A Friday Finish - Bird Mini Quilt

One month last fall, I can't remember which one, Karen K. Stone (author and quilter) came to our local quilt guild for a speaking engagement and also to teach a workshop. 

Her quilts are fabulous and all original.  I really enjoyed her talk and looking at the quilts she had to show us.  She does a lot of paper piecing, uses embellishments and does a lot of thread painting which I am in awe of.  She hand dies much of the fabric she uses and it was just beautiful.

Her book is wonderful.  The pictures are so great that I think it would make a wonderful coffee table book even if you aren't a quilter.  I love looking at the patterns and pictures.  I couldn't wait to snap up one after her speech was done.  

The workshop day was less impressive.  I'm just biting my tongue to keep myself from typing out all the things I'd like to say but I don't want my blog to come across as mean or snarky - unless I'm trying to be snarky which I'm not.
The online quilting community seems to always be so positive.  I rarely read a negative review about anything be it teachers or notions, books or patterns.  And lets face it, not everything is great.  Not every class you take is going to meet your expectations.  I also try to keep in mind that just because I didn't get what I expected from the class, doesn't mean everyone else was unhappy.

So that's all I'm going to say about that.  Here's my quilty finish that was started in Ms. Stone's workshop.  The pattern is her original pattern.  The outside sawtooth parts are paper pieced and the inside square with the birdie is fussy cut.  Her quilt, that used this pattern, had flowers that had been thread painted in the centers.  It was so lovely.

I ended up making just one block using the workshop material.  I decided to turn it into a mini quilt to hang in my sewing room.  I love the fabric that I used in the quilt - it makes me happy.  

I used it as sort of a practice block for quilting.  I did echo quilting in the center square.  

And free motion quilting on the rest.  I think it was my first free motion quilting project other than the sample sandwiches that I had been practicing with for some time. It's very densely quilted.  I think I was trying to get as much practice in as possible.  lol

 Here is the back.  You can see the echo quilting really well here.  This little quilt has lived in my sewing room for quite some time now because someone had never put the binding on.  Finally, someone - me - did.

 The little mini only measures 11.5 x 11.5 inches.

    The backing fabric is Wordplay from Benartex.  A lot of the fabrics used in the sawtooth paper piecing are from Michael Miller (Mirror Ball dots and the orange swirl), there are some Marblehead fabrics by Ro Gregg and the rest is just random from my stash.  The birdie fabric in the center is a clearance piece of fabric that I found at Hancock's.  I only bought 1 yard of it but I love it and now I'm afraid to use it.  The binding is from the Architextures line by Robert Kaufman.

This was a UFO that I was able to scratch off my 2014 list.  
I hope you liked my little quilt and thanks so much for visiting me at my blog.  Please leave a comment so I know you were here - even if it's just to say hi!
**linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts**

WIP Wednesday - Giant Starburst Quilt

At the end of last year, Canoe Ridge Creations blog posted a quilt along for a giant starburst quilt.  I loved her finished quilt and wanted to join the QAL right away but I had too much Christmas sewing still to do.  :(

 However, I did go ahead and buy the fabric amounts that were stated in the requirements.  I chose 4 solids that are all Kona Cottons.  They are turquoise, chartreuse, mulberry and corn yellow.  The white fabric is a text print called Poppy Patio from Jill Finley for Henry Glass fabrics.  It's a very subtle text print.

As soon as I could after the new year, I started this quilt.  I'm hoping to have the top finished by February 13th which is the last day to enter into our local quilt show.  You have until March to actually finish the quilt so keep your finger's crossed that I can finish the top by next week.

This is what I have so far.
I just need to do the half square triangle squares and then sew it all together.  It's going to end up being 60" x 60".  I know you can't tell scale by looking at this pic.

I love it so far.  
I'll keep you posted.

P.S.  I've decided to participate in A Lovely Year of Finishes hosted by Shanna of Fiber of All Sorts and Melissa of Sew Bittersweet Designs.  The idea behind A Lovely Year of Finishes is to set goals each month and then try to complete your goal.  If you do, and you link back up with their linky parties, you can win a prize.  But more importantly, you have finished something and that always feels great!


So my goal for February is to complete the quilt top, sandwich, baste, quilt and bind my Giant Starburst Quilt.
 *linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and a Lovely Year of Finishes goal linky party.*

A Quilty Finish - Martha's Cross Quilt

I started working on these cross blocks way back during the summer, I believe.  I blogged about them here and here.  This quilt was to be for a very special person who is one of the most genuine people I have ever met.  She has a pure heart - do you know what I mean?  It's hard to describe so I'll just say that you don't meet people like Martha everyday.

The crosses have a special meaning but I'm not going to go into all that.  Let's just say this was a very special quilt for me to make and to give as a friend.  
Although, just from a quilter's standpoint, I LOVE this quilt and I wanted to keep it so bad.  I love the simplicity of this block and the fabrics I used.  I think I'm going to make another one for myself just because I can't stand it if I don't.  LOL.

I know there are a lot of tutorials for this block out on the internet but I actually got my instructions from the book - Fat Quarterly Shape Workshop for Quilters.  I find this book to be a great reference book and for anyone new to quilting.  It gives instructions on 60 or so different blocks but it starts you out on easier blocks that have square pieces, then on to rectangles and then the tougher shapes.  I'd like to try to start at the beginning and work my way through the book to practice and build my piecing skills.

Anyhoo, about my gorgeous quilt,  I made the majority of my blocks with solid crosses in the middle using a variety of Kona cottons and also some Bella Solids.  The white background fabric is Kona White.  I mixed those up a bit with a print occassionally and the went even further by inverting the blocks.  So, I had 3 that had white crosses and print/solid backgrounds.  The blocks all turned out bright and cheerful which was my intention.

I quilted my quilt with an organic wavy line.  Organic meaning I didn't mark anything.  I just started sewing.  I really love how the quilting turned out and I think I'll be doing this quilting on the quilt I'm working on now.  It's basically straight line stitching but with a twist.  I used my walking foot and my little Janome machine, rolled my sides up real good and just went for it.  Also, I'd like to add that I use the 505 Basting spray on everything that I've done so far.  I've tried basting pins but I don't seem to have the knack for them and why mess with them when you can use 505. 

It looks pretty I think.  I used white Aurifil thread in 50 wt. in the color white.  Isn't it funny how it looks green on the green fabric?

This is the quilt back.  I used KonaWhite  for the top and bottom strips.  The middle strip starts off with a red/white dot which is a Michael Miller Ta Dot fabric.  The chaotic fun, colored fabric is my favorite print ever and it is from Robert Kaufman.  This was my last piece but since this quilt meant so much to me, it didn't hurt too bad to use it for this.

The binding is a black and white zig zag fabric from Mama Said Sew by Moda.  I think it finished of the quilt perfectly.  I machine bound the quilt front and back.  I stitch in the ditch on the front of the quilt to sew the binding on the back.  I'm getting really good at it too.  You can barely see the stitches on front.

Lovely and bright quilt back.

My lovely Robert Kaufman fabric.  You can see the cool quilting so well.

This is my lovely friend Martha holding her quilt.  She came over a few days before Christmas and I literally finished the binding that morning before she got here.  She seemed so excited about it and I was excited to give it to her.  

I am so proud of this quilt.  I learned a few quilting lessons when making it - especially about trimming blocks.
The quilt size finished is 48 x 60 inches.  This is the largest quilt I've made to date.

Thanks for reading!

**Linked up to Needle and Thread Thursday, Crazy Mom Quilts and Can I get a Whoop Whoop!

WIP's for Wednesday - a quick update

It's Wednesday again and I thought I'd make a quick post to update the progress of some of my WIP's from this post.

WIP #1 was my Halloween quilt wall hanging that my DH requested for his office.  

I'm almost done with the quilting.  I thought I'd finish today but I had to shop at Macy's run errands.  I want to have it completely finished by Monday so he can take it to work.

My WIP #2 was to finish some items for my etsy shop and I did finish the stack I was working on but now it's time to start more.

WIP #3 was the homecoming mum which I finished and wrote about in my previous blog post.

WIP #4 was the stack of HST blocks that I have been slowly trimming.  When I last posted about them, they looked like this on my design board:

I've trimmed a few more and rearranged them and now they look like this:

One of the first modern quilts I saw was a version of this but in Christmas fabrics by Basic Grey.  I LOVED it and have wanted to make one ever since.  I'm not for sure that these blocks will stay like this but I'm really liking it so far.

WIP #5 was my cross quilt.  I haven't made anymore blocks for it although I do have a stack of fabric waiting for me to cut it so that I can make the final 6 blocks.

And of course, now I have a WIP #6.  

I've started a fall table runner using a stack of mini charms called Wrens and Friends by Moda.  I don't have a fall table runner and I thought I could whip this one up while it's still fall.  Especially since we, just this week, started having temps below 90 degrees. 

That's my progress this week on my WIP's.  I've got my fingers crossed that I will actually have a finish soon.  Maybe. 

*linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced**

Fabric Tuesday

The nice mail lady brought me some new fabric last week.  I got it all on sale from fabric.com.

 Some of the new hipster line from Riley Blake.  I Love this fabric.  I could only get 2 so I had to do the enny menny minney mo to choose.

 The text fabric is Michael Miller's Madrona Road and the other is Essex Linen.  I've been wanting to try this linen so I bought a bit to use on zipper pouches and such.  I also bought a few new fabrics from my local quilt shop last week (I think I was trying to make up for not buying any while I was on vacation) but I forgot to take a pic and now I've mixed it all in with my stash. 

 Here's a sneak peak at a quilt I've been working on for what seems like forever.  It's the "quilt that would not be finished!!".  I've started straight line quilting it in a grid but I'm only about 30% done.  I've had to put it on the back burner so that I could work on some new items for my Handmade Whimzy shop.  I've got lots of new eye pillows, Christmas stockings and aprons to list to get ready for Christmas shopping.  (well, the aprons are cut out but I'm sure the sewing fairy will come sew them up soon!)

**Linking up to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story**