Pink Elephant Quilt

Last summer I was contacted to do my first ever "commission" quilt.  I was very excited about it and got right to work.  My guidelines were that the quilt had to be a certain finished size, and should include pink, white, gray, navy, and elephants.

I sent my client several mockups of designs that I came up with, including these 6 (made with EQ6 software):

She chose the third one and I added the elephant to the design like this:

The hardest part of making this whole quilt was choosing the fabrics from what I found online!  It is so hard to match colors between fabric lines and manufacturers and I ended up dissing a couple of the fabrics that I ordered online.

Here is the final fabric pull:

Once the design was finalized and the fabrics were chosen, the easy part was the sewing!

I backed the quilt with Minky at the request of my client and I used spray basting to keep it from slipping while quilting.  I quilted straight lines 1/4" from each seam in the quilt.  I actually appliqued the elephant after I did the quilting because I wanted to see all the straight lines on the back of the quilt.

Here is the finished product, it ended up super cute!

Wonky Irish Chain

In 2015, I participated in a QAL with Melissa at Happy Quilting.  Then I got her book about Irish Chain Quilts for Christmas that year and I decided to make one of the quilts in her book, the Wonky Irish Chain Quilt.

I chose the Wonky Irish Chain because I wanted to use up some of my rainbow scraps and I had a fun backing that I thought would go well with the quilt.  Spoiler alert: I used up almost no scraps and the backing ended up not matching!  Oh well!

For some reason, I have no pictures of the process of making this quilt?  So just enjoyed the finished pics!

Music Quilt

For the past couple years, my sister has come to visit me in November so that we can attend the International Quilt Show together in Houston, TX.  During her visits, we tend to do a lot of sewing too!  This year my mom came for the first time and it was great to be able to show her the quilt show too.

After the quilt show, we sewed two quilts.  The first quilt that we sewed was a music quilt for our Aunt.  Last year we sewed a 4th of July quilt for one of our Aunts, and we knew at that time that this year we would be making a quilt for a different Aunt.

My sister and I started planning this quilt in September.  We had decided on a foundation quilt with diagonal stripes of music fabric.  The music fabric that we chose was all black, white, and gray.

Here are the first four blocks that I sewed:

We had decided on a 9" block with a 6 block x 6 block layout and a border to make a nice couch cuddle size quilt. 

I quickly sewed up my 18 blocks:

After sewing my half of the quilt, I realized that I used very close to half of the fabric that we had purchased.  I carefully cut the rest of the fabric into strips and gave it to my sister (with strict instructions) when I saw her in October.  Her job was to finish her 18 blocks so that when we got together in November we could assemble the quilt.

After the quilt festival, my sister laid all the blocks out on my design wall and worked on organizing them so that the same fabrics weren't too close to one another (not an easy job, but she is so good at laying things out like this!).  I sewed up the rows and our mom was in charge of ironing.  We were lucky to finish the quilt top quickly and I quilted it while they were still in Houston.  The quilt then went home with my sister so that she could finish the binding.

We gifted it to our Aunt at Thanksgiving and she loved it :)

Fabric Moratorium!

I am posting this to announce that I am going on a self-imposed fabric moratorium.  Looking around my sewing room, I have a ton of fabric (though much less than many others!) and I need to work on using it up instead of buying new.

This is an old picture (the amount of fabric has increased since then), but you can see where I keep it, in those plastic boxes on my bookshelves.

I am hoping to make it through the end of March, with my stretch goal being the end of April, without buying any new fabric.  Other sewing items, like zippers, interfacing, etc are allowed.  I am still undecided on batting- I am going to try to combine together all my batting scraps to make Frankenbatting as I need it and see how it goes.  I am going to try to use only the thread that I have and reduce my thread collection as well.

My goals for doing this fabric moratorium are:
1. Reduce my fabric stash
2. Force me to be more creative by using what I have
3. Stop spending time and energy looking at all the "newest" and "best" fabrics out there
4. Save money that would be spent on fabric that just sits on my shelves
5. Stop "saving" my favorite fabrics for "someday" projects

Wish me luck!!

Alison Glass Challenge

Last fall I participated in the Alison Glass charm swap hosted by Quilting Jetgirl.  I ended up with a Charm Pack full of a rainbow of Alison Glass fabrics and no idea what to do with it! 

Around Christmas I got it in my head that I wanted to use equilateral triangles from the charm squares.  So, I ordered myself an equilateral triangle ruler from Amazon Prime so that it would be ready at home for me when I got back from my Christmas travel.

I started by cutting out equilateral triangles from the charm squares and arranging them on my design wall.  I originally wanted them in rainbow order but quickly changed my mind to put the colors randomly on the wall.

My first design failed because I didn't have enough triangles:

So I settled on this instead:

When I sewed it up, it got so much smaller! In the picture below, the top half is sewn up in rows:

I felt bad about all the scraps from cutting out the triangles, so I kind of turned this into a "no waste" challenge and I sewed the scraps into rectangles to use as a border:

It didn't feel right like that so I added corners and the triangles at the end of the rectangle rows (there weren't enough of the right size scraps to continue the rectangles all the way around the border).

I was ready to sew it up as a square quilt but then my quilt talked to me (weird, I know) and told me that it wanted to be rotated 90 degrees and turned into a rectangle quilt!  Who was I to argue with what the quilt wanted?

I decided on a navy blue backing:

But there wasn't quite enough of the navy, so I added the rest of the scraps from cutting the triangles and a piece of dark pink:

My first thought was just to quilt this quilt in a spiral so that I could be done with it, but the quilt spoke to me again and told me that it wanted all the triangles quilted in a special way.  I turned to my Angela Walters' books for "Shape by Shape" quilting for inspiration and this is what I came up with:

Looking at the back side:

Now for the white background... I was going to stipple it because I am super fast at doing that, but the quilt told me it wanted pebbles!  I have never quilted pebbles on a quilt before but I figured that I would just go for it! 

I love the look of the pebbles!

Here is the completed quilt: (the completed size is 36" x 41")

This ended up being such a fun challenge!  I love the end quilt and I had so much fun during the creative process.  This definitely stretched my quilting skills (which is one of my goals) and I love the way that the final quilting looks.

Thanks to Quilting Jetgirl for hosting the Alison Glass challenge and therefore encouraging me to find a way to use my charm squares!

Year in Review and Planning for 2017

I have this problem about not blogging in November and December every year!  I think that the issue is that I am busy making gifts and I don't want to post them online for the recipient to see, as well as being busy with the whole holiday season.

Anyway, now I am back and ready to make some quilty goals for 2017, but first let's see how I did with last year's goals.

Goals for 2016:
1. Go see my two quilts hanging at Quiltcon (!) in Pasadena and enjoy the workshops and lectures I am attending with my sister
This was so fun!  I blogged about it here, here, and here.

2. Enter quilts in shows and not worry about rejections
I entered 5 quilts in shows, they all got rejected, and that's ok :)

3. Learn how to write patterns more professionally and apply it to new patterns
Hmm, still need to work on this one

4. Sell some patterns!
See above

5. Grow my Etsy store
I made a couple hundred dollars from my Etsy store this year and am considering that a success

6. Grow my blog following 
Still working on this

7. Blog more! 
See above

8. Quilt!!!
Done!

Goals for 2017:
1. Participate in Alison Glass link up at Quilting Jetgirl with my Alison Glass charm swap fabrics
2. Finish quilting my Summer Solstice QAL quilt
3. Work more on patterns, writing them more professionally and trying to sell them
4. Continue to sell in my Etsy store
5. Try out improvisational piecing and make a quilt out of it (I have been wanting to do this for a while)
6. Continue to grow my piecing and quilting skills
7. Try to write some tutorials to grow traffic to my blog
8. Have fun and enjoy sewing :)

I am linking up with the Quilting Jetgirl 2017 Planning Party!

Summer Solstice QAL- Finished Quilt Top!!

I finished my quilt top for the Summer Solstice QAL!

I am making the one block 48" quilt.  If you remember, I started off with this beautiful piece of blue gradient fabric...

Then I cut all my pieces very carefully to make the gradient work from the center of the block out to the edges...

Last week my block looked like this....

This week I added the white border and then I added an extra gradient border (both to use up the rest of the gradient fabric and also because I thought it would look awesome).  I ended up with a 4" border of the gradient fabric.  I tried a skinnier border first but my sister told me it would look better wider (thanks Christina!).  Without further ado, here is the finished quilt top...

I love it with the extra border!!!!!  The final size is about 56" square.  Unfortunately I am not going to get it quilted up by this Thursday.  I had originally bought Kona Pacific for the backing but upon further inspection, the Pacific isn't quite the right color and I need to get a different blue.  Plus, I did some calculations and I don't seem to have enough backing fabric for the quilt top and binding now that I added the extra border.  Hopefully in the next week or two I will get the right backing and I can start quilting it!

Thanks again to Melissa for holding such a fun QAL!  I can't wait to see everyone's finished quilt tops!

Wednesday Fabric Love #8

As a rule, I don't (usually) buy flannel fabrics.  I don't use them in quilts, but I might occasionally use them for burp cloths or other small projects/gifts.

However, this fabric is so cute!!!!  This is "Zoomates Flannel" by Henry Glass.  I wish so much that this came in a cotton but I can't seem to find it in a cotton online.  If anyone sees it, let me know!  I don't really love the coordinates, this is the best one in the line (in my opinion).

Zoomates can be purchased here and at many other online retailers!

Sunday Stash

In July, my husband had a business trip to Paris and I went along with him for a couple days!  We flew out on a Thursday and arrived on Friday morning.  On Friday, we toured the Eiffel Tower and then we took a boat ride on the Seine.  On Saturday, we went to Versailles for the whole day.  On Sunday, we walked almost the entire city of Paris!

However, on Monday, my husband had to go to his work meetings and I wasn't leaving until Tuesday so I had the whole day to entertain myself.  I started looking for fabric stores in Paris because one of my favorite things to do is visit fabric stores in the cities where I travel.  In my Google searches for fabric stores, I came across Barbara, from "Stitching Up Paris".  Barbara gives 3 hour tours of the fabric stores in Paris, and she will customize the tour for you and your particular type of crafting (knitting, embroidery, clothes sewing, quilting, etc)!  Barbara is from New Zealand but has lived in Paris for a long time and speaks French fluently.  So, I signed up for a tour with Barbara!

I had so much fun touring the fabric stores with Barbara!  First, she took me to back alley haberdashery stores that I never would have found myself.  They sold all types of buttons, ribbons, trims, etc.  Then we walked through some areas with custom upholstery stores and checked out all the windows.  We ended up in the fabric district in Montmarte and we went in tons of stores there too.

One minus was that they don't sell a lot of quilting cottons in Paris.  Apparently most of the quilting fabric is imported from the US (Moda, etc) and sells for almost double what it costs here.  I knew that beforehand and really I just enjoyed the experience of going in all the fabric stores and browsing. 

I did buy a couple things though (after all, this is Sunday Stash!)...

Embroidery scissors (so sharp!), pins, and needles at Sajou:

These interesting zippers at some back alley store, I can't wait to figure out how to use these on a pouch:

A metre of the gray fabric and a fat quarter-ish of the blue flowers:

Some small pieces of a Paris-themed fabric and the cool colored dashes:

I didn't buy that much, but I had such a fun afternoon with Barbara!  It was so nice to have her take me everywhere so I didn't have to worry about getting lost (I don't have the best sense of direction), and since she speaks French she could easily speak to all the shopkeepers and also help me with anything I needed.  If you are ever planning a trip to Paris, you should consider looking her up!  (She also has a book out detailing a lot of the Paris fabric stores so that could be another option)

Linking up with Sunday Stash at Molli Sparkles!

Wednesday Fabric Love #7

It has been well documented that I can not pass up "travel" themed fabrics, and this one is no exception!

This fabric is "European Adventures" by Timeless treasures.  I was just in Paris in July and so those "Paris" stamps on the fabric really speak to me.

This fabric can be found at Fabric Shack and many other online retailers.  I am not affiliated with Fabric Shack, I just like their quick service and awesome fabric selection.

Sunday Stash

A couple weeks ago I was visiting family in Denver Colorado.  While I was there, my husband took me to one of my very favorite quilt shops, Holly's Quilt Cabin.

We found this quilt store randomly during one of our visits to CO because it is right next door to a grocery store.  Holly's Quilt Cabin doesn't look like much from the outside (the storefront isn't very wide) but the store is so deep and they have an amazing selection of fabrics.  They have traditional fabrics, modern fabrics, blenders, flannels, batiks, everything!  Weirdly enough, they have one of the best selection of "outer space" fabrics that I have ever seen in one place and all sorts of themed fabrics too!

I only had like 10 minutes in the store while my husband went to get gas in the car and I did the best I could in that time frame!   I picked up a half yard each of the three fabrics below- my very favorite is the rocket ships!  I was so excited to see the rockets ships because I had seen that online and had been secretly wanting it.  You also might recognize the crayola crayons from when I posted about them last month.

I also picked up Fat Quarters of these two music fabrics- I think my sister and I are going to be making a music quilt in 2 months and I need to start stashing some fabrics!

Linking up with Sunday Stash by Molli Sparkles!

Summer Solstice QAL- Building Blocks

I was SO EXCITED to finally put together all the pieces for my Summer Solstice giant block!  (from the Summer Solstice QAL)

I LOVE the way that the gradient worked out!  There is still a white border that goes around the block and then I am considering adding a gradient border outside of the white border.   I am waiting to see what the size will be when the white border is added before I make my decision- I am looking forward to the next set of instructions this Thursday!

Summer Solstics QAL- Drunkard's Path

I am still working on the Summer Solstice QAL... I totally finished the last assignment before the due date but then I messed up days in my head and I didn't get it posted in time to qualify for the weekly prizes.  Just to be complete, I will still post my progress.

My drunkard's path blocks:

Just wait until you see the finished top!!!

Wednesday Fabric Love #6

You all know by now that I have a soft spot for kid's fabrics and even more of an inclination to buy them if they are primary colored because they match with the rest of my stash.

This week I saw the very cutest dinosaur fabric!

I just love the multicolored dino tracks on the coordinating fabric!  This fabric has several other coordinates and has different background colors too (I prefer the white though).  See it here at Fabric Shack.

Now, how would I use this fabric?  I immediately thought of Shannon Brinkley and her "Scrappy Applique" method.

  from here

Wouldn't this fabric look so cute as borders around a giant dinosaur?  Or maybe use the dinos as the border and the dino tracks as the backing!  So many options!!