Nurture Circle Quilts of do.Good Stitches

I haven’t been around for a while and I’ve missed the ‘ole blog! It’s also been even longer since I’ve shown the quilts I’ve taken part in with the Nurture Circle of do. Good Stitches group! As you may or may not know, I have been a part of this online quilting bee for years! I’ve shared the quilts I’ve made with the awesome women in my group. But it’s been ages since I’ve shown off what they have done!

As a reminder, this is an online bee with 10 members. 5 of us design and make the quilts. All 10 of us make a least 1 block per month, usually 2 or more, for the quilts. Then once they are done, they are donated to one of our group members who runs the quilt Charity in Texas, Covered in Love.

This quilt was the August 2016 (see, it’s been a while!) group quilt designed by Briawna at Purple Poppy Quilts. We were asked to make 8 paper piecing kaleidoscope blocks  with solids and low volume fabrics. The block we used were from The Quilter’s Cache website. And then she took our blocks and made this awesome rainbow quilt!

Next up, the 2016 September quilt…

This one was designed by Carla from the Modern Bias blog.  We actually used the Crosscut Block from one of my best quilty buddies, Debbie, over at A Quilters Table. Carla just changed the size of the blocks.

photo via Carla’s Flickr

Not only did we send her our blocks, but we also sent her our left over pieces. We ended up having two quilts that month!

photo via kat and cat quilts

The one on the right is one of them. The one on the left is one I sent that i had done earlier, the Modern Sampler Quilt.

photo via Kat’s Flickr

The second on we got from our extra blocks was a group effort with Carla piecing it and Gabrielle quilting it!

Next up, January 2017!

This one was design by our Texas friend, Kat, from Kat and Cat Quilts. And yes, the one who runs our quilt charity! This one is a stitch and flip block and we made a mini strip and flip block. Instead of ROY-G-BIV our rainbow was only a OY-G-B rainbow! You can find the tutorial on our group Flickr page.

photo via Kat’s Flickr

And it came together beautifully!

And in February, Dhia, from Peach Patch Quilts, chose hearts!

You can find the directions to the big heart, based on Michael Miller’s Cupid’s arrows quilt, on Dhia’s blog here. The little ones are from a Cluck Cluck Sew tutorial.

photo via Dhia’s Flickr

This one reminds me of warm Nordic sweater (I think they are called something else, but I’m blanking on it!)! I love it!

And our last one for today is the March 2017 block.

March of 2017, Briawna chose to use a tutorial from Andy Knowlton for scrappy flying geese. We made two blocks, one with gray on the right and one with gray on the left. Then I asked them to keep the tiny scraps for an upcoming quilt!

photo via Briawna’s IG

And there we have it! Five Nuture Circle quilts to show! I need to get on quilting the Nurture Circle quilts I have finished in my pile. There are more to show, so stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

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The Kiddo’s First Quilt

It’s been quite a long time in the making, but the kiddo finished his first quilt!

And he’s pretty excited about it. We was super excited in the beginning, then lost interest and only kept working on because I’d nag him about it. Until he started to see it was almost done! Then he got reenergized about it! Not that that’s too unusual even with us grown-up

He started back in June of 2013. I wasn’t working my full time professional and was enjoying some time in a little quilt shop. I’d close the shop and run pick him up from preschool and then we’d head back to the shop. One day he got really excited about making his own quilt. We picked out the fabric and step a stool for the pedal, a bunch of cushions in the chair and he was off. For a few rows anyway….

Then we got it back out again about 5 months later… And there were a couple of other rows added on between 2013 and 2017, but not too much!

Last year he finished the piecing of both the top and back. Yes, he did it all himself! He even helped me baste the top, back and batting! And then he tried out quilting…

Before really quilting! I helped move the quilt and keep it on the table, but he did it all himself!

The only thing I did was the binding. He picked the color, but I put it on.

At one of our Seattle Modern Quilt Guild meeting nights, Dad was out of town, so he ahd to go with me. And he had just finished the quilt, so it was perfect timing for him to participate in Sew and Tell! I have to say, I love that little smile!

The back we decided not to do a lot of piecing! I didn’t want to loose him again, so we went with not a lot of piecing!

And he made his label! I told him what most people put on labels and he went with his name and year. Sweet and Simple!

We were trying to get one made for Quiltcon, but didn’t make it. But he does already have a design for his next quilt. Penguins….

 

 

 

 

Finish Along Quarter 1 2018 Goals!

Happy 2018! I’m in a hurry to get back to blogging and posting my finish along goals for this quarter!

It’s going to be similar to my last few, as I didn’t get much done. But I’ve been on a roll and I’m trying to get a bunch of WIP’s out of here!!!

There are two do Good Stitches quilts that I have to finish this quarter!

And here’s a sneak peek at the next Nurture Circle do Good quilt. I have the top done for this one.

My second one for this year is the star quilt! I can’t wait to get this one put together!

This one is a new one! I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about this one. It’s our Seattle MQG BOM this year. And I’ve been keeping up with this one, so it shouldn’t be hard to get this one done! I’m finishing the last block now!!

And this is the reason I didn’t get more on my list done last quarter! I started this one! The top is done, but I’m not sure I like it anymore. I’m thinking about cutting it up and sewing it back together!

And now back to my nice long list of WIP’s that have been waiting around to get finished!

And there’s this one I’d like to finish from a year ago. It’s slated as a gift….

 

I’ve picked this one up again and hope to finish it ASAP for the whole gift giving thing!  This one uses the quick curve ruler by Sew Kind of Wonderful

These last three I REALLY WANT TO FINISH!

My Seattle Modern Quilt Guild BOM quilt ….

I’m STILL working on the Technicolor Galaxy Quilt!

This is an old one that has been sitting on the shelf for about 3 years. Sitting there with a front and back done! This one just needs the binding finished. I did get it quilted! So close!!!

And I am still working on two Christmas quilts and my Halloween quilt from the last quarter. But even if I do finish them, I might wait to share them until closer to the holidays!

And that’s my ongoing to do list! I know it won’t all get done, but I like having all my WIP’s in one To-Do-List!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

This year was a bust… First off, I didn’t get to make a costume. The kiddo decided to be Harry Potter and we had already purchased most of the pieces. He’d been planning this for months! And then tonight he came home from school with 102 degree fever. So, while the other kids were getting dressed and heading out for some haunting, we hunkered down and watched a movie. The worst Halloween he said. Poor Kid!

But I made another Halloween pillow! I’m so excited to trade it with a friend for a piece of art!

I used my bat pattern that I have on Craftsy! It was fun to break out the pattern again! It’s pretty quick and easy!

I through is a little piece of with one of my favorite Halloween fabrics! I used this same fabric on my Halloween quilt from a few years back.

I always say I’m going to add a zipper back, but then I never have one when I need one. So I always resort back to the envelope style back. And I’m fine with that! At least until I buy a stash of zippers…

According to this guy, it’s pretty comfy too!

If you decide to make a bat pillow, be sure to tag me! I’d love to see what everyone else makes with them! I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! I can’t wait until next year!

Modern Sampler Quilt

You may remember me starting the Modern Sampler Quilt Along with Salty Oat, way back in at the beginning of last year. Then I got most of the blocks done by May and then finished the beginning of this year.

This quilt is pretty much not my style at all! I like it, but the low volume, not me! It was a fun challenge to try to stay low volume for a whole quilt!

And the pattern… Well, how to put it nicely… It was challenging. Maybe it was the difference between being familiar with my own versus a Japanese pattern. Or maybe it was just ‘challenging’. And the blocks weren’t our usual 10.5″ inch type block.

But I couldn’t stop. There were a couple of blocks that had me considering packing it up and calling it done. But I didn’t! And I’m glad I didn’t.

Some of the blocks were more challenging than the others. But what I did get used to was all the mitered corners on each block! The last few look much better than the first few. It just takes practice!

And the back! Although it’s upside down in this picture, I do like the minimalist layout! ha!

And a little bit of color to the binding!

It’s hard to see all the details that went into this quilt in the full frontal pictures. So this quilt is going to my do Good Stitches group They have very kindly agreed that I can keep my do Good quilt from last year that got accepted into the Quiltcon Show if I send in this one! I’ve grown very attached to my other one! I can’t believe it has taken me so long to show this one off!

 

 

 

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!

Finish Along Quarter 3 2017 Goals!

Last quarter I got three of my to do list done! I got the Inside Out Pineapple Bed Runner, the Chaos Quilt and the Raindrops on Wildflowers quilt finished. Pretty good… So once again the list is going to be very similar to my last one!

This is an old one that has been sitting on the shelf for about 3 years. Sitting there with a front and back done! So it just needs a little quilting love… It’s basted. It’s getting so close… Like right next to my machine!

I’ve picked this one up again and hope to finish it ASAP for the whole gift giving thing!  This one uses the quick curve ruler by Sew Kind of Wonderful

And here’s a sneak peek at the next Nurture Circle do Good quilt. I’m going to try to make a good impression this go around and actually finish my quilt in the allotted time frame! Fingers crossed!

And there’s this one I’d like to finish from a year ago….

I don’t know if these actually count, but the two above I only need to make the quilt tops. The first one is waiting on me! The second one isn’t quite ready!

The last three I want to keep working on, or start, but I doubt I’ll finish them!

My Seattle Modern Quilt Guild BOM quilt ….

I want to start and finish my Christmas quilt and I want to have it done for next year and at the rate I’m going, it won’t be done, unless I do it now!

I’m STILL working on the Technicolor Galaxy Quilt!

And that’s my ongoing to do list! I printed my list to help keep me on track near the end of this quarter. My friend laughed at me that I keep a copy of my quilting to do list in my purse!

Inside Out Pineapple Bed Runner

And you guessed it, another quilt!

Another one to mark off my Finish Along to do list! This one I am in love with, but for some reason wasn’t able to photograph it as wonderful as it really is!

My stepmother told me she wanted a quilt made with my Inside Out Pineapple quilt pattern. I love the pattern, of course. You’d hope I would since I made it… But it’s so time consuming! So I was contemplating how long did she really want to wait on this project! And luckily before I asked that question, she clarified that she only wanted a bed runner. Oh, yes! I can do that without taking forever!

A bed runner… It does look pretty, but I’m still curious about why… You’ll notice I don’t make many mini quilts. A couple of reasons… I don’t have wall space to hang them. And If you aren’t hanging them on the wall, what is the point of them? They don’t really serve a purpose. People make awesome mini’s and I love seeing other peoples minis, but for some reason when I quilt, I think it needs to be able to be used…  I don’t know why I think this way… So I’m still kinda miffed at the bed runner concept. But it turned out great!

Her other request was for it to coordinate with the cross stitch pillow I made her a couple of Christmas’s ago. So that narrowed down the colors! And you know me and my white backgrounds! I was trying to figure out how to incorporate the white background and still coordinate with the pillow. Then my friend Debbie asked where the white was in the pillow! Ummmm…. there isn’t any. So what was I doing. Then I tried it with the grey background and, OH YES!

The grey is my favorite staple, Sprinkle by Cotton and Steel! Love it!

Besides the grey, I used a combination of yellow, green and teal solids and prints. Prints! Another quilting concept that I don’t use much! Yes, it still kinda reads as a solid, but I did branch out and use prints with my solids!

Throwin’ in my label picture!

And here it is in it’s new home! It looks quite nice and does coordinate with the pillow. My step mother was very excited and put it on the bed as soon as she got home from visiting us! I’m glad to know it was well received and will be well loved!

This was a great project to use the Inside Out Pineapple Pattern for! I got really quick at making it, but I also didn’t get burned out with having to make too many!

 

 

The Chaos Quilt

Another quilt finish! Sometime soon, I’ll show you one of the non-quilt projects I’ve been working on… But not today!

I took a class with Libs Eliot for her Chaos class last year. Back when I felt like I was in a design rut… It was an interesting class. I don’t know that I’d call it a class actually… It was more of a, shall we say, a directed sew-in….

You pick a handful of block designs and then roll a dice to random place your blocks. Then you start piecing! Pretty easy! It is interesting to see how different, yet how similar everyone’s quilt from the class ended up!  I really love the colors I chose, if I do say so myself. And best thing about it… All the fabric was from my stash! Oh, yes! Boom!

It took me a while to decide how I wanted to quilt it. At first I thought I wanted to random lines around this way and that… I had a couple of other ideas, but they weren’t right either. then came this straight line pattern. I started a little way out and worked into the center. At the time I was quilting with my regular all purpose foot because my walking foot was not working. It totally pulled on the fabric and it looked horrible! I waited until my new walking foot came, picked out all the quilting and started over. Best decision!

I then headed back to where I started and then worked my way to the outside of the quilt. And I just kept going and going….

The back! For the back of this one I used all the blocks that I miss cut! I did somehow cut a few wrong…  Also there were a couple of extras that I made on accident, so I cut them down to fit in, too. I like the back. It kind of looks like a mini version of the front!

Throwin’ in the ‘ole label photo…. Did have to order a new set of 50 for 2017… Will I use them all this year… Ha!

People often ask me what I do with all my quilts. I keep a few. I gift them every now and then. But, a good bit of them go to charity organizations. This one went to my son’s school auction. Since it’s not my design, I’m not as attached to it as others I’ve made. But I’m super excited about the recipient who ended up being the highest bidder. My kiddo’s second grade teacher and she’s very excited about it!!

 

Inset Corners- A Quilting Tutorial

One more post about my Raindrops on Wildflowers Quilt! I’ll show you how I made all those inset corners!

I made the block up to start with, but then I had to figure out how to actually put it together. I thought about more piecing, but I had to make a lot and that would have been too many steps per block. So I had to figure out how to make with as few pieces as possible. I made a little video of how many steps there still are in the block!

Anyway… I digress… Back to the corners… Maybe everyone else knows how to do this. I did a lot of inset corners on the Weight of Love quilt I made, but for some reason it took me a little while to get it to make these blocks! I kept forgetting which way to sew them together… Finally it stuck and I was on a roll!

First up, stack the two fabrics on top of each other so that they overlap.

Then trim the two pieces of fabric. And you end up with the pieces above.

Mark one piece, on the right side, 1/4″ down from your corner.

Mark your second piece, on the wrong side, 1/4″ down from the corner.

Stack your dots! I’m using solids, so it doesn’t really matter for me, but you’ll want these to be right sides together!

Then sew, using a 1/4″ seam along the edge and stop at your dot.

When you stop at the dot, leave your needle down, but raise your foot. Then pull your top fabric around to align with the bottom piece. Sometimes the fabric wants to bunch under the needle, sometimes it doesn’t. Not sure why… But when it does, I just go in with my tiny scissors and move the fabrics behind the needle so they aren’t bunching. If you watch the ‘video’ above, you’ll see these steps in action!

Then continue sewing out to the other end!

Here’s the kicker! Iron into the V. If you iron the other way, you’ll get bumps.

Then you have this!

Some pretty awesome looking inset corners! Oh, yea!

Honestly, I kinda hated cutting the second one off to add the half circles. But it had to be done. I thought about not using the half circles on the back blocks, but I really like the half circles, too. Big Dilemma I had!

Hope this helps in your sewing fun!