Fast Friends

I'm enjoying the Blogger's Quilt Festival a little at a time. I stepped away from the computer and sewing machine this weekend to enjoy some time with my family. We had a fabulous bike ride on the Prairie Spirit Trail on Sunday and it was great being outside even if the wind tried to blow us away!

I finished up the Downy Quilts for Kids quilt last week. I ordered a free kit online a while back and a package arrived with fabric, a pattern and instructions. The directions were clear and easy. Definitely something a beginner could tackle. Then I just added my own batting and quilted in a grid pattern. I was surprised when I realized that there wasn't binding material but the instructions gave two suggestions for how to finish the quilt. One suggestion was to turn the backing material to the front and sew that down as your binding. I tried that method and I had a hard time keeping the edges straight. It was good to try another way but I prefer a seperate binding. The other issue I had was that a traditional binding hides and secures the ends of my straight line quilting under the binding. When I just turned the back, I didn't like that it just sat there in the open on the back. It is still secured by a line of stitches but I wonder how it will wear.

The other thing I learned was that before I start quilting the sandwich, I have to release some of the pressure from my presser foot so it doesn't distort the straight lines of the seams and give a wavy appearance.

It was a fun little project to do. I named it Fast Friends because of the little mouse sitting on the kitty's tail. And it does seem like when you are in the hospital, you make friends with those around you so quickly. We said a little prayer for the child who will get this quilt before we boxed it up to mail. We've had several friends and family members with little ones who had long stays in the hospital and I thought of them too. I hope this quilt brings a bit of cheer and comfort to someone who needs it.

If you would like to request a kit, here's a link. They ask that after you finish a kit quilt that you send a couple more with your own fabric at some time. So I've happily added two more projects to my list for the year. It will be fun to work with some bright cheery fabric for these quilts.

I came across Rossie's blog quite randomly last week and I'm so glad I did. I totally agree that bloggers should share the processes of their quilt making. I have learned sooo much from other quilting bloggers that shared the ins and outs of their projects. So here's my pledge:

I, Melissa, pledge to talk more about my processes, even when I can’t quite put them in the in words or be sure I’m being totally clear.   I’m going to put my thinking and my gut feelings out there.  

I also came across Naptime Quilter and I love her discussion about modern quilts. Cheryl says "Well, I would now argue that modern quilting is actually just really, really traditional quilting." Reading her thoughts on the subject was kind of an ah-ha moment for me. I love so many antique quilts with their clean, geometric lines. But I also love so many "modern" quilts and she points out  how they really are so similar. It makes me wonder what quilters 100 years from now will think of our "modern" quilts.

Blogger's Quilt Festival - 2010

 

I am so excited to share this wall hanging for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

This all started when I received a couple packages of scraps from two Etsy shops. These darling little gnomes were tucked inside and the second I saw them I knew I had to do something special with them. Right away I decided I'd experiment and create some type of wonky project since I'd never made anything wonky (on purpose :).

I just happened to be in the middle of working on a different project but I couldn't stop thinking about the gnomes. So one stormy night when I couldn't sleep I found a tutorial from Quilt Dad and started cutting. This is the first quilt I've been driven to make for fun that didn't really have a purpose except just to enjoy.

I did learn that a new sharp needle is your friend when you start a new project. My machine was skipping stitches when I first started but a new needle solved that problem.

 

It was so much fun to work on this! I pulled from my bag of scraps and my stash of fat quarters. There's even a circle print that I spotted in my Mom's home studio stash and she was gracious enough to send it home with me last year! I just love the first little gnome with the rake. He looks in charge and ready to go and I need him to bring his friends to my yard! I've named this wall hanging Garden Friends in their honor.

Besides the gnomes, my other favorite piece is the Black Eyed Susans on the hot pink fabric.

When I try one of these again, I think I'd like to throw in some solids just to give the eyes a place to rest.

I love pieced backs on quilts but I knew this will hang on my wall where I sew, so I used a fun fat quarter for the back. For the quilting, I just stitched in the ditch in a spiral pattern around the wonky logs.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy all of the inspiration at the Festival. I love reading all the  stories and of course seeing the beautiful quilts. I plan on having my laptop open today to check out entries in between the loads of laundry I'll be catching up on today. I appreciate Amy putting this together for us to enjoy!

Spring to Finish Update

These adorable little Heather Ross gnomes came in a pack of scraps I ordered from an Etsy Shop and I've been itching to do something with them. They've been on my mind so much that I started cutting into my scraps and stash of fat quarters to create something when I couldn't sleep during a stormy night this week. I got the top of the mini quilt finished and I'm hoping to finish the rest for the Blogger's Quilt Festival at the end of the month. I've managed to add another project to my list of things to finish. Yikes!

ETA: See finished gnome wall hanging here.

 

I've pieced, sandwiched and pinned this charity quilt so it's ready to quilt. My official finish total is still one. And 4 items to bind in the end. I'm getting a little nervous but I'll keep plugging away!

Just a Little Batting

You know how you can go into a grocery store for one item and come out with a whole bag or two? That's what happened yesterday when I went to pick up some batting at Quilting Bits and Pieces.


I've had an embroidery pattern for a little while that I wanted to get started when I have some time this summer (car trips, waiting during swim lessons, etc). Everyone at the quilt shop is so nice and Nan helped me pick out the background fabric I needed. She suggested I decide on the red fabric I wanted to use so I could match my thread color. I picked out these Rouenneries fabrics by French General for Moda. I've had my eye on them didn't know where I'd use them. They are so beautiful and of course there wasn't much left on the bolt so I went ahead and bought what I needed for the quilt top. I'm set now with yet another project.


I need to stop now. Seriously. Especially after I ordered some scrap packs from Etsy yesterday. Okay, definitely finished for a good long while! I've got so many projects in the line up but I'm enjoying it so much!

Anyone else have a project they are working on specifically for the summer? 

First Finish

Meet Big Monkey. He was a gift for my daughter from her Aunt Viv (my mom made him for her). He's so well loved that I've had to restitch his tail, an arm, and an ear. The other arm was the latest appendage that needed to be reattached but he'd been hanging around my sewing table for a while now. Patiently waiting. So he's my first finish for Spring to Finish. I was up late last night and also got quite a bit accomplished on the charity quilt. So...progress.

 

We've had rain, rain, rain lately. So we found a break in the storms to do some splashing with friends on Friday. Don't you just love kids' rain boots? I'd love a pair with red and white polka dots!

She'll Be Back!

I just went to AmandaJean's blog Crazy Mom Quilts to see if she had any new Flicker photos and saw the surprising announcement that she'll be blogging again soon. Sooooo happy to hear that. She's the first quilt blogger that I followed and I was so sad to see her blogging come to an end.

To celebrate this wonderful news, I'm sharing the red and aqua quilt top that I finished at my retreat in March. AmandaJean provided the inspiration for this one.

I had so much fun working with these colors and I love the layout. Not loving the block with stripes. I wasn't about to try to match the stripes but it still bugs me a little.

This quilt top was my big accomplishment at the retreat. You can see one of the sewing rooms here. We had a snow storm while we were at the retreat and enjoyed the view all weekend. We even saw deer running across the dam.

My sewing station was just down the sidewalk in the next building. It was kind of nice to get some brisk fresh air on the way to and from "The Big House". I'm so lucky to have such a nice group of women to get together with while we quilt. Looking forward to the next one in the fall already!

Project Plume Update

The Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild met last week and the big reveal of everyone's Project Plume quilts was so exciting! I had a heck of a time getting mine quilted but finally figured out that my machine is preferring one type of thread at the moment. (Thank goodness my mom answers my frantic emails and is my connection for this thread!) I think my favorite part of this is the pink binding. It really pops off the brown. 

This is only the second quilt that I've quilted myself. I used spray basting and pins last time and this time I only used pins. I think I will probably try the spray again. I got a bit more puckering this time but perhaps you won't be able to notice after I wash and dry it. And I'm sure a little more practice would help. I used a wonderful tutorial that Jacquie put together at Tallgrass Prairie Studio where you use blue painters tape to guide your quilting lines. Worked like a charm!

Isn't the fabric on the back beautiful? I love that bird! I started this project with the idea that it would be a gift for someone special but I'm not sure I can part with it. At least not yet.

Shea over at The Empty Bobbin has a few pictures of the fabulous creations that some of the guild members came up with. I find it amazing that you can give a group of people a charm pack and have them pick out a 1/2 yard of fabric to go with it and get so many beautiful quilts. I swear I can't sleep at night when I get home from a guild meeting after seeing all of the talented quilters share their projects!

Many thanks to Tula Pink and Moda for making this challenge possible!

Signs of Spring

Without a doubt, Spring is my favorite season. I love seeing the first daffodils and tulips popping up and the redbud trees full of blossoms. My sweet girl picked out this strawberry plant and we have been enjoying tiny berries every few days.

Sharing these strawberries with Jenna triggered a childhood memory. As a very little girl there was an area with trees beside my house where we had a clothesline and a swing. Under those trees grew a patch of wild strawberries where tiny, tiny berries grew. I remember being so surprised to find them growing there.


Jacquie from Tallgrass Prairie Studio is hosting a Spring to Finish Challenge. We set our goal of items to finish by May 31 and reward ourselves at the end. I love having a deadline. It really motivates me to pick things up even for just a few minutes when normally I might think I don't have time to work on something. I plan to finish a Downy Quilts for Kids project, binding two quilts, and repair Jenna's beloved sock monkey (he has a dangling arm). My reward is going to be a little fabric shopping. I have in mind a pack of Basic Grey Eva fat quarters if my local quilt shop still has them at the end of this challenge.

Check out all of the details at Tallgrass Prairie Studio. If you haven't read Jacquie's blog yet, you are in for a treat. It's full of inspiring projects and some great tutorials. She's also contributing on Sew, Mama, Sew! this month with some great information for both beginning and experienced quilters.

Every spring for the last few years I've looked forward to the Kansas City Shop Hop and Jenna has helped me hop around Kansas City since she was one. This year I gave her a little pocket money in case she came across something she wanted. These were her selections along with a handful of buttons. She has a few ideas for what she wants to make with them and I'm so excited that she is enjoying fabric and taking an interest in sewing.

This spring day has brought a great deal of rain so perhaps I'll get a little sewing in today. And I can't wait to share my finished Project Plume.

A little of this, a little of that....

I made my very first pinwheel the other day and it was so much fun! I never thought I'd be able to do triangles and pinwheels. Rachel Griffith is hosting a Pinwheel Samper quilt along on her blog p.s. i quilt. If you've never tried these before this is a great way to jump in. I hope I can get a couple more finished this week.

I'm using fabric from Moda's Three Sisters line called Aviary. I fell in love with it last spring when I saw it during the local shop hop. And when I say love, I mean LOVE. When I went to visit my mom early in the summer she had the whole line in her quilt shop and I was trying to figure out how to fit a fat quarter of each into my budget. Then I was trying to figure out which prints I could live without. I was so surprised when my mom brought fat quarters of the whole line to a family dinner for both my sister and I that I just squealed with delight! I had no idea what I would do with it but I had a lot of fun going through my patterns and trying to decide. When I saw Rachel's quilt along I knew that this was the project perfect this fabric. Never, never feel guilty about growing your stash (to a reasonable amount) because its so wonderful to have just the right thing to pull when you need it. Thanks Mama!

I am noticing a little puckering along some of my seams. I've been playing with my tension on my machine to try to fix it. So frustrating when you can't just sit down and sew. Hopefully I'll get it worked out.

I got started on a couple of blocks for my red and aqua quilt. So, so easy! I think I may save the rest for an upcoming retreat. It might be an easy thing to start on that first night to get me in my groove.


I picked this book up from the library a while back. I was drawn to it because I knew that my mom had submitted a couple of our family quilts to the Kansas Quilt Project back when I was in high school. It didn't really go into great detail about most of the quilts discovered in that project bu used some of the data collected to discuss the history of quilts in Kansas. I planned on just browsing this book but I ended up reading most of it. The excerpts of diaries were really interesting as well as the photos. "Kansas Quilts & Quiltmakers" is by Barbara Brackman, Jennie Chinn, Gayle Davis, Terry Thompson, Sara Farley, and Nancy Hornback.

Hopefully I'll be back soon with some more pinwheels!

Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild

Last Wednesday evening, I attended the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild's second meeting and had a wonderful time! It was so exciting to visit with so many quilters who were absolutely as nice as could be. The show and tell was so inspiring. We saw quilts from beginning quilters, very experienced quilters and everything in between and they were all beautiful. In fact it was SO inspiring that I had a hard time sleeping that night because I was so excited.

Tula Pink was at the meeting and gave us all a challenge. She brought charm packs of her new Plume line of fabric that Moda donated to our group. The challenge is to use the charm pack and a half yard of fabric, along with any fabric for the backing and binding. I love so many of the designs in this line as well as the colors but it's really out of my comfort zone to use some of the colors in the charm pack together. It took me several days to finally figure out what I wanted to create.

I made three Disappearing Nine Patch blocks using Rachel Griffith's wonderful tutorial on p.s.i quilt. I then framed them with a chocolate brown solid from Moda. I'm considering an attempt at free motion quilting with this project. The challenge participants will share their creations at the April meeting. It'll be fun to see what everyone came up with.



The pink feathers on the pink background is a favorite.


And so is the large scale floral which is surprising since I usually don't care for large scale prints.

I have a thing for keys so I'm really in love with the keys dangling from the vines/trees. You can see the pink and green versions here.

Edited to add: See finished quilt here.




It was fun to branch out and try something new which is exactly why I was interested in joining a guild. The Modern Quilt Guild is popping up in many areas around the country so check to see if you have a guild near you.