The Name Game

Just popping in to let you know I'm featured on The Name Game sponsored by my dear friend Cindy over at Live A Colorful Life.

I first 'met' Cindy online through our blogs. Then she invited me to become part of a new online bee she was starting. The bee is called Mid Century Modern and we're in our 4th year together. This bee has brought me absolutely wonderful online friendships, and, thanks to QuiltCon, real life friendships as well. Cindy and I were QuiltCon roomies in 2015 and had a blast together.

Pop on over to Cindy's Name Game and learn a little more about me and my blog name. And while you're there, check out Cindy's blog too. She had three quilts in the QuiltCon 2016 show!! And she was featured just last week on @52Quilters on Instagram. If you don't know her you really should. @liveacolorfullife on Instagram.

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Cascade Amy Butler Style

My newest finish . . . Tequila Sunrise.

I've been wanting to make a new quilt with my Cascade pattern and when these lovely, mostly Amy Butler, fabrics found their way to the top of my stash it was time. After months of winter drab, some intense color therapy was definitely in order. Think tropical sunsets or desert blooms.

In the beginning, I pulled several fabrics for consideration. Some are Kaffe Fassett. There's also some Tula Pink and Valorie Wells. But mostly it's Amy Butler prints from her Bright Heart and Soul Blossoms collections. While not all are from the same fabric line or designer, they are mostly from the same manufacturer so the coloring works quite well together.

To start, I auditioned the fabrics on my design wall to determine which ones worked. I eliminated the far left top row as too white, the 4th and 5th from the right in the middle row because they had too much green/blue and the far right bottom row plus the big floral hanging down lower. Leo was a great help in the selection process. He really knows his colors.

Once the final palette was chosen, the cutting got underway. I just love to see the pile of trimmings build up. Even though none of this is really useable I still have trouble throwing them away. I've been known to throw trimmings like these into glass jars just for the color. Now I toss them in a bag to be used later for pet bed stuffing. What can I say? It's hard to let go . . .

With the pieces cut, the next step was figuring out the arrangement of prints. I started by nailing down the large square arrangement on my design wall. I ended up placing the cool colors in somewhat of a value sequence from dark to light. The colors are so intense and saturated there isn't a great deal of value change so it's mostly a contrast of color rather than value. After the large square positions are determined, I placed the small squares that form the triangles by folding them over on the diagonal.

Piecing the top went quickly once my design decisions were made. That's one of the things I love about the Cascade pattern . . . it goes together fast. All the seams nest so the alignment is easy too.

Basting isn't my favorite thing to do. Usually I clean the floor, then spread it all out and baste on my hands and knees. Talk about sore knees and lower back!  So this time I used my folding craft table. I could only do part of it at a time and was a little worried the back might not be smooth enough but it all worked perfectly. I can't see doing a very big quilt this way but for quilts up to about 60" wide it works fine. And to think I nearly sold this table because I wasn't using it. Whew . . . glad I didn't. It's coming in handy for a lot of things. And my back is happy.

I quilted wandering wavy lines from top to bottom. The back is pieced with a row of blocks and I needed to make sure these were as straight as possible to the quilt front when I basted the layers. I think it turned out pretty darn good.

Finishing up wasn't without a small glitch. I managed to twist the binding when I sewed the ends together. It wasn't the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last time I make this mistake. Bet you've done that one at least once too. At least it's an easy fix.

I usually hand stitch my bindings but this time I used the machine binding method where you sew the binding to the back (instead of the front) and then fold it over to the front and top stitch it down. I like this machine method because I can see how the stitching lines up along the binding. It's not without it's problems though. For one, the binding is just never as straight as my hand stitched binding are. For another, I don't love how the stitching shows on the front. But it's better than when I stitch in the ditch and blindly try (hope) to catch the binding on the back. That method never works well for me. I'll keep trying and experimenting with my stitching alignment and maybe I'll get better and it will look nicer. I used aqua thread on top to match the binding and orange in the bobbin to make the backing. Worked fairly well. Do you have a preferred machine binding technique?

I tossed it on my studio chair last night after finishing the binding and first thing this morning a certain fuzzy girl found her way underneath. Isn't she sweet?

If you're interested in Cascade you can find it on Craftsy and in my Etsy shop.

Linking up with NTT at My Quilt Infatuation.

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Sharing My Greens

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  

It seems like a great day to share my greens. Green has been my favorite color for quite awhile. In my house. In my clothes. In my quilting.

I've been thinking about pulling my greens and making a really saturated all green quilt. Maybe using little bits of just about everything I have. Super scrappy and improv.

I've also been toying with a green Kaffe quilt. Who knows where or when these ideas might take shape but it's fun playing around with them.

It might also be time to finally get this green beauty quilted. It's been hanging with the other finished tops for way too long. Hate to admit that far too many of my quilts end up hanging in my cabinet awaiting completion.

Lastly my green checkerboard went off to be quilted this week. I don't have a photo of the finished top but you can get the idea here. It will soon be finished and on my bed. WaHoo!  I'll share finished photos once it's all done.

While you're in a green state of mind jump over to my green color post for even more green inspiration. And while you're at it visit all the other color inspiration posts here.

Hope you enjoyed a little green in your world today. I'll be enjoying a green beer or two tonight. Cheers!    : )

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Small Projects: Pixie Basket

I made a Pixie Basket!

You've probably been seeing these pop up on Instagram and other blogs. They are everywhere and now I know why. They're just so darn cute.

I used this tutorial by Heidi of Fabric Mutt. It went together quickly and is the perfect size to hold wonder clips. I have all 50+ of mine in there and it could still hold a few more. It's also a nice size for mini charm packets, spools of thread, and chocolate. Hmmm . . .  definitely dark chocolate. I made mine as a gift for the founder and outgoing president of the Boulder Modern Quilt Guild.

There will definitely be more of this sewing cuteness in my future. I need to make some just for myself and that dark chocolate.   : )

Have you made a pixie basket? If not you really should. They're just too too cute.

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Quilty Randomness

I'm still here. Still sewing. You just wouldn't know it by my lack of blog posts lately. Today I just want to catch up a little with what I'm making.

Right now I'm playing with this group of mostly Amy Butler fabrics. I've had them pulled aside for awhile and am so happy to finally be cutting into them. Aren't they luscious?

Here is what's taking shape on my design wall . . . a new variation of my Cascade pattern. Hopefully I'll be ready to sew it together this weekend at our guild sew day.

Yesterday I sent this wall hanging off to my longarm quilter. The queen size quilt is also finished as is the massive pieced back. You can read more about that here. Don't think I'll piece a back that big again anytime soon. It felt like making an entire second queen sized quilt. ugg. It will be sent off for quilting soon too. I'll post about both quilts when they are completed.

I've also been making bee blocks. In January these beautiful blue blocks were made for Elizabeth/OPQuilt. I can't show the entire block because she's creating a pattern from the design. It will be very graphic and bold.

This week I finished up February's blocks for Cindy/LiveAColorfulLife. She's making a sweet quilt for her newest granddaughter Ella. My stash doesn't contain much novelty fabric for kids so I bought this cute panel fabric. The images were a bit too big for the block size but with some careful cropping I think I managed to make it work. The pattern is Books for Baby found in Patchwork Please by Ayumi Takahashi. It's a really cute pattern.

That's about it for now. Lots of plans . . . not enough time.
Hope all your sewing plans are moving forward.

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Quilty Goodness

I didn't go to QuiltCon this year. Didn't get the chance to be there in person for the quilty good news . .

The Denver Metro Modern Quilt Guild, Twisted Sisters, won an award at QuiltCon.
We took third place in the group category. WaHoo!!! Way to go DMMQG!

Twisted Sisters plays off the game Twister with several members, myself included, making circle blocks. A huge credit goes to Stephanie Ruyle @spontaneousthreads, Christina Perrigo @ccpquilt, and Wendy Bermingham @wendybzquilting for the inspiration and a great finish. Thanks to them we had an amazing quilt. Thank you ladies!!!  Well done.

I know you've probably seen this one already but I wanted to share it here on my blog too. This is my quilty journal after all. My place for recording what I'm making. You can see all the winning entries here.

Did you go to QuiltCon? If so, what were your impressions? I'm planning on Savannah next February. Hope to see you there.

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Pieced Quilt Backings

Do you like a pieced quilt backing? I think some of them are absolutely amazing. They can easily rival the front for attention.

As a matter of fact, my friend Cindy of Live a Colorful Life used the leftovers from the quilt (below right) to make the fabulous quilt back (below left). You can see this graphic quilt at QuiltCon 2016 if you're going. She entered the back. Isn't that great?

I have seldom made a pieced back. Once I've gotten to the finishing stage, (sadly something that doesn't happen often enough) I'm usually ready for the quickest, easiest back possible. Sometimes even piecing a couple of widths of fabric can seem like pain. In my humble opinion, wide quilt back fabrics that don't need any piecing at all are a wonderful quilting invention.

With my two leafy green checkerboard tops nearly finished, I started looking for backing fabrics. I have a large enough piece of fabric for the smaller wall hanging, but nothing big enough for the queen sized bed quilt. So I searched a lot of online shops looking for just the right backing. I admit to being pretty darn picky about my backing fabrics. It has to continue the look of the front in terms of both coloring and feel. And of course the price needs to be right too. Backing a quilt can be a costly addition to the overall project.

Then I reminded myself of my 2016 goal to use my stash. I didn't really think I had enough green leaf prints leftover to back both quilts but figured it was worth a try. I also had some extra blocks leftover that could be used.

The big question was how to determine if I had enough fabric. The first thing I did was to get out all the large pieces of leftover leafy fabrics, then I measured them and put them on my design wall. Next I turned to the computer.

Graph paper would work just as well, but more and more now I use the computer. It's quick and easy to try different options without redrawing everything. I drew up basic shapes in the size of my fabric chunks and played around with layouts. Here's a few of the arrangements.

 

Working with the chunks, I realized I actually did have enough fabric to back both quilts. And the more I played the more excited I got about the back of the bed quilt having a design of it's own. The idea that I can flip the quilt over for a second look is quite appealing. That idea led to a more designed look for the back like this drawing below.

Today, I started cutting the pieces. The only thing I hadn't considered was the amount of white I'd need. More than I thought, so I did have to buy a little more white on white print from my local shop. But buying 1 yard is way better than buying multiple yards for the entire backing.

I'm going with the layout you see below. It uses up all the extra blocks and most of the large chunks with enough leftover for the wall quilt. The wall quilt will also be pieced but more simply with four big chunks.

I feels so good to know I'm using my stash and saving money in the process. I'll be sending these two quilts to a longarmer, so money saved on backing just means more put toward the quilting. I like that!

I also like visits from my helper. Now if only she would actually do more than sit on whatever I'm working on. I think she knows her eyes match the quilt.

Do you like pieced quilts backs? Have you ever done one? Craftsy has a good class by Elizabeth Hartman called Creative Quilt Backs just in case you'd like to learn more. She walks you through different ways you can approach piecing your backing and best of all it's free.

Thanks for stopping by. I'm linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday.

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