When The Last Piece Of Confetti Falls...

Does that mean the party is over?!  Somehow, I don't think so.  This design has bounced around my brain for far too long.  It was time to try it again and hopefully make it better. 

Enter...Confetti.  The long awaited premier of a design that I have played with, swooned over and yes...finally completed!

Confetti
42" x 54"

It wasn't an easy under taking piecing each little 1/2" (or damn close) square.  It was more like a labor of love.  One that needed to be done on a large scale.  

I was inspired to try again when I saw 'Artifact' by Alison Glass.  It seemed like a perfect compliment to Confetti.  So I set out to incorporate her design into mine.  Personally, I felt it was a perfect fit.

There are bits and pieces of Artifact throughout this quilt.  Why go to all that trouble?  Good question!  I like to improve on a design, try and make it better.  Perfection is always a goal. Something we all strive for.  

This quilt isn't perfect, but it's better than the last time I tried!  It has it's wonky moments, that's for sure.  I even tried taking extra time to mark, measure and stitch.  I learned early on that it wasn't going to happen.  

And I learned that it wasn't going to matter.  Perfectly imperfect.  There is something beautiful about imperfection.    

The backing is all Allison Glass Artifact.  Now that's perfect!  I tried really hard to line up the front of the quilt with the backing when I basted it.  With a little extra time and a hell of a lotta luck...it lined up!  

I knew early on that I would straight line quilt it.  I like the grid design and think it works well with the design.  And really...Alison Glass said so too!

I couldn't resist a few 'cheese cake' shots, you know... centerfold worthy shots!  How about that little rainbow star?!

Playing with shadows.  When you can't get out and find a location to shoot your photos,  the next best thing is playing shadows.  You can get some interesting shots! 

If you would like to read more about this quilt, click on these links for a little more insight and detail:  It's A Party! and Pillow Talk!  

Background Fabric:  Kona Snow
Binding:  Kona Pepper
Star:  Kona Pepper
Backing:  Alison Glass ~ Artifact

There are a total of 608 ~ 1/2" squares in a zillion colors!  

To me...totally worth every single second!  

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Supply Stash ~ Free Motion Quilting Hope

How often do you see some gadget or tool that promises to make your quilting life a little easier, faster or more accurate?  Something that will improve a skill that you haven't quite mastered, but promises to help and make a difference.  

I don't often buy tools.  I use what I have and make the best of them.  On occasion I'll bite the bullet and buy.  I didn't buy fabric this week, but I did buy this array of supplies!  I'm trying to take my limited free motion skills to another level.  Basically, I want to go from Pre-School to Kindergarten.

According to Leah Day, these are the things that will help me with that.  I don't have much to lose and if they help I'm all for that. 

Supreme Slider.

It says it will improve my FMQ.  The Teflon cuts down on friction and makes your quilt glide. I haven't tried it, but I'm game!

Magic Bobbin Genies.  

The little Teflon donuts fit under your bobbin to reduce birds nests.  I get that with my machine. They were pretty inexpensive, and they seem to have made a difference.  My bobbin doesn't seem to wobble and clunk around as much.

Machingers.  

Quilting gloves are a must!  I already had a pair of glove, but they didn't seem to grip as well as I would like.  I know these are highly rated...all the big girls wear them...so now I shall too!

Lastly, Clover Self Threading Needles.

What a find this was!  I've heard of these before and wish I had bought them sooner. Thread burying can be a pain in the butt sometimes.  Occasionally have a hard time threading needles.  Those little eyes are so hard to hit, plus when it's attached to a quilt...well, it's harder to adjust to see the needle eye. 

These I have used, they work and they are amazing!  The top of the needle has a groove that the thread snaps in to and that's it.  Bury your thread and move on! 

Tell me, are you one who buys gadgets or tools to make things easier or better?  What was your best find?

Does anyone use the Magic Slider?  If you have any tips, please share!!

Playing With Highlights

There was a lot of flurry when Kona announced their Color of The Year.  The refreshing shade of Highlight can be as bold as you want, or toned down with coordinating colors.  I was intrigued with the color and immediately jumped on the 'gotta have' band wagon.

Robert Kaufman held a Highlight Block challenge on Instagram that produced some pretty amazing blocks.  Check out  #konacotychallenge and see for yourself!  I decided I may as well make a block too!  Who doesn't love a good challenge?  

18" x 16 1/2"

I've been wanting to make this design for well over a year, and the challenge seemed like the time to work up the design.  

I first had to make my templates, which I did in EQ7. Drunkards Path with a few modifications.  The hardest part was getting the proportions correct for the triangle.  I nearly got it perfect, but there are still a couple pattern wrinkles to iron out.

      

I should have ironed first, but I couldn't wait to get started!  With my pieces cut out, I was ready to tackle the curves.  

There are any number of ways to sew Drunkard Path blocks. Pin the hell out of them, take a chance and don't pin, or glue baste.  I had never tried glue basting before, so I decided to see what all the hoopla was about this technique.  

Now I get it.

     
I began by making a crease in the center of both pieces.  This will be the most important part of the block.  You want things to line up.

The glue is your everyday Elmer's School Glue.  Since I'm new to this, I don't have a fancy Applicator Tip and I didn't really need it.  You have to be careful applying it to the fabric, but it worked just fine.  Besides, I nearly always was my quilts when they are done which will take care of any glue splotches.

I put a fine line of glue from the center crease along the edge, lined up the top piece and placed the tip of my dry iron along the edge for a few seconds.  Working my way around the curve, I lined up the edge, iron, line up, iron.  

It wasn't long and I had a pile of pieces!  It was really fast.  The glue held in place perfectly! No pinning needed, and I love that!  

It made sewing the curves fast and easy.  All in all...I'm a glue basting fan!  Not on everything, but Drunkard Path block...absolutely!

With the three blocks completed, I still had to make a couple adjustments so that the center triangle was perfectly aligned.  And it worked.  

I should mention that I went a little crazy when piecing the individual blocks together.  I stitched the black with black thread and yellow with yellow thread.  I wanted to keep it clean, which is hilarious since I didn't think about how the black fabric would show when the curves were pressed!

I started quilting 1/4" lines in a simple triangle design and then echoed the outside of the circles.  At which point I was stuck.  It sat over night while I pondered over the next step.  

You can see the quilting better from the back.  It might look complicated, trust me...it wasn't!

I'll make a confession:  I used my regular foot attachment for all the quilting.  No dual feed here!  I wanted all the lines to be 1/4" (or close to it).  I moved my needle to the left until I had 1/4" from the left edge of the foot.  Then I just follow the previous line over and over using the edge of the foot. 

You say it looks like a Pac Man or The Legend of Zelda, I get that!  I think I'll call it 

Self-Deception.  

I tried another version of this pattern using Studio E Peppered Cottons today.  The first pattern was slightly off, the second pattern is slightly off...shall I go for #3?  I think so!  I have a plan!

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Fabric Frenzy Friday

Tuesday Tips & Tutorials

Rainbow + Stars = A Finish

Rainbow, stars, paper piecing....blah, blah, blah!  Seems like that's all I'm doing lately!  With this finish, the stars are perfectly aligned which means...no more stars!

I'll let you decide what's too much or not.  Me?  I am basically addicted to it all!

During my impromptu photo shoot where nothing was coming out right, I threw it down in the shadow of the deck rail and snapped.  It's never an easy thing taking photos, but when you let go and frankly at that point, I didn't 'give a care'...you can get some pretty interesting shots.

15 1/2" x 15 1/2"

It all began with one star for another quilt (which I didn't use) and quickly became a satisfying obsession.

You will notice that each star has its own Rainbow color combination.  I wanted to have a variety and that is exactly what I got.

There wasn't a plan for what I was going to do with them, Why ever would I plan anything? Eventually I thought a Mini Wall Hanging would work just fine.  

Once I decided to go with sashing, I thought a black 1/4" square would be a nice detail to add.  A little bit tiny!

You know I love a great shot of the backs of tops!  Honestly, this just makes me happy and smile.

What design to quilt isn't usually something that comes to me right away.  There's plenty of thinking on the subject before I jump in to in!  This wasn't one of those...I knew it would be concentric circles. Using white thread and 1/2" spacing, I finished it pretty quickly!  Of course it's only 15 1/2" x 15 1/2" which helps!

Not perfect, not bad!  I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I added rainbow rays shooting off the sides.  

I used my usual hanging method on the back (Hanging A Mini Quilt).  The back looks blotchy in this picture, but I assure you it isn't!  The back is white on white Mini Pearl Bracelets and getting a good shot proved to be impossible!

With this project complete, I only have three or four more until I get caught up!  Chalk it up to getting side tracked every other day with new ideas and a spare second...which always turns in to half a day!

I feel like sometimes I over share too much or too often, so thank you for putting up with me and my ramblings!

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