Lavender Quilt

So in my last post, I told you about the Seedlings quilt minis I am making from the panels of the Seedlings Quilt. This is a wonderful new book by Jodi Godfrey from Tales of Cloth. There is one quilt in the book that I just really fell in love with, and I have chosen to make the whole Lavender quilt.

The quilt in the book uses white for these triangles, but I decided to use some low volume fabrics that I had on hand instead.

 For the fabric to represent the flowers, instead of scraps, I decided to use V and Company Ombre Confetti Metallic. I knew I could get a range of pretty color from the ombre and the metallic would add a fun touch.

I also decided, instead of a flat yellow color, to use V and Company Ombre in Honey. I feel like that will give me a bit of variation throughout the quilt.

So I have begun making my blocks for this quilt. I really like the consistency I get with EPP. The larger size pieces are a bit of a challenge for me. I am used to hand stitching my paper pieces, but I found that these larger sizes work better for me if I glue them. So I am.

 I got some blocks done, and laid them out to see how it was looking. I am very happy with my color choices. I know it will take me quite some time to finish this quilt, but I really am enjoying the process so much.

So now, I am off to stitch a bit more on this fun project. If you want to see another colorway of this quilt, Rachel, of Stitched in Color did one in blues and I think, scraps. Go to her blog to see how different and unique hers is.
Talk to you soon.

Seedlings Mini Quilts

So if you are on Instagram, and you follow Jodi at Tales of Cloth, you know she is doing a Seedlings QAL there. Now, I have the book and I love the book, but I don't really have time to do this QAL right now. So I am working on doing the panels for the Seedlings quilt, but I am doing them as minis.

The first one I did was Caraway. I am very happy with how that one turned out. Some hand quilting and some quilting with Perle cotton.

The next one I completed is Honeysuckle. I love the shape for the leaves and I just made my vine as long as I wanted it to be.

 I decided to just do one vine so the panel would be long and skinny. And I really like it.

I machine quilted it with a fancy vine stitch that my machine does. And then I hand embroidered the name of the quilt block on the side. I have several more of these I want to make until my collection is complete. I am having fun with this, and I can go at whatever pace my time allows.
Have a great afternoon friends.

I Might Be a Squirrel

Hi there. I have missed you. I have been busy, and traveling and clearly, not here in this space. I must confess, it's partly because I have been busy, and partly because I have been lazy. I have trouble getting around to taking and uploading pictures to blog about, because that's really the point of blogging here.

Right before I left for two weeks in North Carolina to see the the kids and the grand kids, I got this book. Now I just started EPP last year with a sew along with Rachel from Stitched in Color and Jodi from Tales of Cloth. But I wanted to go beyond hexagons and until this book came along, I wasn't sure how that was going to happen.

This book not only made that happen for me, I think it turned me into a squirrel. I wanted to make ALL the quilts. And I wanted to make them NOW! So when I got home, after a week of acclimating to being home, and then doing a craft fair, I started.

 First, I made the honeycomb paper shapes, and began that project. Very close to hexagons, so very easy to stitch. I liked so many of the quilts, I decided to just do some small versions of the panels for the big Seedlings quilt as mini quilts.

 Then, I branched out into the shapes for the peppermint quilt panel. This was a very different shape for me to tackle, but still pretty easy. These are my first few, and I am not sure how many I will do. I have 6 now and 9 might be my limit.

This is a closeup of the Caraway panel. It is the first one to be finished. I hand quilted with Perle cotton on the Caraway plants, and then hand quilted around the rows of plants.

This shot is a little blurry, but it is quilted and bound. I used a chain stitch to embroider the name on it and I think I will do that for all of them. I am not sure how many of these I will make. There are 12 quilts in the book.

So far I am really enjoying this process. I thought about buying the shapes, but decided to make them myself to save some money. It's not hard, but it does take time. I finished the Honeysuckle panel yesterday, but haven't photographed it yet. That will be in my next post.

The one full size quilt I will be making from the book is the Lavender quilt. Hands down, my favorite. I think that one will take me quite some time, but I will take some progress photos for you.
And lest you think I am not squirrely enough, I am also doing some sewing projects, Christmas ornaments, and still crocheting on a blanket.

This is the most recent picture, and it is taken in North Carolina. This is the back side of my Dune blanket from Lucy at Attic 24. I am several more colors deep into it now. I will also do a post on it very soon with more pictures.
So there you have it. I am all over the place, and I still have one more craft fair to do in two weeks!
I will talk to you soon.

Kingfisher Quilt

So, finally, my Kingfisher quilt is finished. Totally finished, washed, dried and spread out on my bed where I can just stare at it.

 Yesterday I finished the quilting of it. I quilted it on my Bernina 440 QE. I used my walking foot and quilted along either side of the seams between the diamonds, and then I quilted 3 lines in each angled direction through the center of each hexagon. I messed up in the second row I was doing and spaced the lines too far apart. Rather than pick out all the stitches, I incorporated that into the design and did wider lines in every other row.

And then I bound it. I used the umbrella print from the Charleston line that I had used for the borders. I wanted a dark blue, and then I remembered I had this print and plenty of it for a change. So that's what I used and I am pretty happy with it.

 Here it is, all crinkly from the dryer. I love the amount of crinkle it got. Not too much in the center, but plenty around the border.

 I set my machine to do a wavy zigzag line for the borders. Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts showed this on one of her quilts one time, and I loved it. I have used it a couple of times. This is the first time I've used it like this, but I love the look of the border.

 Not all the stitching is perfectly centered, because when I appliqued the hexie flowers onto the diamonds, I just eyeballed it. Probably should have measured it to make sure, but, oh well.

 I had two chunks of red fabric in my backing pile. Both were two yards, so I chose the stripes for the biggest part and used half of the width of the circles for the rest. I think it worked out great.

And there we have it, all done and labeled. Have a great Labor Day weekend. Talk to you soon.

Still a Busy Summer

I really have been sewing since my last post, but not as much. We have had two weeks of guests here and that means the sewing room is now the guest room. An airport run will happen this afternoon and then more guests this coming week, so I have moved my sewing machine out to the dining room and have been able to do a little sewing.

First, I was able to finish all the overnight duffel bags for the kids. This was the free pattern that had a few issues.

 All different colors so the kids can have their favorites and can easily tell them apart.

 And Trouble the cat was very interested and she fits!

I think these will be great for the kids. I can't wait until they see them.

And I finally finished this. This is the Kingfisher Quilt Along quilt that I did for June and July with Rachel at Stitched In Color and Jodi at Tales of Cloth. I almost left off the red triangles. Many people did, but I am so happy I pushed through on those. I love the way they make the quilt look. They are the same fabric as the small red border.

These are the first 29 blocks in the 100 Days 100 Blocks 2018 on Instagram. Some I love, some I'm just meh about. I don't dislike any of them, so that's good. I am working on arrangements so when the time comes I can sew them all together.

So I have been busy, I just haven't been here much. I hope your summer is going great. I will talk to you again soon, I hope.

Pushing Myself, Creatively Speaking

How do you push yourself to continue being creative? I love sewing, it's a really big part of who I am. But sometimes I feel like I am just churning things out and not being terribly creative. Or it begins to feel same ol' same ol' to me. So I started thinking about this yesterday. And in the last year or so, there are a couple of things I started doing to keep things fresh and new for myself.

Now, I have never been a big joiner when it comes to quilting. No quilt guilds, and only a few classes back in the early days. I love working on projects, but I hate packing everything up to go work on projects. I am a bit of a solitary maker. And then I love to show it off when it's done. I stayed away from many techniques that seemed too hard. And then I realized that that is what was holding me back and making me stale. I had to get over it and do something.

One of the first things I did was to make this set of tiny blocks to work on my precision piecing. These all finished at 2 inches square. I found that while they weren't tooeasy, they weren't too hard. Slow it down and do it right.

The next thing I did was to take the Penny Sampler quilt class on line from Rachel. I love her classes for their content, but I was also able to work on this at a pace that worked for me. The other thing about it was that there were some techniques in this class that I needed to learn and master. Like paper piecing. I came away knowing how to paper piece. It's still not my favorite technique, but when it's called for, I can do it. Also, this was a 12 month class. I have NEVER taken that long and slow to make a quilt and I found I really liked that slower pace, with time for other projects as well.

The next thing I did was to make this quilt for my niece. I used only fabric from my stash, except the background fabric. I have never done that, and only blues, which is also the first time I have made a quilt using only two colors. It wasn't that it was hard, just different and helped me to stretch myself a bit creatively.

I am currently working on an English paper piecing and applique piece, also hosted by Rachel of Stitched in Color and Jodi at Tales of Cloth. I never had any interest in EPP when it was all the rage a few years back, but now I cannot seem to get enough of the slow hand stitched pace of the hexies.

And now I have joined in on the 100 blocks in 100 days 2018 on Instagram. I bought the book for inspiration, the year it came out and then it sat on the shelf. This 100 day project is really pushing me creatively. I am doing every 10 blocks in one color, like a rainbow of sorts. I added pink, teal, dark pink and split the violet into red violet and blue violet to have enough for ten sets. It is all coming from my stash and scraps and choosing the colors is tough, but oh, so satisfying. I do a happy dance for each one I pull.

So that's what I am doing to keep moving forward as a sewist, quilter and maker. Tell me, what to you do to keep it fresh for yourself?
Talk to you soon.

Kingfisher Stitch Along

I have never (until now) had a desire to EPP hexagons. I have seen it done many times on blogs over the 8 years I have been on the internet doing this blogging thing, but never once did I want to do it. Until now. Rachel from Stitched in Color has a way of making me want to be a part of these projects.  She and Jodi from Tales of Cloth are hosting this thing. I don't know why. Maybe it's because she makes it look so doable or so much fun. I'm not sure. But I have been convinced once again to join up. So here is my start at this thing.

I decided to use my Ombre Confetti Metallic for the hexies. I love the look of these.

                 So I made a bunch of them...

And then I made some more. I am not quite finished with making them, but I decided to stop and start assembling some into flowers.

The other thing I am doing is to audition some low volume fabrics for the diamonds that the hexie flowers will be appliqued to. These are a few of my ideas.

 This is my very first flower all assembled. I am trying to get the ombre color gradient to work here.

And these are my first four flowers on one of my background pieces of fabric. The centers of the flowers will all be done in the yellow ombre confetti metallic or in some yellow ombre I had on hand. There are 46 flowers to be made. So far I am really enjoying all this hand stitching. There's still time to join us if you have a mind to. Talk to you soon.