Apple Autumn Quilt

For this pattern, I was inspired by Camille Roskelley's quilt "Coming Home" in her book Simplify - which I also used here, but with smaller corner pieces. The quilt is quite simply 5 inch charms with 2.25 inch white squares sewn to the corners. I just started pulling fabrics from my stash and was thrilled when I had everything I needed to finish this quilt in a weekend and get it to its recipient, a dear person in need of some comfort, as soon as I could. I even had backing (half of an Ikea duvet cover)! I never have backing!

Anyways, it finished at 56" by 65", it's quilted in an allover meander on my machine with Aurifil colour 2325 50 wt thread. I experimented with cutting my binding strips at 2" this time rather than 2.25" as I usually do. I love it! The binding is exactly the same width on both sides of the quilt! I will be doing the same from now on. I happen to be partial to a wood grain binding, not sure why, but I have bound about 5 quilts now with wood grain prints.

 Isn't it a great colour palette? My son helped me out and named it "Apple Autumn". I was thinking something like "Indian Summer" but I think "Apple Autumn" is just the right kind of juicy and sweet name.

 Ok, off to stitch a label and make a quilt delivery...

Swooning in Progress...

So I'm now hand quilting my king size Swoon!

Since the summery picture above (did we REALLY have grass out there?!  It's now under 3 feet of snow and ice) I added a border in October. (And bear with my iPhone pictures below...for some reason I can't seem to manage pulling out the real camera until the quilt is done).

Finally, after a monster basting job which used up all my pins and all my floor space...I am quilting! I am using heavier threads, such as DMC perle cottons in size 8, and Aurifil in size 12, in a variety of colours and I'm liking it so far!

The blocks have all finished at 16.25" square, a reduction from the pattern's original 24".  If you haven't come across this pattern yet, it's Swoon by Camille Roskelley and can be found here.

For more Swoon inspiration, be sure to look at the Flickr groups of fellow Swooners.  And again, join us, won't you?

Still Swooning

I'm just about finished my gigantic Swoon top! You may remember a few posts ago that I joined up with Fairy Face Designs and her Swoon 2013 Quilt-a-Long!

Here is what has resulted so far:

I've run out of Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in Flax, AGAIN, so will have to postpone adding my final sashing strips around the outside of this beauty. And yes, I had to enlist at least 4 boys to hold up this quilt top for photographing!

Swoon Along 2013

Quilty people on the internets are still Swooning Along, and so am I. I joined up with FairyFace Designs and her Swoon 2013 Quiltalong to make my second Swoon quilt. (If you haven't seen this very popular pattern yet, it can be found here at the designer's own site.)

Last year there was a very successful quilt-along led by the very persuasive Katy Jones of I'm a Ginger Monkey. I added in my Swoon which had been completed the year before, now in the possession of my father-in-law, but I was still itching to make one in a fresh, modern palette. And I wanted to try scaling down the blocks.

So I started another one in March of this year, and put it on hold when all the shops ran out of the Essex Yarn Dyed Linen I was using for the background! I finally was able to get some from Mad About Patchwork (which I see is sold out again!) and start up again late this Spring when this new Swoon-Along began. Here are my blocks so far:

 

I decided to make mine king size, gulp! (Ask me how that is going in a few months... lap size quilts are nice too!) And since I have scaled down the blocks to 16" that means I can get away with 25 total with a border and all. I have all the fabrics cut out too!  I decided to use up all my Denyse Schmidt fabrics I have from a variety for her lines: Flea Market Fancy (old and new release), Katy Jump Rope, Shelburne Falls, and Hope Valley.

The only issue I find is that if I let too long of a time elapse between putting the blocks together, I'm all kinds of mixed up and sewing things together all kinds of crazy ways. I just can't get my head wrapped around the block unless I sit and do a few at a time. I did 2 last night, the first took me about an hour and the second about 15 minutes. I need a whole day with nothing else to do to get this one whipped without frustration, I think. Oh well. We will see if that happens!!

 Don't get me wrong, it's really not a hard block, I just don't concentrate very well, I guess!! Oh, and you need to go take a look at all the lovelies that the Swoon 2013 participants are making at the Flickr Group! And join us, won't you?

My blocks so far, and my son's feet :)

 (Edited 07/07/2013) ... PS.  OK, 15 minutes might have been an exaggeration... I didn't time it, but it felt fast!  I don't want to discourage anyone :)

A Christmas in July Post

Well, I sure would like to be posting more, but I'm not. Hmm, I really don't have anything to say about that. Maybe I'm doing other things. Anyways, here is a quilt I just finished. It is all washed, dried and crinkly goodness (pictures are pre-wash...couldn't wait, it was going to rain) and I love it. I began with this one last year at Christmas time, but didn't finish. I DID finish this quilt last Christmas though:

So now, I have one for each couch. Yippee!

And I must say, I didn't think I would come to the day, but I have, and I love free motion quilting a stipple. I didn't realize from pictures on the internet what a lovely texture a stippled cotton quilt has. And I have actually never touched one in real life until when I made my own.  Isn't that crazy?  What a strange world the internet makes.

 

Here are the stats for this quilt:

Size: 50" x 67"
Pattern: "Coming Home" from Camille Roskelley's book, Simplify (adapted, enlarged)
Fabric: charms from Moda's lines, Swiss Holiday and Woodland Holiday, Bella Snow
Binding: Lilac Hill by Moda
Backing: Flannel from LQS
Batting: Hobbs Cotton Wait!  I used an "upcycled" flannel sheet for this one!  I love doing this.   My mom finds them at the thrift store she works at for super cheap!  I love the texture and the thin, drapy-ness.

On a Whim Quilt

One of the most popular quilts, it seems, out there in the online quilting world is "Swoon" designed by Camille Roskelley.  In January, here was a flickr group set up for folks to "quilt along" this lovely, lovely quilt.  I wanted to join but I made my version last fall.  Here it is:

The groups continued on, quilting along with some of Camille's new patterns, "On a Whim" and "Hopscotch".  Many are still doing "Swoon" and that is okay, it is a very easy going and relaxed group.

I decided I wanted to try "On a Whim". I had grabbed a few Civil War Reproduction fat quarters last fall after viewing some beautiful quilts made entirely from reproductions at a quilt show. And my LQS carries a lot of them, so the repeated exposure was doing its magic on me. "On a Whim" has a real antique feel to it, so I thought it might look nice in these fabrics. I just needed some more fat quarters to round out my collection for the quilt. I made a trip (on my own, wheeee!) to a friend's place a few hours from here in the spring and stopped at quilt shops along the way (squee!). Got some more fat quarters. Then I went to another quilt show and a local shop there was having a humongous sale. They had several selections of reproductions in yardage for super cheap. AND at the show itself, a wonderful little shop, Prairie Quilt Mercantile, was offering little plastic bags we could stuff with reproduction scraps for $5!!. And it wasn't just scraps! There were half meters and fat quarters and strips.... I made that little bag stretch and probably managed to get almost 2 meters in there! So that is where my little collection of civil war prints came from if you cared at all! And here is what I turned them into:

 The top.

After quilting.  I took this picture in the afternoon in the shade, so the colours aren't very true.  The one above it is most accurate.

So I stippled it. I know, I am *so* creative! But it is a big quilt, biggest I've ever free motioned! I do have a few wee puckers on the back. But I used a white sheet, so no one will look at it anyways right? I AM happy with how the top turned out. And I LOVE the texture allover stippling gives!

 And yesterday I finished binding! Love a stripy binding. This fabric was from Prairie Quilt Mercantile.

And now it lives on one of my couches.