Tag Archives: finish

Free Motion Quilting (FMQ), Patterns, Quilting

Twirling Star Mini Quilt Finish {Pattern Testing for Devoted Quilter}

April 24, 2015 kittywilkin 14 Comments

Visitors entering our home will now be greeted by a bright and colorful quilt (of course we will also greet any visitors in person… but, you know what I mean!). I’ve finished the Twirling Star mini quilt I was testing for Leanne at Devoted Quilter, and I’m loving it in its new home.

It was really fun to make Leanne’s pattern with a modern aesthetic. Here’s Leanne’s version:

I love how different choices of fabric and colors can completely change the look of a quilt. The mini quilt finishes at 19 1/2″ x 19 1/2″ and features both traditional piecing (the hourglass blocks) and paper piecing (the pinwheel blocks). The pattern also includes a coloring page, where you can test out different color arrangements before starting. I tried out a lot of different color possibilities before deciding on this one, and the coloring page is KEY (and so much fun). Leanne’s pattern is now available in her Etsy and Payhip shops, so if this looks like a mini you’d like hanging in your home, too, head on over and buy the pattern!

I decided to quilt this mini with one big radiating spiral, and I’m quite happy with how it turned out. I followed the tutorial on Crazy Mom Quilts and began the spiral with free motion quilting (FMQ) in the center and then switched to my walking foot for the outer spirals. Since I have yet to find an actual pen/chalk/pencil that I trust for writing ON my quilts, so I decided to just wing it and do it by eye. I’m quite happy with how it turned out, and it was a lot easier than I anticipated.

Once I quilted past the center, I switched to my walking foot, which proved to be a lot more difficult than I anticipated. Keeping a steady curve with the walking foot was tough, although I can see that I did improve as I moved outward, either the result of more practice or the less severe angle. As with any quilting, I found that I was more consistent with spacing and more accurate with the curve when I went slowly.

quilting "jump" — A little quilting “jump” as a result of less-than-smooth maneuvering with the walking foot.

There were quite a few “jumps” where I had stopped sewing to reposition the quilt under my machine and must have restarted sewing with too much torque on the quilt. Either that, or perhaps I tried to turn the curve while my machine was stopped. (You can see one of the “jumps” in the bottom of the blue triangle. Just a little wiggle.) If I were planning to submit this quilt to shows or give it to someone who would noticed the imperfections (are there such gift-quilt recipients?), I might have ripped out the quilting and tried again. But for this, a quilt meant to hang in our own entryway, I opted to just let them be. When you step back and view the quilt as a whole, the imperfections are lost.

I didn’t keep track of the time I spent making this quilt, but here are the other quilt finish stats:

Twirling Star Mini Quilt

Completed April 2015
Pattern: Twirling Star Mini Quilt pattern by Leanne at Devoted Quilter
Size: 19.5″x19.5″
Fabric: Pinwheels are pieced using rainbow fabric from Alison Glass’s 2015 Sun Prints, Mercury and Grove (Andover Fabrics), with a background of Modern Floral in Charcoal from the Botanics fabric line by Carolyn Friedlander (Robert Kaufman Fabrics).
Hourglass blocks are pieced using Scribble Notes in Black from the Architextures fabric line by Carolyn Friedlander (Robert Kaufman Fabrics) and Make and Pin fabric from the Makers fabric line (Art Gallery Fabrics).
Border is Ink in Charcoal from Alison Glass’s 2015 Sun Prints (Andover Fabrics).
Binding is Black Kona cotton (Robert Kaufman Fabrics).
Quilting: Spiral quilting using free motion quilting in the center and a walking foot for the outer spirals
Thread: Aurifil 50wt 2600 – Dove for piecing and quilting
Related blog posts: Embrace the Rainbow, Twirling Star Flimsy Finish

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday.

Free Motion Quilting (FMQ), Quilting

Friday Finish: Dr. Seuss Diamonds Quilt

March 20, 2015 kittywilkin 14 Comments

Just in the nick of time, I finished the Dr. Seuss quilt for my daughter’s preschool fundraiser. As I mentioned in previous blog posts When Duty Calls: Dr. Seuss Raffle Quilt and Dr. Suess Flimsy Finish, this quilt was created from an old work in progress for a fundraiser raffle at our local elementary school. Every bit of fabric used was already in my stash, with the exception of the polar fleece backing. I am really happy with how the quilt came out, and finishing at 44″x51″, it is a decent snuggle size for a child to curl up under while reading a book.

Before I go into the details of this finish, I want to extend a huge heartfelt thank you to everyone who commented on my previous Flimsy Finish post. You helped me to realize the true joy in giving that is involved in donation quilts, and to feel entirely positively about the whole experience. What matters most is that this quilt will be loved by a child, and that I have donated my time, skill, and materials to a cause in which I believe. Hopefully the school and PTO will earn a good sum thanks to the addition of this quilt to the raffle basket, but even if not, the joy that it brings to a child–and really, to me for having the ability to donate such a labor of love–is what matters in the end. So THANK YOU!

Now, the quilt!!

dr seuss quilt finish — Mr. Cat in the Hat likes it, too!

I backed this quilt with gorgeous turquoise polar fleece so that it is extra snuggly, and decided to use that same polar fleece backing to bind the quilt. I wanted the binding to be extra wide, since it is so snuggly, so I trimmed the backing so that it extended 1.5″ from every side, then folded in half and then folded over the front of the quilt to make a 3/4″ binding, top stitched on the front. It was surprisingly smooth and easy, and I love the finished look!

The free motion quilting shows nicely on the solid polar fleece back, and I almost like the back of the quilt as much as the front!

dr seuss quilt finish back — Free motion quilting detail on the back of the quilt.

My free motion quilting (FMQ) is far from perfect, but I think it was an excellent design for this quilt layout. The wonky Seussical triangles I quilted on the narrow sashing crossed fairly smoothly, and the simple orange peel-esque diamonds hold it together nicely. I used a wide wiggle on the wide white borders (can you tell I’m a total FMQ newbie? “wide wiggle”!? haha), and couldn’t resist the urge to do a bit of free form Dr. Seuss FMQ in the corners. I roughly quilted three Truffala trees with “Unless” written beneath in one corner, two Seussical stars in two opposite corners, and I quilted my “tag” into the final corner, since I didn’t want to mar the beautiful back with a cotton label.

I had my usual helper, Mr. Max, who couldn’t resist snuggling behind this quilt. Just a few cameos of my cutie pie helper and then I’ll share the official quilt stats

peek a boo Max dr seuss quilt — Peek a boo!

Quilt Stats

Pattern: Must Stash (Diamond Quilt) from the book Modern Designs for Classic Quilts by Kelly Biscopink and Andrea Johnson. *Amazon affiliate link*

Size: 44″x51″

Fabric:
Front: Dr. Seuss fabric by Robert Kaufman Fabrics with Kona White sashing and borders.
Back & Binding: Turquoise polar fleece

Batting: 100% cotton Warm & Natural batting

Thread: Aurifil 50wt 2615 – Aluminum & 2600 – Dove

Quilting: Free motion quilted on my domestic Bernina Artiste 730

Time:
Cutting diamonds (rough approximation): 3 hours
Layout and cutting of supplemental diamonds: 45 minutes
Piecing the top–aka sewing sashing: 7 hours
Squaring, layering, and basting: 1 hour
Quilting: 6 hours
Finishing (trimming to size, clipping threads): 45 minutes
Binding: 1 hour
Total: Approx. 19 hours 30 minutes

I’m linking up with TGIFF. I’m also going to link up with Yvonne’s Thankful Thursday since I’m truly thankful for you awesome quilting community, who helped me see the light about donation quilts. It’s all about the giving!

Quilting

Dr. Seuss Flimsy Finish

March 16, 2015 kittywilkin 18 Comments

On Friday, I sewed the final white border on the Dr. Seuss quilt I’m making as a donation for my daughter’s preschool fundraiser. I am actually growing to really like this quilt, and now that it’s together, I’m almost sad to see it go. I just keep hoping that whoever wins the quilt will cherish it and know how much love and work has gone into making it.

I was able to get the quilt to stay up on the shed just long enough to take one photo before it blew to the ground.

Have I mentioned how ready for spring I am!? I am SO looking forward to bright light and green things, not to mention flowers!

The diagonal sashing, while time consuming, was not nearly as tricky as I imagined it could be. This is definitely a versatile pattern that would be a great way to showcase your favorite fabrics. You could go monochromatic, rainbow gradient, or even a scrappy arrangement like I did with these diamonds.

For the sake of time, I opted to trim the edges and add wide sashing to give it a little extra size. I know that cutting white diamonds would have allowed for all of the diamonds to be whole, but I just didn’t have the time. This quilt must be finished by this Thursday at the latest, and my sewing time is scant. While nursing my sick kiddo over the weekend, I was doubly glad I opted for the short-cut.

I like the boundary that the trimmed edges provide, too. It certainly makes it look more traditional, but I think the quilting I have planned will work well with it. I plan to free motion quilt the entire quilt, using a simple orange-peel-esque quilting pattern in each diamond, a dense triangle-rich quilting in all of the narrow sashes, and a wide rounded loop in the outside borders. I toyed with the idea of free motion quilting random excerpts from Dr. Seuss books, intertwined with Truffula trees and Seussical characters for the outside border, but both because of my time constraints and the end goal, I’m going with simple. At least, as simple as I’m capable.

My daughter immediately spotted the one spot where the diamonds “match” across the sashing, and said how much she loves the quilt. My son pointed out characters and said, “We have that book!” again and again. I’m hoping that the recipient of this quilt loves it even half as much as my kids do.

Have you ever donated a quilt to be raffled off in a fundraiser? I’d love to hear some insight, since I’m feeling torn about donating such a time-consuming creation of love to be raffled off with $2 raffle tickets. Initially, I thought that by adding a quilt to the preschool basket, it would warrant auctioning, like the other classroom fundraiser baskets. Ultimately, the PTO decided to still raffle off the preschool basket even with a quilt added, saying that they wanted the “wonderful contributions” to be accessible to all families in the school. I can’t argue with that. My husband even mentioned it over the weekend, though, asking why I said yes to this endeavor and hoping that I felt my time and efforts would be appropriately valued. Honestly, I am trying to look at it as a pure donation and an old work in progress out of the house, since when I think about the likelihood of the quilt being valued as little as a $20 blanket from Target, I feel a bit icky. If nothing more, this is a learning experience. Like I said, all I can do is hope that by being part of a raffle basket, a child who may not have any other special quilts or opportunities to be given one will win this love-filled quilt and will cherish it.

I’m linking up with Monday Makers, Design Wall, and Making Monday. Next up is to finish the quilting, which I started over the weekend before my daughter fell ill, and finally binding!

Free Motion Quilting (FMQ), Quilting

February Finish {ALYoF}: Rainbow Jellyroll Quilt

February 27, 2015 kittywilkin 18 Comments

With one day to go, I did it! I finished my daughter’s first quilt–a Rainbow Jellyroll Quilt! I’m excited on many levels, since not only was this my first finished quilt for an immediate family member, it was also my goal for February in A Lovely Year of Finishes. A late night binding session last night and a specially requested free-motion quilted dedication session this morning were the final touches.

I’m happy with how this quilt turned out, but it was a definite lesson in dealing with and loving imperfection. Mental note: when choosing a backing for a VERY linearly directional quilt top, avoid extremely linearly directional fabrics. Before beginning this quilt, I bought some yardage of “The Dotted Line” by De Leon Design Group for Alexander Henry Fabrics as backing. It really is perfect; I just didn’t PERFECTLY line up the backing with the front before quilting, so it’s a little off kilter. I opted to quilt this before squaring it up, since the edges of the jellyroll strips weren’t perfect, but I think that due to the linear nature of both front and back fabrics, I should have squared up my top before quilting. We’re always learning, right?

I do like how the quilting from the front looks on the back, even though it’s not perfectly parallel to the dots. Maddie certainly doesn’t love it any less due to its off kilter elements.

I quilted this quilt with primarily Aurifil 40wt thread, which worked perfectly. It was enough extra weight to make the quilting visible (especially the free motion quilted dedication: “Made for Madeline Joyce with love from Mommy”).

The 40wt Aurifil really helps the stitches pop!

I decided to machine bind the quilt using Cluck Cluck Sew‘s fabulous Machine binding tutorial, since I’m counting on this quilt getting loved to tatters by my little (big!?) five year old. After sewing the binding to the front, I pressed it out around the edges with a hot iron, and folded and pressed the corners how I wanted them to look. Using this little trick, when sewing the binding to the back, I didn’t sew onto the front binding at all! At least one part turnedy out perfectly!

maddie on her rainbow quilt — Maybe she will share with her little brother… one can hope!

Quilt Stats

Pattern: Inspired by a Rainbow Jellyroll Quilt seen on Creativebug; I simply sewed jellyroll strips together.

Size: 42″x 61″

Fabric:
Front: Andover Fabrics Color Collection jellyroll
Back: “The Dotted Line” by De Leon Design Group for Alexander Henry Fabrics 2012
Binding: Poppy Passion Bead Stripe by Springs Creative Products Group

Batting: 100% cotton Warm & Natural batting

Thread: Aurifil 40wt in coordinating colors (contrasting color used for free motion quilted dedication)

Quilting: Straight line echo quilting 1/4″ from each seam; Free motion quilted dedication: “Made for Madeline Joyce with love from Mommy” “2015”

I’m linking up my finish for A Lovely Year of Finishes February Goals Party, TGIFF & Sew Can She Show off Saturday.

Giveaway, Patterns, Quilting

Doe Layers of Charm Quilt & a Giveaway

February 9, 2015 kittywilkin 366 Comments

When Fat Quarter Shop contacted me about quilting along with their newest shortcut quilt pattern, I immediately decided I wanted to make the quilt out of Carolyn Friedlander‘s newest fabric line Doe. Thus the seed was planted that grew into the Doe Layers of Charm Quilt.

Remember this sneak peek?

Well, here it is!

Layers of Charm

Layers of Charm is Fat Quarter Shop’s newest Short Cut Quilt pattern, complete with a free downloadable pdf and video. The pattern uses a layer cake and charm square pack, so I used a Doe layer cake (with two cameos by Botanics) and the coordinating Kona cotton solids charm pack. When I started this quilt, Doe wasn’t yet available in the US so Robert Kaufman Fabrics was kind enough to send me what I needed in advance (Thank you!). The part of the process that took the longest was deciding on a layout that I liked. I ultimately decided on one that I feel embodies the Doe fabric line well, with the focus on low volumes and amazing texture, with just a pop of color. Piecing the 57 1/2″ x 57 1/2″ lap sized top took me only 6 hours (and I’m a meticulous, seam-ripping-until-perfect kind of sewist).

For the back, I chose to sew one row from Carolyn’s Catenary pattern on an Architextures Ledger backing. The Catenary was my first time attempting needle-turn applique, and even with a time crunch, I truly savored each stitch! All three of Carolyn’s fabric lines are represented in this quilt, and I absolutely love it.

I decided to use a combination of straight-line quilting and free motion quilting, all of which I did on my domestic Bernina sewing machine.

Doe Layers of Charm quilt — Two quilting thread colors converge.

When inquiring about a coordinating Doe Aurifil thread set, Alex Veronelli from Aurifil said that there was not yet such a set, but offered to send me coordinating threads of my choice (Thank you, Alex & Aurifil!). I chose:

2783 – medium delft blue
1320 – medium teal
2850 – medium juniper
1154 – dusty orange
5022 – mustard
2021 – white
2026 – chalk
2310 – light beige
2600 – dove
1246 – grey

Look at them shine (and comment below for a chance to win small spools of all these colors)!

My chosen quilting pattern left a TON of thread ends to bury (3 hours worth!) but I’m really happy with the outcome. Changing threads to coordinate with each section of the quilt really helps emphasize the varied values and textures in Carolyn’s Doe line. The Layers of Charm pattern is a great pattern that lets the fabric do the talking.

My family helped me photograph the completed quilt during one of our recent blizzards (there seems to be one every few days). We had a little bit too much fun, as you can see.

Quilt Stats

Pattern: Layers of Charm free Shortcut Quilt pattern by Fat Quarter Shop. (instructional video here)

Size: lap sized: 57 1/2″ x 57 1/2″ (pattern includes table runner, crib, lap, queen, and king sizes)

Fabric (all by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman Fabrics):
Front: layer cake of Doe with two squares from Botanics, charm square pack of Doe coordinating Kona cottons.
Back: Architextures Ledger in Grey with Catenary pattern in Doe Droplet in Carrot on Kona Med Grey and Architextures crosshatch in Niagara
Binding: Architextures crosshatch in Navy with an accent of Poppy

Batting: 100% cotton Soft n’ Crafty batting

Thread: Aurifil 50wt in coordinating colors: 2783 – medium delft blue, 1320 – medium teal, 2850 – medium juniper, 1154 – dusty orange, 5022 – mustard, 2021 – white, 2026 – chalk, 2310 – light beige, 2600 – dove, and 1246 – grey

Time:
Piecing the top: 6 hours
Piecing the back: 4 hours
Squaring, layering, and basting: 45 min
Quilting: 7 hrs 45 min
Finishing (thread burying): 3 hours
Binding: 1 hr 30 min
Total: Approx. 23 hours

While I always seem to take the long road, this quilt could easily be whipped up in a weekend (or a day, if you’re quick). I am already thinking of making a baby-sized version with all black and white (heavy on the black) 10-squares and a bright pop of color solid charm pack.

Now, for a giveaway!

To celebrate the launch of the Layers of Charm pattern, I’m hosting a giveaway. One lucky winner will win a layer cake (ten-square) of Doe by Carolyn Friedlander (thanks to the Fat Quarter Shop) and a set of small spools of coordinating Aurifil threads* (thanks to Aurifil). You can enter by leaving two comments:

What would you make with your winnings?
If you follow me, Night Quilter, let me know how–or visit my right toolbar to follow me if you don’t already, then tell me how! (e-mail, WordPress, Bloglovin’, Instagram, Twitter, Craftsy)

The giveaway will be open until Monday, February 16th 12noon EST. I’ll select one winner randomly from the comments below. Good luck!

*Note: The coordinating Aurifil thread set is not an “official” Doe coordinating set. I personally chose ten colors that I feel compliment and coordinate with the Doe fabric line.

After entering the giveaway, head over to the Fat Quarter Shop’s blog the Jolly Jabber to see the other version of this quilt in the blog hop. Meanwhile, we’ll be snuggling in this lovely Doe quilt.

Quilting, Sewing

A Tea Cozy for Every Season: Valentine’s and Spring

February 6, 2015 kittywilkin 7 Comments

“A tea cozy for every season,” requested my mom when we were talking about making quilts for family members. My mom loves tea and drinks a pot of tea every afternoon–no, she’s not even English!–so it really is a perfect gift. For Christmas, I gave her the first seasonal tea cozy for the winter holidays, which you can see in my post Finishes New and Old. Today I sewed on the bottom binding, finishing the next seasonal tea cozy, which should take her into summer. I used Yvonne’s (Quilting Jetgirl) tea cozy tutorial, so the tea cozy is completely reversible and is suitable for two seasons in one!

One side is perfect for Valentine’s Day, since I used my Key to my Heart pattern:

The reverse side features a bicycle inside the heart, which I think will be perfect for spring. My mom also loves bicycling, and she and my dad are known to plan vacations that include cycling from bed and breakfast to bed and breakfast in awesome European countries, where they surely enjoy actual tea time.

I thought about putting both hearts on one side of the tea cozy, but decided make one the “inside” and one the “outside”, with a coordinating solid backing. This way, one side of the tea cozy can be perfect for Valentine’s Day…

Then after February passes, you can just flip the tea cozy inside out and the other side is perfect for spring.

I technically made the Valentine’s Day side on the “inside” since I figure the bicycle will probably be shown more often. When turned to the Valentine’s Day side, the tea cozy is a little bit snug on my teapot (as you can see in the photo above), but I’m not too worried. I know my mom has a few different tea pots and I’m sure it will fit on one of them!

Now all I have to do is encourage my kids to finish their cards for Grandma (my mom) & PopPop (my dad) and get this all in the mail so it arrives in New Jersey before the 14th. I’m excited that I finished it in time, and hope my mom loves it as much as I do. This “tea cozy for every season” project is making me want a tea cozy of my own!

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it Up Friday.

Quilting

A Secret Finish {Still Secret}

January 30, 2015 kittywilkin 9 Comments

I did it! I set my goal to finish this quilt in January for A Lovely Year of Finishes (ALYoF), thinking it would be quite an accomplishment if I met it by the end of the month. But lo, here we are on January 30th (with still one more day to finish burying those last threads and defluffing) and I have a finished quilt!

I can’t show you any more than this tease of a peek at the binding and folded back, but I promise the full reveal will be soon. Since my tardy goal-setting post on January 14th, I’ve pieced the quilt back–including my first ever needle-turn applique–, layered and basted, quilted on my domestic machine–both straight line quilting with a walking foot and free motion quilting–, and bound this quilt. For slow sewing me, that is quite an accomplishment. Enough of an accomplishment, in fact, that I felt the need to take the quilt out into the snow to take some sneak peek photos so that I could post them here as proof–it’s finished!

doe secret quilt peek — Everyone takes their newly finished quilts out into a snowstorm to take photos, right?

I can’t wait to show you more of this quilt. But I will. I’m planning an epic whole-family quilt photo shoot this weekend, weather and toddler willing, so you will get to see every detail. Soon.

For now, I’m linking up with ALYoF to document my January success, and Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday.

Off I go to bury some more threads!

Paper piecing, Patterns, Quilting, Sewing

Finishes New and Old

January 23, 2015 kittywilkin 11 Comments

Remember back before Christmas, when I only showed you tiny peeks at most of my projects since they were to be given as gifts? Well now that the holidays are long over, now that I’m back and getting into the groove of home life, now that I finally have a free minute to blog about them, now I can show you the full gifts!

I also have finalized and posted another Valentine’s Day themed foundation paper piecing pattern, which goes live in my Craftsy (for US buyers) and Payhip (for international buyers) today! It’s a day full of finishes, both new and old. A picture is worth a thousand words, so without further ado…

Open Wide Zippered Pouch by Noodlehead

I made this pouch for my sister, since her favorite colors are teal and lime green. The zipper installation was my FIRST ever zipper, and I think it came out quite well. I used linen blend fabric leftover from my Go Anywhere Bag, and I think my sister loved it! Anna from Noodlehead has the best tutorials, and this one was a perfect first-zipped pouch tutorial.

One thing I learned while making this pouch, though, is that when the directions say to “align… the side/bottom seams” while boxing the corners, you really need to line them up perfectly. The bottom and side seams for mine (as you can see in the photo above) did not line up perfectly, since I flew past that little bit of instruction, but now I know for next time! I’m hoping that the chocolates inside the pouch distracted my OCD sister from this slight misalignment! (Love you, Lucy!)

Reversible Tea Cozy

When talking to my mom about quilting about a year ago, she made it clear that she thought making a quilt was too much work and too time consuming, and therefore she did not want me to make her a quilt. She instead requested “a tea cozy for every season”, since it’s a quick project that can be completed in a couple hours. She also drinks tea from her tea pot every afternoon, so it will be well used and loved. It has taken me a while to get this first one made, but I don’t think the next one will be far behind. I used the fabulous tutorial by Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl. I definitely will be using her tutorial again, since the tea cozy fit my mom’s large teapot quite well. Here are the two Christmas-themed sides of the tea cozy I made for my mom.

A New Paper Piecing Pattern!

And finally, a recent finish: a new paper piecing pattern called Love Struck. Special thanks to Julie from That’s Sew Julie for her awesome pattern testing! This pattern includes printable foundation paper piecing templates including two “printer pages” to help save paper when printing multiples, clear assembly instructions, a coloring sheet on which you can try out color schemes before beginning, and sewing tips along the way. You can find in on Craftsy here (for those in the US) or on Payhip here (if you’re international). Both this and my Key to My Heart pattern are on sale for $2 until Valentine’s day!

We’re getting lots of snow this weekend up here in Maine, so I know what I’m doing all weekend–sewing (and playing with my kids in the snow). If you’re looking for a good weekend project, turn this block into a festive table runner or pillow. Here’s the pillow Julie made from four blocks. AND she says she “whipped up this whole thing in a week while taking care of five kids, one sick, and getting a double crochet hat order together.” Holy smokes, Julie! You’re amazing!!

Get the pattern here:

Craftsy (if you’re in the US)
Payhip (if you’re international)
…or go to Julie’s blog and comment to enter for a chance to win a free copy of the pattern!

If you do decide to make this pattern, share the love and tag me @nightquilter on IG or twitter, and use #lovestruckpattern. I’d love to see!

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday and TGIFF. Happy weekend sewing!

Quilting

A Modern Hexies Mini Finish

December 19, 2014 kittywilkin 10 Comments

I’m sneaking in one last post before I disappear for a few weeks on a much needed vacation & blogging break. I finished the mini quilt I’m making for my partner in the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap, and I just have to share! I have loved working on this quilt, and I’m pretty certain my partner will love it, too! Nicole at Modern Handcraft has a wonderful tutorial on this short-cut hexagon quilting method. I’ve done some blogging (and a lot of Instagramming) about my progress on the quilt, which you can read here and here.

Are you ready for a total photograph color explosion? Okay, good. I took a LOT of photos of this baby, and in my usual style I can’t choose just one.

modern hexies mini quilt finish — I took the quilt to the city (Bangor, ME) to find a good brick wall on which to photograph it. I wanted to mix it up a bit from my usual shed/barn side backdrop. I love the effect!

Finished quilt stats:

Name: Modern Hexies Mini Quilt (for Schnitzel and Boo, Round 3)
Size: 24″ x 18″
Fabric: Hexies are primarily Anna Maria Horner’s True Colors collection, with supplements from my stash (including but not limited to Carolyn Friedlander’s Botanics, Timeless Treasures Sketch, other Anna Maria Horner fabrics); backing Kona Snow; binding is Carolyn Friedlander’s Leaves in Charcoal from Botanics.
Quilting: Straight-line quilted through each hexagon, lines 1″ apart
Thread: Aurifil 50wt 2615 – Aluminum (light grey) and 28wt 2000 – Light Sand in the bobbin
Finished: December 2014
Related blog posts: Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap: I’m in!, A Mini Sneak Peek, Modern Hexies Mini Progress

I’m linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts’ Finish it up Friday!

Quilting

Friday Finish: Rainbow Jellyroll Quilt Top

August 29, 2014 kittywilkin 13 Comments

Maddie’s rainbow jellyroll quilt top is finally complete! It only took me a bit over three hours to sew together, but with a fairly large summer sewing hiatus in the middle. I decided to focus on completing this quilt over a month ago, and sewed the first jellyroll strips into pairs. This past weekend I was graced with a rare chunk of uninterrupted sewing time, during which I finished sewing all of the strips together. This quilt is made entirely of strips from an Andover Fabrics Color Collection Jellyroll. Easy peasy! Go ahead and get a cup of tea or coffee (and a snack) because here comes a deluge of rainbow photographs!

I was so excited to finally finish something, I immediately dragged my husband outside for a photo shoot upon completing this top. It was a bright sunny day with a decently brisk breeze, but I just couldn’t wait. Here’s Maddie’s gorgeous rainbow on a sunny, bright blue sky day:

My husband Garrett was quite patient as I dragged him around the yard, trying to find a spot where the lighting was decent and the photos were not too washed out from the bright sun. The wind didn’t always agree with our plan, but it made for some fun outtakes:

rainbow quilt top windy outtake — You would jump up and pretend you’re a bull fighter, too, right?

As evening began to set, I decided to go out and try a shady photo shoot, since in the past I’ve captured better color richness in shaded photos. With my kiddos back at home after an adventurous day with Grammy & Great Aunt Ellen, they of course wanted to help:

The colors definitely are richer in the shady photos, although I miss the crispness of the sunny photos. With this photo shoot, I think I prefer the sun for the full-quilt photos, and the shade for the close-ups. What do you think?

helpful kids and a rainbow jellyroll quilt — I love the look of the back of a freshly pieced quilt, even with kids flopped on it.

rainbow jellyroll quilt top front — Rainbow jellyroll quilt top front.

rainbow jellyroll quilt top back — Rainbow jellyroll quilt top back.

So pretty! I am quite pleased with how this came out, even if it’s a bit off-kilter on the edges. I plan to quilt it and then square it up after it’s all quilted. For those of you who have quilted rainbow quilts before, do you have any tips? I think I am going to try to match general colors of thread, and do simple straight line quilting along each strip. I guess that means I will need to buy some more Aurifil since I don’t have a full rainbow spectrum of thread (darn. wink wink).

I need your help!
My biggest question is with the bobbin: I only have two bobbins for my machine, and thus far I have quilted only in grey. When switching colors often in your quilting, do you just wind a bobbin a small amount, and hope to get lucky with how much you will need? I don’t want to waste a bunch of thread, but once I am finished quilting in a certain color, I will need to unwind the rest of the thread from the bobbin to make room for the next color. Any tips are greatly appreciated!

I’ll leave you with one last cute picture of my helpful kids, posted on Instagram last weekend (follow me @nightquilter).

I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts’ Finish it up Friday and TGIFF.