Christmas Quilt...

I'm making a quilt for a Christmas present, and I'm loving how it is turning out!!  I've combined two ideas from Pinterest, and one idea from Sunday Morning Quilts (again, with my favorite book!  I know I know, I may have an addition...), and created this pattern.

  First, I made some 'slabs' like they make in Sunday Morning Quilts. 

 I made them 15" square, because that was the largest ruler I had to square them up.

 Then, I found this technique on Pinterest, and used it to make 4 HST at one time.

AND THEN, I used this picture and drafted two versions of this green and red quilt...

I'm loving how it looks so far, even with only two rows sewn together...

Here's where I'm headed.

And Gracie even "helped" by covering the blocks with cat hair...She's so funny!

I'll post pictures when I get it done!  :)

Updating Updating Updating...

I am busy updating a pattern that I wrote a few years ago, and trying to make it more of a Modern Quilt.  Then I can take a new picture for the front, and hopefully sell these remaining patterns I have.  It seems that I am forever trying to take the fabric I already have in my stash, and use it in updated ways.  Why is this so often my challenge?  It's so hard to grow and evolve as a quilter when I'm trying to use up fabric that I bought as a teenager...I mean, it's honestly like a whole other person bought some of this stuff.  Hopefully others have this challenge, too...

I must admit I bought some new fabric from Ruby Street Quiltworks to make a sample, and I'm excited to cut into them.  The pattern will very soon be for sale in my etsy shop in both paper form, and digital form...again, I gotta get the sample done, and pictures taken...I mean this black and white picture will NOT cut it in my opinion...

Plaids, Stripes & Solids

I love my husband VERY MUCH!  I mean, hey, any guy that will go into a fabric store voluntarily  is definitely a keeper!  But I tease him about being the "Civil War Reproduction Fabric Man."  If there is a line of fabric containing a few grayed out greens, a dark-DARK navy, and a couple cheddar oranges somewhere in the store he's entered voluntarily, my honey will find it and want to buy it ALL.  For example, for our first anniversary (you know, the Cotton anniversary), he bought me several yards of the stuff, which, I'm not gonna lie, confounded poor, jewel-tone-lovin', modern-quiltin' me.  But I made a cool wall-hanging with it, complete with appliqued leaves, and he was so happy.  It's in our living room.  And as much as I don't want to admit it, it looks GREAT with our couch and table...

Anyway, at another fabric store, he pointed out this quilt made of a bunch of homespun plaids and stripes, with a few coordinating solids.  "There's a kit available," the Quilt Shop Owner says.  So, I ended up with this batch of stuff that I wasn't real sure about.  But last week, I started sewing it up, and I have to admit, even though there's not a white or gray solid in sight, it's growing on me...Here's the progress so far:

I was a stinker, and totally didn't follow the directions.  I greatly dislike cutting out individual squares, and so instead I sewed up small strata, and then cross-cut them into squares.  In the original, all the stripes, for example, were going different directions, and I'll lose that, but that's ok with me.

Solids with solids, plaids with plaids, stripes with stripes. And LOOK!!  There's a REALLY good turquoise in there, as well as a yummy plummy purple solid, so HOORAY!  Jewel-tones in among the grayed out colors! :)

I think this is pretty close to a Modern Quilt.  It's definitely a simple pattern.  Maybe, if I like it enough, I'll remake it in more modern colors...


After I get the four-patches sewn together, there's a 1 1/2" border that goes around each block, so I'm back to cutting and sewing!  I have a feeling this is going to be another project that looks amazing in my living room.  Sigh...I'll have to tell my husband that he was right! :)

I was in a QUILT SHOW!!

Even though I've been a quilter for about 20 years, I have never had a quilt of mine in a quilt show.  Well, I guess there was this one time at the fair when I was a teenager, but it was SUPER STRESSFUL!  I mean, the JUDGEMENT!  Ugh!  I have a large enough anxiety issue without all of that pressure and judgey-ness on my hobby, for heavens sake.  So, over the years, I've decided that my quilts will remain in my house, and only shared with people who, if they have a judgement or criticism, will have the good sense to keep it to themselves so I don't have to throat-punch them.

But then, my friends in the Rubystreet Art Quilters group had a show at a local library recently, and there was no judgement to get into the show, there were no prizes, no juries, no stress of any kind really.  So, not one but TWO of my quilts hung in that!  And, it was amazing; I was very proud of myself, and I didn't have a panic attack over it.  Success and growth right there, people, that's what that is!

Here they are, hanging in the library's rafters:

This quilt is one that I've posted on here before, I think.  I started it a long time ago, and recently got it quilted.  It's from the book Material Obsession by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Filke.  Their version had brown backgrounds behind the flowers, but I was really into white at the time, so that's what I used in my version.



This quilt was totally inspired by the book Sunday Morning Quilts by Amanda Jean Nyberg & Cheryl Arkinson.  I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this book, and I've made several projects from it.  I thoroughly enjoy their scrap quilting method called "Slabs" and I used that idea when I made this quilt.  It's called "Blackout", and was a Christmas gift for my husband.  He is a gun collector, and has one called a Blackout 300, which as far as I'm concerned, is Greek for "expensive."  But as he was explaining to me what makes it a Blackout and a 300, and I was trying to listen, I had this quilt idea flash before my eyes, so I got to work.  The cross in it is supposed to look like when you look through a gun's sights, but as I am a Girl, I wasn't really certain what that looked like, so I made up my own interpretation.

Here it is up a little closer so it's easier to see all the separate pieces in the "Slabs."  One thing I did NOT think about with this quilt is that we have a white cat.  White cat + all black quilt = a big ole non-practical mess...

So, there are my OFFICIAL show quilts!  Ha, I was in a show!  A couple more non-judgmental things like this, and I may get up the courage to enter a real, juried quilt show...who knows?!?  Of course, I may need to up my meds before that happens...

Low-volume quilt

So for 20 years or so, I've been a pretty excellent quilt TOP maker, but I've kinda been behind in the actual QUILTING part of things.  So about 2 years ago, I bought myself a machine JUST for quilting, and I've been having a really good time!  Except for the fact that things keep popping of the machine and hitting me in the forehead, which is problematic.  But, don't worry -- I always wear glasses, so they'll act as protective eye gear if I need it.  Who knew quilting could be so hazardous?

Anyway, I have my poor, friendly sewing machine repairman stumped, because apparently he's never seen this issue in any machine but mine.  So pretty much its the lottery you DON'T want to win.  The fact that it's happened twice now definitely indicates operator error in my opinion, but F.S.M. Repairman has been too kind to say this kind of thing out loud, or even agree with me when I suggested it as an option.  I should probably thank him for that...

But this means that the stack of pinned quilts are still not quilted, because my quilting machine is in the shop again.  So, I've dug out my back-up piecing machine (the one with the REALLY GOOD 1/4" foot), and I'm cutting and sewing up fabric and projects for quilt tops that have been on hold.  For example:

Years ago, while working in a quilt shop, I ended up with a sample pack from a fabric rep of these woven baby plaids.  There wasn't a huge amount of any of them, and they were all weird sizes, so I squared them up, added a white square, sewed corner to corner, and turned them into half square triangles....

I found some polka dots on a white background, and a seersucker plaid with all the same colors, so I made some of those blocks as unifying triangles.   Then, I mapped them out with my trusty graph paper, so they would be evenly distributed over the whole quilt top.

I have them all pinned and ready to sew up into rows.  I'm thinking I'll add a white border, I have a flannel from my stash for the back, and I have enough of the dots for binding...Then to quilt it up, and I can send it to my friend who has a new baby!

I really didn't have a pattern for this one.  So, I was afraid at first that this would be a somewhat boring layout, but I'm really liking it so far.  It's such a nice low-volume quilt.  


Hopefully, my quilting machine will be well soon, and home from Sewing Machine Hospital, and I can get back to all those pinned quilt tops...especially since I'm making more! :)

South Sound Modern Quilt Guild

So, a Modern Quilt Guild started here in the Olympia area -- hooray!!  I am so excited to be a part of it!  We've been a guild for a few months now, and we got to start off with a charity quilt for tornado victims.  It was super fun -- the quilting, not the tornado...My friend, Tracie, and I put the top together so another guild member could quilt it.
Here are some pics of the fun!   More soon!

This is one of the blocks I made...

Here's another.  This is a Vanishing 9-Patch that I totally
figured the math wrong on, so I had to add a little green border
edge to make it 12.5"UF.  Oh, how embarrassing!!

And another block.  I was on a role...
We chose the colors of green, blue and gray
with with for our quilt blocks.

Right before this charity quilt assignment, I had just
purchased the book "Color, Block & Quilt" by the amazing
Emily Cier of Carolina Patchworks.
I LOVE the book, and LOVE this block,
so this was a perfect opportunity to try something!

Here is the finished block layout!  Pretty good
for two tired ladies who'd worked all day sewing
in a time crunch.  We only got ONE block
in sideways!  Woohoo!  This layout is adapted from
on in "Color, Block & Quilt" -- see?  I am hooked
on that book!!

Blogging is hard...

This blogging thing is hard.  If you notice, I haven't posted in a while.  Like years...Who knew it would be as big as it is in the quilting & crafting world.  So, I'm trying it again -- hopefully I can keep up with it this time! :)  First I have to fight the cat for the chair at the computer...

Here are some things I've been working on:

I finished the 102" x 108" quilt for my King sized bed.  It's made with leftover fabric pieces from my husband & my wedding in 2007.

You know you've been quilting a lot when you have this many empty spools!!

I made a quilt using the Jelly Roll I bought in Maui the last time we were there.  I'm in the process of quilting it now...more pics to come.

This quilt idea came from a picture on Pinterest

that didn't connect to anything.  I searched and searched, but I came up with nothing.  So, I sat down with my graph paper and figured out something similar.  I'm pleased with the results!

I made a quilt for my brother, who used to own a VW Van.  The van block was a free tutorial from Tula Pink.  The pattern was this one I've had forever called Hole in the Wall from Humble Bee Quiltworks.

It's such an old pattern that the website link on the back is no longer up.  Let's just say that it's a pattern I bought because of the potential and NOT because of the picture on the front...

I made a quilt for my sister-in-law, too, but I can't find that picture...

And then I made some baby quilts for my stock pile. This one is La France from Villa Rosa Designs.  I'm addicted to these little patterns!  They're on a postcard, and are inexpensive, but always darling!!  This one uses a pink version of a 2003 Alexander Henry fabric that I somehow ended up with lots of.  

This is the La France pattern again, and a green version of the same 2003 Pixie fabric.   How did I end up with so much??  Seriously, it's like 5 yards of each!  There's an overlay of glitter on it too.  My mom swears I bought it -- she was with me when I did, apparently -- but I think I've had a stroke or other head injury since then, which is keeping me from remembering...

So that's a little taste.  I'm trying to find a way to marry my 20+ year fabric stash with the modern quilts I want to make.  I think I'm getting there...I'm definitely keeping myself busy!