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 

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!

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 Many Ways Sew Fresh Quilts Sew Cute Tuesday and Show off Saturday 

Throwback Thursday #1

I’m still struggling with selecting the base for my current dog quilt… Thanks so much for all the help! I finally decided on the coral solid, cut a strip and put them up on the design wall. And then I wasn’t WOWed. I cut a string of the teal solid. I liked the teal a little better but not enough to actually attach them. Sooo more pondering and less sewing. Boo. On the plus side I now have all of the dog blocks finished! Since there isn’t much to share on my current wip I thought I’d do my first Throwback Thursday post, yay, another first! I finished this red and tan HST quilt earlier this year

I was inspired by a quilt over at cluck cluck sew. I wanted to do something similar as a gift to our friends for their upcoming wedding that my hubby and I could make together. I thought it might be best to practice first! This is the practice quilt. We used Kona Khaki for the tan and various red fabrics. It had to be red for Wisconsin Badgers of course. I started with 4.5 inch squares, drew a line down the center of the tan squares, right sides together and stitched on each side resulting in two HST blocks for each set of squares.

I realized that I had absolutely no red fabric in my stash before I started making this. That was sort of an eye opener, jeez, how did that happen?! Oh well, more shopping!! I kept the quilting simple with straight lines outlining one side going in each direction. The balloon fabric is one of my favorites in this quilt!

I loved the idea of a black and white binding along with a black and white backing. This little quilt measured 37x41 and is available in my etsy shop.

Here’s a picture of the wedding quilt that my hubby and I made for our friends. Hubby marked all of the squares, did some rotary cutting, drew the applique and snipped all of the thread from the chain piecing. Serious. I sewed, quilted and supervised!

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 quilts What a Hoot Quilts Whoop Whoop Friday and My Quilt Infatuation 

Gumballs and Elephants

Every time I look at this quilt I immediately think of bubblegum. I was able to finish the pink and teal quilt top just in time for finish up Friday. I love that there is absolutely no white in this quilt - I'm really breaking out of my comfort zone, yay! There are some super cute fabrics in here. Several by Free Spirit, Dear Stella, the solid teal is Mermaid by Michael Miller Couture

The weather has finally turned around a little bit in Wisconsin. It had been raining from Sunday through Wednesday - no pictures when it rains so boo for rain. In any event, this weekend promises to be decent for fall. The bright red leaves are out and most are still on the trees. We were out of town last weekend so I've got a great big honey-do list for by hubby. I hope to do some re-planting, make chili and get a hefty start on my next project, a pink, green and grey chevron quilt which was commissioned after someone saw my Pink Elephant Quilt, which I have made twice now. The original was quilted with a spiral free motion pattern and is backed with black and white jungle themed fabric

 And

Lime green backing requested the second time! And again this time interestingly enough - I wish I had put that on the original. Loopy loo quilting on elephant quilt number two.

I even made curtains and matching pillow for my second client. First time ever. Seriously, how cute are these!

The pattern is Out in the Wild by Sew Emma, which makes a lap size quilt. I had bought a kit from the Fat Quarter Shop which also included fabric for a matching pillow.  The second time I made this quilt my I made it for a twin size bed. The fabrics are by Dear Stella and the pink elephants on peony were super hard to find. I bought 6 yards! I have enough to make one more quilt like this and then gone forever.

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 quilts, Richard and Tanya Quilts  Stitch by Stitch Show off Saturday Blossom Heart Quilts Quilt Story Pretty Bobbins Vals Quilting Studio and Whoop Whoop Friday 

Pink and Teal Quilt

I usually give all my love to teal... But hey this is October and everywhere you look is pink. Our Packers are wearing pink on Sunday, I bought a pink 'add a quarter inch' ruler, Fiskars rotary cutter and a package of pink Clover wonder clips. Seriously, I bought the pink wonder clips immediately when I saw them in September, I knew that I couldn't live another day without them, same goes for the rotary cutter. Although I had considered doing an entire scrappy quilt in all teal I decided to add in bright pink.

See the little nose in the background?! I cut my strips 2.5 x 4.5 and randomly matched one pink and one teal. I had nine fabrics of each colorway. Next time I do the cutting I would cut 2.5 x 9 and then cut the pieced strips in half. I didn't really have a good plan since I wasn't working from a pattern but it came together anyways! I was able to cut, sew and layout the entire quilt after work last night. One thing that I didn't do right away was 'square up.' I figured it was such a simple pattern that I probably wouldn't need to... nope, I'm not perfect as it turns out, sigh. Next I'll be squaring up the blocks! This is going to make a really cute baby quilt which I hope will be done by Friday.

Stout Homecoming Weekend

Last Friday I finished up my country girl improv quilt, commissioned a super cute chevron quilt (fabric ordered, check!) and headed north! It was 10 years ago that my hubby, our best man and I graduated from the MS Training and Organizational Development program at UW-Stout. It was a beautiful fall weekend in Menomonie, we tailgated, walked around campus, bought t-shirts at the bookstore, enjoyed the local craft brew and watched our Blue Devils get the snot beat out of them... Mostly good stuff! The game would not have been complete without a student wearing only a horse head, suspenders and underpants! I'll save the photo for another venue.  Instead here's a pic of my hubby and I with the Stout mascot... tidbit: we didn't have a mascot when we went to college there! He's new newish   

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 Pretty Bobbins Show and Tell Tuesday and Sew Fresh Quilts 

A Winning Streak!

I have really been on a winning streak lately... it's a little creepy. I hope it stops soon because you know how things have a way of evening themselves out.... and I'd hate to see what the opposite of this streak is!  On my birthday post I mentioned winning a gift certificate from Pink Chalk Studios - an awesome prize! Reminds me that I need to do a little shopping over there...  A week later at the dog walk I won a raffle prize which was about a years supply of dog treats, also very awesome.  A couple of weeks ago I visited Nancy Zieman's blog - now Nancy is a Wisconsin sewing staple, she also is a huge deal at the Madison Quilt Expo which I mentioned in an earlier post - Nancy was giving away all kinds of awesome stuff to promote her new book Quick Column Quilts. I headed back over there on Saturday to take a look at the winner list and wouldn't you know it I won the mother of all prizes, a new Baby Lock Tempo Sewing Machine!! There was much screaming, squealing and heart palpitations followed by taking deep breaths. All I can say is wow! Maybe I should just buy a lottery ticket or two just to make sure the streak is over...

Quilts

Since Nancy's new book is about column quilts I thought it would be appropriate to share a recent column quilt finish of mine. The Glimma Quilt was a kit from Fat Quarter Shop - they have the best kits over there! 

This quilt was supposed to have an a white border between the green stripe fabric and the binding, which by the way is Michael Miller Couture in Mermaid. It was already big enough for a twin size bed so I nixed the extra border....  The fabrics are from Glimma by Lotta Jansdotter.  There were lots of scraps leftover so I pieced this backing with Kona Ash and Michael Miller Couture Mauve. I like the backing enough that I would use it as a front! 

 

And, all folded up nicely - gosh I love a teal binding! 

My favorite part of this quilt is the quilting - it took forever, but totally worth it. I free motion quilted the sashing in a random square pattern. I quilted each block differently. The texture is really cool. It's killing me not to wash it to find out how it will look when washed, but I've added this quilt to my shop so I'd rather send it to its new home crisp and new! Someone else will be able to enjoy the amazing crinklyness of this one. Yes, I am sure that crinklyness is a word - I have just used it. The solids totally show off the wonky, improv-y quilting on the backing. Here's a close up of the free motion quilting on the front

When finished with the quilt I still had enough scraps to make another project. I used them to create this improv log cabin block quilted pillow. Actually I pieced and quilted this pillow before quilting the bed quilt... it was also a bit of a practice piece since I hadn't used this square quilting pattern before!  

And I still have more leftover scraps from this kit! Fat Quarter Shop is always generous with their kits - thankfully because I've had plenty of whoopsies  and needed that extra fabric! Sometimes I have even used up all the fabric! I can't say enough good things about Fat Quarter Shop! The Glimma Quilt and Pillow are both available in my shop. 

With all the excitement I've still been able to make some great progress on my teal, orange and grey quilt. Blocks are all lined up on my design wall - ok, its actually the floor - and several rows have been sewn together! I hope to have it ready for Finish Up Friday. I don't have any progress photos - I sew in the basement and it gets dark early now so my photo time has been greatly reduced... And now you know, I sew in the dark, in the basement, I am a vampire sewer. Oh well, suits me just fine and I'm happy to have my own space even if it is dark and in the basement. Summer has returned to Wisconsin again... I've been out enjoying it so progress has been a little slow. I did some last minute tweaking of the fabric so I'll leave you with that

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 Quilt Story, Fresh Squeezed Fabrics, Freshly Pieced, My Quilt Infatuation, Two Little Aussie Birds, Richard and Tanya Quilts, Can I get a Whoop Whoop Friday Vals Quilting Studio and Sew Fresh Quilts.