Blogger's Quilt Festival

Hello there!  It's been a while, but I'm still here.  I'm feeling a little rusty so bare with me...

I'm entering a mini quilt I recently made into Amy's Bloggers Quilt Festival!  This will be my first ever entry into any type of contest so I'm a bit nervous, but overall I'm pretty excited!

After coming across this pillow on Pinterest and this tutorial by Kati, I had been itching to make a foundation pieced star. So one day (when I actually felt like sewing) I decided to to draw up a pattern and get busy. I had never foundation paper pieced before so it was a little slow going at first, but I quickly got the hang of it.

 

 

Making sure I had the proper seam allowance was probably the hardest part for me.  As you can see in the pictures above they are a little short in spots, but I made it work. 

 

I chose to make it out of solid Kona Cottons in a ROYGBIV orientation based purely on the fact that I had a bunch of scraps left over from my not-so-scrappy trip around the world quilt.  (Hopefully I will get around to blogging about it soon.)  From the very beginning I knew I wanted to use this black and white stripe for the binding to add contrast.  I love how it turned out!

 

 



 

 

 

 

This beauty is currently cheering up my sewing area making my quite happy every time I look at it!

 

Size - 19.5" x 19.5"

Fabric - All solids are Kona Cottons

Binding - All that is on the selvage is "Kensington for Quilting Treasures"

Quilting - Straight line with a walking foot, by me

 

Thanks for stopping by (and sticking with me)!

 

Christine

Baby Quilts

I managed to get four baby quilts done for my craft show a couple weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to sharing them with you all.  Two boy-ish and two girl-ish.  They were quick and easy, just what I needed to get them done for the show!

For this one I used Kona cottons and these cute truck prints form Pooches and Pickups.  I just did some simple straight line quilting and bound it in Kona cotton.

This one is made with Kona cotton in white and a Hello Luscious charm pack with Hello Luscious yardage for the back.  This one is also straight line quilted and bound with Kona Cotton.  I made this one from start to finish the day before the show!

This was the first one I pieced.  It's made with more Kona Cotton (pretty much the only solid I work with) and selected prints from Get Together.  I chose to stipple this one and I was pretty happy with how the quilting turned out.

Then there's this little pretty thing!  I love this quilt.  It is probably just the colors, but I want a throw sized one for myself.  I used Kona Cotton in Ash, a Vintage Modern charm pack and Sherbet Dot from Ruby for the back.  For the quilting I gave wavy lines a try and love the look.  I bound it with a dot fabric from my stash.  I just love the whole thing!

And then there is this little guy, he was my shadow while I was photographing these quilts.  Isn't he just soooo cute?!  This is Drummer, my little long haired chihuahua weighing in at six whole pounds.  He is my constant shadow.  Whether I'm sitting at my sewing desk or sitting on the couch, cooking dinner or brushing my teeth he is always at my feet.  In fact, in this very picture he is sitting at my feet!  Oh I just love him so much!

Have a wonderful evening!

Christine

Snow Day



I guess winter is finally here for those of us here in the Midwest, two snow storms within a week of each other would probably say so.  It's been snowing all day and it is really piling up out there.  Riley has been talking nonstop about making a snow man so maybe tomorrow if it's a bit warmer than today we will tackle that project!  I can't remember the last time I made a snow man.

I have my Just Wing It baby quilt basted and about halfway quilted.  I have to say I am terribly disappointed with how the quilting is going.  I think it as to do with how I basted it, but I am getting a lot of puckering on the top!  I don't think I had the top as taught as the backing so once I started quilting the side to side lines (after already doing the top to bottom lines) there is more fabric on the top than on the back and it is folding over the perpendicular lines that have already been quilted. 

I hate to say it, but I am far too lazy to go back and unpick all the the quilting I have already done.  The puckers are pretty small and I think they wont be so bad after a wash and dry...I hope!  I should have it in the wash tonight so I guess we will see...


Christine

Hurray!

This is how my machine has been sitting or the past few weeks: ready, but not doing anything.  The last time I used it I put on my darning foot so it would be ready to go.  I figured this would keep me for working on anything else until I worked on Katie's Quilt and it worked.

With my nieces arriving this weekend for a two week visit I knew I needed to get my butt in gear and get this quilt done.  So two nights ago I sat down at my machine with the quilt and vowed not to move from my seat until the quilting was finished.  Well, when you have a three year old that is pretty impossible, BUT I did finish the quilting before I went to bed!  It felt awesome!  Now I just need to make and attach the binding and finish clipping the seams so it would fray nicely in the wash (which felt never ending).

First thing yesterday morning I got started on the binding, finished that up and attached it to the quilt.  I had to take a break to watch my three month old nephew for a bit, but then back to work.  I hadn't decided if I was going to finish the binding by hand or machine, but I decided to do it by machine and I am quite happy with how it turned out!  It was awesome to see a finished quilt coming out the back of the machine!  I still had to finish clipping the seams, but I couldn't wait to get it in the wash!

Once I had it in the wash I could hardly contain my excitement!  It was done and I couldn't wait to see the results of my very first FINISHED quilt!

So with out further ado...

I LOVE the texture that was created on the back!

Over all I am happy with how this quilt turned out.  I would prefer it without the fraying, but that is what she wanted.  I'm just thrilled that it is done and I can move on.  I have felt so guilty working on anything else while this quilt was waiting to be finished!  So now I am free to work on new projects...like my Rainbow Charm Swap Quilt!

I decided on pinwheels.  I'm pretty excited about this quilt, but I must say it's a bit disappointing that two 5" squares cut up and sewn back together only come out 5.75"!  I'll get over it...

There are a few more photos of Katie's Quilt over on my Flickr if you are interested.