A Little Quilt

Perseverance is a good attribute to have if you are a quilter. So, I have discovered, is being able to keep a secret.

A month ago, I made a mini quilt I'm very fond of, but have been obliged to keep it under wraps for a bit. It was a creation for the Little Quilt - Sew, Vote, Swap Group. When I came across this flickr group before Christmas, I was intrigued. Basically, you make a mini quilt, do not post in flickr (or blog about it, for that matter), but send a pic to the swap mama who posts everybody's projects. THEN everyone votes on their favorite entries. The person whose quilt gets the most votes gets to pick which one they want, and down the line it goes. The secret continues for a bit as we are all FM'd who to send our quilt to. Talk about suspense at every turn!

Anyway, my mini is winging its way to its new owner today. I'll let you know what quilt I get (and believe me, I have my fingers crossed!!). In the meantime, here is my entry:

It happens to be one of my favorite things I've made, and honestly, I was kind of sad to send it off. I love the color combo, and it contains some of my favorite fabrics. Wonky isn't something I've done alot of, but I thoroughly enjoyed it on this small scale. And I confess, I am most proud of the quilting.

I tried this wavy line on a previous project, and it just didn't turn out the way I'd hoped. But with my little hera marker, I was able to mark in the curves to my liking, and I love the result.

Backed with a stash find, it measures about 24" square.

So the secret's out on this little one. Very fun indeed.

Linking up with {sew} Modern Monday, little quilt monday & Slash the Stash!

First Finish

Yay! I have my first finish for 2012! The set of eight placemats that I started before Christmas is finally done.

The pattern, Color Block Placemats, by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson!, was part of the Holiday Sew-Along at Sew, Mama, Sew! I really enjoyed pulling from my stash to make these scrappy, adding one purchased fabric - some KONA Crush in Natural. I ordered it on a whim, just because I was curious what it was like, and boy do I approve. It just seems to add some nice texture to the overall look and feel of the placemats. So chalk one up for the 2012!

Linking up with {Sew} Modern Monday, Fabric Tuesday, and Finish It Up Friday.


Update 1/29/12: The first quarter of Quilter in the Gap's Finish-A-Long is over! My original post about it is here, and the First Quarter Linky Party is here!

Christmas is Coming, Baby

Last December, I made my new little granddaughter a Christmas stocking for her first Christmas.

Pattern is Merry by Thimble Blossoms;

fabric is 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Spain

When I won some fat quarters of Riley Blake's Celebrate Christmas a while back, it was pretty obvious that I needed to stitch up something for baby again. I've given you a couple of progress shots of my flannel Snow-Kissed Star (here and here), but now it's bound and finished!

Just for fun, I decided to personalize the back, using the paper-pieced alphabet recently posted by Kelly of kelbysews.

I quilted it with a long serpentine stitch, and not as heavy as some of my recent quilts. It washed up soft and cuddly, which should suit little one's taste just perfectly.

Linking up with {Sew} Modern Monday and Fabric Tuesday.

More on Super Scrappiness

When I first posted about my Scrappy Super Swoon {here} it was dark outside. I knew I should wait to take some outside pics, but I was impatient, and you know, the weather and all. But today we had a bit of sun, and I got to take a new shot.

 I was hoping for a little breeze to flip one of those corners up a bit, but none of that. I did get to take a pic of the back though, for you who are into such. Pretty much a KONA medium gray, with a few color blocks of my favorite solids from the front - Glacier, Yarrow, Paprika, and a tad of Brown.

I used a bit of three solids in the binding, too, though I was disappointed I used too little to be noticable.

But all in all, I am really happy with my scrappy Swoon, and it seems to be enjoying its new home on our living room couch. It's super.

Linking up with {Sew} Modern Monday and Fabric Tuesday!

Oh, and if you missed details on A Table Giveaway, see here!

Sister Pairs

A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to win a fat quarter stack of shades of grey from Jan DiCintio on her blog, Daisy Janie. What beautiful fabric! I had been coveting it from afar, so was especially pleased to now have some! After much deliberation of pattern and accent color, I decided to use Jan's own pattern, Sister Pairs, accenting the grays with some KONA Spearmint (thanks sis!).

Daisy Janie's fabrics are 100% certified organic by the GOTC (Global Organic Textile Standard), from seed to fiber, fabric, printing, and packaging. It was so nice to work with, and I'm not sure why, whether it was the organic fabric, the larger needle I used, the Superior King Tut thread, or the 505 spray basting, but this project was a dream to quilt. It was Toni from Hoosier Toni that suggested the random angled line quilting, and I love how it looks. I used a light grey thread for most of the quilting, and at my quilting buddy, Sharon's, suggestion, I occasionally quilted with a very dark grey thread. Unfortunately, it doesn't show up in the pictures, but it adds a nice accent that you can see in person.

It was fun to finish binding this quilt while visiting family in Eastern Washington this weekend, and having my niece help me photograph it in the lovely (sunny!) yard.

I had tried to imitate the block design for the back, using mostly KONA Ash, with Charcoal and more Spearmint. Obviously, the Sister Pairs block goes lengthwise on the back, but I still like its visual connection to the front. Having forgotten entirely to photograph the back earlier, we did it at a winery as we wound our way back home, which was a fun end to an enjoyable project.

Linking up with {Sew} Modern Monday today and Quilt Story tomorrow.

For the Love of Solids - Given

When the For the Love of Solids swap was announced two months ago, I was immediately intrigued. I had only ever done one solid project before, and the stakes in this swap seemed pretty high. I was doubtful whether I would even be accepted - it all seemed quite daunting, yet challenging. So when I got the notice that I was 'in', I thought to myself, "Oh dear. What have I done?"

I kept close tabs on the flickr group to try and discern my partner's likes and dislikes. And after looking at the amazing stuff on her website, I knew I needed to step it up a notch. Yikes. The hardest part, of course, was coming up with a plan. After seeing her comment that she liked circles, I decided that would be a good thing to incorporate, and not the norm. I finally settled on these two blocks as inspiration:

1. [3x6] Sampler Quilt Mini Bee - 2nd Quarter 2. Taffy Go Round Pillow

Could I find a pattern for my idea? Of course not. So I set to drafting one. Other than taking one pattern design class in college, this was so not my strong area. But I tweaked and struggled until I had this:

What a mess! But I finally had a tentative plan, with 2 1/2 weeks to go to deadline! I did tweak one more time to increase the size of the arc, but then it all started coming together. Until finally, I came up with this:

For my small project, I decided to do a zip pouch, mostly because I'd been wanting to learn how, and that way, I could accomplish two goals at once. Multi-tasking is my forte! I must say, I looove how it turned out, though not without my trusty seam-ripper close at hand.

So! There you go - my first For the Love of Solids swap projects! Unbelievably, they got from Seattle to Rhode Island in two days! If you'd like to see what my partner, Tina, thought about the swap, check out her blog, Seaside Stitches.

Linking up with Celebrate Color . . .

. . . {Sew} Modern Monday, mini Quilt mondays, and Quilt Story. Enjoy!

 

Monday

Honestly, since last Monday's post, I have worked on little else than my For the Love of Solids projects. Whew! Cutting it a little close to the deadline there, am I? But, they are now shipped. I need to wait just a little longer to show pictures of the complete projects, but here's another peek.

After making the zip pouch {first ever}, I wanted to try another one right away. I cut my own dimensions for this second one and barely had to look at my notes. I think I've got it!

Linking up with {Sew} Modern Monday and mini Quilt mondays - check them out!

Monday

I've heard that one of the great reasons to join swaps and bees is because you'll learn so much. Well, if I've learned anything participating in the For the Love of Solids swap, it's this: Don't spend too much time pondering and leave yourself little time to sew! I know I'm not the only one, but still. Thankfully, my blocks are now done for my main project, but there's still much to do. Back to it!

Just another sneaky-peek for now . . .

Linking up with {Sew} Modern Monday and mini Quilt mondays - check them out!

Quilting Modern

It's barely been a year since I knew 'modern' quilting even existed. Last spring, I went with my quilt buddies to a showing of quilts by Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio at Fabric Crush in Seattle. Listening to Jacquie and seeing her quilts opened up a whole new {quilting} world to me! Her use of color and 'wonky' designs was a bit of a shock to my traditional quilting style! But I loved it, and she continues to inspire me through her blog, as do many other 'modern' quilters I have since discovered, and now follow. I love the challenge to ‘move forward’, to ‘grow up’, to ‘quilt modern’.


My first little foray into wonky a few months ago was tentative, but a start!

So since the 'shocking' discovery of quilting modern, I've been trying to stretch and be a bit more modern in my own quilting, in design, color, and fabric. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be accepted into the 4X5 modern Quilt Bee recently! Right off the bat, we were asked to create an 'inspiration mosaic' so our bee members could get a feel for our color choices. After much consideration, I submitted mine:

I'm so excited to get assigned to a hive and really get going. Meanwhile, projects continue on the home-front

. . . I couldn't resist making another Mini-Swoon! I'm really enamored with this block. One of these days, I will make the full-size quilt!

Linking up my little finish with {Sew} Modern Monday. . .

The Race is On

With the Kaleidoscope quilt along starting on June 23, and a Half Square Triangle class with Katie Pedersen of Sew Katie Did on June 29, there's really some {self-induced} pressure to get a few projects either finished or well on their way before the end of the month!

Central Park Dream Big

Prairie Women's Sewing Circle #6

Sherbet Pips Comic Strip

Not to forget Cappuccino Bali Pop "Light & Shadow"! Lots to do this week, and hopefully I'll be able to join in on Friday Night Sew-In this Friday, June 17.

Meanwhile, linking up with {Sew} Modern Monday today!

Just Swell

Well, my little diversion from "big project" quilting has been enjoyable, and last night I finished Just Swell, a darling cover for my newly tuned sewing machine. I really enjoyed this pattern from Simplify - the zig-zags were fun! I did have to adjust the size a bit, as my machine was larger than the original pattern, and I chose to make my binding 2 1/2", rather than the 3" suggested. Actually, I've always been a 2"-binding-person, so even doing 2 1/2" was a switch for me, but it turned out very nicely, and the cover is definitely being put right to use!

Also linking up with {Sew} Modern Monday today with my little project!