Quilt Show Quilts

Recently I found out that two quilts I custom quilted for a client took first and second place at the Northwest Quilt Show in Portland Oregon.  I am so delighted for my client - she does beautiful work and I am happy she is getting the acknowledgement she deserves.

Here she is with one of Judy Niemeyer's Mariner's Compass quilts.  She won a second place ribbon on this one.


















Here is a picture of the quilt on my machine.

A whole lot of feathers, line work and dense fills on this quilt.  And these quilts are not small!












On this stunning quilt she received a first place ribbon.  I have a whole blog post with lots of pictures if you want to see more of the details.

I really had fun quilting this one!















And I just finished up another one for her grandson.  This one is called Sabertooth Star.  A little different than the big medallions but the tiny detailing is still there.

















Lots of matchstick quilting went into this one.

Getting the quilting to turn around the corner was a challenge.  But I do like how it turned out.
















And turning the corners where the sashing met the outer borders was an even bigger challenge.

We didn't do a lot of fancy quilting on this one.  Because it was for a young man, we didn't want it to get too swirly.  Therefore, we made it all about the texture.

I don't think this one is going to any quilt shows but I do know my client is already thinking about future shows.  I am sure I will have many more beautiful quilts to share in the future!

The theme this week over at Val's is Quilt Shows.  So rather than link up an older post, I thought I would share this one.  It will be great to see what other quilts have been entered into quilt shows!  So much great inspiration!!

Linking Up:

Blossom Heart Quilts

QuiltStory

Sew Fresh Quilts

My Quilt Infatuation
Free Motion Mavericks
Pretty Bobbins

Oh Scrap! : Quilt Kisses

Wishing all you moms a Happy Mother's Day! 

I thought today would be appropriate to feature a great mom of three adorable boys - Cheetah, Monkey and Panda. Many of you probably know I am talking about Jasmine over at Quilt Kisses!

Jasmine makes a number of quilts every year and she is so good about using up her leftovers as she goes along. When you see one of her finishes, you know in a few days she will be sharing some cute little project she made with the scraps. No stuffing the scraps into a big bin for her!

I hope you take some time to hop over to Jasmine's blog. She is sharing quite a few quilts along with the mini quilts she made with the leftovers.  Above is just a small sampling of the many lovely things she has written about.  Once you see her quilts and her quilting, I know you will want to follow along!

Now, what have you been making with your scraps this week?

I hope you share so we can be inspired!

• This linky party is for any scrappy project - It can be in-process or a finished piece.
• You can link up your blog post (not your homepage please) or Instagram photo from the past week that features your use of scraps.
• If you are linking to a blog post, I ask that you link back to my blog somewhere in your post. So if you are writing about scraps, just get into the habit of including a link as there will be a linky party available every week!
• If you are using Instagram, please use the hashtag #ohscrap.
• This is a party so remember to socialize and comment on the posts of others.
• Following my blog is not necessary but it sure would be great if you do!

<a href="http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg54Z8EyMCoCg0j1sBoz_APBotiRQveh32vQoL2dCSO4nQFAi8du60IuUCQp3Hb18vGD8IrM0W6_vmuufImGcr4Pf2Ve2dNIWd5LbQJfyDTRjtcekT6coT7c2nSCOG_9dvjiKGVAnuTN70/s1600/Oh+Scrap+Button.jpg" alt="Quilting is more fun than Housework" width="125" height="125" /></a>

Feel free to grab my button for your sidebar or posts and get ready to share all your wonderful projects from scraps.  And if you have a great idea for using scraps and would like to be featured, feel free to contact me!

An InLinkz Link-up

I got Sidetracked!

I was recently visiting a quilting friend who just happened to have a little pile of leftover bits of stripped pieced fabric.  It was the tail ends of some 2.5" strips.  She was going to toss them so she offered them to me.  Score!

I immdiately went home and made these fun little four patches out of them.  My plan was to just stuff them in my orphan block suitcase for use at a later time.

But when I was digging through my shot cottons for my SMS giveaway, I came across this cranberry fabric and thought the 4 patches would be cute framed.  Yep, I was right!

At this point, I really did tell myself I don't have time to play with these any more!  But I knew I had a number of the Kaffe Fassett prints my friend used in her scraps.  I just wanted to see how many of them I actually had in my stash.

Well, you guessed it - before I knew it, the framed four patches were sewn into a quilt top.

And I threw it on my quilt frame the next day between some client quilts.  Lately I have been bogged down with time consuming projects and big custom client quilts so it was good for my soul to feel the gratification of a fast project.  Especially one as colorful as this one!

I was even able to use up some of my scrap florals,  I haven't sewn with them for a really long time!

It took a bit of piecing but I even had enough fabric for a backing.

Now it is finished and I can get back to the many projects I keep getting stalled out on.  I am slowly making progress on a few of them so I hope to have some other things to share soon!

Linking Up:

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF

Fabric Frenzy Friday

Richard and Tanya Quilts

Crazy Mom Quilts
Fresh Sewing Day

SMS Giveaway Day!

Yep - It is that awesome time again!!  The big biannual event we all look forward to.  So many blogs to check out, giveaways to enter, and projects to be inspired by.  Yessiree, it is Giveaway Day hosted by Sew Mama Sew

This will be my third year participating in the event.  As I visit everyone's blog, I always find new sites to follow.  If this is your first time here, let me share a few things with you before I get to my giveaway.

Every Sunday I host a linky party called Oh Scrap!  Each week you can find lots of inspiration to help you keep on top of the scrap bin.  From quilts to pouches to rugs - there is tons to explore.  If you have scrap projects, feel free to join in the fun!

I also share my Scrap-A-Palooza series of quilts.  Almost every month, I share my process in making a quilt from my scraps. Each quilt is broken down into different parts so if you want to sew along, you are able to.  I not only share my finish but I love to feature the quilts from others who are using the same patterns to make their own quilts from scraps.  You can check out all the quilts by visiting the Scrap-A-Palooza Gallery page.  Here are a few examples of some of the quilts made so far.

 

 

Lately, I have been busy getting a number of my original designs written into patterns.  If you are looking for some fun and easy patterns, be sure and check out what I currently have available.  I hope to release a few more in the very near future.

This quilt is made from my Wiggle Time pattern.

So let's just get to the reason all of you are here!!  This time I decided to share some dreamy shot cottons with one lucky reader.  The winner will be chosen randomly.

A total of 10 fat quarters are included in this sweet little bundle! 

To enter, just leave me a comment letting me know what you love about springtime.  I love daffodils, sunny mornings and all the bird activity in my yard.  It is probably my favorite time of year.

And because I so appreciate my followers, you get a second entry.  Just leave an additional comment letting me know how you follow.  Please make sure you’re not a no-reply commenter (or leave an email address in your comment if you’re not sure). I may not be able to reply to all comments left during the giveaway as it gets a bit overwhelming!  But I certainly will try.

The giveaway is open until May 10th, 11pm PST. International guests are always welcome!  

***Sorry, this giveaway is closed!***

Congratulations #19 Anita (Who blogs at Quilt in a not-Shell)

Good luck everyone!  And if you have those pesky scraps piling up, you are going to want to follow along to help inspire you to give them some attention!

Linking Up:

Sew Fresh Quilts

My Quilt Infatuation

Oh Scrap! : Pieced Batting

I thought today I would share my method for piecing batting.  I use batting off the bolt, so I end up with lots of batting scraps.  I do try and use them in smaller projects but the big chunks of batting, I piece together for some of my quilts.

I would not suggest piecing all types of batting.  I generally use Hobbs 80/20.  I would suggest testing how your batting looks when it is pieced.  And I would only piece like batting together so the shrinkage is the same on your quilt.

The first thing you need to do is cut nice clean edges on the pieces you are going to join.  A 60mm rotary cutter works great for this.  I also use an old cutting mat or flip my mat over as the batting fibers get into your mat and it cannot self heal.  (This will extend the life of your mat.)

I have seen some quilters piece their batting by barely overlapping and stitching with a straight stitch.  My first seam left holes where the pieces didn't meet (see the scissors) and the one on the right where I overlapped more, left a big ridge that will probably show on a quilt.

I used to piece my batting by using a wide zigzag stitch.  This works fairly well, but I find the batting doesn't lay as flat as I would like.

So now, I piece my batting using a serpentine stitch. It lays flat and the ridge where the two pieces meet is broken up with the stitching so it is not noticeable in a quilt.

If you have never used a serpentine stitch, it looks like the #2 stitch above. 

I will say I am selective about what quilts I put pieced batting in.  The small ridges may show if you put it in a quilt with a lot of negative space. And so you don't feel the ridges, I like to make sure the quilt is fairly well quilted - no big unquilted spaces.

Now it is your turn to share how you are using your scraps.  

Here are the details for linking up:

• This linky party is for any scrappy project - It can be in-process or a finished piece.
• You can link up your blog post (not your homepage please) or Instagram photo from the past week that features your use of scraps.
• If you are linking to a blog post, I ask that you link back to my blog somewhere in your post. So if you are writing about scraps, just get into the habit of including a link as there will be a linky party available every week!
• If you are using Instagram, please use the hashtag #ohscrap.
• This is a party so remember to socialize and comment on the posts of others.
• Following my blog is not necessary but it sure would be great if you do!

<a href="http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg54Z8EyMCoCg0j1sBoz_APBotiRQveh32vQoL2dCSO4nQFAi8du60IuUCQp3Hb18vGD8IrM0W6_vmuufImGcr4Pf2Ve2dNIWd5LbQJfyDTRjtcekT6coT7c2nSCOG_9dvjiKGVAnuTN70/s1600/Oh+Scrap+Button.jpg" alt="Quilting is more fun than Housework" width="125" height="125" /></a>

Feel free to grab my button for your sidebar or posts and get ready to share all your wonderful projects from scraps.  And if you have a great idea for using scraps and would like to be featured, feel free to contact me!

An InLinkz Link-up

If you are interested in more ways to follow me, you can find me on Craftsy, 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:

Love Laugh Quilt

Patchwork Times

Freemotion by the River