Quilty Bucket List

Stacey at The Tilted Quilt put together a Quilty Bucket List Blog hop.  

It’s a fun and easy blog hop that is just a wish list.  We aren’t required to make these in a time frame and there’s no due date.  Great for me right now.  

I found it interesting to think about what might be on my to do list.  One thing that occurred to me during this process is that the fabrics and the colors are a huge influence in my favorites, as much or more than the patterns.  

Primary colors and jewel tones really draw my eye.  A few of the quilts below have been done in very traditional fabrics, bright modern patterns, solids and neutrals.  For me the patterns totally change with the fabrics.  

If I had a quilty bucket list (and, honestly, don’t we all?  It may only be in the back of our mind, but it’s there.), this would be it.

Dear Jane / Farmer’s Wife samplers:

Instead of using the Dear Jane or other pattern groups, I plan to use a selection of patterns from BlockBase and basically create my own sampler.  I’m loving the colors in this sampler.

Economy Block:

I have been drawn to the Economy Block quilt lately.  

Triangle Quilt:

For a couple years now, I have wanted to make a triangle quilt.   I really would like to get some fabric together and make this happen.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

Wholecloth Quilt:

Top on my list is a whole cloth quilt.  There are a couple ideas for this one.  I’ve played with a design here:

And I’ve also created a larger version of Tula Pink‘s owl from Full Moon Forrest.  I fell in love with Tula Pink when I found this line..and of course it was already out of print.  I would love to use this owl as a center piece of a whole cloth quilt.  I would have to figure out a border and filler that would compliment this sweet owl.

Owl, by Tula Pink. Click photo to see source post.

 

So there’s my quilty bucket list.   And we haven’t even talked about my sewing bucket list.  I really need more hours in the day!!

If you want some inspiration, you should check out the posts so far.    Start here at The Tilted Quilt and go from there.

Have fun,

Ramona

Love Quilt and A Lovely Year of Finishes

As an incentive to get some projects completed, I’m participating in A Lovely Year of Finishes hosted by Sew Bittersweet Designs and Fibers of all Kinds.

I started this Love pattern by Tula Pink in November.  It was super easy and fun to put together, but I was scared to actually start the quilting.  There’s no hiding when quilting on all that lovely negative space.

I regret I lost sight of the diagonal lines in the gray and there is so much horizontal lines at the letters.  But  overall, I feel this is one of my best jobs yet.

To begin I was using So Fine thread and couldn’t get a good tension.  I actually quilted almost half of one white square before giving it up.  I’m not a believer in ripping out quilting, but I did this time.  No matter how I moved the tension, I had thread sitting on top or on the bottom of the quilt.  I switched over to Aurifil and the difference was dramatic.  I read of a lot of quilters, particularly long arm, who seem to love So Fine, so I’m sure it’s a good quality thread.  Maybe it’s the difference of quilting on a domestic machine, or perhaps my Bernina in particular, but Aurifil seemed to sink into the quilt with very little fussing with tension.

It may be hard to see, but the quilting on the left was done with So Fine and on the right was done with Aurifil.

And then there’s the binding.  There’s something I despise about creating binding.  I don’t mind actually sewing it on the quilt, but don’t like cutting it, piecing it, or ironing it.  But I love the spools of binding when I’m done.  It’s one of those little things that make me smile.  And I love that Tula Pink recommends using a length of each fabric used in the letters.  It’s a nice accent to the quilt.  I roll my binding onto old wooden spools and, based on a suggestion in a recent Superior Threads newsletter, placed it on my thread spindle while sewing it to the quilt.  (My Bernina has three spindles so there was room for the thread and for the binding.)  It worked beautifully.

So that’s one finish for January.  I still have a baby quilt and another special quilt to finish before the month’s out.  I head to Florida for business for most of this week and lose some sewing time.  I’ve gotten pretty greedy with my time and have begun to wonder if sewing is becoming an addiction.  Hmmm..do I really want to find a cure?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“A Lovely Year of Finishes”

Hosted by

Shanna of Fiber of All Sorts

and

Melissa of Sew BitterSweet Designs

 

 

I just saw this challenge posted and decided to join in.  First because having a deadline makes me more accountable.  I can get very distracted and end up with too many projects at one time.  And second, because it fits with the goals I have in mind anyway.

My plan this week is to catalog the projects I’ve completed in 2012, the works still in progress, and any new projects I plan (at this point) to start.  One major goal will be stash busting.  My fabric bins are overflowing.  And my wallet will thank me.  Now to see if I have the discipline….I can tell you that is pretty shaky.  Especially with the beautiful fabrics that continually come out.  Salt Water 😦 and Luxe in Bloom 😦 to name a couple.

So back to the Lovely Year of Finishes challenge.  The goal is to identify what you will finish that month, post the goal and then post progress and success throughout the month.  My January was easy to document.  The quilt below on the left is a baby quilt for a good friend’s new grand baby.  It’s a semi-modified Turning Twenty pattern and measures 50 x 50.  I’m trying to choose fabrics for the back now and want it quilted by the end of this coming weekend.

Next is my Tula Pink’s ‘Love‘ quilt.  It’s basted and ready to go.  I just need to get the nerve to get started on it.  Wish me luck that I don’t mess up all that beautiful negative space.  Notice the pinning??  Those are the new (for me) Pinmoors I’ve seen advertised by a few shops.  A darling friend, Melissa, gifted these to me at our recent guild meeting just because she new I wanted to try them!  Melissa and Marty were instrumental in helping me get our modern quilt guild (NELA MQG) started this past October.  We are still small, but I hope we can build some excitement this coming year.  We have had a lot of fun so far and are really excited about it.

50″ x 50″ Turning Twenty Baby Quilt, and Tula Pink’s Love quilt

So that’s the goal for January….it’s really longer than that, but I do like keeping it manageable when possible.  What about you?  Do you need a deadline to keep you on track?  Check out the challenge above.  You can have (another) reason for finishing a project on time and have the chance at prizes as well.  Maybe I’ll get lucky enough to win a fabric certificate and add to those overflowing bins… Oh yeah!  DISCIPLINE.  (riiiiighhht)

Works in progress …

1.T-shirt quilt for my Katie, 2.Quilt labels from Spoonflower :-D, 3.Union Jack and Tula Pink’s Parisville

It’s been a while since my last post.  I would love to find an easier way to post!  When inserting photos everything goes all over the place and the published version is rarely what I expect based on what I’ve entered.  I actually started a post on the Union Jack you see above right a week or so ago.  I wasted an hour or more creating the post and getting photos placed where I wanted and in previewing to post and editing, I lost it all.  Very frustrating.

I’ve played with a couple blog writing software such as MarsEdit and MacJournal, but not completely sold yet.  C’est la vie.

I have finally finished the top of the t-shirt quilt I’ve been promising my middle daughter…since LAST Christmas!  I feel it still needs something on the top and bottom.  Thinking about creating some thin stripes for three to five inches.  Just enough to even the ends and create a little interest…or tie it all together…not sure which.

How do you like my quilt labels?  (top right photo)  Jaybirdquilts did a post a little while back on creating quilt labels from Spoonflower.com.  I’ve finally gotten around to trying it and it was so easy!!  Don’t you love the antique snips?  Those are from GraphicsFairy.com who constantly provide some awesome and unique graphics.  There must be thousands of graphics available on her site.  As a matter of fact, some of the graphics in the header of this blog is also from Graphics Fairy.

The turnaround time between ordering and actually receiving my labels may have been around two weeks.  Considering this is a custom print (which is what they do after all), I was surprised how quick they were.  Since I haven’t ordered from them before and wasn’t sure how these would turn out, I only ordered a fat quarter (Yes!  The allow you to do that!  How great is that?).  My labels were 4 x 6 and I got 15 labels.

And the third photo is of my first Union Jack!  😀  I’ve been wanted to make one.  I’ve done this as part of a Tula Pink sew along hosted by Sew Sweetness, and a Union Jack sew along hosted by Lily’s Quilts.

  

Still have two flags to go and trying to choose between my Tula Pink fabric.  So many pretties!  I don’t feel like my points are lining up properly in the corners, but I’ve ripped and re-sewn enough on this baby!  It’s staying as is.

Other than that, I’m working with two other quilters to start a modern quilt guild in the north Louisiana area.  It’s going to be interesting.  I get blank looks when I mention modern quilting.  Even the store owners are only just becoming aware.  Wish us luck.

Thanks for visiting.  I would love to hear from you, so feel free to comment.

Productive weekend…yet still so much to do!

I feel I have done quite a bit this weekend.

For My Precious QAL hosted by KelbySews, I am finishing projects.  I’m still quilting my Dick and Jane, but have finished the baby quilt in Bliss!  Yay!  One down.

Dick and Jane … FMQ in progress

I’m free motion quilting (FMQ) the Dick and Jane and it isn’t going quite as well as I would like.   Seems like the tension is off, the machine is being persnickety or the fabric is bunching!   I finally took it out of the machine and will go back to it when I’m in a more patient mood.

I finished the baby quilt below for a grand niece.  Angela Walter’s new book came in so handy during the quilting phase.  Most of the patterns I tried in this quilt were from her book.  She does a great job of showing how to execute the patterns.  I’m already waiting for her next book!

Quilt for my great niece. Fabric is Bliss by Bonnie and Camille for Moda Fabric

I worked on the block below for Kim Brackett’s Over and Under quilt using a William Morris jelly roll by Moda.  My husband and daughter both tried to claim this quilt.  My hubby won.  (I actually won this William Morris jelly roll months ago.  I believe I won this from FatQuarterShop.  The fabric is beautiful!)

1. William Morris fabrics from Moda, 2. Nightshade center block needs to take the place of pieced center block, 3. Side corners had to be pieced because of fabric design, 4. Fussy cutting these corners took more ‘fussing’ than you would imagine.

I actually wanted to make this quilt in Tula Pink’s Nightshade and needed to make a center block to verify dimensions since I will not be piecing this center square.  I had to cut the Nightshade as a diamond to get the sisters in the block and I also had to add small pieces to the side points.  I have all of this fabric line, but I can already tell I’m going to need some coordinates to create this quilt.  I’m on a serious fabric freeze.  I may have to window shop for now…and dream.  I’m really excited about this quilt.

I also worked on Liberty of London and linen squares for a quilt.  It took some nerve for me to use the Liberty charm pack I purchased from VeryBerryFabrics.  I was inspired by Ali at VeryBerryHandmade.  See the baby quilt she made using Liberty and linen here.  I just love it!

I worked on a muslin of Vogue 8689:

All in all a good weekend.  I’m looking forward to this weekend.  I have an

extra day since Monday is a holiday.  My “to do” list is long!

Happy sewing!