Love Quilt

I know it's practically heresy to say but I'm not a huge Amy Butler fan.  I'm sure she's a lovely person and she's definitely been a major influence in the quilting renaissance but her fabric lines never really speak to me.  So that explains why last year I won a Love charm pack.  Since I've been trying to pull stuff from my stash I decided to step out of my comfort zone and use this up. 

My design is based on brick path.  The charm pack only had 30 charms so I stole some Midwest Modern scraps from my daughter (who oddly enough is a huge Amy Butler fan) and added those in with FreeSpirit Designer Solids in Gray for the sashing.  I thought it needed a wide border and pieced the backing.  Looks like more basting in my future but thankfully this one small enough to table baste: )

Valentine Friendship Bag

Valentine Friendship Bag
Originally uploaded by alidiza

Another project with leftover L'Amour scraps. Based on Rachel's friendship bag tutorial with some added ric-rac and raw edge applique.

In the nick of time...

I put the last stiches in the binding of this 30 minutes before guests arrived for our Valentine's party.  I started this last February so I'm so glad to have it finished.  Not sure why I agonized over it so much.  All that it needed was some quilting in the corners.  I finally came up with a loopy heart doodle and after lots of practice went for it.  It came out quite nicely but on the dark brown print it hardly shows.  Of course half-way through the 3rd corner I ran out of thread so that required yet another trip to my LQS.  Lucky for me it's only 7 minutes from home so my emergency quilting supply runs aren't a big deal: )

Turn around

So after lots of agonizing I finished this quilt and it's destined for the auction after all.  I ended up doing some outline stitching around the feathers on the two outer edges.  I fudged it a bit, one side has more rows and they are a bit further apart than the other, so in the end it came out looking fairly balanced.  I added a striped binding and just need to get a label on it and it will be ready to go.  As far as learning experiences go it was pretty painful but it reinforces something I've known for awhile, I should be thinking about the quilting from the begining.  Possibly why I have 14 quilts in my TBQ (to be quilted) pile!

Tick tock

I can just feel Valentine's Day creeping up on me.  I'd totally hate Valentine's day!  I think it's a holiday invited by Kleenex to push product.  It's only saving grace is that it's a holiday devoted to pink, and pink is my color.  Somehow I have not one, but two Valentine WIPs lingering from last year.

The first is an original design using a charm pack, raw edge applique, and ric-rac... all my favorite things in one place.  I was loving this until I got to the quilting.  I've quilted the center but it's been sitting since last February and I still haven't figured out what to do with the corners.

Then I got a Lil Twister template and thought my leftover charms would be a good trial.  This is such a cool technique but it's a true leap of faith to start cutting apart and re-sewing a perfectly fine charm quilt you've made.  Again, I quilted the center but got stuck on those borders.  I tried quilting the borders with scallops but wasn't happy with my quilting and ended up "un-sewing" them.  My machine quilting has improved since then so maybe I'll try it again.  I really want to finish at least one of them so I have something to decorate my entry with and more importantly so I can justify buying this: )

Ready to Quilt

Zippers pinned on for the longarm.

Again with the Nicey Jane

It feels a bit odd to be back in my studio after a month of no quilting.  I had a couple of things left that needed finished off but while those are coming together I'm starting to imagine my next project(s).  Like a lot of you, this year I want to focus on thinning my stash or at least using some of the fabric collections I absolutely had to have.  I'm itching to cut into a Sunkissed layer cake but I've also got some lovely piles of Verna, Neptune, Aviary, Mendocino, Martinique... lying around my studio.  What I'm lacking at the moment are ideas and for me the best way to generate ideas is to just start sew something.  Back to the Nicey Jane stash box I went and came up with this.  It was mostly designed to fit a batting remnant I had that was the perfect size for a baby quilt.  I've got it basted and will just add some straight line quilting to finish it up.