Sampler Quilt from Gone Stitchin'....

Hip hip hooray! We're featuring a reader who FINISHED OUR BOM SERIES!! Go Cheryll!!!  It was such a fun way to do a BOM (in my opinion, lol!).  Having just a theme each month gives so much creative liberty, every quilt is different.  Cheryll went with her husbands team colors, genius!  Be sure to check out Gone Stitchin'...in my cubbyhole for some fun and creative inspiration!  PS If you missed our BOM finishes, check out Meg's Finish and Heather's Finish.  Thanks Cheryll!! Yours look awesome!!

Thanks for being patient all these long months while I participated in  a BOM with Megan & Heather at Quilt Story blog. We all started in March last year... and finally it's time to reveal our finished quilt. My quilt was made for my hubby so he could wrap himself up this winter watching his favourite football team. Both he and I are very happy with the end result.
The lap quilt measure 68in x 46in.

A BIG THanK YoU goes out to both lovely girls at Quilt Story Blog... for their organisation and encouragement all year long!
Lets hear a HuGe...WooHoo!
Thanks GirLS...

Heather's Block of the Month Sampler quilt finish...

Yesterday you saw Megan's finish. Today is my Block of the Month finish. Megan and I fought over that lovely stack of Backyard Baby for our Block of the Month. She won in the end because of her two boys, and wanting to make them quilts for their beds. I was bummed out until I saw my stack of lovely fabric. Ooh La La by pillow and Maxfield. How could these bright colors not make anyone happy???

Here is my finished quilt...

Do you love it so??? I do!

You can see a bit of the quilting, our Aunt Wendy quilts a lot of our quilts. This was just a large swirl design. Sweet.

The weather was behaving quilt nicely. Since it was overcast, I was able to get the beautiful Utah mountains and my quilt exposed properly! I loved how the photos turned out.  

This awesome fence was just off the side of the road. Ended up being a perfect rustic setting. You may see more photos here!

Sorry for the quilt interruption .., one of my helpers. I tend to be a little ADD with my hobbies. That goes with photography, and photography of the kids! I know! I am a horrible mother. I LOVE candid sweet children's photographs. I am going to try to do better this year. These babies of mine are growing up too fast!! Isn't she sweet? (At least she still  has yummy cheeks to kiss!)

Hope you liked! I am going to try to talk Megan into another one. We both learned some new techniques, and mostly I learned the value of just working a little at a time really adds up!

Sampler Chain Quilt Finish and Fab Tues!

I did it!!  My Block of the Month quilt is entirely finished.  And it makes me really really happy :)  It all started with this lovely stack of Backyard Baby fabrics:

And here it is, quilted, bound and ready to be snuggled with.

Our series was for a year, a block each month with a theme right?  Ie star, hst, pinwheel, etc..  I decided that I wanted to make my quilt a twin, so in the end I doubled the amount of squares and did 12 nine patches to make it a Chain Sampler quilt.  Each square is 15" finished.  It is 68" x 90". 

 

My aunt did the quilting, this was too big for me and not even the time to consider it on my limited machine!  She did wavy lines to show the chains better, stippling throughout the blocks and then each sampler block she did some great custom quilting.  On all of the blocks with trees she'd follow the shape of the tree.  I love how she did it!

I backed it with gray minky and the orange print seemed perfect for the binding.  I actually almost wish I'd used orange in each block, or used it more.

There you have it!  Soon one of my boys will have this on their new extra big boy beds.  Now I'm going to lay under it and watch New Girl. I'm done for the night :)

Heather will be sharing her Block of the Month quilt finish tomorrow so check back!!

Fabric Tuesday!

Click here to see more

Let's see your creations!

Galaxy Quilt from Blue Bird Sews

Great quilt feature today from Kelly of Blue Bird Sews.  The Galaxy Quilt is such a cool design made for a manly man!  Some good ideas and tips!  She shares some of the process here and here.  Kelly has a great list of tutorials, including some cool quilting ones I'd like to check out!  For some handmade goods check out her shop and for more inspiration see her flickr.  Thanks Kelly!


So this post has been in the works for quite some time now. Early last year my friend J and I started talking about a quilt for his bed. Only a few requirements: no flowers, dark man colors and it had to fit onto a queen sized bed. With those parameters I set out to make an epic man quilt; Nailed It!

The design part of Galaxy took a lot of thought. I knew it needed a bold geometric foundation...as this is a man quilt! The offset squares in dark/light values make a dynamic backdrop for 12" sampler blocks made from the 2011 Summer Sampler Series. I can't recommend this sampler series enough! Excellent directions and beautiful results. I could see myself making all these blocks over and over again. After making the six pointed string star block I felt like I could sew anything. 

The Minnesota block ended up being one of my favorites. I just love the way the colors and shapes play off each other.

Galaxy measures a whopping 90" x 88" and was quilted on a long arm by me. It was the 4th quilt I have quilted on the long arm and by far the most challenging. I sewed corner to corner on the dark/light background and then for the blocks did more detailed quilting to make an impact on each design. My best trick with the quilting details was to make a statement by not quilting some areas and heavily quilting others. This made for some cool effects.

The back of the quilt is completely pieced together with left over yardage. I had bought a lot of different colors and patterns and used up the ones with little flowers on the back. There was also a happy accident that made the back even more stunning. I had originally planned for a pieced scrappy boarder on the front but once it was on it just didn't work. So I decided to sew them up and use it on the back...as it turned out it was the exact width I needed. Amazing how things come together sometimes.

The way the quilt lies on a bed is magical. There is no way I could have known that the blocks would lie across the top pillows so perfectly, or that the center square would radiate so nicely from the bottom corner of the bed or that the blocks seem to burst out of the center gradually until becoming heavy on the outside. These are all wonderful coincidences that make me happy. 

Stitched in Color's Red & Aqua Quilt

We've recently discovered Rachel's blog Stitched in Color, and it's truly a great quilting blog.  We had to pick from several great quilts to feature...and we may just ask to feature her again! :)  She's got a great stock of tutorials, and if you're a beginner quilter she has a whole area for you, from how to get started, buy fabric, and use your rotary cutter you can see that all here.  Here's a great charity quilt for you to admire:


What's my favorite quilt of the moment?  I guess it's this one, and the ones to come from do. Good Stitches, a virtual quilting bee for charity.  This quilt is an expression of love, of friendship and of generosity.  And, it's not really "mine" at all.



I made my first quilt, the Colorbrick, at the beginning of this year.  Course, once a blogger catches the quilting bug the quilting bees start calling.  "Come play with us!"  "Look, you can use my fabric!"  "We'll help you make a quilt!"  The lure is strong, but something stopped me.

Fact is, I don't need many quilts for our house.  I have a bonafide quilt-hating-husband (who's otherwise a gem), so my only excuses for making quilts is this bed, that bed and the other.  After that, I think my license to quilt (for us) will expire. I've gotta savor the process every time, you know?



Nope, I don't want a quilt for "me" from a quilting bee, but I do want to play.  And, then there's this other thing, I'd like to do some good.  Help others.  Make quilts for people who actually need them.  Children that don't have quilting mamas, or aunts, or grandmothers.  Yes, a quilting bee for charity would be perfect!



But, I couldn't find one.  So, I made one.  It's called do. Good Stitches. 10 talented ladies joined me in our first sewing circle called "Love" which makes quilts to be distributed to needy children through Wrap Them in Love.  This Red & Aqua Sampler Quilt is our first completed quilt.  It was my pleasure to plan, piece and finish it.  In the process I learned that differing shades of aqua only enhanced the quilt, that finding bee blocks in the mail for weeks is completely enchanting, and that there are a LOT of people who want to get involved doing some good!


If you'd like to get involved, please drop by our group page on Flickr to get the gooey details and fill out our new members form. You can also see bits of the 7 other quilts that are currently in process!

Blessings,

Rachel