Thursday, September 22, 2016

BQF: Rainbow Diamonds

Here is my second entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival...Rainbow Diamonds.

I did take a bit of liberty with the rainbow, substituting pinks for reds.  It's my own design and made of HSTs, although in retrospect I should have just pieced it in a log cabin style.  Oh well, live and learn.


I used a swirl pantograph for the quilting.  It had been a while since I used a pantograph.  I definitely like free motion quilting better, but it also went much better this time around than it had previously.  I've learned that smooth swirls are more important than staying on the pantograph line.

I had fun with the photoshoot with this quilt.  To see more pictures, click here.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

BQF: Big Plus, Little Plus

It's time again for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival!!  I'm happy to share with you "Big Plus, Little Plus".  (And I can never stop myself from saying, "what begins with plus" after saying the title.)  Since this is my own design, I'm entering in the Original Design Category.


I know, it isn't really made of pluses.  But I didn't realize it wasn't a plus until I was taking pictures!  This sat on the shelf for a long time, so it was about five years of being called a plus quilt when it wasn't.  I couldn't bear to change it at the end.


I quilted it with pluses.  It's a fast all-over of (sort-of) echos the piecing.

If you'd like more details, the full finish post is here.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Making it work

The quilt I currently have on the frame is a little bit too big.  I wasn't going to be able to roll it up and have it fit under the throat of the sewing machine easily.  So I decided to turn it.  I've had this in the back of my mind for a while, and wanted to see how it would work.

So far it's going ok.  I realized pretty quickly that I wasn't going to be able to roll all the layers on the bar as I had expected.  This made me wish I had gone down as far as possible before turning, but I'll know that for next time now.  The extra weight does add some drag on the machine, but it is still movable.

Since I don't have everything up on the roller I decided to just do the saffron parts first.  This will tack it in place and then I can go back and get the other spots.

The other problem I had was a wrinkle in the batting.  It was the last piece on a roll and I think something made it stretch oddly.  After working it in for a few rows it became time for more drastic measures.  A cut.


That's right, I cut a hole in the middle of my batting.  While it was on the quilting frame.  It kind of freaked me out and seemed like a terrible plan.  But since it was that or deal with a wrinkle that wasn't going away I decided to take my chances.  I took out the offending part and hand-sewed it back up.  I can tell the seam is there, but I'm not sure anyone else will be able to.  It happens to be under one of the sashing pieces and I'm quilting those just right for this (I think).  There is some nice continuous quilting to keep it in place in the future but not too much such that it will strain the seam.






(This is the lower half; the picture with the hole is the upper half of the hole.  You can barely tell it's there!)

Monday, September 12, 2016

Design floor

I've spent the last three nights laying out a quilt.  I put it in a back corner and have taken many pictures, hoping that a small child/cat doesn't mess it up.

My biggest decision right now is whether to have the dark green centers seen in the left three rows.  There are trees on them, which is special to the recipient and myself, but they're a bit dark.


They don't look so bad in the picture.  I'll probably keep them.  There's also a chance I won't make it quite this big.  It feels quite big, although I guess nothing has been sewn together yet.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Bee hive quilt - finished

So...I finished this a while ago, but have been slow to take pictures.  And then slow to post the pictures.  I love having a record of what I've made, but sometimes I don't want to do the work.

Anyway,  this is a quilt from a Bee Hive run by Blossom Heart Quilts called Spinwheel.  I did change it a bit - prints B and D are the same color in my quilt.

The yellow spinwheels are most prominent, but there are also dark purple, grey, and light purple spinwheels too.  I had hoped for scrappy blocks, but forgot to actually say that in my instructions.  In the end I had a few blocks that stick out a bit more than the others - they aren't scrappy and the colors are a bit lighter.  I just strategically spaced them and now they are a design feature!  Score.  I actually really like them as it's a rather busy quilt and they give the eye a place to rest.

For the quilting I did loops in grey thread.  I think the loops feel like wind, and so it seemed appropriate with all the spinwheels.

I bound it in a light grey.  The back is purple minky.  It's going to an adult friend, but I love minky.  Love it!!  I strongly feel that all quilts that are meant to be used (and not just looked at, like on a wall) should be backed in something soft.

This quilt, just like me, enjoyed some relaxing this summer.


Linking up with Finish It up Friday and Whoop-whoop Friday

Monday, September 5, 2016

August recap

1. Wedding quilt. Finishing this is my goal for September.  As goals go, this one might be a bit hard to finish.  The quilt is on the frame. The beige is about half quilted and I just started the light grey, but I feel like it's taking a long time.  It took me about 1.5 weeks to do 2/3 of the beige part.  I thought it would be an easy quilting motif, but I think I'm doing more marking than expected.  There is also a computer game that recently had more content added to it, so I've been playing that a bit more in my evenings.


2. The bee hive quilt.  I took pictures...I just need to post them.  Slowly but surely is my motto with this one. (See, even the quilt is taking it easy and doesn't want to "work".)



3. Sunset wall hanging.   The binding is on the front and ready for hand binding during the next vacation I take.


4. Quilt nautical quilt.   I finished the ropes in the sashing and then took it off the frame for a bit.  I did bury a bunch of thread ends too.

5. Aunt's quilt. I have all the HSTs done.  They still need to be trimmed.  I had been planning on doing opposite sides of the color spectrum - blue with orange, pink with green, and purple with yellow - but I suddenly found myself with a bunch of yellow and blue HSTs.  They were made, cut in half, and I realized I really liked the blue and yellow together.  So I just put the other colors together as I wanted.  The pink and purple went nicely together, so that left orange and green together too.


Other items still waiting around.  I didn't add anything this month, although I've had a few ideas floating around in my head.  So far I've been resisting the temptation though.
6. Baby quilt (boy). 
7. bee hive scrap something.
8. scrap quilt #2.
9. Scrap quilt. 
10. Simply solids bee quilt.     
11. Rainbow log cabin.  
12. Orphan rocket block.  
13. Jeweled floors.  
14. Lost piece (almost whole cloth quilt).  
15. Winter quilt.  
16. fabric from Christmas.  
17. A pillow with green/purple fabric.