Modern Quilt Guild Riley Blake Challenge

I made it!  I finished up my Riley Blake challenge quilt in time to meet the deadline for the challenge.

This is the quilt I came up with, Midnight Geese.

I started this quilt a few weeks ago, unsure if I would be able to finish by the deadline, but being positive that I would.  I started with a doodle that I had in my notebook from the beginning of January.

Once I had my design I started making lots of flying geese and laying them out on my design wall.  

I added elements as I went along that added to the original design, such as the pinwheels with the outline.

For the background I used a dark navy blue which really let the challenge fabrics pop.  The binding is also a Riley Blake challenge fabric.   I machine quilted the quilt, echoing around the geese and the border of the pinwheels.

I backed the quilt with a solid yellow to contrast the dark front  Because the yellow was so bright I added another pinwheel of geese using the challenge fabrics.  The geese are made with the scrap strips.  

I am loving how the quilting really pops on the back.

Just one more picture on the ice of the pool.

Midnight Geese is 33.5" x 41"


And... here is Maggie who was my "helper" while I was trying to take pictures.  I think she really wanted the take the quilt and run with it.  

Project Quilting Challenge 3 - Sweet Treats

Project Quilting Challenge 3 was this week (if you are wondering, yes I missed 2, I was sick and on bed rest for a few weeks).  I was beyond excited with the challenge inspiration, Sweet Treats.  My first thoughts were bright colors and fun shapes and then I thought gummy bears because they are yummy and colorful.

I took the color idea and ran with it.  This was a fun way to play with all solids, which I almost never do.  I pulled a bunch of bright fun colors from my stash and cut 2.5 inch strips off each.  Then I cut the strips into equilateral triangles, laid them out and fused them to some pellon.  I was experimenting with how the triangles would turn out with the fusing method.  FYI... the points don't come out perfect, but it gives a different look to them and I really think it fits the feel like the candies are in a big box all mixed together.

After I did the triangles I added a few thin borders to frame my hard candies.  I stitched in the ditch around the borders.  Then it is bound in a light blue, feels like one more border to me.  It is backed in a fun green and blue polka-dot that makes me think of candy dots.

My Hard Candy Mini Quilt measures 15.5" x 18.5".  I created it in my home in Lanoka Harbor, NJ.

A Lovely Year of Finishes - January

I hopped on board A Lovely Year of Finishes again this year.  I loved having that extra push to finish up projects.  This month I chose to finish up a triangle dinosaur quilt that I had been putting off forever.  I had the fabrics sitting in a pile since the summer and just never got around it it.  I chopped them up finally at the end of December.

January Goal

So at the beginning of the month I sat down and finished up this quilt top and even a second top just because... I mean I had the fabrics already and why not make two when it is so easy as this one.  A good back up for anther baby.  (Which has already been claimed)

I quilted this with simple straight lines, just a presser foot width from the seam lines.  It adds such a fun pattern to the quilt.

It is bound with a fun stripe that complements the colors on the front.

I pulled a fun red chevron for the back.

The quilting looks pretty cool on it, too.  it is kinda busy, but that's ok with me.

Tumbling Dinosaurs
31" x  36"
Cotton Fabrics
Pellon 80/20 blend batting

January... gone so fast

Wow, it is hard to believe that January is already almost over.  I feel like new years was just yesterday!  This month is just flying by.

I haven't done as much sewing this month as I had planned, but I hope to catch up as soon as I feel up to it.

I spent new years this year with a couple friends.  It was very low key, which is totally fine with me.  Sewing and talking... my kind of celebration.  I worked on my Tula Pink blocks from her book 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.

Kayce was learning how to use her little machine so she played with scraps until she felt comfortable and then dove into some I-spy blocks making a burp cloth for Orion.

 I seriously just love this picture of her looking through the throat space on my machine.

And because I have a new years tradition, my 2014 toes in the salt water and sand pic... that water so very cold on my toes.  It was dark because I couldn't get to the little beach earlier in the day so I had to make it lighter, not the best quality, but that is ok.  

I am looking forward to 2014.  So many great things are planned for this year.  Lets hope everything all falls into place to reach my goals.  

Project Quilting Challenge 1 - Strings

It't that time again, time for another season of Project Quilting!  I have been looking forward to this fo so long!!

The first challenge for season 5 is String Along With Me.  I love the look of string quilts and even made a string pillowcase as a challenge project last year.

I had a stack of fabrics sitting on my cut space from a bee block so I decided to stick with that color pallet and jumped right in.  I cut 1.5" and 2" strips off of 15 different fabrics and went to town randomly sewing them together, making sure only not to put two of the same fabrics next to each other.  I chopped up my sewn strips and then made a layout that was a little different than the traditional string quilt.

The quilt was then quilted with a checkered pattern, following the diagonals of the blocks, except the diamond which was just outlined.  It is then bound with a fun grey stripe (that is actually a Christmas print, but I love it!)

The backing a a fun green and blue polka-dot from my stash.  I am making a goal to make all my PQ challenge projects from my stash.

Modern Strings
52" x 52"
Cotton batting
mixture of prints from my stash.
Made in Lanoka Harbor, NJ

Pillowcases and a sham

For Christmas I made the boys, my nephews, a few pillowcases.  Matt had been asking for a space pillow since I gave him his space quilt for Christmas last year.  So for him I made two pillowcases and a pillow sham that all match his quilt.

For Chris I stuck with the superhero theme.  He love Superman so I made him a Superman pillowcase.  

And, he recently has become excited about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... talk about throwback!  I was able to get some fabric and make him a TMNT pillowcase with a blue accent for Leonardo, his favorite.  

These were super easy and fast to make, gotta love gifts like that!

Cindy's Tree Skirt

Yay, the last tree skirt for this year is done!  After I finished up the two tree skirts, Glamorous and Black and White, my sister decided that she wanted a tree skirt for Christmas.  I made my mom and other sister tree skirts last year so it was only fair that she got one, too.  Cindy is particular so I let her pick the fabrics that she wanted in her tree skirt.  From there we decided that she wanted circles on it, like I did my mom's, with reverse applique.  Cindy chose 12 fabrics so no fabric would be repeated in the wedges so I decided that no fabric should be repeated in the balls either.  So glad I joined in a few swaps of Christmas charms the past few years and have a ton of Christmas scraps in my stash.

The balls look great, they are just a lot of work when putting them on each and every wedge.  They each have either one, two, or three balls on each wedge.  They are all different sizes and all specially selected to match each wedge of the quilt perfectly.

This tree skirt is just a bit smaller than the others at 52" in diameter.  Cindy requested it be a bit smaller to fit her space better.  I did that by marking my template just 4 inches smaller so I cut the fabrics smaller to start with.

I think it looks perfect under her tree, it finishes the look.

My mom made her the angel that is on the tree.

I am done with tree skirts for the year, thank goodness.  Now to try and finish up the rest of the items on my to-do list that need to be done before Christmas.