Flags on a Line Wallhanging

This project was inspired by a mini quilt seen on Flickr. It was made by Krista of Spotted Stones blog. Then she gave it away! 

She used fusible web, but I chose not to.  I also wanted mine to sort of look like the pennants were on a clothesline.  To that end, I used stitching to resemble the clothespins.

It is backed in white and bound with some striped patriotic fabric. I included some tabs for hanging.

This is hanging on my door in time for the nation's birthday!

Gale

Two Finished Baby Quilts

Finished these two last night!  This one is bound with blue.

Backed and bound with white-- fresh from the dryer!

Gale

Pink and Brown Bubbles

I found a remnant with the pink circles at a local fabric superstore.  It did not include the name on the selvedge, so I do not know who made it or what it is called. It was almost a yard-- 32 inches.

I trimmed it to a 32 inch square and then bordered all four sides with the solid pink Kona cotton.  The backing is white Kona cotton.

For the quilting I decided to stitch a swirly circle within each circle printed on the fabric. A line of stitching connects most of the circles.  I chose to continue the swirly circles onto the borders of pink. The quilting is done with white thread.

It is not bound yet. I think this will make an adorable little girl's quilt.

Gale

Feedsack Prints Four Patch

My aunt had some left over four patch blocks from a quilt she is making for a friend. The prints are feedsack reproductions.

The four patch blocks finished up at 4.5 inches, so I looked in my stash for some similar prints and cut 24 squares of the same size. I sewed them together in an alternating pattern.

I found some yellow for the border. I chose yellow because many of the feedsack prints had yellow in them.  This yellow is a little brighter than I like, but at least it is cheerful.

Here it is, pinned and ready to quilt.  The backing is white Kona cotton.

Gale

Finished with the Nostalgia Rail Fence

I had thought to finish this with Kona Ash, but opted instead to use the backing and batting originally intended for the Double Hourglass quilt.  After looking at the pictures of the DH I saw how badly I had laid out the blocks.  I did not realize that they had a specific orientation and the random way I had sewn them together just looked awful.

I had already pinned it and gotten it ready for quilting, but I unpinned it and discovered that the backing and batting were an appropriate size for the Rail Fence top.

The now discarded Double Hourglass top is rolled up and stowed in my scrap bag. Perhaps one day I will have the energy and motivation to unpick the seams and redo it.

The Rail Fence is backed and bound with white and looks great. It finished up at 32x36 inches before washing.

Gale

Rail Fence Quilt Top

This DNP made with Recess fabrics is backed and bound with a chambrey blue cotton. The thread is a dark blue-green color called Lagoon.

I really like how this turned out, even though these are not my favorite fabrics. This will make a good boy's quilt, but could also be used for a girl.

I sewed three honey bun strips together and then added white on either side. The strips were 7 inches wide, so I cut 7 inch squares.  The prints are from a Nostalgia Honey Bun, part of which I used in another quilt.

I chain pieced these squares with a rail fence pattern.  I was inspired by this quilt I saw on Flickr. 

I got a clothesline to hang my quilts for photos, but the only place I had to hang it is in shade most of the time. So the picture is too dark, but you get the idea of the pattern.

There are alot of tan, browns, and khaki tones in these honey bun strips, so I am thinking of backing and bordering it with Kona Ash.  Still not sure about that yet, though.

Man it is hot here in Central Virginia. Where my parents are in the tip-top part of Alaska the high is 42 degrees.  Big difference!

Gale

Works in Progress

He loves to just sit in the sun!

Gale

Inspired by Jaybird's Quilt

Julie of Jaybird Quilts designed this wonderful quilt.  I loved it so much I wanted to try and make one with some of my favorite fabrics-- the Make Life line from Sweetwater.

Julie's version used solid white for the background and used jelly roll strips in a woven raw-edge appliqué.  I used a multicolor print and far fewer strips because I wanted the print in the center to stand out.

I layered batting, the printed background and the jelly roll strips. Then I pinned the jelly roll strips in place and just sewed them down.  Later I added the backing fabric, which is just solid white Kona. 

The center is free motion stippling and the strips are quilted over the same lines as the raw appliqué step.  The machine sewn binding is pieced from additional jelly roll strips, cut in half for a shorter repeat.

After I washed it, there were lots of scruffy threads to cut. That just lends to the soft texture of this quilt.  Thankfully the wrinkles came out and the crinkly goodness came through!

Keeping this one.

Thanks, Julie, for the wonderful inspiration!  Your design skills rock!

Gale

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

My mom and dad are currently on a cross-continental trip, so I won't be seeing Dad this Father's Day.

That's ok, they are having a great trip so far! They even have a blog that Dad updates whenever they find Wifi as they travel.

So, Happy Father's Day, Dad!  I love you!

Gale

p.s. Some of these photos are from Dad's archives and some are from his blog. Thanks, Dad!

Whimsy Stacked Coin Quilt Finished

This finished out at about 44 x 36 inches.

The border, the backing and the binding are all from stash fabric.  I can hardly believe how well that piece of fabric totally matched the tones in this charm pack.

The machine quilting is an all over stipple.  The binding is pieced with left over strips of the "flashcard" yardage and machine sewn.

This one is going to be listed in my Etsy store.

Whimsy Flimsy

One of my tried and true favorite patterns, the stacked coin quilt, made with fabrics from the Whimsy line by Fig Tree and Co.  The solid border is from stash fabric. 

I chain pieced these charm squares on parallel sides and then cut them down the middle. That left me with 40 squares, which I divided into 4 groups of ten.  Each strip of twenty "coins" is divided from its neighbor with yardage from the Whimsy line. 

I love that print with words (from old fashioned reading flashcards.)  I did need to be careful with the directional prints in this line of fabric.  I am very pleased that I was able to find fabric in my stash that matched this line for borders.

I even already pieced my left over strips together into binding!  I still have not decided what the backing will be. 

This will finish out to be a good sized quilt for a baby or child.

Gale 

I Need a Modern Local Quilt Shop

I had a whole list of things I needed from the fabric/quilt shops, so I went into Cville and visited 2 stores.  One was the "real" quilting store and the other was Joann Fabrics. 

The quilting store has lots of repro prints, some kids prints, lots of traditional calico type fabrics, and almost NO modern quilt fabric.  They did have lots of Christmas fabrics. I asked the helpful sales lady if she had any Plume by Tula Pink and she looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language!  She had never heard of that fabric line. 

The only Kona solid they had was Snow (off white) and not what I needed.  This is the second time in as many months I have visited this shop and not been impressed by what they had available.  The inventory is definitely behind the times as far as what is currently being offered by manufacturers. Thank goodness for online sales!

So then I went to Joann's. Now that store gets a bad rap among quilters and sometimes that bad rap is deserved. But not today.

They had 90 inch Kona bright white and the exact Kona bright pink I needed. I also found some Buttercup yellow that I used in my Streets of New York quilt. (I needed more for binding.) I also scored some Kona Coal and Kona Ash.  That guy who let me in front of him at the cutting table was sorry he did so by the time my pile was finished.

I was able to get a bobbin winder on sale.  I needed this because my Janome TB12 has a really tight hand wheel and when I try to disengage the needle to wind a bobbin I cannot turn it. So the bobbin winds while the needle is speeding up and down going nowhere fast.  I do not like it, so bobbin winder to the rescue. Now I can spare the machine's motor and not have to stop and rethread the machine after bobbin winding.

I picked up two queen sized batts of Warm and Wonderful for $15 each.  All in all a good day at the fabric store.  I came home and wound 6 bobbins full of white thread!

I also worked on a stacked coins quilt top, but the pictures I took came out lousy. I am going to have to iron the flimsy before photographing it again. Maybe tomorrow.

Gale

Plume Whirlygig Quilt Top

Here is a link to a picture of other whirlygig quilts which inspired me to try out this pattern.

Using templates purchased from Pleasant Home and her tutorial I made this whirlygig quilt top.  I picked out my fabrics from 2 Plume charm packs and some hot pink Kona cotton. I chose charm squares that would coordinate with the background color, reserving other charm squares in different palettes for other projects.

Each whirlygig block requires 2 charm squares cut in half using the #5 template and 4 pieces of the hot pink fabric cut with the #6 template. The cutting of the fabric using the template was just as easy as using a ruler and rotary cutter to make cuts.

Putting these blocks together was pretty fiddly. I had to constantly refer to the photos in the tutorial to make sure I was laying out and sewing the pieces correctly. Once each block was done I was supposed to iron and square them up, but I chose not to do that step. 

I laid out the 20 blocks in a 4x5 array and chain pieced them together. Each block is roughly 8 inches square.  Mostly I used random placement, making sure that no two adjacent blocks were the same.  This could finish up into a good sized baby quilt or I may add to it to make it a throw for an adult.  Have not decided yet how this will end up. 

Love the vibrant colors and love how the pattern came out so well. Using the templates gave me blocks that were very easy to sew by matching up the seams. I used to not give a flying fig about seams matching, but now I like it better when they do.

Two things I learned while making this quilt top-- I love working with acrylic templates like these. Might have to look into getting others in the future. Also, I need to stop sewing before I am so tired of sewing that I do not care if my seam allowance is even.  I get in a hurry to be done and get careless. I need to give myself permission to not finish in one marathon sewing session and then I will spare myself careless mistakes that I need to fix later.

Gale

Look What Came In The Mail!

Tufted Tweets by Laurie Wisbrun for Robert Kaufman fabrics.

Obtained from Sew Fresh Fabrics on Etsy.

Love these prints!  So much!

Gale

Retirement Quilt for a Friend

I began this quilt as a baby sized quilt on Sunday. It was made from Half Moon by Moda charm squares. The black and white prints are way cool!  The blocks are sliced Nine Patches and then individually framed in white sashing.

Once I decided to finish this into a good sized lap quilt for my retiring teacher friend, I found some more black and white prints at a local fabric shop.  I bought a half yard of four different prints and cut them into 5 inch wide strips.  Then I pieced about half of the strips together and used this to add borders to all four sides.

The machine quilting is stippling with white thread.

For the back, I pieced the left over strip of border fabrics into the center of the white fabric.  It adds some interest to an otherwise plain backing.  The binding is white Kona cotton and is machine sewn.

I am very happy with how these prints complement the prints in the Half Moon charm pack.  I am going to have to order some more of these Half Moon prints and make one of these for myself!

My friend was happy to receive it.  I was happy to make it for her! (Barbara, enjoy your retirement!)

Gale