michael miller challenge

About one month before Sewtopia, the Michael Miller fabric company sent each of the participants 6 fat quarters.  We each received the same fabrics and were given a challenge to make something, anything, with them.  The only rule was any fabric added must be a Michael Miller fabric.  I made a quilt.

Inspired by Lee Heinrich's Sugar Snow Quilt from Vintage Quilt Revival (page 63) I made various sizes of flying geese and put them into "Migration Remix" blocks (from Love Patchwork and Quilting, issue 11).  The remaining geese I sewed into rows.

I worked with graph paper to arrange the blocks into a 60 x 72 inch grid.  And then the fun began! 

I quilted this over about 3 days with lots of thread (Aurifil 2021) and had a blast.  Not perfection...just fun!

I used a bit of each of the challenge fabrics in the otherwise white binding.  I sewed a Michael Miller selvage, along with my label, into the binding.  I used cotton batting from Pellon because they were a sponsor of Sewtopia.  It drapes beautifully and I will use it again.

I'm calling this quilt Making Friends for two reasons:  

• First - the obvious - I made lots of new friends at Sewtopia.  
• Second - after 15 months I have finally made friends with my Handiquilter!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday.  Have a great weekend!
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sewtopia

It's Thursday and I'm finally catching up from the most amazing weekend.  I am so pleased that I was able to attend Sewtopia in Chicago.  Registration was last August and signing up was similar to that of a popular marathon.  Set your alarm so you remember to be at your computer when it opens.  Then type as fast as you can and hit enter.  It took me about 20 minutes but I got in!  

We started Thursday with a shop hop in and around Chicago.  Here is our leader and one of the organizers of the weekend, Amy Newbold.  She has got it goin' on! 

My favorite stop was The Needle Shop in Arlington Heights.  This sweet little shop reminded me so much of The Cloth House in London.  Really beautiful displays, fabrics, trims and notions.  Can you see all the tiny drawers in the counter?  They were full of all sorts of unique buttons.  We had fun opening many of them. 

Can you believe I'm shopping with Latifah Saafir? 

Can you believe I'm in class with Rita Hodge? (She used my pins to show us how she bastes her quilts!!!)

I conquered curves with Latifah and Y-seams with Rita.  I'll share more about these projects as I finish them.

  

Not only did I get to take classes from Rita and Latifah, but also in class with me were the first bloggers I ever followed.  These women introduced me to modern/fresh quilting and it was so exciting to meet them.  Here are Lee, Faith, and Angela catching up after a long day.  

I took their books and got autographs!  

So many "sewlebrities" this weekend.  Everyone delightful.  This is one amazing community and I'm so happy to be part of it. 

Thumbs up to:
Bernina USA for supplying us with very nice sewing machines and 3 helpful reps.
The Drake for beautiful accommodations.
Mega Bus for clean, timely, and affordable travel.

 

elephant parade

I really enjoy online quilt alongs.  The #ElephantParadeQAL has been no exception. 
The free pattern is by Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts and available here. 

My elephants turned out to be quite bashful.  It seems they do not like to be photographed!  I have been trying almost two weeks now but just can't seem to capture how cute this quilt is.  

We tried parading down the street but it's been just a bit too dark - even with daylight savings time.

I was hoping to parade through a neighbor's naturalized crocus patch but it just won't warm up enough for them to open.

Oh well.  Here a few close-ups of the darling participants.

I used some favorite prints from favorite designers including:

• Flea Market Fancy Eyelet by Denyse Schmidt
• Squared Elements from Art Gallery
• Crosshatch by Carolyn Friedlander
• Dottie from Cotton & Steel
• Bike Path by Alison Glass
• And my first ever cut into Liberty Tana Lawn for those pretty blue flowers.

The back is a large piece of Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt.  With an extra strip of Dottie just to break things up (and hide the seam!)

The white background is Plank from the new Doe line by Carolyn Friedlander.  I'm sorry you can't see it in the photos.  I tried to quilt this with long narrow planks to match.  It turned out looking more like a mosaic but I like it.

Marching out of March into (hopefully) warm spring showers...Left.  Left.  Left, right, left...
 
Linking up with others at Sew Fresh Quilts.  Thanks for hosting all the fun, Lorna!  
And thanks to Sandy at Upstairs Hobby Room for bring this quilt along to my attention.

Editing to add a  Finish it up Friday link with Crazy Mom Quilts.

totem

 I made a Totem baby quilt!

I've mentioned before that I had the pleasure of meeting Carolyn Friedlander last fall.  Prior to Camp Stitchalot I attended her trunk show at Pink Castle Fabrics.  I've always admired Carolyn's work and seeing it in person was amazing.  When she shared her Totem quilt I knew I had to make it.  I bought (and she signed!) the pattern that night.

It's a paper pieced pattern and very straight forward.  I had planned to add other colors and made several other blocks but this first quilt just begged to be orange!  So I obliged.

The side panels are from Carolyn's Botanics line.  Those tigers are Cotton and Steel.  I copied Carolyn with the quilting - well I tried to.  I think this is the first time I did not unpick one quilting stitch.  It's far from perfection but I love it!

The back is unbelievably soft Shannon cuddle fabric in teal.  I just love how the quilting looks on the back, too. 
 And with the leftover blocks you can be sure there are more Totem quilts to come...

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.

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.


 

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.