Filled With Love

This quilt has been a long time in the making. I began this sometime in the summer of 2014, while I was in graduate school, so my quilting was limited at that time. I finished the top last spring (spring 2015) and it sat around for a while as I contemplated how to quilt it. I was in love with the quilt top and wanted to make sure the quilting was just as awesome.

After sitting around for a while, I threw the quilt on my longarm and just went for it. As Angela Walters says, "finished is better than perfect." The quilting isn't perfect, but I just love it. I definitely need to practice my stitch in the ditch skills, but I know that will get better with time.

I started quilting the white background first and then moved onto the gray diamonds followed by the colorful stars last. I didn't know what I was going to do, but each step of the way, with the desire to get the quilt finished, I just picked something and went with it.

The best thing? I don't regret any of my quilting designs and can't pick a favorite. People often ask me how I pick a quilting design, and I always let people know that my goal is always to pick a quilting motif that compliments the quilt top. Every quilting decision should be intentional.

The pattern I used for this quilt is my free Prism Dust quilt block pattern. I used primarily Michael Miller Cotton Couture with a couple of Art Gallery Pure Elements mixed in. The thread is So Fine #50, and yes I changed thread for each gray and each colored star. The batting is Quilters Dream Cotton Select. 

Dazzling Diamonds Remix

Three years ago now I taught a class for my Dazzling Diamonds quilt pattern. Instead of making it on solids like my original pattern, I made this one in some prints to go with the colors of my guest bedroom.

I'm really not sure why it took me this long to finish this quilt, because I really do love it. This is still one of my favorite quilt patterns I've designed over the years. I love that there are so many different layout options for this quilt, making it so versatile.

This quilt finishes at 24" square and is now hanging in my guest bedroom. I picked these colors specifically for this bedroom, with it's blue walls and pink and green accents.

I machine quilted this on my longarm and found inspiration from a recent Craftsy class - Angela Walters' Dot to Dot quilting. I had quilted the white and blue already before that class but decided to use one of her quilting techniques to do the green points here. I really love how it came out and will definitely use this design again. I had toyed with pebbling the pink, but it became clear that with the pattern, it would be difficult for any pattern to show up, so I just echoed around the diamonds.

I'm not sure if this new quilt will become a favorite over the original, but they're both pretty awesome in my opinion. I can look back at this original all the time and just smile.

If you ever come stay with me at my house, your guest room will now how two lovely quilts hanging in it. You can see my Twirling Trellis quilt hanging in the mirror here with some great complementary colors to it. 

A little Rusty

Last week I finally put a quilt on my Handi Quilter frame to start quilting. I've got a massive backlog of quilt tops that need quilting. Now that I've graduated (yay!), I can finally spend some free time quilting some of these quilts.

To start and get back into the swing of things, I loaded this mini quilt based on my Dazzling Diamonds pattern on the frame to practice with.

A while back, I snapped this photo above. One of the things I love about paper piecing is that I can sketch out a few quilting ideas on the back of the quilt before I take the paper off.

Unfortunately, I discovered that my quilting skills are a bit rusty. I started doing that back and forth in the white, but I hated how it was turing out. I just couldn't get it to look right, so I ripped it out, twice. I then turned to my trusted loop quilting and liked that. I'm done with the white and started to move onto the blue, but I'm having tension issues. I'll rewind a bobbin sometime this week and will give it another go since I think the bobbin I'm using wasn't wound tight enough. I've got more unpicking to do to take the blue out, but fortunately it's all loose on the bottom, so it should go quick before I dive back in. 

So this happened...

I spent Saturday at the New England Quilt Festival, formerly MQX. I forgot my camera, but I did post a couple of pics to Instagram of some of the quilts. The show features more traditional quilts, but with some phenomenal machine quilting that any quilter can admire. The vendors didn't have a ton of modern fabric, and I only came away with a couple of yards of fabric from Sew Fresh Fabric. 

I did come away with a new toy though... 

I had been thinking about buying a long arm for a little while now, and after test driving a bunch of brands, I narrowed my search down to Gammill and Handi Quilter. I spent quite a bit of time at both booths at the show, test driving the machines again and talking to the folks in the booth about the machines. 

I really liked both of them and probably would have been happy with either, but ended up going with Handi Quilter for several reasons. First, they had a REALLY good deal going on. Second, the rep and repair folks I would be working with were out of a shop I'm familiar with and have a good reputation for machine repair. Third, the Avante had a more flexible table. With Gammill, I could only set up the table to one size and that would be it forever. With HQ, I could set the table up at 4', 6' or 10' and can buy additional 2' sections if I needed it. 

So, I have to wait for this to ship to the store and for them to set it up, so I likely won't be able to play with it for a few weeks. So expect to see me practicing on a bunch of panels and the like. I have a bunch of old quilt tops that have yet to be quilted that I'm sure I'll practice on as well. 

WIP Wednesday: Mod Hex 2 Quilted

This week I finished the final stitch in my Mod Hex 2 quilt.

I still need to make and attach the binding, but overall, I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Once again I did a concentric circle quilting design, which I really love.

I really want to use something from my stash for the binding, but I'm not sure I have anything that goes with this. These aren't the typical colors I work in - they're much more earthy than I'm used to.

WIP Wednesday: Machine Quilting

It's not uncommon for me to make a quilt top and leave it unfinished for a decent amount of time. Hoping to break that habit a bit, I decided to piece the back and begin quilting my Mod Hex 2 quilt.

And after the spiral quilting I did on my Sunrise Delight quilt, I knew I wanted to do the same quilting on this quilt.

The center is the hardest part because you practically take one or two stitches before turning the quilt. That's the one part that I could really use some additional practice at.  The rest of the quilting, I think, looks really good.

Once you get going, and out of the very center, it starts to quilt up pretty quick.

But then it slows down a bit when you get to the outside of the quilt, when it takes longer to make a full circle.  This is how far I got after two hours of quilting.  I'd estimate I have another two to three hours left to go on this baby.  

One Block Wonder Progress

I finally got around to quilting my One Block Wonder quilt as part of my February goal to complete a project.  This has also been on my to-quilt list for the Boston MQG WIP challenge. I made the top back in 2008 and its just been sitting around, waiting to be finished.

The quilt top just didn't lay flat, but I managed to quilt most of that out and I am pleased to say that this quilt actually lays pretty flat now.

This is the back that I made.  I don't usually make pieced backings, but I wanted to showcase the floral print on the back that was used to make the front of the quilt.  It's fun to see what the fabric looked like before it was chopped up and transformed into what you see on the front.

I quilted it using Angela Walters' flower design using a green So Fine! thread.  I'm really pleased with how the quilting turned out.

Now I need to pick out a fabric to use for the binding and finish this baby off.  I'm hopeful to have it done in the next few days.  

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. 

Making Progress

Well, with the holidays, I've only managed 30 minutes here, 15 minutes there, and the occasionally hour over the past couple of weeks to continue quilting my modern hexagon quilt.  I just have two corners to go to finish quilting before I'm ready to make the binding and finish this one!

Sometimes I get these crazy ides, like pebbling an entire quilt in metalic thread several years ago.  For this quilt, I decided to echo 1/4" lines on the outside of the hexagons.  Yup, crazy! It's taking a while, but it's looking good.

It goes well with the quilting in the hexagons and the alternating width echoing in the center.

I just have two more corners left to complete and one hexagon.  I just received the thread for the last hexagon in the mail on Monday, so I can finally get that one completed.

I think it looks awesome from the back!  I love the rainbow effect that various thread colors make in the hexagons.

Now, maybe things will get back to a level of normal and I can get some quilts completed!

WIP Wednesday: More Quilting

Man this time of year is busy.  I've only had a few hours to do some quilting this week.  On Friday I hosted a sew-in for the BMQG at my house and managed to bury the threads in my hexagon quilt and sketch out some various quilting designs, where I finally decided what I wanted to quilt them with.

On Sunday, I finally managed to sit down and begin quilting them.  Here's a shot of one of the hexagons from Instagram.

Here's another close up shot of one of the hexagons.

Here's a picture of the back.  You can see that I'm using matching thread for each of the hexagons, so you get this cool, muted rainbow on the back as well.  I have three hexagons left before I move onto the final background and get this quilt completed. I'm just waiting on some thread to finish it off.

Here's a closer picture of the back.  You can see that I stitched in the ditch around the outside of the hexagon and then quilted the intersecting lines before doing the dense back and forth triangle.  Overall, I'm really happy with how this is turning out.  It's just taking a while. I'm not sure when I'll be able to sit down next, between holiday parties, work and other social engagements, it doesn't look like I'll get much sewing in this month.

WIP Wednesday: Some Machine Quilting

Last night I got to work quilting my modern hexagon quilt.

I like to start in the center of the quilt to avoid puckering in the middle.  So, I drew a bunch of lines on the center portion of the quilt and started quilting.  I alternated between 1/4" and 1/2" between the echoed lines.

It took me a couple of hours to get this much done.  (Ignore the threads I need to bury.)  I really like how it came out.  It's cool how the echoed hexagons turn into a star as the pattern gets progressively smaller.  Now I need to figure out what I'm going to do in the white sashing and the hexagons. 

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. 

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!