Best of 2015: Quilt Matters

Happy holidays! Cheryl from Meadow Mist Designs is hosting a Best of 2015 linky party. What better way to reflect on the quilty year than to review your top posts of the year? Here are mine -- top views, with a favourite thrown in. :)

TGIFF! - Bubbles for Malcolm

TGIFF! - Welded Links

TGIFF! - Colour Pop top

Bloggers Quilt Festival - October Sky

Birchen - À la Quilt Matters

TGIFF! - Night Flight

Linking up with MeadowMist's Best of 2015.

Now that the holidays are over, I'm back in the studio. More to come soon! :)

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Bubbles for Malcolm

One of my favourite online events is the Blogger's Quilt Festival with Amy's Creative Side. Finishes have been few around Quilt Matters over the last few months, but I do have one to share for the festival. I'm entering Bubbles with Malcolm in the Home machine quilted category.

Hugely inspired by Janet Workman's gorgeous quilt, this baby quilt for my friend's son started out well, but had a few challenges along the way. It is a trickier quilt than it looks.

The last time I shared this, we talked quilting options. It's always so helpful to get other people's opinions so thank you for sharing your ideas! For the quilting, I used matching threads with the fabrics and did different motifs in the bubbles.

Love this one - asymmetrical swirl. :)

In the light grey background, I broke up with negative space with some cloud sections. Each section has a different quilting motif (or two).

And definitely some large spirals and pebbles!

The backing is the IKEA numbers fabric I bought before it was discontinued.

Bubbles for Malcolm by a bubbling fountain. :) 

Ahh...so relaxing.

Finished size: 39.5 by 60".

There are so many gorgeous quilts entered into the festival. Be sure to check them out and vote for your favourites!

TGIFF! - Bubbles for Malcolm

Welcome to TGIFF! Boy, is this ever a TGIFF for me! Quilting time is at a premium these days with Fall activities in full swing. I was determined to finish this quilt for my turn to host TGIFF! though.

It took a few late nights, some early mornings and a lunch break here and there to finish this quilt, but it. Is. DONE! And I love it. This one is going to be a hard one to give away, but I'm so excited (dare I say 'bubbling' with excitement) to give it to Malcolm.

Hugely inspired by Janet Workman's gorgeous quilt, this baby quilt for my friend's son started out well, but had a few challenges along the way. It is a trickier quilt than it looks.

The last time I shared this, we talked quilting options. It's always so helpful to get other people's opinions so thank you for sharing your ideas! For the quilting, I used matching threads with the fabrics and did different motifs in the bubbles.

Love this one - asymmetrical swirl. :)

 I loved it so much, I did another.

In the light grey background, I broke up with negative space with some cloud sections. Each section has a different quilting motif (or two).

And definitely some large spirals and pebbles!

The backing is the IKEA numbers fabric I bought before it was discontinued.

Bubbles for Malcolm by a bubbling fountain. :) 

Ahh...so relaxing.

Finished size: 39.5 by 60"

An InLinkz Link-up

Bubbling With Ideas

I'm working away on little Malcolm's Bubbles quilt. The quilting is coming along. So far we have stitch in the ditch around the bubbles and some straight lines on the dark grey side:

Next, I'm mulling over what to do with the bubbles. Pulled out the trial quilting sheets and the dry erase markers and played with a variety of motifs:

Then, the tough part. That darn negative space in the lighter grey. There's a lot of it!

1) Straight lines like in the dark grey?

2) Echo the bubbles?

3) Swirls and pebbles?

4) Break up the space with 'clouds' of different motifs?

Another go at sectioning

Thoughts? Ideas? Opinions? Have a go!

TGTTIF! - Bubbles

It may not be completely finished and it may look simple, but getting this top finished feels like a huge accomplishment -- so I'm celebrating Thank Goodness The Top Is Finished! Yeah, yeah, I know,  it's not really a true TGIFF!, but we had an unexpected opening in our TGIFF! host schedule this week, so you get me and you get this quilt top. :)

So where were we? Oh yes, way back last summer, I started a baby quilt for my friend's new baby. It was all going smoothly...until it wasn't.

Because it is a baby quilt and will be washed frequently, I had a few criteria for it. These aren't "rules" or anything, but they were my criteria for making this quilt:

• The circle edges had to be clean, not raw.
• I didn't want to hand appliqué the circles down because it took too long (the irony of this is not lost on me, trust me) and doesn't wear well. 
• I didn't want the edges of the circles to be satin stitched.

I was going to use interfacing to get clean edges, but I've done it before and the white interfacing showed along the edges. I didn't want that to happen again. And so it sat...stumping me...and then life got crazy. 

Well, young Malcolm is coming up on his first birthday soon -- how is that possible?! -- so it's time for this quilt to be finished and get cuddled. I put on my big girl panties and did the interfacing trick again, but this time, I paid more attention to hiding the interfacing when I pressed it. It also helps that the background for the circles is Kona Snow so if any interfacing does peek out the sides, it will blend.

I was also worried about the edges of the circles shifting as I did a tight zigzag stitch around them so I used a glue stick and pins. It worked! Bye, bye creative block!

I'm so very pleased with how this top turned out. I started quilting it too. 

Think I'll finish it before Malcolm turns one? 

An InLinkz Link-up

Bubbles - A Work in Progress

Hi all, happy Wednesday! First two days on the job have gone well. I have a LOT to learn, but the group is great and they are easing me in nicely. Phew! Shall we talk a little quilting then?

Have you heard about the Mystery Fat Quarter Event at Fabric Spark? Until September 14th, you can get a free fat quarter with the purchase of the equivalent of a yard (or 4 fat quarters, 2 1/2 yards, etc.). The Fabric Spark gang will pick the fat quarter to work well with your purchase. Fun! Aren't you curious to see what they'd pick? More details are on the Fabric Spark site.

I'm working on a quilt for a friend's baby, who was also born on the same day as my nephew. When we first began talking quilts and my friend told me the room colours (orange-red, celery and charcoal grey furniture), this quilt by Janet McWorkman immediately came to mind. Wanting to offer her more ideas though, I pinned a number of great baby quilts to a board on Pinterest to show her and get an idea of what style she'd like. She immediately zeroed in on the one I had imagined too. Love it when that happens!

I couldn't find a pattern so I thought I decided to try to figure it out and design something similar. I showed you this palette last week.

I laid out the greys and creamy white (Kona Snow) in the approximate proportions I was looking for. Then I cut out 5 different sizes of circles on freezer paper and filled the white area until I was pleased with the layout. (The photos are off - late night designing and all)

Then I started adding the colours, pressing the freezer paper to the fabric and adding a seam allowance to turn the edges under later.

All the colours are in place, but I find the Celery colour is a little lost. 

Better. May play around with this some more.

I had originally planned on doing the circles as turned edge appliqué, topstitched down by machine. Or maybe zigzag stitch around the circles. I could do raw edge appliqué, but it is a baby quilt that will see a lot of washing. I could also fuse them down and satin stitch around the edges. I'm still mulling the next step so please feel to jump in if you have an opinion!