Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry #2- Modern Wedding Ring

I am entering this "Modern Wedding Ring" quilt into the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side.

I made this quilt for my nephew who was born this past August.  It is approximately 42" square.  The quilting starts in the center and spirals outwards and is done in a beautiful blue-green thread.  My sister says that I overuse spiral quilting but it is simple, easy to do, and I love the impact that it has on small quilts!

I had been interested in making a wedding ring quilt and come up with the idea of using some neglected half square triangle blocks in the center of the rings.  The quilt is made from Kona cottons.

Sorry I don't have any other pics, but I already gifted the quilt and I guess I didn't take enough pictures before I mailed it away!  I am listing this in the "Modern Quilts" category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival, I hope that you enjoyed seeing it!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry #1- Wonky Star Metamorphosis

I am entering two quilts into the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side.  My first entry is "Wonky Star Metamorphosis".

I am entering this quilt in the "Original Design" category since I designed it myself.  The design starts with a wonky star in the center of the quilt and then "morphs" outwards slowly losing its points until the star is completely gone.  It is approximately 42" square.

I used circular quilting starting from the center of the quilt to emphasize the metamorphosis of the star.  The fabrics used are a purple Kona and a Kaufman gray crosshatch in the background.  I went bold and used purple thread for the quilting, a big departure from my normal white and gray.

I love this quilt so I hope that you enjoy it too!  The pattern is actually for sale in my Craftsy shop here if you are interested in making one for yourself!

Where I Sew

One thing that I am always curious about is "where do people sew?".  On Pinterest you see beautifully organized sewing and crafting rooms, but how much sewing and crafting gets done there?  I know that my sewing room always looks it's worst when I am in the middle of projects and it is hard to keep that organization going.

This calendar year I have finished a record 9 (!) quilts so far, and I am currently working on one with plans for at least one more before the end of the year.  This has been a record year so far for quilts produced!  Therefore, my sewing room was kind of a disaster, so I spent some time recently cleaning it up and then took some pictures to memorialize the occasion.

I took over one of the bedrooms in the house as my sewing room, and it is wonderful.  This is the view from the doorway looking into the room.  You can see my Koala sewing table in the middle of the room (that I found on Craigslist after 3 years of searching). 

9 months later, I still LOVE this sewing table and I believe that it is partially the reason why I have gotten so much sewing done this year- it is the perfect size and height for everything that I need.  I usually keep my laptop in the sewing room to consult patterns, read sewing blogs, write this blog, etc.

This is the view to the right when you enter the room- I have one wall with 2 Billy bookcases from IKEA and my ironing board.  The bookshelves hold the bulk of my fabric "stash" in the clear containers- I organize by color and rarely buy more than 1/2 yd at a time- I like the scrappy look in my quilts.

Then this is the view as you walk around behind my sewing machine.  You can see my Texas Quilt and my "What's for Dinner?" placemats on the wall.

Finally, the view looking back at the doorway.  You can see my design wall- it is 2 giant pieces of foam wall insulation covered with batting and hung on the wall.  It is one of my favorite parts of the room, it makes it so easy to lay out quilts!  They hang on hooks on the wall so they are removable if I want them to come down.

I hope that you enjoyed this tour of my sewing room!  What is your favorite part of your sewing room/area?  Mine is my table closely followed by the design wall1

"1st Anniversary Dinner"- A Quilt Show Reject

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that last year I had a quilt accepted into the "What's for Dinner?" exhibit at the Houston International Quilt Festival.  It was so amazing to go to the show and see my quilt there that I decided to try to enter the same exhibit this year.

The description of this exhibit is:
"We’ll “set the table” for this Special Exhibit on the show floor with enlarged “place settings”, complete with a placemat/tablecloth, napkin, fork, knife, spoon, and a plate full of “what you are eating for dinner.” This could be your favorite dinner at home, in a restaurant, or what you have for Sunday dinner. We are excited about this theme and hope that it will show a variety of interpretations, fabric choices, and views into different cultures, rituals, and lifestyles. Think colorful, fun, outside the box, and visually appealing!"

This year I decided to create a "1st Anniversary Dinner" placemat.  It is a tradition to eat the top tier of your wedding cake on your first anniversary, so I designed the quilt around that.  I have a piece of (our delicious) wedding cake (which is 3-d) on the china that we received as wedding gifts.  I used the embroidery part of my machine to create two napkins that look like the cake napkins we had at our wedding and then I finished it off with 2 glasses of champagne and a picture of us cutting our wedding cake.  Our wedding colors were blue and yellow.

I am totally in love with this quilt, but unfortunately it was not accepted into the exhibit this year.  Instead, I have hung it on the wall in my sewing room in a place of honor, since it makes me so happy to look at the quilt.

I wanted to share pics of the process of making this quilt since I am always curious about other people's design process.

1. First, I quilted the background in a crosshatch pattern.  Then I appliqued on the napkin squares that I had already embroidered and added the napkin crinkle around the edges.

2. I added the plate and quilted the circle pattern around the edges to match my chine

3. I appliqued on the forks

4. I appliqued on the champagne glasses and quilted a bubble texture in the "champagne"

5. I added the picture- it was printed using my printer onto fabric paper, and then I made the picture frame for it

6.Finally, I sewed on the 3-day cake and added the binding.  Mmmm cake :)

Here is a detail shot so you can see some of the sewing and quilting details:

And the overall pic again:

I am so sad that this won't be seen in the quilt show but at least I don't have to wait a year to hang it on my wall!

T-Shirt Quilt

My sister-in-law used to play competitive tennis when she was in high school and college and she had amassed quite the collection of tennis tournament shirts.  I volunteered to make them into a t-shirt quilt, my only request was that I be given a year to finish it to work it in between all my other projects.  Luckily, I finished it in 8 months, well within my self-imposed deadline.

I have made 2 t-shirt quilts in the past, one for me and one for my husband, using our old college and high school t-shirts.  It is such a great way to get those shirts out of your drawers and made into something useful that you can enjoy using.  Plus, I love the way that t-shirt quilts are heavier than the usual quilts that I make, it makes them especially comfy in the colder months!

Here is the finished quilt:

 

I bound it and backed it with a gray crosshatch fabric.  I ended up using only t-shirts with a white background, and it is neat the way that they all blend into one another that way.  

I don't like t-shirt quilts that only use the one size t-shirt with the sashing between each shirt (though I realize that it is a lot easier to do them this way).  Instead, I use a basis of 3" for my shirts and cut all shirts either 3.5" square, 6.5" square, 9.5" square, 12.5" square, 15.5" square, or any rectangle made up of those numbers (ex 12.5" x 15.5", 6.5" x 9.5").  Then I lay them all out and fit them together like a giant jigsaw puzzle.  This method takes a little bit longer but it makes a one-of-a-kind quilt!

New Pattern- Wonky Stars!

I got my sewing machine back from the shop a couple weeks ago and I immediately started my next quilt!

The name of this quilt is "Wonky Star Metamorphosis" and I have the pattern listed for sale on Craftsy here.  But first, let me tell you all about it!  Here it is laid out in EQ6:

I wanted to make a design where there was a full Sawtooth Star in the middle of the quilt and then have it slowly morph out and lose points as you get closer to the outside of the quilt and eventually just fade into the background color.

Here it is in some different colorways:

And here are some pictures of the quilt in progress (I need to get better at taking pics of the quilt in progress!):

Once it was all assembled, I quilted it with a spiral (of course) from the center out to the sides.  I was brave and used purple thread instead of gray!

Here is the final quilt:

The final size is 42" square.  It makes a great modern baby quilt!

Now go and check out the pattern for this quilt on Craftsy!

I opened an Etsy Shop!

I have had some free time on my hands lately since my sewing machine has been in the shop and I have noticed that my pile of quilts sitting around is getting larger.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I have been thinking that I would like to try to sell some quilts in order to make some money to buy fabric and make some more quilts.  Therefore, I have opened an Etsy shop!  Click on the link below to visit.

So far I have sold 2 notebook covers.  I am excited to have a reason to sew some more things (notebook covers, pouches, quilts, bags, etc) and try to sell them too!

Quilt! Knit! Stitch!

Does anyone out there live in Oregon?  I got news the other week that my quilt, A Quilter's Christmas Eve, will be part of the "What's for Dinner?" exhibit at "Quilt! Knit! Stitch!" at the Oregon Convention Center in Portand Oregon.  Today is the last day of the show, so if you live near there, go check it out!

Click here to see what the exhibit looked like in Houston last October!

Thoughts on Sewing Machine Maintenance

I have a confession... a BIG confession.  I bought my sewing machine in Nov 2010, a Viking Sapphire 875Q.  Almost 5 years later, I have never had my machine serviced.

Picture borrowed from here

When you buy these complicated sewing machines today you are told that they need to go in the shop once a year to be serviced.  Who has time for that?  I can barely stand to take my car in for oil changes and it's yearly inspection.  I even dread yearly doctor and dentist appointments.

However, on my most recent quilt, my machine started acting up, especially with the tension while I was free motion quilting and I decided that it was finally time to go for it's "yearly" checkup.  Luckily, I have fulfilled all my deadlines through the end of September so I had some flexible time to be without my machine.

I bought my machine as a "classroom used" machine after the Houston International Quilt Festival.  The shop I bought it from is 1+ hour drive from my house (since I live near Houston).  Therefore, I took my machine to the local Joann's (which is 10 minutes from my house), since they provide service to Viking machines. 

At my local Joann's, they told me that the Viking service center is currently taking 2 weeks to turn around machines.  After you add in time for shipping, my machine will be gone for 3-4 weeks!!!!!!  Also, it costs $129 for a tune up!

Hypothetically, if I keep this machine for 13 years and take it for tuneups once a year, that means that over it's life I would spend an equal amount for start up cost (buying the machine) and maintenance cost.  Is this crazy?  because I think it is.  The only item besides my car that gets yearly tuneups is my A/C system- it costs much more than this sewing machine but the yearly maintenance costs are about the same.  I am interested in hearing if anyone out there has any other thoughts about this?

Also, I have one other complaint.  If I am expected to be away from my sewing machine for 1 month a year, shouldn't dealers offer "loaner machines"?  Is this a thing anywhere?  Please let me know.  I only lasted 2.5 days without my sewing machine until I broke out my "emergency" machine, a 12-year only Janome with very basic functions (I keep it around because it's great to have when my sister visits me so we can sew together).  It's killing me to be without my "automatic presser foot down" function though... read on to see my favorite (and least favorite) parts of the Viking 875Q...

Things I love after using my Viking 875Q for almost 5 years:
-Large harp space
-Automatic needle threader
-Automatic thread cutter
-AUTOMATIC PRESSER FOOT DOWN (this is the #1 thing I love about this machine, it makes starting and turning corners so fast and easy!)

-Stitch choices are plentiful and I enjoy using them when the circumstances call for different stitches

-I used the "darning" feature a couple times to mend holes in clothing and it was awesome

-Bobbin thread sensor

Things I dislike about my machine:
-Automatic thread tension.  I always feel like my thread tension is off a little bit during free motion quilting and I attempt to change it manually but it doesn't seem to make a difference

Things that will hopefully be fixed when my machine comes back from it's first servicing:
1. Apparently my bobbin threading was "loose".  The woman at Joann's noticed this, I had noticed that my bobbins were getting kind of messy but I guess I ignored it?
2. Somehow I got a burr in my metal stitch plate that was causing me to shred thread when free motion quilting.  I sanded it down with a Dremel, but I am going to purchase a new stitch plate (with inch markings!) for future use
3. I just hope my machine comes back as soon as possible, in good working order, and ready to get back to sewing!

I would love to hear if you have any other thoughts about machine maintenance, let me know in the comments below!

Craftsy Pattern Update

I posted earlier this year about how I listed my "Star Power" pattern for sale on Craftsy.  It is "for sale" for free, so it's a great deal :)

Anyway, this week I noticed that it was getting a lot of downloads on Craftsy, and much to my surprise, it was temporarily listed as the #3 top selling free pattern on Craftsy!!!  I took a screenshot to memoralize the occasion!

If you haven't "bought" my free pattern yet, go here and join the 2400+ people who have already downloaded it!

Evolution of a Quilt

Today I have a long story to tell.  It is called "Evolution of a quilt".


I started a quilt about 3-4 years ago.  I wanted to made a new quilt for my bed.  I got a set of Kona fat quarters in a blue/green colorway.

Half square triangles were totally "in" 3 years ago and I started to make half square triangles.  4" half square triangles for a queen size bed!  Needless to say, I got maybe 1/4 of the way done and decided that half square triangles just weren't "me".  I put the quilt in the WIP pile and moved on.

Then, last year at the Houston Quilt Festival I saw this quilt at the Modern Quilt Guild showcase:

I had been itching for a while to try out a Wedding Ring quilt and this quilt at the quilt festival totally inspired me to try it with my half square triangles as the centers of the rings!

I came home and laid it out on my design wall with paper as the curved pieces:

and I loved the way that it looked!  Here you can see 4 3x3 squares of half square triangles, I had 9 of those squares, so it could be the perfect size for a baby quilt.

There were a couple iterations to get here, but here it is in its final state!

I am actually kind of in love with it :)  After I sewed all the white curved pieces on, the intersections where they came together were a total mess.  Way too many seams, and they weren't fitting together correctly.  So, I appliqued the little gray diamonds on top of all the intersections and cut out all the extra fabric from the back side!  I also appliqued the wedding ring portion onto the background.  

I was going to quilt it with traditional wedding ring quilting- different quilting in the curves and the centers of the rings, but I decided to go with a giant spiral and I love the way that it looks!  It makes the whole quilt just a little more modern!

My brother and his wife are having a baby boy this August so I am gifting this quilt to them.  However, I am busy thinking about how I could make another one kind of like it!

Linking up with Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!

Spring Breeze

This spring I was able to join the Modern Quilt Guild Riley Blake Challenge.  They sent you 6 fat eighths in the mail from the Cottage Garden Collection and you had to:

• Make something fantastic that is quilted.
• Make something you've never done before.
• Challenge yourself to learn something new.
• Use only Riley Blake Cottage Garden fabrics and coordinating Riley Blake basics and solids

 This is the fabric that I was sent:

 

I quickly decided that these fabrics reminded me of Spring, because of their colors and patterns, so I wanted to make something "Springy".  I wanted to try a kind of art quilt using applique, since I have never done that before.   I decided that my subject would be a tree.

The next challenge was the fact that I only had a fat eighth of each of the fabrics.  I challenged myself to not buy any more of the Cottage Garden fabrics and I just bought a Riley Blake solid (I think it was "Pewter") for the background, backing, and binding.  Since I had so little fabric, I decided to go with half of a tree for the subject of the quilt.  I made the trunk using small improv curves (a new-to-me method) and then I appliqued down the trunk and the branches on the backing fabric.  

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of my progress.  After appliqueing the trunk and branches, I quilted it- I used a "tree bark" kind of design on the tree and swirls in the background (both of these quilting methods were also new to me).  After quilting, I appliqued and quilted down the leaves on the trees- I wanted the background quilting design to be behind, not around, the leaves.

I decided that the swirl quilting looked like a breeze in the tree so I named it "Spring Breeze".

 

It is 35" x 41", so a nice size for a baby quilt.  I really like the way that the edges of the leaves got a little "furry" after I washed it (since I did a raw-edge applique there).

Here is a picture of the backing, so you can see what the quilting looks like.  See how the leaves are green on the back too?  I like that detail :)

 

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish-it-up Friday!

Gone Missing!

I want to start off with an apology, I have been MIA for approximately 10 weeks and I apologize for not updating my blog.  However, I have been so busy!  I am actually working on 8 different quilts.  The whole problem is that most of them are for contests and I can’t post them online or share them yet.

 

Here is a list of what I am working on:

Quilts I have completed since the last time that I posted:

1. “Metamorphosis”- DONE.  Entering into the MQG showcase at the Houston Quilt Festival.  If it doesn’t get in there, I will enter it into Quiltcon, it could be a while before I get to share this quilt.

2. “Exploding Star”- DONE.  A mini-quilt that I have made for the American Made Brand tiny quilt challenge.  It is about 14” square.  I will be able to share this quilt in approximately September.

3. Quilt for the “Just Sayin’ “ competition at the Houston Quilt Festival- DONE.  If it doesn’t get in there, I will also be entering this quilt in Quiltcon.

Quilts that are in work, listed by deadline:

4.  “Spring Breeze”, MQG Riley Blake Challenge- IN WORK.  Pictures coming soon!  July 31^st deadline.

5.  Unnamed Baby Quilt- IN WORK.  This quilt is for my nephew who is due in August- I will share lots of pictures of this quilt soon!  August deadline.

6. Quilt for “What’s for Dinner” at the Houston Quilt Festival- IN WORK.  This is the same competition that I entered last year.  August 15^th deadline.

7. T-shirt quilt for my sister-in-law- IN WORK.  Thanksgiving deadline.

8. Quilt for Quiltcon- JUST STARTED.  My sister and I are making a quilt together again this year- since it worked for us last year, we thought we would try again!  November 30^th deadline.

Besides these 8 quilts I have another quilt that I have started sketching and I am currently trying to think up one more design to enter into Quiltcon in November. 

I am spending lots of time in my sewing room and enjoying every minute of it- pictures and updates will come soon!

Irish Chain QAL: Finally Finished!

I am so excited that I have finally finished my Irish Chain QAL quilt!  This was a quiltalong led by Melissa at Happy Quilting.  There were 8 weeks of quilt construction and then some extra time at the end to put the quilt together, quilt, and bind it.  I found this quiltalong through one of the blogs that I follow and I am so happy that I did!  I see that Melissa has been having one quiltalong a year and I would definitely join one of her quiltalongs again.  The pattern was great, the work was cut into manageable assignments every week, and she gave great and very detailed instructions every step of the way.  I love the community that online quiltalongs provide and I was very happy to join in this one.

Here is my finished quilt!

 It is 50" square (each block is 10" square).  I quilted it in a meandering pattern with variegated rainbow thread and bound it with a fun rainbow stripe pattern.

Here is the back, you can see the quilting better:

The black solid fabric I wanted to back it with wasn't wide enough so I cut it apart and added some more scraps in a rainbow to widen it.

I love this quilt and I can see more Irish Chains in my future! :)

Irish Chain QAL- Finished Quilt Top!

I have finally finished my Irish Chain QAL quilt top!

 Now I have 10 days to quilt and bind it so it can be in the Parade of Quilts!  I'd write more here but I need to get back to work :)  I already have the quilt back made and my quilting pattern decided, so hopefully it won't be too hard to get it all finished up!

Irish Chain QAL- Appliqued Chain Block

This week on the Irish Chain QAL at Happy Quilting we had to stitch our appliqued chain block.  Last week we pinned the petal shapes to our backgrounds and this week we had to secure them in place.

We had many options- we could use a straight stitch, a zig zag stitch, or a blanket stitch.  We also had to choose if we wanted to blend or contrast our thread with the block.  My first choice was easy- I wanted to contrast the thread and use black so it would show up on the petals.  The stitch type was a harder decision but eventually I decided that I should try something new again, so I tried the blanket stitch because I usually use the zig-zag when appliqueing.  I love how it turned out- the black looks great, you can see it in the picture below.

 

And here are my 5 blocks:

I can't wait to sew them all together this week!

Appliqued Chains Block- Irish Chain Quiltalong

This week on Irish Chain Quiltalong at Happy Quilting, we had to assemble the blocks for our appliqued chains.  We cut out the petal shapes and placed them on the background squares.  There were two choices for assembling the petals to the background squares- you could starch and pin the petals or use a two sided interfacing and "glue" them in place.  Since I have used the interfacing method before, I decided to try something new and starch and pin my petals.  Melissa suggests that you keep starching and ironing the petals until they are "as hard as a frisbee".  Well I tried that and mine would just not get super hard.  Finally I realized that it was because I use a "light body sizing" instead of the standard "starch" haha.  I decided just to go ahead and pin them in place anyway :)

Here are my 5 blocks all pinned and ready to go for my baby size quilt:

I am looking forward to sewing them together next week!

Also, since I tend to be kind of impatient, I hung up all my blocks on my design wall to see what the quilt top will look like when it is done..

I love it and I can't wait to sew it all together!

Also linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

Modern Patchwork Blocks- Irish Chain Quiltalong

This week on the Irish Chain Quiltalong we had to take the units that we made last week and make them into complete blocks.  Reading the instructions, it seemed like it was going to be a lot of work and I was kind of dreading it.  However, since I am only making the baby quilt size (and that was only 8 blocks), everything went together relatively quickly!

Here is the completed stack of blocks...

And here is all of them on my design wall..

 

The hardest part was properly distributing the scrappy colors so that there was a good distribution of the colors and all the oranges didn't end up in one block.  The best part of this particular quiltalong so far is that there has been no real matching of seams :)  I would actually like to see this particular block that we made this week in a quilt by itself, I think it could be really pretty, it has lots of "movement" with the different sied colored blocks in it.

Now time to go back to dreading the applique block that is coming up next, hopefully it won't be too bad!

Also linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Twist on Tradition Units- Irish Chain Quiltalong

I am very happy to tell you that I am still managing to follow along with the Irish Chain Twist Quiltalong at Happy Quilting!  Melissa is doing a great job at splitting all of the work up into manageable units, this week we chain pieced "twist on tradition units".  It was pretty easy, here is my pic of what mine look like all finished:

We are going to make these into blocks this week, I am excited to see what they will look like!

Also linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Thoughts on Quiltcon 2015!

I want to share some thoughts with you about my Quiltcon 2015 experience- mostly that I had a great time!

I attended the first Quiltcon in 2013 in Austin (mainly because I live in Houston and it is just a couple hours drive) and I was disappointed.  There weren't that many quilts to see and they didn't have very many vendors either.  I was in and out in maybe 1- 1 1/2 hours?  Part of the reason why I was disappointed is because I live in Houston and I attend the International Quilt Festival every year which is HUGE and amazing.  Also, it seemed like a lot of the quilts had the same "look" about them and kind of had the same color scheme, and a lot of them weren't really my "style".

In contrast, this year's Quiltcon was several times better than the first one (and not just because I had a quilt on display!).  It took me and my sister about 4 hours to see everything.

Things I loved:
-There were a ton of quilts on display, in lots of different styles (However, the matchstick quilting did get a little bit repetitive)
-I loved a lot of the quilts and could see myself using them as inspiration for future quilts that I sew. 
-The vendors were much better- there were 4 large rows and there were tons of "modern" quilting fabric there
-We enjoyed the "exhibitors" also, especially testing our Kona IQ! 
-My sister and I enjoyed all the instagram photos- it was fun looking for our quilt before we were able to get to the show on Saturday!

Things I would change:
-I was disappointed not to be able to purchase a program with all of the quilts listed, especially since my quilt was there!
-This is kind of nit-picking, but we would have liked to be able to purchase the "Quiltcon 2015" bag that they were giving away as a goody bag for the people who were in all the classes.  It was so cute with all the Austin things and sewing things on it!
-I downloaded the Quiltcon app and it was sending me reminders what felt like every 15 min to fill out surveys.  I eventually had to uninstall it because it was eating up my phone battery.

Our quilt "Sunrise Sunset" on display!

Our favorite quilt was probably the 2nd place quilt in the "Modern Traditionalism" category- "Deconstructed Lone Star" by Amy Struckmeyer.

I am kind of sad that Quiltcon is moving to the West & East coasts starting next year, it was really nice being able to drive and not have to commit 12 months in advance to attending.  If I decide to attend again, I will probably try to take some classes because everyone looked like they were having so much fun in their instagram photos!