Winter's Steely Grey and Purple Quilt

Hi. It's really Christmastime now. Just a few days left until the family gathers and friends come to call. This is what all the preparation is for. But before I get back to the sewing of little person PJ's and snack bags I wanted to pop in a share a quilt finish from last month.

Remember my little boy blue quilt post? I had eluded to the two pregnant ladies in my life - one a baby boy (who is healthy and happy!) and a little girl (who is expected in February) - Baby Winter. It was baby Winter's turn and mom choose a very pretty palette of grey and purple. So I hit the stash and came back with several shades and a few creams for good measure.

Now with most of my quilt designs I wasn't exactly sure where this quilt was headed. I had a half square triangle quilt for inspiration so I started there and used The Sometimes Crafter tutorial for making HST (it's brilliant and quick).

Then I waited and during that time my circle of Do. good stitches was working on an HST quilt top inspired by this quilt top. It was just the right hues to work with the fabrics I had pulled.

So in the end it turned out beautifully. It is backed in flannel and straight-line quilted on either side of each triangle.

I am thinking of writing up a simple tutorial for this because it really is so easy to make. Would anyone be interested in that????

Cheers and Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Kelly

Rainbow Scrappy: Log Cabin Quilt

Remember once upon a time when I was making rainbow inspired goodness? Well that never really stopped, I have been trucking on this quilt for just a year and a half. I made the first block on a rainbow whim and that was going to be it. A big pillow I thought. I made another for the back but I couldn't stop making them.

I made a 6 block top and showed it to the hubby. He said quilts need to be big - and I agreed. I hate that when the toes stick out or the arms aren't quite covered. So I made 3 more blocks and fudged it together with the first 6. It measures 76" x 82". All the blocks are total improv. No measuring with anything other than my eye. So making them all fit together with a little white around the edges to break up the colors was a little tricky. But I made it happen. One strip, one color and one scrap at a time.

The scraps really do tell the story of  my quilting life. There are not so pretty fabrics in there; ones that were gifted to me or that I had long before Blue Bird Sews. There is a huge amount of swapped scraps most notably from Spontaneous Threads when I won a box of scraps from her a while back. Then there was an amazing grab bag of modern scraps from one of my favorite thrift stores. There was also Stashtacular from 2 summers ago where I was the beneficiary of some wonderful and tragic prints.

The other notable aspect of this quilt is the quilting. I knew I wanted to practice hard core on it but I didn't know what patterns or ideas exactly. So I just sat down and first made little loops on the white boarders. They looked adorable so I did the DS Quilts loop d' loop on one of the blocks. Then I wanted to practice some swirls so I did that but wasn't satisfied with the density so I went back and filled in with circles. I did two of the blocks with different boarders. I did more swirls and I did repeating lines.

I did it all and I learned a bunch about how my machine jumps when I let go of the quilt. About how I can't move my left hand without losing total control over the design. And about my stitch regularity and how it needs a lot of work. And that is just what this quilt was for. Testing, growing and learning.

The last little bits that are incredible about this quilt is the backing and binding. Backing in rainbow vintage sheet and binding in vintage black on white polka dots. Perfect.

Have a wonderful weekend! I will be doing a holiday market at the Portland Waldorf School on Saturday in Milwaukie. I am hoping there are lots of people who need a quilt (but not this one)!

Cheers!
Kelly

Sewing for all Seasons: Coasters Made

This book is gorgeous. Every page just drips with style. I have flipped through it about a dozen times since I WON it at PMQG meeting last week. Susan was kind enough to giveaway a few copies and I was lucky enough to walk away with it and a kit to make the coffee cozy project too!

So in my many flip throughs I decided to make the coasters out of purely practical reasons. My hubby and I invested in a new set of bedroom furniture. Like the most beautiful mission style oak bedroom set on the planet. I lurv it and I don't want to be getting any tea mug stains on it, ya know.

I choose to use a Joel Dewberry fabric Heirloom which I got the fat quarter set last year for myself for Christmas. It's already in some pillow shams I made for the bed so it fits in well. And there's beautiful roses on one side and blue/purple geometric on the other.

So we know the book is gorgeous and the writing and diagrams are good too. I decided to actually read the instructions and go with the way Susan uses to bind her quilts and things with a binding tape that is folded over the exposed edges. Very clever, a little tricky, and worth the effort. Once you sew the binding on you're done. I like that satisfaction. I choose not to baste the corners as she suggests but I can see how it totally helps out.

what's missing here? A coaster!

I did do one thing a little differently because I don't have any double sided fusible interfacing. Instead I used potholder batting which added some loft but will also keep it cool on my nightstand.  I might just need a reason to sew up the matching place mats. Like new dinning room furniture! Ha! There is no more room for furniture in my little house!

aahhh. Much better!

Thanks again to Susan for the giveaway. I have many more flip throughs with this inspiring book! I love the little library cards with fabric swatches, you must check it out!

Cheers!
Kelly

linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!

Blue Hue's Scrappy Baby Quilt

Babies are coming. I have two good friends who are pregnant and due in the coming winter months. Lucky for me one is a boy and one is a girl so I get to make the best of both worlds. This past weekend was a little boy baby shower. You know it's gonna be scrappy but how scrappy would it go?

Super scrappy. I found a Thimbleberries pattern from an old quilt book of mind; 1-2-3 Quilt. The original was pastel mess but I changed it up with blue prints and solids.

All the colors and prints just ooze together for me; the whole is greater than the parts. These were prints that aren't my favorite or didn't have a lot of, just hanging out in the stash waiting for a turn. They came together so well, the overall it just cool. 

Of course I missed getting a picture with the mommy and blanket. I'll make sure to get one with the real owner when he decides to show up. 

The next quilt is for a little Winter girl. Mom and Dad are doing the room in purples so a purple, grey, white, cream half square triangle quilt will be coming, but not until after I sew up a bunch of rainbow goodness for the holiday bazaar shows. 

To be crayon rolls and notebook covers. Make me so happy to use up all these scraps! 

Cheers!

Kelly 

10 Years...

This past week my husband and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. Our wedding was held along the banks of the Crooked River 15 miles outside of Prineville in the canyon desert land of central Oregon. 

It is a place we call home, a place we come back to for renewal and growth. 

This was a trip surround by family and friends who have become family.

It was the first time we took our son out there for camping. An adventure that will be repeated many times I hope. 

The next 10 years begins again.

Cheers, 

Kelly 

Seeing Red:: August Garden

As I was wandering the garden this month I noticed something...something other than green. Red was every where in every shade from bright orange red to soft magenta. Of course there are red tomatoes and red hot peppers but the not so apparent hints caught my eye this month. 

A special flower: The Nightwatchman variety of Holly Hock. Saving seeds as I type.  

Red Leaf lettuce.

Beets! Yum. After watching my Grandma Dutra eat these from a can I never thought beets would be a favorite. But they are easy to grow and taste like candy when roasted.

Sun Gold tomatoes; these maybe more orange than red but they are beautifully sweet.

Another bee buzzing about collecting pollen. I told my son about this magical process and now each time he sees a bee he says "Awe look Mom, a bee getting pollen." The scientist in me melts each time.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

The constant in all my gardens, nasturtium. Also saving seeds from these little ones.  

A basket full of red veggies (and green and yellow and orange). The garden is bursting. In the next couple of weeks I will be harvesting and preserving drying, freezing and canning. The bounty is too much to eat; especially when there are figs coming ripe. 

Maybe next month Orange will be the dominate color :) Till then, 

Cheers!

Kelly 

Hexagon Flower Garden Quilt: A Finish

Hooray! A Finish! Finishing a quilt is so satisfying. Putting the last stitches on a binding and standing up to shake it out, lay it down on the floor and take a good long look.

The first inkling of a quilt is so magical - and this first look of a finished quilt is also that way. The colors coalesce, the pattern emerges and the binding makes a frame to ground the life within it.

This hexagon flower garden is for a dear friend and her family as part of our bartering deal. She made me a branding package for Blue Bird Sews (banner above!!) and I made her a quilt. She choose the design and steered me to the colors and patterns she likes. The rest was up to me. I've been working on it for a while, find more about this quilt at my earlier post.

Scrappy hexagons are unified by colors and quilting. Bright red and orange pop this quilt into hyper color with the spots of brown and green bringing it back down to earth and foliage.

I put on the walking foot for straight line quilting in an all over triangle pattern; mostly following along lines of the hexagons. I used masking tape to get the first set of lines started and then by the end I was eye-balling it. I hope I'm not the only one to to this...is this where 'organic quilting' comes from? he.hee

A little special touch of quilting was done in the very center hexagon; interlocking petals for a flower in red thread. Binding was made from scraps and hand sewn on. The back is a favorite is great! Using the leftovers and scraps I stitched up the back for a modern quilt finish.

Washed and packaged up; on the way to it's new home across the United States. To be loved, washed and loved again.

Cheers,

Kelly

ps. thought I should mentioned I've made this pattern before. Check it out here.

New Technique for flying geese

Well, new to me technique. I was stalled on my cowboy wild goose chase quilt for my little boy. I have about a thousand flying geese to make. Small flying geese, like 2"x 3.5". It was a bit discouraging. But after making about 8 blocks by eye-balling it (i live my life by the eye-ball method) I had to step away and think. I did not want to mark each square - twice in fact! So I waited and then I saw this method on Pinterest and it was a game changer for this quilt. 

The photo above it not the best I am sorry for that, but under my fingers is a piece of lightweight cardboard. That dark line next to the needle is my mark for cutting out said piece of cardboard. Take the piece and line it up from corner to corner of the square then simply follow the edge of the cardboard from point to point. So simple it's crazy! And no marking. 

Bam! Problem solved, WIP progress made. I've got all of the geese half way sewn up. A nice straight edge on each. Sometimes a WIP quilt that has stalled out just needs a little trick to get it going again. This new technique saved my sanity. 

What's your best trick? Let me know!

Cheers!
Kelly 

Vintage Calico Nine-Patch: A Finish

A Finish! A Friday Finish! What are you feeling good about today? Here it is sunny, warm and a new day. What is better than that - how about a finish almost 3 years in the making.

I started this quilt by cutting up little bitty 2" squares out of a stack of calico's that came from who knows where. Little flowers on soft pastel backgrounds. I cut and cut then I sewed and sewed. There wasn't a real plan, just quilting along.

Then all the little squares were sewn up. Each nine-patch had a white middle square that was the extent of the plan. It sat a while and I auditioned fabrics to go with the scrappy blocks. 

That's when I found the background print, tucked away in a pile of fabric. It took a while to commit to it, but it was about the same time that I bought the book Material Obsession 2 and I knew I needed to take a chance, step away from the kona white and go for the print. That is also when the design came together. With not enough fabric to make every other square I came up with another plan. 

The large patch of nine-patches is surrounded by patchwork. I love it, it's perfect. Material Obsession 2 was also the inspiration for the boarder print. Vintage, check. In the stash, check. Unexpected, check. I had a quilt top. 

Once the top was complete I knew it needed free motion quilting in a dog wood pattern. The squares lent itself to that, no marking needed. The boarders are quilted in a petal in petal design that meanders around the quilt.

The back is the left overs from the calico stash. I am happy to say that it took every last bit to make the back and I don't have anymore calico left. Not sad about that. 

Now I have a question for you. I am experimenting with quilt photography and I took pictures with my happy snappy digital and my iphone camera. Which do you prefer? 

Digital Camera

iphone camera

They are both touched up to look their best, but they each have such a different look. I'm not quite happy with either, but that's what I got. 

Best to you! A new month awaits, a weekend and I am feeling more like myself. 

Cheers!
Kelly 

linking up with: 

Crazy Mom Quilts

Color Play Applique Mini Quilt Finish

Hello there you! You know what -- I thought wouldn't like hand quilting. When I first started the blocks for this mini quilt I knew it was going to be hand quilted in white; it just fit. But having never tried it before and having no technique what-so-ever I just wasn't expecting to enjoy the process.

And then once I started on the background of the color wheel block - in little tiny 'popcorn' stitches I thought I was going to go insane before I finished. Instead of going crazy, I fell in love. Isn't life funny like that. 

It began with my need for a color wheel. I wanted something I could hang on the wall and reference each time I needed to know what color comes after green. It's like singing the whole alphabet to know what comes after Q. 

Once I finished the color wheel more blocks started coming to me. A crazy 8 point applique contraption. Another color inspired block, this one more complementary. And then the need to finish it and hang it on a wall. That part took longer than expected. 

But now what bliss, that it is finished. I really did enjoy the slow process and the texture of the quilting. I miss having something to work on that does not chain me to the sewing machine in the craft cave. Just relaxing in bed with my son and stitching was really nice.  

Also, I still really do enjoy a good rainbow. I don't think these scrappy rainbows are done with me yet.

Cheers!
Kelly