Finished Guitar Quilt!

I finished quilting and putting the binding on the guitar quilt for my dad last night.  Overall, I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

I used a light blue for the binding and I really think it goes well with the different shades in the background fabric.  All of the fabrics used in this quilt are my own hand dyed fabrics that I've been hoarding over the past couple of years.

I did a simple outline around each of the fused applique pieces and did a wood grain quilting motif in the background.  I figured the wood grain quilting would be appropriate given that guitars are made of wood. I really like how densely quilting the background made the guitars pop more in person.

As you can see, we got a dusting of snow this week.  I took these pictures as I was waiting for my car to warm up and was distracted by the cold, so I forgot to take a picture of the back. I used a similar hand dyed light blue for the backing fabric.

This is a Christmas gift for my Dad, who has been playing guitar since he was a little boy.  His guitars are to him as my sewing machine is to me.  Of course, he as a lot more guitars (and other musical instruments - base guitar, mandolin, banjo, keyboard, etc.) than I do sewing machines. 

Modern She Made - Received

Last night I came home from work and my Modern She Made swap item was waiting for me!  I was excited to see what lovely item would now be mine!

I was lucky to receive this lovely pillow cover from Scrapstudio, AKA Kelly Lautenbach!  I had put out several options to my partner, one of which was to make a pillow for my newly designed guest bedroom.  I went for blue walls with not quite lime or olive green accents and bright raspberry pink.

Here's a better picture that I took this morning outside that depicts the true color of the pillow cover.  That rose in the center there... that's actually pieced!  Kelly did a great job piecing that together so that it looks seamless!  And did you check out that quilting in the border?  Isn't it cool?

And here's the awesome back of the pillow.  I'm actually not sure which side I like more!  Kelly really nailed the colors in this pillow.  Thank you Kelly!

WIP Wednesday: Modern Hexagon Quilt

Earlier this month, the owner of Quilter's Way asked me if I would teach a modern hexagon quilt class.  She said I could do whatever I wanted in terms of technique.  I toyed with a few ideas, but decided to go with a large hexagon quilt made using Jaybird's Hex N More ruler.

This is what I came up with.  I was inspired by several quilts out there on Flickr and combined several ideas to come up with this quilt.  It measures about 40" square. 

Clearly I needed to iron this before I took these pictures, but you get the idea. I used a variety of prints from various lines including Simply Color, Cuzco, Good Fortune, Quilt Blocks and more. 

I'm trying to decide how I want to quilt this now.  Do I do concentric circles or a spiraling circle? Do I echo the hexagon pattern? Decisions, decisions, decision... My goal is to have this quilted soon. 

A Finished UFO

Way back in 2009 (okay, so maybe not "way" back, but long enough ago) I finished making this quilt top and had it quilted by a long arm quilter near me in 2010.  Well since then, I've had the binding made, but I just never got around to attaching it to the quilt. Well, I'm happy to say that this quilt is officially completed after a little motivation by the BMQG WIP challenge.

I took a few pictures this weekend at my parent's house of the quilt.  It's not quite King size, but it's slightly bigger than a queen size quilt.

I'm glad to have this one finished.  It had been sitting in a pile in my quilting room for too long.  Now, it's found a nice new home at my parent's house since it's more their color pallet than mine.

Peter Penguin Pillow and Block

I had been wanting to make something holiday-ish lately, but not something too Christmas-focused.  After some thinking and several designs, I came up with a paper pieced Penguin block that I then turned into a pillow.

 I introduce you to Peter Penguin!

I love how this little pillow cover turned out.  I used a couple of hot fix crystals for the eyes and did a simple wavy line quilting around the penguin to make it look like snow drifts. 

The quilting took me no time at all - maybe 20 minutes.  I love quick projects lately and really love how this one turned out.  

And because I always enjoy seeing where people get their inspiration from, I thought I'd share a picture of the sketches I drew before I moved to the computer to test everything and make the actual paper pieced design.  I don't have any fancy software to do my designing, I just use Microsoft Publisher. 

You can download the free pattern here in my Craftsy shop.

Dazzling Diamonds Class

Yesterday I taught my Dazzling Diamonds quilt at Quilter's Way in Acton. 

It was an intimate class, which I prefer at times.  It allows me to spend more 1:1 time with folks to ensure they understand the concept.

This is the block that I made in preparation for the class.  The goal was to have everyone leave with this. I wanted to make this quilt with prints instead of solids to make sure everyone understood what pieces needed to be right-side-up and right-side-down when piecing with prints. Once I finish this quilt, I will hang in my newly designed guest bedroom.

Here's the block that Allison made.  She used almost all of the same fabrics that I did in my original quilt, but she changed the lime green for a nice light blue.  Doesn't it look awesome?

Here's Karen's block. She used some great Kate Spain prints with a few others to make this block.  Yet another great block.

P.I.N. Pillow

The Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild is hosting a pin cushion swap with a bunch of other modern quilt guilds, including the Boston guild.  Me being me, i had to come up with a paper pieced pattern for my pincushion.  After some thinking, I created this very literal pin cushion design that I have dubbed P.I.N. Pillow.

I first made the pin cushion in some scraps for the swap, but then decided to make one for myself out of the new Denyse Schmidt Chicopee line.

This pincushion will be the one I'm including in the swap.  I usually stuff my pincushions with crushed walnut shells, but because this was for a swap, I just stuffed it with some bamboo stuffing.  My Chicopee cushion is stuffed with the walnut shells.

Here's the block before I sewed it together with the backing and stuffed it.  You could easily use this block in a quilt or other project, other than a pincushion.  You could also easily scale it up (or down) if you feel the pattern is too small for you.

You can purchase this pattern in my Craftsy shop here for instant download. 

A Quilter's Gathering 2012 - The Quilts

Warning: Picture Heavy Post!

I've attended A Quilter's Gathering several times before and enjoyed myself.  It's a smaller show, but it draws a decent selection of quilts and vendors. The quilts and goodies the vendors have for sale tend to be a bit more traditional, but it's still very enjoyable to see some great quilts.

They had a special exhibit of mini quilts that were united by a strand of color running through the quilts.  Here are some of those quilts:

And then there was the main show.  Here are some of my favorites from the main quilt show.