This Way Up

I've been doing a whole lot of running and working lately, which means I haven't had as much time for quilting as I'd like. But with the weather getting colder and with less daylight to be had, I've been able to sneak in more quilting time this fall. With that, I was able to complete a few quilts recently, including my "This Way Up" quilt.

This is the fourth quilt I've completed in my flying geese series. I really love this quilt and had a ton of fun making it. From picking the colors in the ombre effect within the arrow to the grays and even the thread, which is a light Aurifil gray (2600). I always go with a lighter color thread if I'm using it across many types of fabric of varying value. When you get down to the black and charcoal gray it almost looks like sashiko on a smaller scale as a result.

I paper pieced each block, which really isn't a surprise to anyone at this point. I quilted it on my domestic this time around with stitches a half an inch apart except within the one large teal triangle. That one has one quarter inch stitching to make it stand out a little.

The quilt finishes at 45" long and 41" high. It was made using Kona solids and pieced/quilted with Aurifil 2600 thread in a 50wt. The batting is Quilter's Dream Orient, which gives the quilt a really nice drape. 

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. 

Twister Quilt Finished!

This weekend I finished putting the binding on my twister quilt.

I love the way it came out.  I used two It's a Hoot charm packs for the twister portion.  I then used coordinating fabric for the binding and backing.  The white around the outside of the quilt is a Kona white.

I quilted this little quilt on either side of the horizontal and vertical seams.  I was trying to think of some way to play off the twisting pinwheels, and realized that with this type of quilting, the quilting would go through the long point of every pinwheel.

 I love this mini quilt.  I think it would be a perfect baby quilt.  I know so many people having babies this year, so who knows, it could wind up being for one of them.

I can see myself making more of these twister quilts in the future.  They come together so quickly and look great.

Another Mini Quilt Quilted

2012 seems to be the year of the mini quilt for me so far.  I have several in various stages, most recently this Hawaiian inspired applique mini quilt.

I bought the laser-cut applique piece at MQX East last year and prepped this top when I was sewing machine-less.  This weekend I finally got it quilted.  I wanted to quilt it with an echo quilting, but knew that would be difficult given all of the curves.  I decided to quilt it with an uneven, wonky echo quilting instead to have the same look but with a twist.

Now to decide what to bind this in.  I'm still in the middle of binding my giant Frolic quilt.  I have about 300 more inches to go, so the binding on this one might have to wait a few weeks. 

Back from Retreat

I'm back from the annual BMQG Retreat up in Kennebunk Maine. I had a great time and got a TON of stuff done.  I'll share some of the projects I worked on or finished (that I can talk about) this week.

On the way up we stopped at three quilt stores and did a little shopping.  I was very reserved on my purchases and only bought a few things.  (My purchase on the way back and Mardens, a discount fabric store, is another story.)

Here we are in our work room.  There were 14 of us and we each had our own table for our machine.  There were lots of lights for us to use and a cutting station.  There were two ironing boards and irons, and we set up a few additional ironing stations for everyone to use.  We also had three design walls where were often occupied with many great quilts in progress.

Lots of folks brought food.  Emily brought homemade fig newtons, I brought raspberry goat cheese brownies, chips, fruit, cookies, crackers, etc. also made an appearance. 

Aimee gave a demo on how to use the twister ruler to make pinwheel quilts.

After, KK and I walked a nearby beach that I vacationed at for 15 years growing up.  It was windy but beautiful out.  I actually turned the AC on in my car for the first time this year.  I don't think I've ever had the AC on in the middle of March up here in New England.  Crazy!

All in all, I had a great time.  It was great spending time with the members of the guild and getting to know them more. I got a lot accomplished quilting wise too, an added bonus.

Yes, I'm Still Here

Phew, it seems like it's been forever since I last sat down in front of my sewing machine.  Maybe that's because it's been since the end of March!  YIKES!!!  I just returned from Las Vegas last week from my company's major trade show which was consuming a bit of my time.  Now that it's behind me, I can really get back into the swing of things. 

First things first, I must clean up my quilting room.  It's an absolute mess!!!  I can't get motivated to do ANYTHING until I get this room cleaned up. 

After that, finish quilting the last row of blocks on my Eva quilt.I've got the first four rows done, I just need to finish the fifth. 

Once done with that I can get back to working on some of my other projects including the Storm at Sea quilt for my parents, the multiple BOMs that I need to finish, and more. 

I hope to have more fun posts to come with some action in my quilting.  It seems like forever.  I miss it.

Quilting Eva

As you probably noticed in my post yesterday, I have a quilt on my machine being quilted.  It's my Eva "package" quilt as I've been calling it since I think the pattern looks like packages all wrapped up in ribbon.  Here are a few closeups of the quilting so far.

The pattern I'm doing is swirls and flowers.  If you look closely you can see some of the flowers. 

I'm about a 1/4 of the way through quilting this and I've already gone through 3 bobbins.  This isn't a large quilt either, it's just a lap quilt. And for those wondering, I decided to use a King Tut thread by Superior Thread for this quilt and I'm liking the way things are coming out.

I was battling a cold all last week, so I didn't get much work done, but I hope to spend some time working on completing this top this week and next.  Hopefully it works up fast.

Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year.  I took some time off of work and stepped away from the blog for a little while as well.  We were supposed to go to Mexico but the blizzard here in New England put an end to that plan and we weren't able to get out.  So, we made the best of it and did stuff around our area. 

I wanted to recap all of my accomplishments in 2010 as we move into 2011.  I think I was able to get a lot of projects accomplished last year.  It was certainly my most productive year of quilting to date.

I finished my Bento Box quilt!

I made this Blooming Nine Patch for my cousin's wedding. 

I made a bathroom curtain for our guest bathroom (no picture).

Made a baby blanket, bumper, and set of curtains for my friend's nursery.

Made my first bag using Pat Bravo's Milano kit. 

Finished my Wonderland quilt.

Finished my Figgy Pudding quilt.

Made a mini quilt for the NEMQG holiday mini quilt challenge.

Made my first pincushion for the NEMQG pincushion swap. 

I also made two camera straps for my sister and father for Christmas and made a few picnic roll-ups for my Mom for Christmas which I haven't uploaded a photo of to my computer yet. 

All in all, I think I had a great year quilting wise and look forward to accomplishing even more in 2011. 

Mystery Quilt

A few months ago, my aunt (my quilting buddy) and I decided to do our own mystery quilt.  We had originally wanted to take a class somewhere but couldn't find any that we really liked, so we decided to do something ourselves.

We decided that we would each pick a pattern and an inspirational fabric for the other person to use.  We would then type out the step-by-step directions that we would give to the other person as we moved along.  We'd then meet up at one of our favorite quilt stores, present the inspirational fabric to the other person along with the fabric requirements.  In the end, the quilt that we were making would be given back to the person who picked the pattern and fabric.  (I'd keep the one we made if I had to choose next time.)

We really enjoyed doing the mystery quilt.  It was fun not knowing what you were making and seeing it evolve over time.  It was also fun seeing how the other person was interpreting the directions I provided and how they were picking the fabric.  It was obvious that we would each have picked different fabrics and where we placed 

the fabrics if we knew the design. 

As you can see with the photo below, I would have placed the colors differently, especially the yellow.  The inspirational fabric that was given to me was the border.  It was a step out of my comfort zone since I usually pick more modern/funky fabrics instead of the flowery, more traditional fabric.