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. 

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. 

August Happenings...

Time is always flying by, and this summer has been no different.  I was lucky to have a week off for vacation, and spent some quality time locally with my family, and my sewing machine!  I was able to finish my Carnival quilt top and put together the back, which included a fun strip of coordinating charm squares.

I pulled out my Anna Maria Horner scrappy trip blocks, got them back on my design wall and sewed those together.  Can you believe these were in a drawer since 2016?  Glad to have them sewn up.  Here's a sneak peak below.

Went deep in my fabric bins and pulled out a small quilt I made several years ago that I was going to write a pattern for.  Realized I have no time or desire for doing that and finally put together the back for it so it could be quilted.  Used one of my favorite Kate Spain lines, Sunnyside.

Next, I went crazy and cut and sewed the Anna Maria Horner Sweet Dreams Rainbow Blur quilt that I've been itching to make for a few months.  It was soooo much fun to see these amazing fabrics come together on the design wall, the colors are wonderful.  This was such an easy but satisfying quilt to put together.  I really enjoyed making this one.

So, in all, four quilts went off to the quilter, and I'll have plenty of binding to do in short order.  Feels really good to make some progress with my projects.  Some of these are on my Quarter 3 Finish-A-Long list and I'll be really happy if I get one of them fully finished by the quarter end. 

How's your summer (or winter!) going and what is everyone working on?

In September I'll be participating in the 2018 Quilters Meet & Greet, which will go live on September 4th, hope to see you back here then!  To find out more about the event and the fabulous grand prize visit here.

Linking at Design Wall Mondays, Finished or not Friday , and Main Crush Monday. 

2018 Finish-A-Long Quarter 3

Life has gotten in the way of sewing lately and I only got a bit of work done on my Quarter 2 FAL list, so no finishes for me.  But, I did make progress on my Carnival quilt, the top is done, so I'm going to make a new list and keep at it!  I've got lots of quilts I want to make so I'm going to pile them up here.

1.  Carnival Quilt - top done

2.  Delilah - top done

3.  Scrappy AMH - blocks done

4.  Rainbow Blur Quilt

5.  Elizabeth's Dowry Quilt

6.  River Log Cabin Quilt

You can find the linkup to the FAL here if you want to join in.  Have fun sewing!

Dreamweaver Quilt

Today I have a big finish to share...literally as it is a king size bed quilt!  When I saw this pattern online done in Anna Maria Horner's Fibs and Fables line, I knew I wanted to make it for my bedroom.  Although I love Fibs and Fables, it's more youthful than the look I wanted.  I decided on her Mod Corsage line as a more grown-up alternative.  It's such a gorgeous collection of floral prints in different styles.

This was a relatively easy quilt to put together, although I did construct it a bit differently than the pattern to avoid a few extra seams.  If you have this pattern, the cutting directions are not correct for some of the sizes.  I couldn't find any corrections online so I fixed it myself, not a problem, but required some extra work.

I used another Anna Maria Horner print, Halos, for the back.  This is a 108 inch wide sateen and the hand is just so luxurious, I wish you could feel it!

The quilting is an allover edge to edge design done by Allison at AB Quilting Studio.

 

I'm delighted to have this quilt completed for the first quarter of the 2018 Finish-A-Long.  Will be getting this on our bed soon, can't wait!  How'd you do with your first quarter?  Looking forward to seeing all the linkup finishes.

My Quarter 1 2018 Finish-A-Long list is here.
Linking up with 2018 Finish-A-Long, My Quilt Infatuation, and Crazy Mom Quilts.

2017 Finish-A-Long Quarter 2

My 2017 Quarter 2 Finish-A-Long list has three continuations from the first quarter.  I made a lot of progress with two of these and it's a good bet they'll make it to the finish line this quarter.

1.  Follow My Lead quilt is on its way home from being quilted, so it's just binding for this one.

2.  My Big Star quilt is also coming back from the quilter.  Had to change the background fabric from my original post of this one.  There may have been some seam ripping (more than once) to get this block right.  It's all good now and I can't wait to show it to you finished with all four big star blocks.

3.  Anna Maria Horner scrappy trip is still in progress, this could take a while...

I've a few other things in mind, but I'm going to leave this list short and sweet.

Happy sewing Finish-A-Long participants!

LIMQG Inspiration Board Swap

At the November Long Island Modern Quilt Guild meeting we worked on creating inspiration boards that highlight a particular color scheme.  We shared our boards and our inspiration at the December meeting.  We then each picked a secret partner, to make any project for, to exchange with at the January meeting.  

This was the inspiration board that Kim @lelandavestudios created.  Such a pretty board!

I needed to decide what to make that was pink, green, orange, floral and feminine, AND that would live up to this gorgeous inspiration board.  I started with some inspiration from Victoria Findlay Wolfe.  She has a very pretty Big Block Star quilt pattern using her Mostly Manor collection.  After fussy cutting for the star block I then created some improv made fabric using fabrics from Victoria Findlay Wolfe, Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner, and Katy Jones.  

Some straight line quilting with the walking foot...

Some free motion quilting...

I love how this small quilt finished.  I think it's perfect as a large table topper or a wall hanging.  I loved this challenge and would recommend using an inspiration board and no rules to create something.  It's a real skill builder!

And here is my inspiration board and the AMAZING bag I received from Kim:

Made By Kim @lelandavestudios

Have a great week and happy sewing!

Getting those zippers right!

I've been making pouches again...not a bad way to spend time on the weekend.  Nothing fancy, but it was good zipper practice.  I was determined to get the corners right on these, and I made a lot of progress on that front.

So one thing I've learned is to cut your fabric one inch bigger than the zipper length and sew with a 3/8 inch seam.  This seems unnatural for us quilters, but this gives you 1/8 inch of room between the seam and the zipper ends. If you do it this way you don't need zipper tabs, your corners come out nicely and you shouldn't hit the zipper stop.

Love this lining fabric!

So the second thing to watch on these types of pouches is to make sure that the seam allowances and the zipper are folded towards the outside pouch fabrics, away from the lining fabrics.  Once you fold so that the outsides are facing and the lining fabrics are facing, the seam allowance and the zipper sections should all be down facing the outside fabrics.  Stitch in place with a few short stitches, then sew around (remember to leave the zipper open and the bottom of the lining open for turning.)

I'd like to thank Svetlana over at S.O.T.A.K Handmade for sending me these amazing 2.5" squares from her screen printing work.  I worked them into a new laptop case.  You can find two great posts on her sidebar, 33 free zipper pouch tutorials (you can perfect your zippers!) and 33 free tote bag tutorials.  Thank you Svetlana!  You can find her patterns and screen printed fabric here.

Anyone else out there have a great zipper tip to share?

Interested in more zip pouches, check these posts here and here.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social and Finish it up Friday.  

Scrappy Trip Progress and Tips

Summer's gone by so quickly!  I've been working on my scrappy trip quilt with mostly Anna Maria Horner fabrics.  This is part of my Quarter 3 list for the 2016 Finish-A-Long.  I have a feeling I won't make the completion deadline for Q3, but that's okay, I'll just add it to Q4.

Making this has been a learning experience.  Since there isn't a true pattern, there are a lot of decisions to be made that you might not think of if you just follow a basic block tutorial.  I was inspired by this quilt in making my own.  I used seven strips for my blocks, which makes cutting the tube a little tricky.  I also didn't think carefully enough about contrast when I was putting all of my cut strips into groups of seven.  So here are a few pointers if you think you might work on a scrappy trip.

1. If you make the block with an uneven number of strips, be sure to lay the tube flat and even prior to cutting or you will get wonky strip sets.  
2. I found it easier to iron the already cut strip sets alternatively and then sew them back together with nested seams.  This is different than ironing the strips alternatively as the tutorial shows.  I know some of these will need to be pressed again, but it made matching the seams more precise for me.  
3. Pay attention to placement of your contrasting fabric...for that matter, make sure you use contrasting fabric!  I know this seems obvious, but it took me a while to figure out what looks best, and that's because when I grouped my strips together I didn't always consider contrast, but was considering more of what strips would look good together by color families.  You need contrast for this, otherwise it's just a bunch of two inch squares.  
4. If you are like me and need to find order in things (even in scrappy quilts) then you might want to think about your final layout and your contrast fabric.  In my finished quilt I've decided to do a vertical zig zag layout.  I realized (late) that it would be good to put a single different contrast fabric in each column of the quilt.  Since I decided this after making 12 of the 24 blocks, I'll need to resew or rearrange a few blocks to achieve the layout I want.  

 ....16 blocks done, 8 more to go!  Happy Sewing!

Linking with Fort Worth Fabric Studio.

2016 Finish-A-Long Quarter 3

Quarter 2 of the Finish-A-Long was a success with five out of seven projects finished.  You can read about the five projects here.  Now onto Quarter 3,  here's my current list of hopefuls!

First up is an (mostly) Anna Maria Horner scrappy trip around the world quilt.  I've got all the strips cut and seven out of twenty-four blocks completed.  It takes a good bit of time to make one of these blocks, so I work on it here and there.

Next is a new quilt that uses a fun pattern from Quilt Basket, a local quilt shop in NY.  They have a great concept with fabric bundles called Cutie Collections along with a selection of patterns to use them.  I'm making the Follow My Lead pattern with some Alison Glass fabrics and solid background fabrics.  I don't use a lot of solids so I'm excited to see how this combination works out.

I'm using a bunch of Ana Davis's Pippa collection to make a quilt using a pattern called Big and Tall by Sunnyside Designs.

I've got some new stash treasures from Anna Maria Horner, her Mod Corsage collection.  I got it as a kit with a pattern called Grandma's Garden, so I'll be working on that.  I LOVE these fabrics!

Last on the list are a few zipper pouches using these fun Cotton and Steel fabrics.  I've made a few totes with these fabrics here and here, so matching pouches it is!

This list is pretty ambitious, but it's great to have something to work towards, we'll see how it goes.  I hope you are participating in the 2016 FAL, looking forward to seeing what everyone makes!