Tessellations

My initial desire to make this quilt started when I first saw pictures of it online, and when I met Alison Glass at a trunk show she did in Virginia I was hooked. Aside from this being an awesome project and not overly complicated to assemble, Alison is one of the most genuine and nicest people that you could know and has a real passion for her work. 

I bought the pattern that night and held on to it for a while because I had so many other things in the works.  I pulled fabrics to match an awesome piece of Voile backing. 

I then was super lucky to get to take a workshop local with Kathleen Baden and my start on this project was energized and I got like 15 blocks made that day and my solid blocks cut. 

I made a few more in the days following the workshop and then seemingly lost momentum and would only work on it from time to time but every time I remembered why I still loved this project.

I took this project with me to Stash Bash and didn't get around to it and that's probably a good thing because of the distractions that were around me and focus that these blocks need. I elected to make this my OMG goal for May and at least wanted to get the blocks completed -- Ideally also then assembled. 

This did not happen in May because I ran out of month before I found enough motivation to finish all the blocks. I did finish about half of them and only have about 25 more to go. 

When I finally had all my blocks (and a few extra) ready and now started the tedious part of layout but I was able to get things all laid out with the help of Kathleen in early June. My goal became to have a top by the 2nd anniversary of the class (June 15). 

Well that didn't happen so I finished the top on July 4 and sent it out to be quilted by Charlene at @thecottonfarmfabrics 

She did an AMAZING job on this one and I know it's well worth all those stitches to have it home looking this great. 

I had a great time taking some finished pictures at a settlement community near my work -- this place was established nearly 300 years ago.

How great is this Voile back by Anna Maria Horner -- it was the inspiration for the whole quilt. 

This is my 2nd finish in the 4th quarter 2017.   

Don't get tangled up in the spiderwebs

I've always been intrigued by the spiderweb quilt blocks that I've seen and this year I decided that I would have one of my bee hives make blocks up so that i would finally have one. I've been a part of the triple bee swap where we make 3 blocks each per month for the queen and I was the queen in January. I loved having all the blocks come rolling in and I made a big batch as well. 

I got it all assembled and sent off to Charlene for quilting after the Stash Bash retreat. She went with a fun geometric pattern and it turned out great. 

My good friend Teri was having some down time after a knee replacement so I asked if she wanted to bind it for me -- and she awesomely said yes.

I was so glad to get it back before Halloween cause I think it's a good fall pallet and around here temps are starting to be in the 40's and 50's in the evenings and I do love a cuddly quilt. 

The only thing better is a cuddly cat to go with the cuddly quilt and as a matter of fact I have a few of those as well, including my sweet little orphan baby Miss Lula Roe. She's about 6 weeks old and finally over 2 lbs after having been with us for a month from less than a pound when I found her. 

This is my 1st finish of the 4th quarter. 

December Sewing and Stashing

It's been 3 weeks -- sorry folks not much to report over her on the finishes and sewing front but I am slowly healing from by break and working with a physical therapist to hopefully get me back in the sewing room soon -- through motivation and hopefully having more energy to do more than rest when I get home. 

Yearly total going into December was 146 yards used -- I'm hoping to hit at least 150 yards by the end of the year so let's see how the year turned out.

December started out with some time off intended for sewing and celebrating my birthday -- well the sewing part is minimal but hubs did gift me with a trip to visit some sewing shops in Raleigh as a part of my birthday gift -- I got these lovely fabrics (+5 yards).

The Wee Bee With it hive was coming to an end this month and Anita picked Christmas star blocks that are part of the Blossom Heart Quilt Bee Hive blocks. These are going to make a great Christmas quilt. (-1 yd)

For those of you that are on Instagram there was a really fun hashtag going around called #getyourquiltywishesgranted where you could wish for something and if someone had it and wanted to share they could choose to grant your wish. I granted 6 wishes and sent out parcels to various parts of the US -- it felt so good and lightened my fabric room about 10 yards worth. 

My quilty wish was for charm packs of Kate Spain's Christmas fabric lines so that I could make another epic Kate Quilt. People really came through for me and I now have 5 of the charm packs, working toward getting all 6 Christmas lines. (+3 yards) -- still missing the Joy line but it's on it's way.

                     

I finished up my Accuquilt mini #2 and mailed it off to the lovely people at Accuquilt for something fun they have planned. Moat of the fabric was sent to me by them but I pulled another yard to make up for a miss cut that I made. 

My totals in December were 8 yards added, 12 yards removed, total for the month 4 yards used. That brings the yearly total to 150 yards lighter since the beginning of the year. I am pretty proud of this and hope 2016 brings another year of sewing my stash.

Once this foot heals I will be able to fully access my sewing room again and start making backings and new projects that have been on hold during these last 2 months. I'm still in multiple bees next year and it looks like we will be making some really fun blocks and at least that little bit of sewing keeps me going. 

Kate Spain Jewel Box

Kate Spain has long been one of my favorite designers. I've participated in 2 rounds of Charm swaps hosted by Michelle at Crayon Box Quilt Studios and finally put all these lovelies to good use. 

First I had to pick a design -- the fabrics vary in size so I wanted something that would still showcase them well. I went with the Jewel Box block and started whipping up HST and 4 patch units. 

It grew and grew on the design wall and I was loving every part of the process (OK maybe not trimming all those HST -- this photo is only half of them). 

when I finally got the blocks completed I decided that I wanted 4 patches in the pattern to go off the edges so that the quilt looked like it kept going. I pieced it all together and took it to one of my friend's shops to baste it -- kind of concerned about the size and my ability to quilt it but I decided that I would press on.

I also put some awesome KS on the backand pieced in one of my fav prints but I went with the single color version rather than the brightly colored one. 

Early this month I took a weekend away from the car group and took time to get caught up on some things and get things ready for the quilt retreat that was coming up. I managed to quilt it in about 4 hours total and I figured out a way to quilt flowers that is easier for me and results in less points in the middle -- I'll call this Rose quilting. 

I took her with me to Stash Bash to put on the binding because I am so ready to sleep under all this Kate Spain Love. 

Once I finished it all up I had to wait for good weather and my quilt helper to be available on the same weekend but I really love the completed shots that I got while visiting Reynolda Village last weekend

I think this one might be my favorite -- so bright and wonderful. 

I absolutely love this quilt and sleep under it every night now -- you know when the kitties let me. 

Milky Way Medallion Quilt Completed

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Schnitzel and Boo Mini round #4

After the rush of swaps that I did earlier this year I had decided to take a break from swapping for a while and focus on my projects -- well apparently I work much better on all things and get way more accomplished when I have deadlines to keep me going. My goals for the last 6 months have remained the same and my progress on my projects hasn't been very noticeable -- so I decided it was time to dip a toe back into swapping and joined up with just over a thousand other quilters for round 4 of the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap (WOW!!)

I provide lots of information on my sign ups and always seem to get the person that says "make what ever, I'll love it" -- this time was no different but once I did a bit of stalking I knew exactly what I wanted to make and that she'd love it. Our interests were similar, fabric wise and color wise. We even included several of the same patterns in our mosaics so I knew one of these had to be the project that I made for her. 

Color pallet would be brights -- focusing on pink, yellow, teals and greens with splashes of white 

We both love the flowering snowball pattern and I found some templates online to make smaller blocks rather than making 12 inch accuquilt blocks (which I could have done). 

So now it was time to start putting things together and see where this mini wanted to lead me. 

I'm happy with the outcome and sure hopes that my partner loves it as it makes it's long journey to it's new home all the way in Spain. 

Here's another photo in better lighting to see how lovely it really is, I was so hesitant with those wrinkles but they quilted right out. 

Winds of Oz #1

So back in 2014 I designed a block for Accuquilt for a contest -- I think I placed in the top 100. Now while I didn't win a big trip and prize pack I decided that it was time to take this sketch and turn it into an actual mini quilt.

I started on it at the stash bash back in April and got most of the top put together but it needed a little tweaking (esp since my math was not great in the group setting).

I got it to a point that I was happy with and quilted the dickens out of it -- as my friend Kelly would say. I'm pleased with the quilting and how this will make an excellent addition to my quilt room wall.

This year Accuquilt did the contest again but this time the parameters were that the block had to be able to be made using the Accuquilt dies. I reentered my block and placed in the top 20 of the viewers votes -- which for me was awesome. The official winner was chosen by a jury with consideration of votes so again no big trip or prize pack but something great did come from it -- but you're going to have to wait on the details.