Cool and Comforting

Believe it or not, I finished a quilt (okay, not so hard to believe)!  What is hard to believe is that I free motion quilted much of it.  Maybe the design is simple, pretty basic and not mind blowing, but I actually did it!

Good old woven stripes!  It hung on my wall for a while and then lingered over the rail while I went about my business.  I looked at it on occasion, thinking 'I really need to finish this', but quickly moved on to other things.  I just wasn't ready to take it on.    

I'm a big fan of woven stripes.  All colors, all sizes, all the time!  I was drawn to this beautiful stack because of the colors.  Beautiful blue, aqua, green~along with violet, burgundy and purple.  Cool colors with just enough warmth sprinkled in.

The grey is one of my new favorite 'go to' colors.  Kona Shadow.  It's light, airy and works perfectly with so many colors.  I especially love it with these blues!  

63" x 87"

I went big with this one!  Which is one of the reasons I held off on quilting for so long.  It's hard to maneuver even on my machine.  By this time I knew I was going to FMQ this one. The prospect of that, the size and my limited experience with FMQ, it was easy to push it aside!

Backing & Binding Kona Breakers

Eventually the time came to 'you know' or get off the pot...I began ever so slowly.  Simple wiggly lines or fingers for the stripes.  (I said simple!)  The wiggles are not hard at all.  the tough part was twisting, turning, pulling and tugging the quilt along with me!

Once I finished free motion quilting the woven stripes, I had to decide what was best for the grey.  Had I more confidence, skill and patience with FMQ, I would have taken advantage of all that blank space.  Alas...I went with straight lines, with a meandering curve line from top to bottom.  

You know what I'm going to say next.  Everything looks better after a wash and dry!  At least in my mind!  

The little hiccups, inconsistent stitches...magically disappear!  I try not to be so hard on myself with my FMQ skills or lack of skills.  We are our worse critics!  I'll leave it at this:  I'm pleased, relieved and can't complain!

Sew Mama Sew will be holding their biannual Giveaway day on Wednesday, December 9th! I have a giveaway planned, so please stop back for all the details!

  

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Sew Cute Tuesday

Let's Bee Social

Finally! Fabric!!

It feels like a long time since I bought fabric!  With the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, it was hard not to find something.  I spent way too much time looking and have very little to show for myself!  I couldn't make a decision on anything.

I started with this beauty!  Cotton + Steel Sprinkle.  Right up my alley!  Saturated colors, solids with a touch of sprinkles.  I could eat it up!

All the hooting & hollering over  Abacus by Alison Glass was hard to ignore!  It might be the first time I jumped on the band wagon early, I had to snatch this up and see it first hand.

I love all of it, but this piece is my favorite!  I hope to hunt it down, buy a big chunk one day soon.  The geometric designs with just a touch of rainbow goodness!  Artifact is my favorite...right now!

Both of these bundles are Fat Eights from Modern Quilter on Etsy.

These aren't as exciting, but you gotta have yardage...grey...backing...you know!  My Kona Shadow and Medium Grey has dwindled to nearly nothing.  There wasn't even a great deal on these either.  (sad face)

While I was ordering the grey from Fabric.com I wanted to get some clear vinyl.  Whoo-Hoo, how exciting is that?  Not very exciting.  I really want to make some clear zipper bags for projects.  I only bought a yard because I wasn't sure how this adventure was going to work out.  

Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts has a project bag on Craftsy that I will be ordering for this project!

All in all, it wasn't a bad haul.  It was just a little haul!  But it sure felt good to finally buy some fabric!

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Reclaimed Improv

New rule.  When you make something for someone and they don't use it within two years...it automatically reverts back to the original owner!  I mean really!

This raggedy piece of improv was originally intended for a laptop sleeve in 2013.  My daughter requested a specific size of improv, in a very specific color scheme for a specific laptop bag, for specifically herself.  

I wasn't going to make it for her, for we all know I'm extremely challenged in that department. I was sure she would take this 'work of love' and seriously do something with it. Seriously, I did. She didn't.  I reclaimed it.  You snooze, you lose!

It wasn't hard to figure out what I should make it into.  Mini quilts...all the rage!  Plus, I could really play with the quilting on this.

Much of the fabrics are from Britt's hand dyed stash, and the rest is my favorite...shot cottons. The combination of the two is one I use very often.  I've never had any issues or problems mixing the two together.

I knew I would quilt the heck out of this!  And I pretty much did just that!  Dense matchstick quilting.  Just exactly what I wanted to do...and  do a lot of it!

I used a blue grey thread for the majority of the lines, and for fun I added chartreuse and orange.  I knew it would be fine in the end, I just didn't know how fine it would be.  

If it were a song, perhaps it would be these lyrics ' Oh Mickey, you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind'.  It might be just me, but I was blown away with the quilting!

Truth:  I used Coats & Clark thread.  The colors matched perfect!

An idea hit me after the vertical lines were finished.  Why not keep going and funk it up a bit?!

And that's when the curves started.  It had to be.  I couldn't stop quilting once I started.

I'm not sure there is anything more fun than putting your pedal to the metal when machine quilting!  With no concern about making it perfect, it felt empowering to let it fly!  Seriously, so much fun!

The grey back shows the colors of the thread and the crazy line detail.  It makes me want to do it again! 

I used my go to method for hanging this mini.  The triangles and twill ribbon loops hold the narrow board against the piece and the hole in the center of the board makes hanging a piece of cake.

16 1/2" x 22"

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TGIFF

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Fabric Frenzy Friday

Pink-a-licous

How about that?!  I've actually been ahead of the game and have a post and quilt ready for Throwback Thursday!  Thanks Jenn for the gentle reminder!  Maybe not by much, a half a day, but that counts and it seems to be the way I operate.

Pink.  Yes it is!  It doesn't happen often, but I've been known to make a quilt with prints occasionally!

This one was made for my Great-Niece Kailee.  Way back in 2009 when I just wanted to make, make, make...it was suggested I make a quilt for Kailee.  She loved pink then, now I'm not sure, but I knew I couldn't go wrong back then.
   

If I recall, as it's been a few years, this pattern was in an issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.  The circles are applique using the freezer paper method. 

This was my first attempt at applique.  My first run in with freezer paper.  My first shot at blanket stitching.  And my very first time at quilting anything other than straight lines!  

The fabric is by Kumiko Sudo - Haru Kaze (Spring Breeze).  This fabric reminds me of a water color painting.  Soft and delicate, a touch of Asian and not to little girl pink!

How about this for a first time 'design'?!  I knew the big circles needed something other than the usual, and if I was oh so careful...I knew I could do it.  Slowly, slowly, very slowly I went.

The back in this picture is rather dull.  In real life it wasn't...bad camera and inexperience played a big part in this!  It's hard to believe that I use to quilt the bare minimum back then! Now it's quilt until it's dead!

I would embroider my name, city, state and date on a triangle for each quilt I made.  My family was not going to forget who made this quilt for them!

A matching pillow case was needed for a little girls first quilt.  I don't remember how I made this pillow case.  I wonder if I winged it or found a pattern somewhere.  It doesn't look like it, but just under the circles I machine embroidered Kailee's name across the pillow case.  

I often wonder if she still uses her little quilt.  Has she out grown it?  Did she snuggle in it when she was sick or cold or watching T/V?  Kailee lives back in Portland Oregon, where I lived before Tennessee.  We rarely get back to visit, but it doesn't mean I don't think about all my family back there often. Especially this time of the year.

Really the only Holiday themed quilting I have done were these Christmas stockings.  I hunted for the picture in the deep, dark depths of the horrible photo archives!

One was for my daughter, one for her then boyfriend and one was for a friend of my son. I don't often sew anything other than quilts, especially in the early days!  These looked like fun and I could get crazy with the fabric!

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Throwback Thursday