Jazzy

Not sure why it took me so long to face this one. It's not huge, and honestly, I loved it from the very first block. It was quick and easy to sew my bee-mates' blocks into a top. So obviously.... no good reason.



It's a do.Good Stitches quilt, with multicolor wedge slabs made by Faith Circle. They are patient with my efforts to sneak some improv into our quilt-making, and they came through beautifully. [Here's the block tutorial.]



I really debated over a quilting plan, and after skimming through Jacquie Gering's Walk, 

settled on a combination of horizontal straight lines and fancy curved lines - gentle curves both between random lines and occasionally crossing lines of straight-line. I think it worked.



On a whim, I quilted with Aurifil 50wt 2520 (Violet) AND shock of shocks, I finished by stitching the scrappy binding by machine. I have only done that a handful of times in my years of quilting, but it just seemed the thing to do this time. [I basically used this method.]




So this quilt, which I'm dubbing "Jazzy" because of its showy color, finished at 48" x 60", and it'll be heading off shortly to Valley Breast Center here in the Seattle area. As always, it feels great to do a little good.



This project was on my 2018 Q2 Finish-A-Long list! Linking up with Finish It Up Friday.

X Marks the Improv

From the moment I posted the assignment for Faith Circle, I was excited about this quilt. The 12.5" X 24.5" improv-based block was of my own design, and I was admittedly pleased to be able to provide my bee-mates with structure, yet a chance to stretch their improv wings a bit. A tutorial for the block is coming soon. [ETA: Click here.]



As for colors, I asked for any blue solid for the block backgrounds; any blue, turquoise, teal, or bright green for the crosses. An occasional gold or orange was ok in the cross strips, but wasn't necessary. Both ‘arms’ of each cross did not need to match fabric-wise so the blocks were scrap-friendly in that sense. AND if they feel so inclined, contrasting bits pieced into the crosses were welcome. I used some of my own block trimmings to create cross strips for the next block and found that a satisfying way to use my scraps while still lending a cohesiveness to the blocks.

Dare I say I love how the colors came together?! And those contrasting bits . . . oh yeah.

For the back, I used one full block and then made a few partials, surrounding them with swaths of solids. For quilting, I used the most enchanting Aurifil 50wt #2730 (Caribbean Blue), which brought the kind of continuity that you hope for but can't always anticipate. You can see in the photo above that the straight-line quilting echoed out from an 'X' near the center - that light blue one with an aqua background.

Once trimmed after quilting, I had a width of several inches of leftover backing, pretty  much the perimeter of the quilt. SO, as you can guess, the decision to do matched binding was made for me. Not quite, but still, I had a good start, and it wasn't that fiddly to cut and piece the rest. To me, it was the perfect finishing touch - seen best in the top photo.

 

Measuring 48" X 60", this quilt is the perfect lap size, and I trust it'll bring a smile to its recipient. For me, it was a pleasure to make, thanks to a little help from my friends. And I can't imagine I won't revisit this block again soon.

This quilt was on my 2016 Q1 Finish-A-Long list! 
Linking up with Finish It Up Friday.

Starcrossings

When hubby and I head out on a photo shoot, we expect the unexpected. Which is another way of saying we never really know where we're going to end up. Today it was an outdoor suburban mall, where we basically took a walk through 'town,' stopping to take pictures whenever it struck our fancy.

"Starcrossings" is the June project of the FAITH Circle of do.Good Stitches, and my second finish serving as a quilter for the group {see #1 here}.

It's no secret I took direct inspiration from the quilt by sewing over pins and the Cheer Circle. That quilt just seemed perfect for our recipient.  Each member of our circle made 2 starburst cross blocks using the tutorial by SewCraftyJess. I think they are really striking blocks, and I love the mix of fabrics my bee-mates used.

For backing and binding both, I used Lucie Summers' Summersville Spring in hot pink.

As I was mulling over how to quilt this one, I just kept coming back to the wavy stitch built into my machine. Either that or a straight-line grid. In the end, I did a combo, stitching two parallel lines at the intersections of each block, both vertically and horizontally, and then two wider spaced lines going through the center of each block, again in both directions. For piecing and quilting throughout, Aurifil white 50wt just seemed the way to go.

All in all, I'm super pleased with this finish, which just happens to be on my 3rd quarter Finish-A-Long list. These happy blocks were a pleasure to work with, and my hope as this quilt heads off to Restore Innocence this week, is that it will find its way to a young woman that finds joy in it just like I did.

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday.

HST Love

So when I left off with the FAITH Circle quilt process the other day, I was quilting. Now that's done, and she's all bound up ready to go! Here's the rest of the story . . .

For me, anyway, there is usually some inspiration when I start a project - another quilt, a picture or piece of artwork, something I've seen out in the real world. For this quilt, it was definitely other solid hst quilts that I had seen in blog-land.  I chose the three below to show my bee members the direction we were headed. {These quilts were made by fordhook1, CB Handmade, and Sew Katie Did - click a pic to see more info about each on flickr.}

The colors I had in mind were white, medium gray, and a variety of cool colors. I asked them each to make two 18 1/2" blocks, each made up of four 9 1/2" blocks and I posted photos of how these blocks could be placed in a variety of configurations. And it was fun to see how my bee-mates followed my lead!

When the blocks all came back to me, it was a bit of a puzzle deciding how to arrange them. I didn't over-think the process really, but I did choose to group the palest blocks with the purples on the backing to give the quilt more of a two-sided feel. Filling in around the backing blocks I used Leaves on Teal from Fruit Slice by Khristian Howell for Anthology fabrics. It really coordinated well overall with the mix of blocks. And in keeping it real, I really thought I had lined the front and back up perfectly, but as you can see, whether in quilting or whatever, there was a tiny shift. sigh

For quilting, I knew I wanted to straight-line,and started by following a zig-zag made by the lines of the blocks. You can see by the arrows in the photo below where I took my first pass. From there, I echo-quilted at 3/4" intervals. Where I had used light gray Aurifil 50wt for piecing, I switched to the same thread but in white for the quilting.

Then it was time to bind! After considering just about every color in the quilt, I opted for a scrappy look, which included KONA Turquoise, Chartreuse, and Emerald, along with Medium Gray and Coal. The finished quilt measures 54"x72".

So after a year and a half of sewing for FAITH Circle, I survived my first turn organizing and quilting our project, and I couldn't be more pleased.

Linking up with Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday, Finish it Up Friday, & Fabric Tuesday.

A Little Faith

Yes, I'm off on a quilting retreat, but wanted to share this post so it doesn't get forgotten in the busyness of the next week. After about 18 months as a stitcher in the FAITH circle of do.Good Stitches, I was asked to step up and become a quilter. A little scary, but I think I'm finally up to the challenge. February is my first month to choose a project for our circle, and I chose a quilt I've been wanting to make for quite some time - a solid half-square triangle quilt. The quilts below were my inspiration . . .

I just really love those quilt. The colors I chose for ours were medium gray, white, and a variety of cool colors. Each circle member is being asked to make two 18 1/2" blocks, each made up of four 9 1/2" hst blocks. Each large block could be put together in a variety of way.

Here's a little mosaic of what four blocks might look like together, even though I'll mix my blocks up with those of my circle mates for the final layout.

I'm really excited with this quilt plan - something somewhat simple for my first month as quilter, but still a quilt  that should have a nice visual impact.

Back to the previously scheduled retreat . . .