OMG! March. Check.

Such a sense of satisfaction comes from the completion of March's One Monthly Goal. If you read this post back at the start of the month, you'll already know that my goal was to finish up some of the blocks from my Skill Builder 2015 (yup. 2015.) quilt, Technicolor Galaxy.

These two cubbies in my studio shelving have gone untouched for far too long. I am so happy that Alyssa @ Pile O Fabric is feeling well enough to get some of the lessons together for Technicolor Galaxy.

Lesson 8 (what would have been August 2015's block) was released just recently. It uses a technique called Piecelique. If you've never tried it, you really should. But there's glue. Consider yourself forewarned. This blog post gives you a good overview of the technique.

More pieced backgrounds. Even though the pattern doesn't call for it, I felt the block needed it.

Yay! Goal achieved! They don't look like much compared to some of the other blocks in this quilt, but they were interesting to make!

Once the Moon blocks were done, it was time to prep the blocks in the outer ring (Moons, Flower Hexies, and Orange Peels) for quilting.

I realized somewhere along the way that I hadn't actually finished my Flower Hexies! Oops.
Some more EPP for the background and a little appliqué later, they're done! 
I don't normally have to put so much thought into choosing the backing for a quilt, but Technicolor Galaxy is an exception! So many Konas to choose from!

And here we are! The outer ring of blocks are all layered and ready to quilt.

UPDATE: Though I don't have a picture, I've actually completed the quilting on the Moon blocks. Yay! 

I'm linking up today with OMG: It's Finished! @ Red Letter Quilts, as well as Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts.

J

Friday Finish - A Wee bit of the Irish!

I know, St. Patrick's Day was last week! So was my mini mini swap with the Do Bees. But I was blogging about other shenanigans last Friday, so this wee bit of the green got bumped!

In the last year, we've been working toward more sewing as a group. Our first project was a FQ swap back in September. This time, we went for a mini mini.... or a mug rug, depending on who you talked to. In honour of St. Patrick's Day, it had to include some green.  As soon as we started talking about this swap, I knew I wanted to make another version of the mini mini I made for Q-D. This pattern by Tiny Toffee Designs is just SO much fun!
It's always fun to pull fabric for a mini mini. You can use all your favs without fear of using them up! I went for some C+S for the background and the wee heart. The linen-y green of the mug is a RK print (I think). 
I quilted this one in radiating straight lines. I might even like it better than what I did on Q-D's version.

You can really see the quilting on the back. And you can admire this lovely Lizzy House print! It's also the flying geese on the front and as the binding.

Here's the whole collection! Mine's the miniest! ☺

I can hardly wait to get started on our next adventure - a round robin! I'm linking up today at TGIFF @ Anja Quilts, as well as at Finish Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts.

J

WIP Wednesday - Back Assward Daylilies

Daylily Daze as left me a little dazed. What else can explain doing a WIP post about a quilt that has already been finished? But seriously, where this one lived in the QPP (Quilting Protection Program) for so long, I really couldn't share much about it in progress.

Where to begin? I wish I could remember just how the idea to make this quilt came to me, but alas, I can't. Daylilies + Kona. That's likely where it started. If you're not familiar with daylilies, you're missing out. There are thousands upon thousands of varieties, each one seemingly more beautiful that the last. So many colour palettes to choose from!

Are you in love yet? You should be. But I digress. Back to the quilting part. After taking/finding pics, the next step was to run some of these blooms through the amazing Palette Builder @ Play Crafts.

Instead of just letting the Kona colour card chips fall where they may, I shifted the colour sample points to only appear on the blooms. I also made palettes with eight colours instead of the default six.

I also made sure that each colour sample point gave me a unique Kona. I didn't want any repetition in the block. As I created each palette, I saved it to my computer with a number. Then I opened a Word file and printed them.

There was a lot of note taking and highlighting as I worked on this one.
 So much Kona... ♥♥♥
I laid the cut squares on top of the daylily pics and used the list of Konas as a checklist.

When all the squares were cut (i.e. all the colours checked off), I popped them in a labeled mini ziptop bag.

 

When a block was sewn, I pulled the label off the bag and transferred it to the block.

Let's not pretend that all 103 colours I used were in my stash. There was at least one trip to the LQS (and some mooching from my pal Anja @ Anja Quilts!). As you can see, my trusty notebook went with me!

I played with the layout... first putting them in numerical order (1 to 30), then creating other number patterns. Finally I moved them about to give better colour distribution. 

 If you're looking for it, the Zissertwin block is centre stage on the bottom row! ☺

Time for some sashing! For the sashing, I knew I wanted greens, so off I went to the Palette Builder again. This time I shifted the colour sample points onto the foliage.

 Most were in my stash (yay for stashes!), but I did have to pop to my LQS for a few. 

 I cut all those lovely greens into 2½ inch strips, then subcut them into 10½, 8½, and 6½ inch segments. Then I used my skills from making Endless Strip quilts and sewed them into one long piece.

I sewed the vertical sashing first, chain piecing the blocks to the endless green strip. Then I cut the blocks and sashing apart and sewed each row to the strip. It's this technique that makes the sashing look woven in places.

  The same endless green strip was used for borders (it really was endless!)

But it needed more weight. Enter a second border! Then layering, quilting in wavy lines, and binding. Nothing too revolutionary about that...

Phew! That was a lot of WIP for one post. Are you feeling like you want to make one of these? It doesn't have to be dayliles. It could be anything. The possibilities are endless. I'm thinking of my Hawaii vacation pics next. Please leave me a comment telling me what collection of pics you'd give the Palette Builder treatment to!

I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts and (retro-actively) with Tips and Tutorials Tuesdays @ Late Night Quilter This may not be a full on tutorial, but I feel like you'd have a great start if you wanted to make one of your own! (And I hope you'll link up with me or drop me an e-mail if you do!)

J

TGIFF/Friday Finish - The Unmasking of Quilt Protection Program Project #1

Welcome to TGIFF @ A Quarter Inch from the Edge! If you're new here, I hope you'll take a few minutes to have a look around and perhaps leave me a comment or two. For regular readers, you've suffered through the vague references to QPP Project #1 for a long time now.... 

Today is the day. I unveil to you Daylily Daze! A gift for my parents, avid readers of this very blog.

It's 30 unique sixteen patch blocks - each one inspired by a daylily. What's a daylily, you say? It's a flowering perennial plant and my parents love them! You can pop on over to the American Hemerocallis Society and learn more if you'd like.

Each sixteen patch block has an eight Kona colour palette inspired by a particular daylily. The colours are randomly placed. The patches are 2 inch finished.

On a dull (almost) spring day in Nova Scotia, the only green to be had at the park was this quilt. ☺

It's bound in Kona Peridot. I considered a scrappy binding, but decided there was lots and lots going on already!

The back features an oversized version of the Zissertwin block. It's a unique daylily hybridized by my parents' friends and named for DT.  The rest is improv pieced Kona greens used also used for the sashing.

Who doesn't love some wavy organic quilting? I think its becoming the default quilting style of my lovely little guild. I went a little wild and used variegated thread. I know. Wild.

Since this quilt was a long standing item in the Quilting Protection Program, I didn't do much in the way of WIP posts. I hope you'll come back next Wednesday when I blog a little about the process I used to create this quilt.

My Mom (and Dad too) loved it so much that they took it to New Hampshire's quilting Mecca, Keepsake Quilting!

The Deets  
Title: Daylily Daze (A JMTZ original!)
Size: 55 by 64 inches
Fabrics Used: Konas and only Konas.
Konas Used: 103 different Konas went into this quilt. Refer to Kona Love for more information
Quilting: Organic wavy lines in variegated green (Gutterman)
Binding: Kona Peridot, hand stitched with Gutterman

Backing: Pieced from Kona greens used for sashing

Favourite Part(s): Creating a one of a kind quilt for my parents to thank them for 40 years of love and support and capturing in some small part their love of daylilies

Now it's your turn, link up those fabulous finishes here and don't forget to tour the other finishes and spread the comment love! Please include a link and/or button for TGIFF! so your visitors know all about TGIFF!

An InLinkz Link-up

J

P.S. This quilt would not have been possible without the amazing (and free) on-line tool that is Palette Builder 2.1 @ Play Crafts. Many thanks to Anne for her genius in creating this and for her generosity in sharing it! 

WIP Wednesday - A little of this, a little of that...

It's been a while since a WIP Wednesday post... not because I haven't been working on things, but more so that I've been hopping from thing to thing. Here are some sneaky wee peakies of projects I've been picking away at. 

This pic is exactly why I have a Kona stash. I was able to select a 24 shade rainbow without buying a single inch of Kona. I ♥ my Kona stash! Psst... only 17 are shown here!

And once they're sewn together, they're even more awesome. Just you wait until you see what they turn into!

And remember when I showed off this lovely Carkai in my Sunday Stash post and said I already had plans for it. Well, Here we are...

My one little irritation with this fabric is that it claims to be Kona colour matched, but there's nowhere (at least that I could find through extensive Googling) where one can find the matches. Off to my trusty Kona swatches - Storm, Peapod, and Green Tea were the closest matches that were also in my stash!

Then off to the cutting mat and rotary cutter! So many pieces, so much masking tape.

 I bet you can guess who this is going to turn into!

And here's another very wee bit. Can't say too much about it, only that it had to be wee and it had to have green. More on that another day!

I'm linking up today with Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts and with the Canadian Needle & Thread Network.

J