Fireburst-Fireworks Display of Quilts

Happy New Year to all of you where ever you are!!!!  Excuse me while I set down my piece of birthday cake and wine.  Ok, all better now.  It's finally here!  The time has come to light up the quilty skies with our display of Fireburst Mystery Quilts!  It has been so much fun to watch all of the quilts come together on line and on social media.

Let's get this party going!  Goodbye 2018!  Hello 2019!  Let the fire bursts begin!!

Party Fireburst

And BOOM!  Number two.  Done.  Designing the quilting for this quilt top really was like mediation.  I've already quilted one and there is still one more small one to go, how do I come up with something different??  I seriously had to clear my head.

I set down one evening with just me, the quilt top, a chalk pencil and a ruler.  No music or noise.  I took a deep breath and just started connecting lines.

Shapes just started jumping out at me from the background space!  Every time I found myself thinking about it, I walked away to do something else.  When I would come back even more possibilities showed themselves to me.

S.S. Playtime Plus--Cutting

Now is the time to start chopping up fabrics for the Playtime Plus QAL at mmm!quilts.  I had decided on my fabric colors and placements, but needed to slim down my fabric pull.  I may have got a bit crazy with the black and grays.

Technically, the quilt would only need 14 of each color, so I needed to down size them.  I decided on seven of each color.

From there I decided to cut enough pieces for two pluses in each color.  I'm thinking I might have a few pieces left over at the end, but that's okay.  Now as we put the blocks together I can decide which plus will go where.

I can't wait to start piecing all these beautiful strips together!  Sandra, do I have to wait????

Also don't forget that the third week of the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop is going on right now...as I type! 

Be sure to check out this week's post make new friends and maybe win some prizes. 

Some other upcoming events; on Saturday, David (or as we call him around here Dave the Quilt Engineer) will be highlighted at Melva Loves Scraps in her Quilters Through the Generation series.

You can read a bit more about how he started quilting and why he does it.  Also on Friday the 18th, while I'm parting at our annual Strawberry Festival, you can party with me and your Friday finishes.  Wonderland will be hosting for the first time the TGIFF linky party.

So round up your finishes and meet me there!  Come back and see what UFO I've finally busted.

Fireburst Mystery Quilt--Cutting Instructions

How's everyone doing?  Have you had a chance to round up fabrics?  If you have any questions remember you can always email me or post over at the TishNWonderland Facebook Group to see what your friends think.  On Tuesday, I revealed the fabric requirements.  Today we shall have a look at the cutting instructions.

Tips for cutting; when I am cutting pieces for one of the fabrics, I tend to start with the bigger sizes fist.  For example when cutting Fabric 1 for the baby size quilt, I would start with a 5"x WOF strip for the 5" squares and then cut my 3" squares and as many 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles as possible out of what is left of the strip.

Another tip would be to have labeling stickers or make labels to attach to your cut pieces and bags for storage.  Since this QAL will be going on over the next several months, it can be a huge time saver to label so you can remember which fabrics are what.

I have also made the fabric and cutting instructions available on my Craftsy page as a PDF file and it will remain there free until the end of the QAL.  If you would like to down load a copy hop on over to my patterns page.

Here are my fabrics all chopped up and waiting.  I can't wait till we start piecing them together!  Are you getting excited?

The linky party for sharing your fabric selections will be open until the end of June.  Feel free to link up your blog posts, Instagram or Flickr pictures below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Fire Burst Mystery Quilt--My Fabrics

David has been spending quite a bit of time away from home, due to work.  It's the pits, but we are trying to make the time that he is home count.  I was able to sneak off (I got permission) from work early last week on his one day home and we ventured out to a quilt shop about 30 minutes away.  A new quilt along is surely deserving of new fabrics....right?

While I floated around the store petting bolts of fabrics and trying to narrow my choices down, David made himself at home in the batik isle.  Knowing that I wouldn't be much help in his decision (I don't always see his vision), he enlisted the help of the shop owner in picking just the right fabrics.  After much debate, he came up with the fabrics below.

I'm excited to see this come together.  I would have never in a million years came up with this fabric pull.  But you know what?  I think it works.  He says he knows it works.

Now for my fabric pull.  My normal go to for a background fabric is a crisp white on white.  I just LOVE it.  So to shake things up a bit I went for...drumroll....a black on black.

I'm thinking night sky and exploding fireworks with this fabric pull.  I wanted bright and fun and POP!  This bright sky blue, electric pink and silvery gray should do just that.

I know that I may have bombarded you with all the information in yesterday's post on picking fabrics, but what is the most important rule that we followed when picking our fabrics?  We chose fabrics that we love.  There is just something about my color combination that speaks to me and David's pull that speaks to him.

I set up a Facebook Group for those interested in sharing their progress along the way.  I thought it would be a great place to get to know each other better or ask questions.  This is my first time setting up a group...I think I did it correctly...think being the key word.

I'm also setting up a linky party that will remain open until the end of June, if you'd like to share your fabric selections.  You can link up blog posts, Instagram or Flickr photos.

I can't wait to see the fabrics that you choose.

An InLinkz Link-up

Fire Burst Mystery Quilt--Details

I have been working hard behind the scenes over here to get things ready for the Fire Burst Mystery QAL, the newest pattern by myself and my husband David (Dave the Quilt Engineer).  The pattern has been tested and is being reviewed.  All is looking great.  To make things official I wanted to discuss the tentative schedule for the quilt along.

May-fabric requirements and cutting instructions
June-piecing instructions
July-piecing instructions
August-Block 1
September-Block 2
October-Block 3
October-Layout reveal
November & December-finish quilt tops

January 1st fireworks display of quilts!

Why January 1st?  January 1st is a special day for me and this year especially.  It will mark my 40th birthday and what a better way to celebrate than with friends!  Also, we will be about half way through my daughter's senior year of high school so I'll probably need a pick me up.  Nothing makes me feel better than beautiful quilts.  Plus, who doesn't love fireworks to ring in the new year?  This will be a more quite way to enjoy them without terrorizing the neighborhood dogs.

I'm also happy to announce, that the QAL will have sponsors!!!  So far I have had six very generous quilters step forward with prizes to celebrate our finished quilts.  I will be contacting a few more possible sponsors in the next few weeks and announcing all of them very soon.

If you are new to quilting or quilt alongs maybe I should define what a mystery quilt is and how it works.  You are given clues one at a time.  The first clues are picking fabrics and cutting instructions.  Then the piecing instructions are given in small chunks.  Part of the fun is arranging your pieces seeing if you can crack the code of what the top will look like.  The very last set of instructions will be the quilt layout.

Fire Burst will be beginner friendly and offered in baby size (32" square) and lap (64" square).  No crazy Y seams or half rectangle shapes.  Worried about being able to keep up?  I promise that the schedule will be very forgiving.  A month will be more than enough time to finish each step of the quilt, or play catch up if you get behind.  The last piecing instructions will be given the first of October with the layout a week later.  You will have from then till December to finish piecing your quilt top or quilt your quilt top.

I also understand that not everyone is comfortable with mystery quilts.  It's a big commitment not knowing what you are making.  With the layout reveal at the beginning of October, there is still plenty of time to make a quilt top/finished quilt before the end of December deadline and join in the fun.  The baby quilt is easily pieced in an afternoon.

Another great QAL getting ready to start is Sandra at mmm!quilts Playtime Plus Quilt.  Playtime Plus was a featured quilt in Benartex's ezine, Modern By The Yard.

Photo curtsey of Modern By The Yard 

The magazine is a free download full of goodies.  Hop over to mmm!quilts and read more about the quilt along, find out how to get your copy of the ezine and read all about the awesome sponsors and prizes.

Back to Fire Burst...will you be sewing with David and I and partying on January 1st?  I hope you will.  We will kick things off starting next week with picking out fabrics and cutting instructions.  I hope that I can provide you with guidance in your decisions.  You can always email me with questions.  If you are sewing along, please grab my button on the side bar (clicking on it will direct you to my QAL landing page) and let everyone know, you will be brining in 2019 (that's so weird to type) with a bang!

Back to QAL Work We Go

Time for a bit of a project update and what I've been up to.  I have a ton going on at work, leading a system conversion from a very archaic computer system to a much better Window based platform, so when I get home in the evenings and weekends, I'm ready to unwind and not think about work.

Above is a look at my cut pieces for the Magnolia Mystery Quilt going on now over at Meadow Mist Designs.  If you have not participated in one of Cheryl's mystery quilt alongs before, I HIGHLY encourage you to hop over there and check it out.

It's been a week or two since I have caught up on the QAL's I'm participating in, so this past week was spent mainly catching up on those.

Oh, deer, just look at that moose under the mistletoe!  The moose and deer blocks caught me up on Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilt's Have A Jolly Little Christmas Quilt.  I just realized as I'm typing this, the last block will be given to us this weekend.  Could we have a quilt finish before Christmas 2017???  I think we just might.

Next up, was the The Double Star Block in Cindy at Stitchin At Home's Medallion Quilt BOM.  I am really loving me some purple and green with this quilt.

Goodnight Moon is the next block in Pat Sloan's The Children's Library BOM.  Only two more to go and this extremely fun QAL will be coming to an end as well.  I had hoped to finish up the Aurifil BOM and show you as well, but we are not currently on speaking terms at the moment.  It is packed full of applique and at the moment, my head just isn't in that game.

Taking a break from the piecing scene, David and I borrowed my mom's garage for a basting quilt session.

We were able to baste four smaller quilts, all currently waiting for me to pick them up and quilt them.

Here is a picture of David and his Poodle Quilt.  While scrolling through Instagram, he ran across Sue at Seven Oak Street Quilt's Poodle block she made for hive queen Karen at Tu-Na Quilts.  Loving all things of the 50's; 57 Chevys, girls in poodle skirts, you get my drift.  He decided to super size the block, change the piecing up a bit and create his own throw back to the 50's with some recent fabric purchases.  I'm thinking that negative space is screaming for some fun flow quilting.  What do you think?

Even after all that was finished last weekend, I snuck in some cutting time, to cut out a quilt for my daughter's 17th birthday.  I'm pretty sure she doesn't read my blog, but just incase she does, I won't let the cat out of the bag quite yet on what it is, but it is another one of Lorna's wonderful creations.  Do I have a Sew Fresh Quilts pattern obsession?  Hmmm?

I think I have confessed before, I'm a cluttered mess.  I'm an OCD person's nightmare...ask David.  However, there comes a point about every 3-6 months I can't take it anymore; the stash starts stacking up (from growth or laziness), the sewing space becomes cluttered...I have to clean it up.

So in keeping it real here on the blog (because I keep telling myself I'm not the only one who is like this), I pulled out my fabric totes to "file" the fabrics in there correct bins.

It became clear pretty quick like, that the fabric wasn't going to fit in their respective bins.  AHHHHH.

But Caroline tried to convince me everything was okay, because she fit in this newly almost empty bin...sigh.

So after several go rounds in my head I opted to purchase three more fabric bins and do the fabric shuffle.  My whites, blues and reds are in the biggest of the totes (how patriotic of me) and everything else fell in line.  So the stash is back under control and arranged in the back room.  The cats, bless their hearts, love fabric shuffle time, because the living room is transformed into a kitten playground.

I am feeling more grounded now and believe I can create once again.  I've come to the realization that with two serious quilters in the house, something must be done.  Quilting has taken over the house.  If that sounds like a daydream, trust me it's not.  There is talk about converting our porch into a sunroom/quilting room.  I do love my porch, however, we don't use it.  Why?  Because I'm inside quilting!  This would allow us to have a dedicated room for quilting and let the dinning room be a dinning room (since I'm now cooking again, thank you Instant Pot), the spare bedroom be a bedroom and the breakfast nook be...well something other than home to my Sweet Sixteen.  But, we shall see.  A girl can always dream

Magnolia Mystery

It's my favorite time of year again, mystery quilt time over at Meadow Mist Designs!  This year's mystery is called Magnolia Mystery.  I was more than happy to pattern test the mystery quilt for Cheryl as a mystery again this year.  It's been so hard to keep quiet about it for the last several months, but I'm happy to share my progress on the quilt as the clues were revealed to me.

On July 6th, Cheryl released the fabric requirements for the quilt along.  On my trip to the quilt store I knew immediately one of the fabrics I would be using.  It was a wonderful black fabric with lots of bright flowers on it.  After going back and forth picking out coordinating colors and grabbing my favorite bolt of white on white, I had my color palette secured.

Next month the cutting instructions will be released.  If you haven't decided to play along yet, there is plenty of time.  With three fabrics and a background to pick out, really it's not that scary.  And I promise this quilt will not disappoint.  Are you playing along with this year's mystery quilt?  If sewing blindly scares the pants off you, put your pants back on.  Cheryl will email you a picture of what the finished top looks like, she just asks that you keep the final layout a secret for the others that are sewing it as a mystery.

And she has prizes!!!  At the end of the quilt along, she asks that you send her a picture of your finished top or quilt and she will create a parade of quilts on her blog, so that we can all see what everyone has made.  No blog required to play, just email her a picture.  Then she will randomly draw winners from the parade of quilts.  One thing is for certain, it is going to be a great time!  Join us all and come sew along!

Today I'm linking up with Main Crust Monday.

Caught Up With Time To Spare

With the end of June approaching in just a few days, I am happy to report I am currently caught up on all of the QAL's I'm participating in.  I'll be honest, I figured I would be so far behind right now, I wouldn't be able to recover, so not being behind is quite the pleasant surprise. 

Above are all the 2017 Aurifil Designer BOM's as of today.  Each designer is helping us work our way around the color wheel. We started with the top left block in blue and this month's block color way was red orange.

The block is called Star Shine and it was designed by Sarah Maxwell.  You can read Pat Sloan's interview with Sarah here. 

Next up, was Pat Sloan's The Children's Library block for June, The Princess and the Pea.

After all the crazy triangle action in the Aurifil block, these simple squares where a pleasure to work with.  I do believe instead of a block, next month she will be releasing the block setting instructions.

Moving right along, I had one block to make this month for Cindy at Stitchin At Home's Medallion Quilt.  My head was spinning (but in a good way) making half square triangles for the Pinwheel Block.

Here she is with all of her friends.

I am loving me some purple and green in this quilt.

Then I moved on to the last quilt along Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilt's Jolly Christmas Quilt, which had three blocks I needed to catch up on.

Christmas Wreath

Holly and Berries

and Christmas Ornaments

Ever since the second block of this quilt along, one particular block has been eating away at me.  Possibly the most simple block in the quilt...The Mitten Block.  As the other blocks come together it bothers me more and more.  The fabrics in the mitten are too close to the background fabric and it just looks dull.  So I sucked it up and made a second mitten block.

The bright blues of the block on the right makes me HAPPY!!!  Bring on the snow!!  Oh, wait it's like almost July and hot outside.  Got a bit carried away there.  But now, I can let this block rest until it is ready to be pieced into the quilt and I promise I will stop glaring at it and only smile when I see it.

Have you ever redone a block because it just drove you nuts??  I can't be the only one.  Does it technically count as a "squirrel" since it has been eating at me for months now, driving me crazy?

So what will I do with myself for the next four days, since I'm all caught up??  Probably going to quilt a baby quilt I just finished piecing and maybe start on a second one I have been commissioned to make.  That sounds about right.  Hope everyone has a wonderful quilty week where ever you are.

Today I'm linking up with Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, and Midweek Makers.

Free Fall Finish

It's done! It's finished!  Free Fall!  This quilt was so much fun to make, from picking out the fabrics, right down to piecing it together.  Then came the quilting...I decided on good ol' straight lines with my walking foot.  Simple.  Easy.

Well, it should have been simple and easy.  For starters, I decided to put a small black border (like 1.5") around it to make sure I didn't loose any of my points to squaring up or binding (hindsight, probably should have used the gray).  I picked out a lovely white backing with large clusters of flowers in colors that match the floating leaves on the front.  At the point I was basting it together, I realized you would probably be able to see the dark prints on the front through the thin batting and backing.  I had plenty of the cotton batting and decided why not double layer it??  So I went for it, doubling the layer of batting to two, pinning and then baste stitching around the edge of the quilt.  Go me!!

I started stitching in the middle of the quilt using Aurifil #2610 Light Blue Grey 50wt and used the edge of my walking foot to space my lines, so they ended up about a 1/2"(ish) apart.  I knew the close stitching and extra batting would make this quilt a bit more stiffer, but that's okay, it's a wall hanging.  Things were going well until I was reaching the end of the quilt.

As you can see, I was ending up with quite a pucker...URGH!!!  I worked it out as best I could and stopped stitching when I reached the edge of the black.  I pulled her away from the machine and regrouped.  I would not abandon this project.

Over all it wasn't bad, but that pucker was FRUSTRATING.  What to do???  Instead of focusing on the panic of the pucker, I turned her around and started quilting the other side to buy myself some time before dealing with the problem, problem procrastination. 

Unfortunately, I just ended up with a pucker on that side as well.  My solution?  I'm sure there were much better ones to pick from, but I picked out the remaining basting stitches and quilted on.  I assume it was the extra layer of batting that was causing things to pull more and contort.  Maybe not, but that's the story I'm sticking with.

Here it is all finished on the floor.  Part of me thought about leaving it just like this and not trying to trim and square it up.  Call it a new type of quit finishing...really raw edge binding maybe?  Add a little more soft poof to your quilts? 

Figuring my new trend didn't stand a chance of catching on, I trimmed away and squared as best I could.  I didn't get a picture to share of what that first trimming looked like.  Trust me, somethings shouldn't be seen.  You are welcome (it was bad). 

So I sucked it up and trimmed some more, put a smile on my face and bound this quilt.  Wonky Donkey or not, I love it!

I love the pattern, I love the designer, I love my fabrics, I had a ton of fun creating it and created it with a bunch of really great online friends!!!  This quilt made memories and I will love her forever, bobbles, wobbles, puckers and all.  Best of all...she's finished.

A huge thank you to Sandra at mmm!quilts for hosting this QAL for us.  She did an amazing job writing the pattern and walking us through the steps to create it.  Sandra, I'm so proud of you and the success you have had with your first QAL!  Did you make the Free Fall Quilt?  Don't forget to hop over to mmm!quilts tomorrow to link up for Sandra's finished (quilted or pieced) linky party.  I can't wait to see what everyone made. 

Today I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers ,Wednesday Wait Loss, Free Fall Linky.