Blogger's Quilt Festival: Western Tanager Mini Quilt

It's that time of year again!  Amy from "Amy's Creative Side has been hosting the semi-annual "Blogger's Quilt Fest" for more than a few years now.  It's the best virtual quilt show that I've found!  Thanks Amy!

I made this paper pieced mini quilt as a block in Joanna's (of Shape Moth) Forest Quilt Along that she hosted last Spring.  It is her "Eurasian Jay" pattern that I tweaked a little and changed the coloring to turn it into one of my very favorite birds, the Western Tanager.

Quilting this was a lot of fun.  I turned all 6 of the blocks that I made into either mini quilts or a pillow, all of which reside in our living room. They were just too pretty to fold up and tuck away into a closet.

The quilt is 16 inches by 16 inches, and took just as long to make as many of my much larger quilts.

Please look at the link above to see other wonderful quilts made by the blogger community!!

Olympic Rings Quilt Finished!

The Winter Olympics was exactly what I needed to motivate me to finish the quilt that I started 2 years ago, during the Summer Olympics.  I stitched on the binding this morning, just as the last of the snow is melting. It's 54" by 72"... the perfect size for snuggling under while we watch the Olympics on TV.

I decided to quilt laurel leaf wreaths in each of the rings.  As the legend goes, Laurel leaf wreaths were put upon the victor's heads during the original Olympics in ancient Greece.  The rest of the quilting is my attempt at flames, from the Olympic torch.  I think it was so neat to see it go into space during it's voyage to Russia.

I decided to use a black and white variegated thread in the black top and bottom borders, and LOVE the effect!  I'll be using this technique again!

The back is simple, just some coordinating solids I had.

I love the way the rings and other quilting shows on the back.  As I've gotten better at free motion quilting, I like solid colored backs more and more, as they show off the quilting, rather than hide it.

I hope you are enjoying the Olympics as much as I am.  Call me crazy, but my favorite events are the Half Pipe Snowboarding events, as well as the Mogul Skiing.  I find them mesmerizing.  I think my own background in gymnastics is what makes them appeal to me, as they have so many wonderful flips and twists.  What's your favorite event of the Winter Olympics?

Another totally off topic question I have is what camera do you use?  My point and shoot has bit the dust, and my son's who I've been using (same model, a Cannon Powershot), is following suit.  I took all of these with my ipad mini.  It's OK, but not great.  I really want to save up and get a nice one next.  Thanks for any advice!

Forest Quilt Along, and July Finish!

Over the week-end, I put the finishing binding on my Forest Quilt Along blocks / quilts!  As I mentioned in this post, it was also my July "A Lovely Year of Finishes" goal. I was hoping to make all 12 blocks, but life suddenly got really busy after 6 were made.  I hope to make at least a few extras in the months to come.

Since I only had 6, and love, love, love these blocks, I knew that I wanted to make something that I could put up on our walls, and look at every day.  I decided to split them all up to spread the love all over the house, and made 2 mini quilts, and 1 throw pillow.

As usual, the quilting part of theses was a lot of fun too.  Here's a few details:

Thanks again to Joanna, Julianna, and all of the other artists and wonderful hosts of this quilt along!

Scrap Attack Quilt Finish!!

Over the long holiday week-end, I was able to finish my Scrap Attack Quilt!  This quilt was started over a year ago as part of "Stitched in Color's" Scrap Attack Quilt Along.  I used it to tackle my batik scrap bin.  It's not only scrappy, but also a sampler of several block designs and quilting motifs. My camera really doesn't like the black and white contrast, so DH took a few shots at different exposures to "see" it.

The only thing that's not scrappy about it is the back!  Is that funny or what?  This fabric was a gift from one of my sister-in-laws who was cleaning out a basement, and let me go through her fabric before sending it to Goodwill!  Sweet!

As mentioned in the prior post, I tried to make up a few of my own quilting designs.  This "cells" design is my favorite!! I was finally able to use my Aurifil 40 weight thread for all of the quilting!  I love it, and my Janome handled it beautifully.  The top is all pieced with Aurifil 50 weight (as are most of my quilt tops).

Finally, I used a brilliant idea / tutorial that Melissa at Sew BitterSweet Designs recently shared.  I used the monogram feature on my Janome to stitch a label into the binding!  I LOVE this idea / technique!  I will for sure be using this in future quilts!!

I'm also linking up with Melissa and Shanna's A Lovely Year of Finishes for the month of May!  Come see what others have finished!

Cold Snap and Scrap Attack, and Some New Free Motion Designs of My Own!

Like everyone else, I've been glued to my TV watching the aftermath of the horrible storm in Oklahoma that happened this week.  My mom's side of the family are all originally from Oklahoma, but none of them, thankfully, were affected.

State of Oklahoma

One of the best things about quilting your own quilt is that you can stitch anything you want into it.  I love stitching little "hidden messages" into my quilts.  I've been trying to finish up my "Scrap Attack Quilt this week, and decided to stitch the state of Oklahoma into one of the blocks.  It's hard to see, but it's there.

Topo Map

Cells

Protozoa

Spirochetes

I decided that since this is a scrappy sampler quilt, that the quilting should be as well.  It was also a great excuse to practice some of the designs I have wanted to try but didn't want to commit to a whole quilt. Here are some of my favorite designs.  A few are from Leah Day's website, but I'm trying more and more to create my own.  I made up some "cells", "spirochetes", and "protozoa".  I love Leah's "topo map" design, and will for sure be doing this again, as well as my very own new ones  I also attempted a "stream bed", and tried again to learn to like pivoting designs, but alas, I'm afraid I really don't like them.  Hate to admit it, but I really don't like traditional feathers either... not even enough to attempt them, but maybe my next design will be real feathers :-).

I also decided that I'd try to use a thread that doesn't "match" the sashing, and like how that turned out too!  I'm hoping to finish up the border and binding today or tomorrow.

Finally, here's a shot of our garden that I took last night as the sun was going down.  We had a record cold snap last night, and got a good freeze, but luckily our efforts to protect everything worked.  A few weeks ago we had record high temperatures.  I can't help wondering if the massive tornadoes and our record temperature extremes are related to global climate change.  I believe that they are.  We as a family have taken many steps to try to minimize our impact, but I sure wish governments would step up to the plate and address this most important issue.

WIP Wed: Honeycomb / Hexagon Machine Quilting Tutorial

I'm about a third done quilting my Organic Chemistry Quilt.  I decided to do a simple grid all over the quilt, but also wanted to use hexagons on it.  After looking all over the Internet for ideas, and pretty much coming up with nothing, I decided to create my own.

One great thing about this quilting design is that just about anyone can do it with a walking foot.  All I did is to use the same cereal box template that I used to make the appliqued chemical hexagons, and used a plastic pot scrubber (my makeshift "Hera marker") to trace the outline of the next shape to stitch on.

Hopefully this give you an idea of how I am quilting it.  I tried to use chalk marker at first, but the white is almost impossible to see on such a light background, and the few I did in a peach colored chalk didn't easily "erase" with water or a lint roller.  I've had colored tailor chalk stain previous quilts, so immediately stopped using it.  This "Hera marker" leaves a crease that lasts just long enough to guide my stitches over!

It'll take a while to do this, but I find that I really really like this design.  I bet it'd be super easy on a long arm machine too.

Of course now that the design is taking shape, I may not be able to resist free motion quilting inside some of those "empty" hexagons ;-).

WIP Wed: Quilting

I'm trying hard to finish up my "Mark Lipinski Quilt" for February's "A Lovely Year of Finishes".  Any other quilt name ideas would be welcome.  There are already over 70 finishes on her blog party!  Yea!  Be sure to check them out!  I hope to be adding to it very soon!

I just about have the blue and yellow sections finished, but ran our of yellow thread.  I also realized that I didn't have the right orange or green, but now I'm all set, after a trip to the fabric store.

I tried out a new free motion design, in the thin borders, "figure 8's"from Angela Walter's book, and hate to admit that while I love the way it looks, I really don't like sewing it.  I feel the same way about the traditional "loops".  It's interesting how different I feel about various quilting designs.  It's really a lot like different piecing methods, or fabric choices, but it's always good to try something new, even if I decide that I don't like it.

Here's what typically happens in my house when I spread a quilt out on the floor to photograph!  I know I'm not alone ;-).

I have a few ideas, but I would love to hear any suggestions on how to quilt all of the great "negative space" in this quilt!  I'm also linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced WIP Wed.  With the help of all of the wonderful link ups out in blog land, I'm down to just 3 quilt tops to finish up after this one is done!!!

Enlarged Heart, and a "Craft Fail"

Against all conventional medical advice, I decided to enlarge my heart LOL!

I liked my Valentine Cards so much (so did my husband and 2 boys), that I decided to enlarge it to a 12.5 x 12.5 inch size and make the first block of a "gross anatomy" quilt.  It's been way too long since I did a fun geeky quilt, and this heart was just what I needed to realize that!

I also thought I'd share a "craft fail".  Truly, a fail is also a learning experience.  I've dabbled in the past with using bleach to "discharge" the dye in fabric to make shirts, and artwork.  I bought this bleach pen a few months ago, after seeing a craft made with it on a T shirt.  I was going to write out my card with the bleach, but the result was less than desired. 

In the end, I bought the largest gauge thread I could find for my sewing machine, and free motion quilted it.  It was a button or upholstery thread I believe, and it really stretched the limit of my machine, but it worked!!

I just got to add that with 2 kids in school, I hear often about the pros and cons of teaching cursive writing anymore.  I'm not sure I could do this as easily in print :-P.

Irish Chain Wildlife Quilt Finish

Here it is, my finished Irish Chain Wildlife Quilt!!  I started this for my husband's 50th birthday, which was just a month and a few days ago.  I bought the fabric panel at a local quilt show a year or so ago, and found some coordinating fabric here and there.  I've been wanting to make an Irish Chain quilt for a while now, and using the panels in the center was a perfect opportunity.  It was also rather serendipitous, as after I made the quilt top, I realized / remembered that my husband's birth mother was Irish.  He was adopted at birth and we know almost nothing about his birth family, but do know that one fact.

As I mentioned in recent posts, my husband's only comment when I was making the quilt was that there was no elk in it.  My oldest son also shot his first elk on my husband's birthday, so I knew that I had to put an elk in there somewhere.  It's there, but you have to look hard... kind of like camouflage ;-).

The rest is quilted in an "antler" design.

The back was made from stash fabric.  With 2 boys and a husband, and even a boy hunting dog in the family, there's no shortage of "Mossy Oak Break-up" here... It's 60 by 60 inches, and yes, my husband totally loves it, and was very impressed with the quilted elk :-).

I'm linking up with Shanna at Fiber of All Sorts Finish party!!  Whew hew!!  Come join us over there!!

I'm also linking up with Crazy Mom Quilt's Finish It Up Friday!

WIP Wed, T@tT: Wildlife and Kale

I spent a good chunk of yesterday quilting my Wildlife Quilt that I'm making for a belated birthday present for my husband.  When I showed him the finished top, and asked him for input on borders and quilting, his one and only comment was "There's no elk!".  Hmmm...  So I had to figure out a way to get an elk in there somehow LOL.

I found an elk image on Google images, blew it up on the copy / printer, and traced it onto some tracing paper / physicians' office exam roll paper that I have on hand.

Then I stitched it onto the quilt.  I'm glad I only did one first to see if I wanted to do several throughout the quilt.  It hindsight, I wish I had stitched only the outline onto the paper, removed it, and then did the shading, because this

is a

to remove!! Anyone know if this will come out in the wash?  The rest of the quilt is quilted in a "sharp stipple" that I tried hard to make look like antlers.  I hope to get the binding on it today!!  Joining up with WIP Wed at Freshly Pieced!

I also just had to post a food item for Tuesday at the Table after making these kale chips last night for dinner!  Sorry for the lousy picture... I'm a card carrying member of the kale haters' club, but after getting 2 heads of it in our CSA / Co-op bin last week, I didn't want to throw it in our compost bin without trying something.  I found this recipe on the Food Network, and low and behold, they're actually pretty darn good!  Even my husband and kids agreed!

I also hope to make one of the Triple Zip's that Debbie is hosting a zip-along for.  Little does Debbie know, but I love zippers, and find them irresistible each time I spy them in thrift stores.  I have quite a collection, and hope to make up more than a few of these nifty pouches!!