Blogger's Quilt Festival: I Spy Bubbles

Welcome visitors from the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

I've decided to enter one more quilt in the festival.  This one is not new to my readers, but it's one of my favorites from the past six months, so I'm sharing it again.  :)

I'm a member of the Do.Good Stitches Humility circle (we make quilts for charity - ours go to a center for abused/neglected children and teens).

I asked my bee mates to send me raw edge appliqued circle blocks using their fun novelty fabrics to make this "I-Spy" quilt.

They most definitely did not disappoint!  This quilt was so much fun to put together every time I looked at it I found a new hidden treasure - I didn't want to give it up!

I quilted the whole thing with pebbles of varying sizes.

One of my bee mates sent me a whole slew of extra circles, so I put them on the back.  I was kind of going for the look of bubbles being blown out of a bubble wand.  Not sure if I achieved it, but that's okay.  It's still fun.

And here's my label with all of my sweet bee mates names listed:

Since the edges of the circles were all raw edges, I knew the quilt was going to fray in the wash.  So I threw it in the machine for a few cycles before boxing it up and sending it off.  LOOK how much it frayed (and crinkled)!  I love it.  :)

Thanks for letting me share!  I'm linking this quilt up in the Scrappy Quilts category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  See more amazing quilts HERE.

Quilt stats:

Started: May 2015

Finished: July 6, 2015

Fabrics: Various Novelty/I-Spy fabrics

Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% Cotton

Finished size: Approx. 54" x 60"

Recipient: Junior's House

Methods used:  Raw edge applique

Binding: Hand stitched to the back (made from novelty print scraps)

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Spinning Dahlia in Bloom

Welcome visitors from the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

I almost didn't enter anything this time around, because I've been so busy sewing things and don't really have anything ready to share yet.  But I just finished this mini and I'm so excited to share it with you!

I made this for the Schnitzelandboo mini quilt swap on IG, and it was SO MUCH FUN!
My partner is a big fan of rainbow color and also loves hearts.  I wanted to challenge myself a little this time, so I took on curved piecing for the second time ever and I think it turned out awesome!

I used THIS paper piecing pattern from Shape Moth for my Dahlia petals.  Then I set the large circle inside the white background using THIS tutorial by Cut to Pieces.  The inspiration for this particular color layout came from THIS amazing photo on IG by birchandbirdsong.  I meant to make the outer edge of my Dahlia look more star-ish, like hers by using all white pieces for the very last section of each petal.  BUT, as things tend to go - I messed up a little by using colored pieces for half of my last sections (does that even make sense?). So I decided to call my mistake a "design element".  Now my Dahlia looks more like a flower and I love that it is it's own design now.  :)

For the quilting, I went with pebbles and swirls in the white section because it just felt right.  For the petals, I stitched in the ditch going the opposite direction because I'm cool like that.  Then I added a little bit of cross-hatching to the very center because it was still a little poofy.  I thought about adding more dense quilting, but my IG friends told me to leave it as is.  I'm so glad I did.  :)
Here's a shot of the back:

I used a charm pack (Meadowbloom by April Rosenthal for Moda - LOVE) for the front of the quilt and since I used nearly every piece, I had to dig through my stash for something to bind it with.  I hope this blue bias stripe/dot print works okay!

 Then I got to use my scraps to make this little mug rug!

 Aren't those little tiny geese so cute?

 I've been a little obsessed with matchstick quilting lately and finally found the perfect project to try it out on.  Of course, this piece is only 6" x 9" so it was really easy.  I LOVE the texture!

Thanks for stopping by!  Since this mini quilt is on the large side (for a mini), I'm entering it into the Small Quilts section of the Bloggers Quilt Festival.   Check out the rest of the entries HERE.

Quilt stats:

Started: September 2015

Finished: October 26, 2015

Fabrics: Meadowbloom by April Rosenthal (Solids are Kona white and Bella Steel)

Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% Cotton

Thread:  Aurifil

Finished size: Approx.  24" x 24"

Recipient: THAT'S A SECRET FOR NOW!

Methods used:  Curved Piecing, Machine Quilting on my home machine

Binding: Bias binding hand stitched to the back; Mug rug - backing sewn by machine to the front

This quilt also happens to be #7 on my Finish Along list.  Yay!

Quarter 4 Goals

It's time to share my goals for the rest of the year (linking up to the Finish Along).  I'm already in freak-out mode because the list is so long!  I think this time of year will do that to a person....

From last quarter:

1.  King Diamond Ripple.  This one is on the back burner again, but it would be SO AWESOME to finish it in time for Christmas!  Or maybe New Years...

2.  Scrappy Pillow for the Nebo Modern Quilt Guild.  (My original goal was to make one pillow for each month - I think this one can count for July?  Fireworks?)

Side 1

Side 2

3.  Growth Chart for Noah.  I plan to use leftovers from his Car Seat Cover.

4.  Stocking for Noah.  This is what I've got so far:

And all the new things being added to the list this quarter (!):

5.  B's Quilt.  This one is a commission from another aunt.  :)  The recipient loves puzzles.

6.  J's Quilt.  Another commission.  She loves polar bears.  :)

7.  Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap.  Here's a fuzzy WIP photo.  LOVING how this one is turning out!

8.  Pillow Talk Swap on IG.  My partner has requested a Christmas pillow.  I'm planning to break open my long hoarded Kate Spain 12 Days of Christmas charm pack.

9.  Pouch Swap for Nebo Modern Quilt Guild.  I'm thinking dresden.  Again.  I might be obsessed with dresdens.

10.  Gift for mom.  Sorry, no sneak peaks on this one!  Wouldn't want to spoil the surprise!

11.  Growth Chart for Korbin.  Something to match the one I made for his brother:

12.  Crayon rolls for my boys.  They want one just like their cousin's.  They are also obsessed with super heroes lately, so I figured these would be perfect:

And if there is extra time in there somewhere:

13.  Apron for myself, using this fabric I won in a giveaway!

14.   Transportation, birthday, and Christmas bibs for the shop.

15.  Write a pattern for my Colors Quiet book.  I'm not sure if this one counts, but it's something I've been meaning to do for awhile.  I get TONS of hits on my colors book (people coming to my shop from pinterest), but not a ton of sales.  I figure it's because most of my browsers are makers themselves looking for inspiration.

And of course, October and November are notoriously busy months for Etsy shop owners so wish me luck!!!

A Few Recent Makes

Once Cheyanne's Quilt was finished, I got to spend some time on a few little projects.  It always feels great to make something quick after a big project. 

First up - remember the Dresden plate mini I made for my guild swap?  Well, at our meeting one of the ladies mentioned that she had seen someone sew a giant Dresden on the side of a skirt and the idea rooted itself in my brain.  So I made myself a Dresden skirt.  Fabric is from the absolutely gorgeous Bright Sun line by Sherri and Chelsi that I won in a giveaway.  :)

We attended a wedding for our friends (the bride is from Taiwan) and I whipped up these quick "his" and "hers" towels.  I'm really hoping that says "hers" in Chinese...

My nephew turned three, and of course he needed something handmade from me.  I decided on a crayon roll.  

I even included a pocket for a mini notebook.  Now both of my twins have decided they MUST have one of their own.  

I LOVE this fun transportation fabric.

And then Emily Herrick posted about this book on Instagram and I went right out and ordered it because - CRAYONS!  Also, it's an adorable book.  :)

And here are all the bee blocks I've made that haven't made it onto the old blog yet:

For Vickey:

For Jaime:

For Vickey:

 For Kristen:

For Brittney:

For Jaime:

My First Mini!

So... Back in August, I participated in a mini quilt swap with the ladies in my guild.  It was SO FUN.  In fact, since then I have signed up for two more swaps - something I never thought I would do.

Anyway.  My partner for this particular swap said that she loves pastels.  This worried me at first, because I am SO not a pastel person!  But I found a charm pack that I liked - Windham Basic Pastels, and decided to figure out how to use it.  After stewing for awhile on what design to stitch for my partner, I came across THIS MINI QUILT one day in my blog reading and decided that's what I was going to do.

Here it is!

 

My partner happens to be a long arm quilter, so I was a little nervous about the quilting, but I love how it turned out.  The orange peels in the border are a little wonky, but I love the little row of pebbles.  :)

And here's the back.  I just pieced together what was left of the charm pack.  I did remember to add hanging sleeves, although I regretted it later because the binding was really hard to sew around all those layers in the corners.  :s

And here's the mini I received!  My partner knows I love bright, happy colors, so this is PERFECT!  Also, I love this star pattern.  :) 

Doesn't it look great on my sewing room wall?  It's so cute!

Now, onto the next mini.  I have HUGE plans!


This was Finish #7 on my Quarter 3 Finish-Along List.  Wahoo!