Learning how to Paper Piece, Kaleidoscope Blocks

I've been shying away from paper piecing for years!  I was afraid of it, just like I was afraid of applique.    When I saw this beautiful pillow made by Kerri at Lovely Little Handmades, I knew I had to bite the bullet and just go for it.  She said she used this tutorial by Brooke of Pitter Putter Stitch.  Don't you just LOVE the internet and blogging?  I find so much inspiration from everybody.

I chose navy blue, grass green and a natural linen.  The navy and greens were all scraps!  I'm trying to use scraps you guys, and it's still hard for me LOL!  I traced my paper pieces onto regular lined writing paper, and went to town making these blocks.

Since my sewing machine is in the shop getting a good cleaning, I haven't been able to sew this into a pillow yet.  I used a green Perle 8 cotton thread to hand quilt it.

This video also helped me a lot!!  I like having some visual references for sure.

And like two days after I pieced this all together, Rita at Red Pepper quilts had made a template and put it up for FREE at her Craftsy site.  Go download it!  It made me laugh, we are all on the same wavelength apparently.  Enjoy!!

Another Senior Quilt!

One of the youth that attend the church group I help teach graduated this year.  It has been fun seeing her go through the past few years of high school to grow up and become a beautiful and successful person.  Karigan asked Barbara and I to make a quilt for her.  Last year the girls wanted to make their own, or help make them.  I had a layer cake of an old Tula Pink line in my stash, so I added some matching prints to it and made this basic quilt for her.  I wish I would have had more time to make something a bit more "fancy" for her, but this is pretty too.  Barbara quilted it on her longarm in a pretty loop pattern.

I took my sewing machine in to be serviced, it takes two weeks! I get to attend our church young women camp next week for 5 days, I can't wait! I love girls camp, it's always fun.  It will be interesting to go as an adult I am sure :)  Today is the last day of school for my kids as well.  The year really went fast.  I've got all kinds of adventures planned for our summer vacation, I can't wait for it to start!

A few weeks ago we went to Washington D.C. to attend Mark's brothers wedding.  We had a wonderful time.  Here we are in front of the Capitol building.  Look at how big my kids have gotten.  Curren starts 7th grade in the fall, and Jessie 6th grade.  They are going to be 18 before I know it...

Phillip's T-Shirt Quilt

My friend approached me about making a t-shirt quilt for her son Phillip, who just graduated this year.  Congrats Phillip!  She had kept shirts clear back from the 3rd grade, he loves basketball, and she had all of his team shirts too.  It was great!  I had a good time cutting them up and making this big quilt for him.

I hadn't ever tried making a t-shirt quilt before, so I searched the internet for tutorials.  I found a great one over at Bunkhouse Quilts.  I found the interfacing at Joann's, it was really easy to do.

I went with my friend to choose all of the fabrics to make the quilt, I wanted to do a cohesive layout with the shirts, rather than random patchwork.  We chose a tone on tone gray, and navy for the sashing and a fun plaid for the border.  We put a navy flannel on the back too, it's a huge quilt!

I had my neighbor kids hold it up for me, on the trampoline netting haha!

Now, I need to start saving my kids' t-shirts :)

Craftsy class with Sarah Fielke

I've heard about Craftsy for quite awhile, and had wanted to try their classes, but didn't find the right one, until I saw the class by Sarah Fielke.  I love her work so much, and she had many techniques that she taught in her class that I wanted to know more about, so I finally signed up and tried it out.  The Craftsy website is super simple to use, and the classes couldn't have been better!  Sarah was really intuitive, and when I'd think a question in my head, she'd almost immediately answer it in her video haha!

I have been wanting to learn more about applique.  I had tried it a long time ago and really hated the process, but got over it, and decided to try again.  I loved it!  I took this on a recent family vacation and stitched it on the airplane, in the car, at the park, and suddenly it was finished.

It finished at about 24" square after I added the border.  I think I'm going to make a huge pillow for my bed!  Isn't it so pretty??  Another lesson I learned was to use my scraps.  I HATE using scraps.  It seems like whenever I'd pull scraps for a project, I wouldn't have the right size, it'd be too small, etc.  Anyways, this was a good exercise for me, and it loosened me up to not have it be too matchy, and to just make it fun!

I also hand quilted it using perle cotton thread.  I bought a big hoop at Joann's for $4.00 and went crazy.  I loved that part too!  

You learn things like how to make the bias stems, and nifty ways to trace your fabric pieces for needle turn applique.  I am so glad I signed up for this class. I have a huge project I am dying to make now, another Sarah Fielke pattern called Whirligig.  It is from her book Quilting from the Little Things.

Here is to new inspiration!!

A sweet little Posy quilt

I love the new fabric line by Aneela Hoey called Posy!  I picked up a fat eights bundle and cut it up the next day.  The soft springy colors were mesmerizing me haha!  I decided to make another quilt from the book Schnibbles times Two, by Carrie Nelson.  I love her patterns a lot, they are so great.  I had to modify the pattern however, a fat eight is only 9" across, and the book needed 10" squares, so the blocks are a bit smaller, but they still look great, and really used up all of the fabric.

The colors in my backyard are really vibrant this spring, it's a perfect setting for photos.

I used the stripes in the center of each block.

It's all washed and ready to go!

I used a matching mint floral print on the back that I had in my stash.

This quilt is for sale in my Etsy shop!  

Navy and Gray Log Cabin Quilt

So, I had about two months to make this quilt.  My husband's brother Mat got married last week out in Washington D.C., and I of course, had to make him a quilt.  I have been dying to make a quilt like the one at Hyacinth Quilt Designs.  Go look at her Modern Courthouse Steps and tell me you don't want to make one too!

I am in love with Navy right now, I am adding it to all of my quilts lately.  It's a manly color right?  I knew I couldn't go wrong with it.  It started out small.  I wanted to add a pop of color, so I chose lime green.  I dug out all of the navy and gray from my stash and cut 2-1/4" strips from the fabrics.

I added a few rows a day.

 I got to where I liked the size and decided to add a border.

I added another skinny 1/2" lime green border all of the way around and then swapped the border colors to be opposite.  My husband suggested it saying it gave the "pyramids" a base.  Good choice!

I used up my leftover navy strips and made them into the binding.

I had a lot of fun quilting this quilt too!

Mat and Amber loved their quilt, it was so fun to make, and I finished the binding on the airplane, I was so glad to have it done in time!

Triple Crown Quilt Finished

I did it, I came in under the wire, it took me *almost* one year to complete this quilt.   I started this quilt last year at Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe, at a class with Sandy Klop.  She was such a sweetheart, and I learned a lot from her!  I wrote a big post about it.  It took me awhile to finish because of those silly appliqued circles, I didn't know how to get them on there, and finally one of my friends inspired me, and I got them done.  After that it was a quick finish.  The pattern is called Triple Crown and you can find it at the American Jane website.

The sun is shining here, so I took it outside for some pictures.

I love the zigzag edges!

I did a meandering loop-de-loop quilting pattern on it with white thread.

I love the colors, it used a Bliss jellyroll by Bonnie & Camille for Moda, and some other matching fabrics that were needed.  I but a Bliss aqua dot flannel on the back, and it's super soft.  I can't wait to start using it!

I did it, I cut up my favorite fabrics and made a quilt!

I know there are many of you out there, you hoard your fabrics, those precious fat quarters and half yards of fabric you bought years ago, that are out of print and you can no longer buy.  Well, my fabric that I hoard is Neptune, by Tula Pink.  I love it so much!  I had quite a bit saved up, and then Tula came out with another fabric line recently called Prince Charming.  The colors were very similar to Neptune, so I combined the two together to make a quilt.

I started this quilt back in March of 2012, here's the post all about it!

The pattern I used is called Radio Flyer by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company.

It took me awhile to finish this quilt, because it's really big.  I wasn't sure I could quilt it on my machine.  I ended up giving it to Barbara to quilt on her longarm instead.   She used an aqua thread in a swirl design, she did an amazing job!

I wanted this quilt for my couch, so it had to be warm and heavy (my living room gets so cold)  So, I picked up this minky from Fabric Depot.  I didn't put batting in it, the minky is so heavy and thick, that it wasn't necessary.  Also, the quilt has a really nice drape to it.  

It was worth it to cut up my favorite fabric, now I can enjoy it every day!

Spring Time Quilt

I was in the mood for a little bright and cheery spring time color!  I whipped out this quilt and loved every minute of it.  I used a fat quarter bundle of fabric called Farm Fresh, by Riley Blake and added in a few matching fabrics from my stash.  It turned out so happy :)

I used a Heather Bailey print on the back of the quilt with a green strip going down the middle.  They matched the front perfectly.

It's all ready to go now, for sale in my Etsy Shop!

Making a few pillows from Pillow Pop!

I picked up a book that was written by my friend Heather over at Alamode fabric!  It is called Pillow Pop, and has so many beautiful pillow patterns that her and her friends had collaborated on for swaps.  I fell in love with this book, and am on a quest to make all of them.  Pillows are great for trying new things, like paper piecing, or different color ways.  Here are three that I have made so far.

First up is a beachy, and happy pillow.  In the book, Heather used aquas and the plus was an orange.  I changed mine to yellow, and did some hand quilting on it to make it "pop" out.

It was fun choosing the aquas from my stash.  I love aqua, as you all know, and this pillow has all of my favorite fabrics in it.

I used a simple closure on the back, with a pop of aqua.

Next up is my favorite layout for half square triangles.  I love the barn raising layout so much!  It has a lot of visual impact.  I challenged myself to use purple.  It's not ever my first choice for color, and this was a stretch for me, but I love how happy it is.

I did straight line quilting with a green thread only in the green diamonds, simple and effective.

The backing was a fabric I've had forever and ever.  It was perfect for this pillow!

And finally my most favorite of them all so far.  My friend Barbara made a cathedral windows table runner, and I have been loving the pattern ever since.  When I saw this in the book, I was nervous to try it, but dove in feet first.  There are many tutorials online for this, so I looked them over before I started.  It is mostly just a lot of ironing!  It was simple to do once I got the hang of it.

I've been seeing the color combination of aqua and coral in the stores for awhile now, and wanted to makes something with the colors, I love this pillow!

I used several fabrics from the Tula Pink Salt Water line, and some Kaffe Fasset shot cottons for the solids.  And of course polkadots, you have to have those.  The aqua I've had for awhile now, it's by Basic Gray for Moda, a grunge fabric.

So, have I convinced you to go and make some new pillows yet??

A Quilting Getaway with Friends

I was lucky being able to get away with my friends last weekend for 3 days!  We went to my friend Barbara's beach house in Seaside, Oregon.  We had such a wonderful time.  I brought a lot of things that were *almost* done, so I felt like I accomplished a lot.

Barbara, Joni and I checking out the beach with Lewis & Clark.

The weather was AMAZING the whole time we were there.  We took walks out to get lunch and rode bicycles around town.  I loved it.

Becky and I had bought a quilt kit from Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe several years ago (we can't even remember!) and decided it was time to start cutting into it.  I'll show you more pictures of this quilt as I make more progress.  There was A LOT of cutting for this quilt too.

We ate a lot of really good food haha!

Becky and I couldn't stop laughing at ourselves and the millions of triangles we had to cut out of jellyroll strips.

We took them outside and shook out the fuzzies.  Those pre-cuts can make a mess!

We had to visit The Center Diamond in Cannon Beach of course.

A stack had to come home with me of course.

At one point I feared the table would collapse under 5 sewing machines and piles of fabric... but it managed to hold up!

It is my month for bee blocks, everybody finished up their swoon blocks to give to me!  I am soooo excited for this quilt.

Until next time!  I love my friends so much, we had a great weekend.