Nest Quilt Top

I have been hoarding four Tula Pink Nest charm packs for what seems like an eternity. I never touched them because I hadn't found the right pattern.  So many of the charm pack patterns chop up the fabric until you can no longer recognize the larger prints.

After seeing a pattern in the book, We Love Color, I decided to modify it a bit.  I altered the size to work with a charm pack, removed and altered a few other elements to create the quilt top you see here. I can safely say I'm in love with this quilt.

I used Kona Champagne to outline the charm squares and Kona Chocolate for the background.  Champaign and chocolate really do make a great combination, in real life and in this quilt, don't 'cha think?

The quilt top finishes at 97" x 67" and is one of the bigger quilts I've made in a little while.  I'm not sure how I'm going to quilt it just yet, so I'll move onto quilting a few other tops that I do know how I want to quilt first.

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

Dazzling Diamonds Finished

Last weekend I finished quilting and binding my Dazzling Diamonds quilt for the Boston Modern Quilt Guild's mini quilt challenge at the Lowell Quilt Festival.  You can read all about how I designed this quilt here.

I'm REALLY pleased with how it came out.  This might be my best machine quilting work thus far. It's also, easily, one of my favorite quilts, although I feel like that's claiming you have a favorite child. 

See what I mean?  It's far from show-quality machine quilting, but I still think it's awesome. 

Before I got to work on machine quilting this, I used a printed version of the quilt and tested some designs for each different section.  I tried a bunch of combinations and settled on what you see above and below as my first choice.  I also had a second choice for each section.  Why?  Because I needed to see if I could actually quilt what I wanted to.  Sure I've done straight lines before, and pebbles.  But I needed to make sure I could quilt the pebbles on such a small square.  It was also my first time doing the figure-eight quilting motif.  By planning, I was able to relieve some of the stress that I associate with free motion quilting.  I was able to practice the quilting on some scrap fabric and batting before jumping to the quilt.

I really love how the back of the quilt came out.  I love when you can tell what the quilt pattern is by looking at the quilting from the back.  As usual, I used just one fabric on the back as opposed to a pieced back.  While I love the look of some pieced backs to quilts, I have always preferred to use a single fabric for the back.  In this case, I think it really shows off the quilting.

I will say that over the past year, my confidence in my machine quilting skills has grown exponentially.  Practicing really does help, and I've been practicing for quite some time now.  One of the things I love about quilting is the ability to try something new and move out of my comfort zone.  Last year I really spent some time learning needle turn applique.  This year I've really honed my machine quilting skills.

The fabrics are all Kona solids and the thread is all So Fine! by Superior Threads. I love the way So Fine! thread blends with the fabric but you can still see the quilting details.  It's one of my favorites. 

Mini Feather Quilt Finished!

I finally finished putting the binding on my mini feather whole cloth quilt last night.

 Here it is hanging up in our guest bathroom above our medicine cabinet.

Here it is before I sewed the binding down. 

I used a silver metallic thread by Superior Threads to do all of the quilting.  My machine quilting is FAR from perfect, but I think I've come a long way from when I started. 

All in all, this was a fun, QUICK, mini quilt to make.  I could see myself making another one in the future.