Friday, May 17, 2019

trinkets


I've been participating in an online sew along and making "trinkets" using the Trinket pattern by Alison Glass.

These trinket blocks are paper pieced.  I made a few ahead of time because it's been awhile since I did any paper piecing.  They go together quickly and are a little addicting. 😉 By the time I was making the 5th or 6th block I realized my trinkets were reminding me of being at our camp in Northern Michigan.  So that was my focus for this quilt - things I love up north!  I posted my blocks each day on Instagram using #rsftrinkets.  In each post I describe how I relate the block to something up north, occasionally including a photo of the trinket in real life.


We were allowed to change up how we sewed the pattern pieces.    Do you see here how I turned this clover into a pontoon boat?  I took the same pieces of the block but sewed them together inside-out.


We were encouraged to arrange our trinkets any way we wish.  To participate in the prizes we needed to include at least one of each of the 40 trinkets from the pattern in our quilt.  I opted to repeat a few and ultimately made 56.  I sewed them into simple rows but offset my rows to change things up a bit



My quilt finishes at 50"x57".  I found this fabric with sunglasses at Ikea.  It's extra wide (59") so it was an easy backing choice.  Don't the colors go perfectly with the trinkets on the front?  


The binding is from my stash, black with colorful stripes, that show much better in real life. 


Can you find the bald eagle?  Or my favorite, the torch?  The last trinket in the bottom row above represents the lighthouse in Charlevoix where we had our most fun, and dangerous, and windy, and cold photo shoot ever with my Beacon/lighthouse block quilt.


We returned there to repeat the photo with this quilt.  The trinkets are too small to see here - oh well.  It was a beautiful sunny day with no wind - the exact opposite of that first time.





It's pretty with Lake Michigan in the background!

The bright sunshine makes it challenging to photograph a colorful quilt with a white background.  But we are happy for the sunshine and hope you're enjoying some this week as well.

Thanks for stopping by.




Sunday, May 5, 2019

a buzzy bizzy kid

I'm trying to finish up some long time works in progress this year so I've set a goal to not start something new till I've finished up something old.  
I made this Bizzy Kid quilt top at least 4 years ago.  It's been hanging in the closet ever since.  My grandchildren are growing and we're needing more than baby quilts now so it was time to finish this up.

The pattern is by Cluck Cluck Sew and still available in print or pdf form.  The solids are a mix of Kona and Moda.  The print fabrics are from the Bug a Boo line by Adorn It.  Hard to find now but aren't these bugs cute?   I made this as a new quilter and didn't really understand fussy cutting.  I would cut these guys differently now but it still works. 

I've learned a lot about pressing over the years, too.  I spend about 2 hours removing loose threads and re-pressing seams before quilting this.

The quilting is free motion jagged lines.  I think it looks like how bugs fly around, zipping here, zipping there.

Quilter's Dream wool batting  and a stripped single-fold binding that matches the backing.

Well, most of the backing.  I added a few columns of blocks for more width.  This quilt finishes at 48" x 60"!  A perfect size for Bizzy Kids!

We were looking for a cool bug in the woods but instead found this guy playing peek-a-boo! 

I hope you're finding fun things to keep bizzy with this week.  Thanks for stopping by.