Friday, September 11, 2015

Green Bay Packers Quilt

Whew I made it! I finished my modern Green Bay Packers quilt just in time for the first game of the season. Green and gold fabrics are Cotton and Steel basics; I would use them again for another Packers quilt.


This football quilt was one of the most challenging quilts I've ever completed! I'd put it in the modern sampler category with the different sized blocks, asymmetry and traditional blocks combined with improv blocks.


I really like the football blocks - I didn't have a pattern but I was inspired by cluck cluck sew's Touchdown pattern so I just winged it. I also added one great big Swoon block, starburst blocks, and letters from the Spell it with Moda tutorials which are all over the place on the internet and sort of tricky to find. The rest of the blocks are random improv or simple pinwheels, HSTs and hourglass blocks. The flying geese blocks were made with the Quilt in a Day ruler in 4 and 8 inch blocks - this is the first time I have used the ruler following the instructions - boy did that make ALL the difference! I can't see using anything else for flying geese... I must acquire all sizes of the ruler now. Crisp points every time!


The tiny cross block is 3 inches finished, very small pieces in that block! I went with straight line quilting every 1 1/4 inches in a gold colored Mettler thread. Since I backed the quilt in chocolate colored minky I wanted something that would't give my machine lots of trouble due to the impending deadline. I also did a scrappy binding in solid green and gold fabrics. It measures 55x57 - great size for game day


Although I truly hate to part with it I decided to donate this quilt to Shorewood Cocker Rescue annual fundraiser this weekend in southern Wisconsin. The chocolate backing goes great with the footballs and also our beautiful foster Mya, who has been with us since May of this year waiting for her forever home!


We have a very busy weekend planned - Rescue fundraiser on Saturday, football on Sunday and today is my birthday so celebrating of course! Wine, cake and yummy food I hope! My hubby brought home an orange flower arrangement with gerbera daisies, roses, sunflowers, lilies and other things I can only identify as very pretty so we are off to a good start!


This quilt is an adventure and most definitely one of my favorite quilts of the year!

Link Parti's 


Take a look at the linki parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to Whoop Whoop Friday What a Hoot! Sew Cute Tuesday Quilt Story My Quilt Infatuation and crazy mom quilts

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Sunday Swoon

I finally made a swoon block!


I guess you can also tell it's football time in Wisconsin!!  We love our Packers!


I have been working forever on this quilt top and finally finished it up yesterday, which felt really amazing! My initial plan was to make a quilt to donate to an upcoming fundraiser for the Cocker Spaniel Rescue that my hubby and I volunteer for. Not sure where it is going to end up since the event is coming up in just a couple of weeks. I didn't plan on all of the planning time that would go into this quilt. Lots of math and graph paper and pondering.... Sometimes I would head down to sew and just move things around on my design wall for awhile... no sewing.


I tried to keep most of the blocks to dimensions of 3 inches. The footballs, letters and flying geese were oddballs... in other words, lots of oddballs to work around! Borders are always the answer! The block above is a 6 inch starburst.


Almost all of the fabrics are Cotton and Steel. I'm really like the metallic and little bird fabrics - although the star in the corner was really bright for the photo, jeesh! This is one of the loudest quilts I've ever made but I'm really happy with how it has turned out so far!


Love the tiny string blocks on the side - great use for all of the scraps I made with this quilt. The letters are from the Spell it with Moda free tutorials. I'm planning straight line quilting and a football brown minky backing to pull it all together. It should be super warm for game days!

Link Parti's 


Take a look at the linki parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to Sew Cute Tuesday Sew Fresh Quilts Freshly Pieced My Quilt Infatuation Whoop Friday crazy mom quilts and Quilt Story 

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Sea Monster Baby Quilt

It has been awhile since I shared the flimsy for this baby boy quilt. I usually quilt up my finished tops right away. July was crazy so this one was folded up and neatly stashed away until everything calmed down a bit around here. I'm not quite ready to bid farewell to summer just yet though... then again we do have football to look forward to!  This quilt was featured at My Quilt Infatuation Blossom Heart Quilts and Quilt Story!!


I used a tutorial by cluck cluck sew called Scrappy Summer. I have seen this pattern referred to Penny Patch as well.


It was a great scrap busting project and I made it a little larger than I usually make my baby quilts because these blocks were fun to do and before I knew it I had a few too many! I used a palette of orange, navy, blue, grey and mustard along with Kona White for the the four-patch blocks. I love when I don't have to buy anything new to finish a quilt! Not that I mind buying fabric!


I quilted it in a meandering pattern using a variegated light grey thread from my Tula Pink Aurifil collection. Then bound it all together with a spotty mustard and white binding. I don't always wash my quilts after they are finished but I couldn't help but want to see this one all crinkled up! The crinkle factor is one of the main reason I love to use meandering even though meandering is tricky for my brain. I love how fluffy and snuggly it turned out. The backing was just the right choice so thanks to those who shared opinions in my last post about this quilt!


The constellation fabric above glows in the dark! I didn't have a particular little guy in mind for this quilt but I do remember my own kiddo loving glow in the dark anything! Just to be sure it worked I did take this into a closet and 'oooh and aaahh' over the glowing fabric yesterday! Plus there are monsters - sea monsters!!


I would absolutely use this baby quilt pattern again. My finished quilt is around 37x48 and is available in my etsy shop for some sea creature, outer space loving little guy or little guy at heart!


Link Parti's 


Take a look at the linki parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to Sew Fresh Quilts Sew Cute Tuesday Quilt Story LAFF Whoop Whoop Friday Quilt Matters crazy mom quilts and My Quilt Infatuation