You Can Teach an Old Quilter New Tricks

So I quilted my 36 patch quilt this week. I was so happy to get it finished. It's been a long time since I finished a quilt for me. I used many of my all time favorite fabrics, and a few new favorites as well.

 You will see Lizzie House, Elizabeth Hartman, Laurie Wisbrun, Heather Ross and many more.

 Some of these fabrics are ten or more years old. Some were the final scraps, but some were larger yardage. It only takes 2 WOF  x 2 1/2 inch strips to make enough for the block.

 I used to have Dear Stella Confetti Dots in every color they made. Now they are all gone almost.

So I started quilting diagonal lines over each square. I love the way it looks, and as I know this quilt will get lots of use, this should be enough quilting to hold it together.

So now, about the new trick? It is in reference to the binding. I have been making quilts for 30 years. I learned pretty early on why double fold was better than single fold. I figured out my best way to get a mitered corner.

I learned to use my walking foot to attach the binding. The one thing I had trouble with was joining the two ends of the binding on the quilt. I couldn't wrap my head around it, so I just tucked one end inside the other and it left a small, but mostly unnoticeable gap. I did my quilts that way for years.

Then, I saw a tutorial by Amy Ellis showing how to join the two ends on the bias and make a smooth transition. You can't tell where the end is, as it just looks like all the other places you joined the binding strips. This is, for me a game changer. I have bound 3 quilts like this so far. Maybe it was seeing it done on a video. Whatever the reason, I now have a new trick in my repertoire.

I had planned to show a picture of the entire quilt, front and back at the end of the post, but I apparently cut off the bottom row of blocks. I am sorry and I will take a new picture and share it next time. Until then, Happy Quilting and enjoy your weekend.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I am so happy to have another chance to participate in this festival, hosted by Amy Ellis at Amy's Creative Side. I love seeing all the beautiful quilts every year and it is so inspiring to me. Here is my entry for the small quilts category this year.

 I made this quilt a number of years ago. I have never blogged about it. It hangs by (gasp) push pins in my bedroom and has for over 10 years. I had a difficult time getting pictures where the colors were true to life.

 This is the closest to true colors for this quilt. The fabrics were all purchased at my LQS, which sadly is closing this year after 23 years in business. I remember that all the fabrics were purchased to match with the leaf print.

 This is a shot of the back so you can hopefully see the hand quilting. This was done back when I only knew how to hand quilt. The quilting lines were marked by tracing around a jar lid with a white colored pencil. I would mark a few and quilt them, and then mark a few more.

 I took the quilt outside where it is cloudy, to try and get a better color representation. It is still kind of off. When I made this quilt, I was still pretty new to quilting.

 I feel like I have talent, sure, but a lot of luck went into my early quilts. This is still a favorite one.

The colors here are a little bit better. The quilt pattern is called Milky Way. The fabrics are a mystery, sorry. The quilt measures 120 inches around, so 30 x 30. Thanks for stopping by.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

It is that fun time again, for the Blogger's Quilt Festival, hosted by Amy Ellis from Amy's Creative Side.  This is such a great opportunity to share tons of great quilts made by quilters around the world. I love seeing all the creativity.  So without further ado, here is my submission:

It all started with the book, Sunday Morning Quilts. That book really struck me in a way no other quilting book has in a long time. I read it and reread it many times thinking how wonderful to make some of these quilts. Then, I thought even better, get some help from others by starting a Bee. I asked Cheryl and Amanda Jean for permission to name the Bee, Sunday Morning Quilts Bee. They were very gracious and said yes. This quilt is from the blocks made during round one of our bee. (SMQ bee is now in round 2)

For round one we made slabs in a particular colorway and swapped with each other until we all had all the colors of the rainbow, plus pink.  All made from scraps.  I took my 14 blocks and made 2 more in aqua for an even 16.  I worked to find a pleasing arrangement and bordered it with Kona white.

The back is a two fabrics from a Benartex line called Floralicious that I bought quite some time ago. I was originally going to make curtains from it, but when I need a back for this colorful quilt, I knew this was it.

I quilted it all over with flowers in the style of the backing print. It was such fun! The borders have pebbles in 3 corners with wavy lines representing water, running in between. The 4th corner has clouds and rain drops falling from them. Just a bit more fun for me.

I chose to enter in the Bee category, since all my blocks were made by my Bee mates.  I hope you enjoy it.  The statistics: Made mostly by me, quilted by me, approximately 58x58.

Time for the Quilt Blogger's Festival

It's time again for the  Quilt blogger's Festival.  I love all the inspiration that comes from the participants of this festival.  I have gotten some seriously great ideas from looking at some of the entries.  So for this go round, here is my submission:

 I started this quilt last summer as part of Amanda Jean's 36 Patch QAL.  No this was long before Sunday Morning Quilts came out.  I had been reading her blog for about 6 months or so and just loved her style.  I had never don a QAL, so I was anxious to try one and see what it was like.

 I started pulling out scraps an small bits to find pairs for each block.  Now I am a sort of matchy matchy girl when it comes to fabric for my quilts, but with this, I kinda let go a bit.  I selected to fabrics for each 36 patch square, without regard for how it would look with the other squares.  I worked hard to stay caught up, but still fell behind.

 I finally finished the squares last fall I think.  Then I finally came up with the layout and sewed them all together.  I was surprised to find out how much I liked it.  Then, another stumble...how to back it?  By now it was spring.  I wanted to keep the scrappy theme, so I took all the leftover strips from the front and started piecing the back.  About half way through, I realized the "huge pile" was smaller than I thought.  So I stopped again.

 Then one day, I just grabbed the half done back and added a few larger pieces of fabric that had been sitting in my stash, some for years.  The back was done.  Then I folded it all up and it sat some more.

 This summer, I finally bought some batting.  I had been on a "sew only from the stash" diet almost all summer, and that included batting for awhile as well.  I didn't have nearly enough scraps of batting for this baby.

 It took me several sessions at my machine to get it done.  I love each block for itself and I even love the whole thing together now.  It took some getting used to, I must admit.

                 She looks good in the autumn sunshine, doesn't she?

With all that color, I decided to use black and white for the binding.  I had a jelly roll of Summersville and I pulled all the black and white out.  I love the way it finished off this beauty.

Now the stats:
Quilt measurement is 70" x 70"
Quilted by me on my Bernina
Category-Favorite Scrap Quilt or Favorite Throw Quilt
Number 38
Now off to see everyone else's quilts!!

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Boy, has it been hot here.  So hot in fact, that today's forecast of 96 degrees sounds good! When it gets that hot, there is nothing to do but sew in the AC.  You all know I'm right, yes?  So, what am I sewing?  Take a look:

 First up is the back to my Swoon Quilt.  I have been procrastinating a bit, so I used Amy's One Thing, One Week Challenge to help me get past this.  I really do want to see this quilt finished.

I used a bunch of the fat quarters from the Reunion line, along with leftovers from the background fabric and just kept putting it together until it was big enough.  And surprise, I kinda like it.  For me, this is the hardest part of quilt making.

Here are the blocks again.  I think this will be a great quilt.  And yes, the blocks have been sashed, but the picture of that is not too great.  You can't see them very well.  Too hot to go out and take pictures.

 For the first time in 4 years I have a design wall.  I wanted to work on these blocks and see how they looked.  So I found my old flannel sheet and washed it and then just hung it up with tacks.

 I forgot how much I love having a design wall.  It makes things so much easier to see.

 I also finished my two Bee blocks for the Comfort Quilts Bee this weekend.  So I will be going to the post office this morning to get these in the mail.

I love how they turned out.  The rainbow fabric is a Hoffman Challenge fabric from about 2004 I think.  I have never known what to do with it, even though I loved it when I bought it.
Have a great Monday everyone.

Joining Bloggers Quilt Festival

I love participating in this.  This is only my second time to participate, but I have seen so many cool quilts and found so many great blogs through this.  I am so happy Amy began doing this for those of us who can't/don't go to market.  So without further ado...my entry.

I pieced this top a few years ago when I was trying to decide if I wanted to make a business out of quilting.  I had planned to make baby quilts and sell them.  I pieced 4-5 tops, trying out designs for boys, girls and gender neutral designs.  This was my girl quilt.  I fell in love with it.  I had been hoarding  saving the fabric for years.  I don't even know what it is, but I had a fat quarter only. (If you know what it is, please mention it in the comments)

 Half way through quilting it this last week, I stopped and draped it over my machine for the night.  The next morning, the sun was shining in on it.

 I took it to the quilt shop and this was the fabric the shop owner suggested.  It's way orange here in the picture, but not in real life.  It's more of a rose color.

 Sew anyway, I decided that if I made a business out of quilting, the joy might go away and I couldn't let that happen.  I love it too much.  So I decided to just put the quilts away for another use.  And they sat for a couple of years.

 I kept thinking of this one and hoping for a granddaughter some day.  Well, I don't think that's gonna happen.  There are 2 grandsons and one more on the way soon.

 So I decided to just quilt it for myself.  I meandered on the stripes, outlined the flowers and did loop de loops on the border.  The backing was a couple of yards I picked up at the LQS on sale awhile ago.

 It's perfect.  The whole thing.  I love it.  And I don't think I could part with it now.

a better look at the binding color

close up of the flower print

the backing looks grey, but is really light green

Please Visit Amy's Creative side to see more great quilts and meet more great bloggers.