Scrap-A-Palooza! Quilt #10 Finish

It is hard to believe that it is the last day of October already!  This year just seems to be whizzing by.  The last day of October also means I need to get the final post up for this month's Scrap-A-Palooza quilt!

This quilt started out as just a pile of scraps that were already all cut to 3.5" wide.  I had a nice big bag of them so I was determined to get them used up in a quilt.

The pieces were sewn into irregular strip lengths and put up on the design wall.

Strips of background fabrics were added to the top and bottom of each strip and each strip was cut to a uniform length.

Sashing and side borders were added and the quilt top was finished.

When it came time to quilt it, I really wanted to take advantage of the vertical piecing seams.  So I loaded the quilt sideways on my quilt frame and used the seams as a guide for spacing and quilted in a fun daisy chain.  Once you get the first strip in, the rest are easy.  The secret is to leave enough room between the daisies so you can tuck in a flower below it. 

I love the daisies in the negative space on the quilt.

And here is the finished quilt in all of its glory!  Since it has been done, I have been using it each evening.  I love the warm oranges and browns mixed in with the bright turquoise!

 On the back, I used a fun daisy print.  I found 6 yards in my stash so I used it on the binding too.  Can you see the happy little ladybugs?

And now for a few statistics: 

 

Large Lap Quilt

Size: 54 x 73"

Fabric: Various colored scraps cut to 3.5" wide.  Most were 2 x 3.5' or 3.5 x 3.5". I would guess about 3 yards of background fabric was used.  I used Kona Oyster for the background fabric.

I decided to enter this one in the Blogger's Quilt Festival Scrappy category.  Don't forget voting starts November 1st so be sure to vote for your favorites in all of the categories....and discover some great new blogs!

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Richard and Tanya Quilts

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A Lovely Year of Finishes - October Finish

Thanks goodness my ALYOF goal for October was to just quilt up this small wallhanging.  I am not sure I would have had much time to get anything bigger finished.

 A little backstory...this is another of the round robin quilts I made a number of years ago.  Myself and two other people were involved in making this one.  I needle-turned appliqued the two house blocks to start off the quilt.  The next recipient appliqued the lady in the middle and the "welcome" area.  Finally a friend who is a master at applique finished up with the leaves and the flowers along the bottom.

The blocks I made were influenced by a class I took with Tonye Belinda Phillips.  I wish I had more time in my schedule to work on this type of hand work.  I really enjoy playing with the whimsical shapes and unexpected fabrics.

BTW - Sorry about the bad pictures.  The weather is gray and rainy and it isn't supposed to get better for days.  Plus, I didn't really plan ahead.  After I got the piece all hung and level, I realized a big light fixture hung in the way of getting any decent photos.  ( Okay, I may have cussed a bit over that!)

Here is a close up of the flowers along the bottom.  I love the pieced appliqued leaves and the use of the Kaffe Fassett "Plink" fabrics for the flowers.

 I was originally going to give this to my neighbor but it is now hanging in my dining area, which is where I meet with my quilting clients.  

I guess she will just have to cross the street to my house to enjoy it!

 

So this is the 9th finish of the year that I have linked up for finishing my ALYOF monthly goals.   A big thanks to Fiber of all Sorts and Sew Bittersweet Design for helping me focus on getting all these older projects finished.

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Sew Bittersweet Designs (A Lovely Year of Finishes)

Needle and Thread Thursday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict

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Richard and Tanya Quilts

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Slow Progress

This month I am finding it harder and harder to find time to work on projects.  With lots of client quilts to finish before the holidays, classes to teach and household chores to finish up, I am lucky if I can get a couple hours of sewing in each week.

I did find some time to make a little progress on my alphabet blocks.  Even though letters up to "O" have been released, I am just getting around to finishing up the letter "J"

I was struck with some inspiration on how to finish up this set of blocks.  I decided to add a frame around each letter.  This meant I had to track down more scraps for the blocks I had already made.  Most of them I was able to locate but I am still searching for a few.  I might have to get a bit creative to get some blocks finished up!

.

I did finish up another of my english paper pieced stars.  Now I have a total of 6 finished...

and a whole lot more to go!

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Patchwork Times

Freemotion by the River

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Freshly Pieced 

Live a Colorful Life

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Scrappy

I recently shared I entered my Wiggle Time quilt into the original design category for the Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Now I want to share the quilt I have been madly sewing the binding to so I can enter it in the scrappy category.  It is the finished quilt from this month's Scrap-A-Palooza series.

I don't often fall in love with my own quilts but something about this one has me keeping it all for myself. It is the perfect size and the colors just make me happy!

It was made by piecing scraps together into irregular lengths and setting them into a Kona Oyster background.  You can read more about the construction here.

 For the quilting, I did an easy daisy chain that runs from top to bottom on the quilt.  I used a camel colored thread and I love the subtle effect it has in the negative space. (To do this on a longarm, you just load the quilt sideways and the piecing helps keep the design straight.)

Here is another shot of the quilting.

 On the back I put an orange and red daisy print with tiny lady bugs.  I know I'm going to enjoy the bright colors during the gray winter days we get.

 I can't wait to try it out tonight when I watch Masterpiece Theater!

For those following along with the Scrap-A-Palooza series, I will be writing a separate post that include the links to all the steps.  I should get to it later this week.

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Blogger's Quilt Festival - Original Design

It is now that time of year for the Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I have participated in the event for a while now but this has been the first time I have struggled with what quilts to enter.  I realized as I "scrolled through" my finishes for the last 5 months, I really haven't made too many quilts I feel are Quilt Festival worthy.

But there is a quilt I am very proud of....and that is the one on the cover of my Wiggle Time pattern. (Sorry regular readers - you get to see this quilt yet again!)

This is my first real pattern and getting this first one published was a goal I thought I would never achieve.  The desire was there, but every week I seemed to run out of time. But perseverance got it finished and now I hope to keep the momentum going and finish up a few more patterns in the near future.

I will be entering this one in the original design category.  I have another one I will be entering in the scrappy category (of course).  It is a finished quilt you haven't seen yet and one that is going right into my personal collection (I love it that much!).  Remember, voting starts November 1st!

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Sampler Quilt Finish

While looking through my quilt pictures to decide which quilts to enter in the Blogger's Quilt Festival, I came across some pictures of a client's quilt I meant to share.

This quilt is made from the book Vintage Quilt Revival by Katie Clark Blakesley, Lee Heinrich and Faith  Jones.  I love the vibrant colors against the soft gray background fabric.

I quilted each block differently but I tried to use the same shapes to keep the quilt cohesive.

Some blocks were very organically quilted while others had a lot of line work in them.

And of course, some were a mixture of both.

 

The wide outside borders were also fun to quilt with these big overlapping swirls.  You can also see a few more blocks with some matchstick and straight line quilting in them.




 

 

But I think my favorite quilting in the whole quilt was the way the quilting in the sashing echos out from the cornerstones.

The back was mostly negative space so the quilting really shows up!

Have I told you guys how I have the best job (and best clients) ever!

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Up, up and Away!

Originally, I wasn't going to share this small quilt but as I thought more about it, this humble little quilt reminded me that quilting doesn't have to have rules and sometimes I make a quilt far too difficult with my own preconceived ideas.





This project started when I was given the below fabric panel to use for one of my charity quilts.  I am not a fan of panels but charities always love boy themed quilts so I thought I could easily make a quilt from it.







Well, this panel hung out in my sewing room for months.  I would frequently go to my fabric stash and try to get some inspiration but all I did was drag out tons of fabric that only had to be put back away.

The panel is actually quite large at about 30 x 40" and I just couldn't come up with any ideas on how to make a quilt from it.  I even put the project on my Q3 FAL list thinking that might motivate me to finish the project....Nope!



Then, one day while I was looking at block ideas, I came across some paper-pieced airplane blocks and the quilt finally clicked into place.  Why does the panel need to be part of the quilt top?  Instead, why not incorporate it into the quilt backing!

So I went to my fabric stash (because I don't like to buy fabric for my donation quilts) and pulled some red and blue fabric and a colorful text print for the background and made these cute paper pieced blocks from a pattern I found.  I had just enough to make 5 blocks of each color.  Finally, this project was moving forward!

Except it stalled immediately.  I needed fabric for the alternate blocks.  I had originally envisioned clouds but I didn't have enough of any one fabric.  And no matter how deep I dug, there just didn't seem to be any fabric in my stash that would work.

After a few weeks, I finally came to my senses and heard my inner child say, why do the clouds have to match?!  Simple as that!  By the end of the day, the quilt was pieced and quilted. 

And the panel, now residing on the back of the quilt, looks great with the light weight striped denim I used.  I quilted fun clouds all over the quilt so now its new owner can decided which side he (or she) likes best.  I even used a higher loft polyester batting that has been hanging around for years so the clouds are puffy and the quilt feels really squishy!

Thanks little quilt for reminding me to keep a more open mind.  I wanted to make a quilt to bring comfort to a child in crisis, not be scrutinized by the quilting police.  Even though I fought this quilt through the whole process, I am glad I stuck with it and learned the lessons it had within it.

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Needle and Thread Thursday

Wiggle Time Pattern Winners

A big thanks to everyone who entered to win my newest pattern.  

Your wonderful comments really made my weekend!  And just who won you ask?

The random number generator picked....

Tami C

I really like this pattern that you've designed! I like things that look good scrappy! I follow you on Bloglovin and Facebook!

Dorothy

What a great pattern! you picked a fantastic one to be your first. Even if I don't win it, I will be purchasing one. thanks for the opportunity. I "follow" you by checking your blog a couple times a week

Emails have been sent with the patterns to the winners!  Congratulations!!

And if you didn't win but still want to try my pattern, it can be purchased  here  or through my Etsy shop.

Thanks again for all the wonderful support!

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Wiggle Time Pattern plus Giveaway

I am so pleased to announce I have finally gotten around to releasing my very first pattern!  This one I call Wiggle Time and it is available in a .pdf download from both my Etsy and my Payhip store.


The pattern is fat quarter friendly and perfect for the beginner quilter or the advanced quilter who needs a smaller quilt done quickly.

The finished quilt is 48 x 54".

The pattern is quite versatile.  You can make a version using just 5 fat quarters and some background fabric...

Or the instructions also include how to use your scraps to make the quilt.


I have even included a coloring page so you can create your own version along with a link to my Wiggle Time Pinterest board for inspiration..

And here is one made using scraps and a print for the background.  It is definitely my go-to pattern when I need a small quilt fast.


One of the great things about it is I always seems to have the fabric I need right in my stash!








And to celebrate its release, I am giving away a .pdf copy of the pattern to two lucky readers.  The giveaway will run until noon PST Sunday October 19th 2014.  So if you want to try and win a copy, let me know how you follow along and be sure I have your email to send you the pattern should you win.  That's it - one entry per reader with no additional hoops.  (And because it is a .pdf download, my international readers can enter too.)

***Sorry, this giveaway is now closed!  Best of luck to all that entered!***   

And if you want to get the pattern on your wishlist (just in case you don't win so you can purchase it later), you can do so here  or through Etsy.  Thanks for celebrating with me and good luck!

If you are interested in more ways to follow me, you can find me on Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin', Feedly, Instagram, Google +, or get my blog sent right to your email inbox by entering your email address on the right sidebar!

  

Linking up:  

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF

Fabric Frenzy Friday

Richard and Tanya Quilts

Crazy Mom Quilts

Sew Can She

FYI - Just informing you this post contains affiliate links.

Scrap-A-Palooza! Quilt #10 Part Two

Sorry to take so long to get part two of this month's Scrap-A-Palooza post finished but I haven't been able to get into my sewing room much this month and I sure picked a bunch of small scraps for this project!  Let's just say I have been chain sewing up a storm!

 

 

 

I started out last week with this pile of pre-cut 3.5" wide pieces.

 

 

 

I just randomly began sewing them into strips.  As I started pinning the strips up on my design wall, I kind of liked the look of the irregular lengths.

I soon had 10 strips sewn and laid them out like this.  When I am sewing a quilt top that I have no firm plan for, I love to just let it evolve right in front of my eyes.

 Once I had the pieced strips how I liked them, it was time to start sewing in the background.  Because my pieced strips are all 3.5" wide, I cut the same width from my background fabric.

Then I just rough cut lengths long enough to fill in the irregular space at the top of each strip.  I simply used the top of my design wall as a guide.

I used the same process for cutting background fabric pieces for the bottom.  Once I had the strip sewn, I did trim them all to a consistent 74" long.  I also cut some 2" pieces to sew between the strips.  These I also trimmed to a 74" length.

Next it was time to sew in the strips.  I did pin these strips all together as I sewed the long seams and I pressed toward the sashing.  This helped to keep the quilt top nice and square.

 Finally I added a 6" border to both sides.  I love how the strips of color float in the top.

The colors in these scraps look fantastic together.  I still have quite a few scraps left so I might have to make a second top with a little different layout.  I think this is a perfect quilt for fall! 

Here's an overview of the important stuff to do before the next step!

• Create your pieced strips
• Layout all your strips on your design wall
• Cut and sew background fabrics to top and bottom of strips
• Add long sashing strips and borders.
• And quilt as desired...Easy Peasy!
  
  

So that's all there is to this simple lap quilt.  I will be back before the end of the month to share my finished quilt.  Hope I have inspired you to pull some scraps of your own and join in the fun.
And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Now go sew up those scraps!

 

 

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Needle and Thread Thursday