Seasonals and Standards

Hey there, friends!  I am so happy that today I get to give you a little overview of the final sections of my new book, Scrappy Improv Quilting.  The third section of the book is titled Seasonal Sensations and contains six adorable little seasonal quilts.

Every year, I go all out decorating for Christmas (I put up four trees!), but I don't have that same stamina when it comes to the other holidays and seasons.  Even though I don't decorate my entire house during the rest of the year, it is nice to have a little holiday touch here and there, and these mini quilts are perfect for that!  They're easy to turn into pillows, use in a fun table scape, or even hang on the wall, and you'll always feel like your home is ready for the season!

The fourth section of quilts in the book is called Standards With a Twist, and as the name suggests, each of these projects is built around a traditional quilt block, but with a little extra pizzazz to make the quilt fun and fresh.  It just goes to show you that this technique is not a one-trick pony.  It can really be used with any of your favorite quilt blocks.  

Remember when I said that this book was written so that even a novice quilter would be successful?  Well, once you peruse the 22 mini quilt projects contained in Scrappy Improv Quilting, you're not left alone to "quilt and bind as desired."  Sure, if you're experienced, you may not need the guidance for turning your quilt top into a finished mini quilt, but if you need it, it's there for you in the final section of the book. In Finishing Your Quilt, you'll find full instructions for choosing batting, basting, quilting options, and binding.  There are even detailed steps for turning your mini quilt into a pillow, and for sewing a hanging sleeve!

Well, there you have it, friends!  For the past couple of weeks, I've given you a quick overview of everything Scrappy Improv Quilting has to offer, so I hope you're ready to start seeing the individual projects NEXT WEEK!  I've been getting sneak peeks from these amazing quilters, and I promise you're in for lots of eye-candy.  

Beginning next Monday (9/13), the blog tour will feature four projects each week- two on Monday, and two on Wednesday.  

And beginning this week, and for the duration of the blog tour, NTT will be posted on Thursday mornings, rather than the usual Wednesday evening, just to make sure that the posts don't get crowded. 

Scrappy Improv Quilting Blog Tour Schedule-

8/31- Intro, Single Block Beauties, and Simple Shapes

9/7- Seasonal Sensations, Standards With a Twist

9/13- Summer Blossom- Lori @ Crossquilt
           Up, Up, and Away- Sandra @ mmm...quilts!

9/15- Flutter- Rose @ Something Rosemade
           Botanics- Diann @ Little Penguin Quilts

9/20- Face the Sun- Laura @ Slice of Pi Quilts
           Full Spectrum- Jayne @ Twiggy and Opal

9/22- Prismatic- Anja @ Anja Quilts
           Downpour- Nancy @ Grace and Peace Quilting

9/27- Funkytown- Vasudha @ Storied Quilts
           Cherub Wings- Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty

9/29- Chapel Window- Kris @ Sew Sunshine
           Winter Frost- Leanne @ Devoted Quilter

10/4- Heartstruck- Rebecca Grace @ Rebecca Grace Quilting
           Star Spangled- Christine @ Triangles & Squares

10/6- Birds of a Feather- Preeti @ Sew Preeti Quilts
           Fall Foliage- Susan @ Quilt Fabrication

10/11- Ornamental- Gail @ Quilting Gail
            Churn, Churn, Churn- Cynthia @ Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

10/13- Sunset Crossing- Kate @ Katie Mae Quilts
             Positivity- Sarah @ Sarah Goer Quilts

10/18- All Dressed Up- Linda @ Flourishing Palms
             Shockwave- Anne-Marie @ Stories From the Sewing Room

10/20- Sweet Bee (a bonus thank-you pattern), Finishing, and Wrap-Up (here!) 

Signed copies of Scrappy Improv Quilting are available in my Etsy shop HERE, or ask about it at your local quilt shop.  It is also available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other major booksellers.  
And shop owners, you can get it from any of the major distributors- Checker, Brewer, United Notions, and EE Schenck.  I hope you'll consider adding it to your library or carrying it in your shop!  :) 

Before we go, I owe you a giveaway winner!  Comment number 3, grammajudyb is the winner of a signed copy of Scrappy Improv Quilting.  Congrats!  I'll be sending you an email to get your shipping address very soon.

Gossip Queen Texture and NTT

Happy Needle and Thread Thursday, friends!  I am so excited to share my finished Gossip Queen quilt today, and I am completely smitten with it.  You can read more about the origin of the fun name HERE.

Y'all, it's hard to tell in the photos, but this quilt has texture for daaaays.  I used six different 50 wt. Aurifil threads, blending the thread colors through the quilt.  It is quilted with a dense spiral design with four side swoops as I did on some of my color gradient minis (check out my yellow mini to get a really good look at the overall design on this quilt).  Getting the spiral centered and balanced on the quilt took some planning, but I love how it turned out.

On the back of the quilt, I used my leftover scraps in a mixed-color strip, along with a rich, berry purple tonal main fabric.  You can almost make out the distinct quilting lines in the photo of the backing.  

The whole goal of the photo shoot for this quilt was to show off the color and texture.  Getting the vibrant colors to show well was easy, but really capturing the texture was a little more difficult.  The improv piecing is so busy that although the texture shows up well in person, in a photo it just blends right in.  (ps- that is not a pucker in my backing, just a weird wrinkle where the quilt was folded)

To really show the texture, I had to take a photo indoors.  Those quilting lines are about 1/4" to 1/2" apart throughout the entire quilt.  Since I quilted this one with free-motion, the spacing and curve of the lines is organic, but I think the lack of perfect regularity really adds to the movement and charm of the quilt.

I set aside enough of my yellow scrap strips for a scrappy binding, and it blends right into the quilt without boxing the colors in.  I love that it just disappears!

If you're looking closely, you'll see that this binding is actually finished by hand (gasp!).  Unheard of for me, I know, but I love this quilt so much that I think I might enter it into shows, and I thought it deserved to be as perfect as possible. 

I really do hate hand sewing, so it's a good thing that I have a quilty BFF that doesn't mind it.  Barter is a beautiful thing, y'all.  Since I made the Louisiana and Tennessee home pillows, my friend has been wanting a Texas Home pillow, and she and I agreed to a little deal.  I made a Texas pillow for her in exchange for beautifully hand finishing the binding on my Gossip Queen quilt.  Win, win all around!

This color blending technique is SO much fun, and much easier than you might think.  It takes a little patience and planning, but the result is well worth it.

Since this technique uses the method from my book with just a little different execution, I've decided to add Using Scraps to Explore Color and Texture as a full-day class offering next year, in addition to the other classes from my book Stash Statement.  I've just started booking for 2020, so if your guild is looking for a fun, unique workshop, be sure to contact me soon for more info and reserve a date on my calendar!

Okie dokie!  Before we get our party on, let's check out some highlights from last week, shall we?  Look at this gorgeous plus quilt by Alison at Little Bunny Quilts.  Be sure you go check out all of the yummy quilting on this one.

I am all about scrappy texture (obviously), so I think this beauty by Katie Mae Quilts is just fantastic!

The transparency effect is so cool in this quilt by Anja Quilts-

And finally, this scrappy quilt by Sarah Goer Quilts is hot, hot, HOT!

Alright friends.  Let's link up!

1. You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)

Oh Happy Day!

Today is the day!  I worked hard yesterday to finish up the center piece for my color wheel wall just so that I could share the finish with you at today's party.  I love it SO much.

I know it's hard to tell in the photo, but these minis take up the entire wall (each one measures 24 inches square).  If you look back at the photo of the original wall, you will see that the thermostat is not centered.  It was only about five inches to the left of center, but that was enough to throw a wrench in this design.  I just didn't have enough wiggle room on the wall, and they wouldn't have fit unless I had an electrician center the thermostat on the wall (which of course, I did- totally worth it).

At first, I was a little stumped about how to finish the center of the wall.  I originally thought that I wanted to create a black/gray/white color gradient piece, but when I realized that it would have to be so long and skinny, I decided against it.  A long and skinny shape is perfect for text though!  Ultimately, I decided that a little uplifting message on crisp white would be perfect.  The space above the chair rail is only a couple inches shy of six feet, so this is a LOT of color in one place.  The text actually gives the eye a place to rest, and I think it ties the whole thing together without being overwhelming.

The center mini is created with solids and raw edge appliqué using Heat n Bond Lite.  It was lots of fun to use a rainbow of Aurifil 50 wt. thread to stitch down each letter.

I went back and forth with myself on how to quilt it.   I really wanted a filler that would allow the white background to recede with the solid letters popping out.  So, I quilted with a very dense stipple around the letters, and then finished it off with a solid black binding.  The center mini measures 9.5" x 40", and I promise it's straight and square (as are all of the minis).  Since I've only pinned the top of each quilt to the wall, you can see that there are places where the bottom of the quilts aren't completely flush against the wall.  That's all good in person, but gives the impression that they aren't straight and square in the pic.

Remember my happy accident with the quilting?  Well, I was able to work it into my design very easily.  Once I realized my mistake, it just took a little planning.  The quilts with only two swoops in the quilting design are on top and bottom, and the ones with four swoops in the design are on the sides.

Since these are up on a wall, it's not easy to get close-up views, and of course these are indoor photos. So, if you missed a color or two and want to take a look at outdoor detail shots of each mini, here are the links to the original posts-  blue, red, orange and pink, teal and yellow, purple and green.

This wall has been lacking inspiration for a long time, but not anymore.  Just walking into my studio brightens my mood and puts a huge smile on my face.  With all of that color, how could a day in my studio be anything but a happy day?

I actually had a friend ask me for photos of the steps in my process for putting these together in order to get the color gradient effect just right.  Since I already have the step photos, if there is enough interest, I would be happy to write up a tutorial for it.  Just let me know in the comments.

Last week's party was amazing, as usual!  Paula at The Sassy Quilter is ready for the 2019 holiday season with this awesome Modern Christmas Trees quilt  (you're not behind, Paula, you're just WAY ahead).

Kris at Sew Sunshine shared this gorgeous Sunset Strip quilt.

Nicole at Handwrought Quilts linked up this beautiful rainbow quilt.  This is the back, and you definitely don't want to miss the front of this beauty.

And finally, Pi Day is upon us, and this Pi to Infinity mini by Slice of Pi Quilts is the perfect way to mark the occasion.

Okay y'all!  It's time to show me the latest projects from your sewing space.  Let's party!

1. You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)

Moving Right Along and NTT

Oh, this color wheel project is so much fun!  In the past week, I've finished two more minis, and pulled scraps for the next color. I have some secret sewing with deadlines fast approaching, so I've had to take a little break from these, but I can't wait to get back to them.

This orange quilt is called Ember.  The colors dance like glimmering fire, or more specifically, like the glowing wood below the flames, and even though it moves from light to dark like the others, it is slightly different.  Since I almost never use the darkest burnt orange or lightest peachy orange tones in my quilts, the color gradient is not quite as pronounced in this one.  That's okay though, because I definitely want the predominant colors on the wall to be the shades/scraps I love most.  Clearly my orange zone is more narrow, ranging from vibrant tangerine orange to softer creamsicle.

I quilted this one with the same swooping spiral.  This design is really fun to quilt and it creates so much movement.  Though I don't know that I would want to quilt this on a full size quilt, it is pretty quick to do on a mini.

On the backs of these, I've decided that I'm just going to pull whatever stash fabrics I have in that color.  They're going to be on a wall, so the backing really is secondary here.  This orange print does the job nicely.

Giving a nod to Valentine's Day, the other color I finished this week is pink!  If I had to pick a least favorite color in the rainbow it would be pink, so I didn't think this one would be as much fun.  I honestly just wanted to go ahead and get it out of the way.  I was so wrong though.  I love this one just as much as the others.

I actually had plenty of scraps ranging from hot pink to baby pink.  When my quilt calls for it, my personal favorite shade of pink is dark and saturated, but I've made a few baby quilts this past year where baby pink was specifically requested, so I had plenty light value scraps in my jar as well.

The quilting on this one was a bit of a happy accident.  When I drew the chalk line to guide my quilting, I was so focused on centering the spiral and evenly curving the swoops that I accidentally put both swoops on one side of the quilt, rather than opposing corners.  Yes, I am officially using the word swoop as an honest-to-goodness word these days.   Anyway, if you can believe it, I didn't step back from it and really look at the whole spiral before I started quilting, and I didn't realize it until I had quilted three full lines on the mini.  Yikes!

You know I'm not one to rip things out if I can think of a way to fix it on the fly, so I decided to add a swoop to the other two corners.  So, this one has four!  Now the only thing to do is to make half of the minis one way, and half the other.  Crisis averted!

Even though this dark pink print has navy accents, I decided to go ahead and use it for the backing since I had enough without piecing it together.  Again, on the wall the backing won't matter a bit.  All of this scrappy, swirly texture reminds me of the petals in a full, lush bloom so this one is named Peony.

As I mentioned earlier, I have a few secret sewing projects to finish up, but I've already been sorting my yellows, and I can't wait to get to them.  It's my last warm color!

Okay friends, let's take a look at some of my faves from last week's party.  Check out this Urbanologie quilt by Kris at Sew Sunshine-

Something Rosemade linked up this awesome quilt, and that green background is calling my name!

And this sweet quilt is by Shannon at The Flemings Nine.

Okay, y'all!  Let's party.

1. You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)

Woodwork

Well friends, the sun finally came out and though the temps were frigid (for Tennessee anyway), I managed to get some photos of my latest quilt finish.

I love everything about this quilt.  The gray and green scraps play so nicely together, and the simple pattern allows them to really shine without the quilt becoming too busy.  Even though the greens are more prominent in the photos, in person, this quilt has an equal amount of gray that really soften it.  The solid strips are Kona Bone, and the creamy color keeps the quilt feeling more natural than a stark white.

I gave a sneak peek of the wood grain quilting at last week's NTT, and I am so excited to really show it off today.  This is only the second time I've done wood grain quilting, and I am so pleased with the way it turned out.  I love that the wood grain follows the vertical design of the pattern, and the soft wavy lines of the motif move so gracefully down the quilt.  Best of all, it adds such fantastic texture.  I quilted it with Aurifil 40 wt. #2311 (Muslin).  I usually use 50 wt. for quilting, but the slightly thicker thread shows up really well.

Even after finishing the top, I had plenty of green and gray scraps left, so I decided to go for the gusto and sew the rest of them up for the backing.  I am happy to report that my green and gray jars are now completely empty.  Woohoo!

I widened out the improv strip on the back with a gray near-solid, and I love the way the scraps (and quilting!) really pop against it.  Before I sewed up all of my greens, I pulled out just enough strips for a scrappy binding.

With shades of green and gray along with the wood grain quilting, this quilt feels a little outdoorsy, so I've decided to call it Woodwork.

If you've vowed to empty your own scrap jars this year, structured improvisation is an easy and fun way to do it!  Afraid of improv?  My book, Stash Statement, gives three different methods for sewing your scraps together, along with twelve full quilt patterns that take the guesswork out for you.  Once you learn the technique, you can apply it to any quilt pattern.  It's easy peasy, and so versatile!

You can get a signed copy in my Etsy shop HERE, or find it on Amazon, Connecting Threads, or ask about it at your local quilt shop.

Irresistible and NTT

Happy Needle and Thread Thursday, y'all!  You know what I can't resist?  Sewing a rainbow.  And even more than that?  Sewing a scrappy rainbow.  That little peek that I showed last week has turned into this scrappy rainbow medallion quilt, and just looking at the goodness that has come from my scrap jars makes me happy!

If you're a regular around here, you probably already know that this quilt was made using the structured improvisation techniques from my book Stash Statement.  It is such a fun, versatile method, perfect for using up your precious scraps, and my book makes it easy peasy.  Check out my book link on my left sidebar.

When I designed this quilt, I played around with several different blocks to create the medallion.  I ultimately realized that because the piecing has so much detail, simpler shapes worked best to let those scraps really shine.  Also, blocks that incorporate white on the edges work well to give some separation to each layer, rather than having to add several white borders into the design.  Even though this photo shows an un-pressed quilt top, I am already in love with it, and I have an amazing quilting plan for it, so stay tuned!

Last week's party was jam-packed with awesomeness.  heARTS Creations linked up this fun, scrappy quilt.

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework shared this unique plaid log cabin quilt.  Lovely!

This Quilter's Planner Sampler quilt was made by Kathy at Kayak Quilting.  I love those colors.

And finally, Ali at Arabesque Scissors showed off this gorgeous Liberty rainbow mini.

Okay, friends!  It's time to share your beauties from this week.  Let's party!

1. You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)