White facets: an inverse - finished

Another finish!  They're slow as I'm not quilting as much lately, but they're still coming.  

This was gifted to my friend.  She had originally chosen a similar one as a gift for her husband, but this one was a surprise.

It isn't an inverse, per se, because there are three colors.  But it is a rotation.  This is based off Christa Watson's Facets...you know it's a good one when you're willing to do it twice.

Really, it turns out that I like making large blocks from fabric crumbs.  I've done it in a lot of my quilts lately.  I think I enjoy it because it doesn't require too much thinking.

I backed it with minky, which is way to warm for this summer but will be nice in the winter.  The quilting also matches the other quilt, with triangles in the diamonds and back and forths in the crumb blocks.

Irish Chain - finished

Let's talk about this Irish Chain quilt.  I finished the top about five years ago and got it quilted about four years ago.  I used it for two years without the binding.  I finally got the binding put on last year and then finally, finally, got pictures of it this week.  It has been used well during that time though as it is my basement blanket and I spend a lot of time in the basement.

It's been a while, but I think I used the scrappy Irish Chain pattern from Happy Quilting.  As I was taking pictures I really enjoyed how different the images looked as I got farther and farther away, so I thought you'd enjoy them too...

For the quilting, I did a motif called Fancy Floral (180 Doodle Quilting Designs) in the white areas.  The blue squares got up and down back and forths, the green squares got side to side back and forths, and the teal squares have a double loop.

The base fabric I got for Christmas many years ago and have since forgotten what it was called.  I didn't quite have enough though, so I added in several solids and a few prints that matched well.  The solids include navy, windsor, splash, enchanted, artichoke, olive, bonsai, and, of course, white.  I worked on this during the 2020 lock down and ran out of white in the middle.  It was a sad day as I had actually been making good progress and was brought to a halt because white Kona was on back order for all the on-line stores.

Black and Pink stars

I just finished another quilt that was made by my friend's grandma.  

I'm pretty sure that it isn't square.  I'm not sure anyone will ever notice because people don't lay quilts out flat very often, but ...oh well.  It is what it is.  I had some trouble quilting the bottom and I don't know if it was my fault (probably) or if there were enough things off in the quilt top that would make it skew so much at the end.

I quilted pink loops in the pink border and the main flower area and back and forths in the black borders.

Nathan's round robin

A long while ago, Liz suggested that I make a quilt hanging for Nathan's office because it was cold and boring.  She had made a blanket for his office, so Christmas 2022 she brought the yarn she had used and I color matched it with fabric so that I could match the current blanket.  I decided to make a round robin style quilt.  I thought that all the different shapes on the blanket would lend themselves well to that style.

Here's the original blanket:

The colors I used were Kona putty, old green, bluebell, taupe, dresden blue, saffron, and ochre.

I took my time with the quilting (for once).  There is a tiny stiple in the center, the blue squares have back and forths, there are some echoes in the chevrons, and figure 8 in the green borders.  Not all of my quilting is nice and straight, but it is good enough. 

I matched the thread to the fabric color too.  It just looks nicer.

Meshing Triangles 2: finished

After Meshing Triangles got into the AQS quilt show in Grand Rapids, I posted the news, along with a picture, on Facebook.  It lead to an old friend reaching out and wondering if I could make a similar one for her prayer space.  This was a fun quilt to make, and I love making quilts for people, so I immediately said yes!

I love how this one came out too.  Trying to figure out how to blend the triangles while making use of what I have on hand and not going crazy is always a fun problem.  For the quilting, I did back and forth in the background and in the triangles I did a back and forths in both triangle colors.  

The photo shoot day was rather windy, but one picture almost turned out ok.  The Kona colors I used include: artichoke, bluegrass, camilla, carrot, Chinese red, corn, cosmos, hibiscus, hunter green, mint, Paris blue, sienna, teal blue, and water.  Eggshell was used for the background.

Lastly, I put a hanging sleeve on the back.  I had used some striped fabric that I had laying around since I knew it was not going to be seen.  What I didn't anticipate is that if I also made a sleeve from said fabric it would be much easier to align than normal!  If I'm expecting to make more hanging sleeves in the future I'm definitely going to do this again because everything stayed lined up.

Finished: library quilt

 The library quilt is finished!  

I know what you're saying; that doesn't look like it has anything to do with a library!  It's true.  One of the librarians at our local library just had a baby, and I gave it to her.  I was almost on track to finish by the time she was born, but then she came a little early and so I let myself have a little extra time to finish.

The pattern is derived from photos at TheQuiltYarn, although the colors are quite a bit different!  I had gotten the center flowers and the teal at a local quilt shop and I really do love them.  As always, it is backed with minky.  I bound it with a ribbon this time and I did not like the ribbon quality.  I've done it a few other times with ribbons and it's been fine, but this time it was not as good.

For the quilting: I matched the thread color to the fabric color.  It helps hide imperfections, and there are a lot in this quilt!  The green stripes have a back and forth, the blue stripes have an echo, and the squares have arcs in them.  I really thought I had found the arc motif in a book, but I can't find it right now. 

Finished: Dutch Windmill

I'm way behind in posting some finishes, but here's at least one of them!  This was for our friends' baby.  We still haven't met him yet, due to COVID and because it would take a significant road trip, but I got the quilt to them just as they came home from the hospital.

I originally found this design at From Bolt to Beauty.   She got the block, called Dutch Windmill, from Red Delicious Life.  The .pdf for paper piecing is available there.

 

 

I used my color scraps for the rotated squares, and it was fun to try and come up with contrasting fabrics that I had enough of and looked good together. :D   The Kona colors ended up being: honeydew, tarragon, teal blue, Bahama blue, sunny, highlight, school bus, carrot, rich red, riviera, water, kelly, chartreuse, blue, splash, tiger lily, flamingo, tomato, citrus, grellow, cinnamon, and coral.  Sand is the light neutral and the diamonds are emerald.

For quiltin, I did a jagged stipple in a varigatated green/blue/white thread.  I did a back and forth cross-hatch in the small neutral diamonds.  I decided to forgo any quilting on the other parts, somewhat because there were many fabric layers that were built up and partially because I didn't know what thread color(s) I wanted to use.

In the end, I loved how it turned out.  I know I say that most of the time, but it's often true!
 

Meshing triangles: finished

I've been working on this quilt for quite a while.  It doesn't have a recipient in mind, so it kept getting put on the back burner.  (Actually, I periodically wonder if I could enter it in a show.)

I've called it Meshing Triangles because each color has it's own region, but those regions overlap with several other color regions.   (So, for example, if you look at the top you see the green and orange region.  But if you look two rows down you have an orange-yellow region and a green-purple region.)

I made it with scraps, so how much I actually had of a color needed to be factored in too.  Some of the Kona colors I used include: thistle, nautical, honeydew, lavender, mediterranean, holly, highlight, primrose, carrot, rich red, and medium grey.

I went "all out" on the quilting and did either an up/down or across in the color of the triangle.  So all the HSTs got two colors.  Most of the time I could keep one color always going the same direction, but there were a few places that it needed to switch.  The outside grey just got alternating directions and not the cross-hatch. 

It was a lot of ends to bury, but it was during a productive streak when I was getting all sorts of quilting goals accomplished.

Gigantic wedding quilt - finished

The wedding quilt is finished!  While I really like how it turned out, the main thing I remember about is it that it was huge.  It's for a king bed and I added a bit extra to the sides since I like having a bit extra there...that way it is harder to steal the covers in the night.  The idea for the design came from A Quilter's Table.

I was really nervous about this as I made it.  I really only saw small sections together at a time and I didn't love it at that point.  I was afraid that the dark section was going to be too dark.  The kona colors I used include:
Extra dark: navy, spruce
dark: mediterranean, teal blue, oasis, and ultra marine
medium: bluegrass, candy green, jamaica, shale, iron, pool, and azure
light: dusty blue, sky, ice frappe, fog, ash

But after I laid it out at the end, I like it a lot more.  I didn't get to see it on the bed, and I'd be interested in seeing it sometime...the dark part should cover most of the main part of the bed with the light part draping down.

I knew I needed some easy quilting for this, so I just did some double wavy lines, one set per row.  To make it a little interesting I added some back and forths to one or two of the bubbles in each row.  This worked well, because it also helped hide some of the flaws.

 

I backed it in minky.  It makes the quilt bulkier, but I do love minky.  All adults seem to, even if it isn't an 'adult' fabric.

Phew.  While I do like how it ended up, I really am glad that it is done.  If I ever do a king sized quilt again, I need to go with the 'normal' king quilt dimensions.  I think that would have helped some of the quilting issues (that I didn't talk about).

Quilting

I recently finished quilting a quilt that my mother-in-law is going to give to a new family member.

In the white areas I did a back and forth in white thread.  For the colored areas I used 'Chevron Peel' from 180 Doodle Quilting Designs complied by Karen Burns.  I used green thread on the outside squares, red thread on the middle squares, and blue thread on the innermost squares.

Chevron Peel is a new motif for me and it went pretty well.  I should have planned out the diagonal direction for the corners better though.  The ones shown here are nice, but there are a few corners that have the same diagonal twice in a row.

Grandma's robot quilt

I had the privilege to quilt my son's quilt given to him by my mother-in-law.  As the youngest grandchild, this is the last grandchild quilt...at least until everyone needs another one. :D

We chose the pattern together...the fabrics are the same ones that she used for my oldest's quilt.  Matching things are always so fun.  (Interestingly, in the six months it's taken me to post this I haven't really thought of them as the same colors.  The other quilt has a long more of the white/grey in it.)

I put back and forths in the white diagonals and in the white border.  I did figure 8s in the colored border in matching thread...there were a lot of tails to deal with at the end.  I also have a maze in the outermost border, but you need to look at the last picture to see that.

The part my three year old likes the most though is the robots on the back.  They're made from a soft minky, which makes them nice to snuggle up with every night.

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday.

Striped mountians

I finished striped mountains! 

I'll admit, it probably isn't my favorite quilt ever.  However, I do like the colors.  And I like the invisible border.  And I like the quilting.  So while not my favorite, it does have a lot of components that I like.

The original idea was from Jaffa Quilts.  I expect that we did the construction a bit different though, as I searched through my currently owned fabric and some of the colors didn't have much yardage.  But I made it work.

I backed it in a grey minky and bound with pink sateen.  For quilting, the grey areas have meandering stars...like a night sky.  The mountains have back and forths, like a switch back path.  A few mountains have a few extra fun things in them, like some triangles in the pink stripe on the lower mountain in the picture below.

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday.