Simple Patchwork

Here's a rectangular patchwork throw quilt made with a scrap pack of fabric that I picked up quite a few years ago from Southern Fabric.  They put together WOF ends and sell them as a group.  I love the palette on this one, all I had to do was add a few extra fabrics from my stash to maximize what was in the scrap pack.  Most of the strips had at least six inches of width, so I made six by seven inch rectangles and decided on an eight by eight layout.  

The quilting is an edge to edge design and it is finished with a sweet peach fabric from Ruby Star's Add it Up basic line.  

 

Elizabeth's Dowry Quilt Progress

I've been having fun making the patchwork components of my Elizabeth's Dowry quilt kit, designed by Karen Styles of Somerset Patchwork.  Here's where I was at the beginning of the month.  I had a few extra squares leftover and now I realize I've missed putting them on two of the square strips!  No worries, an easy fix.  

I have been intentional about the placement of fabrics so that the same fabric doesn't appear too close to itself.  Sometimes a scrappy look needs to be quite planned and I think it's worth having to rip a few seams and re-sew in order to get it the way you want.  The fabrics also have different values, such as between the light pink stripe and the black stripe, so I tried to balance that a bit.  What's your experience on the scrappy quilting front?  

My January OMG with Elm Street Quits was to finish the flying geese, which I have successfully done.  I am really enjoying making this quilt and would love to be able to finish the top in the next month as the remainder of the sewing is mostly attaching border strips.  

Check out the goal finishes at Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - January Finish Link-up.  

January Goal

It's the new year, so I'm going to jump in with Elm Street Quilts for the January One Monthly Goal.  A personal goal of mine is to be more intentional with my sewing this year.  So much has happened this past year with the pandemic and the year before was very busy for me with graduate school.  Now that school is over I am hopeful I'll be getting back on track in 2021.  I'm also hoping to share some finished projects that I did do these past few years that never made it to social media.  

As for a monthly goal...I am working on the Elizabeth's Dowry quilt by Karen Styles and I've finished the center portion.  My goal for the month will be to create the 76 flying geese units needed for one of the pieced borders.  I have twelve done so far with all the pieces cut.  

Link up with Elm Street Quilts for January here.  

And...ta da...the final product of several years of hard work arrived today...my published dissertation.  

Catching Up...

Just a quick post to say hello and share a  fun baby quilt.  I gifted this quilt quite some time ago, but never had a moment to post it.  I love the simple patchwork.  The quilting was done on my home machine and I used a pattern from the Walk quilt book by Jacquie Gering.  I am looking forward to trying a few more quilting patterns from the book on some other small quilts.  

I'm looking forward to a quiet Thanksgiving this year with my husband and son, and hope you and yours are safe and well.   

Rainbow Blur II

Sometimes you make a quilt and you're done, you've gotten either the pattern or the fabric out of your system.  Other times, you just can't get enough.  Often, with a favorite fabric designer you find yourself really falling in love with something.  This happened to me with Anna Maria Horner's Sweet Dreams fabric and her Rainbow Blur pattern.

I started off with a set of fat quarters and a few half yards to make this Rainbow Blur quilt just as the pattern prescribed.  It was a fun sew, quick and easy, with lovely fabric to keep in large pieces.

After gifting that quilt to my niece, I made her this pillow with some scraps, just sewing fabric into the size pillow form I had on hand.

Finding myself with some decent size pieces left, and realizing I might get another quilt out of what I had, I decided to purchase a few more half-yards of the main print, Source Code.  To me, the navy version of this print is one of the most beautiful floral fabrics ever.

So, here's Rainbow Blur II.  I stuck to mostly the same pattern using a 3 by 4 grid, and worked to keep some of the color pattern intact.  I love how it came out, and it is a really nice size throw, super cozy.

I fussy cut some of the bird fabric, Cacophony, and used another AMH wideback, Halos, for the back.  Same quilting pattern as the original Rainbow Blur, Fandango, with longarm quilting by AB Quilting Studio.

I still have some of these prints that I'll keep in my stash...for now!  What fabric are you in love with at the moment?  I'm seeing lots of people enjoying Anna Maria Horner's newest line, Hindsight.  I'd love to hear what you're working with!

Free Rainbow Blur Pattern

Joining Michelle for her Beauties Pageant, stop by!

Sweet Dreams Patchwork Pillow

Times like this can remind us of what we are grateful for.  Just yesterday I sent the final version of my dissertation to the dean's office at my university.  It feels so good to have achieved my goal of becoming a Doctor of Education.  After a long road I can get back to focusing on my family, friends, and sewing!  It also feels like a good time to do some blogging.  While many of us are apart physically, we certainly are lucky to have virtual places to socialize.  

My sweet niece was the recipient of this Anna Maria Horner Rainbow Blur quilt.  I tend to keep leftover scraps of fabric lines together in piles.  I was able to make a quick improv pieced pillow to go with the quilt for her bedroom.  This Sweet Dreams fabric line really fits the bill for a teenage girl.  I used a simple envelope closure for the back.  I used straight line quilting in pink and aqua thread to match the fabrics.  

I hope you have something to feel good about today!

Rainbow Blur Quilt

Welcome back!  I know these posts have been few and far between, so thank you for visiting or visiting again if you've been here before.  I continue to be occupied with graduate studies and am happy to fit in any sewing or quilting possible. 

This quilt is a free pattern from Anna Maria Horner and Free Spirit called Rainbow Blur.  It is an easy quilt to put together with the large blocks of fabric.  I love this Sweet Dreams line, the large Source Code print in navy is spectacular.  Even though it is a large scale print I used it for the binding.  Lately I've been using these types of dark colored floral prints for binding as a nice frame around the quilt. 

The backing is another Anna Maria Horner 108 inch wide fabric, Halos. 

The edge to edge quilting is by AB Quilting Studio in the Fandango pattern that has a pretty fan with a heart in the center.  It really shines on the darker fabrics. 

I recently gifted this to my niece to use on her twin bed, it's perfect for a teenager.  There's another smaller version of this quilt coming soon...stay tuned. 

Linking up with From Bolt to Beauty. 

Carnival Quilt

Long time, no finish...but here's a nice one!  I started this quilt in January 2018 and finished up this past fall and then waited to gift it this past December.  This is the Carnival Quilt and it was designed by Ashely from Film in the Fridge.  She has a few versions of this quilt on her website with different fabrics.  This one was a kit that used Lotta Jansdotter prints.  I love the combination of prints and solids in this quilt.

I had the quilt machine quilted by Allison at AB Quilting Studio.  I really like the geometric pattern with the triangles.  It adds a beautiful texture to the quilt.  I also used this on a two color quilt you can see here.

And there was room for some extra square patchwork on the back.  

Linking with Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty and May Favorite Finish Linkup with Meadow Mist Designs.  

Giving Handmade

Giving handmade gifts can by tricky.  If you are a maker you know what I mean.  You work hard on something and you're never really sure the receiver will actually like it.  You've picked out the fabric and pattern and decided what to make.  You put yourself out there and give a gift you love.  I guess this is true of all gifts, but the material and time it takes to make something raises the stakes.  For the most part I've got a decent radar for who will appreciate a handmade gift, so I try not to worry too much about it.

Last Christmas I received a charm pack of fabric from a colleague who knows I love to quilt.  The pack was the Gooseberry Lane line from Kansas Troubles Quilters.  I know this person loves handmade things, and the gift was actually a bit lucky, I'll tell you why.  She picked the fabric, so I had to assume it was something she would like.  This little piece of the process made me feel confident in making her something as a gift. 

I decided to make a small mini quilt using my Temecula Minis Postcards patterns (unfortunately no longer available).  The pattern really fit the country style of the the fabric.  I used a matching red thread to quilt in the long strips, and stitched in the ditch around the blocks.  I also used their method for binding a small quilt, which you can see here along with some other tips. 

And in the end, she loved it.  A win for me and a win for her.  Now...how to get other people to buy you fabric...hmmmm.   

P.S.  She also got a cute market bag, free pattern by Sharon Holland here.  

Happy Sewing! 

2019 Finish-A-Long Quarter 1

Happy New Year!  Although I've had much less time for quilting this past year due to committing to additional graduate school work, I still enjoy the motivation of the Finish-A-Long, so here's my list. 

Projects that I would like to get moving along include:

1.  Work on finishing my Delilah top.  Needs back, quilting, binding. 

2.  Finish my AMH scrappy trip.  Needs binding.

3.  Finish my Mon Ami full melon wedding ring quilt.  (Templates from Victoria Findlay Wolfe.) 

 4.  Finish my Swell Quilt, pattern by Camille Roskelley.  Needs back, quilting, binding.

5.  Finish my Rainbow Blur quilts.  This is actually two projects.  One is the full pattern and just needs binding.  I have a second throw quilt I made from the leftovers, that needs back, quilting, binding. 

6.  Make the Elizabeth's Dowry Quilt by Karen Styles.   

7.  Make a River Log Cabin quilt.

8.  Continue with my dresdens using Jen Kingwell Moving on Lawns fabric.  

9.  Make the Sweet Tea Quilt by Amy Friend using Carolyn Friedlander fabrics.  

That pretty much sums up all the projects I have on deck currently.  Looking forward to progress on any of them! 

To join the Finish-A-Long visit here. 

That's How I Roll Tote III

Last weekend my local guild, the Long Island Quilters Society, had a 'quilt the day away' event where members teach other members.  I taught a wonderful group of four quilters how to make a tote using strips.  This is a pattern I've made twice before.  It's a nice sized basic tote and is great for using up 2 1/2 inch strips.

My previous versions have both been given away as gifts, so I'm excited to keep this one for myself.  The pattern was on the Make it Coats website, but I haven't been able to find it online anymore. 

These fabrics are the last of my Anna Maria Horner Honor Roll fabric.  I do have a bit of yardage of a few prints, but I've used up all my strips.  I added in some of her other prints that had similar colors. 

Linking up with Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty and Show Off Saturday over at Sew Can She. 

2018 Online Quilters Meet and Greet

Hello and welcome to Sew Some Sunshine!  I'm so glad you stopped by, especially visitors from the 2018 Quilters Meet and Greet hosted by Benita over at her Creative Space blog.  I'll be telling you a little bit more about myself and my quilting, along with other quilt bloggers who are participating.  Don't forget to visit the main page to find out more about all of the participating quilters.  There's also an incredible giveaway.

I began quilting in my early twenties to finish up some quilt projects that my grandmother had sewn.  Since I didn't have much money at the time, I thought it would be a good way to make some gifts for family members.  There wasn't much internet at that point, so I had to follow my instincts, read a few instruction books, and make a lot of mistakes.  I made quite a few small quilts from blocks my grandmother had sewn and was able to share her work with my cousins.  Fast forward twenty years and it is just amazing how the online quilt community has grown and flourished.  When my mother retired, she also began quilting, and now we have a shared passion for quilting.  It's definitely a family thing!

I really like the modern traditional asthetic in quilts, so you'll see that a lot of my quilts are made with modern fabrics in geometric shapes, with standard grid layouts and no borders.  The blocks themselves are usually traditional blocks though, so the quilt is familiar but modern at the same time.

Cobblestone Quilt

One block hexagon quilt

Disappearing Nine Patch

Other quilts styles include scrappy layouts, quilts with borders, or quilts with more traditional fabric.

One project (still unfinished) is my Delilah Quilt, designed by Jen Kingwell.  It is a block of the month using templates, which I machine pieced.  I have lots of advice and tutorials for this quilt on my Delilah page.  You can see how I worked through each block.  Templates and the pattern are now available outside of the BOM program.  I really learned so many new techniques working on the quilt.  I do have my top done, just figuring out how to quilt it now.

Not only do I love quilting, but I also love to make all sorts of other projects.  It's great to have faster finishes in between larger quilt projects.  It's also fun to use up favorite fabrics.

I hope you've enjoyed getting to know me a little more and seeing some of my work.  I'd love to hear what projects you liked, so please drop me a note below.  You can follow me on bloglovin, instagram, and pinterest using the links in the sidebar.  And don't forget to visit the other quilters here.

Thank you!