A quilted finish: PMQG Medallion Quilt

As a 2014 officer for Portland Modern Quilt Guild I had the opportunity to work and collaborate with a bunch of amazing people. My fellow officers were awesome and I am happy to call them friends. One of the coolest things we did for the guild this year was to design a medallion quilt for an alternative to a block of the month program. It worked really well and we have almost 20 finished quilts hung up at our December party and I know there are more out there to be finished in 2015.

I'm gonna be honest here, if I wasn't an officer I probably wouldn't have taken this project on, but I am so happy that I did! The pace was just perfect with just one new boarder each month and I started it with the intention of it being just for me so I chose fabrics that were my favorite. 

Making this quilt throughout the year taught me so much about my own personal quilting style. I am now 100% sure about the colors that speak to me and patterns I'm drawn to. There are my favorite vintage fabrics in there and lots of DS Quilts; this quilt is so much me and I love it.

To finish I straight-line-quilted it with an all over grid 2" apart on the diagonals. And thanks to precise piecing lines match up! I backed it with a vintage sheet and a line of yellow gingham to bring it up to size. 

This is the first quilt to be able to live on our bed but for bittersweet reasons. Our kitty of 14 years passed away over Christmas. I was unable to put a quilt on the bed because she would claw things. It was in her final days I finished the binding and put the quilt on our bed. I know, sad face. 

My final quilt of 2014 turned out to be my best quilt ever and set me up nicely for 2015. Happy New Year! 

Cheers, 

Kelly

A quilted finish: Early Americana

Hello there, I will say it. It has been a while since I sat to write a blog post about my quilty endeavors. It is too much fun to just sew and there has been much to be sewn! Lots of quilts got finished and I hope to share them all in due time but the first and most rewarding was the quilt I made for my mother-in-law that she commission me to design and make.

It started last year she asked me to make her a queen sized quilt for her beautiful Amish sleigh bed. I happily accepted and we picked out a basic pattern (she was drawn to an Irish chain) and then we went to Fabric Depot and selected a palate of blue, green, red and tan. I choose the white to make the other shades pop.

To design the quilt I use a very basic program called Quilt! 1-2-3, it allows you to form a very traditional layout with blocks, sashing and borders. Once you have a layout you can select blocks to put in the quilt and then it gives you a cutting guide to make the block. Very simple but handy for designing and getting the quilt math right!

I slowly sewed the blocks together until I had a 90"x83" quilt top! The backing for the quilt was picked out on our trip to Fabric Depot but when I went there to buy it they didn't have the 9 yards I needed for a solid backing. Luckily the good folks at Fabric Depot ordered me up a new bolt. But before I could quilt it I had to de-thread the back. Necessary evils. Like flu shots or DMV stuff.

Quilting a gigantic quilt like this was not gonna happen on my trusty Viking 830. Another stroke of luck was that my wonderful friend and guild mate Nancy just happens to own an amazing quilting studio where I was able to rent time on a long arm machine! That was an experience I will not forget! Nancy helped me load it onto the quilt frame and I was ready to go!

When I went in to quilt - I had a plan. I had been researching quilting patterns and found one that fit the shape of the quilt white space and went well with a simple corner to corner filler pattern for the rest of the blocks. I really wanted those white middle blocks to shine in the quilting. I think I got it. My side fillers are really fun to, they remind me of 1950's future star shape.

I quilted it in 5 hours, just before my MIL's plan landed at PDX. I hurriedly made binding for it - in that great red French General by Moda - and spent our vacation with her stitching the binding down here and there. I think she saw how much time goes into a quilt. It is mind boggling what we do sometimes. But each stitching is worth the results.

She took it back home with her on the plane to NY and it now lives in her bedroom on that beautiful bed keeping her and her man nice and warm.

It feels nice to write again;
Cheers!

Kelly

Quilted Finish: QAL Value Play Pantone Quilt

Hello! I am usually excited but today I am really excited to share with you a finished quilt that does double duty as a Pantone Challenge Quilt and a Quilt with Me quilt along (QAL) finish! When I started the QAL I had no idea there was a radiant orchid Pantone Quilt Challenge happening in these same colors. How cool that purple is making it's way into modern quilting. Purple can be a hard color to work with but when paired with a neutral like grey it allows the colors to shine through. If you'd like to make this quilt then stay tuned I'll have all the links you need below. But for now enjoy the photos of my value play quilt!

Full Quilt Front

Quilt detail front

Quilt Back: pieced with leftover fabrics

Quilt Back Detail

Quilt Back and Scrappy Binding Detail:

  Zig Zag Binding using Stitched in Color Tutorial

Quilt Detail

Quilt and FMQ Detail: Echo Triangle Quilting

This quilt is a crib size measuring at 36" x 54". It will be listed in my Esty Shop. 

Thanks for looking and thank you to the Pantone Quilt Challenge Hostess:  On the Windy Side and Play Crafts

Here is a list of all links to the QAL posts to make this quilt!

Fabric Choices

Cutting Instructions

Sewing Instructions

Backing, Quilting, Binding Resources

Cheers!

Kelly 

Finished Quilt: Cowboy Wild Goose Chase

Instead of an explanation in words how I made this quilt I thought it would be better to share the process in photographs. So be warned, lots of yummy quilt pictures. Enjoy! 

I made that! :)
Cheers,

ps. I'm going to  be hosting a Quilt Along soon, for this quilt. I'm writing and working on it now, want to join? hee.hee!

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

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.

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