Purple Pinwheel Quilt

At February's modern quilt guild meeting I was the winner of block lotto! Each month we make quilt blocks and bring them to our meeting where a winner is chosen randomly. The winner gets to take all of the blocks home to make something amazing!

January colors were shades of purple with a little bit of pink thrown in. There were two pinwheel block variations which added a fun little twist. We did a modern pinwheel

and traditional pinwheel

The blocks were fairly large and there were a good 20 or so. The simple thing to do would have been to just put them together but I wasn't feeling that... and I wasn't planning on a great big quilt. I decided to deconstruct the traditional pinwheels by trimming them from 11.5 inch blocks to 6 inch blocks. With the extra fabrics I put together 6 inch improv blocks and then laid them out haphazardly with the larger modern pinwheels. One of my goals this year was to make a quilt with differently sized blocks; this was just the ticket!

I loved that this project forced me to do things I wouldn't normally think of!!  Like use purple for instance, like a lot of purple! I decided early on that this quilt was going into my own collection. Since our living room is yellow with purple accents this was going to need a little bit of yellow... with my massive mustard crush lately my selected shade of yellow can't be much of a surprise!

I managed to get snails, mushrooms, flowers and birds into the backing! A pieced backing of course!

The quilting was done with my walking foot in a random wavy pattern in light orchid aurifil thread. It took quilt awhile to do but I do love how it looks in the end. Can't wait to see what it looks like all washed and crinkly.

It didn't seem right to leave the front a mustard free zone so I selected a mustard colored thread to attach the solid purple binding!  Just right!

This finished out to be a small lap size quilt, around 40x45. I'm planning to take it to our next guild meeting later this week and then we can use it!

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 Show and Tell Tuesday Quilt Story crazy mom quilts and Sew Cute Tuesday 

Well that's it then

The sun has finally came out here in Wisconsin and with it frigid temperatures... that's ok, I'm staying inside sewing! I took out a few bonus HSTs from a chevron project earlier this year and whipped up this orange and grey pinwheel pillow

The HSTs were already assembled from the chevron pillow which was made flying geese style, perfect for bonus projects! I just ironed and squared them, and played with them on my design wall for a little while until I had something I liked. I was three HSTs short.... rather than take some out I added the fun low volume pinwheel in the center! I kept the quilting simple and did straight line quilting on each diagonal which created a diamond pattern on the front.

I had just the thing for the backing, I picked up this great bicycle fabric from Erin McMorris by Free Spirit at a lqs during the summer quilt shop hop and had to use it here. Those little baskets carrying flowers are so cute! The orange comes from High Street by Lily Ashubry for Moda.

And of course I just had to install an invisible zipper... how could I not? The pull matched just perfectly with the little bikes... It's like I had to!

This pillow is small just 16 inch square and has been added to my etsy shop which is in need of some new things after a holiday of custom orders!

Link Parti's 

Take a look at the link parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to Richard and Tanya Quilt crazy mom quilts Quilt Story My Quilt Infatuation and Quokka Quilts 

Wonky Work In Progress

It has been a busy week! Hardly any sewing, boo. We have been in California - our son graduated from Marine bootcamp, yay! We had a few days in the sun before returning to the cold weather. Thankfully no snow yet. Before I left I did manage to decide on my next project and even sew up a block to see if I liked 'the plan.'  I stumbled across the wonky pinwheel tutorial by Greenleaf Goods; I really liked the idea and saw a number of variations on Pinterest. It took me awhile, seriously days, to decide on what I wanted to do here. I finally decided on solid Kona Navy surrounded by teal prints. Yum!

I like it! I'm thinking about doing a larger starting square; these were 3.5 inches and seems like it might take forever and ever before a quilt would emerge. My test block above is 6.5 square, it will be 6 when finished. The benefit of using the smaller starting squares is that you can use up even small scraps... a trade off, forever and ever before a finish or using up small scraps. Don't know, gonna have to ponder this one.

Using the dark centers is really no trouble at all, I just used my pink sewline to mark the lines

I can't wait until this is finished. I don't know what it will end up as but I'm excited to see! In the meantime I'm doing another dog quilt that will hang in a dog rescue! Instead of pastels the request for this quilt was 'bright and fun.' I had a couple of ideas, Lily Ashbury always comes to mind when I hear 'bright' but didn't think her awesome florals would work here. I decided on V and Co Simply Style. These fabrics are bright and fun and not too girly or boyish. I think the colors will really pop against a bright white background. I'm planning to use Kona White as the background fabric. I'm working on a plan for the background and borders.

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 My Quilt Infatuation Whoop Whoop Friday Stitch by Stitch and Let's Bee Social

Happy Birthday to Me and a Friday Finish

Hey it's my birthday!  September 11 that's my day! 

It’s my birthday and for me birthdays always mean cake and wine…. Also acceptable is wine and cake – either way. And just to clarify, not whining, but w-i-n-e! Cake demand request to my hubby went in earlier this week so we’ll see what he comes up with! I think there will even be dinner out included at an awesome Cajun restaurant nearby. Liliana’s can make any day feel special. Birthdays. Are. Good.

Also, in the theme of presents, gifts and good things, I was a WINNER this week (do you see the word w-i-n-e in there??). Pink Chalk Studios hosted a studio showcase this summer and I was one of 50 winners. Thanks to them for their generous giveaway! I love their What Goes With What series which shows off coordinating solids for different designer fabric lines.

Ok, last thing about presents… or gifts…. Last week I told you I was planning to attend the Madison Quilt Expo. It’s pretty much as close as you can get to quilt-y overload! I didn't get nearly as much stuff as I did last year. Here’s my haul from this year

Those zippers were just 50c each – they are all long enough to use for quilted pillows. This year at the Expo I hardly bought any fabric, just 4 charm packs and 1 fat quarter… that’s hardly any right? My mom came down to attend and stay for a visit. She brought my dad and their cocker spaniel, Chloe, to visit too. Just to clarify neither of them (dog or dad) went to the quilt expo. It’s no wonder I didn't get much sewing done last week…. Lots of shopping, eating and touring the countryside while they were here. My mom and I did start a Halloween sewing project before they went home. I know, I already said that I was done with Halloween projects this year but what the heck I'm going for it. My mom came home from the Expo with a Quick Points scallop ruler. I pulled these cute Ghastlies fabrics so that we could try it out. Another WIP to add to 'the list.' We used the ruler to make some cute scallops from the pink fabric; it worked really well although I think I need some practice sewing curves. I'm not usually a 'frilly' person and don't do much - read never - with edging, piping, rickrack or whatnot. I'm not sure what the scallops and rest of the fabrics will be yet, I was thinking Halloween pillow cases for our bed maybe. I've never made pillow cases before, seems doable though. If you know of a tutorial for king size pillow cases, point me in the right direction!

Back to the Expo. I went to two modern quilt lectures, one of them hosted by Lee of Freshly Pieced! I got to see a bunch of her quilts from the new book she co-authored, Vintage Quilt Revival: 22 Modern Designs From Classic Blocks, in person. Oh yeah, I bought that too…. But that was it, I swear! I love that you can mingle traditional with modern and still consider yourself a modern quilter.

Now the Finish

My Finish Up Friday is a little early this week (did I mention the wine… I’m planning ahead here). I managed to finish quilting the Argyle Pinwheel Pillow, install an invisible zipper for the second time ever, (side note - I hope by this time next year I will be able to do this without reviewing each step because there are a lot of steps!), and put it all together for photographs. Yay! When quilting the bottom half of the pillow I mimicked the quilting on the top only the lines were going in the opposite direction. It looked better on top, there was a great big open space in the lower left that I didn't like. I added the three straight lines going in the opposite direction to fill the area. Much better! It actually ended up a better size for an 18 inch pillow insert instead of the 20 inch I thought would work. No matter. I’m happy with this little creation, I really like how the band wraps right around the pillow and disappears.

And

This pillow is available in my etsy shop.

Linking up this week with 

Crazy Mom Quilts - Finish Up Friday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Pretty Bobbins
Richard and Tanya Quilts
Sew Many Ways
TGIFF at Quilt Matters

Argyle Pinwheel Pillow

Pinwheel Progress

After a crazy week last week - house guests both human and dog, the Madison Quilt Expo and a short work week - I've made some progress on the orphaned HST blocks that I shared last week! I went ahead with the pinwheels I was considering since it has been awhile since the last time I did pinwheels. They were small, only 3 inches when finished and squared. How cute are these mini pins?

I had kind of an asymmetrical float-y mod pinwheel idea but not any real plan. I decided to put the pinwheel blocks on point surrounded by bright pink on a neutral background - it was the first time I've done a project with blocks on point. The oat-y solid is Linen by Timeless Treasures and the bright pink is called Cherry. The solid colored blocks are also 3 inch square.

Once I had all the blocks sewn together and had cut off the pointy tips all the way around my block I had a rectangle 8x19 in size. For the top and bottom of the pillow top, I cut a 19 inch WOF and then cut two strips the first around 4.5 inches and second around 8.5 inches. I attached the smaller strip to the top and the larger strip to the bottom and squared it up so that I had a 19 inch square. Perfect size for a 20 inch pillow insert! I like to make my pillows slightly smaller than the insert so that they have a nice pouf to them. When I stood back and looked at the finished top I realized it really had an argyle feel and reminded me of some of my old sweaters when I was a kid. I do love argyle! And with fall coming, it's no wonder I had sweaters on my mind.

Once I got it all basted and ready for quilting, I realized there was a lot of negative space to work with! I was thinking of something simple and straight... I just couldn't see a curve-y pattern working out very well even though curve-y patterns are more fun to quilt. I've finished quilting the part above the pinwheel block. The left most side has two more quilting lines. I liked it that way so I went with it. I'm top stitching the little pinwheel blocks. All of the quilting is done in a very light pink thread.

Now how to finish the quilting on the bottom half of the pillow... I'm still deciding on that! This entire project has been kind of a 'wing it' affair... and has been a lot of fun. I have been winging it more often and I like it!

Low Volume Swap

On a less bright - but happy - note, have you heard about the Tone It Down Low Volume Charm Swap over at Patch the Giraffe and From Bolt to Beauty blogs!?  If not, check it out and get ready for all kinds of low volume eye candy!

Linking Up with