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.