @Sevenoaks Street Quilts
     Pinwheel Plus
          Carole @From My Carolina Home
          Alison @Little Bunny Quilts
Thursday, March 22nd
     Intertwined
          Debbie @Esch House Quilts
          Laura @Slice of Pi Quilts
          Beth @Cooking Up Quilts
     Bear Claw Plus
          Janice @Color Creating and Quilting
          Joanne @Quilts by Joanne
Friday, March 23rd
     Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs
     Paige @Quilted Blooms

Linking to my favorites. Find them at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

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