Friday, February 27, 2015

cargo duffle

 I made a cargo duffle!  Pattern by Noodlehead and available here.

The map fabric is a printed linen from The Cloth House in London.  I bought it  while shopping  with my daughter last fall.   I love it. 

The inside is a Hobby Lobby canvas leftover from a few years ago.  I was only using it for thickness and had originally planned to make a lining.  But I like how it goes with the map and travel theme so I followed the pattern and just bound the edges.  I also added an inside divided pocket.  I like pockets! 

I took it one step at a time and took my time.  I'm so happy with this finish.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

boats! boats! boats!

Or in this case:  Ice Boats! Ice Boats! Ice Boats!

 
I started this in November at Camp Stitchalot.  I thought it would be fun to work on a simple pattern while meeting new friends and quilters.  It was!  The pattern is by Brenda from Just A Bit Frayed.  Her quilt and the pattern were featured by the Modern Quilt Guild last July.

Here are the blocks arranged on my design wall.  Did you notice what happened?  I sewed every block together backwards - in every row.  I didn't notice this till I was joining all the rows together.  (I'm blaming this on a terrible virus I've been fighting for over 2 weeks now.)  Solution:  the wind has changed direction in my quilt!  

Or, turn the quilt on it's side.

This was my first time using wool batting and I LOVE how puffy the quilt is.  Super cozy, too!  If you hold the quilt vertically, the quilting represents the water.  If you hold it horizontally, the wind.  Both ways it works.  Yay!  I had intended to quilt each sail with a different pattern but ultimately decided to leave them.  I like how they look full of wind. 


The sails are Handcrafted by Alison Glass (available here or here).
The background is Kona Ash (here). 
The back is Ripples by Barri J (here).

This last photo was taken on the shore of Lake Michigan.  Almost 100 miles across to Wisconsin at this point.  It's a rare day that the wind is almost non existent.  It made the  -9 degrees F temperature feel like, well, -9.  Brrr!  A cold, beautiful, and fun day for a quilt photo shoot.


 

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

wee wander

I started quilting two years ago hoping that when my daughters and their friends started having babies I'd be decent enough at it to offer quilts at baby showers. This past weekend was the first...YAY!  

When I first saw Amy Smart's Wee Wander panel quilt I ordered the fabric.  Someday I would make this quilt.  While the prints aren't necessarily "baby" they are definitely "little girl" and this little one will grow quickly.

I altered Amy's pattern to enlarge the patchwork around the panel. This fabric is just too perfect to not fussy cut some of the scenes.  Like that girl hanging onto the horse's neck, the deer, and I had to leave one birch tree whole.  Baby quilts need some "I spy"!  

My plan was to quilt the patchwork with straight lines and just do the swirls on the panel.  But that didn't work so I unquilted - the whole thing - and quilted it again.  I'm getting lots of practice and more comfortable with my swirling...and my seam ripper!

 The back is a single piece from this super soft collection.


I struggled with lighting in these photos.  The bright snow and shadows are challenging me.  (As are the frigid temperatures!)  The way the shadows work here I can almost see the Northern Lights flickering in the sky.  Anyone else?

My daughters and I spent LOTS of time with this new mama and her mama and sisters.  We share lots of memories of summer and winter adventures wandering throughout Michigan's spectacular peninsulas.  (Our springs and falls were all about soccer - if you know what I mean.)  This post wouldn't be complete without sharing one of those days...
We weren't wee, but we were wandering - and resting on one of seven bridges in a Northern Michigan forest. 

Linking up this week with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday.