It is my circus, those are my monkeys

Two finishes squeaking in at the end of the year.  I love panel quilts.  They are quick to put together and so much fun to quilt.  I have two more of these done, just need to add the binding.  I used bottom line thread on top, wanted a thin thread to keep it a bit softer.  Hobbs poly down batting, light and warm.  Flannel back with a strip of fun colorful cotton.  I had three of these on the frame at one time.  Nice to have them done.

I've had this sweet tumbler done for some time now.  Finally got in on the frame.  I watched a Green Fairy Quilts you tube video on feather swirls and just went for it.  So much fun, fast and easy.  I figure with this busy print if it didn't turn out, you wouldn't be able to tell!  I will definitely use that one again.  Hobbs polydown, Glide thread on top, bottom line in the bobbin

I used the left over fabric from the Sonny quilt and made this bright and cheery tumbler.  I'm calling this one Sunset, no more sunny fabrics.  I'm in the "use them up" mode rather than putting them away. LOL the leftover quilt is much bigger than the baby quilt!

Sunset

And speaking of using up, I had so much satisfaction taking all the left over fabric from Moon glow and cutting into very simple 5 in charms, them sewing those together!!  I had so much trouble with moon glow and so little trouble with this one :)  I'm calling this one Moon dust.  It will have a black border, then a partial colorfull border in two corners finishing up with a black border.

Moon Dust

So nice to get some much needed sewing therapy in the end of the year.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season so far!!  Don't forget to check out the linky parties on the side bar and see what everyone is getting done the last few days of 2015

Let the holiday Sewcation festivities begin!!

AHHHH after the last conference call this morning I officially started my sewcation holiday!! I don't know what it was but Santa, his elves or someone, something dropped off some inspiration for me today.  What did I do with all that inspiration??  I finished Moon Glow.  Yes, it's true, it's done, well, the top is done, the quilting is just pure fun!!  I really struggled with this one.  This quilt is going to get a nice fluffy wool batting to help hide some of the mistakes I made.  But its DONE!!!!  I didn't get pictures of the borders it was just too late.  I'll wait for the full reveal after quilting.  Here's the center.  Ok so this is a quilt for my nephew and his bride to be.  I want to give it a star wars related name.  I really think Death star is appropriate for the trouble I had with this one, but perhaps not quite the right name for a wedding quilt.  Any Star Wars fans out there?  Suggestions?

Moonglow by Jinny Beyer

I've had something in on the frame the entire time I've been working on Moon glow, needed something to keep me going and fun.  I've got these three  little cuties to brighten my moon when moon glow cast a shadow in my sewing space.   I love using panel quilts for free motion quilting.  Ok I love any quilt that takes longer to quilt than it does to make :)

Love a full frame

The tumblers are the left overs from my Sonny quilt (a different nephews quilt).  I used this as leader and ender for Moon glow.  I love color just thrown all together.

I've got one more day to sew before the holiday activities take over.  Hope you find some time in your day for a little quilting fun.  Check out the linky parties on the side bar.

Cornucopia of Color

I've been working on something really fun the last few days.  No moon glow at all.  I've just completely pushed that aside right now for a higher priority (and more fun) project.  My nephew is having his first baby and the shower is in two weeks so I had to get this one done quick.  The baby's name will be Sonny and immediate I knew I had to incorporate a big sunshine in this quilt.  They didn't really have much of theme and said their colors are hippie colors, which I take as bright and beautiful.  Then they said earthy. Hmmm, well, here's what I got, hippie colors and there are a couple of "earthy" ones in there too.

The center was paper pieced.  I used a sheet of wrapping paper as that's all I had that was big enough.  Not sure I would recommend wrapping paper to anyone, but hey it did the trick.  I drew 3 circles, marked the center and then just started drawing the rays.  No measuring, just doing what felt right.  They did have a lot of grey in their registry so I used grey rather than white as the back ground fabric.  On the outer border I embroidered a couple of the verses from Bobby Hebb's song "Sunny".   The circles are fusible applique.  Now to get the binding on.  I've got a long trip to IN so I'm going to try sewing the binding to the back by hand.  Should be interesting.  When I get back from IN, I'll get back to the Moon Glow quilt, only 3 blocks to go.   A couple of those lines look a bit too wobbly.  I had a hard time with a few of the long diagonal lines.  I'll decide on the car ride if I rip them out, or just wash it and hope for the best :)  Batting is hobbs 80/20,  Fil Tec Invisible thread on the top, magna glide in the bobbin.

Hope every one has a wonderful Thanksgiving

Snow Day Sew Day

While I was looking at all this outside my sewing room,

I wish I like the snow enough to make snow people sitting in the chairs at the tables, that would be cute.   But I like it much more when I'm inside looking out over my sewing machine.

Yep that's right, first snow of the year was 15.5 inches!!

I was working on all this.  Gotta love snow days.  Finally finished my Half Hazard HST quilt.  Good for a teenage boy?  I think so, hope Ricky likes it.  The quilt pattern was a fairly dense pantograph which took some time. But with all that snow I wasn't going anywhere :)  Hobbs 80/20 batting, So Fine thread on top, magna glide bobbins, Pantograph is Angles by Kim Brunner.

Pantograph is Angles by Kim Brunner

Hobbs 80/20 batting, So Fine thread on top, magna glide in the bobbin

Check out the linky parties on the side bar

Tree of Life - Happy November

November already, my my where is the time going to quickly? I was very lucky to be able to quilt this beauty for Jeanne.  I love the colors and they seem so perfect for this time of year.  The pattern is Tree of Life by Edyta Sitar.  I do love her patterns.   We used 2 layers of batting on this, Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 on the bottom and Hobbs wool on top. This give such great texture to the trees and leaves. Bottom Line thread was used for the McTavishing. This is a 60wt thread, nice and light for the dense background quilting. Filtec Invisible thread (the best invisible thread I've ever used) for the stitch in the ditch. Glide thread on the tree trunks. Look closely at the one tree trunk, it's got Bill  <3 Jeanne on it, so fun writing little things in quilts.   Jeanne wanted her name quilted in one of the trees.  As soon as my daughter got home I showed her this quilt and told her about the quilting we had planned.  It was her idea with the tree, ran it past Jeanne and she loved the idea too.  Now that's whay I call team work. I love the McTavishing on nature quilts, I think it adds to the texture and movement to the quilt.  Like a gentle breeze blowing on a wonderful fall day.  Thanks so much for letting me quilt for you Jeanne.

This is why pictures are good, I see a couple of stitches on this little guys tail that need to be removed.

Can you see Bill <3 Jeanne in the tree?  My favorite part. 

couple of stitches on this sweet little things belly need to come off.  I love the colors of this one.

Each tree trunk has free motion bark quilting.  It really gives a lot of texture with the two layers of batting.

Tree of Life

The back, loved the label.  She used EQ for this, I'll definitely give that a try.

I do have something new  on the design wall.  I start Jinny Beyer's Moonglow.  Oh my goodness I'm in over my head with this one.  I did do a Jinny Beyer quilt about 10 years ago for a different nephew's wedding.  It was paper piecing and I love it.  So I was pretty excited about starting this.  But ......it's not really paper piecing, more like partial paper piecing and templates. I've already made a couple of modifications to the blocks.  Boy oh Boy, I gotta figure out what to do with this one.  It's a kit, so I have to be careful with fabrics if I change any blocks.  But I'm not sure I can finish with these, I just don't like doing them.  These blocks are anything but flat!!  I'm going to need some really fluffy batting to take care of the fullness, there is definitely going to have to be some creative quilting on this top!!  I've got 6 / 13 done.  I do a block and then let myself do something fun for a little while.  I got two blocks done this weekend.  If I keep up that pace, I'll be done in 6.5 weeks :)  I have 6 months to finish.  Wish me luck!!

See those circle center?  they aren't suppose to be circles, I gave up and made the modification.  The circle die that I have is just the right size for fusible!!

And here's how I treat myself.  I've got this modern fun quilt on the frame now.  I quilt a row, make a block, quilt a row, make a block......We'll see which gets done first!

HHST on the frame

Don't forget to check out the linky parties on the side bar, lots of inspiration out there.

Chevrons 3 different ways

Meg wanted a chevron quilt for baby shower gift.  So I decided to give her a couple of choices.  Colors are yellow and grey.  I had a little fun with these.  First up the basic chevron. All of these are 3.5 in HSTs, all have the same yellow fabric.  All have the same backing, I had all three loaded on the frame at one time.

Chevron Quilt #1 (catchy name right?)

The second is just an alternating chevron.  I tried this one with the scrappy greys and it was just way too much.  I settled it down a bit with the solid grey.

Chevron Quilt #2

The last one was a bit of fun with squares and different size chevrons.  What fun, I'll post the EQ7 project with all three next week some time.  

Chevron #3

The back is grey flannel (so soft) with the left over yellow strips and a couple of grey ones so that I had enough.  Love when I don't have to put scraps away :) Hobbs polydown batting.  Light and warm. Glide thread on top light grey and magna glide bobbins. Oh boy I'll have to go take a look the name of the pantograph  All are 42x48, which I think is a great size for babies, big enough to lay on the floor for tummy time.  So how many different ways have you made chevron quilts?

I also got to spend a little time with the grandsons, we had some fun with pumpkins and guacamole.

Hope everyone has great quilty week.  Check out the linky parties on the side bar for lots of inspiration.