Fresh Vanilla in pink: A birthday quilt

Here is the quilt I made for my younger daughter's birthday, which is tomorrow. SO bright and cheery!

Here's the back:

If you visit my flickr photostream, then you have most likely already seen this, as I showed this at our AAQG meeting last week. I created a green and white quilt using this same pattern; I got the pattern, which is called Fresh Vanilla, from the Summer 2009 Quilts and More magazine. I LOVE this pattern. I did free motion quilting on this in a stipple design with white thread. It really came out nice.

Interestingly enough, my daughter made me this for Mother's Day:

Now, as you can see, it matches her quilt!

Yes, she did know about the quilt ahead of time. She was the one who chose the fabrics ("Mommy, you can get these fabric bolts for me, and put them in your Etsy shop!"), and she chose the pattern, too; she even helped me cut it out and piece a few blocks of it. She's becoming an incredible quilter/sewist; I will have to show you one of her sewn creations soon.

So, don't tell her, but I am going to give it right back to her tomorrow. Maybe we'll use it as a wall hanging over her bed. After all, she also made me this for Mother's Day:

So, I'm good. :)

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2010

This is the quilt I am entering into the Blogger's Quilt Fest.

When I designed and completed this quilt, I felt as if I had finally created a quilt that made me feel as if I were truly a *quilter.* I am not a big fan of traditional quilts; while I'd made some quilts in non-traditional patterns prior to this one (i.e., Yellow Brick Road, Take 5, etc.), they did not have the unpredictable, out-of-the-ordinary feel that this one has.

The pattern is my own original design, and gives me the feeling of having entered the ranks of modern quilters.

The fabrics (with the exception of the white) are scraps.

The binding is even pieced from the scraps.

A friend gave me a bag of scraps, and when I saw the brown and turquoise scraps, I just knew I could not combine them with other scraps to create a scrap quilt. I felt as if they needed to stand alone, and be "front and center" in their own quilt. I actually used crazymom's block, but the layout is my own. With this quilt, it is hard to be content creating quilts that may be non-traditional, but are still not my own design. I believe that I will probably venture more and more outside of established patterns and create my own. I really hope so.

Here's the back, by the way.

Now, go check out some of the other quilts in the Festival! Just click the button below:

Swapping squares: Received

Wow. That was fast.

Thanks, partner!

Swapping squares: Sent

I am doing a one-on-one swap with a woman that  is looking for squares of kid-friendly fabric, including food fabric. As I write this, the stack of 50 squares that you see in the photo above, all of which are 7" squares or larger, are making their way across the country to her. In turn, her 50 squares are on their way to me. Yay! Now I will have no excuse for not having adequate fabrics for an I Spy (or similar) quilt, right?

Sunday Stash: The rest

I never showed you the rest of the fabrics I got from Fabric.com.

Just the pinks:

Just the yellows and oranges:

Now I didn't get all of these in the most recent shipment. I think there are 26 fabrics in here, and I think 18 may have come from that shipment. I pulled others I had and put them all together, because I saw an absolutely fabulous quilt using these colors.

I'm thinking binding for this bright and funky zigzag.

Finally; some Kaffe  Fassetts!

A couple of black/white/pinks, which I am accumulating for a black/white/pink quilt.

A minor drawback to purchasing fabric online is that you really need to know the fabric, maybe even have seen it in person, before you order it, especially if you're buying it to coordinate with other things. Take this Michael Miller, for instance.

It is beautiful. But I was trying to match it to something else, and it doesn't quite match. Since I tend to buy fabrics with particular groupings and colorways in mind, I probably wouldn't have bought this one if I had been able to see it first with the other fabrics it was to have blended with.

These black and whites--I'm relatively pleased with them, but, again, may not have bought them in a fabric store.

Another pretty fabric, but now an orphan:

Not that I'm complaining. Anyone who is as much of a fabriholic as I am is not unhappy to have additional fabric! Simply a word to the wise.

May Quilt Fest?

So.

I'm thinking of doing an online quilt festival.




What do you think?

Another Modern Siggy Swap!

I participated in the Modern Siggy Swap hosted by Rachel a few months back; I can't wait to get my squares!

Jaybird quilts is hosting another Modern Siggy Swap if you missed out on the first one; this is a GREAT way to easily get all of the signature blocks you will need to do a signature block swap.

Hurry on over while there's still time!

A Mother's Day Surprise

Imagine my surprise last week, when I went to Paula's blog and saw that I had won the apron giveaway!

It is beautiful; it is reversible, and it came with oven mitts. It arrived just in time for Mother's Day!

Many, MANY heartfelt thanks to Cynthia of Heavenly Hostess for the fanciest apron I will probably ever own, and to Paula for creating such a beautiful fabric line and being a part of this giveaway! Muah!

So...about that batik fabric...

I told you earlier this week that I'd tell you something about that gifted batik fabric:

One of the ladies with whom I do charity sewing (SSS) and quilting (AAQG) was having difficulty with her blog, so I offered to come over and give her a bit of assistance with it. So, after a couple of hours of working on her blog (and you have to go see it--click here) she felt comfortable enough, at least for the time being, for us to call it quits for the day. Afterwards, she showed me her textiles--fabric stash, miscellaneous completed blocks, quilt tops, quilts, and some amazing art quilts. I did not take pictures of any of her pieces, but I really hope she one day decides to share some of those pieces on her blog. They are AMAZING.

So, she gave me the fabric because when we were looking thru her stash, she came across this piece, and I oohed and aahed over it. She said she, too, liked it, but had no idea what to do with it. I laughed and said I definitely knew what I would do with it, so she should just sell it to me. She said I could have it. Just like that.

Thank you, J.

A soft and fuzzy baby quilt

I have a friend who is expecting baby #4 very very soon, so of course we couldn't let the little guy go without a quilt! No indeed! So now that she has received it, and even blogged about it, I can share it with you. It is chenille and flannel on the front, with 3 very fuzzy little yellow ducks appliqued on it. The back is chenille. I did add a batt to this; even though the two layers by themselves will undoubtedly be warm, I felt like it still needed a bit more thickness. But I am SO glad it is her, and not me, in need of a baby quilt!

Sunday Stash: Batiks!

I know it's a bit late in the day for a Sunday Stash post, but is it OK if I share with you anyway? Please? Pretty please?!!  I'll only share a little...

Remember I told you about that fantastic sale at Fabric.com? Well, here's my order:

Yes; it was quite a bit. :) I'll only share the batiks with you from that order:

At less than $4 a yard, these were a steal. And, because I had practically no batiks already in my stash, as you can see in the three pictures below:

I just had to get the ones from Fabric.com last week. Really. :)

The middle picture is a gift from a quilting friend that I will be telling you about this week.

The last picture shows bolts that I really should (gasp) part with and put in my Etsy shop. Encourage me in a comment to share some of this. Please.

Oh, and don't be a hater about my beautiful new batiks at under $4 a yard. I did tell you about it. The sale ends tomorrow, so you can still head over there and see if there's any left...

Purple House quilt: Lessons learned

On Wednesday, I showed you my latest quilt, the Purple House quilt. You may recall that it is so named because of the house motif fabric (it's the lilac fabric seen in the top right hand corner of this photo):

This was the fabric that inspired the house block and label on the back, which I designed myself:

You may even recall the nasty broken needle event, which need not be repeated again here!

It was my first experience using a free motion quilting pattern other than meandering; I created flowers in the quilting:

I'll share some of the things I learned.

First, and most importantly, the needle broke because the spool of thread was not unwinding smoothly. I bought one of those larger machine quilting spools and it wouldn't fit the regular way in the sewing machine (what you may not be able to see is that the spool is so fat, there is no room for the thread to unwind):

I even tried the spool pin thingie:

Still no luck. So, I placed it on the table to the right of the sewing machine on one of these cone thread dispenser things (it's simply placed here on the quilt for this picture):

Second, if I had it to do over again, I probably would not have used variegated thread:

DD1 loves it, but I'm not sure I do. In fact, I even used white in the borders, so as not to continue this thread onto the pink inner border.

Third, I'd make sure the top and bottom thread colors coordinated better. So, with the variegated thread in the top, I should have used the same thread or a light/medium tone purple thread in the bobbin.

Fourth, when designing a house block oneself, unless one desires a squared-off roofline at the bottom (translated: I cut the tips of the roof off!), one should add additional fabric on the outsides of the roof:

Lucky for me, this roof actually looks like the rooftops in the house print fabric on the front. Phew. But I now know I want to add extra fabric on the side edges for future house block quilts.

Fifth, after using the Take 5 pattern for a second time, I think if I did it again, I would try my own layout for the blocks, and venture away from their recommended layout.

There were lots of highlights to this quilt. First, I LOVE the flowers that I quilted into this quilt! It is not really any harder than the regular meandering/stippling, although it takes a bit longer. They mimic the flowers on the front, which are fortunately not perfectly formed. Second, I love the house block that I designed! I really am thinking of writing a pattern for it. Third, I like how I used this quilt block as a quilt label. Fourth, I really like striped bindings:

On to the next quilt!