Friday Finish - Charm Pack Cherry Sans Cherries!

It's Friday and I've got another finish... actually completed in 2015!

It's Charm Pack Cherry Sans Cherries... since there are no actual cherries in these prints! It's a free pattern from Fat Quarter Shop. It's easy, even if you have to make adaptations as I did (I only had one charm pack and it calls for two!)

This quilt is also my January goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes hosted by Fibre of All Sorts and Sew Bittersweet Designs. One down, eleven to go!

For the backing, I gathered up three chunks of Kona and pieced them together - Chartreuse, Snow, & Robin Egg. I knew I wouldn't be able to find any of the prints at my LQS, so Konas seemed like my best bet. It's quilted using a scallop stitch (#130) on my Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0.

After posting a question about colour options for the binding, Kona Nightfall was the resounding winner. Sorry, Salmon. Now what the heck am I going to do with that piece of Salmon?!

  I couldn't resist playing with this one out in the winter sunshine with snow sparkling all around.

The Deets 
Title: Charm Pack Cherry Sans Cherries 
Fabric Used: Charm pack of Miss Kate by Bonnie & Camille for Moda 
Konas Used: Chartreuse, Nightfall, Robin Egg, Snow
Quilting: Vertical scallop stitch using Gutterman White (Colour - 20)

Binding:  Nightfall, Machine stitched with Gutterman (Colour - 260) 
Backing: Pieced using Chartreuse, Robin Egg, and Snow 
Favourite Part(s): Meeting my January goal for the Lovely Year of Finishes, using up a charm pack that I'd had around for a while

Read more about the process of making this quilt here & here!

I'm linking up with Finish Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts, as well as with the January link-up for a Lovely Year of Finishes @ Fibre of All Sorts. My post was #129 on the Goal Setting post.

As long as I'm at it, I'm linking up with...


Tomorrow I'm off to the first MMQG Sew In of 2015! Here's hoping that the freezing rain forecasted for tomorrow doesn't throw a wrench in my plans. I'm looking forward to seeing my quilty pals and having an entire day of sewing! Woo hoo! And, on Sunday, I might even have a surprise for you Kona lovers out there! Stay tuned!

J

WiP Wednesday - Underwater

Apparently, January 2015 is the month of The List. This past week, I dove into my fourth project from it - Underwater. No, I wasn't sewing underwater. It's the name that this little piecing exercise gave to itself...

It's from an April 2013 workshop with Elaine Quehl. You can read about how I made those curves here.

I deliberated for a long time. To emphasize it's watery look, I wanted to create ripples of wave-y quilting. I also toyed with the idea of appliquéing a fish and some water grasses onto it. In the end, it seemed unlikely that I would be as satisfied with my appliqué results as my piecing results. And I couldn't think of a way to quilt the ripples without interfering with the appliqué. Did I ask you, dear readers? Nope. Didn't think of that at the time! ☺
So waves of quilting it is. First up, choosing the thread. Remember when I went all crazy buying thread for Honey? It really came in handy when I went to match these Konas!

To keep things straight (and avoid wasting precious quilting time), I opted to number my spools once I had matched the thread.

 Then I added painter's tape numbers to the edge of the project with the corresponding numbers.

Then I got down to the fun stuff! I opted for organic ripples of quilting. I didn't bother to FMQ these... the walking foot works well for this sort of thing. The lines of stitching cross over each other and the different colours of  stitching don't necessarily stay within the bands of colour on the quilt top.

I'm very pleased with the quilting so far. I might add a few more lines of darker stitching in the upper/lighter strata. Up next, binding....

I'm thinking of matching the binding to the layers of colour... dark at the bottom, working it's way to light at the top. It's gonna be fiddly as hell to match it up. What do you think? Someone please tell me there's an easy way to do this!

I'm linking up today with WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced, as well as...

J

P.S. If you haven't had a chance, pop on over to Monday's post and enter my giveaway! You've got until midnight tonight!

Merry Bee-lated Christmas again!

I know, I know... enough with the Christmas stuff! But don't you remember? My bee-mates and I like to extend the season a little and hold our holiday dinner in late January when we're not too busy to enjoy ourselves.

This year as my gift to my bee-mates, I decided to do my own version of a little something I found on Pinterest. I was careful about where I pinned this - did you know you can create secret boards? They're great for projects and ideas you don't want to share with the whole planet (or your friends who follow you on Pinterest!)

What is it, you say? Why a magnetic pin tray, of course!
They're quite easy to make... I don't know if I can even call this a tutorial. It's that easy.  Himself dabbed on the adhesive and I put the (very strong) magnets in place.

We used PL Premium construction adhesive. Himself tells me it is ridiculously strong. This is not my department.

I was thinking tidy dabs, but Himself felt that the excess glue would make the magnets stick better...

 Let it dry for a few hours and voilà!

I was pretty pleased with myself that I managed to find trays with the first initial of all of my bee mates! I might of sat down on the floor in front of the bin at Michael's and rummaged until I did. The things we do in the name of crafts!

All presents are made better with the addition of chocolate.

All wrapped up and ready to go! Not terribly Christmas-y, but we seem to have a lot of pink and blue tissue paper around our house! ☺

And here's my loot from the evening. Remember, each person makes/buys a present for every other bee mate. It's meant to be something small - under 5$. I'm always amazed and pleased with what these creative ladies come up with!

 There might have been some chocolates... but I don't know quite where they went! ☺

And since it would be just plain 'ole rude to make you read all about presents and not share, I'm offering a giveaway today. It's also in honour of my 200th post! Just leave me a comment - tell me about the most memorable present you ever received. And what will you get from me? Well, just like Christmas morning, you won't know until you unwrap it! You have until midnight (Atlantic Time) on Wednesday, January 28th to comment! ***Giveaway has ended!***

J

P.S. I'm trying something new today and linking up with...

Friday Finish - Converging Corners

 A fresh snowfall and a crisp new quilt... what could be better?

I have to confess... this quilt was not finished in 2015! The majority of the blocks for this quilt were made by my bee mates in the Global Scrap Bee. Back in July, I asked them to make blocks using Film in the Fridge's tutorial for Converging Corners. Some people even sent me two!

I finished this one up in October, but photoshoots weren't so easy then. I felt this one deserved some proper photos... even if they are just in my backyard

I just love a stripe-y binding. I was lucky enough to find this striped print from Brrr! by Laurie Wisburn at my LQS to bind it. A number of prints from this collection made their way into this quilt.

 The backing is a Riley Blake print... Songbird by Carina Gardner.

For the quilting, I used one of the patterns I learned in my Skill Builder BOM last year. I basically quilted small sections in back and forth vertical or horizontal lines. They're not particularly straight and aren't meant to be! :)

 I opted to quilt only the white negative space... it really makes the strips of aqua & red prints pop!

The Deets

Title: Converging Corners

Size: 48 by  60 inches

Quilting: Wiggly sections using Gutterman White (Colour - 20)

Binding:  Brrr! by Laurie Wisburn for Robert Kaufman , Hand stitched with Gutterman

Backing: Songbird by Carina Gardner for Riley Blake

Favourite Part(s): Opening all those squishy envelopes and seeing the blocks come together on my design wall

I'm linking up today with Finish it Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts as well as with TGIFF, hosted this week by From Bolt to Beauty.Who knows... I might even manage a three-peat next Friday if get a little sewing in this week! Hoping the same for all of you quilters out there!

J

WIP Wednesday - Charming!

I am the master of The List! Okay. I might not have mastered it, but I've crossed off two items and am on my way to a third and fourth. This makes me happy, so I'm living two out of three of my main goals for this year!

This week, I got a real treat. When Himself asked me where I would like to go to take a break from DT, I said "My studio for a few hours!" and he made it happen. I spent Saturday afternoon blissfully watching Downton Abbey (Season 5!!!) and working away on my Charm Pack Cherry. I have an awesome husband. Just sayin.

 

After seeing Lee @ Freshly Pieced's version of Preppie the Whale, I had to have another look at the decorative stitches on my machine. Lo and behold, I have a scallop stitch too! And it mimics the scallops in a few of the prints in this quilt nicely. But I did have to do some tests...

Turns out that I can't increase the height, just the width. I made note of the settings on my sample sandwich. You just never know when you might want to do something again. It saves time if you make a note! I opted for the wider. I did lines of scallop stitches on the vertical. Out came my trusty green painters' tape whenever I needed a guide.

Since I only had the charm pack of these fabrics, I went for Konas as backing and binding. Here we have Robin Egg, Snow, and Chartreuse as a pieced backing. In this pic, you can see that the scallops didn't stay a consistent size. I was using my integrated walking foot, but I think I might have been feeding it with my hands with varying pressure.

Now for the binding. I just can't decide between these two Kona options: Nightfall and Salmon.

Time for a quilt consult! Over to you, dear readers! Leave me a comment with your thoughts...
Option 1: Nightfall - It's bold... which I like.Option 2: Salmon - I know, what on earth was I thinking buying a ghastly shade of pinkishness? But it kinda works... in a way.

I have a new assistant this week... BT didn't much feel like napping while I prepped this blog post, so he hung out in the studio.

In case you're wondering, he had no opinion on the binding colour. ☺ I'm linking up with...

and WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced! Pop on over and see what others are working on this week!

J

Somethin' New - Tuesday Archives!

Last week, when Val from Val's Quilting Studio hosted TGIFF, I stumbled onto a new (to me!) link-up. It's...

Each week, Val chooses a theme and bloggers link up their old posts... no need to prepare a new post! It's perfect for those of us who find it tough to post a lot during the week. And this week's theme is Modern Quilts. It's like it was made for me! Only how will I choose just one post!!!

After much deliberating, I went for this one - my finish post for Into Every Life.

Next week's theme is Mystery Quilts... I've never made one :( But I'll keep an eye on future weeks. This could be fun!

J

P.S. If you're looking for a new link up, why not check out Quilt Along.net! They have a list of link-ups organized by day. Be forewarned... there's also a massive list of quilt-alongs. You may have to exercise some willpower!

Sunday Stash - Somethin' new!

Ah... squishy envelopes. They make my week! This week's envelope was particularly exciting as it contained my first Half Stash from Le Club at Fridays Off Fabric. They're a Canadian fabric shop (we like those!) with fun, modern fabric that I haven't seen at a lot of other shops or websites.

From left to right a Riley Blake Giraffe Stripe Teal, Giraffe Tic Tac in Teal, Sidewalks Starburst Red, a mystery print (leave me a comment if you can identify it!), Giraffe Dots in Cream, and Flo's Garden Toadstools in Slate. All the Giraffe prints are from a Riley Blake line, Giraffe Crossing.

As a selvage junkie, it's tough to have someone else pick out my fat quarters... I typically dig through and pick out the ones with selvages whenever possible. Three out of six ain't bad! Aren't those giraffes great?

That's it for fabric acquisitions this week. I'm not fasting, but then again, I'm not sewing a lot these days so it doesn't make sense to buy much. Le Club is an ongoing Christmas present... 6 months of squishy goodness arriving in the mail. If I love, love, love the selections over the months, I might even treat myself!

I'm linking up with the fabulous Molli Sparkles for...

If you haven't read this blog, you need to! It always brings a smile to my face!

J