Bright Tide Pools

ok! I’m on a roll and loving getting quilts and projects finished! Not half finished in a pile! Now if I can only post them! 

This little one isn’t as old as some of my other WIPS. It’s only about a year in process. For my son’s school auction, I have been putting in a custom quilt. I give them some of my designs to choose from and whoever gets it, gets to pick the colors to make it their own. This is the second time I have done it. You can see the first one, Triangle Mountain, here. And probably the last as the auction was cancelled this year and I don’t think they do it at his middle school. And I honestly get kinda freaked out about whether or not the person is going to like it.

This design came from when I was active in the Quilt Design a Day FB group. I really miss it and need to pick it up again.

Each day there is a prompt picture, like the one above by Michelle Wilke of Factum of Arts Blog. This picture she took of tide pools in the Olympic National Park was te inspiration ‘spark’ where this quilt originated!

From the picture above came this design.

Which turned into this design after I got the color inspiration from the auction winner!

And this is what we ended up with! Not a single square in the mix. one of the things I like about quilting is the puzzle of putting it all together and this one was a real puzzle!

In hindsight, I probably would have made the blocks bigger so that sat closer together, but I like how it turned out.

I used all the scraps for the back. Starting with the little yellow green rectangle in the orange. That was the first block for the front when I realized it was WAY to small! The back started out as a log cabin, but ended up looking like an old TV with the ‘bunny ears’ antenna. the TV is all I can really see at this point. HA!

I think my favorite part of the back is this skinny purple line!

The auction winner wanted it to cover her induction cooktop. At first I was like, ‘No way! That’s a fire hazard, if I’ve ever heard of one!’ Then I googled it and apparently it’s a thing to cover these cooktops with quilts. Very odd to me and it makes me nervous. But It’s what she wanted, so I went with it. I also added inslu-bright so it can act as a huge potholder/hot pad/trivet.

Name : Bright Tide Pools
Design: Original Design
Dimensions: 32 x 21 in.
Quilted: Straight line quilting 

 

 

Triangle Mountain

 

Introducing Triangle Mountain! This is another one that took forever, yet didn’t take forever! A few years ago, I donated a quilt design/custom quilt to my son’s school. I give some design options and the size. they get to pick the colors. Solid colors, because that’s what I do!

But I realized that when I’m quilting for a particular person, it makes me nervous! Kinda like when I tried to be a photographer… I was a stress case! Will they like me? Will they like my pictures? And on and on… Needless to say, that career idea didn’t last long! Back to quilting. I guess that kinda carries over into quilting. I knew the design, and I knew the colors she wanted, but I was nervous she wouldn’t like it! Gifts, no problem. ‘Client’ is where I got stuck!

All the designs I gave as options were designs I had made through the Quilt Design a Day FB group!

This is the inspiration photo from Design Seeds.

And the design that came from the inspiration photo! Obviously, originally it hade a white background, but the ‘client’ wanted a coral background. Originally we were going to use some hand dyed fabric from her mother, but that didn’t happen.

Then by the time I got to adding the background, the Pantone Color of the Year for 2019 had come out. Living Coral! I was so excited! I have had grand intentions every year to participate in the Pantone Quilt Challenge hosted by No Hats in the House and Bryan House Quilts every year and finally I knew I’d have one completed for it! I did it!

I love how the triangles turned out! I was a little intimated by the triangles too! But I found this tutorial from Jaybird Quilts that got me past it! It’s not an earth shattering tutorial, but it gave me that push I needed to realize I could do this! And just look at those corners!!

And I added a couple of matched binding transitions at the corners of the mountain. They aren’t quite the exact same angle, but it’s ok! Still gets the point across!

And the back! I just all the scraps from the triangle in that little pieced box on top. I didn’t have as much as I thought I would!

Such a relief to get this one done, out of the house and to it’s new home! And my ‘client’ was very appreciative and seemed to be very happy with her purchase. Her long, overdue purchase…

Blogger’s Quilt Festival

Hello there! Long time no see… I’ve missed you and thought of you often, but alas, I haven’t written. we went on vacation, then school started and I headed off to a quilt guild retreat. Now it’s all about party planning! ANYWAY….

I’ve never participated in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, but every year I say I will, then I dont… I’m going to this year, gosh darnit! And I’m going to share the quilt I made for the #whatshadeareyou series with RJR Fabrics earlier this year!

I started with one design that I didn’t like and at the last minute switched to this one and am so glad I did! Raindrops on Wildflowers! As I was quilting it, I debated, one big spiral or three spirals? The whole family agreed on three circles. The kiddo said it was like raindrops in water!

The quilt block is obviously something I just made up, but then I realize it was full of inset corners! Ergh… But I remembered they aren’t so bad and I pretty much mastered it! Well, for this block at least! I’ll post a tutorial soon.

The quilt came from a Quilt Design A Day inspiration photo! I Love seeing the QDAD designs turn into a real quilt design. For more on the inspiration check out this post.

And the back is actually a really fun polka dot fabric. The front had to be solids, but you could choose anything for the back. Obviously I had different intentions since it was a different quilt design I ordered the fabric for, but I like the polka dots and stripes together!

 

Running Away- QDAD to Reality

Although I haven’t done one lately, if you follow me on IG, you know I love the Quilt Design A Day challenge!

Yes, this is a quilt from last year… But I haven’t posted about it yet…. Now that we have that out of the way… SO! When I heard that the QDAD group was going to have an exhibit at Quilt Con, I knew I wanted to participate! And I did! And my quilt went to Quilt Con! It was so cool! My first year getting to go to QC and my first year with not one, but two, quilts in QC!

Is this making any sense to you? Are you wondering what I’m talking about?? So the QDAD group has a ‘spark’ every day and it was the same thing with the show. We had the image above, by Michelle Wilkie, that was voted on by the group as I understand (It was before my time in the group) as our spark. It’s a view from the Highline in NY. Sometimes I can come up with a design in the typical 20 minutes that you are encouraged to spend on the design problem. Now this one… Different Story! I started to hate this image!

Here’s a little insight into my design process! This one went through a LOT of transformations! I started with the top left image and moved across the top row. Plus more… Then I switched gears and started moving closer to the final design…

Once I got the design settled, the quilt was a breeze! Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if I spent more time working on the design than the quilt!

There are a couple of things about this quilt that I love. One is the quilting. It’s nothing fancy, but I love how straight and even I got it.

And secondly, I love how the matched binding turned out! I think it really makes the quilt!

And then the back turned out pretty cool, too. I used left over fabric from the front, but also leftover blocks from the front. Now I know there’s some fellow Bama fans out there thinking, what are you doing making a quilt in Auburn colors??? Well, it’s hard for me to believe too, since I was brought up not having a fondness for this color scheme. But I have grown to love the blue and orange together! And remember, I was given the color scheme and fabric colors for this one!

The token label picture…

ok, I just had to throw this behind the scenes photo in. I don’t know why exactly, but I love it!

Let’s go back to QuiltCon for a minute. The coolest part of this challenge was seeing everyone else’s quilts at Quiltcon. We watched each other come up with designs and then execute them. But to get them all together and see how different each one is, even though we all started from the same inspiration photo, was awesome!

These are just a sampking of some of the other quilts from our exhibition:

Top Row (L to R): Windows and Angles by Carol Byrnes; Structural Transparency by Emily Doane; Finding Home by Anne Sullivan and City Lights by Stacey Day

Bottom Row (L to R): City Windows by Carolyn Goonrye; Downstream by Yvonne Fuchs; Bend Don’t Break by Karen Foster and City Squares by Tiffany Baxter.

And back to the beginning! I love how it turned out!

#What Shade Are You with RJR Fabrics

It’s my turn on the RJR What Shade Are You blog hop!! Have you been following along with the #whatshadeareyou series with RJR Fabrics? I started following RJR fabrics when I found the series or blog hop or whatever you want to call it!

What is this # I keep talking about? Each week or so, they feature a quilter with a quilt made from a bundle of RJR Fabric and then have a giveaway of that fabric bundle! The fabric bundle was what originally hooked me, but the quilters are amazing! I’ve found some new quilters to add to my IG feed, for sure. One day they had a call for bloggers interested in participating, so of course I volunteered and they accepted me.

I used the following colors:

Eggnog 228
Canvas 150

Carrot 131
Oriole 314
Bandana 367
tangerine Dream 276
Orange Crush 372

Cove 294
Riviera 274
Luau 376
Turks and Caicos 292
horizon 354

Pistachio 404
Spring 405
Lucky Green 406
Sour Apple 346
Grass is Always Greener 347

2961-001
2960-004
2960-001

Super excited, right?? Yes, I was. Then panic struck! Me being in the lineup with all these other quilters that use tons of different fabric. I typically only use a few different colors in one quilt, but all these others use tons of colors. I remember walking around Quiltcon looking at the quilts with more than just a few colors for inspiration…

Then I decided on a design I had made in one of my office meeting sketches. It was a design I could incorporate a bunch of colors into. The kiddo and I got to work and picked the fabrics, finally… Then they came. And stage fright set in again. And I decided I didn’t want to make the design I was starting to make…

So in came design idea number 2. A Quilt Design A Day design! The ‘spark’ above from Design Seeds inspired my purple design. And that purple design became my #whatshadeareyou quilt! I thought it would be cool, but I still wasn’t sure it would stand up against all the other quilts in the series. Once I started going, it kept growing on me and I liked it more and more! And now I love it! I hope you do too!

I’m calling it Raindrops on Wildflowers! As I was quilting it, I debated, one big spiral or three spirals? The whole family agreed on three circles. The kiddo said it was like raindrops in water!

The quilt block is obviously something I just made up, but then I realize it was full of inset corners! Ergh… But I remembered they aren’t so bad and I pretty much mastered it! Well, for this block at least! I’ll post a tutorial soon.

The front had to be the solids collection, which I love. My go to solid fabric is typically another brand that I won’t mention here… But I might have just been swayed! This fabric is much softer than my usual. And there’s still tons of colors to choose from. No reason this fabric can’t be my new go to!

And the back is actually a really fun polka dot fabric. The front had to be solids, but you could choose anything for the back. Obviously I had different intentions since it was a different quilt design I ordered the fabric for, but I like the polka dots and stripes together!

And stayed tuned… A tutorial and giveaway will be popping up here shortly!

 

Left and Right Quilt Tutorial

Remember my do Good Stitches Left and Right quilt that I wrote about last month?

Honestly, It’s pretty easy…. I’ll show you how we did it. You’ll need 3 colors of fabric for the flying geese, white and a pile of grey scraps. Unfortunately, I don’t have a quantity of how much of each fabric you’ll need. You’ll need to do the math on that based on how large of a quilt your looking for.

image via A Quilters Table

First, we’re making a big batch HST. Have you tried my friend Debbie’s tutorial for big batch HST’s? It’s awesome! You can find it here.

To make your big batch HST’s you’ll need (1) 9×9 square of white for every color 9×9 square. (1) set of 9×9 squares will give you 18 HSTs.

You’ll also need to cut:

(9) 2.5×3.5 white rectangles- (1) for each set of HST (which will make 1 flying geese).
And grey scraps

Once you’ve got your HST’s, we need to add the grey bits! Then line up the ruler so that you are cutting off the tip of the colored edge of the HST, 1.25″ away from the center.

Add small scraps of grey to each corner. I suggest chain piecing at this point. I also didn’t trim the grey scraps. I just made sure they were big enough that once they are folded over, they cover the corner.

Trim each HST block to 2.5 inch squares.

Next, let’s make some flying geese! Sew together 2 HST’s to make your flying geese blocks. Chain piece again.

Sew the 2.5×3.5 rectangles on to the left side of each HST block. Make sure they are all pointing in the right direction.

Then do it again and again and again for each of the three colors.

OK, from here on out, I don’t have very good pictures!

Sew the blocks together along line 1, shown above, first. Do this with all the flying geese blocks.

Next take the double flying geese blocks and sew them together along line 2, shown above. Be sure to backstitch at the top and bottom of each!

And do that until you get length you want of the each of the rows of each color. Add strips of white between and you’re done!

There are a lot of little blocks, but they go pretty fast, especially if you chain piece them!

What do you think? Will you make it? If you do, please let me know! Can’t wait to see it!

Left and Right- Do Good Quilt Finish!

It’s long overdue, but I did finish another quilt! Another Nurture Circle do. Good Stitches Quilt!

Remember how I do those Quilt Design a Day projects? I haven’t posted any of those on the blog recently, either… Well, this quilt started as one of those designs! (you can see the group here)

This was the prompt we had! This silly picture of heart shaped sunglasses by design seeds was the inspiration. I took this and came up with this…

I got some great feedback on this design, so I knew I wanted to make it into a quilt. I thought the variation of fabric from a quilt bee would make this quilt fantastic!

And, if I do say so myself, I think it turned out pretty fantastic!

I think it was a pretty easy block for the group to make. Each person made 18 half square triangle blocks, 6 of each color. You can find all the directions here. I’ll post the directions to the blog shortly!

I’m so in love with the colors! And the variations on each color that came from all the members.

For the back I made a play on scale and made the one of each flying geese, but BIG! I always try to avoid these pictures with the wind, but I love how this one shows the little ones on the front juxtaposed next to big ones!

This picture shows the quilting the best. I did my usual straight line quilting, but at an angle with the flying geese. Then did a little stitch in the ditch along the flying geese to get the zigzags.

And of course, my label picture! I had fun photographing this one at the boathouse where we recently had our SMQG retreat with the help of Allison Sews and Snippets of Sweetness!

And I can mark this one off of my 2017 Finish A Long Quarter 1 List! Linking up here.

 

 

Quilt Design a Day

Have you seen people post pictures of their quilt designs for Quilt Design a Day? I’ve seen people post them and I’ve been very intrigued! There have been a few of Michelle’s Wilke’s QDAD designs, that I’d love to see as a pattern. So I finally joined the QDAD Facebook group and have started doing some on my own!

How it works is someone (not sure how that someone is chosen yet…) posts a picture (the second picture above) and you use that as design and color inspiration to use while you spend about 15 to 20 minutes to design a make a quilt design!

The one above is my very first one…. I do kinda like it. One person commented that it almost looks like a sewing machine!

My plan was to do this on my phone on my commute every day. I was having trouble finding an app. First I started with the Paper app. It’s really cool, but not for this. I tried a couple others, but they didn’t work. Then I tried the Illustrator app. I’m sure it’s great, but I couldn’t figure it out…. That’s what I used for the one above.

Then I moved to Photoshop on my computer for this next one. I totally see some bias tape at work on this one…

And now I’ve found it! The right app! I’m so excited! Another group member suggested the app, Assembly. And it’s perfect for this. I’m figuring out how to use it and looking forward to doing these every day.

My commute is only about 20 minutes each way, which is awesome! But it doesn’t leave me time to do much like cross stitch or sew hexies, or anything like that. I play solitaire. Which is supposedly good for exercising the brain…. But I’d rather be creative. And I think I found a way to do just that!