First Finish-A-Long, Q3

Hello Everyone! I have my first finish for Q3 of the 2017 FAL to show you.

 

It’s a T-Shirt Quilt commissioned by another swim friend of my daughter. The sashing pieces are Ash (gray) and Onyx Grunge by BasicGrey for Moda. The border is Adventure Awaits Black Arrows and Triangles by Wee Gallery for Dear Stella Fabrics. Caitlyn picked the fabrics for the sashing and borders. That was a big help in designing the quilt.

The back is Liberty Gatherings Woven by Primitive Gathering. The red is a nice accent to all the black and gray on the front.

I used a smoke YLI invisible thread on the top and a red 50 wt. Aurifil in the bobbin. I like the invisible thread on the T-Shirts because it gives the quilting a nice texture without smothering the t-shirts.

I decided to use my walking foot to quilt an edge to edge design. I also didn’t want it to be horizontal, 90 or 45 degrees, so I marked it out for 30 degrees. There is a larger section of gentle curves, then a smaller section of straight lines. My original idea was to do a straight line zigzag where the straight lines are, but the quilt is heavy, so I didn’t want to keep turning it.

After quilting a little over half the quilt, I turned the quilting, so it was going more vertical (now at 60 degrees) in the opposite direction. I used the Hera marker to make the registration lines, then quilted those lines first. If I use this method again, I may not quilt all those lines first because sometimes the fabric was pushed towards those stitched lines, then had no where to go. I had my pressure foot set very high, so that helped some. It also could have been because of the angle or the T-Shirts themselves.

This is Caitlyn and her mom with the quilt. I hope she will get many years of use from it and that it will bring back great memories for her. She is a very good swimmer and is off to the University of Nevada Reno to be a member of its swim team.

Oh, by the way. I took a really quick trip to see my daughter in Pensacola earlier in the week. My husband is a pilot and flew four Pensacola trips with layovers this month, so he’s been able to have dinner with her. I was able to get on an airplane and fly with him on his last trip and surprise my daughter. We spent a couple of hours on the beach, then had a nice dinner and a walk on the pier. It was an early night because the flight back left at 6:00 the next morning. It was fun to see my daughter and I know why she loves being down there. I think she goes to the beach almost everyday.

Hope you have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.

 

WIP Update

Hello Everyone! I wanted to check in and give you a quick update on some works in progress. I’ve spent long hours on the T-Shirt quilt and have it finished, but I don’t want to show final pictures until I give to the recipient. I’ll have that post in a few days.

I’ve been also working on Jacquelynne’s “I Love Home” BOM. I’ve finished the first block and the pattern will be released on August 7. So sign up if you haven’t yet.

These are the group of fabrics I’m working from. Fig Tree’s Chestnut Street, Coney Island, a little Strawberry Fields Revisited and Corey Yoder’s Sundrops. I have three layer cakes that I’m using for the applique, then I have a fat eighth bundle for the piecing. I also have Fig Tree’s Bella Solid Bundle. It’s always fun to play with the fabric, I think that’s my favorite part of quilting.

Jacquelynne also has a mini mystery sew-a-long on her Club Facebook group right now. This is my take on step one. More steps will be coming over the next few days, can’t wait to see how it turns out.

This is Moda Blockheads Week 19 block. I’m pretty sure I’m going to set my blocks on point, so I had to play around with the color placement to get something I liked. I think it will be okay. I like the block and it was really easy to piece. I like this block.

I finished the embroidery on Jenny of Elefantz October “a year in the garden” Now to get the borders on and quilt it.

Waiting to be cut is fabric from this month’s Minis and More Parade. The pattern is mini Market Tulips by Corey Yoder. The fabrics are from her Sundrops line and Sherri and Chelsi’s Desert Bloom and Bright Sun.

That’s it for now. I have a busy week ahead. Thanks for stopping by!

The Blue Angels and Some Quilting

Hello Everyone! I’ve been busy working on the T-Shirt quilt and I made this weeks Moda Blockhead block. But mostly I want to share some pictures my daughter took of the Blue Angles Air Show over Pensacola Beach last Saturday.

First, I finished the T-Shirt quilt top and have started quilting it.

I used two rulers and the Hera marker to mark registration lines. I set this five pound weight on the rulers to keep them from slipping. Hope to finish this up by the end of the week.

Next, I finished Block 18 of the Moda Blockheads BOW by Carrie Nelson at Moda Fabrics.

It’s called Rocky Mountain Puzzle and is one of my favorite blocks so far. I can see a whole quilt made from this block in southwestern colors.

Now onto the airshow.

My daughter was able to attend the Blue Angel Banquet on the beach the night before the air show as the date of one of the Pensacola Beach Lifeguards who were invited to it. She’s the one of the left with her twin Brazilian swim team mates. She’s with Blue Angel 5 and 6, the solos. Number 6 grew up right here in our county.

The group she was with camped on the beach so they could beat the crowds. This was their sunrise the next morning. You can see that they weren’t the only ones camping out.

Fortunately, the storms stayed away and it looked like they had a perfect day for the show. By the way, these pictures are unedited, just the sun shining on the clouds early in the morning.

One of my favorites!

I hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures like we did. We’ve seen the Blue Angels lots of times at different airshows, but we would love to see them over the beach! If you’ve never seen them or the Air Force Thunderbirds, you should make every effort to see them if they do a show close to you. It is well worth it!

Thanks for stopping by.

2017 Finish-A-Long Q3 Projects and Q2 Recap

Hello Everyone! I hope all my American followers had a great 4th of July. It was noisy around here. A few years ago, Georgia legalized buying fireworks in the state. You used to have to go to Alabama or South Carolina to but them. On the 4th around here, the fireworks started going off around 7:00 and continued non-stop and in surround sound until 11:00. We were only able to see a few, but definitely could hear them.

Now onto my list for the third quarter of the 2017 Finish-A-Long. I’m going to link my list up Charm About You.  I’m keeping the list a bit smaller this quarter because I’m involved in three block of the months and want to continue to work on my swoon blocks.

 

1. Caitlyn’s T-Shirt Quilt
2. Jake’s Quilt. This quilt has been on my list for a year. I just need to quilt it now!
3. A new dress made from an Art Gallery Fabrics knit.
4. Quilt the Blocks on the Go for Quilts that Grow.
5. September’s “a year in the garden” embroidery
6. July Mini’s and More, mini Tulip Market by Cory Yoder
7. Not pictured – October’s “a year in the garden” embroidery, the embroidery is already traced.
8. Not pictured – August Minis and More
9. Not pictured – September Minis and More

These should keep me busy along with the Quilting Life block of the month,

the Modablockheads Block of the Week, here’s the lasted one:

Block 17, Trail of Tears, by Lisa Bongean.

and Jacquelynne Steves “I Love Home Block of the Month”. Here’s a sneak peak:

I also want to continue to work on my swoon block.

Now to recap my Quarter 2 List.

I had 11 items on my list and finished 9:

This was a good quarter! You can read about my finishes here.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

June Minis and More and Last FAL for 2017 Q2

Hello Everyone and Happy 4th of July Weekend! The project for our Minis and More Parade for June was anything summer which is appropriate going into this weekend.  This is also my last finish for the 2017 Finish-A-Long and you can find my list here.

I actually made three things this month that qualify for the minis, but the original one I started with is a kit I received for a Christmas present by Sherri Falls of This and That.

The pattern is A Season of Minis – Summer and the kit came with all these darling fabrics mostly from Little Ruby by Bonnie and Camille for Moda.

My finished size is 14″ x 14″, slightly larger than the pattern because even though it fits nicely on my stand, I turned it into a pillow.

And it goes nicely with my other spring and summer pillows! I can also pick it up and take it camping with us. I couldn’t really do that with just a flat piece, we don’t have walls  and not much flat space in our pop up camper.

One of the other summery things I made this month are my Picnic Placemats.

I made these for charity through a guild service project. You can read more about them and find my tutorial on making them here.

The last summery thing for the month is Block 16 for the Moda Blockheads BOW. Week 16’s block is by Jan Patek. Jan’s block was two applique flags. I didn’t think it would really fit into my quilt, so I made the alternate block provided by Lisa Bongean. I did make a version on Jan’s block though.

It’s an embroidered version using leftover scraps. You can see in the picture below that I just used what I had and trimmed after sewing. Much faster for a small project than cutting to size.

I started with these wavy lines made with a disappearing marker, then used my walking foot to quilt. I had a bunch of starts and stops, but it is a mug rug, so they just got cut off. I quilted in the ditch in the HST.

This is the alternate block and I finally found a block that I could use the red print in. Now it’s onto Week 17.

I hope you enjoyed my summery sewing. I actually had “something fun” on my list of things to do for June! That means something just for me. Even though all three were made for a purpose, they all qualify as fun!

The Minis and More Parade is hosted by Michele and Sherri and will be posted on July 3. I hope you remember to stop by to see what everyone else has made. Thanks for stopping by.

 

Lindsey’s Quilt and a FAL

Hello everyone! I’m back with Lindsey’s graduation quilt. This is also a finish for the 2017 FAL, Q2. You can find my list here.

Lindsey will be attending the University of Kentucky so I thought a blue and white quilt was in order. The pattern is Crosshatch by Amy Smart from her Craftsy class Pre-cut Shortcuts. The blue fabrics are all batiks and the white is Kona Cotton. The pattern calls for using pre-cuts, but I cut my own so I could get this variety of blues in similar shades. It was another easy quilt to make.

I used my Hera Marker to mark the squares on the fabric, then used my open toe foot to quilt it.  Since the quilt is so large, I quilted half of the squares in a row, then turned the quilt and quilted the other half. That way, I didn’t have to turn the quilt all the way around for each block. I did one that way and thought of the better way to do it.

I used the free motion foot to quilt different designs in the center of each square. The one above is Paisley and Pebbles.

I also quilted swirls, pebbles and did a little MacTavishing. I quilted Ribbon Candy in the sashing. It’s still a work in progress, but the more I quilt it, the better it gets.

Originally, I was going to add a border, but I liked the way it looked without it. I used the border fabric on the back, but didn’t have enough. Unfortunately, the shop didn’t have any of the border fabric left so I bought something else and pieced the back.

Well,  I wish I could say that’s it for the graduation quilts, but I still need to quilt my son’s who graduated a year ago. Oh well, he’s going to have to wait a little longer. Today I’m going to start a T-shirt quilt that I’ve been commissioned to make.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

Corbin’s Graduation Quilt and a FAL

Hello Everyone! I’ve got a finish today for the 2017 Finish-A-Long, Q2 and it’s Corbin’s Graduation quilt. You can find my list here.

This is a coin quilt and is based on one that Pat Sloan made. My quilt is larger, 72″ x 83″ and the “coins” are larger, 9″ x 3″. I wanted the quilt to go together quickly.

I used  a fat eighth bundle of “Adventures” fabric by Amy Ellis  for Moda to cut the coins. Many of the pieces of fabric are directional, so I had to be careful when cutting, although I did cut at least one piece in the wrong direction. I do love the fabric with the text on it.

I used my Creative Grids Stripology Ruler again to cut the coins. It made quick work of it. I ended up with this stack of coins and leftover fabric.

I also have a layer cake in this fabric, so I might have enough to make another lap size quilt out of what I have left.

I quilted non-uniform wavy lines down the length of the quilt using my walking foot with Aurifil 50 wt thread.  The backing is a flannel that I picked up on sale during an in shop quilting retreat last fall.

I really am pleased with this quilt. I hope you enjoy it Corbin! He will be attending Radford University in Radford, VA, in God’s country as my husband will say. It’s just down the road from Virginia Tech (Go Hokies!) and one of the prettiest places to be.

You’ll be hearing from me a few more times in the next couple of days as I’m trying to get my posts written for the FAL by the end of the month. Thanks for stopping by.