Tuesday, April 29, 2014

triangles

Have you noticed along the right side bar that I've been adding some "badges"?  This month I have been participating the Triangle Quilt Along hosted by The Sassy Quilter.  
 
Yay!  I finished on time!  Actually, it was very well organized and there was plenty of time to complete the quilt if you stayed on schedule.


The first week we had to link up with a picture of our triangles all cut up.  I chose a red/black/gray theme.  I have been building my fabric stash for a year now and these were all in my cabinet.  (The black is from Studio e - the company that hosted the challenge and picked me as a finalist.  If you missed that post you can read it here.)  
12 rows of 17= 204 triangles!


The second week we arranged our triangles and sewed them into rows.  Look how much the rows shrunk!


Triangles stretch easily.  I starched everything very well before I began and didn't want to move them around too much.  This is the picture of all the finished rows that I submitted at the end of the week.


The third week we sewed the rows together and linked up pictures of our finished tops.  There are a few perfect points in there...the rest are close enough!
 
She allowed us two weeks for finishing.  I quilted this with an all-over meander.  It turned out to be a challenge for my eyes to not follow the lines of the triangles or the fabric patterns. 
 

All washed and crinkly - just the way I like it :)

I got lots of very nice feedback from others participating in the quilt along by posting my photos on Flickr and Instagram.  It's been really fun sharing the process.  There are definitely more quilt alongs in my future!

Monday, April 21, 2014

4 K8

This is my first "jelly roll race" quilt.  Jelly rolls contain an entire fabric line all cut in 2 1/2 inch strips and rolled up nice and neat.  This one is made from the 2wenty thr3e collection by Eric and Julie Comstock. 


First you sew each strip together on the short side so you have one 2 1/2 inch x 1600 inch strip of fabric!  Then you match the ends and start sewing it together down the looong edge.  When you reach the end you cut it and do it again.  There is a very cute video/tutorial of it here.


The back is made of bigger pieces from the same collection.  I quilted this with meandering rectangles.  I really love how crinkly and soft it gets after washing.


This is my first attempt at using my sewing machine for the binding.  I used the blanket stitch.  There is room for improvement here but it's not too bad.  It will be lots stronger than hand stitching. 

 
 I met a very sweet (and fearless!) girl last summer.  K8, this one's 4U!

Monday, April 7, 2014

beacon

When I saw this quilt posted last fall by Fresh Lemons Quilts I fell in love.  When I heard it would be a quilt-a-long I immediately wanted in.  I live in Michigan and lighthouses circumference our state.  I knew I wanted this to hang on our wall and wanted really nice solids for it.  I did not find anything I liked in time to participate in the official QAL.   However, in February I discovered peppered cottons while shopping at Pink Castle Fabrics and knew instantly I would use them to make my lighthouse quilt.  As I was paying I was told about a contest sponsored by the manufacturer, Studio e Fabrics.  It was not a quilting competition but a challenge to use the fabric creatively.  They would pick 10 finalists on March 31st.  Based on the amounts of fabric I had here is what I came up with:



Do you like it?  They did!!!  And now it is off on an adventure to South Carolina for further consideration and judging.  Here are all the entries.  I'm not sure which of the others they selected.   
I am so very excited to share this but before sending it off I wanted one picture at a lighthouse so this weekend we visited Charlevoix. 
 
To set the scene it was about 25 degrees and the wind was blowing fiercely across a frozen Lake Michigan.  (April 5th!)


My husband was holding the quilt like a flag here while I was snapping pictures with frozen fingers.  I was very concerned that he would lose his grip and the quilt would fly away.


Here I am fearing for his life...though not stopping him...it is a great picture after all.  I actually think he was happier at the top of those stairs because it got him out of the wind for a bit.  Plus, I told him he just might win the "quilt holder of the year" contest!!!

When the quilt returns home I'm thinking we'll take it on a circle tour of Michigan's spectacular peninsulas and lighthouses!!!