A Jelly Roll Quilt!

I finally finished off this quilt what's been hanging around for a year or so!

I love Lauren and Jessi Jung, the pair that designed this fabric line (called Flora) for Moda. One of my all time favourite lines of theirs is Hideaway, it's so cute. Here is a quilt I made with a bunch from that line last year (don't you love those little swiss houses?):

This one I just finished is made with a jelly roll in a very simple pattern that goes together fast. I just sewed groups of 4 jelly roll strips together, cut those strip sets into squares, arranged, and sewed together with the two borders. The quilting took me the longest (no, that's not right...just deciding what to do with the jelly roll first, and deciding how to quilt it came in a close second for longest stage!)

I decided on an all over free motion swirly, whirly... umm... loopy design. I did feel a little out of control at times, not quite sure which way I was going, and do I now swirl right...or left?? Oh well, I love it anyways. And it turned out much softer than I expected, even with the stitches crossing over themselves so many times. I do love a drape-y quilt.

The backing is half of an Ikea duvet cover I ripped apart. I bound it in some more Flora, a lovely binding print with all those little leaves. As usual, I pieced and quilted it all with Aurifil in a 50 wt., this time in an Ivory.

The final dimensions are 56" by 71", a great size from just one jelly roll plus about a yard and a half for the borders.

Maybe you even have time to whip one up for a Christmas gift!  Here is one I made from this same pattern, last year at Christmas, in a Reunion from Sweetwater jelly roll:

 

Christmas Dresden Plate Pillow

Overcome with the urge to create something Christmassy, and quilty... (because frankly, much of thinking about other aspects of Christmas is far too overwhelming right now)... this Dresden Plate Pillow was created.

 

I used up a bunch of scraps from making the quilt you see behind the pillow a couple of years ago, and some table runners for family members last year. The scraps are pretty much all from Basic Grey's lines Blitzen and Fruitcake.

I hand quilted it with my favourite Aurifil thread in a nice heavy 12 wt. A thoroughly enjoyable experience, as always.



After it has a little wash, I'm sure it will fit the pillow form nicely, right?

So.... are you Christmas quilting?

A Little Triangle Baby Quilt

I had some trouble with photographing this today...it's minus 30 Celsius outside, so the one photo I got that is actually in focus is angled.  I promise, the quilt is square!  Oh well, I was feeling the need to share so this is what you get!

I made this with a variety of triangles, obviously, and varying shades of aqua, Kona solids as a background. Clever observers may recognize this quilt as being inspired by an Anthropologie quilt that made the rounds in blogland a bit ago.

I really do want to be original some day. But for now, as I said above, this is what you get!  The binding, since we are looking at it, is an Anna Maria Horner print...

The backing is my favourite! Anna Maria Horner VOILE! It is so very, very soft and snuggly. And so pretty too!

I quilted it in straight lines on my machine with pale gray Aurifil in 50 wt.  It finishes at about 35" by 41" and the batting is Warm & Natural.

So there it is! Have to run and put another log in the woodstove!  And wrap up in a quilt.  And make some tea... hope it's warmer where you are, but maybe not.  It *is* rather cozy in here :)

I Survived! (and I Quilted!)

Hey there!  It's been quiet from me for a bit.  I was single mothering for almost 10 days while all the mature male members of my collection were away to Orlando.  My older sons are very talented Minecraft artists and went (with my husband as chaperone) to Minecon, a Minecraft convention/trade show.  And took in the fun sights of Florida, too!

I stayed home with the younger boys and tried to keep my head above water by quilting late into the night.  Wait, I do that anyways.  Well, it was harder this time!

I finished this:

There are a few things going on in this quilt that I shall comment on.  One, I machine quilted most of it with Aurifil 50 wt, in beige on the bottom (bobbin) and ivory on the top.  Then I hand quilted the "snowballs" around the insides (roughtly 1/4 inch in) with various colours of heavier Aurifil and DMC threads (8 and 12 wts).

You know how when you quilt something different on the border than you do in the middle, there is a reckoning that has to happen between the two motifs where they meet?  Well, my motifs were weird about it.  I did straight lines following the diagonal in the middle and then a cross hatch following the plaid on the border.  Sometimes I ended up sewing over the same lines twice and sometimes I left a blank spot on the back of that border/middle seam line.  It just depended on what my crazy brain was doing and where I thought it made sense to sew.  Well... on the back it looked weird.  So my solution was to go over the whole thing with a thick decorative machine stitch that looks like a blanket stitch.  You can see it in this picture: 

The quilt came out to 54" by 71".   All the fabrics are American Jane, from the lines ABC 123 and School Days.  I should mention that I used an Ikea sheet on the back of this one as well.

And the other thing I did was to attempt some swirly, whirly loops on this quilt here.  Slow, slow going as this one is making me pull my shoulders up to my ears and I need to take frequent breaks to un-knot.   But I'm learning, so "yay!".

I'm on a ROYGBIV Roll!

This is what happens when you re-organize your fabric shelves and see what you all have there.  I love to organize by colour.  This quilt emerged when I sorted my scrap strings.  And this one when I sorted all my fat quarters and larger scraps!

It was so fun, fun, fun to make! I have referenced it before and I will reference it again, because it is such a great tutorial. Go see Jeni Baker at In Color Order and her Plus Quilt Tutorial.

I backed this one with some snuggly flannel from Riley Blake in a lovely bright red. I quilted it using the "wavy" stitch on my Bernina (stretched as wide as it could go and at length "3") and my walking foot. It was so easy peasy and so satisfying because a little wiggle is totally unnoticeable, unlike with straight line quilting. I'm so happy with the results.

The binding is a fun orange Pezzy Print from American Jane. All pieced with Aurifil in 50 wt of course. I used Aurifil in a light gray for the top quilting and a rainbow variegated for the bobbin, to add colour to the reverse side. Dimensions are 36" by 52".

As much as I love it, it is a little small for the growing members of my family and even for me.  It will soon be up in my Etsy shop!

ETA:  I completely forgot to give credit to Becca at Bryan House Quilts!  Her Rainbow Plus Quilt has been such a part of my quilting subconscious for a while now I barely realized it was not from my own brain!  Becca's, however, is a sophisticated and grown up version which is absolutely breathtaking.  Go look!!

 

Blogger's Quilt Festival, ROYGBIV Category Quilt Entry

Welcome to my blog, and my Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry in the ROYGBIV Quilt category!

This scrappy quilt top emerged from my machine last spring after colour sorting all my string sized scraps!

 You can find the tutorial I used to construct the string blocks over at Film in the Fridge. Or, a similar method is shown in Elizabeth Hartman's book, Practical Guide to Patchwork, under the quilt "Valentine".

 

The backing I finally chose is simple a turquoise sheet from Ikea, the binding is called Itty Bitty RicRac by Lakehouse Designs. I pieced it all and quilted it all with Aurifil thread, using a rainbow variegated thread on the back, which I love. The quilting is an all-over grid done on my machine, diamond-y like the blocks.

Quilt Stats: Dimensions: 59" by 71" 

Fabrics: scrap strings 2" and less, centre strips are made with Habitat Dandelions by Michelle D'Amore for Bernatex. Binding is Itty Bitty Ric Rac by LakeHouse Designs. Backing, Ikea sheet. 

Batting: Warm & Natural 

Thread: Aurifil 50wt for piecing and quilting 

Completed August 2013

  Thanks so much for visiting and enjoy looking around the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Welcome to my Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry in the Baby Quilt Category!

I made this little quilt this summer for my Etsy shop. It was purely a therapeutic exercise, beginning with a pretty charm pack (Happy Go Lucky by Bonnie and Camille), some coordinating solids (a white and Bella's Robin's Egg Blue), and then.... I just went from there. I saw stars, then I saw pinwheels, and then I saw stitches. It might sound like I hit my head, but I guess I saw this quilt!

I decided to round the corners of the quilt, and thusly got an education in making bias binding. Thanks to Jona Giammalva! So that was fun. The binding fabric is one of my favourites, a print from Silent Cinema by Jenean Morrison.

The stitches I envisioned were big, colourful hand stitches in thick Aurifil thread - in both 12 wt and 28 wt. These I added to the top and bottom borders.

And here are the stats in a nutshell:

Dimensions:  31" by 36"

Fabrics: Happy Go Lucky, by Bonnie and Camille

Robin Egg Blue, Moda Bella Solid

Winter White, Free Spirit Solid

Silent Cinema, by Jenean Morrison (binding)

Hello Pilgrim, by Lizzy House (backing)

Batting: Warm & Natural

Thread: Aurifil 50 wt (piecing) and Aurifil 12 wt and 28 wt (hand quilting)

Completed June 2013

So that's it for me here!  Hope you enjoy the Quilt Festival and have fun looking around at all the pretty!

Previous Quilt Festival Entries: 

SPRING 2013

FALL 2012

Scrumptious Baby Quilt

Oh, I almost forgot to blog about this one!  I finished hand quilting it while on vacation:

It's made with a charm pack of Scrumptious by Bonnie and Camille for Moda, and some coordinating Kona solids in pink, green and orange. The french text background fabric has generated a few inquiries on Instagram, and I bought mine from Kloth and I wish I could say it was easily found, but it isn't... oh, oh, oh! I just went to look and she has it in again, hooray! It's by Stof and is called Merci Beaucoup! Isn't it pretty? Quick! Buy some!!

I wish now I would have used a creamier white for the pieced border, to match the text fabric better, but it actually does look closer in real life.

The little deer in the text print reminded me of the little deer in one of my favourite lines from Moda, by Jesse and Lauren Jung, Hideaway. So it is used on the back. Sweet, sweet little deer!

The binding is also a favourite print and colour of mine, from the Silent Cinema line by Jenean Morrison. I also used it in this baby quilt.

 I pieced the entire quilt on my machine with my usual Aurifil, and the hand quilting was also done in Aurifil, in a 12 wt. Final dimensions are 31" by 38". And it is for sale in my shop!

Curio Kaleidoscope Quilt

Popping in to pop up some pictures of this pretty:

I started this one a while ago and in a madness of missing my machine after being gone for more than a month...I quilted her up! (And thusly avoided the mountain of laundry we generated camping for a whole month!)

Maybe I'll come back and post some pictures of our holiday when I climb out from under the chaos and get back into my routine?

 
Oh, and stats:  dimensions of this quilt are 77" by 85". I made it with a fat eighth bundle of Curio by Basic Grey for Moda, some yardage of the same line, and Bella Solid in Snow. I followed Don't Call Me Betsy's Kaleidoscope Quiltalong (now a couple of years old) for the pattern. I quilted with a meandering free motion and pieced it with Aurifil in 50 wt. and the binding is Painter's Canvas by Laura Gunn.

Rainbow Scrappy String Quilt is Done!

I'm so delighted to have finally completed this happy, happy quilt!

I finished the top way back in April but I was waiting and waiting for the perfect quilt back to come floating down from heaven and lay on my floor. It turned out to be a simple turquoise sheet from Ikea. I'm in love with it, and I think it lets the front really shine.

I chose to channel one of my favourite online quilters, Rita at Red Pepper Quilts, and her penchant for bold, stripe-y bindings. There were a couple of naysayers amoung my closest quilt critics (my boys) but Instagram was there to help with a chorus of yes-sayers! The print is called Itty Bitty RicRac and it is from Lakehouse Designs.

She finished at 59" by 71".  Also trying to follow Red Pepper Quilts' style, I put a grid on it, quilting a nice diamond crosshatch all over. I have no clue how Rita's quilts are so incredibly flat and smooth, but we're all wrinkly and crinkly over here anyways, so this quilt fits right into the family. The top thread in the quilting is Aurifil 50 wt in a light gray and I continued the rainbow motif on the back, using Aurifil 3817 (a variegated) in 50 wt in the bobbin.