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!

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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!

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Quilty Christmas Haul and Finishes

Whew Christmas is over - we survived again! Although it was a busy time I did have some sewing time that allowed me to finish three quilts, two minis and another dog quilt!

This little pup was an orphan block from a past dog quilt; it's been on my design wall long enough so I just bound it in Dear Stella peony confetti dot and did tiny loopy loo quilting. In all honesty I wanted to practice the tiny loopy loos on this block before using it for the dog quilt I finished this week. The backing of the mini has teal polka dot bursts on white.

I'm calling this a throw back version as I have made this quilt using these exact fabrics earlier this year. Well almost, this time I used Kona Bone instead of a bright white on white print for the background fabric. I think it softened up the look a little. The rest of the fabrics were all from Coquette by Chez Moi from Moda. I'm nearly out of these great fabrics - I will miss them when they are gone. Over Christmas we had nothing but cloudy days and rain, no snow for Christmas... hardly ever happens in Wisconsin, we always have snow! The rain and clouds are no good for picture taking.

I also turned the little heart balloon block into a mini quilt- another orphan. I love this tiny quilt, I did put it in my etsy shop but I might have to keep it all for me! The backing is hot pink with great big white polka dots. Heart was appliqued and free motion embroidered. I love this technique and hope to do it again soon.

Aside from these finishes this week I also have a couple of WIPs that have my attention, my mini for the rainbow mini swap on IG and my wonky pinwheel quilt in navy and teal. As if that wasn't enough to work on my hubby gave me several quilty gifts this Christmas that are really tugging at my attention!

Pretty threads and much wanted Swoon patterns in mini and full size! Yay! These really aren't the best gifts of all; he also made me a thread holder. It's so amazing and it's deserving of its own post... another day, after it gets put up in my sewing room!

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RnB Finish

The Ruby and The Benny are all done! In addition to finishing these two fun pet quilts I also attended my first Madison modern quilt guild meeting last week, yay! There were so many ladies showing off some amazing skills.

The Ruby and The Benny were ordered for a pair of dog siblings, a red king charles cavalier and blond golden retriever. I added a heart balloon applique to Ruby's quilt. I practiced it beforehand on this little block

Easy peasy. I just drew and cut the heart using Wonder Under and attached it to the white square. I then drew the string with my sewline pencil. Once I had the heart and string ready I attached my free motion foot, loaded up some black thread and outlined the heart applique and followed by pencil line. I went over everything three times which was key as it didn't look that great after only twice. Oh, I did use a piece of stabilizer behind the heart and string before the free motion embroidery otherwise I think there would have been issues. I just trimmed the stabilizer back after I was done.

I'm glad I practiced the heart balloon before putting it on the quilt. It's a little like using permanent marker to write on your quilt, the pressure! See it floating in the sky.

I did free motion quilting throughout both quilts. The binding and backing on The Ruby were both from Girly Girl by Pat Bravo; I'm super crazy about this fabric for the binding!

The blond golden retriever fabric was from Marmalade by Moda. It's tricky to do a light colored dog!

I think these are my last two finishes for 2014! I'm not sure, there might be time to finish one more quilt by the end of the year! This was also my fourth and fifth of these custom dog quilts this year; they are putzy to make but my Mr. P is still sleeping on his quilt every single night!

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 My Quilt Infatuation Richard and Tanya Quilts Show Off Saturday Vals Quilting Studio and Whoop Whoop Friday