Friday Finish: Orange Peel Vines!

I'm so glad I jumped at the chance to join Quilty Habit's Orange Peel Quilt-a-long.  It's something that I've wanted to do for a while, and I'm really happy with the results.  Like, really happy.  I can't wait to figure out where this will hang in my house.  I'm thinking my bedroom, but we'll have to actually paint first.  It'll give me time to add the hang sleeve.

I posted about a million pictures to Instagram while making it.  I knew I wanted a rainbow of peels, but couldn't figure out the layout, whether to add more, whether to machine sew them down or hand stitch... It just went on and on.  Thanks so much to all the great advice I got, I was just so scared of screwing it up since I loved it so much.

The rows won the layout contest.  The rainbow was more obviously rainbow-y when you lined them all up, and it kind of reminded me of my love or Orla Kiely.  Had I picked a different color scheme, I would have had to track down some Orla sheets to use as backing.

I ended up quilting ghost peels in all the blank spots.  For the two center rows, I used a rainbow of threads and the outer borders just got white thread.  Then I went back in and did some dense straight lines so the peels would really pop out.  They definitely pop, but you can't really see the straight lines.  I think I'm okay with that, but it was a little bummer that that portion of work wasn't obvious.

You can see the lines when the kids decide the quilt is a hat....

I still have to measure it to figure out which category of the QAL to enter, but you'll definitely see me in there somewhere.  And there's still plenty of time to get your orange peel on; the final link up is from August 23 - September 8, so that's almost a month!  Do it!  It's fun, and there's prizes!

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday and Quilt Matters for TGIFF!

Friday Finish: Morton the Map Turtle

So this one time, a friend brought over a book and asked if I'd like to make a turtle.  It was late, and turtle production wasn't really on my radar, but how do you say no?

At the last guild meeting, said friend had won a copy of a really cute book, Sewing Tales to Stitch and Love by Kerry Goulder, and thought that it would be fun to give some of the creations for gifts.  But first, we had to see if we could make them.  Both of us are quilters with some success at garment and bag sewing, but stuffies are an entirely different area of 3D sewing.  The turtle seemed easiest, so we dipped our toes in with that.

It turned out pretty awesome, even though there were a few steps where we both just stared at each other and scratched heads.  (How could it not turn out awesome when the shell features a map of both North America and Australia like they've always been next to each other?)  We were a little surprised by turning the tiniest cylinders, but luckily, I had a turning tool on hand.  And we learned part way through that a fairly short stitch length is best when making things you'll stuff and stress the seams.

But all in all, he's a pretty handsome little fellow.  He's whole, with no stuffing falling out, and all the body parts are in the right spots.  He also survived a day as a three-year-old's favorite thing, which isn't easy.  She named him Map Turtle, and was a little confused when he went to live with someone else.

Hopefully back to some real quilt posts soon!  I've sewn so much, but taken only shoddy Instagram pictures, so hopefully I'll get some time soon to take out the big camera and throw a quilt on the lawn.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday and Quokka Quilts for TGIFF!