Friday, January 30, 2015

Off Site Photo Shoot

And she's finished! This cute quilt deserved an amazing photo shoot. I've been eyeing up this place in my neighborhood for some time thinking it would make a great background. I think yes! The lighting was just right, my hubby was holding the quilt in just the right way and mostly following my instructions. This morning's photo shoot - major fail. Glad I got to finish up this Friday on a good note!


I followed my gut for the binding and went with the teal and white pin dot fabric; in my last post about this quilt I was pondering some other options. It looks so perfect with the backing I have no idea why I was considering something else.


These little polka dot feathers get me every time. The quilt measures 35x41, a perfect size for a crib quilt. I have listed silly strings in my etsy shop. I couldn't be happier with this quilt!


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 crazy mom quiltsRichard and Tanya Quilts Sew Can She Sew Cute Tuesday Quilt Story My Quilt Infatuation and Whoop Whoop Friday

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Silly String Quilt In Progress

Just before the New Year I started a 'leader and ender' project using up a few pink and teal strips from other projects.


After a lot of hmming and hawing and moving pieces around I finally decided on a layout. An original design, yay! I shall call it Silly String. Just because.


I selected a cute print from Life is Tweet by Stephanie Marrot, for the backing and basted it. These polka dot feathers are so cute! The lime and purple give the quilt a little more color too.


And then wouldn't ya' know I couldn't make up my mind how to quilt it. At all! I even took to instagram to get some insta-feedback! Still nothing. I've never had a quilt sit and sit just starting at me for days before....  Phht. Last night I had a few minutes and thought darn it, I'm just going to meander this thing and get it off my floor.... I seriously need some meandering practice anyways!


Not too bad - hardly any square loops this time! I had purchased a Supreme Slider from Amazon and used it for the first time on this quilt. Wow, I have been missing out - no wonder I had square loops, I haven't been able to move my fabric very well. It's hard to know the difference until you quilt with it and without it. I had initially bought the Supreme Slider for quilting with minky which is a little harder to move than cotton fabric. Hope it works this well for minky too! Maybe I can even tackle the pebble or bubble quilting someone had mentioned!

Now onto the binding... which I had selected quite awhile ago while I pondered the quilting. I was thinking of a teal with white pin dot - same fabric in the quilt top.  Although now seeing the backing with the front I'm wondering if lime or purple might work and bring it all together.... Or if that would just be strange?!  I might need to hold an instagram binding audition.

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 Freshly Pieced and Sew Fresh Quilts 

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Grow Your Blog

Hi and thanks for stopping by while working your way through the Grow Your Blog tour! I haven't attended the party before so hope I don't trip going down the steps or something....

I started my blog late last summer after being a 'blog stalker' for years... I had never even commented on a blog before if you can believe it! I mostly blog about quilts and quilting. After living in Northern Wisconsin all our lives my hubby and I moved to Madison in late 2010 leaving all our friends and family behind. I had been sewing on and off for years but was finding the time to sew a lot! I was spending more time on blogs, pinterist and flickr lurking so I felt it was about time that I join in - and I did! It's great to be able to connect with people who have similar interests. I have learned a ton and have been having a great time getting to know other folks.

Last year I finished 25 quilts. I'm calling 2014 the year of the dog quilt because 8 of those were dog related! The rest of my 2014 quilty finishes can be seen here.


Thankfully I like dogs... enough to include a dog reference in my blog name. The parti in Modern Parti Quilts is a nod to our oldest pup Peanut, aka Mr. P, he's a studly parti-colored cocker spaniel. In just a few days he will be having his 11th anniversary with us; we adopted him January 28 in 2004 when he was a young pup who had been found wandering around in the freezing cold.


One of my favorite accomplishments from 2014 was entering the Bloggers Quilt Festival. My rainbow herringbone quilt was selected as part of the Viewer's Choice!


Anyways, hope you've enjoyed my quick ramblings about my blog! Super big thanks to 2 Bags Full for hosting the Grow your Blog event again!

2 Bags Full



Thursday, January 22, 2015

Rainbow Baby Quilt Top

I've been working with an etsy client on this personalized baby quilt. I do love a rainbow quilt! The top is all done and was made with Good Morning fabrics by Me and My Sister Designs from Moda. The pattern is another one from Three Times a Charm, book 2 by Me and My Sister Designs. That book has so many cute patterns for baby quilts. And these fabrics, wow, they are so bright and cheerful! This quilt top was featured at Quilt Story: Fabric Tuesday!!


The backing is going to be an adorable owl print by Timeless Treasures. The owls will be all used up after this quilt - I need more. The teal squiggle is one of my all time favorites by Tim and Beck from Bungle Jungle.


We were auditioning fabrics for the personalization and ultimately went with the pink on pink print for the baby name. I used wonder under and appliqued with my Pfaff to attach the letters. You can take a look at the finished rainbow baby quilt here.


I was also asked to join do.Good Stitches, a charity bee, this week! Umm, for sure, I am in! I joined the Promise circle, which benefits orphaned children through Threading Hope. This month we are working on Jacobs ladder blocks (mine are all done) and I've got to come up with a block as I'm going to be the quilter for February which is coming up super fast!  Eek!  I'm thinking mustard, mint, navy and hot pink fabrics - sounds yummy! But I change my mind a lot....

I also finished another dog quilt this time for a Bichon Frise! You can check out The Sophie on my instagram

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 crazy mom quiltsRichard and Tanya Quilts From Bolt to Beauty Quilt Story and Whoop Whoop Friday 

Thursday, January 15, 2015

The Bella Chica

I'm sure everyone is nearly tired of me yacking about my latest dog quilts but what can I say - that's what I've been working on! Plus they all have a story to capture and if I don't do it here I'll probably forget! The Bella Chica is my latest finish. This dog quilt is for an apricot colored mini poodle. She's a new puppy gift/memorial gift for a spa owner in Arizona.


The Bella Chica was done in deep purples and bright pinks with pops of lime. The house, letters and binding are all by Art Gallery. Two different batik fabrics were used for her head, ears and paws. I managed to find just the right shade of pink minky dot for the backing. When I'm quilting with minky I try to stick to 'easier' free motion quilting patterns like the meander. Even though meandering isn't that easy for me - I always struggle with keeping the pattern moving and not getting stuck in doing a repeat of the same bubble over and over. I noticed that one of the issues when quilting with minky is that it is a little harder to move freely while fmq and I feel myself really pushing and pulling the fabric and sometimes getting stuck which results in slightly squared off meanders, yuck! The Supreme Slider was recommended by one of my lqs to help with that issue. I ordered one on Amazon the other day since I have two more minky backed quilts coming up and I'll see if that makes a difference. 


The Bella Chica has been shipped off to sunny Arizona and I'm onto the next dog quilt, a bichon frise in pink on pink (and more pink!)! I also took out my remaining teal and pink strips from my Gumballs quilt and pillow and have been sewing them together... we'll see what comes out this time! 

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 crazy mom quiltsRichard and Tanya Quilts Val's Quilting Studio and Whoop Whoop Friday 

Friday, January 9, 2015

What's In a Name

I had a tiny handful of WIPs unfinished in 2014 and my name tag for my guild meetings was one of them. I did manage to finish it up just in time for our January meeting!


I didn't have much of a plan in creating this. I started with a small white rectangle of Kona white, apx 3.5x5, and just added my favorite scraps until I was happy with how they looked. I moved the whole mess onto a piece of scrap batting and backing. I free motion quilted the little scraps in place starting with those closest to the back. There was a little deconstructing and reconstructing involved with that. I free motion embroidered my name to the dark teal solid with a piece of stabilizer behind it and then attached it to the top of all the other scraps using the special stitch, which reminds me of bird footsteps, along the bottom and straight stitch around the top and sides. That was my second attempt at my name... the first attempt had a better R at the end but messier is other places. Hope its legible! Or close enough! I mean really, its the fun colors and prints that matters the most isn't it!?


And look, there's that design wall I was yacking about awhile back. Seems like a good place to hang it up so I don't forget to take it along... we'll see if that works anyways! Sort of brightens up the space too!


I don't think the Kona white was entirely necessary but it forced me to stay within my limitations otherwise I would have just making it bigger and bigger - I had lots of other 'favorite' scraps waiting in the wings. As it is I'm already going to need a bigger chest to display this beauty! I didn't think to measure that...


I backed it with more little birds and attached a scrap piece of teal binding... always love a teal binding!

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 crazy mom quiltsRichard and Tanya Quilts Quilt Matters My Quilt Infatuation and Whoop Whoop Friday 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

January Guild Meeting

Last month I joined my local modern quilt guild and have two sewing projects in progress for the upcoming January meeting this week. The first is our January block for block lotto. I'm not exactly sure how block lotto goes but I gather we bring blocks (or a block) using a specified quilt block and color palette. A winner is selected and then the person gets to keep all the blocks to make something. Sounds like fun! This month we kept the block simple doing HSTs in red, aqua and tan with white. I'm not too sure how many we are to bring so I just did a few until I got bored...


Pretty! I had not thought of bringing in tan with red and aqua before. Learning already!


Some time ago (last year?) the guild did name badges. The group was 'warned' to wear them to upcoming meetings - I hope the warning meant something good is going to happen! Since I'm new I didn't make one with the group but figured I better go ahead and have one... plus no one knows my name so probably a good idea.


Mine is kind of an eclectic mix of my favorites. Lots of cute fabric scraps in solids, polka dots, birds and whimsy prints from some of my favorite designers like Dear Stella and Art Gallery, plus others. Mustard, teal and pink of course! I even broke out the fancy stitches using my Pfaff, haven't put that on a quilt before! Pow!

Link Parti's 

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Saturday, January 3, 2015

Vertical Chevron Crib Quilt Tutorial

One of my goals in 2015 is to write more tutorials. I just as well get the year off to a good start! This tute is for a 32x48 crib size vertical chevron quilt and includes measurements and yardage requirements.


This is my fabric pull for the vertical chevron quilt plus solid white, fabric requirements below.


After selecting the fabrics, I grabbed my graph paper and sketched out the pattern. I guess I'm old school that way


For the 32x48 finished quilt you'll need 96 - 4 inch finished half square triangle (HST) blocks. I used this handy chart from Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts. Alyce highly recommends adding a full inch to the Finished HST Size to get your Beginning Square Size. Totally agree, I much rather measure a full or half inch instead of 7/8 or 3/8. It's simpler and takes less time - I'm a fan of both of those things. There are several methods for making HST's I tend to use the Traditional Method even though it involves marking, which takes a little extra time. There is no waste and no sewing on the bias.


Now that we've got the the HST discussion out of the way...  We're needing 4 inch finished squares - so using the chart and a word from Alyce, we know that our Beginning Square Size is 5 inches. If you would like your quilt to look like mine with 2 aqua rows, 1 row of orange and grey and white rows between, you'll need the following number of 5 inch squares and yardage
48 White squares - 7/8 yard
24 Aqua squares - 1/2 yard
12 Grey squares - 1/3 yard
12 Orange squares - 1/3 yard


Once we have all of our squares nice and tidy, we can move onto getting the pieces ready for sewing. First we need to mark ALL of the white squares with a diagonal line using a ruler like so. Just take our pencil or marker and draw from corner to corner using a ruler! Don't skip this, it will save you time later. It's very easy to get 'off track' if you try to 'eye-ball it' without the line.


Now we have a line on each white square. This is NOT our sewing line. Instead grab a colored square and place it right side together with the white square so that you can see the line you have drawn.


Great, now we are going to sew a 1/4 inch seam on each side of the drawn lines. In other words each square will get the 1/4 inch treatment twice just like this


Using your ruler and rotary cutter, cut on the drawn line in the center.


You now have two individual blocks with 1/4 inch seams!

 

Now we need to iron them, you could iron them to one side or the other, but for this pattern I like to iron the seams open


Once we have our blocks with seams pressed it's important to go back and 'square up.' Remember when we added a little extra 'just in case' - this is the place we square up our blocks to 4 1/2 inches. Squaring up makes everything going forward a little easier by keeping the blocks all the same size.


If you have a square ruler this is a good time to use it, if not a regular ruler works just fine. Do this for every single block, all 96 of them at precisely 4.5 inch square.

Using your design wall (or the floor!) lay out the blocks in rows of 8 by 12 - if you made a graph for color placement, now's the time to use it! Here's a look at rows one and two of my finished quilt. Repeat this pattern 6 more times.


Using a 1/4 inch seam, piece together each row of 8. I use a scant 1/4 inch and trim the rows if necessary before attaching the next row until you have all 12 rows. Quilt and bind! You can see my finished vertical chevron crib quilt and coordinating pillow sham here. I used a charcoal minky backing. I'd love to see your finished vertical chevron quilt!

Link Parti's 

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Thursday, January 1, 2015

Welcome 2015

Happy New Year! 2014 was a great quilty year for me!

I sold my first quilt,


wrote my first blog post,


tried tons of new techniques (quilting with minky, improv piecing, installing an invisible zipper, free motion quilting),


finished 25 quilts, the year of the dog quilt

finished 15 pillows, a couple not pictured


finished 19 mini quilts,


made curtains,


joined a modern quilt guild,


and beefed up my marketing and photography skills too! Whew, that's a lot! And there is tons more to learn in 2015! I'm not crazy about resolutions but a few of the quilty things I would like to do this year include 1) learn to paper piece, 2) learn to make a pouch with a zipper, not an invisible zipper I can do that! 3) make a quilt with different sized blocks and 4) conquer Y-seams (eek, can't believe I put that in writing - they are scary). Seems doable!



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 i have to say and Sew Cute Tuesday