Blogger’s Quilt Festival- Kaleidoscope

For my second entry in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, I decided to enter my Kaleidoscope mini/doll quilt.

This is another one that I LOVE, but gave away! I made this for the flickr Doll Quilt Swap.

This was a little one that I sketched and then fell in love with! My intention was not that it would match the drawing exactly, but once I saw the sketch and the undulating patterns, I knew I had sketched it just how I wanted it to be!

The colors were picked by my partner in the swap. But, yes, I love them too! The back used the same colors. And since I quilted in the ditch for this one, on the back it ended up looking like a spider web. Kinda hard to see in this picture though.

The mini wall hanging ended up being about 18 inches square And was done all by little ‘ole me!

Did you enter the Blogger’s Quilt Festival this year???

Blogger’s Quilt Festival- Star Quilt

Over the years I’ve been seeing the Blogger’s Quilt Festival online and always wanted to participate, but never have. So even though I’m on vacation, I decided I’d play along this year and enter a quilt or two!

For the Group/Bee Quilt category, I’m  sharing a quilt that you have seen before quite recently…. The Nurture Group of do. Good Stitches Star quilt.

I’ve had a bit of an obsession about star quilts lately, as you probably know. Which means when it was my time to pick a block design I decided to use my own star block tutorial and have the group help me make the stars!

Each group member made 2 blocks, and size and any bright color! Once my son and I decided on the layout the quilt finished around 46” by 60”.  The group decided to hang it in the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild’s Star show coming up next month and then it will go to our group’s charity, My Very Own Blanket.

I quilted it in a star pattern as well. Starting with the one in the bottom and working out from there across the quilt! I love how it turned it. I do hope whoever receives it loves it as much as my household does!

Quilting for Boston

The recent events in Boston are absolutely horrible and I do not have a clue how people can do these types of things to others. In any case, the quilting community is coming together to show that despite the hatred in our world, there is still love, too. The love part just doesn’t get as much TV news press. I guess it’s not as ‘exciting’ for the press. Ok, if you can’t tell, I have an opinion, but I’ll keep the rest of it to myself since I’m supposed to be sharing the love here in this post!

I’ve participated in two projects for the Boston area! The first one is the To Boston with Love project. This project was started by the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild as a collaborative effort of quilters ‘to bring peace and love from far and wide.’ The idea is, in my words, to give Boston a hug. To let them know that the world is thinking of them!

The flags will be exhibited by The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from May 23-June 16, 2013!

My flag didn’t turn out quite the way I had envisioned it. I wanted it to be a little improv and not perfect. And it did turn out that way, I just had it looking different in my head!

I went with the blue and yellow color scheme from my next project, Quilts for Boston project. More about that shortly!

 

This project became a little impromptu project for our quilt guild. We had a few participatns and a bunch of really great flags!  I wasn’t able to be at the meeting, so I’m not sure who all else participated. Once I find out names, I’ll add the credits for the flags!

And then I also participated in the Quilts for Boston call for quilt blocks from the Boston Modern Quilt Guild. In the aftermath the guild was looking for a way to help those that had been directly affected by the bombing. They decided to make quilts and are looking for blocks and donations of fabric for the backs and bindings, etc.

For this project you have until May 24th, 2013 to get your blocks to the guild. All the information, size, colors and address are all listed on their blog here.

Personally, I love the colors! I can’t wait to see the finished quilts!

See… I really do love the colors! Inadvertently, (no, I wasn’t planning a blogging photo-shoot when I bought this cutting mat) I just bought a new cutting mat that just happens to be blue and yellow!

Fab Little Quilt Swap

Yes, another one! I kinda overloaded on swaps this spring! I think I might have to sit some out for the next rounds…

But it’s hard when they are so much fun! And I included a little La Petite Pouch and one of my new favorite quilting tools, a Frixion pen.

 

This one was a little quilt that I thought was a shooting star. Then someone said it looked like a kite with it’s tails flowing behind. I actually like that description even better!

It began looking like this… And it just needed something…

So  I added something!

I’m loving the hand stitching and the embroidery thread. Now I just need to learn a few ‘real’ stitches!

And the back looked like this with my little tag.

 

And are you wondering what I got in this swap???

This amazing bundle from She Can Quilt! And boy can she quilt! I saw this piece during the progress photos and loved it! LOVED it. Then I saw her quilting and was really in love.

Check it out. It’s amazing! This quilting seems to be her style! Very cool!

And this is what it looks like.

Have you joined a swap yet???

do. Good Stitches Star Quilt

The second quilt for our do. Good Stitches group is FINALLY complete!  And I can say that because I was the quilter for the February quilt!

I was the quilter, but I can’t say I created the quilt by myself! As a quilter, you get to pick the block and the colors. Then each person in the group makes the blocks and sends them to you. Then the quilter pieces it and quilts it. So I had the help of the group making all the fantastic blocks from my wonky star tutorial!

And then I had the help of my kiddo to lay the whole thing out!

I love how the stars came together! I don’t know who well you can see it, but the quilting is the outline of the bottom star and it repeats out over the rest of the quilt. I really like it, just wish you could see it a little bit better on the front!

My request was to use bright colors for the star on a white background. Then as I was putting it together I realized that my ‘white’ was actually a creamy white. WHat really stood out bad was the pieceing of my cream fabric between the white background of the stars. So I redid my stars, which left me with some extra stars. One ended up being my SMQG name tag. The other ended up on the back!

If you are the quilter for, let’s say February, then you actual make the quilt in March. Unfortunately, I didn’t get all the blocks in time before my surgery and then my surgery set me back… So I didn’t actually finish my quilt until the end of April.

I guess when it gets done isn’t the important part. The important part is finishing the quilt for the charity our group quilts for!

 

Shared with these Link Parties!

Hello, My Name Is…

The Seattle Modern Quilt Guild is getting more and more organized! I’ve been a member for the last few years, but haven’t been very involved. As in in the last few years, I’ve been to about 3 sew-ins. Over the last few years that I’ve been involved, the main thing that the group did was the sew-ins. But this year we’ve become a true guild! With monthly meetings and monthly challenges!

A couple of months ago, the challenge was to make a nametag. I somehow missed the challenge announcement, then forgot about it for a month. So, I finally threw it together in time for last week’s meeting.

I had been working on my do. Good quilt and made my stars. Then put them together with the other stars and realized my white fabric was really a cream fabric! So I redid my blocks and ended up with 2 extra wonky stars. Ah, Ha! Perfect for my name tag! I was supposed to incorporate our logo into the nametag, but couldn’t figure out where to add it. Do you think I should? Here are a few ideas I thought about…

Or do I just leave it as it is?

It’s kinda big…. The size was determined based on the size of the star, so it is what is it with that.

Sooooo… Hello, my name is Louise!

 

Shared with these Link Parties!

The Pinking Shears Pouch Tutorial at Go To Sew!

As you know I recently made this pouch as a pouch for pinking shears for my latest swap.

Then the other day I bought a pencil box for my son. As we were walking out of the store, I was struck by a moment of confusion…. Um, why did I just buy that when I could make one, super fast and for the same price (if not less, since this only uses scraps)???? No clue! I just kept on walking….

I call it a pinking shears pouch, but it can be an eyeglass case, a marker pouch, a credit card holder, a cash holder…. Basically anything you want to hold….

Ready? It’s simple! Go to Go To Sew for the tutorial!

 

Shared with these Link Parties!

A Foxy Sewing Machine Cover!

I had a request for a custom sewing machine cover from my friend Jenny at The Southern Institute. And of course, I said yes. I asked if she had any preferences and she mentioned foxes and birds.

And that’s what she got!

I love love love this little fox! I had seen this fox bag on Flickr and favorite-ed it right away. It ends up that the fox is from the paper-pieced pattern Lil’ Fox by Artisania. And I bought the pattern! The pattern is for a 8×10 image, which made the fox too big for my project. I ended up printing it at half scale and piecing from that. It’s actually my first paper piecing project, I think. Yeah, it is. So of course I couldn’t make it easy and do it nice and big like the instructions. Instead I decided to work with little tiny pieces of fabric!

I also changed the eyes a bit. It’s kinda my thing. On almost all of my earlier work (this project isn’t old, but it shows some old ones nad it’s the same designs as my old ones!), I used to show the sweet closed eyes, so I kept with it here.

I stopped, stepped back and looked before I made it into the machine cover. I honestly love it as a mini quilt as well!

But a mini quilt wasn’t where I was going, was it???? Nope! My original design idea had the fox next to a forest with a big tealish blue sky, but I wasn’t sure how I wanted to make the forest… The I came across this Birch Forest fabric by Micheal Miller and it all came together! I was at the shop, getting things straight, and saw a piece in the fat quarter pile and it hit me! Perfect!

And I’m totally in love with this Oh, Deer fabric from Moda. I like for the inside fabric to relate on some level to the outside and I thought this forest theme went quite nicely! I really really want to make something for myself out of this fabric, but not sure what… Any ideas?

This was the first time I have used different sides! Typically I have left the sides a solid color, but this time I wanted to carry the forest over to the side, but knew it wouldn’t work on both sides. So we ended up with different sides this time!

It took me way to long to actually get this to Jenny, but I finally did and I think she likes it!!

Shared with these link parties!

Modernista Homemade Swap #3

Yep, I did it again… I signed up for three swaps this spring. Why?? I don’t know. I can’t seem to say NO. Luckily there is only one due a month…

The Modernista Homemade Swap was last month. I almost missed the deadline too…. I even wrote to the Swap Mama this long email about how I couldn’t get it done on time, blah blah blah… I never heard back from here and then saw that the deadline had been changed from Saturday the 30th to today, the 1st!!! Yea!!! So luckily I’m going not to be kicked out of the swap next round…..

My partner originally had one color scheme, but then moved and changed her color scheme. With the swaps you are supposed to ‘stalk’ your partner, since you can’t talk directly to them. So I checked out her new pinterest page and it was full of pictures of grey, white and teal. And there were also images of art that said things like, ‘Love builds a happy home’ and ‘Love is spoken Here.’

As soon as I saw the colors and the art picks, I knew exactly what I wanted to do….

I had been wanting to make this heart since I had seen it around the web time and time again. Now I had the perfect opportunity!

I used the same technique that I used to make my Where I Live postage stamp quilt. I love watching it shrink! Except for those quick moments of fear when you turn it over and the corners don’t line up because you haven’t finished sewing a section. It happens a couple of times. Then I remember that’s the 1/4inch allowance that I haven’t sewn yet… Oh, yeah, and then I’m back on!

I tried my hand at a little embroidery work. Inspired by the art prints I had seen. It’s not the best, but I think it turned out cute. I was going to make more of one of the saying, but then got nervous that my partner might not like my lack of embroidery skills, so I left it sweet and short!

For the small second item, I made a pinking shears pouch. It’s a quilted pouch with bound edges.

Even though the pouch is probably not going to be used in the same room as the pillow, I still made them match. And I used all my teal scraps…. STay tuned for a tutorial on how I did the pouch.

And I decided to add a little something to the back. As I was cutting the pieces for the front, I had a few extra, so I threw it on the back. And it turns out the back actually holds it own as a design, I think!

I love how the stitching on the sides makes it look really clean and fresh.

And I received my package! The colors are perfect for our living room. Love the orange, brown and yellows. My swap gift was a lap quilt and some quilted coasters from a.quilter.2. Too cute!

And now I’m on to my next swap and think I’ve already figured it out! This is going to be a month of quilting for sure. Hopefully I can get a little something else in….

 

Shared with these Link Parties!

WIP’s This Wednesday

I was debating on what to chat about today… Since my surgery, I wasn’t getting a lot of sewing time in, until just the other day. I have finished a few projects, but I’m not ready to share. And then I remembered all those confusing WIP Wednesday posts I used to see on other quilting blogs. WHAT are they talking about??? I don’t know if I should even admit how long it took me to realize what WIP means…

Works in Progress!

Hello???

I’m super excited about how my project for the Modernista Homemade swap is coming along. My son, once again, helped lay out the pieces!

And I got a pile of fabric today! I was asked by my son’s preschool to help with a few auction items. One is the Decorations for the main event. But also my son’s class project is going to be a quilt this year. I got to design it! There are going to be a white block that the kids make with a Kaleidoscope like block between each white one. I think it’s going to be cool!

quilt by Ellen Luckett Baker, image via The Long Thread

 

Have you seen The Long Thread’s Kaleidoscope Quilt??? It totally inspired my idea! I think it’s just fantastic!! I’ve been watching the progress, but watched, not read, is key here. I mean it’s totally eye candy!  I just actually did read about it and it was for her child’s school auction too! How funny!!!