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! 

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.

Follow My Lead

Although I'm not a fan of batik style fabric, the fabrics designed by Alison Glass in her handcrafted line drew me in.  The saturated colors called to me first, but the second benefit is the patchwork motifs in the designs. I choose the Follow My Lead pattern for these fabrics because of the flying geese in the prints and the pattern.

As I was making this quilt I realized that it was time to update my 6 year old son's bed with a new quilt, and so I added navy borders to the pattern to make it fit a twin.  He's super happy that he has his own quilt now. I love having handmade items for our home and was glad to get this on his bed.

This is my second finish for Quarter 2 of the 2017 Finish-A-Long.  You can see my original list here. 

Machine quilting by Allison Black of AB Quilting Studio.   

Delilah Quilt - Block 3

Back for the third block from the Delilah Template of the Month from Jen Kingwell!  This was a fun one, glad for a break from the curves of the previous two months.  (I'm pretty sure curves are back on block 4...we'll see soon.)  Even though these are made of many different fabrics, I stuck to a consistent color scheme for each component in the block.  I made the center, star, square, and background in the same color within each block.

So far in all of my Delilah blocks I've used fabric from Cotton + Steel, Leah Duncan, Jen Kingwell, Anna Maria Horner, Denyse Schmidt, Basic Grey, Joel Dewberry, Victoria Findlay Wolfe, Dear Stella, Amy Ellis, Katerina Roccella, Carolyn Freidlander, and Kaye England.  Here's a recap so far:

Rising Sun Block #1

Bells Beach Block #2

Access sewing tips for the first two blocks by clicking on the block name links above, and be sure to check out this Delilah board for great inspiration.  If you are working on this quilt and would like to share your blocks, please link up below.  

An InLinkz Link-up

Big Star Finish

Last weekend I gave away this lovely quilt to my cousin for her wedding shower.  This is the Big Star quilt pattern by Victoria Findlay Wolfe.  It uses a large diamond template and the fabric is from Victoria's Mostly Manor collection.

I loved making this quilt, as it was a skill builder for me as a quilter.  I learned how to do y-seams confidently with this one.  I've already put that technique to use in another quilt I'm working on here with a mitered corner border.

At first I cringed at the amount of leftover fabric from the fussy cutting required for this kaleidoscope effect.  But the result was worth it.  Now I can't stop looking for fabrics to do this with again.  In the end, I've used a lot of the extra fabric for smaller versions of this block.  These finish at 40 inches square.

The fabulous rose floral quilting is by Alison Black at AB Quilting Studio.  Here's the backing fabric, from the Meadow Storm collection, also by Victoria Findlay Wolfe.

This is a finish for Quarter 2 of the 2017 Finish-A-Long.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation , Crazy Mom Quilts,  and TGIFF.

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!

Flora and Fauna Quilt

This week I finished another project from my 2nd quarter Finish-A-Long list!  The quilt has been a work in progress for a long time.  Two years ago at the LIQS quilt show, one of the vendors was Tara from Amelia's Garden in Delmar, NY.  Despite living in a crowded suburban area, there are no local places to purchase modern fabric, so I was super excited to see the great selection Tara had at her booth at the show.

Later on, I joined a monthly fabric club where we received four half yards of fabric and a matching spool of thread in one color.  This was a great way to build up stash. Tara always picked amazing fabrics, I was never disappointed.  I decided to make the same block each month with the fabrics, and I choose a pattern from Amy Smart at Diary of a Quilter.  The pattern is from the May/June 2013 McCall's Quilting magazine and is called Boho Girl.  I love this version with the Safari Moon fabric line.

For my quilt I used a few other fabrics from my stash as well as the ones Tara sent.  I also used a different layout than the original quilt pattern, and I went with a color order arrangement of sorts.  I used an aqua polka dot for the binding which had a similar color that was in many of the blocks.  The back is a lovely print from Anna Maria Horner.  The beautiful swirl machine quilting is by AB Quilting Studio.

I'm calling this quilt Flora and Fauna because of the wonderful floral prints and the little creatures found in some of the blocks.  There are so many great fabric designers in this quilt: Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry, Tula Pink, Rae Hoekstra, Bonnie Christine, Violet Craft, Anna Maria Horner, Leah Duncan, Heather Bailey, and more!

It was so much fun to see this quilt change and progress over time.  It was a challenge not knowing what each block would look like, not knowing what each months fabric would be.  I love how it turned out in the end.  Have you had a similar experience, maybe with a BOM or mystery quilt?

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation, Sew Fresh Quilts, and Crazy Mom Quilts.