Friday Finish: Pixelated Pinwheels

I've had this quilt by JeliQuilts pinned since she made it.  I loved the colors.  I loved that it was based on something from Ikea.  I have a thing for triangles.  Basically, I've just been waiting for the chance to make one of my own.  So when it was my turn to pick a block for my do. Good stitches group, I thought this would be perfect.

I asked each member to make a block of nine HSTs in warm and cool colors.  I requested solids, but any saturated, tone on tone print that read as a solid would do.  While they were doing that, I made a pile of single HSTs that I used to blend the two groups together.

Once I had the top pieced, I sent a picture to the group's Flickr page.  We're putting on a special exhibit at QuiltCon, and I just knew this quilt would have a good chance of being selected.  Luckily, it was! So I had to get it quilted and finished so I could send it in time for the show.

I struggled with what do do for the quilting.  The triangles are so angular, so I wanted to do something curvy to offset that, but I wanted something that I would be able to accomplish quickly and successfully.  Somehow, this pattern of tall archy squiggles popped into my head.  (if anyone can think of a better name, you'll win a gold star.)

I love that the straight lines don't take away from all those triagles, but because the squiggles are of random length, it's fun to look at.  I can't wait to see it hanging in Austin.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday!

Blogger's Quilt Festival: ROY G. BIV

I'm really happy to join in on the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy at Amy's Creative Side.  I've loved looking through all the quilts before, and now I get to enter my own!  You should really go check out all the great quilts linked up, there's so much inspiration.  I've already added a few quilt patterns and techniques to my "to do" list.

And now to my entry into the ROYGBIV category.  (It's one of my favorite categories, and I'm not alone.  It's probaby one of the happiest pages of links in the festival.)  This is one of my favorite, yet trying quilts to date.  I've written all about how to make the Quilt As You Go blocks here, the first time I thought I was finished here, the decision to hand quilt to mitigate lumpiness here, and the really finished post here.

It was a lot of work, but the end result is so happy.  It has a permanent place on the couch and has traveled with me when I've slept away from home.

The blocks are all Quilt-As-You-Go, done in dense straight lines.  Then, after piecing them together and backing it with flannel, I hand quilted with Perle cotton.  I loved those evenings, just sitting under it and adding stitches.  Most are just plain running stitches, but I got to highlight patterns in the fabric and outline things.

Thanks for stopping by!  Now go check out more quilts!

A Really Finished Rainbow Quilt

I'm officially calling this quilt done!  And I really think I mean it this time.  See, it's all bound and everything, that totally says done.

So the last time I thought it was done, I had only sewn the quilted top to the backing along all the seams.  It was then that I realized that all the blocks were warped from all that dense quilting, and that they bubbled in the center of each block.  I know that only I would ever be bothered by this, but I was really bothered.  

After hiding it away for a couple months, I busted it back out did some hand-quilting on each of the squares to attach the centers of the blocks to the backing and bound it in a bunch of black prints that I've been stashing away for just the right project.

I absolutely loved laying under this quilt and slowly adding all those little stitches.  There was a lot of just running stitches along the quilted lines, or following the pattern of the fabric, but there's also stars, x's, pluses, feathers and zigzags.  I may end up adding more when I'm bored and need something to keep my hands busy, and since the top has so much going on, I could probably fill it with stitches and it wouldn't look overdone. 

This quilt is going to get a bit more time on the couch before I run it through the wash.  I'm a little nervous about what shrinkage is going to do to this quilt, so I want to have some quality time just in case it spontaneously combusts in the dryer.

Linking up to Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday!

Rainbow QAYG: the Reboot

Well, since January really kicked my butt, I'm going to make the most out of February!  I've already made a giant list of everything I want to do, but I'm going to pare it down to just the things I want to complete this month.  And since my eyes are usually bigger than my sewing box, I'm going to try to be realistic and only have a couple things on my "Must Finish" list.

This is one of the first things I want to get done.  It's the Rainbow Quilt-as-you-Go quilt I "finished" a while ago.  I'd sewn it together and sewed the top to the backing when I realized that it was quite lumpy.  All my blocks were slightly warped (which might still work itself out in the wash) so they bubbled in the centers.  I was so frustrated at that all that work hadn't turned out perfect, that I just rolled it in a ball and stashed it in the corner of the sewing area.

After some grumping about it, I realized that doing some hand quilting in the centers would attach them better to the backing so there'd be less lump.  So I grabbed my collection of Perle Cotton and got to work.

With all these little decorative stitches, it's turning out to be one of my favorite projects.  I know I'm going to love cuddling under it and tracing all those stitches.

And this guy is loving sitting next to me while I stitch.  He gets to pull the needle as it comes up from the bottom.  A very serious job!

Linking up with Blossom Heart Quilts for Sew Cute Tuesday and Lee for WIP Wednesday!

 

Quilt As You Go Block Tutorial!

Want to know all about the magical world of quilt as you go blocks?  I thought you did.  It's pretty awesome and forgiving if you don't feel like measuring or thinking, and they go pretty fast, so you can make a bunch in one go and they're already quilted!

So first you cut your batting.  I cut mine 12.5 because that's the size of my ruler.  Of course, it's going to shrink on you once you start quilting and you'll want to square it up again when you're finished.  So if you want to have bigger finished squares, cut the batting bigger, probably by at least 1.5 inches.

Now, this is the fun part, and where I started to deviate from all the tutorials and how-to's that I found.  That first piece of fabric, just plop it down in the center.  Don't measure where it's going, or try to center it perfectly.  I didn't even care if that piece of fabric was actually squared off itself.  Just put it down and quilt some lines back and forth over it.  I used the outside edge of my foot as a guide, but I'd do some quilted lines wider, skinnier, or a mix of the two.

Then, lay the next piece of fabric down and sew it down.  Again, don't over think it, just make sure that when you sew, it's a straight line so that you're fabric will lay flat once you flip it over to quilt.  (Of course, if you botch that bit, you can just make your first quilted pass really close to the seam to really make it lay down.  Told you it was great if you didn't want to be accurate!)

Quilt it down!  

That weird zig zag bothering you?  I found a bunch of featherweight fusible interfacing and I'm using it to piece together my batting scraps, but I don't trust it, so I do a super big zaggle to hold it together.

I used every scrap possible, which meant that sometimes I'd sew them together to make up the length that I needed.  It's pretty fun to mash together all those little bits, and I got to do some fussy cutting to add cars and flowers to some of my other blocks.

The placement of each layer is different from a traditional log cabin block because I didn't add my sides in a consistent pattern, like always going clockwise when sewing down the next layer, or doing top and bottom then sides.  I just sew with whatever scraps looked good and require the least amount of cutting.  Sometimes, like here, it would get a bit rectangle-y and I'll try to even it out a little.  Other time's I'll just keep adding wherever.

Keep adding layers until the entire piece of batting is covered.  

Then you trim it down to the size you want.  Like I said, I initially made my batting squares 12.5", but I trim them down to 12".  

These are really fun to make, and the weirder they look, the more I like them when they're all together.  I just have four more to make then I can officially finish this quilt.  I'm pretty excited to finally get to cuddle under it!  

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday and Live a Colorful Life for Really Random Thursday!

A Finished Rainbow QAYG Top!!

I'm so excited!  I managed to finish the top of this quilt last night.  (I would like to thank my wonderful quilting assistants: Coke, Ice cream, and Star Trek; without you three, I would have been sleeping well before this was finished.)

I'm quite happy with how this turned out.  I was worried that it would be dominated by all the pink and purple since I'd originally wanted the the quilt to only have a couple little on the corners.  Well, when I decided to go twin sized, I made three more blocks of each color, which worried me, but since the middle is mostly blues and greens, it doesn't scream "PINK!!"  It's more, "hey dude, rainbow!"

The only minor hiccup in this quilt was last night as I was trimming all those blocks up, I realized they'd shrunk because of the quilting.  I suppose I should have seen something like that coming since quilting a normal quilt usually ends up with the quilt shrinking or growing and requiring some squaring up.  But I just trimmed them all down to 12" instead of my expected 12.5" and everything was hunky dory.

When I finished the top last night and measures 58" x 92", which is a little scant on the sides and long on the bottom.  So I decided to just wait until morning to try it on the little dude's twin bed to decide whether I needed to add another row.

See all of it bunched at the bottom?  I think most of that will just hang nicely if I didn't have the foot board, and I could just tuck it under.  But it will hang much lower there than on the sides. 

See?  It hangs a little under a full block on the sides, but a whole block and a half on the bottom.  So I'm going to ponder for the day whether to add another strip of blocks to the side.  Luckily, I got all of those batting and purple scraps, so I don't think it will be a problem.  

One more, because I just love how they look all stacked up!

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday and over at Lily's Quilts for Fresh Sewing Day!