Thursday, May 23, 2013

Blogger's Quilt Festival - {truly} smitten

Well hello there!  If you are visiting from the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy, Welcome to my little space!

My entry into the spring quilt festival, is my {truly} smitten quilt.


I started this one awhile back...sometime last year.  I wanted to make a lap/toddler bed sized quilt for Emma.  The Hunky Dory line (Chez Moi for Moda) was perfect for her quilt.  The pastel pinks, blues, and greens --- so sweet!


After seeing Anna's Smitten quilt during a PMQG event, I fell in love with the pattern (by Rachel Griffith).  The quilt came together so quickly and then I got stuck.  I really wanted to try something different with this quilt --- a different style of free motion quilting.  At the PMQG retreat in November, a few guild members offered some suggestions for quilting and an idea was born.


I stippled in the white space, out-lined the prints with straight line quilting, and added a flower in each square.    I can see the progression of the free motion flowers from ehhhhh to ok, good enough.  What I was going for and what I ended up with were 2 different things but I love the result.

This is one of the "better" flowers!
I backed the quilt with a pink Kona solid and used the same for the binding.


Emma's still in a crib (YAAAY!) so for now we use this quilt to cuddle with on the couch.

Hi Paigey-dog!
Thanks for visiting!

Friday, May 17, 2013

More about Potholders - Potholder Pass 13

I participated in the spring round of Potholder Pass (Round 13) which doesn't seem to be my lucky round.  I over committed myself this spring and sent my potholders a week way late.  I was little overwhelmed by my partner's request and mosaic but in the end I like what I came up with.

This one is my favorite of the two.  I love this bird fabric (Oh, Deer by Momo for Moda).  My partner, Sabie sews, requested woodland crittery, modern, and bright!  I did random straight line quilting on this one.


For the second one, I fussy cut a deer from one of the fabric panels and framed it with a few narrow strips.  The quilting on this one was primarily stitch in the ditch with a little free motion outlining some of the details of the grass and tree.


I included a few extras: some of the Oh, Deer fat eighths and a quilt pattern.


Sabie sews received this last week & I think she liked them but, the package from my swap partner appears to be lost :-(.  I'll be waiting patiently.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Mother's Day, Potholders, & Dishtowels, Oh My!


Happy Belated Mother's Day to all the moms out there :)  I had a relatively low key day myself which was perfect.  We spent the day gardening and Hubby made us a really lovely dinner.

For Mother's Day this year I was inspired by Rita @ Red Pepper Quilts to make my mom new potholders.  Knowing that my mom's potholders were in rough shape, they seemed like the perfect gift.  I used one of those mini charm packs which was enough for 2 potholders with a few squares left over. 

I layered the potholder top with a layer of Warm & Natural Batting and a layer of the Insul-Bright and did a little straight line quilting.  
Just finishing the binding.
 
 To add a little something to the potholders, I "made" mom a dishtowel.  I followed this wonderful tutorial by Kleio's Belly.  My pleat came out slightly off center {totally my fault} but, oh well, it's functional!  You can get two of these hanging dishtowels out of one full sized (15x24") kitchen towel.


Mom's second towel is still in progress but these literally take only a few minutes to make.  The most time consuming part for me was the button hole.  Well really procrastinating doing it.  I've done them in the past ----you know, on the old machine.  I was so intimidated by the new machine, with it's special button hole foot.  It was soooo darn easy.  You just pick the stitch number (#49 on my Babylock), attach the foot, line up the starting point, and press go.  Sew easy! (HA!)

Friday, May 10, 2013

Woodland Sampler - April & May

I had (what seemed like) a million things to get done in April, so the Woodland sampler was put on the back burner.  Now that I'm all caught up on various other deadlines, bee blocks, swaps, & pattern testing, I had a chance to work on my April and May Woodland sampler blocks.

April brought the jack-a-lope and April showers.  I added little dandelions which I love seeing this time of year.


For May, I stitched up this little gnome guy.  I think he's rather cute hiding in those sprouts.


I can't wait for the release of June's pattern, but until then I have plenty of work to do on the Springtime sampler. I'm over halfway done stitching up the frames and finally picked up the embroidery floss for the pattern. 

Friday, May 3, 2013

Happy May!!

The spring round of the 4 x 5 modern bee is over!  I chose the Arkansas Traveler block using a tutorial and templates by Freshly Pieced for my hive.  It was my first experience with paper piecing and worked out fairly well.  It was fairly time consuming and messy which was not good for my OCD tendencies, but I pushed through and I love these blocks.

For Allison - black, gray, white, pop of aqua
For Emily - yellow orange, turquoise, & gray

For Allison - pink, purple, & aqua
For Lisa - aqua & tangerine

For Ellie - red, navy, & yellow
And unfortunately I was a day late sending 4 of my blocks....I procrastinated until the day before the mailing deadline {because I was a scaredy-cat wimp about paper piecing} and then finally got my cookies together.  Yes, I said cookies....that's the toddler talk coming through!  Made 4 in one night after work...exhausting but worth it.  

Next up:  Blocks received from the spring 4x5 modern quilt bee....