Sunday, May 20, 2018

Which Fabric Pull Do You Like Best?

Yes, I am supposed to be finishing Ashley's quilt and I will!  But I figured I had time to fit in a baby size mystery QAL hosted by Tish of Tish's Adventures in Wonderland.  (she also has a lap size option)  It's called Fireburst Mystery

The instructions will be shared once a month so I figured I'd have plenty of time to work on both.  Since I don't have enough of any one fabric to make the larger size, and I'm trying to use up what I already have, I will be making a baby quilt.  My colors are not babyish at all so maybe I should rethink this plan.  (brief pause to think)   Nah, I'm betting there are some mom's out there that like non-traditional colors so I'm going for it!

The dark purplish blue color is the background so it will be the color showing the most.  And yes, those stars on the turquoise fabric in option #2 are shiny!

Please vote! 

Option 1

Option 2

OR . . . would you switch them around.  Currently the yellow is fabric #4 which will be the one with the least amount.  Should I switch it and have more yellow and less of something else?  Help me decide!  I wanna start cutting!



  
Linking to:
Main Crush Monday
Monday Making
Moving it Forward

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Continuing Quilting Adventure

This week I tried three new quilting motifs on my daughter's quilt.  Come see!

I love watching Craftsy classes about free motion quilting and, of course, all the videos I can find on Youtube as well.  One of the things I learned is when you can't decide what to quilt, let the fabric tell you what to do.  So for this first motif, that is exactly what I did!  Here is the fabric without quilting.

I decided to just follow the squiggles and quilt on either side of them.  I chose to use coral thread on the top and as I mentioned last time, the bobbin thread is always going to be periwinkle.  So here is what it looks like afterwards.  I'm a little shaky about staying on the line but mostly because I went too fast.  If I had slowed down a bit I'd probably have been more accurate.

And here is the back . . .

I did the same thing with the next fabric.  I followed the outlines on each circle, so basically, really large pebbles.

I thought about doing spokes on each of the circles like this with a little swirl in the center but didn't really like how it looked.  My first try was messy so I didn't want to keep doing them.  I continued on just doing the outside of the circles.


Back side  .  .  .

Next up I wanted to try the motif taught by Angela Walters in her Craftsy Class  called Borders and Backgrounds.  This motif is called Wavy Wavy.  Here is her sample from the video . . . very beginner friendly

The next fabric I chose to quilt is this coral color.  Coral thread on top, periwinkle in the bobbin. 

One thing I learned from this fabric is that when the thread matches exactly, it is really hard to quilt with because it's very hard to see.  I couldn't see where I had already quilted and had to resort to turning off the lights and trying to have some light shining from the side in order to see the places I had been.  I think in the future, I will probably use a more neutral colored thread when there are multiple colors involved.  I will also NOT use polyester batting like I did this time.  I just doesn't seem to give the quilting as much texture and feels flat to me.



Another thing I am learning is to have a better plan for the path I am going to take.  I had to do a lot of back tracking and when you don't follow the original path exactly, it doesn't look very good on the back.  Either that, or stop and cut the thread more often.

I am looking forward to the rest of the fabrics because it will be much easier to see what I am doing and I am going to try some motif's that are perhaps a little more challenging.

I sewed another 2018 Rainbow Scrap Challenge block this week.  The color is pink this month and I added a pink Migrating Geese block to my collection!

Here are all my Migrating Geese blocks that I have collected so far . . .
I think the pink one kind of sticks out a bit.  It needs some red and red violet to blend it in better.  We'll see what the future RSC colors turn out to be!

Great big THANK YOU'S to those of you who are have sent and are sending me fabrics with black backgrounds for an ongoing project I am working on.  It will be fun to see what comes in my mailbox!

I am seeing so many fun Quilt Alongs lately that I can't make up my mind which ones I want to do.  For now, I think I'll keep plugging away on my UFO's.  Ashley's quilt is getting closer to a finish and I'm excited to actually have another finish.

What QAL's are you jumping on board with?

Linking to:


Monday, May 14, 2018

Quilting Ashley's Quilt

Let me share with you the adventure of the periwinkle quilt!  Sometimes we just have the urge to want to own pretty fabric when we see it.  We don't know what we'll do with it but we know it will make something pretty someday.  So this purchase was the result of an urge like that.


When I showed my daughter my newfound acquisition, she REALLY liked it (her current favorite color is periwinkle).  So I said I'd make her a quilt using it.  Of course, that meant going back to the store for more fabric.  (Oh darn)

I chose to use the pattern called 
The Betty Quilt by Erica Jackman at Kitchen Table Quilting

Here's an in progress shot . . . 

And here's the finished top before trimming. 

My plan is to quilt each fabric in a different quilting motif and stitch in the ditch around every piece so the back will still kind of retain that woven look the front has.  I still consider myself a newbie when it comes to free motion quilting.  It takes me so long just to get a quilt to finished that I forget all the fmq practicing I have done and have to learn all over again!  So I do some practicing on scrap fabrics before I do it on the quilt.   The first color I quilted was the periwinkle polka dot.  I attempted using the pattern taught by Angela Walters on YouTube called The Incredible Swirl . 

  My swirls don't look anything like hers, and I can see every little thing I did wrong, but you know what?  It doesn't matter at all.  Ashley loves it!  

And here is what it looks like on the back.

The next strip I quilted was one of the lighter colored one and I decided to keep it simple with that one.  All I did was quilt diagonal straight lines following the pattern on the fabric as a guide.  I thought about going back and doing diagonals in the other direction to create a grid, but I kind of like this look.


Next up is the coral polka dot.   I decided to try a pattern from Lori Kennedy at the Inbox Jaunt.  This is from her Craftsy video entitled Creative Free Motion Techniques From Doodle to Design.   This particular motif is called Faye's Flower.  

The coral thread I chose matches so perfectly it's kind of hard to see the design.  Oh, by the way, I decided to always use periwinkle thread on the bobbin and whatever thread matches best on the fabric strip I'm working on for the top.  I see a few problems with that method when my tension isn't just right but I keep a close eye on my tension and adjust it if I see thread showing through from the other side. 

Here is what Faye's Flower looks like on the back . . .

So that is my quilting adventure so far with Ashley's quilt.  Stay tuned for further episodes!   I'm looking for some new motif's to try out  What are your favorites?  

This week I also "baked a cake" for Velda who is the queen bee for the Stash Bee I belong to.  Here is Velda's Strawberry Shortcake!  Yum!!

Also, this month's color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is pink and rose.  So here is my first block to meet that challenge.  Cute house block is a free Craftsy pattern designed by Sandra at Mmm! Quilts!


And my collection of houses so far . . .

And last but not least, I started another project to help use up my scraps but after I got into it, I realized that I really didn't have as many of the type of scraps I need as I thought I did.  Phooey!  But since the whole point was to use up my stash, I refuse to go out and buy fabric for this project.  That is where you come in!  I am hoping I can do a scrap trade with some of you.  I promise I will send you back as much or MORE than you send me.  

What are you collecting?  

I am looking for anything with a black or dark navy background.  

Here's a picture of a pile of my scraps so far.  I'm needing strings that are at least 5 inches long and width from 1 to 2 1/2 inches.  They can be much longer than that but the minimum is 5.  So what do you say?  Anybody out there wanna do some trading?  I'm in the market!  
Linking to: