An Oldie :: But A Goodie!

Somewhere along the years I was 'gifted' my daughters unfinished quilts.  There came a point where I was determined to finish what she started because they were definitely worthy.  I've worked one or two in between my quilts, but there is still work to do!

The latest is a quilt called Lilly Pilly.  It's a beautiful applique quilt that was begging for progress!  And progress is exactly what happened!  

I rarely jump into the applique world, but for this I made an exception.  When my daughter started this she was living in Bloomington and working at a fabric store.  She brought it home one weekend and she and I cut and fused all the tiny pieces onto the tree.  I'm going to say it was probably 2009-ish...I have very little sense of time gone by!

  

The fabrics are Kaffe Fassett and the applique is raw edge.  I can handle zig zag stitching around edges!  Britt had the branches and trunk and a couple dozen leaves done, but I had the bulk of the remaining foliage to complete.  I had to match her stitch length and thread color, which isn't exact!  Close enough to make the mad dash to a finished top though!



Stitching around each leaf went surprisingly quick!  And that fueled me to keep going until every leaf, bird and wing was done.  



I wasn't going to let applique or the knowledge of applique hold me back.  Whether or not I did it the right way wasn't the point, getting it done was!



The top is done...the top is done...the top is done...and one day I will quilt it!  This was a big step and a huge accomplishment.  I wouldn't want to push it too far all at once!

I'm pretty sure I'll dust off the FMQ chops and see if I can't take it to another level.  You will be hearing and seeing about that when it happens!  I am excited about finishing this for my daughter.  Or me.  I'm not sure where ownership changes hands after all this time!  

LINKING:

OH SCRAP! ● MAIN CRUSH MONDAY ●  MONDAY MAKING ●  LINKY TUESDAY 
LETS BEE SOCIAL  

MIDWEEK MAKERS ● NEEDLE & THREAD  ● TGIFF ● CAN I GET A WHOOP WHOOP

Fall Flavor

Fall is in the air ~ everywhere!  Along with the leaves changing to brilliant orange, red and yellow, the weather is rapidly changing as well.  Crisp mornings and chilly evenings.  Around here it has been one big rain-fest for days!  One big soggy mushy mess! 

That being said, I wanted to take a photo of this quilt among the quickly changing trees.  I can picture it nestled over a branch and surrounded my fall foliage, but mother nature is not going to allow that anytime soon!

I'm back to my Kaffe Fassett woven stripes!  This time I will finally use the newest of new colors.

With the older woven stripes I seemed to always go with Kona Khaki or a Chocolate brown. These new colors screamed for something more.  Something different.

I thought about it for a second and knew that Kona Storm would be the chosen one.  It's a beautiful deep, dark and rich color and it paired well with the autumn colors of the stripes.

Some of you may recognize this pattern, 'My Guy', which I've used it in several quilts before. I saw it years ago in an issue of American Patchwork & Quilting (June 2009) and it immediately drew me in.  It makes a wonderful masculine quilt and is perfect with woven stripes.  I use the pattern for reference only.  I like to make the blocks bigger or mix sizes.

Plus...it goes together fast!  Who doesn't love a quick quilt?!  

For the quilting I went with straight lines and waves.  Nothing fancy, but it works for this quilt and for me!

I tried to get a good picture of the entire quilt with not much success!  I'm telling you...the weather is not helping at all!

45" x 64 1/2"
Kaffe Fassett Woven Stripes
Kona Storm

Because I had the stripes out...I decided to delve into the 'COOL' side of things!  This one will be much larger.  I'm using Kona Shadow for the background, I've changed the size of the blocks (again) and I'm using two different widths.

When a design/pattern works for me I seem to go back to it time and again.  And, if I'm looking for a 'quicky'...you can bet this one is at the top of the list!  

I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this kind of thinking!  Do you have a 'Go To' design?  The perfect 'Quick Quilt' you like to make?

LINKING:

Let's Bee Social

WIP Wednesday

  Needle & Thread
Fabric Frenzy Friday
Crazy Mom Quilts

HST's For A Queen

My last post was about hand dyeing fabric.  Hand Dyed Heaven.  I had a beautiful stack of fabric dyed, ironed and ready to cut.  These fabrics were specially dyed and reserved for a custom queen quilt full of half square triangles.  And now we begin...

combination of hand dyed and shot cottons

Where to start.  Of course, cutting squares!  I pulled out my Kaffe Fasset Shot Cotton stash (because I love these mixed with the hand dyed fabric), and began cutting 8" squares.  The stacks were growing and by the end of it I had about 275 cut and stacked.

Once the cutting ended...finally...I needed to pair up the squares.  I love seeing the combinations as I put together the pairs.  I marked each set with a diagonal line and carefully pinned them together for the marathon of strip piecing.  First 1/4" on one side, and then the other.  Kind of mindless sewing, but waiting for the payoff!

You know the next step.  More cutting!  I whipped out the ruler and rotary cutter and sliced and diced each pair in half.  I had my 'Ginsu Knife' vibe going full force!  That resulted in a whole 'lotta' triangles!

With the steam iron blazing, those cut triangle pairs became square (almost) again!  Lots of ironing, lots of steam, lots of stacking!

Aren't they pretty?  I enjoy seeing these blocks come together.  Any block.  Once they get ironed they just look so much better!  

Okay, let's do some more cutting!

I can't sing the praises of these Bloc~Loc rulers!!!  I couldn't tell you how many HST's quilts I have made in the last year (I need to research that)! If it wasn't for these rulers I'm sure the number of finished quilts would have been drastically reduced.  Not to mention they wouldn't be nearly as perfect without Blok~Loc's help!

Usually I end up trimming these to 7", but I wanted them a little bigger because of the size of the quilt.  If I was super careful they would end up being 7 1/2" trimmed.  With the exception of one block that was slightly smaller that the rest, I was able to accomplish that task.

Think about those 138 sets for a second.  This is the carnage left from trimming all of them! Seriously, I feel like I cheated the system for trimming so little and getting away with it!

Half square triangles are basically very easy with lots of design possibilities.  When I make these quilts part of the 'fun' is to see how perfect I can get the points!  Bring on a challenge! So, I will take extra care when putting the blocks together.  

This is where I am as of today.  Two panels each of which is 6 HST's x 10 HST's.  If I were to sew these two panels together right now the quilt would measure 84" x 70", but that can't happen!  I still have to add more. Who would want a queen quilt that didn't fit their bed? Although, the quilts on my bed are not queen size!  I just turned them so there was more length on the sides.  

More work on this today.  Add more length, a little more width, finish the top (hopefully)!  I always get excited at this stage of the game.  You can see the end in sight...that feeling of a fully finished quilt top is exhilarating! 

LINKING:

Let's Bee Social

WIP Wednesday
TGIFF
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Just Vanilla

Vanilla.  It sounds so unexciting, boring, normal, conventional.  'It's so vanilla' ~ when that statement is said, it doesn't exactly get you excited, does it?!

My latest fabric haul was just that.  Vanilla.  Bland and oh so boring.  Just take a look.  I love, love color and this is totally the opposite.

Let's see, Kona Storm, Kona Cadet, Kona Black, Kona bone, putty and oyster.  The last three are actually different, but they sure look the same!

How about this batch.  Kona white, and some low volume text prints. Vanilla...not very stimulating at all!  What the heck is the matter with me. I gotta do better than this!

And so I got to thinking.  What is vanilla.  When you think of vanilla, you do think of plain and unexciting.  But did you know vanilla is a flavor derived from orchids?  I don't think orchids are boring at all!    Vanilla is the second most expensive spice after saffron.  What? Growing vanilla pods takes a lot of hard work.  Very labor intensive.  

Think about it.  Plain old boring vanilla becomes delicious, decadent chocolate cake!  Vanilla zabaglione with raspberries!  Creme brulee! Cookies!  Even perfume!

While this batch of fabric appears to be vanilla boring, one day I'll whip up a recipe and transform it into a decadent, delicious sweet dessert!   

***just a little side note:  The large text print is 108" that I was going to use for a backing.  Much to my surprise I was sent two pieces instead of one and to top it all off...it didn't even add up to the two yards I had ordered.  That's not all...I was shorted 2 yards of white as well!  

SO, that takes care of the vanilla portion of fabric.  If you are an avid or not so avid Instagramer, you may be aware of #thegreatfabricdestash. This is me: Twiggy & Opal, I'm on instagram every day. (maybe too often!)  The great fabric destash is where you can sell your stash.  Maybe it's something you no longer love, like or want.  You can post it and believe me there are lots of 'takers' who are looking for just what you have to offer.  Generally, the prices are good.

I bought more vanilla!  A little Riley Blake 'Cream on Cream'!  My low volume stash is getting bigger and bigger!  I think it's time to stop that!

My favorite is this haul!  

Fabulous woven stripes!  If you know me, you know I love my Kaffe Fasset woven stripes.  I haven't bought any in years and it was time to stock up.  I was so happy to have seen these on IG and thrilled when I received them!  All but two were ones I didn't have!

Now it's time to go bake a cake or two!  Measure out some fabric, add some vanilla, stir it up and pop it in the oven!

LINKING:

Sunday Stash

Final Finishes From 2014

2014 seems like so long ago...just kidding!  I realized I had a couple projects that I wanted to share. If you are sick and tired of Khaki/Raffia and Kaffe Fasset Woven Stripes, just look away!  I was on binge with this combination and to say I won't keep doing it would just be silly!  Especially since I have one more thing I am currently working on!

Back in December I started my marathon of stripes!  Stripes & More Stripes!  Initially it started out with a twin quilt.  I am happy to say it finally was finished the end of December!

57" x 88"

This one was a bit different than what I normally do.  The stripes were randomly place throughout the top ~ instead of half lined up on one side and half on the other side.  This is one of my 'go to' designs with these fabrics.  They work.  

I machine quilted 'controlled organic' horizontal straight lines.  Controlled meaning I wanted them straighter than my usual organic~wonky lines.  

And since I still had the tub of stripes strewn across my table...more pillows!  This time I made two 16" x 16" and two 18" x 18" feather pillow covers.  I loved the first one so much, I had to do it again.  Here is the first test pillow:  Feather Pillow Finish,  

This time I changed a couple things.  I decreased the center so that the feathers were closer together and I increased the sides so the feathers were centered.  I like it much better!

18" x 18"

16" x 16"

And that is it!  I will admit that I have a table runner I hope to quilt today.  It was purely for fun!  It does involve these same fabrics, feathers and an arrow!!  

LINKING:

FABRIC FRENZY FRIDAY

CAN I GET A WHOOP WHOOP

TGIFF 

Feather Pillow Finish

A little while back I made my first trial feathers.  They were a test and something that I had wanted to try for some time.  Maybe you remember...I was going through a period of using Kaffe Woven Stripes in everything!  I wrote a post about it:  Stripes & More Stripes! 

While I wasn't sure what or if I would make anything out of the two test pieces,  in the end I decided a pillow would be worth the time! 

Here are the two feathers I made using stripes and Kona Khaki.  Since I ran out of the solid and just wanted to make something...I decided a simple pillow would work!

16" x 16"

And it did!  I love the straight line quilting (always) in the Khaki.  The feathers I quilted random lines following the feather direction.  

Classic envelope closure always works for me.  One day I really want to do a hidden zipper. I've heard they are pretty easy!

I am looking forward to a little break from quilting now.  A Holiday break!  Hopefully I will come back rejuvenated, refreshed, kicking my heels up and ready to start a brand new year with a brand new direction!

Linking:

Let's Bee Social

Good New ~ Bad News

Good News!  I finished my Secret Santa wall hanging for our Guild swap!  Bad news...I can't find the pictures of the finished piece!  

It's been a crazy couple weeks, lot's of things going on.  The hustle and bustle of the season.  Sewing, gift making, shops to run.  If that isn't enough we have been getting the outside of our house painted and having a water heater on the fritz!

So, I suppose it's possible I didn't even take pictures of the wall hanging.  It is possible.  I am happy to say that Kate Alicea loved it!  She requested something bright.  She loves Anna Maria Horner and Kaffe Fasset.  I was happy about that!  And since I wanted to make feathers...this was the perfect time to do just that!

I decided I wanted to ROYGBIV something.  The bold, bright fabrics tipped the scales in that direction.  What I did take pictures of was just the top.  And each feather.  Imagination will be required for the remainder of this post!

The finished size ended up being 24" x 33".  I did straight line quilting that turned out amazing.  You will have to trust me on that one!  The back was a gorgeous floral.  I honestly loved it!

 RED       
                      ORANGE






                                         

YELLOW     
                   GREEN       

BLUE           
                     VIOLET                     






















I had a wonderfully fun time making this.  I got to try something I had wanted to try, use some of my favorite fabrics and Kate Alicea was happy!  Win, Win!

This is a project I will revisit again.  On a bigger scale.  And I cannot wait!

Here is the link to Anna Maria Horners tutorial for the feathers:  Feathers Bed Quilt

If you live in or around Nashville and are looking for a Modern Quilt Guild, here is the link to our guild:  Music City Modern Quilt Guild

LINKING:

LET'S BEE SOCIAL

WIP WEDNESDAY