Charity Quilts of Late: Do.Good Stitches and a Baby Jelly Roll Race

Whew!  Guys!  I got a new laptop for Christmas and I LOVE IT!  Lets all cross our fingers that 2018 will be the year I blog a lot.  No more excuses. :)

But first - lots of catching up to do.  I'm more than 6 months behind!  Yikes!

First up is a bunch of charity quilts from 2017.

Back in March, I was in charge of choosing blocks for Do.Good Stitches Believe Circle.  I wanted to do a two color quilt and I love green, so that's what I went with.  I wasn't even thinking about the fact that St. Patty's day is in March.  That was just a lovely coincidence.

I went with the Pinwheel Churndash block from Missouri Star Quilt Co. (love their tutorials!  They are perfect for Bee blocks).  You can find the tute we used RIGHT HERE.

This was my favorite block (I believe Ben made it).  Isn't it great?

For the back, I used up a bunch of my larger green pieces and made this giant churn dash (with one of our extra blocks in the center).  Not the prettiest greens, but I was happy to use up some of the stash.

I actually quilted this one from the BACK.  I was hoping the quilting would sort of show a shadow of the giant churn dash on the front.  So I echoed around the churn dash a few times and filled the rest in with swirls.

You can sort of see the design on the front here:

It was only kind of effective, but it was still a fun experiment.  :)

This quilt was shipped off to "My Very Own Blanket," an organization that donates quilts and blankets to children in foster care.  :)

Quilt stats:

Started: March 2017

Finished:  May 2017

Fabrics: Various Greens and Low Volumes

Batting: Pellon 80/20 Cotton/poly

Finished size: Approximately 40" x 50" 

Recipient: MVOB

Methods used: Piecing, FMQ

Binding: Machine 

Next quilt!

In December (2016), I asked my Do.Good Stitches Bee-mates to make giant log cabin blocks for me.  I think these finished at 18" square. 

We used this piece of fleece (it had been in my stash for a long time) as our color inspiration.  Then I used it for the backing of our quilt.  It's super soft and snuggly.

Once I got the blocks back, I sliced them up on the diagonal and put them back together.  It's another experiment I've always wanted to try. 

I think it turned out kinda cool.  I'd like to try it with smaller, non-improv blocks.

I totally bound this one by machine!  I'm getting a little better at it.  I still prefer hand binding because I feel like it takes LESS time (time sitting at the couch hand sewing with the TV doesn't count - it's the sewing machine time that is valuable around here).  But I tried a fancy stitch on this one and it was kinda fun. 

I quilted this one with a nice overall meander - except I threw in a bunch of basketballs and footballs for fun.  I think you can see a basketball in the above photo if you look very closely.

This quilt was also donated to My Very Own Blanket.  I hope some little boy is loving it right now!

Quilt stats:

Started: December 2016

Finished:  May 2017

Fabrics: Various

Batting: Pellon 80/20 Cotton/poly

Finished size: Approximately 45" x 62" 

Recipient: MVOB

Methods used: Piecing, FMQ

Binding: Machine 

Last up is my Jelly Roll Race baby quilt:

You may remember that I snagged myself a "midarm" quilting machine last year around the holidays.  This was one of the quilts I made to practice my quilting on. 

I've always wanted to try a Jelly Roll race quilt, and the top took me just under 2 hours to make (including borders).  I used a smaller jelly roll with only 21 strips, which yielded a super long and skinny quilt.  So I unpicked a couple of rows and added them to the sides for a nice little baby sized quilt.

The quilting was just sort of okay.  I never really got the hang of the quilting machine.  I had lots of issues with tension (particularly side tension - I think I finally get why long-armers really need their backings to be so much bigger).  Plus the machine I got was big and bulky and not very smooth and it hurt my back.  Among other things.  In the end, I found another buyer for it and I'm happy to continue quilting on my little domestic.  It's funny - moving the quilt just makes sense to my brain.  Moving the machine is strange.  That's not to say I would LOVE to try out a REAL, GENUINE long arm machine someday (as opposed to a home-made, jerry-rigged setup).  ;)

Anyway.  Back to the quilt.  I knew I couldn't give this away to a friend or family member, but I was happy to donate it to charity.  :)

I tried another fancy stitch on this machine binding.

The back is this print that my friend Abby gave to me when she was destashing.  A lot of Abby's fabrics went into my backings in 2017.  Abby is the best. 

The end. 

Quilt stats:

Started: March 2017

Finished:  May 2017

Fabrics: Joel Dewberry True Colors Jelly Roll

Batting: Pellon 80/20 Cotton/poly

Finished size: Approximately 36" x 40" 

Recipient: Charity 

Methods used: Piecing, "Mid"arm quilting

Binding: Machine 

Total time to make: 4.25 hours

Ombre Bargello Optical Illusion

Back in June, our guild (the Nebo Modern Quilt Guild) hosted a challenge to make an optical illusion quilt.  The timing was perfect, since I had recently discovered The Fleming's Nine and her awesome Rainbow Bargello Quilts.

I decided I wanted to see what would happen if I used an OMBRE jelly roll to make my quilt.

I did mess up my cutting just a little, so the ombre effect is a little choppier than I would like, so now I'm just calling it "color blocking."  What do you think?

I wanted the quilt to be big enough for a twin bed, so I added the white and teal borders.  Isn't that teal ombre triangles print just perfect?

For the quilting, this design was begging to be covered with some fun graffiti quilting.  I even used a blue variegated thread.

For the borders, I took my inspiration from the backing fabric.

Can you tell?

The binding is another ombre triangle print, this time in Navy.  I just love the colors in this fabric line.

For the backing, I bit the bullet and used a precious bundle of Birds and the Bees Fabric by Tamara Kate.  I've been saving it for something special, but didn't have anything particular in mind for it yet.  It just so happened to match this quilt so perfectly, so I went ahead and used it up.

I just love these prints!

This quilt is now listed for sale in my Etsy shop! It was SO MUCH FUN to make!

Quilt stats:

Started: February 2017

Finished:  June 2017

Fabrics: V and Co "Ombre" jelly roll, "Spectrum" Ombre HSTs

Batting: Pellon 80/20 Cotton/poly

Finished size: Approximately 60" x 86" (twin)

Recipient: ??? ***UPDATE*** A sweet neighbor bought this from me!  YAY!!!

Methods used: Piecing, FMQ

Binding: Machine to back, hand to front

Time to Make: About 18 hours 

Kaleidoscope in The Sweet Life

Okay friends!  It's time to share my Kaleidoscope quilt! 

Back in 2016 or so, a friend brought a quilt made from this pattern to our guild meeting and I loved it so much I decided right then and there that I need to make one!  (The pattern is Kaleidoscope by Lella Boutique.)

I had a jelly roll of Pat Sloan's "The Sweet Life" fabric (that I won in a giveaway from Happy Quilting back in 2015 - WOOHOO!) 

The pattern results in a whole bunch of tiny triangles and since I was in a non-wasting mood, I decided to sew them all up into teeny tiny (1" finished) HSTs.  Yeah, I timed myself to see how long it would take to make this skinny little HST border.  SEVEN HOURS!  Yikes!  I think next time I won't feel so bad about tossing the leftovers.  ;)

For the quilting, I went with a swirls/pebbles combination in the background and borders, leaving the rest unquilted so that the design would pop a little. 

For the back, I used up a bunch of large pieces from my stash (many of which were given to me by my sweet friend and neighbor Abby - YAY!).

And of course, the binding had to be scrappy - made with all my leftover jelly roll strips (mostly the neutral colored ones).

AAAAND this quilt was just "for fun," meaning there was no intended recipient in mind.  So until I can find someone to give it to, it's listed in my shop.

Quilt stats:

Started: September 2016

Finished:  May 2017

Fabrics: "The Sweet Life" by Pat Sloan

Batting: Pellon 80/20 Cotton/poly

Finished size: Approximately 66" square

Recipient: ???

Methods used: Piecing, FMQ

Binding: Machine to back, hand to front

Time to Make: About 30 hours (including the 7 hour HST border)

Finished: Korina's Radio Way Wedding Quilt!

It's finished and I love it! 

I present to you:  Korina's Radio Way Wedding Quilt (don't knock the creative title, okay?) I finished it (quite literally) just in time for her bridal shower.  I wanted to give it to her then rather than at the wedding for purely selfish reasons.  :)  I loved seeing her reaction and having her tell me it looks "just like the picture" and that "the colors are perfect."  WHEW!

It's a large Queen/small King.  That's me and my brother attempting to hold it up.

Here's the story.  As soon as my sister-in-laws fiance (finally) proposed, I was super excited to get started right away on her wedding quilt.  I love a good excuse to make a big new quilt!
So I sent her a link to my (rather extensive) pinterest boards and she chose a few designs that she liked.  Luckily for me, she seemed drawn to the more simple but modern designs.  I went for this design by Julie Herman called "Radio Way" - genius pattern by the way.   She said she wanted something with light green and black, but no yellows.  And that she trusted my instincts (Wahoo!). 
SO.  I just so happens that I had an old Joann's jelly roll in my stash with lots of lime green, aqua, and gray.  From there I found a bundle of the gorgeous Up Parasol line in greens/aquas and paired it with another jelly roll (from Etsy) in blacks and whites.  I also threw in a few extra Amy Butler prints from my LQS (they were on sale!!)  I even found a jelly roll with a white tone-on-tone print to use for the sashing.  I really love the colors in this quilt.
And it worked up SUPER fast!  I'm pretty sure (nope, I'm positive) that the quilting took longer than the piecing.  I LOVE working with precuts!

 
For the back, I used up some leftover yardage I had on hand, plus my three extra blocks.  I love being able to use every bit of fabric with no waste.  :)  Oh yeah, the solid is a sheet from Walmart.  I couldn't bring myself to buy 8 yards of quilting fabric.  I also couldn't bring myself to buy a king sheet just so that I could avoid piecing a back.  Pieced backs aren't really that fun for me to make, but I LOVE the end result!

For the quilting, I knew I wanted something slightly custom (no overall meandering here!), but simple.  In the end I was inspired to do some Angela Walters inspired "curved" dot-to-dot quilting mixed with a little bit of Leah Day sashing designs.   It took a lot of time, and made my wrist sore (have I mentioned yet that this quilt is a small KING size?), and I had TONS of tension issues (who says Aurifil is the best thread out there?  Cuz it sure broke a lot for me) but I really love how it turned out.  Even though those long curved lines are mostly pretty wonky.  Ah well.  Do you want to know the secret to quilting a King sized quilt on your home machine?  Excellent basting and stitching in the ditch around all the blocks before you do any FMQ.  My quilt is virtually free of puckers!  YAY!

You can see the quilting really well on the back of the quilt, which is awesome:

Here's a close up:

And a shot of the front:

I also remembered to add a label!  I kept it simple, but this time I used my printer, rather than my own handwriting.  :)  The label was actually a big hit once one of the girls discovered it at Korina's bridal shower.  Everyone thought it was so sweet that their wedding date was on the back.  I guess it's all in the simple things!

A big thanks to a bunch of my guild friends for helping me choose this binding!  It's from the Reunion line by Sweetwater.  It was just the right shade of gray and I love the little pops of green and blue.  I cut it on the bias, of course - because it looks amazing that way.  :)  And it's hand sewn to the back, of course.  I was sitting on the couch binding it minutes before I left for the shower...

And there you have it!  Now.  Who's getting married next?

Quilt stats:

Started: January 2015

Finished: March 28, 2015

Fabrics: Fabric Central "Delicate" collection (from Joanns), Up Parasol (chartreuse colorway), a few Amy Butler prints, various black and white prints

Batting:  Pellon 80/20 Cotton/Polyester (prewashed for shrinkage)

Finished size: Approx. 100" x 100"

Recipient: Korina and Garrett

Methods used:  Strip Piecing, Free Motion Quilting (on my home machine)

Binding: Reunion by Sweetwater.  Cut on the bias, machine stitched to the front, hand stitched to the back

Total time to make: Approximately 40 hours