Blogger Quilt Festival - Twirling Trellis

I've designed a lot of my own quilts over the past few years, so picking one for the Original Design category was a tough one. In the end, I decide to pick one that felt most spring like and was very happy - my Twirling Trellis quilt.

I designed this quilt at the beginning of 2013, but I didn't get a chance to show anyone this completed quilt until a couple of months ago because it was off getting the royal treatment by Modern Quilts Unlimited. 

I think one of the things that I love about this quilt is that I didn't extend the pink pinwheels into the outer white sections. I think it gives the quilt a nice balance and centers it. Like so many of my quilts, it's paper pieced. 

This was the very first quilt I tried to do ruler work on my longarm. It was a bit tricky at first, but I got the hang of it. 

I used Michael Miller Cotton Couture solids for this quilt and quilted it using So Fine #50 thread. I pieced the quilt using Aurifil #50 in white. The batting is Quilters Dream Cotton. 

If you want a copy of the pattern, you can purchase a copy of the magazine online, as I don't think it's on newsstands anymore. And look, there's my quilt on the cover! How exciting!!!

Blogger Quilt Festival - Confetti

Wow, it was hard to pick just two quilts to showcase in the Blogger Quilt Festival. To start, I decide to showcase my Confetti quilt.

This quilt was actually made as part of a Bee - the Simply Solids Bee to be exact. I set out a bunch of neutral fabrics with a couple of brights - a navy, lime and dark pink.

I absolutely fell in love with the top when I finished it, but I think the quilting is one of the main reasons I decided to use this quilt in the festival. It took a TON of ruler work on my longarm, and I'm pretty sure my hand was deformed for over a week after the fact, but it was so worth it. I randomly drew a section using my ruler, outlined it a 1/4" and then filled it in with 1/4" lines parallel to one of the lines in the shape.

The hardest part of this quilt was assembling the top. When blocks came in, they were all improv blocks, but some had more white space than others. Some had a bunch of smaller pieces while others had some large ones. I couldn't figure out how to make them work, until several people suggested that I cut up some of the bee blocks to make it work. Gasp! How could I cut up something someone had worked so hard on?

But then Victoria Findlay Wolfe came to visit the Boston MQG and she said that she cut up bee blocks to make one of her quilts. If Victoria could do it, so could I.

This quilt finishes at 51" x 50" and was made with a bunch of assorted solids. I quilted it using So Fine #50 - Pearl. I used two layers of Quilters Dream Orient.

Blogger Quilt Festival - Baby Quilt

While at SewDown Philadelphia, a bunch of us were looking for something to do during the free sew time. I had come directly from a work trip in Milan, Italy, so I didn't have much room to pack extra fabric/projects. Fortunately, we all received charm packs of Michael Miller Cotton Couture solids in our swag bags. A bunch of people decided to do a challenge to make a quilt using the charm pack - and thus the SewDown ThrowDown was born.

While I think everyone else added additional fabric, I set out to just use the fabrics provided in the charm pack - my own personal challenge within the challenge. I knew my suitcase was nearing the max weight, so adding more fabric might have put me over the limit (I ended up three pounds over and had to do some serious moving of stuff anyway).

I decided to make half square triangles, separating the colors by warm and cool colors. Overall, I think trying to separate the colors that way was okay, but because the charm pack was full of colors that could have gone one way or another - yellow or green, or purple or pink - that the separation of colors wasn't quite what I was hoping for.  That being said, I'm still really pleased with how this quilt turned out.

I backed it using an Art Gallery print that I've had in my stash for a couple of years now. As you can see above, I quilted this quilt, echoing either side of the diagonal lines of the HSTs.

I bound the quilt using Kona Iron.

Quilt Stats:
32" x 28"
Fabric: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids, Kona Iron, Art Gallery (I forget the line)
Batting: Warm and Natural
Thread: Aurifil #50 2600

Blogger Quilt Festival - Wall Hanging

Sticks and Stones is a wall hanging that I made for the Boston MQG's mini quilt challenge. For the past two years we've participated in the Lowell Quilt Festival with our own exhibit. Part of this exhibit has contained a mini quilt challenge. This was my quilt for it. You can see the rest of the quilts here. 

This quilt was inspired by Jackie Gering's Craftsy class. I've enjoyed making more improvisational quilts these days, although I'll never shy away from designing my own paper pieced patterns.

The gray background fabric made this quilt difficult to photograph though. 

This block was made as four different blocks. I started with a bunch of strips of fabrics based on the inspirational color palette.

I quilted this, offsetting a handful of straight lines, horizontal and vertical. Once I had a handful of straight lines, I quilted out from the intersection.

Here you can really see what I did for the quilting. I think it gave the quilt a really cool effect.

Blogger Quilt Festival: Mod Hex 2

This time around we can enter two quilts into the Blogger Quilt Festival. I already shared my Pinwheel Party Quilt with you - my entry in the mini/doll quilt category. I'd also like to share with you my Mod Hex 2 quilt - my entry into the wall quilt category. I struggled with what category to enter this in, but because it's really too small to be a lap quilt and is too big to be a mini, the wall quilt category it is!

I started making this quilt as a class sampler. You see, I was asked to teach a modern hexagon class at a local quilt shop - Quilter's Way. I wanted something fun and easy, so I designed this sashed rainbow quilt (below) using the Hex N More Ruler.

Wanting to show that you could have a totally different effect by changing the sashing, I made Mod Hex 2 more scrappy, using a fat quarter bundle from Fat Quarter Shop. This was a Blogger Choice Fat Quarter Bundle pulled together by Elizabeth Hartman late last year.

The colors for this quilt are out of my comfort zone. I tend to shy away from earth tones, but there's something about these fabrics that really speak to me.

This quilt went together relatively quick and was easy to piece. I would be willing to bet that it took just as much time to quilt the top as it did to actually piece it.

One of the hardest things for me was picking a binding. I knew all along that I wanted to quilt this particular quilt in a concentric circle pattern, so that was easy. It just took some time. With concentric circle quilting, the center goes quick, but once you start to get further and further out, it can take a little while. Back to the binding... I was determined to use a fabric from my stash, but because these colors aren't ones that I typically work with, I struggled. I pulled fabric after fabric, but none of them seemed to work. Then, after about two weeks, I remembered I had some FMF in my stash and dug that out to find that this brown print went perfect with the quilt.

This quilt was made entirely out of fabric from my stash. I received the fat quarter bundle as a gift for Christmas last year. I used an off white solid for the background, and an old print from my stash for the backing. I quilted it on my Bernina 440 using So Fine! #50 #402 - Pearl, so it really blends in nice to the background.

This one finishes at 46" square!

Blogger Quilt Festival: Pinwheel Party

My first entry in the Blogger Quilt Festival is one of my most recent finishes: Pinwheel Party, which I'm entering into the Doll/Mini Quilt Category.

I designed this quilt about a year ago, but I didn't actually make it until this year. Since its inception, I've participated in the Modern She Made Swap on Flickr. Each round, participants must incorporate a particular shape into their design. Previously we needed to include a circle or triangle. This round, we needed to include a star. When that requirement was announced, I knew I needed to make this quilt.

Originally, I designed this quilt so that the finished blocks measured 12" square finished. For this challenge, I reduced the size of the blocks by 50% to 6" square finished. As a result, this quilt finishes at 18" square. Yup, it's that small!

Each block is made up of four sections with eight pieces. That means that this 18" quilt contains a whopping 288 pieces! That small gray line between the mustard yellow and the gray finishes at 1/4" wide.

How did I manage to make this quilt with all of those small pieces? Paper piecing of course! My regular readers will tell you that I love to paper piece. I absolutely love the precision I can achieve with paper piecing. There's just something about those perfect points that makes me smile.

I really fell in love with this quilt and I was sad to see it go. Maybe some day I'll make a second one for myself. One of the things I love most about this quilt - besides the pattern - is the color palette. The colors are much more subtle and muted than I typically play with. Usually I use bright colors and absolutely love jewel tones. As you'll see by my second entry in the quilt festival, I'm really trying to branch out of that color palette this year.

I created a pattern for this quilt with a 6" finished block like I used here in this quilt or a 12" finished block if you want to make something a bit bigger. You can find my pattern and others here:

• Craftsy
• Etsy
• Threadbias
• PatternSpot

Quilt Stats:

Pinwheel Party by Jen Sorenson of A Quilting Jewel

Finished Size: 18" x 18"

Fabric: Kona Cotton, Oval Elements, Quilters Linen, Curious Nature

Batting: Warm and Natural

Thread: Aurifil 50wt 2610

Get out and Vote

I have to admit, I'm going to be glad when the election for US President is over.  I counted during one 30 minute TV show this week that 3/4 commercial breaks contained ALL political commercials.  And I don't even live in a swing state!  Anyway, I walked right into my polling station and made my vote this morning.

In the spirit of campaigning, I'd love it if you took the time to vote for my Dazzling Diamonds Quilt - a Finalist in the Doll/Mini Quilt Category in the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Scroll down to reach my category.  It's somewhat Ironic that I could win a gift certificate to Pink Chalk Fabrics when I purchased the fabric to make this mini quilt from them.  It's like it was meant to be.

And on another note, KK and I just decided this weekend that we're going to attend QuiltCon.  I booked our travel this morning and purchased our passes for the show!  I'm really excited.  Who else is going? 

A Quilter's Gathering

Last weekend I spent some time at A Quilter's Gathering in Manchester, NH.

I took a class with Robbi Joy Eklow and made this wall hanging which will be a Christmas present for my dad. He's been playing guitar for 50+ years, so I'm sure he'll love it.  I made it with all of my own hand dyed fabrics.

I'll share more pictures of the quilt in a future post once I dig my camera out and take some pictures of it since this one was taken on my phone.  My goal is to finish it by Christmas, so hopefully soon.

I also began making this quilt top (the petals aren't attached to the center yet) that night as KK and I were hanging out in our hotel room after the class and before our dinner reservation. This one is lower on my finish list, but I'm really liking how it's coming out, so hopefully I'll finish it soon.

On another note, my Dazzling Diamonds quilt is a finalist in the Blogger's Quilt Festival in the Doll/Mini quilt category.  I'd love it if you voted for my quilt. 

Nominate Your Favorite Blogger's Quilt Festival Quilt

It's time to nominate your favorite quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Hop on over and nominate your favorites!  My quilt, Dazzling Diamonds, is #78. Obviously, I'd love it if you voted for mine, but be sure to check out all of the other fantastic quilts. There are over 600 of them! 

You don't need to have entered a quilt in order to nominate your favorites.  You can also vote for your favorite overall by voting ABOVE the picture of your favorite quilt. (Remember, I'm #78.  ::wink wink::)

The categories this quilt fits into are: Best Home Machine Quilted Quilt, Best Mini Quilt and Best Wall Hanging,

Some of my fellow Boston Modern Quilt Guild members have quilts in the festival as well, so don't forget to check theirs out too (In alphabetical order):

• Alice - 455
• Amy- 109
• Laurie - 560
• Natalie - 82

Blogger Quilt Festival - Fall 2012

It's that time of year again - the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  This time around I'm "entering" my Dazzling Diamonds quilt.  This was a hard choice for me because I've actually finished quite a few quilts this year.

I made this quilt as part of a challenge the Boston Modern Quilt Guild was hosting. Participants had to make a mini quilt in the colors of QuiltCon.  The mini had to use at least three of the colors and could be no bigger than 24" on any side.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love to paper piece.  So of course I needed to create my own paper pieced pattern for my entry into the challenge. I designed this block because I wanted a block with diamonds, but with a slight twist.

The quilt went together pretty easy.  The great thing about the block is that there's only one point to match, the tip of the diamonds, which is pretty rare for a lot of paper pieced patterns.  I think this also went together easy for me because I had just finished piecing the 140th paper pieced block in a different (but secret) quilt that I've been working on.  16 blocks in this quilt seemed like a piece of cake!

I love how in using two different grey fabrics for the stars, a secondary pattern emerged, a dark grey pinwheel.  I also love two different stars that emerge when piecing multiple blocks together - the grey and the orange in this quilt.

I lamented for a while on how I should quilt this beauty.  I knew I needed to do some custom quilting, but what kind of quilting should I do?  I started by echo quilting in the grey stars.  I stitched in the ditch around the blue diamonds and did a 1/4" echo three times within the grey stars. I then did some pebble quilting in the lime background.  I knew I wanted to do a figure eight type design in the blue, but I wasn't sure if I could do it well enough in such a narrow space.  The blue diamonds do measure only about 1/2" wide.

After practicing on some scrap fabric sandwiches, I realized that I could do a figure eight pretty well in the space provided, so I went for it.  I have to say, I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  I really like to practice new quilting designs on scrap quilt sandwiches first before digging into a quilt.  Boy am I glad I did.  The first few tries left me thinking that the blue would either be left unquilted or with a more simple design.  Practice is key because, like I said, I really like how it turned out and that might be my favorite part of the quilting.  I finished up by quilting some radiating straight lines in the orange star points to highlight the motion of the star.

I did change my thread color for each section for four different color threads.  Because of that, the back looks like an awesome whole cloth quilt.  Am I the only one who loves to just run my hands across a finish quilted quilt?  I couldn't stop running my hands over this one. I bound the quilt in a charcoal Kona to really frame the quilt.

Overall, I'm really pleased with how this quilt turned out and it has become one of my new favorite quilts.  Of course, that will probably change when I finish another quilt.

I'll be teaching a class on this quilt on November 18th at Quilter's Way in Concord, MA if you're interested in making your own mini quilt wall hanging or table topper for the holidays.

You can check out the rest of the quilts in the BMQG challenge here. Amazing, aren't they?

Quilt Details:
Finished Size: 24" x 24"
Fabrics Used: Kona Cotton - QuiltCon bundle from Pink Chalk Fabrics
Pattern: Dazzling Diamonds by me!
Machine paper pieced and machine quilted by me using Superior Threads So Fine!
Best Categories: Best Mini Quilt, Wall Quilt, Machine Quilted
Entry #: 78