Blogger's Quilt Festival: Spectacle quilt

It's that time again- the fall edition of the Blogger's Quilt Festival has begun over at Amy's Creative Side.  I have mine listed in the baby quilt category! Can't wait to peruse the quilty goodness in Blogland!  Welcome to any newbies to my blog, and thanks for stopping by :)

A newly finished quilt to share with you today.  Isn't it funny that when fall hits and everything around me starts to wilt and die, I always seem to get a surge of creativity?  Lately I have been ON FIRE, people!  Sewing this and that, knitting my brains out, and a bunch of quilts coming together.  Lovin' it.  Just wish there were more hours in a day!

And I THINK this may be my new favoritest quilt of all time!!  (Yes, this is the part where I start to get all braggy.  But seriously.  Check this out. )

I can't think of a single thing I don't like on this quilt, or that I would do differently if I had the chance.  Which is rare for me (overanalyze much?).   I made this for a baby boy on his way into the world, but I am thinking that he may get a Gap gift certificate instead ;)  It all started with inspiration from this quilt, by Blue Elephant Stitches.  Now I am usually a girl who digs symmetry...total Type A personality, like to control everything, so on and so forth.  But that said, my favorite quilts to make, or look at, for that matter, are often the ones that have very little rhyme or reason.  

This one was just like that.  I took some scraps in blues and greens out of the overflowing bin, cut them into triangles, and decided to use two tones of grey to piece them together randomly.  I used Kona-something (charcoal?) and Alexander Henry Heath.  I had no plan, just assembled the top row by row, and had so much fun in the process as I slashed and hacked and stitched away.

I knew the quilting should be unstructured as well, and decided on a wonky free flow grid, somewhat mimicking that in the Heath. I used a light blue cotton thread, which of course I ran out of half way through the vertical quilting.  Le sigh.

Well, as often is the case for me, unexpected mess ups stimulate creativity (i.e. being too lazy to go to the store to buy more matching thread, I came up with a Plan B).  So, I decided to add some turquoise and goldenrod thread lines to the grid to fill in the spaces, and a small segment of hand quilting as well.  In the end, I think this adds so much to the finished product, we are just going to pretend it was a product of genius instead of laziness, okay?

The binding- I used a Sunkissed Sweetwater texty print cut on the bias.  I am normally one for hand stitched binding, but have dabbled in machine sewn too, with little success.  But this time- total triumph!  I used a WALKING FOOT, people...geez, whey haven't I tried that before??  Made all the difference.  It turned out perfect.

Last but not least- the backing!  How fun is this?

What is it?  It's a piece of a sheet, bought at Winners (Canada's equivalent to TJ Maxx), made by Colin and Justin.  What can I say?  It makes me so happy. Perfect amount of funky fun for this quilt. And I have plenty left for another (or two!).

This quilt measures in at about 40" by 50".  Annnnnnd I think that's all I have to say about that.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Kristie :)

Ghastlies quilt top

I had never even heard of The Ghastlies until I was let loose on a bunch of genuine quilt shops in Salt Lake City during Sewing Summit last year.  I am not much of a Halloween person, but when I saw this fabric I couldn't resist picking up a bit, just in case.  I managed to put together a couple blocks last fall and decided to pull it out again to see if I could make some progress this year before Halloween came and went again.  My intention was to make a wall hanging for our front door, but I was having too much fun and soon amassed more than enough blocks for a full quit!

 

I did the individual blocks with no rules or measurements in mind, just added fabric until I felt they were fun.  I added some purples, pinks and marigold oranges from my stash for pops of color along with the greys and blacks, and I love the combination.  I spliced the blocks all together very free form with some Alexander Henry Heath (I am sure there is an easier way to do this than what I did) and then decided to frame the collection with a wonky border in the coordinating fabrics.

Some of my favorite characters! Of course the knitting sisters are featured in there :)

Even spliced a few extra ghastly folks in along the borders.

I had fun every minute making this quilt top.  Now to decide on some fun quilting...I am thinking spider webs??

Eureka!

I think I have finally settled on a design for my daughter's Rainy Days and Mondays quilt.



A little of this, a little of that.....


And a ton of my own design. This one will be a challenge and will certainly stretch my limits with new techniques to try...it will have about 1200 itty bitty pieces in all sorts of angles to make the top alone!

Her birthday is only a month away! In keeping with my "new attitude" of balance, I am not stressing about finishing this one up in time. I will pick at it when the mood strikes, show her what I have on her birthday, and let her be involved with the process until it is done. I think she will appreciate having an attentive Mom more so than a quilt on time....but I will make sure there is an "alternate" gift for her to unwrap!

Thanks so much to all of you who offered your support for my post the other day. It is nice to know I am not alone with my SuperMom complex! I stopped the clock for a day or two, played with the kids, and just reset my priorities a bit. I need to have my creative outlet, but it has to all mesh with family life. So, sorry Alison, I am NOT quitting sewing and sending you all of my fabric! But I may just pull back the pace a wee bit!

Back tomorrow with a winner for the giveaway!

My new favorite quilt: Postage stamp complete!

My postage stamp quilt from Rachel's quilt along is all done. I hereby crown it my new favorite!


You can read about the quilt top here and here. I used a Hello Betty jelly roll (original plan was Bliss, but I changed my mind once spying Katie's HB!) paired with strips of linen. I love the combination! And the linen continues to soften with handling and washing. Such a nice texture.

My one hesitation for the quilt along was that my quilt would be like everyone else's. To combat that, I decided that I would spend the time to make an original pieced back:

I had made my quilt top slightly smaller than specified, leaving me with some extra strips to play with. I decided to do something a little more modern on the back, to coordinate but contrast a bit with the very traditional postage stamp style. What would you call this? A lattice? Anyways, I love how it pops against the espresso brown solid! The espresso is also a great backdrop for some good old Canadian snowflakes, as you can see in the photo...they were falling faster than I could wipe them away!
I threw in one square of yellow polka dots, to pick up the subtle yellows in the Hello Betty fabric. Brightens things up!

Quilting. I had originally planned to do diagonal machine quilting. But here's the thing- I knew this would lead to frustration as (a) many of my corners don't match up perfectly and (b) with the diagonal strip pattern on the back, it would likely not be perfectly parallel, which would drive me bonkers. So I kept putting off the quilting. Then, one afternoon, as I was waiting in line at Starbucks (Tall nonfat Tazo Chai Latte with cinnamon), it hit me- how cool would some hand quilting look against the brown? I had 5 minutes, grabbed my tea, sat down and whipped out my trusty "Idea Notebook" with graph paper, and concurrently sketched out a bunch of random boxes and scarfed down a ginger molasses cookie :-) I didn't modify that 5 minute sketch one iota....that is exactly what you see here!
I used Perle 8 thread, in white and yellow- just picked a color randomly for each square. While crappy machine quilting drives me batty, I actually love inconsistencies in hand quilting-gives it all the more the homey feel. So mine is VERY homey ;) It took a while...probably about 20 hours in total over a couple weeks, but well worth it. I absolutely love how all those random squares pop against the back.


To cap it all off, I had the perfect binding on hand- some of my Riley Blake Wheels stash. These teal blue circles were an exact match to the Hello Betty. Happy, bright, perfect.

So to sum it up, here are some quilt stats:

Fabrics: Moda Hello Betty jelly roll, linen, espresso solid from LQS, yellow dot from stash
Finished size: approx 60 inches by 70 inches
Design: Quilt along at p.s. I quilt, back designed by me
Quilted by me, exclusively by hand, using Perle 8 thread in white and yellow
Binding: Riley Blake Wheels line, by hand
Keeping it real: linen was hard to cut in *straight* strips, so some variable size I am sure and a few corners that don't match up....here is a particularly bad example:

That said, considering that I put together the top in just 2 days, I was surprised how many or the corners were bang on:

All in all, I love how this quilt finished up, and it has been happily accepted into our little "quilt family" :-)


Linking up at Sew Modern Monday and Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory:-)

Rainy Days

I have been collecting a stash of Riley Blakes's Rainy Days and Mondays....love the colors and retro feel of these prints! I have a plan in my mind for a quilt for Last But Not Least. She has an April birthday, and since "April showers bring May flowers," I think the rainy days theme is a good one (though, sadly, there is generally more snow than rain here at that time!).
Speaking of rainy days, look at these fun boots I recently bought on sale at Haute Look. Only $12!! Have you seen that site? Beware- very addicting!

Look! They are rain boots- with heels!

How fun is that? To quote my hubby, "You'll be the hottest Mommy in the puddles." There may have been a bit of an eye-roll that went along with that statement ;)

Arf Arf!!

These little guys have been on my to-do list for awhile.
So much fun to make. The tutorial is here, on Denyse Schmidt's website. I got to pull out some of my favorite fabrics- Modern Meadow, Riley Blake Wheels and All Star, Katie Jump Rope. Used some soft brown wool for the sides, and I love the final look and texture. All stuff from my stash! Used some buttons for eyes...not sure if I like the single vintage or stacked buttons best- votes? Then I got them each a real dog collar from my local dollar store for some authenticity!

The boys have made themselves quite at home....

...though someone might be a bit jealous ("Hey! That's MY spot!")


Time for a snack....

..."Back off! those are MY bowls!"
Do you boys need to go outside?
One of these little guys will be a Christmas gift for my 6 year old, Big G. He is my sentimental sweetheart who absolutely loves when I make things for him. I feel bad for him because I am always making things for his sisters- so many more options for the girls! But this one is just for him, and will also go great with his birthday quilt I am working on. The second Scottie will be adopted out to someone special on Christmas morning :-)

Somebody stop me

My appetite for fabric has not lessened. Fabric diet remains broken, binge still on.....burp!

I can't stop buying fabric. I am going to need a 12 step program soon. I wish I could say I regret it, but I don't. It is so so awesome. It is like Christmas in my mailbox! Except for the whole bill part.

Lookie what I got:

Katie Jump Rope. This line was before my time, but I managed to get some fat quarters, sticking to the more masculine prints to build my "boy stash." Love it.

Some sweet Japanese prints:

Pretty solids, odds and ends:

I may have gone a little Crazy Crazy with the Munki Munki. Yes, I broke down and bought it. A LOT of it. Must say...I was not as impressed with it in person.... but still super cute and will definitely be put to good use! I've always coveted those darn goldfish! Also picked up some of these while I was at it....see what comes of it!
Some Amy Butler, Lotus spots and Love spots, too. And some Micheal Miller Ta Dots. Can never have too many dots! And let's not forget the Riley Blake Rainy Days and Mondays (and other) from my Calgary/Banff trip: Also just ordered some awesome organic Monaluna fabric by Jennifer Moore with adorable scooters all over it. Inspired by Italy! Maybe something for my hubby for the holidays?

And I just bit the bullet and ordered a big batch of Bliss.....I hve been eyeing it forever, so why hold back now? So now I just have to find time to sew!

The twins are here....and so are their quilts!

After 39 weeks, followed by 2 days of labour, one natural birth and one c-section (S., you are my hero!), two cute little bundles of love have finally made their way into the world!

And, at long last, so have their quilts! So, without further ado, here they are:

Evan's quilt...... ......and Sam's quilt! I loved working with the Riley Blake Wheels line. The fabric had a great retro feel to it and strong colors, which made them feel so rich. Evan's quilt was made as a strip quilt, with a vertical strip intersecting the horizontal, like crossroads! I used a chocolate brown color as sashing and binding to add to the "man factor." For Sam's quilt, I modified this quilt design to allow for rectangular blocks, to best suit the fabric for fussy cutting these cars.I opted to use the Wheels blue dot fabric as a base, and paired it with the same chocolate brown sashing for continuity with his big bro's quilt. I was striving for 2 complimentary quilts, but with individuality, just like these boys. The backs- I will abandon all modesty here and just say....I rocked it!! :-) I couldn't take a picture that did these justice. These turned out even better than expected. At some point in the process I came up with the idea of the stop light, using each of the lights as a way to record the birth information- name in the red light, date and time of birth in the yellow, and weight and height in the green. I love how these are now embedded in the quilts as a keepsake. I hand stitched these in brown embroidery thread (though I wish I had used a slightly darker brown), using the same method as I did for the Mckinley quilt. I used a circle cutter, then attached the embroidered circles using Heat and Bond, with some stitching around the sides with Perle 8 thread. The edges are raw, and I love how they frayed up a bit after washing. Quilting- my FIRST go at free motion. I was so scared! But I knew the design of the quilt called for it, so I sucked it up and went for it. This is where I was glad I had a "third" twin quilt.....remember how I didn't like one of the originals, so I made another? Anyways, the third quilt became my guinea pig. During the course of it there were many s-sharps uttered, tons of spikes and loops in the stippling, and let's not forget that basting/puckering fiasco.....Up close it kind of looks like crap (to a quilter's eye), but when you look on it as a whole, the imperfections kind of fade....that is what I love about quilting. So, not bad for a reject. For the second/third go round at free motion on the "keeper" quilts, I tried out 505 spray adhesive for basting, and it was a dream. I know it adds cost, but in the end I will pay a premium for my sanity! Not a pucker on any quilt since (I have used it on 4). My free motion vastly improved as I went, and I can honestly say I enjoyed it by the end. I love how the stippling adds that puckered feel, and the brown thread looks great highlighted against the blue solids on the back. Some people have asked me what I intend to do with the third quilt. Well, when I started quilting back in the springtime, it was in response the the amazing Quilting for Babes program started by my friend Kathy at Magnolia Designs. Baby quilts were made and donated to the NICU at the Children's Hospital from all around the world. I had planned to make 3 to donate, in gratitude for the health of my 3 gorgeous kids. I donated 2 "girl" quilts (my first quilt, plus another), but had yet to contribute a "boy" quilt.....so, here it is. Hopefully it will give some joy to a family who is in need of comforting.

In other twin news....2 more twins have just arrived to another good friend of mine. Yes, it is true. Something in the water up here?? And boys again. So that means...."Twin Quilts 2" will be coming to a blog near you (er, right here, actually). New designs, but (hopefully) equal Awesome Factor. I'll give you a hint: I will be using the stack of blues and greens.....

Linking up at Sew and Tell and the Crafty Soiree and Quilt Story Fabric Tuesday :-)