Doggone Cute

Back in August of 2017, Ann of Brown Paws Quilting was Queen of Bee Inspired and picked the Doggone Cute block by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts.  Ann asked us to pick a dog who is important to us and choose the doggone cute block closest to that dog.  I made a block representing my dog, Ivy.  I liked it so much that I made a second identical block to keep, planning to make more dogs and put them all together.

Now, nearly two years later, it's finally done!  I made three other dogs shortly after making the Ivy block and had always planned to make at least two more.  But since I hadn't made the other dogs yet, I decided finished was better than bigger and put it together.  These are the large size blocks and each finishes at 12 x 18, so together they make a perfectly acceptable size for a small child. 

And here's Ivy with the finished quilt!  I think she approves.  I picked the color palette of yellow, orange, and red tones so it would be gender neutral--my Project Linus chapter frequently needs quilts that aren't too girly and I try to keep that in mind when I'm making something that I know will go to them. The binding is a mottled fabric with shades of yellow, orange, and rust that fit the colors.  The original block was orange because Ivy is kind of orange.  See the likeness?

The timing of finishing my Doggone Cute was actually great, because Ann recently submitted her finished dog quilt to the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta in the group category.  And she won second place!

photo and quilt by Ann of Brown Paws Quilting

I took Doggone Cute to my local Project Linus chapter at our June meeting.  It was bittersweet because it was our last meeting; my local chapter is closing.  Doggone Cute is my last finish to be donated to Project Linus.  I've been a regular member since 2015 and by my records have donated 63 quilts.  I'll continue to make and donate quilts for kids who need a quilty smile, probably directly to one of the dozens of organizations my Project Linus chapter supported.

An unsuccessful attempt at getting Ivy to pose with the quilt

This had been a UFO for almost two years, so it's fitting to my project for the UFO & WIP challenge hosted by Julie of The Crafty Quilter.  I'll also link with Tish of Tish in Wonderland for her next UFO party.  Doggone Cute is on my list of projects needed for my PhD (Projects Half Done) with Quilting Gail and was #11 on my list of Q2 finish along goals.

Fat Quarter Quilts

Last fall, I visited my college friend Jen.  We've known each other a long time and I know her family, too.  I was sent home with 2 big boxes of fabric and other craft supplies from Jen's mom, Judy.  Judy, a life-long crafter, realized she won't use all her craft supplies in her lifetime so as the essentially adopted daughter, I was given a TON of fabric and other sewing supplies. Much of the fabric was fat quarters, both lose and in coordinated bundles.  I had been seeing all the quilts that Nancy of Grace and Peace Quilting made in 2018 using the Simple Gifts pattern from the booklet Fat Quarter Love by Weeks Ringle & Bill Kerr and decided this was a pattern I needed to own.

I had a fun fat quarter of musical horses that I bought at a LQS several years ago because I liked it, but never knew what to do with it  I combined those horses with 3 fat quarters from Judy and tada!  Fun quilt!  Here's the fabric pull so you can see the fabrics better:

 From a lovely coordinated bundle of fall fabrics, I picked out four that I liked together and presto!  Another fun finish!

I know, it's a fall quilt being photographed in spring.  Perhaps it looks more fall-like on a barn?

Both are quilted with cross-hatch quilting and bound with whatever leftover binding I had that seemed to go with the main fabrics.  Simple Gifts sews up very quickly and I can see making quite a few more!  You'll be seeing many more quilts made with the fabrics Judy gave me.  These will both go to my local chapter of Project Linus.

These were quilts #18 & #19 on my list of Q1 finish along goals. They were also both on my list
of projects needed for my PhD (Projects Half Done) with Quilting Gail.

Disney Princesses

My love of novelty fabrics is widely known and my friends at the local Project Linus chapter save some of the fun donations for me.  Recently, a piece of  Disney Princess fabric was donated to the  chapter.  I decided to embrace the girly and make a quilt as pink as possible.  The fabric turned out to be a fat quarter. I didn't want to lose any of the princess so instead of cutting it up,  I decided to treat it like a quarter log cabin and sew strips on two sides.

I used Kona solids in peony, bubblegum, lupine, plum, and bordeaux.  The binding is Kona honeysuckle. 

For the quilting, I did a cross-hatch in the area with the princesses.  Then I used a decorative flower stitch with a variegated King Tut thread in shades of pink and purple on the log cabin strips.  I'm really pleased with the look of the decorative stitching.

I used a pink gingham-look fleece on the back. I love backing my kids' quilts with fleece and I don't use batting in them.  It's a lovely weight and nice and soft and cuddly. 

I took it to the park for some pictures and had to wait for a rare moment when there was no one on the equipment to snap a picture.

This will be donated to Project Linus and hopefully will make some Disney princess fan very happy. 

This quilt was on my list of projects needed for my PhD (Projects Half Done) with Quilting Gail and was #20 on my list of Q1 finish along goals. 

Bumper2Bumper

Most fun traffic jam I've ever seen! 

The pattern is Bumper2Bumper by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts.  There are two different block sizes; this is the smaller.  The pattern calls for 7 rows of cars but I left out one row to add in the "beep beep!"  I used my Accuquilt alphabet die for the letters, but note that Lorna also has a pattern for traditionally pieced alphabet letters. 

This was my Rainbow Scrap Challenge block/project for 2018.  Rainbow Scrap Challenge is hosted by Anglea of So Scrappy and is one of my favorite annual challenges.  You pick whatever project/block you want to make.  Every month, there is a featured color and you make however many blocks you want (or even a whole quilt!) in that color.  The idea is that at the end of the year, you have a quilt's worth of blocks in rainbow colors.  It's super casual and there are no real deadlines, just lots of fun and encouragement.  This is my third year participating.  For the first time, I didn't put my blocks in rainbow order but mixed them up, and for this pattern I think that worked better.  This is my second year using one of Lorna's patterns for RSC and I will use one of hers next year, too!

The background is Kona Sky, the wheels are Kona Indigo and the lug nuts are Kona Medium Gray.  The cars themselves are scraps.  Since it's a scrappy quilt I used a scrappy binding, picking out solid colors that has good contrast to the sky.  I am pleased to have used up 5 different leftover bindings!

I found the most perfect fleece backing in my closet.  I love to back my quilts, especially my donation quilts, with fleece.  I do not use bating, just the top and the fleece.  It's soft, it makes a great weight quilt, and honestly it's cheaper than buying batting for all the donation quilts I make.  I've been told that the kids really like the soft fabric and that makes sense; my son does, too!  This one I'm pretty sure came from my friend Snow who gave me several larger cuts of fleece she wasn't going to use.  The problem is, with the really light background fabric, you can occasionally see parts of the darker cars showing through on the front.  It's not really noticeable and I decided that the perfect (and fun!) backing mattered more than an occasional glimpse in *just* the right light, so I used it anyway.  And I'm glad I did! This will be going to my local Project Linus chapter and imagine having fun cars on BOTH sides of your quilt!

Bumper2Bumper was #15 on my list of Q4 goals for the globally-hosted Finish Along.  It was also my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for the monthly goal-setting link-up hosted by Patty of Elm Street Quilts (goal setter #70). And since I've been working on it for all of 2018, it was a UFO that is now finished, so I'll link up with Tish for her next UFO busting party.

Fall Quilt Along

Last year, I participated in a Christmas Quilt Along designed by a group that now calls themselves Partners In Design.  I really enjoyed it and was excited when they announced that their 2018 QAL had a fall theme.  Every two weeks, a different block was released.

Here's my completed quilt!  For the Christmas sampler, I was 100% scrappy from stash.  I liked it, but missed the cohesion that I saw in some of the other quilts.  So for this one, I chose a background fabric, Kona Waterfall, and everything else was from stash. So it's scrappy but looks like it all belongs together.

That turkey was the hardest block!  It's cute, but man was it tricky.  So many pieces!

The QAL had twelve blocks.  I planned on a 4 x 4 setting, so I needed four additional blocks.  The acorn block gave two options and I made them both, leaving me with three blocks needed.  Since colorful leaves are such a big part of fall, I decided to make different leaf blocks and put them in each of the corners, with the leaf designed for this QAL in the fourth corner. 

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I did this as a Quilt-As-You-Go project.  My favorite quilting is that sunflower with the big spiral.  This is my third quilt using this version of QAYG and I'm starting to fall out of love with it.  I love doing the quilting in small sections, but I struggle with the assembly.  I'm going to try a different technique for QAYG and see if I like it better. 

I think the owl and the hedgehog are my favorites! 

When I say that everything but the background is from stash, I mean everything, including batting and backing.  I had a dark teal mottled fabric that I used for most of the blocks, but there wasn't enough for 16 blocks.  So whatever I had in shades of green that was big enough was used for the other blocks.  It's a bit eclectic.

The same group is planning another quilt along in 2019.  They asked for theme ideas and I suggested "day at the zoo."  It will be fun to see what they pick!

Fall QAL was #18 on my list of Q4 goals for the globally-hosted Finish Along.  It has been donated to my local Project Linus chapter. 

Fireburst

I first met Tish of Tish's Adventures in Wonderland during the 2016 New Bloggers Hop. I immediately knew from her writing that she was my kind of quilter.  I've been following her blog and her quilting adventures ever since.She's hilarious, generous, and thoughtful.  When she started her first mystery quilt, I knew I had to participate.

I love how it turned out!  The fabrics are all from my stash.  Tish offered color advice via email.  Here you can see my first picture to her, asking about which fabric to use where.  I didn't want to have to say "the dark purple one" and "the pink one" so I gave each fabric a name.  Can you tell the theme I used??

Tish's mystery was wonderfully paced.  A small clue each month with plenty of time to start late or get caught up.  Mine is the smaller of the two sizes and will be donated to my local chapter of Project Linus.  I quilted it in a large spiral, one of my favorite quilting designs for a quick finish.

Tish will be hosting a parade on January 1st for completed Fireburst quilts.  It's a quick enough pattern that you can even start now and have a top for the parade!  Here is her QAL page.

This is #16 on my list of Q4 goals for the globally-hosted Finish Along. 

Canyon

I have always loved the fabrics designed by Kate Spain.  Thing is, I don't buy fabric by designer.  I pretty much never buy pre-cuts or anything by collection.  So I just look longingly at quilts made in her fabrics.  I still remember when her line Kudzu came out, I picked it up at quilt shows and shops 6 or 8 times, realized each time it was the same line I kept picking up, and never bought it.

Then I was shopping what I think was a Black Friday sale at Missouri Star and on a whim, I bought 2 mini charm packs of Canyon.  I didn't have a plan but I wanted to finally play with Kate Spain goodness.

Then I saw the perfect pattern in the book Charm School by Vanessa Goertzen.  This is Scrap Happy.  Her pattern just includes the first star; I thought it wasn't quite big enough so I did the math to add a second star.  The background is Kona Ice Frappe and the stars are Kona White.

I did one of my favorite easy quilting methods: large spiral.

Here's a close-up of some of the prints:

I love how it turned out so much!  This pattern is great for mini charm packs or 2 1/2" scraps.  I am sure I will use the pattern again.

This will be donated to Project Linus.  My goal is 12 quilts a year and this is number 12 for 2018!  There will likely be a few more before the end of the year.  Laura at Slice of Pi Quilts does a charity link-up at the end of each moth and I'll be linking up.  So glad to have met my goal for the year, and early!

Canyon was #14 on my list of Q3 goals for the Finish Along.  It is also on my list of projects needed for my PhD (Projects Half Done) with Quilting Gail.

 

Scrap Dance

Every January, Carole at From My Carolina Home starts a scrappy mystery quilt along.  I did the original Scrap Dance and Scrap Dance Tango and was excited to start Scrap Dance Square Dance this year. 

I decided to use my novelty/I Spy scraps for this year's mystery.  Once it was revealed that there were spinning stars, I altered the layout a little bit so there were only completed stars.  It just so happened that it worked out that I could make two smaller quilts from the pieces I had already assembled, so that's what I did!

They are a bit busy, aren't they?  The solid is Kona Sand and I wish I picked something that showed up more.  But I really like them.  So much fun stuff to see.  Both of these will be going to Project Linus. 

They look very similar because they are all scraps and there is a fair amount of repeat, plus I was originally making just one quilt.  Here are close-ups of them both:

Left

 

Right

And here's a close-up of one of the stars.  This is the star in the middle of the quilt, so you can see that I used spiral quilting around the entire quilt and started in the center.

I really enjoy Carole's mysteries and love that she designs them with scraps in mind. I linked to the other Scrap Dance mysteries I completed, but figured that maybe you want to see them without clicking the links.

Original Scrap Dance

Carolina Dancing (Scrap Dance Tango)

 

 

 

Scrap Dance Square Dance was #18 on my list of Q3 goals for the Finish Along. 

 

Sports I Spy

My son (currently age 4 1/2) intermittently gets interested in my sewing.  Sometimes he'll ask to sew with me and he'll sit on my lap for a few minutes.  I decided to pull a group of I Spy squares specifically for when he wants to sew with me.  This took us probably 4 months of really occasional sewing to get pieced, then waited for me to quilt & bind. 

Side note: I've been calling my son "Munchkin" on the blog and that now seems too young.  I've been wanting to age up his nickname.  He loves fire trucks and fire fire fighters and he frequently calls himself a Fire Monkey.  So he will now be known as Fire Monkey.

I told him to "be goofy"

Fire Monkey determined which squares to put together, 2 at a time.  Sometimes he sits on my lap, sometimes he helps feed the fabric, and sometimes he gets on the floor and watches me put my foot on the pedal.  We did most of the sewing in short sessions, as his attention span for most things is not very long.

I personally don't like things to fall heavily into society's ideas of properly gendered themes, but that gets trickier when I'm making quilts for Project Linus.  I have been told that some places won't give a quilt to a boy if it has even a tiny bit of pink on it.  Since I know my chapter frequently gets quits that are pink and/or flowery, I try to make quilts that fall into sterotypically boy areas.  For this quilt, I picked any I Spy square even remotely related to sports.

This was #16 on my list of Q3 goals for the Finish Along.  This is also my list of UFOs to complete for my PhD (Projects Half Done) with Gail of Quilting Gail.

We turned it in to Charlotte chapter of Project Linus tonight. I was worried he'd be upset that he wasn't keeping this but he has not been.  Fire Monkey and I talked about how this quilt would go to a kid who needs a quilt.  His next quilt, though, will be for him to keep.

Yes, his eyes are closed on purpose.