Scrappy Neutral Stars

I must have lugged these blocks back and forth to retreats for two years, but finally, FINALLY, the quilt is done.  Most every scrap of gold and neutral in my stash got sliced up for this one.  Some of the blocks don't really seem to blend, but I'm still learning how to scrappy.

The quilting was kept simple as this one stays home with me.  The trapunto effect would probably have been better if I'd added a layer of poly batting on top of the cotton, but meh.  After a couple of washings it will shrink a bit and look puffier.

Usually the heavier quilting goes in the background, but this time I switched it up and gave the background just a simple geometric design.  

Gotta sign and date 'em.  :)

Happy spring everyone!

Purple Carpenter's Star

A very dear friend and good customer did her very first paper pieced block for the center of this quilt.  She made it for her grown daughter who loves purple.  I put the binding on, but she's going to fold it over and sew it down.

Quilting such large open spaces is always a blast.  This time I tried to keep the theme floral, feathery, and a little formal.  My customer was a little disappointed with how white the top turned out, so I liberally employed purple thread.

Since the center block is a miniature of the larger quilt, I went with feathers in the outer border for it too.  Kept it white though.  Here I really wanted the contrast to show off her paper piecing.

Big chunk of solid purple for the back shows off the quilting really well.

Best part?  Done in time for Miss D. to get the binding sewn down and put it under the tree!

Hunter's Star Finished

Originally inspired by this picture, this hunter's star quilt took about a year to make. The pieces were cut last winter and the top finished in the summer. Quilting didn't get moving until around Christmas 2015 and the binding was finished only a week or so ago.

I tried to make the frost shimmer with Magnifico (a Superior threads shiny polyester thread).  Up close it works great.  I still can't photograph stuff like that well.  I love love love the way that thread handles.  You take one look at the shininess and start sweating, thinking it's going to break every seven stitches, but I had no trouble at all with it.  Marvelous stuff.

Small pieces cut on the bias made these blocks challenging to work with, but a little starch and a little patience paid off.

Don't ask me why the dark star.

This quilt was sold before it was finished and will be winging it's way to the Windy City next week.  Sometimes it's hard to let them go.

Decorated for Christmas

Got this one finished in time for the holidays, yay!  Again using a pattern found in Pam and Nicky Lintotts' Jelly Roll Quilts, I made up this version of Both Sides of the Pond in some green and red batiks with a liberal dose of Kona white.

Serious hat tip to Lori Kennedy of The Inbox Jaunt for her really cool christmas doodles from a couple years ago.

And with the addition of some grinchy flannel for the back (which you can just see peeking out the corner in the picture below...

...the house is now decorated for christmas!

Icy Hunters Star

It's all cut out and piecing has started!  I had a little trouble at first getting the unusual angles to line up correctly after sewing.  Turns out the seam allowance wants to be a thread's width narrower than I was making them.  Now that it's straightened out though piecing is moving along well.  But I've gotten ahead of myself.

Beth and I decided to build one of these each when we first saw a red and white Hunter's Star on the net a couple of years back.  I don't remember now what colors she chose, but I wanted something that looked very wintery, so I collected lots of low volume blue and grey prints and a few different whites to work with.

I made a bunch of 3 7/8" strips (to minimize waste) and ran them through my Go! cutter with the hunter's star die.  Boy was this ever easier than trying to keep everything lined up nicely for a 30° cut!  EDIT:  how embarassing!  Of course I meant 45°!

So now it's just a matter of several iterations of chain piecing, which will take a while.

I did make a test block - the real blocks will be alternating blue and grey four patches instead of four of one color/print, but I like the way it looks.

Dizzying Disappearing Rhapsody

Yes!  The top is finished!  Still trying to decide about a border, but otherwise, it's done.  There was a LOT of matchy-matchy involved in this top, but it's good exercise.  I'm happy with the fabrics and the layout.

Next up is the hunter's star I've been hoping to do for probably two years.  Still cutting out parts for it, but piecing will start this week.

Disappearing Rhapsody

The post titles get lamer as time goes on, I know.

A fat quarter pack of rhapsody of reds from Connecting Threads has been sitting on my sewing table for about a year now waiting for just the right project to come along.

My buddy Beth pointed me to this video from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  Yah.  Perfect!

I'm going to lay out the blocks differently though.  Here's what her quilt looks like (the layout not the fabrics):

and this is what I'll be doing:

Their layout is pretty, but being a long arm quilter, I really like the little buttons of color surrounded by all that white space.

As usual I added in fabrics from my stash that play well with the CT fq pack.  Here's my first few blocks finished and layed out in the configuration I like.  The one that looks completely white is made with a very low volume red print.  It might not make the final cut:

This technique is fun, but it does take a little while, so the quilt won't be finished this week.

Marcy's Leftovers Complete

This quilt was made from a bunch of muslin, a couple of pieces of solids from my stash, and a friend's leftovers.  The poor thing was put on Terpsichore and taken back off again half a dozen times before I finished all the quilting.

 I got a little whimsical in the borders.

My freehand circles are about as round as my homemade pancakes which is to say not especially round.  It was fun to quilt and I love the pattern the quilting makes on the back,

and the fabrics are gorgeous and I would never have made the quilt if it wasn't for the freebie 2" x 4" scraps Marcy handed me.

Binding the quilt in the neutral fabric may have been a mistake, but I've gotten bored with the eye popping edges I see everywhere (including on my own quilts) and am ready to try other things for a while.

Blue and green aren't my colors, so this quilt is looking for a home.

Bloggers Quilt Festival May 2014

Double photobomb!

Here's my entry for the May 2014 round of the Bloggers Quilt Festival.  This quilt was made for my aunts to celebrate their marriage last July.  Quilting took far too long and it didn't get finished until just last month.

The greens were supposed to be sage, but they just aren't.  I tried to tone them down a bit by using grey/green and grey/blue threads.

The pattern is just a traditional Carpenter's Wheel block made large enough to be a quilt.

I was especially pleased with the Invisafil thread in the outer border.  Nice subtle texture and unlike many of the thin and shiny threads, didn't break all the time.  The rest of the quilting was done in various shades of green and plain white A&E tex 40 quilting cotton.

The snails and pebbles background fill worked well, but from time to time it got boring so I threw in a few easter eggs.

From any distance at all the quilting is almost invisible on the front.  But if you get up close...

...the details come out.

Using a little bit of green thread on the back gave it some character.

The center medallion got a monogram, well-wishes, and a traditional curved crosshatch background fill.  You should see the three foot long MDF curve template I made out in the shop.  Thumping it around on the quilt for about six hours while I worked around the intials was a hoot, I assure you.

If I had more time I would probably have embellished these letters more.

Scraps from the green batiks joined end to end made the binding.

Thanks for stopping by, feel free to say howdy in the comments.  I reply to all of them.  Enjoy the rest of the festival!

The Only Problem...

 

...with designing lots of HSTs into a quilt is that Someone Has to Sew Them! There are at least 260 HSTs and about 40 QSTs in my Americana quilt.  Squaring up is next.  Guess what my next complainy post is going to be about?  :)