Half Circles :: The Test

I've been thinking about making another circle quilt for some time, but wanted to do something a little different. Usually I make Drunkard Path blocks using print scraps, but not this time!  Solids and half circles came to mind so I set about and started my plan.  Which in reality wasn't much of a plan at all!  

I sometimes have to start a new idea with a test project.  Just in case I can't pull it off as I see it in my mind.  In this case I was drawn to half circles.  Rectangle half circles to be exact.  I figured out the math which is always the tricky part for me.  Latifah Saafir and her Glam Clam ruler came in very handy to make the perfect half circles.



I grabbed my 8" Glam Clam, an assortment of solids and with my fingers crossed...I hoped it would all come together.  I followed the instructions included with the ruler and cut rectangles for the circles and then cut the circle itself.

The outside of the circle was slightly more involved.  As I said I wanted the finished block to be a rectangle with the circle towards the bottom.  By more involved, I mean I had to add an extra two inches to achieve that.  By marking a two inch line with my hera marker, I was able to make sure all the circles were positioned in the same place. 



I think the hardest part or maybe I should say the most scary part was aligning the seams so that it made a perfect circle.  I carefully pinned each seam and for the most part it worked. 



The blocks remind me of beach balls!  After making four blocks and feeling pretty good about my capabilities, I had to come up with a plan for them.  They weren't quite large enough on their own for a decent size table runner length wise, so I made one more.  

Five blocks worked much better for the length, but it wasn't wide enough for my liking.

I certainly didn't want the blocks to gather moss by setting them aside, so I came up with the idea of adding a row of squares along one side.  Right now I have it pinned and ready to quilt.  

Before that can happen I needed to start the project that I really had in mind for the half circles.

Using the 12" Glam Clam ruler borrowed from a friend, I grabbed my Painter's Palette March Madness bundle and went to town cutting!

Sometimes I plan everything from start to finish, sometimes I don't and sometimes I have to roll with the punches and make a few changes.  I wanted the finished quilt to be a decent size and that wasn't going to happen if I only used this bundle from Paintbrush Studio, which was the plan.  No worries!  It wasn't like I didn't have plenty of other fabric to choose from!

The first two 12" half circles I pinned before sewing thinking I'd have better control over all.  That didn't last!  I tried one without pinning and it was much faster and...easier!  And, in order to have perfect, perfect, perfect seams, I glued the seams together before sewing the two half pieces together.  Gotta love glue!  Fun little tricks! 

I'm in the process of sewing all the blocks together with the final layout is to be determined!  And I can't wait!

LINKING:

OH SCRAP! ● MAIN CRUSH MONDAY ●  MONDAY MAKING ●  LINKY TUESDAY 
LETS BEE SOCIAL ● MIDWEEK MAKERS ● NEEDLE & THREAD 

PEACOCK PARTY  ● TGIFF 

BRAG ABOUT YOUR BEAUTIES ● FINISHED OR NOT FRIDAY

Sultry Interlude :: Mad for Solids 2019

Here we go again!  Mad for Solids is in full swing!  If you aren't a March Madness basketball fan, I promise you'll be a big fan of this competition.  After all, it's all about fabric and I know you love fabric!  March Madness the quilter's way!  

This year there will be eight beautifully curated bundles of Painter's Palette Solids to make you drool!  With 168 colors to choose from the bundle possibilities are endless.  

This is where you come in!  

The eight curated bundles are placed into a bracket.  Two bundles go head to head each day and the one that receives the most votes advances to the next round.  You can vote for your favorite on Instagram, Facebook, and Inspired by Fabric (one vote per site per day, please). 

At the end, and this is the best part, there will be four fans selected to win the curated Championship bundle!  But you have to vote to enter and win!  

This fabric is amazing!  Not just because there are 168 Painter's Palette Solids colors to choose from, but the quality of the fabric is second to none.  It's plain and simply luxurious!

Which brings us to my curated bundle!

SULTRY INTERLUDE

I tend to pick bundles based on places I love and this one is no exception! A beach sunset is mesmerizing to watch and you can’t help but stand watching until the last sliver of the sun has dipped into the horizon. That would be my Sultry Interlude! The colors I selected remind me of those moments where subtle yellows, oranges, pinks and reds melt together until they eventually fade away...until tomorrow! 

And then tomorrow comes and we get to witness the full force of Mother Nature all over again. Each night there's a different masterpiece of color being presented for all to see.  



You just can't watch too many sunsets!  It's almost impossible to pull yourself away from watching until the very last sliver has vanished!



Because I don't get to go on vacation often enough, I like to capture that moment in fabric.  I can look at the bundle and it most definitely brings me back to that moment where I couldn't help but stop everything and take it all in.



The colors I selected for my bundle are:
Hot Pink:  121-147, Blush:  121-119, Verbena:  121-118, Daredevil:  121-146, 
Amber:  121-123, Clementine:  121-108, Pencil Yellow:  121-003, Banana:  121-083

A beautiful array of fabrics representing my perception of a sultry sunset!



Naturally I'd love to have your vote!  You can help me or your favorite palette advance to the championship game by voting!  And remember, four winners will be selected to win the  championship fat quarter bundle...but you have to vote!

VOTE HERE:  Instagram, Facebook, and Inspired by Fabric (one vote per site per day).

GOOD LUCK!!
The second round might not start until later in the day in case you'd like to vote!

Quilts & More :: Scrap Lab & Cover Girl!

Quilts and More Winter 2019 hits the newsstands today!  What makes that newsworthy?  I happen to have a project inside those glossy pages and it's on the cover!!

Used with permission from Quilts and More™ magazine. ©2019 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

I was contacted earlier this year to see if I'd like to be a part of 'Scrap Lab' design challenge.  The challenge is for three designers to create a project using one bundle of fat quarters.  The other two designers are Jeni Baker and Sherri McConnell who nailed it with their designs!  

Do those colors look familiar?  Not only was I asked to participate in the challenge, but the bundle they picked was my March Madness bundle of "Prosecco & Cream by the Sea'!  How about that?!  

Paintbrush Studio Painters Palette Solids

I designed 'Quarter Turn' using 18" half log cabin blocks.   The asymmetrical design takes a traditional block and turns it on it's head!  My main goal was to show off the beautiful colors and I think I accomplished that.

Used with permission from Quilts and More™ magazine. ©2019 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

The quilting is simply done using straight lines around three off the blocks and 1/2" diagonal lines in the corner.  Simplicity is the best way to go when your on a tight schedule!  

I would have liked to play a little more with the quilting, but I'll save that for the next one!

Earlier this summer I had a beautiful Coral Hibiscus blooming and couldn't resist placing the quilt next to it for a photo.  

If being asked to participate in Scrap Lab and being on the cover wasn't enough to put me over the moon with excitement...this quilt is also going to be displayed at Quilt Market in Houston!  If you happen to be attending look for my quilt!  I'd love to see how it's displayed!

I'm hoping to get my hands on a copy of the magazine!  It doesn't happen often that I'm in print, but when it does I get a little excited about it!

LINKING:

OH SCRAP! ● MAIN CRUSH MONDAY ●  MONDAY MAKING ●  LINKY TUESDAY 
LETS BEE SOCIAL ● MIDWEEK MAKERS ● NEEDLE & THREAD  ● TGIFF 

BRAG ABOUT YOUR BEAUTIES ● FINISHED OR NOT FRIDAY

Geometry Lesson :: The Finish

I love happy quilts!  This is a happy quilt!  Happy because the design was everything that I had hoped it would be, I was able to use colors that I love and the quilting was intense but perfect to me!

GEOMETRY LESSON
48 1/2" X 64"

The top was finished a month ago (Geometry Lesson Process), but I wasn't ready to take on the task of quilting it at the time.  It sat for a while, not for lack of quilting ideas, I knew without a doubt I'd be doing straight lines of some sort.  I needed to wait until I could fully commit and focus on just this quilt.  

There was a lot of seriousness involved!  And a lot of flying by the seat of my pants!  I tend to take sections and quilt my idea until it's finished and then move on to another section.  The basic idea is there, but nothing is set in stone or planned ahead of time.  

I used three widths of lines: 1/4", 1/2" and 1" lines.  Diagonal, horizontal, vertical and curved.  I choose to use a Pale Pink (#2410) 40 wt Aurifil thread for all the quilting.  You can't really tell it's pink from these pictures, in person you can.  Before I started quilting I debated matching thread color to the fabric, but quickly dismissed that idea...although I did want to! 

The curve of the Drunkards Path block was continued into a circle and extended with straight lines across the quilt, or a full circle with different widths of lines.  Anything goes!  I found it to be quite effective and with each section, I was excited to see what I could do.

Usually when it's time to quilt I get impatient and just want it done!  By then I'm usually ready to move on to something else.  This time was different.  I took a lot of deep breaths, reminded myself it wasn't a race, and focused on trying to be as accurate as possible.  That's not to say it is perfect because it certain is not.  But I tried!  

It was weirdly satisfying to have that much focus and determination.  Perhaps it's because I'm proud of myself for sticking with it or because I absolutely love how it turned out.  It isn't easy to quilt a complex design on a domestic machine.  

  

On the back you can see the different widths and directions of some of the quilting.  If it wasn't for the fun geometric front of the quilt, I wouldn't have ever thought about quilting a design like this!

After putting my heart and sole into the quilting, I wasn't ready to go the easy route on the binding.  I decided it was worth the time to make a matched binding and extend the design to the edge.  It wasn't easy!  And it isn't perfect!  But I do love it!

After I finished quilting and binding this quilt I took my big machine in for a tune up.  I have one more quilt I'm anxious to quilt and can't do it with my pride and joy!  Next up...a baby version of Geometry Lesson if gorgeous aqua + teal + blue + green + grey!  Any day now...any day!

How do you make yourself focus and take your time when quilting?  Deep breaths, swearing, a glass of wine?!

Fabric:

Painter's Palette Solids (Paintbrush Studio)

Colors from left to right:

121-121 Linen, 121-049 Coral, 121-068 Rosebud, 121-028 Fuchsia, 121-066 Lipstick, 121-146 Dare Devil, 121-127 Burnt Sienna and 121-077 Moss

Background & Backing:  Moda Light Grey

Thread:  Aurifil 40wt Pale Pink #2410

LINKING:

OH SCRAP! ● MAIN CRUSH MONDAY ●  MONDAY MAKING ●  LINKY TUESDAY 
LETS BEE SOCIAL ● MIDWEEK MAKERS ● NEEDLE & THREAD  ● TGIFF 

BRAG ABOUT YOUR BEAUTIES

March Madness :: Are You With Me?!

Here we go again!  March Madness Mad For Solids 2017  begins on Monday!  I'll tell you right now the competition is stiff, everyone brought their 'A' game and are ready to fight for a spot in the finals! 

Mad For Solids 2017

Sixteen (16) quilters were asked curate a bundle of eight (8) from the Painter's Palette Solids.   When faced with 168 colors you can imagine how hard it would be to narrow it down to just eight! But it was done, and done very well!  Check out the bundles on the Inspired By Fabric blog and you'll see just what I'm talking about!

There are a lot of heavy hitters in the game!  I'm pretty sure I'll not make it to the next round after seeing all the bright, bold and beautiful bundles I'm up against!  I'm just thankful I got to play along!

Here's the Voting Schedule:

Monday, 3/27: voting in games 1 and 2

Tuesday, 3/28: voting in games 3 and 4

Wednesday, 3/29: voting in games 5 and 6

Thursday, 3/30: voting in games 7 and 8

Friday, 3/31: announce Elite Eight

Monday, 4/3: voting in games 9 and 10

Tuesday, 4/4: voting in games 11 and 12

Wednesday, 4/5: announce Final Four and voting for games 13 and 14

Thursday, 4/6: announce championship game and voting

Friday, 4/7: announce winner

You are the deciding factor in these games!!  Each game you can vote for your favorite bundle. The bundle with the most votes moves on the the next round.  Until we are left with the one bundle...who took it all!

Voting will take place on the Inspired by Fabric blog and Instagram and you can vote one time each in both places per game.

The winning bundle’s creator will receive an additional 6 yards of solids.  Two randomly drawn voters from the championship game will receive 1/4 yard cuts of the winning bundle.   

Make sense?  Worth playing along?  Now that all the 'rules' are stated, I'd like to show you my bundle!

'SPRING LICHEN'

"Bye Bye Winter…Hello Spring! One of the first signs of Spring is the soft, delicate lichen that grows around the big tree in my backyard. If you look closely you can see an array of colors that only nature has to offer. That is until I picked this bundle of fabric! The different shades of green are most prominent in Lichen, yet there is are subtle shades of blue and teal. My bundle is all about Nature…Natural ombre colors!"
  

After a fresh rain the colors pop!  I was mesmerized when I looked closer and never would have thought there were so many different colors in this seemingly boring Lichen.  I was inspired and carefully tried to recreate the colors in my bundle.  Nature is amazing, don't you think?



The beginning of Spring seems to bring a desire for color.  After a long winter of drab and cold were all ready for that!  I enjoy seeing how Spring slowly appears with the budding of trees, the first hint of that fresh growth, the tiny little sprouts popping up everywhere.  It's like quilting!  You start of slowly by cutting the fabric, it picks of steam for the piecing and then just like that...the explosion of color happens!

I hope you go and vote for your favorite bundle!  I would love your vote on my bundle...but pick your favorite...your going to have a hard time deciding!

LINKING:

Sunday Stash 

Monday Making  

Mad For Solids ~ March Madness

When I was asked if I would like to participate in Paintbrush Studio's March Madness event, I jumped!  

Inspired By Fabric Blog

Painter's Pallet Solids is a new line of 84 colors, all gorgeous and the quality is really amazing!  I had the pleasure of working with these fabrics in the recent New Block Blog Hop, and I can assure you the fabric is wonderful!  This is my kind of March Madness...as I am 'Mad For Solids'!

Each of the sixteen bloggers were asked to pick our ideal color palette from the Painter's Palette Solids.  We were provided a fat quarter bundle of our picks and asked to photograph, name the bundle and say why we picked those colors.  

Today, we post our photos on Instagram with all the info and start the games of 'competing' against the other bloggers on the Inspired By Fabric Blog.  The winner will receive one yard of each of the colors in our bundles.

But...there will be prizes for voters as well!  There will be two 1-yard cuts from the winning bundle!  The 'Bundle Bracket' voting will be held at the Inspired By Fabric Blog.  Please play along...hop over the their blog and vote! 

WILD DANDELION

I named my bundle 'WILD DANDELION'.  You are probably wondering where the heck that came from?!

I've always thought of dandelions as the first show of Spring.  From golden golds to yellow, they command attention.  This bundle was inspired by dandelions against the evening sky at dusk. Dusky Spring evenings are plain and simply...magical!

I  love the bright yellow of dandelions, and watching them transform to a big fluffy puff ball! We may not like them in our lawns, but there is no denying that those bright spots of color are welcome after a long winter.   

Flying Geese?

From left to right, the colors are:

Bronze

Gold

Pencil Yellow

Citrus

Pale Silver

Daydream

Haze

Mahogany

I had so much fun photographing this bundle!  I kind of went a little crazy!

I want to thank Cindy who blogs @ Live A Colorful Life.  She was the one who hooked me up with this March Madness Event.  

And of course, a big thank you to Lisa who invited me to join the other 16 bloggers for this March Madness extravaganza! 

There is going to be some stiff competition and I have my game face on!  But, I will need your help!  I would love your vote!!    

Round one starts tomorrow (3/31), my bundle is in round two (4/1)... April Fools Day!

Click this link to vote! 

 Inspired By Fabric Blog

Paintbrush Studio ~ New Block Blog Hop

Welcome to the 2016 Paintbrush Studio New Block Blog Hop...and welcome to my blog!

I'm going to share my block for the event, and I encourage you to check out all the other participants from yesterday, today and tomorrow!  There promises to be some amazing blocks and always a ton of creativity!

Midnight, Daydream, White, Peach, Coral, Bordeaux

Using the Ocean Sunrise Palette, Paintbrush Studio has generously provided each participant with six fat quarters for our blocks.  The rules are simple.  Create a 12 1/2" (unfinished) block using at least three of the colors provided.

I've named my block ASCEND.  To go up, rise or move toward the sky. Much like that of a bird gliding across the water.

ASCEND
12 1/2" x 12 1/2" Unfinished

Let's start the fun!  

CUTTING:

White: 
4 - 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" Rectangles
16 - 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" Squares

Midnight:
6 - 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" Rectangles

Daydream:
2 - 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" Rectangles

Peach:
2 - 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" Rectangles
2 - 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" Squares

Coral:
2 - 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" Rectangles
2 - 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" Squares

Step #1:
Once you have all you pieces cut, mark a diagonal line on the 16 -  2 1/2" x 2 1/2" white squares. These will be the 'sky' to the 'geese' for the Flying Geese blocks.


Step #2: 
Following the diagram below for the Flying Geese Assembly, place one white (2 1/2" x 2 1/2") square on the corner of each blue (2 1/2" x 4 1/2") rectangle, stitch along the marked line, trim and press seams open.  Repeat on the opposite side to complete the Geese blocks.  

You will end up with six (6) Midnight Blue and two (2) Daydream Blue units.

Step #3:
Layout your pieces following the diagram below.  Stitch each row together using 1/4" scant seam.  Press seams open.
  Step #4:
Sew each row together to complete your 12 1/2" x 12 1/2" unfinished block.

Naturally I have to give some examples of how this block would look in a completed quilt, right?! Using this exact color scheme it might look something like this:

Or maybe something like these:

Now please check out these other blogs to see their block tutorials!  I know they will be amazing!!  

If you would like a chance to win a half yard bundle of Ocean Sunrise, check out Yvonne @Quilting Jetgirl ~AND~ the Inspired by Fabric Blog  

Host: Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs

Kim @Leland Ave Studios

Andrea @The Sewing Fools

Cassandra @The (not so) Dramatic Life

Stephanie @Quilt’n Party

Irene @Patchwork and Pastry

Tish @Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland

Abby @Hashtag Quilt

Sarah @Smiles Too Loudly

Carrie @The Zen Quilter

Wanda @Wanda’s Life Sampler

Jayne @Twiggy and Opal  (that's me!)

Check out all the blocks from this three day event on my Pinterest Board!

LINKING:

Tips & Tutorials

Sew Cute
TGIFF