Criss Cross Quilt

Last weekend I was rushing to finish this quilt so I could enter it in Quilter's Way's color challenge for the month of June.  

The pattern layout was a bit different than how I finished this quilt. I decide to pair the fabrics from the challenge bundle and create six blocks. The original pattern was much more random, but I wanted to make it a bit more structured. 

The pattern was pretty easy to construct. Just a bunch of squares and triangles. 

I machine quilted this on the longarm using an all over square and straight line meander. 

You can really see the texture in this shot, which I love. 

I decided to bind this quilt in Kona Lipstick. I wanted a different color for the binding and thought a nice, bright red would be the perfect compliment to the rest of the colors. 

I used Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen in Steel for the backing, which blends nicely with the So Fine! gray thread that I used for the quilting. 

This quilt finishes at 48" x 72"and was made using a solid fat quarter bundle pulled by Quilter's Way and an RJR solid for the background.

A Finish LONG in the Making

Well, I finally did it. I finished one of my oldest UFO's!

I started this quilt more than eight years ago. I took an introductory class on paper piecing and made one of the blocks in this quilt. The colors of the block were inspired by the border fabric.

In the class, we made just one block, but I fell in love with paper piecing and just had to make another eight blocks to make this quilt.

What got me motivated to finish this quilt? My new longarm! This quilt top had been sitting in the closet of my studio for years. When I got the longarm, I wanted to try some quilting on an actual quilt, not just some scrap fabric. This quilt seemed like the perfect one.

For starters, it was my first paper pieced quilt, which I've grown to love the technique. My technique wasn't the best and I can point out MANY flaws, so it felt like a good quilt to practice on. Second, while I will always like this quilt, it's not totally my style any more. I can't remember the last time I put a border on a quilt. The fabrics are more traditional than I like now too.

The only fabric I can identify now is the binding, which I just added this week - a BasicGrey Origins fabric left over from my storm at sea quilt I made recently.

I am VERY happy to have this quilt finally f

Mod Hex 2 - Finished

Last week I put the finishing touches on my Mod Hex 2 quilt. Before work this week I swung by a local park and snagged some great pictures of this quilt. I love how the early morning light hits the quilt in some of these pictures.

I made this quilt using the Hex N More ruler for a class I taught at Quilter's Way.

This picture really shows the true colors of the fabrics. I love the lighting here.

I made this quilt using a Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle from the Fat Quarter Shop put together by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Fransson!  I added a solid off white fabric from my stash for the background.

After much debate, I ended up binding this quilt using the perfect Flea Market Fancy print. When I finally pulled this print from my stash, I couldn't believe I didn't think of it sooner. I was determined to use a print from my stash, and because these aren't my normal colors, I was struggling with it. Once I pulled this print, I knew it was meant to be.

As you can see in a bunch of these pictures, I used one of my new favorite quilting designs - a spiraling circle. I used my walking foot to maintain even spacing. I drew a small circle in the middle and just moved out from there. This quilt finishes at around 46" square.

I'm really happy with how this turned out and I'm even more happy to have it finished! 

Pinwheel Party

I can officially call this quilt - Pinwheel Delight - finished! It was my goal to finish this one as part of A Lovely Year of Finishes, and I'm happy to report that my goal was met.

This isn't my usual color pallet - especially the mustard yellow. I am in love with this color pallet and might just need to make another one of these for myself. Or make another quilt in these same colors.

This quilt will be shipped off to my partner in the Modern She Made Swap this weekend. I'll be sad to see it go, but know it will be going to a good home. I've been a part of this swap since round one and have been impressed with the items created by the folks participating. There's always a catch - some element we need to incorporate into our items. This round we needed to include a star somewhere in our item.

I designed this block a while ago, so when the theme of stars was announced, I knew I wanted to make this quilt. I really love all of the secondary designs that are formed when you put multiple blocks together.

Overall, I'm really happy with how this turned out. All of the fabrics were from my stash but include: Kona Cotton, Quilters Linen, Oval Elements and Curious Nature.

I kept the quilting quite simple given the complexity of the front. Because so many pieces meet in one place at times, sewing over those areas would likely have resulted in a broken needle. You can really see the quilting on the back.

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

Finish Friday: Madrona Road Challenge Quilt

This week I finished my Madrona Road challenge quilt.  I mentioned earlier that this quilt doesn't really match the style of quilts that I usually make - very much planned and in jewel tones.  I knew early on that the colors of the fabrics would be perfect for my basement, which I redid last year in a grey and yellow color scheme.

I had originally planned to make a paper pieced pattern featuring flying geese around the big yellow flowers, like I have as the center of these blocks.  But, I recently got a new computer and the old program I use to design my patterns wasn't compatible with my new one.  Onto plan B.

I used almost every last inch of five of the fabrics provided.  I decided not to use one print because it just didn't quite fit with the vision I had in my head.

Each quilt block finishes at 9" square.  I added five additional solids - four grays, a white and a baby blue to the Madrona Road fabrics.

I quilted this quilt with a bunch of straight lines 1/4" apart.  While most people would use their walking foot for this, I tend to just use my normal 1/4" foot when I'm quilting straight lines.  I find I have more control with my smaller 1/4" foot than a big walking foot.

For the back, I used an old Patrick Loose print that I've had in my stash for what seems like forever.  I bound the quilt in what is becoming my go-to for binding - Kona Charcoal.

You can check out more challenge quilts and projects in the MQG Madrona Road Challenge Flickr group.

Quilt Stats:
Size: 27" x 27"
Fabrics: Madrona Road and Kona Cotton
Thread: Pieced with Aurifil 50wt, Quilted with So Fine! #50 #508
Batting: Warm and Natural

Finish Friday: Modern Hexagon Quilt

This week I put the finishing touches on my Modern Hexagon quilt.  The quilting took a while, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It's one of my favorite quilts right now, but that's often the case when I finish a labor of love.

I used the Hex N More ruler to make the quilt top.

I echo quilted in the grey, at varying widths in the center and 1/4" apart on the outside.  Why I quilted 1/4" apart on the biggest part of the quilt, I'm not sure.  Sometimes I get ideas in my head and don't really think them through.  This was one of them.  It probably took me a good 15 hours to quilt this quilt over several weeks.

The back looks awesome and almost as good as the front.  I love how the hexagons stand out and you can see the rainbow effect from the different color threads in each hexagon.

I stitched in the ditch around the hexagons and did some dense quilting to highlight the hexagons.  The way it's quilted makes it look like the hexagons are made of six pieces of fabric when in fact they are just two pieces (for the colored parts that is).

The quilt finishes at 40" square.  I used various So Fine! and Aurifil threads for the quilting.  The solids are Kona cottons - white and Iron.  The prints are from various lines including Simply Color, Quilt Blocks, Cuzco, Good Fortune and more.

I will be teaching this quilt and the technique I used at Quilter's Way in Acton sometime soon.  I'll let everyone know when we have set a date for the class. 

Finish Friday: HST Baby Quilt

Last weekend I quilted and made the binding for a baby quilt so that I could hand sew the binding down and have something to do if I lost power with Sandy.  Well, I lost power around 7pm on Monday, about 5 minutes after I finished cooking dinner - talk about great timing.

So, I did what any quilter would do.  I set myself up on the couch, propped a flashlight on my chest and spent a couple of hours sewing the binding on. It certainly took longer doing it by flashlight, but it sure beat the alternative of sitting around doing not much of anything.

It's finished in a nice, soft flannel print that matches the colors on the front.

I quilted this one pretty simple; I echo quilted around all of the seams, horizontal, vertical and diagonal. Just a 1/4" on either side on the seam.  Simple but effective. If you study the quilt closely, no print was used more than once on this quilt, so it's kind of like an "I spy" quilt in that respect.

To make the HST's, all I did was take a bunch of 5" squares, draw a line on the diagonal and sew on either side of the line to create two squares.  I then trimmed up the squares to 4.5" square before piecing everything together.

I went back and forth on what to do for the binding and finally settled on a red print from my stash.  I think it is from the "Fresh" line by Deb Strain. I really love how it adds another pop of color to the quilt.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  I'm looking forward to washing this and seeing it become all soft and crinkly.  I used two layers of 100% cotton batting to give it an extra soft, plush feel.


And a reminder... it's time to nominate your favorite quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I'd love it if you nominated and voted for my Dazzling Diamonds quilt - Quilt #78!

Friday FInish - Hawaiian Mini

I finished sewing the binding to the back of my Hawaiian Mini quilt this week.

I think it will make a nice addition to my quilting room wall.

The applique is laser cut.  I bought it at MQX last year and finally finished it a few days before heading back to MQX this year.

I love the way the quilting shows up on the back.  I also finished this mini with a couple of triangle flaps to hold a dowel.  I seriously need to get to Michael's to get some dowels to hang these. 

This makes five finishes for me for the year and it's only mid-April.  That's just one less than I had for all of last year.  I guess I was just preparing to finish everything last year.  This year is apparently the year of finishing those projects off.