Positively Quilting

So the story goes, (or at least as well as I remember it) the first time John Lennon met Yoko Ono is when he showed up at her art gallery. In the middle of one room there was a ladder, and hanging from the ceiling was a magnifying glass. John climbed up the ladder and grabbed the magnifying glass, and when he looked through it he saw on the ceiling, in tiny letters, the printed word "Yes". And that impressed him. One simple positive word stirred a feeling in him, which started an attraction, which created a romance, and then ultimately resulted in the Beatles' demise...but maybe I shouldn't mention that right now, for the sake of this story:) 

The plus sign is the symbol for "yes" and expresses certainty, and lately I've been crazy about quilts with plus signs on them. Maybe my Word of the Year should be "positive".  It's so easy to catch yourself saying "this is just my luck" when something bad happens, or anticipating the worst possible outcome of a situation before anything has developed. Do you ever find that you can't sleep because you're worrying about  something that "could" possibly go wrong?  So maybe if we surround ourselves with "positive-ity" (or wrap ourselves up in a quilt with plus signs) we will sleep better, and won't have to take daily medications for our heartburn that is triggered by key words like "family reunion" because you are immediately imagining the crock-pot casserole that is probably going to get thrown at someone's head over a game of monopoly.  We really can't be sure what this year's family reunion will bring, so why worry about it? Maybe this is the year that everyone will get along and sing Kum-ba-ya...but anyway, back to quilting...

My plus sign obsession kind-of started with Danielle Burkleo, of Take Heart Designs. She is the amazing graphic artist behind this blog design.  I gave her an idea of what I liked and she did the rest. I was actually pretty amazed how quickly she came up with something that I loved 100%, especially since her and I have such different tastes. She's completely modern and trendy, and probably doesn't have to call her sisters to ask what people are wearing nowadays.

After she designed the blog, she contacted me and asked if I could make her two twin-size quilts for her boys' rooms. And of course I said yes. She knew exactly what she wanted and I just followed orders:) She even chose the black-and-white striped binding. To know what size I needed I quickly drew it up in the Threadbias design tool.

The quilts are entirely made of 12 1/2" x 4 1/2" rectangles and 4 1/2" squares. Each plus sign block is 12" and the quilt finished at around 68" x 90".

The quilts were a breeze to piece, but I the quilting took longer than anticipated because I basted and quilted each line of the diagonal criss-cross pattern individually. The tiny threads from the black kept somehow escaping from underneath the plus signs and showing through the white fabric. So I took the very long route of trimming the back-side of each plus sign, basting a row, and quilting one line-at-a-time, to ensure that there was no possibility of any random threads making an appearance.

Even though the black and white is a little too contemporary for me, it hasn't stopped me from obsessing over the plus signs. It motivated me to finish the quilting on my Glamping in the Spin Cycle quilt (post coming soon)

and I made a couple of X's and +'s blocks (and yes, I meant for all those strings to be there)--I've decided to try it with all red fabrics, and I am hoping I can finish it by Valentine's Day (and because I'm now a more positive person I'm not going to imagine how my husband is probably going to forget that Valentine's Day is a holiday we do, in fact, still celebrate).

I asked my Aunt Deanna (who I have been promising to make a quilt for) if she wanted a plus-sign quilt and she flatly replied that it reminded her of Band-Aids, so I guess I won't be making a plus sign quilt for her...hahaha. But I'll still send some positive vibes her way, and keep the band-aids for myself:)

Sunday Stash

Okay, so I went a little crazy. A couple of weeks ago, when Pam Kitty Picnic was released, I decided that buying the fat quarter bundle wasn't economical because I might've gotten stuck with 2 or 3 prints that I didn't need, so why pay for those, right? So in a deranged state of mind--with a coupon in hand--I decided instead to buy half-yards of only the ones I had to have.

At first I tried to play it cool--and just added these to my "had to have" e-cart...



...I think these are the cutest text fabrics I've ever seen. I need at least 10 more yards of it.

But anyway, then I started thinking, "I never have enough green" and "this pink is perfect" and "really, who expects me to live without these polka dots?" and "what's life if I can't have these florals?". I was giving my husband paranoid sideways glances while I continued to add and add to my cart while he had his face glued to the television.



I got to the point where I had one eye closed so I couldn't see the side of the computer where the total was being calculated; but still I had to ask myself, "what if I wanted to make a patriotic quilt one day?"  It would be impossible without these...



Anyway, when it was all said and done, I had purchased 30 (yes, I said 30) half-yards of Pam Kitty Picnic (and I didn't know that number until I just counted them for this post)! I get a stomach-ache just thinking about it. So I'm going to tell my husband that this is my Christmas present and I don't want anything else, but I hope he doesn't take me seriously ;)



Also, if ANYONE is interested,  I bought a bunch of extra copies of some crafty UK magazines and am doing a little giveaway. I think it's going to win the world record for being the giveaway with the highest odds of winning because there's only 6 people that have entered, and one of them is my friend Joe who just entered to be nice.

So, if you're interested (and like great odds) click here. Or on the picture of the magazine.



Linking up at Mollie Sparkles for Sunday Stash.

Indian Summer Lone Star Quilt

This is the last day of the month, and I wanted to show you because November is Native American History month in the US.



I made this quilt for my sister, who recently moved from Texas to Arizona and wanted a quilt to represent both places. I was inspired to make a Lone Star when I saw this quilt by Amy of During Quiet Time.



Brief History lesson--The Lone Star became a symbol of Texas after the battle of the Alamo in 1836, but it's history isn't just Texan. The Lone Star quilt is called a "morning star" or "star" quilt by the Native Americans and they replaced the buffalo robes during ceremonies. Star quilts are considered the most-valued gift to the Sioux Indians and are given for births, marriages, sporting championships, and other momentous occasions. Ok, history lesson over. 

For my quilt, I used Art Gallery's Indian Summer fabric and used Moda Aqua for the background and binding. I used Kona Ash for the backing. I ran out of the ash fabric and I had to think of a way to use up some of the fabric I had leftover from the front, and made this feather. I love this feather almost as much as I love the star on the front.



The process of piecing this was kind-of a crazy nightmare for me. It started out good, and then points weren't matching up and things got really tricky. I'm working on another lone star and hope that I can correct the mistakes I made on this one.



To quilt it I followed the lines of the star from the center on all the rows of diamonds. I had it long-arm basted before I started, and I don't think I'm going to do that again because there was still too much slack but I will go into detail about that on another post.



Overall, though I think it turned out pretty good for my first lone star. I'm giving it to my sister to Christmas so it's off to the post office on Monday:)

Church Quilt for Mom

I don't know the exact name for this quilt pattern, it's like an orange-peel, and resembles a cathedral window, but I started calling it the Church Quilt because I knew it would only look right taking the pics near this pretty little church near my home (I love living in England).




I made this quilt for my mom--this is the first one I've made for her because I was waiting for something perfect to come to mind. My mom is very particular about her home and I knew not just any quilt would do. When Winter's Lane fabric was released I knew it was the perfect fabric to use.




To create the design, I used the Quick Curve Ruler by Sew Kind of Wonderful. The curved piecing was really easy when I used the video tutorials. I didn't use one of the published patterns, but I just messed around with the blocks until I achieved what I wanted.

My long-arm quilter, Asta, did a beautiful job quilting it up. I really have to get myself a long-arm machine one day!



From some of the pics it looks as though the orientation is a bunch of squares, but really when it is draped like it should be, it is like diamonds.



I'm actually a little nervous because my mom wants to see the pics before she sees the quilt in person, so when she views this (Hi Mom!) it will be her first glimpse at it.




I hope she likes it:)

I would be more than happy to create a tutorial on how I made this if anyone is interested. Just let me know.

Linking up with Quilt Story and Finish it up Friday

And he says he doesn't like it...

Today I want to show you this 2nd quilt I got professionally basted, but I'm having some problems getting some decent photos. It's too wet to take the quilt outside, and too overcast for pics inside, but I had to take them anyway because it will be at least another week before I get a chance, so bear with me!!

Last November, after taking a long unintentional break from quilting, the first quilt-top I pieced was this Seaside Stars pattern by Amy from Diary of a Quilter.



I used the same fabric collection that Amy used, Seaside by October Afternoon, but I wanted it to be more boyish--it was meant to be a twin quilt for my (at the time) 3-year-old. I added different borders and corner stones--not a huge difference from hers, but definitely appropriate (I think) for a little man.



I was so pleased at how it turned out--it is so scrappy looking and has a vintage vibe.



The only word he said when he saw it was "no". Right there, at that very moment, a mother's heart was crushed.



At the time, I had never basted a quilt this large, and I was so overwhelmed with it, that I set it off to the side. My son didn't like it anyway (I was secretly mad about the whole thing) and I kind-of forgot about it. I remembered it a few weeks ago, and dropped it off to Asta to get basted , and when I got it back from her I liked it even more and was so excited to finally finish it.



Assuming a year was enough time for a little boy to change mind, I showed it to my son again.



He glanced at it for a second, looked slightly annoyed and said...

"I don't like it."

But that's okay, because I love it and I'm not above 'indian-giving'.

The best $25 I've ever spent

About two weeks ago, I dropped off three quilts to Asta, a professional longarm quilter I recently met. She basted two of the quilts (one is getting quilted) for only $25 each! I picked them up yesterday and it is the best money I think I've ever spent! No pinning, no crouching, no back-pain, no cursing or frustrated yelling; all-in-all there was NO STRESS!



I feel like a lottery winner!!



This quilt was made from a pattern called "Spin Cycle" by Cluck Cluck Sew



and I used a fat quarter bundle of Glamping fabric. I don't know if you notice but the curtains hanging up are also from the Glamping collection (note: I'm not a pro at curtain-making). The piecing of the quilt came together pretty easy, it was fun to make, and it finishes at 75" x 75".



Asta basted it using long stitches in a grid pattern every 6 inches or so, and it should be a breeze to take them out as I'm quilting it.



I have no idea what pattern I'm going to use to quilt it, but I can't wait until it's finished! It's the first quilt I've made for myself since I made my very first quilt--and unfortunately, that one isn't big enough to cover me!



This one is big enough for me and maybe even a couple of extra-snuggly little cherubs.

You show me your's, I'll show you mine!!

Sarah Quilts is hosting a fabric stash link party, and fortunately, I just cleaned up my sewing space (for the most part). Once I got all the fabric all folded and put away, I realized I don't have as much fabric that I thought I did. Ugh. A little depressing. I repainted these two shelves--just for fabric storage--and really, two shelves is more than enough! I could've gotten by with one. I don't really have my fabric organized in any particular way...except I do I have a shelf dedicated exclusively to Bonnie and Camille fabric... But most of the fabric is just folder and shoved together. You can tell what my favorite colors are. I have a few stacks that are separated for specific projects, like my Indian Summer fabric And Lori Holt's Bake Sale--there are so many things I want to make with this And you can see here in my Solids stack that I have about 7 shades of aqua in my quest to find the perfect one I should probably buy some more fabric so my shelves don't look so empty!!! Oh, and as an update to an earlier post, I found a 20% off coupon for the Fat Quarter Shop, so I ordered the fabric I had been wanting. That can help with the empty space on my shelves, but just don't tell my husband ; )

Summer Beach Quilt

I have been talking about my dad alot lately, but I wanted to show you my latest creation, and this just happens to be all about him. The story begins with this quilt I made for him last year...

 

 He works as a Harbor Master in Rockport, Texas and has always loved sailboats and sailing. When I was a teenager I would get so mad because he would wake me up at 5am on Saturday morning so we could get out to the sailboat in time to watch the sunrise. At the time I thought it was stupid, but now it's one of those things I appreciate more as an adult. Anyway, I made him the blue and white nautical quilt with a pinwheel pattern. I think it's a great quilt for a guy that sails, but this summer I went to visit him down on the coast, and I started to feel like this quilt didn't really capture what the summer, or the beach, or sailing was all about--at least not in Rockport. Rockport is full of color--there are flowers blooming and cute little cottages everywhere.

 I told my dad (at the time) that I would like to make a quilt that really reflected the beauty of where he lives. A couple of weeks after I returned home to England, he called me and he asked if I would make a new quilt for him to give as a gift. Apparently the quilt I made him is very popular at the marina store where the air-conditioning is too cold for the employees. He keeps the quilt at his job, but his coworkers are always stealing it. In order to get his quilt back he wanted to start giving the employees their own quilts, and one of them is having a birthday soon, so he requested I make it in time for that. The only requirement, he told me, was that it was pink. I'm a pink-lover myself, but I know that too much pink can get a little nauseating, unless you're under the age of 5. So I decided to use Marmalade fabric by Bonnie and Camille. It's colorful, summery, it has pink, and overall it's just pretty. I was just going to make a magic jelly roll quilt, but I started thinking about it, and I knew this would be a perfect time to make the quilt that would really capture what I wanted to achieve. I didn't have a pattern to go by, so I started kinda drawing out what I wanted, and then drafted it up on the Threadbias quilt tool. Then came the fun part!

I used the jelly roll to make the striped sails and scrappy border, and used other cuts of fabric I had to make everything else. I would have really like to get some "pinterest-worthy" photos, but alas, I'm not at that level yet. You can see all the wrinkles when the sun is so bright!!! But anyway, I really am in love with this quilt. I want to make another one for myself, and I'm going to be adding some tutorials for the sailboats, cottages, and fish, so in case anyone ever reads my blog that actually wants to make one, they can! :)