Catching Up On June - Part 2: Two more 2nd Quarter Finishes

As noted in the previous post, this month the 2nd Quarter Finish-A-Long will come to a close so I am pluggin' along trying to get some of the things remaining from my list completed.

I finished this on the last day of May:

It's the companion project to my "Sweet Land of Liberty" quilt (my BQF entry posted here) and they hang in the same room.  The eagle and the star are in wools, the rest of the fabrics are cottons and all of it came from scraps or stash.

"Let Freedom Ring" was a project from the Summer 2013 Primitive Quilts & Projects Magazine.  The original design had embroidery on it, something I was hoping to get back into with this project.  But pressed for time,  I took a shortcut and stitched the words on my sewing machine with a triple straight stitch.  I also eliminated the branch embroidery in favor of adding quilted feather designs using what I had hoped would be a "slightly" contrasting thread, an idea I got from this post on the Ivory Spring blog.  The thread I finally settled on using stitched out much darker than I expected reminding me once again that I really should test my quilting threads on a practice piece before doing the actual quilting.  But once the quilting was done, I was statisfied that this little piece would hang high enough to mute the impact of the stitching a bit and more importantly to me (at least for this project) it was done!

So far this month I've also finished the second of the three journal covers I wanted to make this quarter (the first was posted here). 

It was fun to pull all the bits that went into this one.  The label on the spine was stitched onto some ribbon I had on hand using the monogramming function on my machine and the roses were all that was left from a pack I had bought six years ago to add to the label of one of my other quilts. The front block was one of the class projects from the online Hand Applique course I took back in 2010 from Quilt University (which is sadly no longer in business).

The back is a block I also hand appliqued.  The pattern for it was from this book:

When I make these covers they are a "scrap quilt challenge project" for me and I try to pull as much of the fabrics for them from my scrap bits. The ribbon over the join between the two backgrounds was also in stash and was couched with one of the decorative stitches on my machine.

Once again, it pays to pay attention when setting up a block for applique.  While I am satisfied with the result (these binders sit on shelf most of the time), I was a little disappointed that I didn't render some of the elements of the flower block accurately because I relied on memory and what the pieces looked like when cut with seam allowance rather than taking my cue from the actual picture of the block as I went from step to step.  Another lesson for the future (particularly if I ever decide to do competition quilts!) but in the end I'm more than happy to be able to log another finish.

Even the inside lining and flap fabrics were from project leftovers and the binding was a fat eighth from stash (and is now all gone).  Another thing I've got to watch is that I was afraid to crowd the applique but was then a little too generous with the dimensions and seam allowance of the cover so it is a little big for the binder.  On the last binder I actually made it a little too small and had to scramble to get it to fit that binder.  The good news, is that I have one more that I hope to get done before month's end so will have another opportunity to perfect my method for making these. 

This project also gave me some free motion practice doing echo quilting, a technique I haven't employed before.  I got to use the echo quilting foot that came with my machine and used the guidelines to control the spacing. 

Picture courtesy Janome.com

My thanks to Amy at Amy's Freemotion Quilting Adventures because I didn't know that was what that foot was for until I read it on her blog!  I thought it was just for stitching over bulky seams.  So that's all the finished stuff to date but there will be some more "in progress" posts and hopefully at least one more finish post as the week moves on.

Catching Up On June - Part 1: A Win!

With June rapidly coming to a close, I've been busy with a lot of non-quilty things but have also managed to squeeze in some quilty things too.  It's important to keep my nose to the grindstone because the quarter will be closing soon for the 2nd Quarter Finish-A-Long.  I will be scrambling this week to get a few more things done on my list.

The next few posts will update what I have been working on since my last post and in the case of today what has happened since then.  So without further ado:  

 Remember this quilt?

Fabric Gal by Eleanor Burns for Quilt In A Day

Made for this challenge?

Well, not only did I get a finished quilt out of participating, but I won the "Let's Book It!" challenge for May!  Which means I also got this:

Which I can add to these:

Thanks again Sharon!!

Yet Another New Tuesday Archive Post - Crazy Quilts

Val over at Val's Quilting Studio hosts a weekly Tuesday Archive Linky Party.

She announces that week's themes and people can link up an old post about projects they have done for one or both themes. Quilters can also link up a new post for a "pre-blogging" project about the themes.  This week's themes are Color Wheels, Crafty Projects and Crazy Quilts.  This post is for another of my pre-blogging projects, this time in the "Crazy Quilts" category.

These pillows were made back in 2008 to go in a recliner chair I had at the time.  I had wanted to try a crazy quilt project and was also looking to do an "all neutrals" project as well.  The recliner was beige and so was the perfect background and color inspiration.  I pulled all the fabrics from the scrap stash.  Some of the trims and buttons used were from stash, some were purchased to help fill out this project.

In the left pillow, see that black and beige "jaguar" print?  It's from some shoulder pad covers from an old favorite blouse!  The covers just happened to be laying around the quilt studio and was a nice spark when put with the other fabrics (when the color is right we quilters make do)!  I got the idea of doing the quadrant format separated by trim from a Joann's online project sheet. It may be hard to see in the picture, but I couched my initials with a fuzzy cream colored decorative thread in the bottom right quadrant.

 On the right pillow, I felt that the area in the bottom left needed something.  I wanted to buy a embroidered decal to put there but I was close to finishing and didn't want to have to go out and shop for one.  Then I got the idea to make something to put there -- in this case it was a crocheted and beaded flower doily motif.  The motif was patterned in an old crochet booklet of my mother's that I had.  The beads were actually from a bracelet that had recently broken.  I liked the colors of the beads and had saved them, thank goodness!  

I still want to do a big Crazy quilt project one day but little projects like these are a great way to play and experiment!  If you want to see more quilty-crafty goodness, head back over to Val's and see what everyone else has posted this week!

Another New Tuesday Archive Post - Craft Projects

Val over at Val's Quilting Studio hosts a weekly Tuesday Archive Linky Party.

She announces that week's themes and people can link up an old post about projects they have done for one or both themes. Quilters can also link up a new post for a "pre-blogging" project about the themes. I've linked up one "old" post this week (although it's not that old having only been posted back in March) but this week  I had a projects for the subjects that were from the early days before blogging so gives me an opportunity to get them posted to the blog.

This week's themes are Color Wheels, Crafty Projects and Crazy Quilts.  I haven't done any Color Wheel quilts but do have some projects for the other catagories.   I've already linked up my post on the jewelry pouches I've made so now need to do a post on a pre-blogging Crafty project.

When my sons were in elementary school, the school had an incentive program where the teachers could recognize  a student in their class each month who set the example for being a "good citizen".  The school would hold a small monthly breakfast that parents could attend to see all the "Citizens of the Month" from each grade honored and receive a pin and certificate acknowledging the honor.

Over the years each of my sons won the award a few times and I liked to display them.  In our old apartment I had an area in our front foyer where I displayed all of our awards and diplomas.  I would put all the acumulated pins (as well as display the most recent certificate) on a shelf but at some point realized it would be nice to have a banner to display all the pins together.  Well you know us quilters, if there is a need, there must be a way to meet it by making a quilt!

This was the result of that brainstorm.  It was a simple project made from some stash fabrics that were from an interesting source.  In my early days as a quilter, I had once bought a five pound bag of fabric samples off of Ebay!  They were mostly older samples and I believe the seller originally owned a quilt shop.  I will say I've started or filled in a lot of projects from that bag!  The samples came in varying sizes from about a layer cake sized square to sometimes a quarter yard cut. The different prints or colorways (if it was all the same print) of each line would be stapled together with a header card with the fabric line and designer's name on it.

All the fabrics for this project, front and back (with the execption of the binding), came from the sample bag.  On the front, the black background and schoolhouse at the bottom was a border print from a Debbie Mum fabric line called "Mums the Word" and the green and yellow horizontal schoolbuses and supplies stripe print at the top was another fabric from the same line.

                   Front

 

                       Back

On the back, the top most print was also from the Debbie Mum line while the bottom two fabrics were samples from Leanne Anderson's "One Room School House" line.  I couldn't have put together better or more appropiate coordinates if I had shopped for them in person!

I haven't had the chance to set up the display area in our new home but when I do I look forward to hanging this one back up even though the boys are long out of elementary school (one's a first year college student and the other's a high school sophomore). 

Click back over to Val's and see all the other quilty-crafty goodness that others have concocted too!

A New Post for the Tuesday Archives

Val over at Val's Quilting Studio hosts a weekly Tuesday Archive Linky Party.

She announces that week's two themes and people can link up an old post about projects they have done for one or both themes.  Quilters can also link up a new post for a "pre-blogging" project about the themes.  I've linked up a few old posts posts in the past month but this week's subject was one that I had a project for but didn't have a detailed post for.  So now I will!

This week's themes are "Chevron and Christmas Quilts".  I haven't made a chevron quilt yet but I have made a Christmas quilt.  Actually, I have made two but the second one was more of a quilt made from Christmas-style fabrics and can be seen here.  The one I want to highlight today is one made pre-blogging.  It was mentioned briefly as part of an early post but no real details were provided there.  Since it may be a while before I make another Christmas quilt, I figured I'd shake this one out and give it an airing!

 My Christmas quilt is "A Christmas Wish For A Happy Holiday" made in 2008:

I apologize for the not so hot picture, it's rainy today and this quilt has been folded up since after Xmas 2012 because the only place I can display it was occupied this past Christmas.  This project was a free Block Of the Month offered by Debbie Mumm -- one of the early icons of the quilt industry -- on her website that year and is still available in her Free Pattern Archives here.    

As quilters we are often drawn to the concept of the BOM.  It always seems so simple:  you get a pattern and possibly fabrics to make one block each month and then at the end of the year you have a quilt.   I say it "seems" simple because even from the beginning, I've yet to do a BOM this way!  This was the first Block of the Month I ever did.  Debbie put out the patterns each month and I dutifully picked them up and saved them on my computer, swearing I would make them each month.  But I wound up not even starting this project until October!  So instead of making a block a month, I had to make two blocks a week in order to have them ready when the last (the big center) block and quilt assembly instructions came out at the beginning of December and had to hope I would be able to keep up the steady work on the quilt so I could display it for the holidays.

Despite that it was fun.  The best part was that I was able to make all the blocks from the stash I had at the time and I took all the color cues from Debbie's pattern.  In fact the border fabric was one of the first prints I bought when I started quilting in 2002.  I only had three fat quarters of it (all they had on display at the store at the time) and was lucky that it was almost enough to make the border and binding for this quilt (although I had to piece another fabric into the binding to complete it).  One of the block fabrics used was even from my old clothing sewing days!

I admit it's not too heavily quilted, just stitched in the ditch around the blocks.  Back then I was still pretty nervous about quilting my projects even though I had set out from the beginning to be a machine quilter.  I was so nervous that I didn't finish up the quilting of it until Christmas Eve!  But there is another reason it's not too heavily quilted and that would be the back label:

This label is centered in the back under the center block.  I've always liked the idea of including a "fun" label in every project if I can.  I had collected Christmas quilt ideas for a long time before I saw Debbie's BOM project.  One of them was this pieced picture from the December 1997 (#298) issue of Quilter's Newsletter magazine.  It's called "Partridge & Pears" and was designed by Deborah Moffett-Hall.  It was designed to be a stand alone wall hanging to finish at 29" x 18-1/2" using squares that finish to 1-1/2".  

I liked it but not having anywhere to display a quilt that size,  I thought it could instead make a cute label for the BOM quilt (which finishes at 47" square) if I made it smaller.  So I made my squares to finish at 1" so the pieced portion wound up at an unfnished 14-1/4 x 7-1/2" before adding the lower label area and the border around it.  And yes I did hang it up for Christmas Day that year!

I did go back in 2009 and add some more stitching in the borders using a very light gold metallic thread.  A little more confident in my free-motion skills at that point, I stitched a holly and berries motif in the corners and the quilt title in the top and bottom borders.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good shot of that but know that it's there!  I still want to "fill quilt" the blocks of  this one day but for now, I like to look at it and remember the green horn quilter I was back then!

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to go back and check out the other Archive links over at Val's!

Bloggers Quilt Festival Entry - Spring 2014

I wasn't sure I'd finish this project in time to make the festival but luckily I made it!  The festival is being hosted by the wonderful woman who pioneered this festival six years ago,  Martingale author Amy Ellis.  This will be the fourth time I've had something ready to actually enter in the festival but I always make sure to view the entries because you get to see so many great projects and find great new blogs to follow and inspire you.

My entry this time is my "Sweet Land of Liberty" wall hanging which fits in the Small Quilts category.

This is the full on finished shot but here's another one so you can see the quilting detail:

The Basics:   

 My quilt finished at 34" x 39" to fit the space I want to hang it in and to best utilize the fussy cut print I used for the center.  It is based on the "Liberty Hall" pattern from the Summer 2008 "Easy Quilts" magazine issue and was designed by Jill Reid (who I was sorry to hear just passed away recently).  I recently saw this same pattern featured in the new "Best of Fons & Porter - Patriotic Quilts" book published by Leisure Arts.  The quilt was designed to be 54" x 63" so I had to adjust my block, header and letter sizes accordingly.  All the fabric used is from stash.  It is layered with wool batting (I used leftovers from another project) to help make the center motifs "pouf" up:

You can stop here if you like and if so follow this link back to the Small Quilts page of the Festival so you can check out the rest of the projects being displayed and thank you for visiting!  However, if you are interested in a little "process" blogging, feel free to continue on!    

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

The Process Details:  

Every quilt has a story and made a journey to its completion and this one is no exception.  The journey for this quilt started back in 2002 when I first started quilting.  Right off the bat I liked red, white and blue quilts so part of my very first fabric order was a "Lady Liberty Half Yard Sampler" from a Quilts & Other Comforts catalog.  There were the obligatory red, white and blue prints in the sampler but also this one (which I've since learned was from the "Peace & Plenty- Quilts For A Cure" line):

 

 

 At the time, I didn't know what I might use the print for but much later I saw the "Liberty Hall" pattern in "Easy Quilts" magazine.

The original quilt used a printed panel for the center but I just knew my "Liberty" print would make a great substitution.  When we moved a few years ago, I realized I now also had a good spot for this wall hanging and decided last June that it was finally time to make it.  Over time, I had collected many R/W/B fabrics.  One in particular was the Brown and Red Stripe with Stars print used in the header of the quilt which as soon as I saw it, thought it was perfect for this project since it would allow me to eliminate the appliqued stars in the header in the pattern.  I was able to pull everything else I needed also from stash.  

When it came time to add the letters in the header, I wanted something different and decided to fussy cut them from the cream stripes in this Anna Griffin fabric leftover from another project from four years ago:

 
with this result:

Unfortunately, once I got the top and backing done and layered, it sat around for a long while since I had a lot of  older UFOs that I was also trying to eliminate.  Having gotten many done in the last six months, I was finally ready to vanquish this one as well.  I had recently purchased some straight and curved rulers for quilting (based on this review) which I used on another recent project and thought I would use a lot on this project as well.  But I actually only used the curved ruler to free motion quilt the spines of the feathers and only used the straight ruler to help guide the walking foot when I was stitching over the plain fabric squares and rectangles (when I quilted over the nine-patches I just eyeballed it from corner to corner).  The hardest quilting was the close stippling done around the center "panel" motifs (as seen in the picture in "the Basics" section).  It was a lot of stops and starts since the backgrounds around all the elements weren't always connected.  

I added the red border between the header and the body of the quilt and around the center "panel" because I felt they needed the extra separation after I began laying out the blocks on my design wall.  But because I had already worked out all the adjusted measurements, I couldn't add in a traditional skinny border since it would throw everything off.  So what you see is just a thin strip of fabric folded in half (wrong sides together) and stitched between the seams.  The curved corners in the center "panel" was from a circle, faced and cut into quarters and also inserted into the seam. What you see finishes to a little less than 1/4" so as not to cover up too much of the print details.

In the end, it should also be noted that the center print inspired the name change for the quilt from what it was called in the pattern.  All the "bountiful" motifs in the print reminded me of the second verse of the song "My Country 'Tis of Thee".  I was disappointed that I wasn't able to use all the motifs from the print in the front of the quilt but I was able to incorporate the ones I couldn't use into the label area on the back of the quilt.

 
 I am also very happy to have finished this since it was also on my 2nd Quarter Finish-A-Long list.
 

 

If you've stayed with me this long, I thank you very much for looking back with me on the journey of this quilt.  I hope you enjoyed the visit and hope you enjoy all the rest of the Quilt Festival entries!! 

The Fabric Gal Finale!

**Note:  Previously Published 5/22/14, Post Edited 5/30/14**

 

I woke up last Thursday to this beautiful sight.....

....it was what was left from "The Night Before" (which of course means this popped in my head)......

I had been making my first attempts at quilting using my new ruler foot (that's the "Frame Set" in the picture, purchased from here)...

...and rulers (reviewed by Amy here and purchased from here)....

.....to do these straight line seams (well, relatively straight anyway).
 

Now it should be noted that when I "quilt whispered" this quilt I wanted to empahsize the diagonal progressions of the opposing sets of same color blocks.  But I didn't want to just stitch along the seams.  Then I realized that if I outlined the pairs of (same color) light squares by FMQing with the ruler and then created "shadow" squares on the background triangles, I would get the same impact but done a different way.

However, once I had done a few (well, a lot of them), I realized that because the squares I quilted connected,  I could have much more easily and faster achieved the same effect by straight line quilting with the walking foot between the seam lines.  Oh well, I still like how it looks and I got alot of practice using the ruler which was far easier to use than I expected. 

I added quilting in the borders using the curved ruler......

...and then bound it (in the same border fabric) and made a label area for another finish!

So now my bed can finally go from Winter........

Brrr! quilt finished in 2013.

....to Spring!

This also means I have a finished NewFO and Book It Project as well as another notch on the 2nd Quarter Finish A-Long list! 

 

 

Edited 5/30/14 to Add:

 

I am also linking up with Amy at Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventures for Week 4 of her Free Motion Monday posts on using Rulers. She also has more posts on different free motion techniques that you can check out by going here.

So you know I'm "Happy" (here's why)!