spring things

Market Bags!

I made these for my daughter for Christmas.  The photos I took in December weren't great.  I thought I'd do better when I visited last weekend.  I figured we would walk up to her local farmer's market, fill them up, then come home and take some cute pictures.  I guess these bags don't want to be photographed.  We never made it to the market because we were participating in...

the Indy Mini!

...and I ran too slow.  Apparently it was a very long winter for a lot of people. Even with my horrible time I placed as I usually do in my age group.  It was good for me to participate in a big run again.  I'm inspired to do better next time.  Plus, the shirt is super cute and it fits so I'll actually wear it!

Sorry, I can't resist.  Here are a few more of my favorite spring things:

 

 I hope you're finding time to get outside and enjoy the colors of spring.

triangles

Have you noticed along the right side bar that I've been adding some "badges"?  This month I have been participating the Triangle Quilt Along hosted by The Sassy Quilter.  
 

Yay!  I finished on time!  Actually, it was very well organized and there was plenty of time to complete the quilt if you stayed on schedule.

The first week we had to link up with a picture of our triangles all cut up.  I chose a red/black/gray theme.  I have been building my fabric stash for a year now and these were all in my cabinet.  (The black is from Studio e - the company that hosted the challenge and picked me as a finalist.  If you missed that post you can read it here.)  
12 rows of 17= 204 triangles!

The second week we arranged our triangles and sewed them into rows.  Look how much the rows shrunk!

Triangles stretch easily.  I starched everything very well before I began and didn't want to move them around too much.  This is the picture of all the finished rows that I submitted at the end of the week.

The third week we sewed the rows together and linked up pictures of our finished tops.  There are a few perfect points in there...the rest are close enough!

 
She allowed us two weeks for finishing.  I quilted this with an all-over meander.  It turned out to be a challenge for my eyes to not follow the lines of the triangles or the fabric patterns. 

 

All washed and crinkly - just the way I like it :)

I got lots of very nice feedback from others participating in the quilt along by posting my photos on Flickr and Instagram.  It's been really fun sharing the process.  There are definitely more quilt alongs in my future!

4 K8

This is my first "jelly roll race" quilt.  Jelly rolls contain an entire fabric line all cut in 2 1/2 inch strips and rolled up nice and neat.  This one is made from the 2wenty thr3e collection by Eric and Julie Comstock. 

First you sew each strip together on the short side so you have one 2 1/2 inch x 1600 inch strip of fabric!  Then you match the ends and start sewing it together down the looong edge.  When you reach the end you cut it and do it again.  There is a very cute video/tutorial of it here.


The back is made of bigger pieces from the same collection.  I quilted this with meandering rectangles.  I really love how crinkly and soft it gets after washing.

This is my first attempt at using my sewing machine for the binding.  I used the blanket stitch.  There is room for improvement here but it's not too bad.  It will be lots stronger than hand stitching. 

 

 I met a very sweet (and fearless!) girl last summer.  K8, this one's 4U!

beacon

When I saw this quilt posted last fall by Fresh Lemons Quilts I fell in love.  When I heard it would be a quilt-a-long I immediately wanted in.  I live in Michigan and lighthouses circumference our state.  I knew I wanted this to hang on our wall and wanted really nice solids for it.  I did not find anything I liked in time to participate in the official QAL.   However, in February I discovered peppered cottons while shopping at Pink Castle Fabrics and knew instantly I would use them to make my lighthouse quilt.  As I was paying I was told about a contest sponsored by the manufacturer, Studio e Fabrics.  It was not a quilting competition but a challenge to use the fabric creatively.  They would pick 10 finalists on March 31st.  Based on the amounts of fabric I had here is what I came up with:

Do you like it?  They did!!!  And now it is off on an adventure to South Carolina for further consideration and judging.  Here are all the entries.  I'm not sure which of the others they selected.   
I am so very excited to share this but before sending it off I wanted one picture at a lighthouse so this weekend we visited Charlevoix. 
 

To set the scene it was about 25 degrees and the wind was blowing fiercely across a frozen Lake Michigan.  (April 5th!)

My husband was holding the quilt like a flag here while I was snapping pictures with frozen fingers.  I was very concerned that he would lose his grip and the quilt would fly away.

Here I am fearing for his life...though not stopping him...it is a great picture after all.  I actually think he was happier at the top of those stairs because it got him out of the wind for a bit.  Plus, I told him he just might win the "quilt holder of the year" contest!!!

When the quilt returns home I'm thinking we'll take it on a circle tour of Michigan's spectacular peninsulas and lighthouses!!!

playing with blocks

March is going out like a lamb today so I thought I'd take the blocks I've been working on outside for a photo shoot.

These are from the book Vintage Quilt Revival.  You can get it here.  They are (almost) all paper pieced so I learned something new - again!  I used white for a background here.

 Gray here.  (I love the Sudoku puzzle in the middle!)

 And no background here.  Not sure which I like better.  What do you think?

These I've been making with the Aurifil Block of the Month Club.  They are ordered here January, March, and February.  You post a picture of your block on their Flickr page each month and they randomly pick a winner.  The prize is a box full of Aurifil thread which would be fantastic but I'm not holding my breath.  This is the first BOM club I've joined.  It's fun!

Look who came out with me...she had just retrieved the soccer ball 9 times and is finding a bit of shade!!!

HAPPY SPRING!!!

giving back

I recently bought a sweet fat quarter bundle that I think will make a perfect plus quilt.  Before I cut it up I thought I'd play around with the color wheel and make a practice one first.  

I did a Google search for plus quilt instructions and found some here.  I used Kona solids in grass, chartreuse, jade, crocus, and purple.  Choosing colors is so challenging for me.  I pulled the color wheel out and followed the "rules" for blending.  I'm so glad I did because I love how these all go together. 

Joann's had their solid fleece on sale for 60% off and I found the perfect jade to match the front so I used it for the back.  The fleece was so thick I decided to try this one with no batting.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Not too heavy or big.  Perfect to be dragged around by a small child.

 So this one is being donated to the local women's shelter.  I hope it helps heal a broken heart.

And truthfully, I loved these colors so well I decided to use the scraps and play around with some blocks from my new favorite book Vintage Quilt Revival.  These are foundation pieced so again, new for me.  I have learned I LOVE paper piecing.  More of this to come...

Flying Geese - a tutorial

I was reading a blog about blogging the other day and it mentioned that all sewing blogs should have a tutorial.  Since I just posted about how much I liked making flying geese - here's a tutorial on how I made them...in (mostly) pictures!

I'm using the large flying geese ruler from Quilt in a Day.  You can get it here. 

Start with 2 squares.  The "goose" will be the dots in this sample and the purple will be the "wings".  Cut a square for the goose 9 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches and one for the wings 11 x 11 inches.  Each set of two squares will yield four 4 x 8 inch flying geese.

Center the smaller square on top of the larger one and draw a diagonal line from the top left corner to the bottom right.

Now sew a 1/4 inch seam from both sides of the line.  (Wow, the old New Home sewing machine sure stitches a straight line!)

Use your ruler to cut between the two seams on the line you drew.  Press the seams towards the larger square (which is now a triangle).

Now you have 2 large half-square triangles.  Stack one on top of the other, right sides together, with opposite fabrics touching each other.  The sewn seams will not line up.  

Draw another diagonal line from the top left to the bottom right and sew a 1/4 inch seam on both sides just like before.  And again cut on the drawn line.  (I missed taking a picture of this.  Sorry.)

This time, before pressing, cut a little notch in the seam allowance between the two seams that didn't line up.


Now you can press each half the opposite way matching your initial pressing - towards the originally larger square.

Now comes the really fun part!  With your fabric right side facing up, line up the markings on the ruler with the seams in your fabric.

Cut all the way around the ruler.  You'll have to turn at least once.  Be careful to re-align the ruler after each turn. 

 Now cut a few more squares and repeat.

 Soon you'll have enough geese to head to the design wall...

And start arranging a quilt!!!