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...

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.

Ruby Tuesday: Part Two

Ruby Tuesday Part One coincidentally fell on a Tuesday with Ruby fabrics, and Ruby Tuesday Part Two has also come on a Tuesday with Ruby fabrics times two! Confused yet?

I had two Ruby charm packs from Moda and so made two sweet baby girl quilts with cheery spring pinwheels. It was snowing this morning, so these quilts are as bright as it gets around here today. I stippled one, and straight line quilted the other. They are both backed with a pink flannel from Valori Wells I found at my LQS on sale. Still need to bind them! I have some solid pink from Kona that will be nice, I think.


It's neat to see the different quilty qualities that show up depending on how the quilt is quilted. YKWIM? Hope your Tuesday is terrific!

Fandango Charming Stars Finished

With one sick child and just two littles at home, I was able to put up my feet and watch "Fly Away Home," (sob), and sew on binding this morning!

All finished!

I chose Kona solid in Sable, which I had in my stash.

Edited: August 17, 2012 This quilt has gone to its new home this summer. A final shot from the spring, which I think shows its colours the most accurately. Thanks for everyone's interest in this quilt. Here again is the link to the pattern at Moda Bake Shop.

William Morris Pillows!

Since I made my William Morris Charm Quilt last fall, I have been decorating it on my bed with plain beige pillow shams. Disgraceful, I know, for someone with as much beautiful fabric as I have. Today I finished some new shams with the leftover charms from the quilt! I have wanted to try a "value quilt" for a while, so this is what I came up with:

Fandango Charming Stars

I've finished quilting Charming Stars with straight lines and outlining around the stars. I backed it with a daffodil coloured print from a LQS. I haven't decided yet on a fabric for the binding.

The pattern comes from the Moda Bake Shop site, and is called Charming Stars. It used 3 charm packs of Fandango by Kate Spain and some Bella Snow. I had a charm pack of Bella Snow and used those for the centres of the stars. However, I had 4 charm packs and used the remaining charms cut in half to make a scrappy border rather than one from yardage as in the pattern.

Little Apples Baby Quilt

And another baby quilt. This one I made with a charm pack of Little Apples by Aneela Hoey/Moda. The white is from my LQS, sorry, couldn't tell you the colour or anything. Stippled with a few "eyelashes" on the back I didn't notice until I was all done. I use a Bernina Stitch Regulator and sometimes the default tension is perfect at 4.0 and other times I need to set the bottom tension all the way up to 8.0 to make it look right. I'm not sure what that means. Anyways, I dove in without checking tension after pausing in the quilting for a couple of days and it was off. Hopefully it will look a bit better when washed up, because I'm too lazy to pull out the quilting. Maybe it will fall apart and I will have to anyways. It isn't too bad so we'll see.

More Baby Quilts?

No, I can't stop. It might be their small size, the satisfaction of a job done quickly, the opportunity to practice skills on something not daunting. I am addicted. Here are a couple more I am working up, practicing pinwheels. My points are getting pointier! Amazing what a difference it makes to press seams the right direction!

Maybe one of these days I'll have a finished baby quilt to show! These ones are made with Chrysalis charm packs from Moda and Bella Snow.

Baby Quilts with Solids and Charms

More baby quilt tops! So quick and easy with some Kona Solid yardage and some charm packs!

The yellow squares are made with Kona Daffodil and Wee Woodland charms from Moda. The blue triangles are Kona Lake with Scoot charms from Riley Blake. (Anyone else notice that Riley Blake charms are *quite* exact? No problems with the Moda ones, though!)

A Ruby Tuesday

Today I am enjoying the hope of spring in the air and working with cheerful Ruby fabric by Bonnie and Camille for Moda. I've paired it with Kona Snow and am sewing up happy pinwheels for a baby quilt. How can I not smile?

Central Park Zigzag Baby Quilt

This is what I was quilting today! Look! No straight lines!



However, I must, must, MUST learn to pull up my bobbin thread (especially when my top thread breaks and I have to restart) when stippling, because THIS happened more than once:



Guess what else I did for, like, the first time? Sewed through my finger. Yup, I was wondering when that was going to happen. Sounds like it is most commonly done while free motioning. I can see why! Wow. Multiple things happening at once! Guess I need a bit more practice?

Fox Trails Charm Quilt

Working on a simple, simple charm baby quilt from cute, cute Fox Trails fabrics from Riley Blake.  I can't stop straight line quilting a quarter inch from the seams.  It's my favourite way to quilt, what can I say?

William Morris King Size Charm Quilt

This quilt I finished last year, but haven't yet shared it.

I love the designer William Morris, and when I discovered last year that Moda had produced reproductions of his prints, I immediately had to have them. However, at that time, about the only thing I could find was charm squares left of the lines Morris Tapestry, The Morris Workshop, and a little bit of yardage from a Morris Garden. These lines were all designed by Barbara Brackman, whose work I love.



Since the prints are quite busy and so many different colours, I didn't think they looked right when put against each other. So I decided to sash each square in Kona Espresso. The next question was how to quilt a huge king size on my little Bernina. So I divided the quilt in 4 parts and used a "Quilt as you Go" method to put the 4 pieces together. It worked perfectly with my design since it had so much sashing.



I backed it in a coffee coloured flannel sheet and bound it with some blue yardage from the Morris Workshop line found on Etsy.

PS. Barbara Brackman and Moda have produced another line of Morris reproductions called Morris and Company which is available now in yardage and pre cuts and it's BEAUTIFUL!

On my Design Wall Today

Finished blocks for a Charming Stars quilt using a pattern from the Moda Bakeshop site. Fabric is Fandango charm squares by Kate Spain.

Christmas Table Runner

This is a make from earlier this month, but I wanted to share it. It's made from charms I pulled from packs of Woodland Holiday, Swiss Holiday and Fruitcake, all from Moda. I copied a picture of a runner I found online, it's pretty self explanatory, especially if you are using charm squares. I bound it in some Kona Chinese Red I have waiting for the day I bind my Rural Jardin quilt! Look at my Flickr photostream for that. Just have to decide what to back that one with.

Max and Whiskers Charm Quilts

Max and Whiskers Charm Quilt Number 1, a photo by Cora Quilts ~ MrsCarla on Flickr.

My little guys needed a couple of quilts to use when they sleepover with Opa and Nana (grandparents) in our guest cabin when they visit! Quilts are so much cozier than sleeping bags!!

On my Design Wall for More Christmas Joy!

This idea is from Camille Roskelley's book and so easy to make with charms. I used a combination of Woodland Holiday and Swiss Holiday Charms from Moda. The Bella Snow squares were cut to 2 inches (I think Camille's were 2.25 inches) and "stitch and flipped" to make these blocks. I also have a nice collection of little half square triangles now too! Just waiting on some more Woodland Holiday to make this big enough to decorate my couch for Christmas!