Promise Circle February Blocks

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was invited to participate in do.Good Stitches Promise Circle and I’m still pretty excited about that! My month to be the quilter is February which came up really fast! Yay, so glad it’s here already! I wanted to keep it simple since I only had a few days to come up with a color scheme and block. I decided on improv log cabins in two variations. I first dove into improv log cabins when putting together my pink log cabin pillow – those three little blocks were super fun. Promise Circle quilts benefit orphaned children through Threading Hope.

I selected colors in hot pink, mustard, white, navy and mint/light teal.

One of my 2015 goals was to put together a quilt with different sized blocks – making a quilt with several other people seemed like a good opportunity to get at that. The ‘large block variation’ is 12.5x12.5 unfinished. I started with a 3 inch square in the middle and added strings in varying widths between 1 - 2.5 inches with no particular rhyme or reason although I did alternate colors at each turn and kept the logs somewhat straight instead of wonky.

The ‘small block variation’ is made up of 4- 6.5x6.5 unfinished improv log cabin blocks with a total unfinished size of 12.5x12.5 just like the large block. I started with a 2.5 inch square in varying colors and used the same pile of strings for the large block variation using mostly 1 - 1.5 inch wide strings although there were a few that were wider.

Each bee mate will make 2 blocks. I plan to let my bee mates decide which block variation(s) they want to make. That way it will be a fun surprise to see what shows up! I’ve never made a whole quilt with improv log cabins as it seems daunting but I have always admired them. The finished quilt will be donated to charity and should be ready in April.

If you are a beginner to improv log cabins take a look at the tutorial by Heather Jones at Sew4Home My blocks are a little more scrappy and had smaller beginning center squares but the general idea for construction is the same. Do what you like bee mates – it’s going to be amazing no matter what!

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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!

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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.

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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 

String Pillow

I had quite a few strips leftover when I finished Gumballs. I like scraps but I could have made another quilt all the leftovers I had, wufda! I put together this bonus pillow with a few of the leftovers. I still have plenty to round out my pink and teal stash bins. When I first started quilting I tried to keep my scraps as minimal as possible. I even threw scraps in the trash... gone but not forgotten, sigh. Now I always cut a little extra to build my scrap bins. This pillow was featured at Quilt Story!!

I cut the strips into varied widths and lengths of 3 and 5 inches and put the wider strip right in the middle. I had no plan while putting this together, just sewed together pairs and then matched them up with other pairs until I had long strips. I moved them around a few times on my design wall until I liked the layout. Using light pink thread I did some free motion quilting in a wavy pattern going the opposite direction as the strips. I saw a similar quilt top in Sunday Morning Quilts. Love.

I had a scrap piece of hot pink minky that was just the thing for the back... wow!

This is the second time I have used minky on the back of a pillow. It's a little stretchy and slippery but the backing piece is small so its a fairly manageable task.... hardly any swearing at all! Serious. This pillow ended up a good fit for an 18 inch pillow insert. It actually measures a little bit smaller than 18 inches square but I like my pillows poufy! This pillow is available in my etsy shop.

Link Parti's 

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Best,
Heather

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Here I go!

I didn't think I'd be doing this but I've decided it's time to join in the fun. I'm not a professional writer or quilter by any means. A little over a year ago I was wondering what I was going to do with all the stuff I had been sewing... I wanted to make more stuff but didn't want it taking over my house. I decided on I would put a few things out on etsy and see what happened - I mean what's the worse thing that could happen, right?!  I was honestly shocked when I sold my first quilt. It's this one right here:

It was a star quilt with a woodlands theme with fabrics from a line called Serenade by Kate Spain from Moda. Anyhow, back to my blog! My dear hubby has been encouraging me to start a blog instead of just talking about it so I am. I plan to write about quilting, sewing, family and our cocker spaniels!

I live in Wisconsin with my hubby and our two cocker spaniels. We have one son who just joined the Marines and is currently at basic training in San Diego. The 'parti' in Modern Parti Quilts comes from this guy

That's Peanut. He's a buff and white parti-colored cocker spaniel... with the saddest eyes and cutest freckles in the world. He's an older model, we adopted him in 2004.

I had two sewing goals this week 1) learn to install a zipper and 2) finish quilting a dog quilt for a fundraising event in two weeks. One out of two isn't bad I guess. I managed to install a zipper this week, not just any zipper but an invisible zipper. I looked at lots of tutorials before finally deciding to follow this one by Stitched In Color. Great instructions! I started out making this pillow top for Halloween, which was inspired by a pillow in the book Pillow Pop. I used the paper piecing method for putting together the string blocks, then cut each finished square into fours and stitched them back together in a diamond configuration. The size of my paper squares was 6 inches before cutting into fourths. Finished square size is 2.5 inches. I pressed using a lot of starch after I removed the paper; it's easy for the small squares to become distorted.  I added a thin white border followed by a scrappy outer border for the pillow.

I really loved how the top turned out! The fabrics were from my scrap bin and a line called Haunted Mansion by Sanae from Moda. I happened to have a burnt orange zipper in just the right size which seemed like a good fit. I managed to install the zipper on my first try! The finished zipper

Front and back:

I chose a grey and orange abstract tree print for the backing, also from the Haunted Mansion line. The pillow top is available in my etsy shop.

Next week will be the one year anniversary of my etsy shop.  I plan to offer 15% off on everything in my shop all week to celebrate! Use code 1YEAR between Sunday, August 31 to September 6 to enjoy!

Best,
HG

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