Tiled Quilt {Roma Quilt Pattern}

When I first saw the Roma Quilt, designed by Quiltd Studios, I knew I wanted to make it. I love mosaic quilts that are reminiscent of tiles, and I couldn't figure out just by looking at it how it was put together. Which means it was interesting. I bought it and squirreled it away until I was ready to make it. That time came this year, when I was preparing to go to Sewtopia San Antonio. This was my second Sewtopia event and I wanted to take a project I was excited about, but that wouldn't require a lot of brain power since there's so much going on and so much socializing at Sewtopia. 

At first, I planned to take the Interwoven pattern, by Lo and Behold Stitchery, but after I purchased fabric and had pressed it and was preparing to cut it, I realized how difficult the pattern was. Maybe that sounds dumb; I probably should have realized it would be a difficult pattern before getting that far. But I didn't. I thought, oh, strip piecing...precision, but mindless sewing. Perfect. 

Wrong. 

So wrong. 

I opened it up and started trying to decipher the directions and was SO confused. 

Guys, I have sewn, like, 70 quilts. I've created my own patterns. I don't do crazy hard stuff like applique, or really super technical stuff, but I'm a decently advanced quilter. And I could not figure it out. I realized right then that it was not going to work for Sewtopia. So I switched gears and pulled out my Roma pattern. I used my Kona color board to pick out some colors I thought would be great and bought them quick so I could get it all cut. 

Curio Quilt

Every Christmas, our sewing gang has a favorite things gift exchange. There are only four of us, so we buy a favorite for everyone. Last year, Kat gave everyone charm packs of the Curio collection by Rifle Paper Co. I LOVE Rifle Paper, so I was really excited to get it and sew with it! Curio probably isn't my favorite Rifle collection, but those books are dreamy. I feel like Curio kinda had a bit of a retro vibe with the sunflower print; who wasn't obsessed with sunflowers in the nineties? They were everywhere! 

I don't use precuts often at all, but I really wanted to use this charm pack and show off the great prints. So I settled on recreating a quilt I had seen at Garden of Quilts at Thanksgiving Point. It offset half square triangles so they were sprinkled all over the quilt, and it I felt like it was a really fun, modern way to show off prints. 

I opted to use Essex linen for the background and the backing and the binding. I wanted the texture to really add to it, since it was such a background-heavy quilt. I went for a yarn-dyed seafoam green, and I think it's perfect. 

Using an entire collection can be hard because they usually include low volume and/or prints with white backgrounds, which make it difficult to pick a background color that will adequately show the quilt design. This green I thought worked great. I pulled it from some of the prints, but it's different enough from all the backgrounds of the prints that you can see the design well. 

It went together pretty quickly and I really like it! I swapped out some charms that weren't my favorite and added in some extra book fabric, because, hello, books. :)

And I took pictures of it using tips from Matante Quilts, who recently hosted a mini webinar about quilt photography while she prepares for her next workshop on photography. I can't believe how much better they are!

Winning Ribbons

I posted my Garden Gem quilt already, and I mentioned I planned to enter it at the Springville Art Museum for their annual quilt show. I like seeing my quilts hang in museums, it's fun! And I was really happy with how it turned out. I try to not worry about winning things, because it's not why I make quilts and honestly, I'm not technical enough to really worry about it. Still...I kinda thought, *maybe* it might win a ribbon, my points (the very few there were) lined up really well and Marion did a fantastic job quilting it. I didn't dare hope, but honestly, I really hoped. I just tried to say I didn't care. 

But luckily, I DID win a ribbon, which makes my second this year if you count my Sewtopia ribbon, which I do. :) Interestingly, both quilts use designs by Jenny Haynes of Papper Saxsten, so clearly, she's designed award winning quilts. As a ribbon winner, I was invited to the opening reception award ceremony and of course I went, I was anxious to find out what ribbon I won! I didn't dare take my girls because I didn't know how long it would be and I didn't want them to be disruptive or bored... but I probably should have taken them. Instead, just my husband and I went. Of course, they began announcing the winners from the bottom up, starting with those that had been awarded honorable mentions, and then awards of excellence, and then judges choices, and I kept waiting for my name to be called and it kept not being called. Finally, there were only a few ribbons left and they finally announced my name as the director's choice! She was announcing the awards so she shared a little bit about my quilt and how much she loved it and was so glad she got her first choice, which doesn't always happen. I was absolutely thrilled! 

We brought our girls down a few weeks later to see it at the museum with the ribbon and they weren't all that excited...but I did see another quilter who had won a ribbon in the same gallery and we talked for a bit. She told me there was some drama on the ribbon winning for the Dear Jane quilts and I realized going for ribbons is not for me. I'm so glad I won, and I'm not going to lie, I'm excited to see how much money I won for winning a ribbon, but I don't think ribbon seeking is for me. I mean, I machine bound my quilt. :D

Federa Quilt

Summer has flown by for me. Our kids go back to school in just a week and a half or so, and I can hardly believe it! I've got to pack a bunch of fun things in that we've meant to do all summer, and it just hasn't happened yet. A hike, maybe (if I can talk them into it...), a day at the roller rink, shopping for family picture clothes...plus we need to review everyone's uniforms and make sure they have what they need. We have had a great summer, even if I feel like I need to make up for lost time. We took a roadtrip up to the Pacific Northwest and visited the San Juan Islands and Olympic Peninsula with a short stop at Cannon Beach before coming home. It was a lovely way to start summer. But, we haven't done our typical summer sewing service this year (we also missed last year) and that makes me kinda sad. Maybe next year we can get back into it. I have had my girls help cook for the last few weeks which was on my list...I want them to help me just once a week so they can start to learn how. My older girls end up doing most of the work while I assist, and my younger ones help until they get bored waiting for various steps and never come back...but it's okay. Progress, right? 

And speaking of progress, I've made progress in my sewing room, too. I bound two quilts, including my Federa Quilt, which I mostly pieced at Sewtopia in April. It's the Wasatch pattern by Compass and Wildflowers. I used colors inspired by our trip to the Dolomites in October, so yellow and orange foliage and turquoise for the lake. We got to visit Federa Lake while we were there and it was absolutely stunning. 

The piecing was really simple and a perfect Sewtopia project since I could just grab strips and go; since it was made of solids and all the blocks were the same, there was no need to lay things out or worry about spacing out colors and fabrics evenly. 

Unfortunately, it's not square. I appreciated that she has you cut blocks in halves or quarters to add to the edges to make the edges straight so you don't have to trim it after quilting and lose so much of the blocks, but I wonder if that was partially to blame for it's lack of squareness. It doesn't really matter, not really, it's a throw quilt and even if it was a bed quilt, I'm really not much of a show quilter. (Although I do have something to share about that later; stay tuned!)

I love this quilt and that it reminds me of Italy. Our trip to the dolomites was really great, I'd love to go back! It was just beautiful. Although, I think we'll wait until after the olympics go through; there was plenty of construction as they prepare to host.

Sewtopia Milwaukee

I am so excited to share about my trip to Sewtopia in Milwaukee! It was amazing. More amazing than I could have hoped. There are a bunch of pictures, and a lot of them are even more terrible than my usual sub-par standard because interior lighting is ROUGH. But hopefully they give you a good idea!

 

First, while my sewing bestie did not get a ticket initially, Megan and Amy saw my note on an instagram post that she had not gotten a ticket and when one came available a week before the event, they emailed me and offered it to her directly. So she got to go! I was majorly impressed with her spontaneity. I was nervous about being by myself when so many of the attendees had been before or were attending with friends and I worried I would feel lonely. That worry was unnecessary, as everyone was so exceptionally friendly and inclusive, but I was still glad she got to go. I didn't really know what to expect, but I did anticipate bringing home more than I took with the shop hop. I didn't realize how much extra stuff we'd bring home, though! We got amazing swag bags with patterns and precuts and batting and more, and everyone gets a doorprize at some point through the weekend, and many of them were fat quarter bundles. You can see the one I picked in a picture below, barely, in the picture with the pouch I received in the swap.

 The event on the whole was so fun. The shop hop was great and I got some fun fabric, including some great additions to the quilt I worked on for Latifah's class (more on that later). The saddest part to me was that the shops seemed understaffed and overwhelmed by our visit, and cutting and checking out took FOREVER. I only got to one shop at the second stop instead of both shops (which were just a block away from each other) because they had only one person cutting and one person checking out. So I waited roughly 40 minutes to get cut. I try to not feel FOMO too hard, but I was disappointed to not get to both shops. We also visited a quilt and textile museum, which was pretty cool, although it took longer than I think we really had budgeted for in the shop hop unfortunately. There was a 25 million stitches project on display, which was in recognition of the refugee crisis. It was dark, and there were so many embroidered panels, so pictures were hard and I only took some of the some of the panels I really loved, one is below.

I took my Wasatch quilt project to work on because it seemed like it would be mindless sewing since it's a log cabin construction and I used solids, and it was a great choice. I was in the afternoon classes, so we had a couple of open-sew periods before our first class, and I nearly finished my blocks during the weekend. I miscut and was 8 pieces short of one of the colors, so I couldn't finish it. But, I was so happy with my progress and was able to quickly finish the quilt after I got home. It's now at my quilter's for longarming. 

 

We had two instructors for the weekend: Latifah Saafir, who taught her Glare quilt, and Violet Craft, who taught us how to turn a photo into an EPP pattern. Both were so great! I got three "blocks" done for my Glare quilt, and I'm excited to jump back in this weekend to work on more. I'm a little nervous about the assembly, because she showed us briefly at the end, but it seemed a little tricky even though the curves are nice and big and gentle. I am using Tula Pink's Daydreamer line, and it feels funny to me to use a single line. I never do that! But I thought the flamingos were perfect for the centers and it just kind of snowballed from there. It's going to be a pretty bright quilt for me, but I think it'll be really pretty. 

As I've shared previously, I didn't feel comfortable participating in the Super Secret Swap just in case I wasn't up to enough awesome sewing before the event. But I did sew a swap item and Phyllis got my Luisa crossbody bag, which she loved with the focal Tula Pink print. I got a lovely pouch made my Anja. The zipper work looks so tricky and she said she struggled, but it looks like she breezed through it. The topstitching was well done, I assure you, and my girls have already tried to take it for themselves but I wouldn't let them. 

The biggest news I have to share is that I won the fabric challenge!

 For every event, Sewtopia hosts a fabric challenge, and this one was sponsored by Windham. We were sent 6 fat quarters, including three prints by Heather Ross and three solids. I brainstormed and wanted to use the stripes creatively, that was my biggest focus. I decided to make an Above the Cairns quilt, designed by Jenny Haynes, even though I haven't taken her workshop. I have taken her Hexibore workshop, and I have some of her templates, so I just went with it...I had to print the largest durkard's path template from Electric Quilt. My goal was to have the lighter peach snail print and the orange solid blend together with the striped fabric which had the peach and orange colors in it. I used the strawberry print for the centers and since they kind of resembled cobblestones, I titled it Roman Cobblestones because of the delicious strawberries we had there when we visited a few years back during strawberry season. I quilted it with my walking foot, using a design from Jacquie Gering's Walk book for the main center. Amy said my quilting was what really sealed it, and I got loads of compliments on the quilting. I felt so proud of it!

 

 I never quilt my own quilts, and this was really as big as I'd want to quilt myself. I got a first place ribbon, made by Megan, and a box of fat quarters of the full line of Windham solids. I'm thinking maybe I'll order Violet Craft's peacock quilt pattern and use them for that, which seems fitting.

Garden Gem (a Hexibore quilt)

Somehow, I came across Jenny Haynes' Instagram feed and discovered her amazing curved piecing. I ended up signing up for her Hexibore class and ordering her acrylic templates because I had never seen anything quite like it and just HAD to make one for myself. She offers her more complex patterns only as online classes, and only live, though you do get a recording of the class afterward. 

This was the second iteration of the class, where she introduced a four-petal version, and that's what I opted to make first. Since, I have also made a six-petal top that I'm trying to decide how to have quilted. It's tough, I'll tell you. These quilts are so graphic that you really want to make sure the quilting will accent the design.

For the four-petal version I made first, I decided I HAD to have it custom quilted, and in the past, I've hired Marion McClellon for that. She always does amazing work! I just trust her, and know she'll do some amazing art. So, after I finished up the quilt top, which went together pretty quickly since it doesn't have many pieces. Jenny gave great tips on how to get the pieces lined up just right so you don't lose the curves. Her instruction was great, I wish the class were just a little more professionally done. It was very informal, which is why she hasn't created contents ready for streaming anytime. I can't really complain about the content as she really does give great instruction. And, it wasn't very expensive as far as classes go. I guess I'm mostly disgruntled because I'm really interested in some of her other courses, but I've never caught them with openings at times that would work for me. 

I just got back my quilt from Marion a week ago, and I finished binding it. I picked the binding out when I bought the fabric originally, which is so unlike me! Usually binding is an after thought. But I thought the orange would be striking. 

I was blown away by Marion's quilting when it came back, and I had tried extra hard on the piecing to get the points lined up just right, so I decided I will probably enter it in the Springville art museum quilt show this summer. And with that in mind, I decided to try a little harder on the binding. It didn't work out perfectly, I'm not good at binding. But I think it's okay. I backed it with minky which means the drape is excellent despite the dense quilting, and since I backed with minky, there's no way I could hand stitch it down. So, instead of sewing the binding first to the front and then turning it to the back, I stitched it to the back and turned it to the front so I could "topstitch" it down. I reasoned it would look more intentional and better. Of course, true to form for me, it's a tad wavy. I tried so hard! I cleared off my table and tried to not pull either the quilt or the binding. But it was a heavy quilt and that's hard to manage. Oh well...I don't really expect top marks from the show anyway. It's just fun to see your work hanging in a museum! 

Completed March 2024

Terra Cotta Mini

After my stroke, I was itching to get back to the sewing room. I had done a little bit of English paper piecing in the hospital, but machine piecing is my preferred sewing method. But, my first week or so back was definitely time of recovery. I was worn out, I was sore, I wasn't walking very well at all. And I wasn't super confident in my fine motor skills needed for cutting and precision sewing. I was no where near confident to work on curves, which was my current WIP. Oh, and I wasn't limber enough to get down on the floor, so finishing the quilt I had in progress was out, too, since I was piecing rows together at this point. 

So, I had to figure out what to sew that I was up for sewing, and also had all the materials I needed...I toyed with a simple charm pack/HST quilt that's on my list, but I didn't want to use white for the background and didn't have enough of any other fabrics for the background, so that was out. I thought about Interwoven, by Lo and Behold Stitchery, but I didn't have solids and wasn't sure if the prints I picked were small-enough scale, and I read a reviewer who said the pattern required a lot of precision, so that was out. 

I had ordered a random sample pack of mini quilt patterns from Modern Makes (by Alderwood Studio) on Black Friday so I looked at the 5 patterns I was sent. To be honest, the set of patterns I got was pretty disappointing and if anything, it confirmed my decision to not participate in the program. I really only liked 2 out of 5, and 1 was excessively disappointing. Oh well, c'est la vie, non? One that I like is called Terra Cotta and I decided to make it as my first post-stroke project. The great thing about mini quilts is they don't take a lot of fabric, the cutting is minimal, and they wrap up quick. Plus, I can quilt mini quilts on my own machine. I'm not confident enough to quilt big quilts myself, so I send them out. But minis can be completely finished in a few hours. 

Luckily, I had some solids that worked great together and I finished it up a couple weeks ago. After I pieced it, it took me a few days to figure out how to quilt it. I didn't want to just quilt along the pieced style, I felt like that was boring. So I looked at my Walk book, by Jacquie Gering, and found a great design I felt like I could do. 

I'm really happy with how it turned out, and the only frustrating part is that I used a Sewline ceramic pencil to mark lines for quilt guides and I didn't actually get it all out. I tried scrubbing it with water with a microfiber cloth and a toothbrush, I even washed it in my washing machine (air-dried it after to avoid the heat of the dryer). They're faint, so I just gave up. Sadly. Lesson learned, don't use the ceramic pencils for quilt marking! At least for me. 

First EPP finish

I have finally finished my English Paper Pieced Medallion quilt! I started this while pregnant with my twins, so 2016. I was too nauseous to sit at my sewing machine, and wanted to get baby quilts made before they arrived, but this project fizzled and I was able to get back at my machine in time to make them both quilts. I couldn't figure out how to get it squared off so it sat. I finally pulled it out when I was cleaning out some drawers and decided to just do it. I had enough of the red fabric to appliqué it on to the top and then added some borders to make it larger. It ended up REALLY large, but I think it worked out well. I do wish that I had trimmed the fabric from behind the EPP because the print shows through the low volume fabrics now that it's quilted. But I was worried about the messy back for the quilter, and figured it would help it be a bit more stable. 

Overall I'm happy with it! I had this blue in my stash and just enough for the binding. I think I had an extra 24" of binding that I cut off. And I used every bit of the fabric I had, even a scrap that wasn't the full WOF. I backed it with a Ruby Star wide backing in sateen that I found on clearance at Backside Fabrics, the colors work well because it's an aqua background with a green and cream floral print. 

All the Good quilt

I'm finally posting this quilt because I finally bound it! I got it back from the quilter over a month ago, but I've been busy sewing t-shirts, and this just wasn't a priority. Also, I needed matching thread for my binding.

I bought this pattern at Quiltcon in Phoenix and loved the improv style. It took a while to piece because of trimming all those flying geese and half square triangles, and then layout took a while (and two go's if you read that blog post) and then I had to pick a binding...this just took a lot longer than a standard quilt, and that's okay. It's finished now.

I love it. I wish it were a bit bigger, and I'm sad that I've got another wavy binding, but I really like it. I love a lot of the prints I used, and the colors, and the radiating center, and the navy binding...I think it turned out great. The pattern is by Jittery Wings. I didn't love the format of her pattern, but I love how it turned out so I don't not recommend it. And I didn't make any mistakes, so it was not a bad pattern by any means. 

English Paper Piecing Star Blocks

I'm still plugging away at my EPP medallion quilt. I've got the center sewn onto a large square, I've got the churn dash blocks sewn onto that, and I've got 140 flying geese made. Next step is actually deciding if I want the border between the churn dash and flying geese to be 2" or 3", which doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's the difference between the flying geese going one direction, or having them meet in the middle of each section.

I've also been doing a bit of work on some hexagon blocks for a new EPP project, using up the blocks I had started making for the next round of the medallion. I've got some additional colors added and I like where it's going! I spent General Conference basting and stitching, and I got several more added. 

The stacked ones with the yellow fabric on the outside are the ones I made years ago, and the ones on the outside are the new ones. It currently takes just under 2 hours to stitch a whole block, so this project will definitely take a while, haha. We'll see how big I decide to make it and how many years it takes. 

Revisiting UFOs

I was attempting to reorganize a couple of drawers in my sewing room without completely reorganizing my sewing room a month or so ago. It didn't really work that well, so I don't really recommend that approach. However, it did unearth a couple of UFOs that I've avoided for a few years. It didn't really unearth them; I've always been able to see them and have just ignored them. But this time, I wanted to reclaim the drawer space so I gave them a second look. 

One was the 6" sampler that I've hinted at recently. I had a sampler all sashed and ready to quilt complete with a backing (but not basted). I was going to attempt to machine quilt it on my domestic and felt like it was a size I could achieve. But...well, I wasn't all that interested in doing it. I have too many other things I'd rather do. So, when I cleaned out that drawer, I took a hard look at it and decided I needed to either finish it, or get rid of it. I decided to finish it, in a different way than I had planned. I decided to take it apart and set the blocks between hourglass blocks so it would be larger and have the appearance of stars. But, I didn't have quite enough blocks, so I have been adding to them over the past few weeks. I think this will be a lot better for me and the way I use quilts. This picture doesn't have all the blocks I have finished in it, I'm up to 56. I'm shooting for 60 so I can make a 60x72 quilt.

The second was an English Paper Piecing project I started when I was pregnant with the twins. I wanted to make sure they both had baby quilts and figured I'd have zero time to finish them after they were born, so I really wanted to finish beforehand. But...I got nauseous in my sewing room. It was the most tragic thing! Still, I wasn't about to be deterred, AND I was bored just sitting on the couch all day. So I decided to try English Paper Piecing the top. I saw an amazing design on Instagram and it had the piece sizes, so I just kinda went for it...but I ran out of steam. And felt a lot better, so I opted to make the baby quilts on the machine instead.

The problem was that when I got to a certain size, it because really hard to continue to add to it. I was adding from the center out, and figured I'd get around to rounding it out into a square eventually...but I couldn't figure out how to do it. So, I left the center and the completed blocks to add in the corner and forgot about it. 

But, I'd really like to finish it up somehow. I do like what I have, but adding to it seems daunting and it's way too little and not square. So, my current plan is to buy some yardage to appliqué it on to, and then add to it in a medallion style to make it larger. I'm going to start with a border of churn dashes and then I might do a zigzag or a diamond type border around that. 

As for the squares I had made (hexagons, I guess, more precisely), I decided to make more in different colors and make it a block based quilt rather than medallion, so I've started basting more diamonds. And I think I'll go with the color scheme I posted for my Fabric Friday on March 10. I'm out of practice, I haven't English paper pieced in years, so the basting is going slowly, but I'm looking forward to having some handwork to work on during movie nights and things. And I think it will be much easier to finish, since it'll be more in rows than this one and won't require so much thought to square it up. 

And, if I'm not mistaken, those are my only UFOs. I have a bunch of orphan blocks and leftover HSTs that I would have made as I cut them off of other projects, but I don't consider those UFOs. I'm pretty proud of myself that I don't have more! I did do some UFO clearing out during the pandemic and I'm sure that helped a lot. 

January Progress Report

I didn't really know what to title this blog post, and it's really just a what-I'm-working-on kinda post, so I guess this works. 

I got my Swoon top off to my quilter a couple of weeks ago and then decided what I REALLY wanted to do was finish up the All the Good quilt top I had started in the autumn. I bought the pattern at Quiltcon and then started it in the fall when it was next on my list, but I had to put it away when holiday sewing got in the way. I wasn't in love with my layout anyway so I packed it away, which I don't usually do when I'm mid-project, and so I was antsy to get back to it. I also had to be careful about when I laid it out because I knew it would have to stay on the floor for at least a few days while I mulled over the design and then picked it up piece by piece to sew it together. But, I got it laid out, and once it was laid out, the sewing was pretty quick. 

By quick, I mean several hours, but still...quicker than you think it would take given what it is. 

I meant to blog mid-project, so I have progress shots of my sewing room. My cutting table is covered with All the Good strips, partially pieced Christmas Shimmer blocks, and focal prints for an economy block quilt that is next on my quilting list. 

So here's my All the Good quilt top, pattern by Jittery Wings Quilts. 

Next on my actual list, though, is a dress for me. To match my girls' Christmas dresses. I overbought fabric by yards and yards and thought I might as well sew a matching dress for me since they've asked a few times. Hey, if they want me to match too, who am I to turn them down? :)

It's going together pretty quickly, but I don't have any pictures because it's just a pile of fabric right now and whenever I've been in there working on it, it's been dark and I don't think to take progress pictures. 

And then I might finish my Christmas Shimmer quilt because I really don't like putting WIPs away...and I have some other knit and apparel fabric that is languishing, including a really fun Chenille knit I bought from Girl Charlee on a great sale...it would be a shame to not get it sewn up before it's too warm to wear it. Hmm...

Palais Royale

 I like designing my own quilts and trying to create something out of the box that’s me and unique. This project is one of those, inspired by my travels. 

In 2019, we took our oldest two girls to France to attend a wedding. The wedding was in the south, so we started our trip there and ended in Paris. One of our stops in Paris was the courtyard at the Palais royale where we relaxed for a bit before dinner one day. In the courtyard, they have some permanent modern art installations, including fountains with a pyramid of stacked metal balls, and rows of striped pillars. Some are only inches tall and others are nearly as tall as I am. I’m sure there is a method to the order but it’s not immediately discernible. We spend a while walking around them, taking pictures on and with them, and enjoying our evening. 

One day while I was brainstorming quilt ideas, I thought of these pillars and started playing around with a design. This is where I landed. It’s really big, but it was tricky to get the blocks smaller with the same proportions, and I like big quilts anyway, so it’s okay.

Home For the Holidays

 I finished one Christmas quilt this year. I had pulled a stack of fabrics last year when I was considering making a simple Christmas quilt to welcome a new neighbor to the street (I ended up making an embroidered throw pillow instead), and decided to use it to try out the Hurty ruler I bought at Quilt Con. I have tried to make half-rectangle triangles in the past, and it's hard. I hadn't seen HRT rulers before, and clearly they exist, but this was the first one I had seen and bought it along with the clammy rulers I chose. I was pretty nervous to use it, since unlike HSTs, you have to make sure they're angled the right way...so it took some courage to start, and that's one reason I wanted to use this stack of fabrics. They were fabrics I loved, but wouldn't feel bad if I used them on a project that didn't work. 

The assembly went pretty well and it didn't take long to get a stack of blocks ready. When I laid it out, I thought it would end up bigger than it did, but it is really only throw size. Which is fine, but, as you've probably noticed, I like big quilts. :)

I played around with layout a bit, and tried to add a couple of focal points by alternating the brights and low volumes. It's fun to experiment sometimes. Even if it's not super successful. This one I think works but isn't Ah-Mazing. 

When I got it back from the quilter, I decided pretty quickly to bind it with some of the white snowflake print I'd used. I had (and still have) plenty and it's a great print. It's backed with minky, of course. Naming it was tricky, it's always something I struggle with. I settled on Home for the Holidays because it felt right. I'm not sure why. Sometimes you just have to pick something, haha. 

Home For the Holidays, quilted by Abby Latimer, completed November 2022

Snowflake Quilt

 One last flashback Christmas quilt to squeeze in before Christmas. I also made this one last year, it was a big year for Christmas quilts, haha. (I also bought and had quilted one of those Lella Boutique Christmas panels that everyone has...I won't blog about that though because I didn't do anything except bind it, lol). 

I loved this snowflake quilt when I saw it social media, and bought the pattern and fabric on black friday sales. The pattern is by Modern Handcraft and I love it. It has 3 variations, so it's like 3 for the price of 1. You could do a scrappy background, a striped background, or a solid. I loved her black background in one of her quilts and decided to use a metallic black Essex linen. I love it! I had to copy her straight-line quilting as well...shrug.

It's not as cuddly soft as my others because I backed it with essex linen as well. But I love it anyway.

Snowflake Quilt, pattern by Modern Handcraft, long arm quilted by Abby Latimer, completed 2021

Solar Eclipse quilt

One of my favorite types of quilt designs are patterns that create secondary designs. I love how the blocks work together to create a pattern and visual interest. It's something I like to incorporate into my own designs, even though it can be trickier. I think that's half the fun. 

When I saw this quilt pattern in a book by Vanessa Goertzen of Lella Boutique, I really wanted to make it. The secondary pattern is fun and the dark background was really striking. Of course I had to mimic her quilt. I didn't want to completely copy her color scheme and so instead of an aqua print for the squares, I used a gray solid, and I omitted green. It's possibly more similar to the original than I usually like to go for, but that's alright. I think it turned out beautifully. 

I did have to make a couple of adjustments; I didn't have any charm packs and didn't intend to buy any for this project, so I needed to figure out the cutting from yardage. It's been too long; I might also have taken the opportunity to do some more efficient piecing, like flying geese four at a time, and multiple HSTs at a time. I like to do that when I can, it makes it go so much faster. And of course I backed it with minky. I opted for silver, and then bound it with the same blue as the background to give it a bindingless feel. 

Solar Eclipse, designed by Vanessa Goertzen, quilted by Abby Latimer, completed 2021

Controlled Improv WIP

I got to go to the Quilt Con quilt show earlier this year. We happened to be visiting my in-laws in Phoenix the very same time Quilt Con was happening. I didn't realize early enough to sign up for any classes, but that's okay. I spent a very long and full day looking at so many beautiful quilts at the show and browsing the vendors area. One of the vendors was Jittery Wings Quilt Co, and she had several quilts on display that corresponded to her patterns. I was really intrigued by a couple and she gave me a very brief demo on the color organization that she said the one pattern teaches. She called in controlled improv and I was sufficiently intrigued that I bough the pattern. It's called All the Good and I finally started sewing it. I'm a little nervous but I'm trying to trust the process. So far, I've gotten my HSTs all sewn, trimmed, and pressed, and I'm working on pairing my flying geese fabrics. 

This is my stack of fabric, almost, in the order I chose for the half square triangles. Once I went to cut it, I realized I was short on two of the prints. I could have sworn I had already verified that, since I had to order more of the light blue speckled Ruby Star print. I didn't mind, it's one of my favorites and I wanted more anyway. But I was pretty surprised that a few weren't wide enough for what I needed. I had to sub in two different greens, and a different yellow.

I was really irritated with myself and it took some major discipline when I made an irreversible cutting error. I wasn't thinking, and neglected the fact that I was cutting two at a time, and cut 8 of one size instead of 4. I intentionally did those first because I only needed one of the last size, and wanted to do the other before I opened it up to single layer, so of course I was aware of what I was doing, but nevertheless, I did it anyway, and didn't have enough to cut the single square for the flying geese. And of course, didn't have enough of that fabric left. Grr. It's a print by Amy Smart from her London line, and I really like it. I'm disappointed I will have less of that fabric in the quilt. BUT, it is improv, so I elected to take another print that was close in color that I did have extra of, and cut a second of that. It's fine. It'll be fine. But it's always irritating when you cut something incorrectly and don't have enough fabric to correct it. 

The pattern has you put them in a gradiant order and sew HSTs in that gradiant order, but I did a few switches because I was worried there wasn't enough contrast. I'm still a bit worried, to be honest, but I'm hopeful it'll turn out the right way since I'm basically following instructions. I'm using some prints I really love, too, and I think in general I've got a great fabric selection so hopefully it'll all work out.

I am breaking with the instructions a bit for the fabric order for the flying geese, mostly because I don't understand how it'll produce different results than what I've done. I'm trying to make sure that none of the pairings are the same as the HSTs, and I'm also trying to make sure that I don't have any inverted pairs, where I've got the same exact fabrics paired, but also that I don't have any that are too similar. This is my current organization. We'll see if I make any more changes.

I'm a tad nervous to see how this all comes together, and I don't know how I'll do the layout when it's time. I have a great design wall in my sewing room, but it's too narrow for this quilt, and it's really more of a block holding/organizing board than a design board since it's not wide enough for most things. But, you use the space you have, right? I'll have to layout on the floor outside my room where I do have space, and hope I can get it laid out well enough before I really have to pick it up. Usually, I'll take loads of pictures to help with layout (changing it to black and white can help me see value issues) and it has the added benefit of helping me if I have to pick it up before I'm done. 

Scrap Stash Plus

When I saw Emily Dennis's Scrap Stash Plus tutorial, I immediately wanted to make one. I recognized in it the Inside Out pattern designed by Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew, which I own already, but loved the alternating background Emily used. And the rainbow. So good. 

It took me a while to get around to actually making it, though not too long. And as it happened, I didn't expect to finish it as quickly as I did. I brainstormed a color scheme (I opted to go for a partial rainbow, just pink to green), and then, because I was working on some pretty big and demanding projects, I decided to just make a couple blocks to give myself a break from the tough stuff. 

But, when does a couple of blocks ever stay a couple of blocks? I continued on with my harder project (I think it was the Patchwork City sampler...) but I added in a few of these blocks a day and became thoroughly enamored with them. I made it a bit bigger than the throw size, but a few rows shorter than the twin size, and it's the perfect oversized throw for our family. I love the scrap variety, I didn't reuse a single colored scrap (though I had to reuse a lot of the low volume scraps because I just didn't have enough). And I love the rainbow/ombre effect. 

I backed it with a navy blue minky and it's lovely. I bound it with Kona Curry, even though there isn't any yellow in it, and I think it's the perfect bright-but-not-too-bright complement. 

Also, side note, as I cut out the background, I realized that for one block, I had miscalculated with my scrap and I was one 2-1/2" square shy. It happened to be a print from April Rosenthal's Midnight Magic, and I just happen to live in the same city she does. I reached out to ask if she had any scraps of the print and she graciously gave me a whole fat quarter! Quilters are the best people. I was so grateful. 

Scrap Stash Plus, quilted by Abby Latimer, completed May 2022

Hidden Stars

My older girls have been asking me to make them new bed quilts for a while. They've been jealous that the twins have minky-backed bed quilts, and theirs have boring-and-not-as-soft flannel. Even though they still share a room, I think they were also tired of having coordinated quilts and wanted something more personal.

It was on my list, but low. I have so many other projects that I'm more excited about, and they HAVE bed quilts. 

Then, I ordered a Florida jelly roll by Ruby Star Society when it was on sale and my oldest daughter fell in love with it when I opened it up to brainstorm. I don't usually buy precuts or sew with them because I've always found it easier to use yardage, and I don't typically sew quilts from just one line. Sometimes there's a dominant line, but I rarely use exclusively one line. 

This quilt is no exception. I used the whole jelly roll because it was a half-sized roll anyway, but I added a bunch of strips from my yardage too. And I copied a pattern I had seen online somewhere, doing the math myself  (not sure it was jelly roll friendly anyway). I love the secondary pattern it creates with the stars in the middle between the blocks and she was excited about it too. 

We backed it with dark gray minky and she loves it. At least, I think she does...she still mostly sleeps under her comforter. *shrug*

Long arm quilted by Abby Latimer, completed March 2022

San Francisco Quilt

Designing an original quilt is always satisfying, even if it's difficult. I love to find inspiration in travels, and often take pictures of inspiring patterns or designs. Often, nothing comes of them, but sometimes I make it work. This quilt pattern is one that marinated for a while before I figured it out, and then it marinated longer still as I tried to decide on a color way. I use Electric Quilt 8 software and I tried out all kinds of colors, including a more traditional quilty look with different colored blocks. In the end, I love the dramatic colors I went with and the focal blocks. I used Alison Glass Kaleidoscope solids and the texture is fantastic. 

The inspiration for this came from a long weekend in San Francisco. I wanted to name this quilt Sausalito because that sounds like a better name, but I couldn't bring myself to since I knew full well I hadn't seen it in Sausalito. We were walking around, and I can't remember what neighborhood, and I saw an amazing antique grate on the side of a house. It was fantastically intricate and interesting and instantly knew I wanted to make it into a quilt. But, it took a while. 

I finally made it during the pandemic and I just adore it. I backed it with navy winky and it lives in our theater room and it's just perfect.

Right now, it's currently on display at the Springville Art Museum for their annual quilt show. I love going to their quilt show every year. It's an eclectic mix of mostly traditional quilts with some modern and art quilts mixed in and it's not overwhelmingly large, so it's just enjoyable. I entered a couple quilts a few years ago and didn't realize that when you enter a quilt in a show, they give you feedback when you pick up your quilt. I did NOT love receiving the feedback. I'm not a show quilter, it's just fun to see your quilt hanging in a museum! I swore I would never do it again. 

But I guess my trauma has worn off, because I went ahead and entered again. I like entering original designs and I just decided I'm not going to read the feedback. I'll let my husband read it and tell me the good parts. :)