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!
 

Cheyanne's Wedding Quilt

A few months ago, I got a call from one of our aunts telling us that our cousin was getting married and she wanted me to make the wedding quilt!  I was beyond excited and completely flattered that she even asked me to do it.  :)  I've had to keep the whole thing under wraps for two months because she wanted it to be a surprise for the bride, but now that the wedding is over I can finally share it!

We started off with this color scheme.  She wanted black/white/gray with just a touch of Tiffany blue.

Fabrics from left to right, top to bottom:  Kona black, Kona Steel (?), Bella Graphite Gray, Bella Zen Gray, Kona White, Something from Joanns in my stash, Something from my LQS, Mystique by Lila Tueller, Alison Glass Sunprint Feathers, Mystique again, Riley Blake Chevron in gray, Bella by Lotta Jansdotter, Riley Blake Houndstooth in Gray, Riley Blake Quatrefoil in Gray, Something from my LQS, Riley Blake Damask in Gray, Mystique by Lila Tueller, Moda Bella Robins Egg Blue, Riley Blake Medium Chevron in Aqua.

I sent her links to my (extensive) Pinterest boards, and this is the photo she chose as our inspiration for the quilt pattern.  I took this idea and drew up an over sized Queen pattern from it. 

SOURCE

Fabrics were cut,

Blocks were pieced,

And before I knew it, I had a finished quilt top!

We tried it out on our Queen size bed to make sure it was long enough.  As long as it doesn't shrink excessively with it's first wash, I think it will work!

And then I proceeded to spend many, many hours quilting it.  I went with these three designs mostly, with some other stuff thrown in:

(It's easier to see the quilting from the back.)  Feathers, Angela Walters style hourglasses, and this Fabulous Flower.

There is also a little bit of dogwood quilting (in the quatrefoils and black scrolls), and lots of echoing on the large damask/floral and chevron prints. 

The little squares all got the same design I used in Korina's quilt.  I LOVE the secondary pattern this creates!

This border was the hardest to choose a design for, and I was running out of time, so I went with some quick Angela Walters inspired Dot-to-Dot quilting.  It's not the best looking, but it will do!

I took TONS of pictures of the quilting, but they were all taken with my phone the morning of the wedding and not many of them turned out.  Here are a few more:

This is my favorite block.  I love this blue color and that white floral Mystique print. 

Here's a shot of the back.  As you can see, I used matching thread for the top/bobbin and matched my threads to the fabric, so that back looks a little crazy.  But also a little cool.  We wanted something simple for the back, so we went with a white on white damask print and you really can't tell there is a print at all!  Oh well.  I was a little limited on my choices of backing fabric, because I didn't want to spend a fortune on it, but I was happy with this one because it was 108" wide and I didn't have to piece anything!
Another note on thread.  I used Aurifil for everything except for the quilting on the blue.  For that I found a really pretty, shiny blue Sulky thread.  I was a little nervous about it at first because it's not as strong as regular cotton, but I paired it with cotton thread in the bobbin and it seemed to work fine.  It's really pretty.

Of course, I finished the binding in the car on the way to the wedding (which was a 5 hour drive...luckily).  And here is proof that plenty of blood, sweat, and tears went into this quilt:

I was just telling my husband a few minutes before this happened "Wouldn't it be just great if I poked myself with a needle and bled all over this quilt hours before we're supposed to give it away?"  Yeah.  Luckily it was only a tiny bit.
And for the record, there were actually no tears shed in the making of this quilt.  I enjoyed every minute of it! 

And finally, a few shots of the finished quilt in my Grandpa's living room, right before heading to the wedding.  This quilt is HUGE and it was SO windy outside, making it really hard to photograph.

I really had to scrounge to find enough fabric for this label (I fuzzed out the name for the recipient's security).

Hubby is standing on top of a couch in this picture:

And here it is being displayed at the wedding.  I'm still just so honored that I was asked to make this special quilt!  I hope the bride and groom love it!

Quilt stats:

Started: July 3, 2015

Finished: August 21, 2015

Fabrics: See first photo

Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% Cotton

Thread:  Mostly Aurifil (Silver, White, Black), with some Sulky rayon (Blue)

Finished size: Approx. 104" x 104"

Recipient: Cheyanne and Husband

Methods used:  Piecing, Machine Quilting on my home machine

Binding: Hand stitched to the back using a Kona Jelly roll

Hours Spent: Approximately 50 hours

This quilt was goal #10 on this quarter's Finish-Along list.  Linking up: