Thursday, January 31, 2019

A Month of Fnishes...

Whew, there's been a lot of sewing going on in my sewing room this month, and a whole lot of finishes! I'll note which projects include fabric from Island Batik as I go through them all.  First finish this year was the first Project Quilting challenge:  Hope Springs Eternal:
This quilt featured Island Batik fabrics, was cut with a GO! cutter from Accuquilt, and featured Aurifil Thread and Hobbs batting.

The next finish was my quilt for the Black and White blog hop:
Deonn at Quiltscapes was inspired by the same tile pattern as I was, but she made a different project!  This one also featured Island Batik fabric.  This quilt used up the last of my cone of Aurifil thread in white, and also used Hobbs batting.

I also quilted my Whimsical and Wonky top :

These are those fun Check it Out fabrics from Island Batik that I used for my December Challenge.  I used four of the blocks for the table runner, and made this fun lap quilt from the remaining 12 blocks that I made.  I used Aurifil thread and Hobbs Batting in this one as well!  

My next finish is my Project Quilting 10.2 challenge.  This one was made with assorted cotton fabrics from my stash.  I'm happy to say I used up a good amount of the patriotic fabric I've collected in this one!



Then I finished my blog hop project from the French Blue Collection.  You still have time to enter my giveaway by going and reading my blog post from Monday


This was also my OMG for the month!  I'm sure happy that I got it finished on schedule and was able to meet my final commitment for the 2018 Island Batik Ambassador program!
This weekend I finished the lap size quit made from baby clothes:

I also finished the twin size quilt today!
Isn't that robot quilt perfect?  Such a great little boy quilt!

I don't think I'll manage finishing 7 quilts every month, but it's a great way to start 2019!  I was so excited to finish the quilts, that I got busy and finished a couple blocks for different sewalongs.

This is my center for the Quilter's Planner's sewalong for this year!  Isn't that tree print pretty?  I'm going to do my quilt in blues with white background, and just use stash fabrics.

And here is my green block for Jen's 2019 Color Challenge!  I didn't think it was going to happen, but it did - love this block!  You should join in - it's going to be fun!
So, all in all a great month of quilting, lots of finished projects and I made progress on a few other items.  Now to make my list for February...

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Memory quilt made from baby clothes

One of the last quilts on my list to finish this week is a memory quilt made from baby clothes.  I've been working all month, cutting cute baby outfits into squares and rectangles to make into a quilt, and I've got the top done now and it's ready for quilting.

This one is more "scrappy" looking than the other ones I've done, but I like it a lot!  I found a fun print to add a 4 inch border all the way around, it's bright green with gears in gray and blue.  Then the back has robots!  Very fun for a little boy quilt.  It will be a twin size when it is done.

Earlier this month I finished a lap quilt for the same customer.  This one is really bright and happy.  It has her favorite baby clothes from both her children.  I had a different idea to start with, but since most of the clothes were so light it really didn't work.  I'm happy I changed my idea.
It's such a cheerful quilt!


I don't have pictures of all the quilts I've made for this family, but here are some of them:
This is the star quit I made for the boy.
And the one for the girl!

This is my favorite - a Honey Bee quilt for the girl.  Just so much fun!  I have to say that I probably won't be making more of these unless it's for my own family.  They are so very time consuming and take a lot of work with all the cutting, adding fusible interfacing to the stretchy fabrics and are not easy to piece and quilt.  It has taken way to long for me to get around to doing these last ones because it's just not my favorite thing to work on anymore.   I am glad they are done now and I can work on other projects without feeling guilty.  I'm really happy with how they came out, and they were all interesting projects, but I feel like I am done with this type of quilt - at least for the present time.

Next on the agenda - finishing the borders on the Brothers and Sisters quilt!

I want to say thanks for all the great comments on my French Blue Interwoven quilt!  I am enjoying each one, and really appreciate them all!  Here's a picture of the scraps I am giving away:

It's a nice little bundle of goodies, so make sure you go to Monday's post and enter.

Linking up with Connie for Linky Tuesday.  Come share what you are working on, too!

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Getaway Blog Hop for Island Batik - French Blue

Hello and welcome, are you ready for another excursion on the Getaway blog hop?   I am so excited to share about the lovely fabric I received to use from Island Batik! As an Island Batik Ambassador, it's always fun to participate in these blog hops to introduce the new fabrics coming to your quilt shops, and it's definitely an adventure and a Getaway from the ordinary.

The fabric in my surprise package was French Blue!  Ooh la la - so cheerful and happy - I am in love with the combination of blue and yellow!  About this time of year we are usually hungering for some sunshine and blue skies, and long to Get Away from the rainy days.  (How is that for a tie-in with the blog theme?)   Click the picture to go see all the individual fabrics in the French Blue collection on the Island Batik website.



I was inspired to make a two color quilt with a positive/negative effect.  It was really fun to play with these happy colors to make my quilt.  I can definitely see a french influence in the prints!

I really enjoyed creating different combinations of the varying shades of color and pattern in the fabrics.

I did a lot of arranging, and rearranging before I decided on the final layout. I really loved the interplay of light and dark in this quilt.  It was so fun to take it out and get some shots of it in the sunshine - after all, that's what the yellow and blue colors make me think of.  The grass and fence were very wet, but the sun was out and that was what I was after!

Such a happy quilt!  I used Aurifl 50 wt thread in white for all of the piecing, and a pale yellow (also 50 wt) for quilting.  Hobbs natural cotton batting was the perfect weight for this quilt.  I wanted it to be lightweight and soft and definitely achieved that with a nice large meander over the entire quilt.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I adore all of these fabrics.  I ended up making 30 blocks from my 18 half yard cuts and I have some scraps left (make sure you read all the way to the end of my post and I'll give you a chance to win them!)  Since there are more blues than yellows, the yellows have more repeats in my quilt, but I loved seeing how they go with the different blues.

After traipsing around outdoors in the wet, I had to give my quilt a trip through the wash.  Can you see the lovely crinkle?  I just love a soft, crinkly quilt to snuggle with!  The backing is Parchment - the perfect soft yellow for this project.

I'm delighted with my soft, bright and happy quilt!  It measures 60 x 72 inches, a nice large lap size.  I finished it off with a scrappy binding using some of the leftover fabric strips, and the rest are going to a lucky winner - keep reading to find out how.

 I'm calling this quilt Intermingle and have also written up a pattern for you!  It will be available for free in my payhip store until the end of the blog hop.

Intermingle Quilt Pattern


Are we to the end of my post yet?  Do you want to hear about my giveaway?  I'm giving away a bundle of scraps left over from my quilt!  I have some 2 inch strips, 2 1/2 inch strips and some more bits and pieces left and I will send them all to one winner!  Sorry, only US entries for this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget that Island Batik also is giving away two awesome bundles of fabric!  See their giveaway on the Island Batik Blog.  Here is the schedule for the rest of the week of the hop - I can't wait to see what the rest of the Ambassadors have come up with to show us!

WEEK 4
Monday, January 28

Tuesday, January 29

Wednesday, January 30

Thursday, January 31
 

Friday, February 1

Barbara Gaddy – Candy Cane Lane  –Bejeweled Quilts by Barb

Friday, February
Anne Wiens- Icicle – Sweetgrass Creative Designs 



Thanks for reading! Glad you came to visit, hope you enjoyed it!

Saturday, January 26, 2019

Project Quilting 10.2 Red, White and Blue - Patriotic Windmills

I totally surprised myself this week and got my project done early on!  When I saw the challenge for the week I knew right away that I would work on my bag full of patriotic fabrics.  I'm not too sure why all my patriotic fabrics are stored this way, I think it was a remnant from a prior project and I thought I would use them again, but I really haven't. 

First of all I dumped out the whole bag and pulled out the pieces that had other colors in them.  I came upon a bunch of pieces from demonstrating a disappearing windmill block for quilt guild several years ago.  So I sewed those all together to make the center of my quilt.
Well, that looks pretty good!  How about a border or two?  I had a couple nice size pieces that would make good borders.

Hmm.  This one's been hanging around for a while, hasn't it?


Before you know it, I had a nice size top ready for quilting.  At this point, I decided to sew together more bits and pieces for a back.  Simply in the interest of reducing the amount of fabric in that bag, you know.
I used some Hobb's natural cotton, and a spool of Aurifil Thread and quilted it up in an afternoon.
I wanted red for the binding, but ended up settling for the blue with silver stars.  That got stitched down with blue Aurifil.

You can see the stars and loops better on the back.

Those two four patch squares were part of those demo pieces, too!  Nice that I got all of those old demo pieces used up finally!

Patriotic Windmills measures 43 x 43 inches and is for sale in my Etsy shop!  Made by me (Pamela) here in Coos Bay, Oregon. 

Thanks to Kim for another great challenge, make sure you stop by after tomorrow morning and vote for your favorite!

See the rest of the challenge pieces here...
PQLogoHorizontalC


Monday, January 21, 2019

Black and White Blog Hop - CrossFlight


Image result for black and white blog hop

Welcome to day 2 of the Black and White Blog Hop!

  It's actually kind of funny thing, but I am not normally attracted to the idea of  Black and White, but right before the sign up for this Blog Hop I saw the most intriguing design in a magazine.  It was a tile floor in black and white and I thought it would make a fabulous quilt!  So, of course, I had to sign up and see if I could figure out how to make my idea come to life.

I started out playing with the idea in EQ8.  I drew it out several times, taking my time tweaking the design to try to create something that was easier to piece.  In the end I decided that the very easiest way to make this quilt would be to foundation paper piece it.

This project was totally meant to be because at this point I realized that I had the perfect fabrics to use for my project - solid back and white batik fabric from Island Batik! (provided in my July Ambassador box)  So I broke out the fabric and got busy paper piecing.

I only had a yard of each, so I made sure to cut my pieces pretty close so I would have enough fabric!

It seemed to take forever, but I finally had 16 blocks finished and ready to put together.  (I used Aurifil 50 wt for the piecing - that cone of white is getting very thin now!

After that, it didn't take long and the top was done in pretty short order.
A simple border of black, completes the top in style:
Quilting it went pretty fast as well - I kept it simple and sweet.
Just a couple more beauty shots for you!
I really like how this came out!
I thought some of you might like to try making this, too!  I've written up a pattern and put it in my Payhip shop.  I hope you enjoy trying it out!

Cross Flight Quilt Pattern

Thanks for checking out my project!  And a big thanks to Carla for hosting it!  Make sure you go to her blog and sign up for the giveaway, too:  Creatin' In the Sticks.

Here is the full schedule for Monday and Tuesday - you don't want to miss the great projects, so far they have been amazing!


Monday, January 21st







Tuesday, January 22nd






Stop by and say Hi to these wonderful makers, too! Thanks for your visit here, hope you come back next week for the Getaway Blog Hop with Island Batik (my day is Monday).



Friday, January 18, 2019

To Finish, or plan to finish....

That is the question (for all us quilters, that is!)
Whether 'tis nobler in our blogs to list,
The UFO's and Wips that plaque our consciences
Or to in real life work on the sewing and stitching
and actually finish them.  To piece, to quilt, to finish...

Well, I am no Shakespeare, so I think I'll finish my bit of verse at this point.  It was inspired by me decision to join in the 2019 Finish-a-long.  Hopefully I will be able to set some good goals as well as actually get some things finished.  I have a closet with quite a few bins in it from my organizing last year that have not even been touched and I'd really like to move some of those projects into the finished column, if you know what I mean.  Plus I have Island Batik challenges, and some customer quilts that need to be completed.  Plenty to keep my busy for sure!

First, my finishes for this week.  It's been a productive week of sewing, and I have not one, but two finished, and basted tops.  Not to mention that since my cup of pins is just about empty again, so it's time to get quilting!

It was pouring down rain outside, but inside it was all sunshine and blue skies with these lovely fabrics!

I was not feeling as cheerful about the plastic bag that got too close to my iron - yuck!



I just have a few minutes left to post this, but wanted to jump in with the Finish-a-long.

I have several things that I'd really like to get finished over the next few months.

1. Brothers and Sisters Quilt:
2.  Memories of the Titanic - wall size version

3.  Savannah:
4.  Lovers Kiss in Lavendula:
5.  Whimsical and wonky lap quilt:

6.  And my daughters wedding gown!

That should keep me busy, I think!  There are some other projects on my radar, but these are the ones I can show you now!

Linking up with Dizzy Quilts!

Plus Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday