Twisted 4 patch Suie's Zoo fabric - Mom's quilt

Dec 2014

Mom bought this as kit at the 5 Hearts Quilts & Fabric shop in Tehachapi this past Oct.  The pattern is Twisted 4 Patch and the shop owner is the author, Claudia Blogut-Lye.  I backed it in a light green Minky textured fabric.  I quilted the center green area with large daises and echoed the petals twice, then in the blue outer area I quilted a calm water motif.  Hard to get good detail picture of the quilting. The quilting was fun and not so much that I got tired of it.  Size 45" x 58".  Sold at Santa Rosa Quilt Show 2015 ($75).

 

Quilt Guild Medallion Round 3

Dec 2014

My quilt guild has a program in which members take turns adding borders to a medallion center for a total of 5 rounds. At the end of the year the 5 participants go into a roll-off of a dice.  The person who did that round gets to take home the quilt top and extra fabric.   I've participated in this program for several years and regret not having documented each so will start now.

I am to do round 3 on this medallion.  At first I felt that my round needed to be fairly simple for "calming" or breathing room as the quilt felt a bit busy to me.   

This is my first attempt, but really did not like it.  I think it was a combination of the blocks being too big and the dark blue being "too" much.

So back to the books and looked for simple and smaller options.  This was my second attempt and I liked it better but it didn't really sing to me so I didn't continue beyond one side.

Third attempt and I told myself last.  I wanted smaller and more horizontal (if that makes sense), so I settled on Broken Zigzag in the book Log Cabin Borders and Corners.  Although I don't like paper piecing I went for it.  I was able to use up all the small triangle in the print from the flying geese row.  I also like how the small triangles pulled together with the center and first row.  I'm fairly happy with it and do feel there is calming space. 

Hubby's Animal Print Couch Quilt

Nov 2014

This is the 4th quilt like this that I've made .  It is Adult Cuddle Strip Quilt by Shannon Fabrics kit/pattern.  I find this quilt boring to make as it is just a strip to strip stitch and flip made with Minky
fabrics top and bottom.  But everyone I've given a quilt to has truly loved it.  The first quilt, we gave to a friend in Palm Desert, the second to my father-in-law for his birthday in 2010 and the third to my sister-in-law in 2011.  We now have a family story in which my father-in-law liked his quilt so much he sequestered it away so no one in the family would use it.  After giving my sister-in-law a similar quilt, my father-in-law accused her of "stealing" his.  She had to assure him that I had made her a nearly identical quilt and his was safe in his hiding place.

While visiting my sister-in-law this month hubby used her quilt and really liked it.  So I've made him this one. 

Flamingo zig zag quilt

Nov 2014

Mom made the quilt top based Princess Tiara in the magazine Quilt Trends, winter 2013 about 6 months ago.  I quilted it with a different motif in each zig zag.  One of the pink zig zags was my first use of the cross hatching 1/4 line spacing template I had purchased several years ago.  I also use some new learning I got from a quilting marking class with Harriet Hargrave where I learned of Frixion pens that disappear with heat.  I used different fillers from Leah Day's Free Motion Quilt Project blog, which is my main source of inspiration for quilting motifs.  I also did a couple of zig zags with Sally Terry's Hooked on Feathers technique. 

What I learned from this project was 1) that the large flamingo print did not do well in this pattern as the blocks were not large enough for a full flamingo and 2) stablize with walking foot by stitch in the ditch first.  There was some unevenness to the quilt before quilting which I controlled with a walking foot stitch in the ditch on each of the zig zags.

Size 54.5" x 53"
SOLD

Quilter Academy - Freshman Year project #4

October 2014

Mom and I were invited to spend a week with a friend at a time share in Palm Desert.  Our friend is also a quilter and it was just the 3 of us.  We had three sewing machines and two ironing boards set up and the creativity flowed!  I completed our 4th project in the Quilter Academy Freshman Year - Harriet's Town Square and Mom nearly completed hers.  What we both learned from this project was fanning of seams.  Neither of us had heard of doing this although our friend who has been quilting for a few years had.  Oh my!  It took us a bit to get the knack of it.  It sure does ease the bump/lump build up when seams are pressed to one side.  I can see this will make the quilting step go smoother.  Now just to retrain myself to do it all the time.  After fanning all the seams on this quilt there is yet another reason (besides neatness) why the authors want the thread tails cut even with the material (step 5 on page 25), with longer thread tails they sometime get caught up in the next seam making the fanning process difficult.

 My quilt is the pink and blue, Mom's is the purple and green. Slightly different layout of the blocks.  Each to her own preference.

 

Quilter's Academy Freshman Year - Project #3

Sept - Oct 2014
Only Mom did project #3 - Log Cabin Quilt.  Mom was very happy with the ease that the block went together and aligned because of the cutting of the "logs" a bit wider then necessary and trimmed after each log.  We will have to incorporate this larger log technique in other log cabin projects.  Here is the results:

Quilter's Academy Freshman Year - Project #2

August & September 2014:
For project #2, Triple Rail Fence, Mom selected the red rose fabric and I picked the yellow and blue flower print.  Again, following the previous lessons all went well.  Here are the results:

Beginning Quilter's Academy freshman year

Harriet Hargrave came to my quilt guild, Moonlight Quilters of Sonoma County, this past summer.  Even though my Mom and I have been quilting for several years some of the common mistakes and issues Harriet described were those we often experienced.  Therefore I decided to give Harriet and Carrie's book "Quilter's Academy Freshman Year" at try.  I gave the book to my Mom for her birthday in August 2014 and we made a pact to go through the book together and pull fabric ONLY from our stash (which we have plenty of).

We found the first few classes/lessons very informative.  We got the most out of preparing fabric and pressing for success.

August 2014:  For project 1, I chose a panel of coffee cups and Mom selected flower novelty print.  Using the techniques all went well.  Here are our results.