Pink Magnolia Buds for Pinktober

I am honored to be a part of the Pinktober blog hop hosted by hosted by Brianna of Sew Cute & Quirky and sponsored by Island Batik, Aurifil, and Quilter's Perfect Klip. 

I've playing with a flower pattern for a while and all these shades of pink were perfect for it.  The block comes from a book that I stumbled upon at my library (meaning the one where I work) called The Collector's Dictionary of Quilt Names & Patterns by Yvonne M. Khin.  The book is from 1980. This block is called Magnolia Buds and is originally from the Kansas City Star.  I liked the idea of a quilt full of flowers bringing comfort to someone fighting breast cancer. 

 

Island Batik sent me a 10" stack of their Positively Pink line and I could choose 2 coordinating fabrics from their always-available Foundations collection.  I chose Linen, a lovely warm neutral with yellow tones for the background and Raspberry for the flower bud centers, the sashing cornerstones, and the binding.  I also used two Foundations I already had: Chameleon for the leaves and Bermuda for center of the leaves/stems.  Aurifil send me a spool of a lovely pink thread, which I used for the serpentine stitch quilting.  Quilter's Perfect Klip sent two packages of their clips.  They are a little larger than the other clips on the market and I love the pink color!

I have known many people diagnosed with breast cancer.  A family friend.  An aunt.  A college friend.  A very close friend's mom.  A colleague.  A teacher.  Their stories are not mine to tell, so I won't give details here, but I do what I can to spread the importance of self tests, annual mammograms, and early detection. Early detection saves lives!

Like many women, I started getting annual mammograms at age 40.  Before Covid, my workplace brought the mobile mammography unit to campus twice a year.  It was great to be able to schedule in the middle of my workday, walk across campus for the exam, and then go right back to work.  No time off, easy to fit into my workday.  That's the kind of thing that workplaces can do to make it easy for their staff to take this important preventative measure.  But even now that the mobile unit hasn't come since Covid, I still make my annual appointment.  Early detection is so important.

I do not have a recipient in mind for this quilt.  I find that quilts usually know who they are meant for.  I'm sure a person or a cause will make themselves known to me.  I'd be happy with an individual, a clinic or mobile mammography unit, or an organization that raises funds for breast cancer research and/or treatments.  I'll hang on to it until the right recipient appears. 

With careful cutting, I was able to make two blocks with just one 10" square.  This means that I have a lot of Positively Pink squares left--18!  There are many things you could do to make a quilt of hope for someone with those squares, so I'm offering a giveaway for those eighteen 10" squares.  Enter via the rafflecopter; giveaway runs through the end of the Pinktober blog hop and I'll pick a winner on October 23rd.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Thanks to Brianna for hosting a blog hop to spread awareness!  Be sure to check out all the beautiful quilts made for the Pinktober blog hop. 

October 3 ~ Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations

October 4 ~ Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa's Quilting Passion

October 6 ~ Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack Made Mine

October 10 ~ Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood  ⇐ You Are Here!

October 11 ~ Jane Hauprich ~ Stitch by Stitch Custom Quilting

October 12 ~ Marlene Oddie ~ Kissed Quilts

October 13 ~ Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail
October 14 ~ Jerry Stube ~ The Quilter's Quarters

October 17 ~ Brianna Roberts ~ Sew Cute and Quirky

October 18 ~ Terri Vanden-Bosch ~ Lizard Creek Quilting

October 19 ~ Mania Hatziioannidi ~Mania for Quilts

October 20 ~ Laura Piland ~ Slice of Pi Quilts

My NYC blog hop - I Heart New York

During my last year and a half of college and a few years after, I dated a guy who was born & raised in New York City.  I visited him & his family a total of 3 times while we were together and loved the city each time.  So I was thrilled when Jennifer of Dizzy Quilter asked me to join in a blog hop celebrating Gotham Quilts' first fabric line, My NYC.  The line has so many visuals that are classic New York, including taxis, the Statue of Liberty, pigeons, the skyline, and even pizza rat!

 

I was generously sent a bundle of fat quarters of the 11 prints in the collection and told I could make whatever I wanted.  I love the prints so much that I wanted something that kept them in fairly large pieces to show them off.  The iconic I 💗 NY logo kept creeping into my head, so I decided on Paper Hearts from The Jolly Bar Book, though I changed it somewhat.  I love these fabrics in heart form!

I wanted the My NYC fabrics to shine so I needed a background fabric, and I settled on a navy blender.  I quilted with a dark grey thread in organic wavy lines.  I used one of the text prints as the binding.  The text print is super clever; check it out!  The print is in two colors and the dark creates a skyline!  I believe the words are all subway stops.

I don't have access to the New York City skyline but I did get a picture with my skyline: that's Charlotte, NC.  

 

 

Be sure to check out all the projects this week that use My NYC.  There will also be a giveaway next week; keep your eye on Jennifer's posts for details.  The giveaway is on Instagram, so I am not participating but most of the other makers are.

August 1		Dizzy Quilter	www.dizzyquilter.com
August 1		Sugar Sand Quilt Co.	www.sugarsandquilts.com
August 2		Go-Go Kim	www.gogokim.com
August 2		Fish Museum and Circus	www.fishmuseumandcircus.com
August 3		The Darling Dogwood	http://thedarlingdogwood.blogspot.com/	👈That's me!
August 4		CDM365 Studios	www.cdm365studios.com
August 5		Powered By Quilting	www.poweredbyquilting.com
August 6		Lovingly, Lissa	www.lovinglylissa.com
August 6		Geometry and Joy	www.geometryandjoy.com
August 7		Slice of Pi Quilts	https://www.sliceofpiquilts.com/

To close, here are my two favorite hearts, taxis and pigeons:

Time in a Bottle -- Spring Time

Welcome to day #2 of the Time in a Bottle blog hop!  Carol of Just Let Me Quilt challenged us to make something with hourglass units.  As soon as I saw the theme, I knew what I would make.  I had some leftover economy block units (square in a square in a square) from my Bloom quilt that I had been planning to turn into flowers.  Hour glass blocks turned on their side would make excellent butterflies for this garden!

I did decide that the hourglass blocks needed a butterfly body in the middle.  I have the butterfly die for my Accuquilt cutter so I used that body but cut it in half and then shaped it a little, since these butterfly blocks are only 3" finished.  

 

All fabrics are Island Batik.  The flower centers are leftover from the Precious Pinks bundle and everything else is from the Tickled Pink collection from a few years ago--I made butterflies for that quilt, too!  The quilting is wavy lines to make it look like the butterflies are in flight.

Be sure to check out all the great projects today!

March 15

MooseStashQuilting

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

The Darling Dogwood -- That's me!!!

Quilting Gail

Time 4 Stitchn

Beaquilter

 

 

Magical Forest

I have a finish that's almost 5 years in the making!  In January 2017, I was Queen bee in my Stash Bee hive and asked for trees to make a magical forest.  I got beautiful trees but they sat unfinished.  It's even been on my list toward my PhD (projects half done) with Quilting Gail every year. Fast forward to a few months ago, and my Bee Inspired group decided to do a casual sew along and picks a tree quilt!  This was my chance to finally put together my Magical Forest!

I really did enjoy Stash Bee for the 4 years I was involved.  These trees came from a total of 12 different makers (including me) from 6 US states and 3 Canadian provinces: British Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Manitoba, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Prince Edward Island, and Wisconsin.  

 

I had to make 3 more trees to get the right number for my forest.  I'm quite pleased with the finished quilt. I quilted with organic wavy lines and used a rainbow batik for the binding.  This will be donated, probably to the local children's hospital.  I sewed the binding on our trip to the mountains in October so was able to get some great "on location" shots.  Well, my husband took the photos, I held up the quilt.  So glad to finish this one!

 

Masala Box (& giveaway!)

My friend Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts recently wrote a fabulous quick pattern that is featured in the newest Island Batik catalog.  She asked me if I'd be willing to make a version and I jumped at the chance!  The Masala Box pattern gives instructions for three sizes: baby, lap, & queen.  I knew October was a busy month for my family so I made the baby size, which measures 36" square (or 40" if you add an optional border, which I did not).

Masala Box is written for strips, though you could use scraps as well.  It would also work well with partial jelly roll strips. When I am done with a project and have leftover yardage, I cut one or two 2 1/2" strips that I keep in a bin, perfect for projects written for jelly rolls.  When Preeti contacted me, I went through my bin to try to pick a color palette.  I had some Kona Medium Pink that I thought would make a nice background, so I picked out purple and blue strips from my bin. I intentionally alternated the purple and blue thinking it would be a nice look.

 

Masala Box sews up so quickly!  I did it in about three nights of sewing, but if you aren't limited to an hour after a child's bedtime of sewing time, you could probably sew it in an afternoon or maybe a weekend for the larger sizes. 

I quilted it using what I think of as Preeti-style quilting: wavy lines in a grid.  I love how it looks! I wanted a variety in my prints so I used half-strips instead of full strips.  I used the other half to make a scrappy binding.  The back is a pink fleece; you can really see the wavy grid on the back!

Want to make your own Masala Box?  Preeti has the pattern for sale in her etsy shop.  She is also very generously giving away one copy of the pattern to one lucky reader!  Leave me a comment by the end of the day Saturday, November 6th and I will randomly choose a winner.  You can comment about anything but if you need a prompt, tell me your favorite Halloween memory or treat.  

For more Masala Box inspiration, check out Preeti's post and the versions made by Bernie, Wendy, and Mari.

Small Savanna

I made the mistake of doing some cleaning in my sewing space about a month ago and I found two UFOs that I didn't know about.  One was 4 blocks of Savanna, a quilt I thought I was rid of, sewn together with a small border and more strips of the border fabric cut. 

This was what it looked like when I found it.

I have no idea what I had planned, but I hated Savanna (I detest sewing curves) so I clearly wasn't making more blocks.  I found a fairly small piece of fleece to use as backing and that set the limit for how big it could be.  I had a fun purple mottled print left from a wide back so I cut borders to make it as large as the fleece backing allowed.  It now measures 24" x 30" which is on the small side but should be fine for a tiny baby; I'll be donating this to the local children's hospital.

This wasn't on my original UFO list for my PhD (projects half done) with Quilting Gail but I think it will probably count.  I need to sit down and look at my list and my finishes so far this year to see if I have any chance at all of being successful this year. 

The Neighborhood of Polka-Dotted Roofs

Have you seen Cheryl Brickey's recent book Just One Charm Pack?  As the title promises, the quilts in the book can be made with a charm pack and some coordinating yardage--a background fabric and an additional fabric.  I don't actually buy pre-cuts very often but I spent years doing frequent I-Spy swaps with 5" squares of fabric, so I have quite the collection of 5" squares.  I know I will make several patterns from this book and I chose to start with Cozy Cottages.

Isn't it cute?!  I picked I Spy squares that I thought would look good as a house, focusing on people and animals. I used Kona Pond for the background and Kona Chestnut for the chimneys, but I still needed something for roofs.  I wanted something colorful but that also looked a bit coordinated, since mine are actually from a charm pack of a single collection.  I found some charm squares that had polka dots--Urban Elemetz by Northcott.  I didn't have quite enough for all the roofs but polka dots gave me a theme and I found a few others I could use in my scrap stash.  So I am calling this the Neighborhood of Polka-Dotted Roofs. 

 

I needed mine to be a bit smaller than written so I adjusted the size of the sashing a bit, which means the spacing isn't quite as regular as Cheryl's actual pattern, so anything that looks off balance is a fault of mine, not the pattern.  I still think it's super cute and I will absolutely make this pattern again.  I really like it for I Spy squares.  This will be donated to the local children's hospital. 

Coreopsis

I've been doing an informal quilt-along with Wendy  of Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life of the Coral Coreopsis pattern by James & Gracie.  Here is my finished quilt!  I used Kona solids, and for once, I do not know what they are!  Most of these came from leftover layer cakes and were no longer labeled. I could look them up, and at some point I probably will.

 
I didn't remember to get a photo of just the top before it was layered on a piece of fleece with polka dots, so you can't really see it well before the quilting.  I quilted with a large spiral and dark gray thread.  This will go to the local children's hospital.

with the backing showing a bit

Others may know this but I did not: Coral Coreposis is a plant/flower.   From my limited research, the plant is Coreposis and coral indicates the plants that have a dark orange color.  Since mine is not in the colorway, I dropped the "coral" part of the pattern name. 

I set finishing my quilt as my One Monthly Goal with Patty of Elm Street Quilts.  Unfortunately, while I wrote the goal post in time, I forgot to actually link it at the beginning of the month.  (Last month, I finished my goal but didn't post. I am not doing well.)

Harvest Vines, an Island Batik & AccuQuilt challenge

June's Island Batik ambassador challenge is sponsored by AccuQuilt.  Each ambassador was sent a BOB die for the challenge.  BOB stands for Block on Board, which means all the pieces needed for one quilt block are on the same die board and can be cut in one pass through the cutter.  

 

The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik, Accuquilt, Schmetz, Hobbs, and Aurifil.

Our assignment was to combine the BOB die with the 8" Go Cube to create a new design.  I was sent the Snail's Trail die which makes an 8" Snail's Trail block, perfect to combine with the 8" cube.  I knew I would want to play around in EQ to create my design.  I had previously learned of this etsy shop that is authorized by both EQ and Accuquilt; she sells the files for the blocks you can make with the Go Cube, to be imported into EQ.  Perfect excuse to buy it!  After playing around, I chose two blocks to combine with Snail's Trail, Windmill and Mosaic #15.  

 

I had a 10" stack of Sundance by Kathy Engle, a collection from last year.  Sundance is not my normal colors and I thought it would be good to venture out of my comfort zone!  I played around with a few different background colors and as soon as I tried Frog from the Foundations line, I knew I had a winning combination.  The green just made those yellows and golds pop.  The whole thing looks like the harvest to me, and the green weaving between the blocks looks like vines so I named this Harvest Vines.

I find black thread on black fabric hard to see, so I used Aurifil 2784 dark navy for piecing and for quilting.  I started with a brand new Schmetz chrome needle.  I still had quite a few squares left of Sundance so I pieces a back with some 10" squares, smaller scraps, and Island Batik's solid black.  I layered the quilt with Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 black batting.  I love the black batting with dark quilts!  

 

Part of the assignment is to give this quilt as a gift of comfort. I have not yet determined a recipient.  Quilts will frequently tell you where they are meant to go; I know the right person or cause will make themselves known.  

 

 

I had a great time playing with the Snail's Trail die and I know I will use it lots and lots!  I've already got at least 2 quilts in mind that use this die! I love how easy it is to cut all the pieces!

School of Fish: Salt & Sand blog hop

Welcome to my stop on the Salt & Sand blog hop hosted by Carol of Just Let Me Quilt!  Carol challenged us to find inspiration in the ocean, either colors of the sand and the sea or from animals that live in the ocean.  I didn't have anything on my to-make list in beachy colors, so I went with animals of the sea.  I had a charm pack of Kona Solids that I'd been planning to make into a fish quilt using the Missouri Star tutorial on youtube.

 

Here it is!  The background is Kona pond.  I'm not going to write out all the other Kona colors but I think there are 30 different colors; a few repeat. 

This will be a donation quilt to the local children's hospital.  I had a penguin print for the back that I had to add another scrap to in order to make the right size.  I quilted with wavy lines to simulate water; though I intentionally spaced the lines so I didn't catch the fish tails, which are three dimensional.  (They are peeled back like a cathedral window.)

Here's the list of all the blogs participating so you can check out all the salt and sand goodness.  It turns out that today (Wednesday) was my day on the hop and I thought it was Thursday.  Ooops!!! 

 

March 22
Creatin' in the Sticks
Selina Quilts
That Fabric Feeling
Days Filled With Joy
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Karen's Korner
Homespun Hannah's Blog
Crafts and Math
 
March 23
MooseStashQuilting
Life in the Scrapatch
Food for Thought
For The Love Of Geese
Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel
Karrin’s Crazy World
Sew Many Yarns
Kathy's Kwilts and More
 
March 24
Ms P Designs USA
DayBrook Designs
Vroomans Quilts
Kathleen McMusing
Quilt Schmilt
The Darling Dogwood
Daughters of Dorinda
Annie’s Musings
 
March 25
Quiltscapes
Beaquilter
Stitchin At Home
The Joyful Quilter
Scrapdash
Freckled Fox Quiltery
Quilts Fabric and Thread Tales
Words & Stitches
 
March 26
Just Let Me Quilt
Websterquilt
Quilting Gail
Samelia's Mum
Quilt Fabrication
Little Penguin Quilts
Just Sew Quilter
Inflorescence

Lavender Waves - Create for a Cause with Island Batik

Welcome to my stop on Island Batik's Create for a Cause blog hop!  This hop highlights Island Batik's newest collections that are available in stores now.  I was sent the absolutely beautiful Lavender Fields collection, a gorgeous array of purples and pale blues.  

 

Lavender Fields was designed by Kathy Engle and is a signature collection for Tammy Silvers of Tamarinis. 

The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik, Accuquilt, Aurifil, Schmetz, and Hobbs.  

photo by K. Mellnik

I've had bargello on my quilty bucket list and I decided that Lavender Fields would be perfect for a bargello.  I've mentioned that I'm learning to use EQ8 and that I've been doing the lessons Tech Know Quilters with Kari Schell of On Point Quilter.  One of the monthly themes was bargello quilts and I used the lessons to create what I am calling Lavender Waves.  I am happy with how it turned out and definitely think I'll make more bargello style quilts in the future!

photo by Kate Mellnik

It's been cold for North Carolina here but I had a date to meet my friend Kate to go walking and take quilt pictures last Friday.  It ended up being a little rainy so we stayed local instead of going to a state park, but there were some lovely spots on the greenway.  Kate has photographed several of my Island Batik projects and her photos are always amazing!

photo by K. Mellnik

I used my Accuquilt and the 2 1/2" strip die to cut strips from 19 of the 20 fabrics.  I originally had all 20 in the bargello itself but decided that one was a little too dark and stood out too much, so I swapped it for a repeat of a lovely dark purple with poppies. I used that 20th fabric as the binding, so all 20 are in the quilt and visible. This measures 47" x 49".

Before I started piecing my strip sets I put a brand new Schmetz chrome needle in my machine.  I did my piecing with Aurifil 6732 Earl Gray and the quilting with Aurifil 5003 Wine.  For the quilting, I wanted to mimic the motion of the quilt so I did straight lines that swept up and down on each fabric, hoping to convey the Lavender Waves feeling I named the quilt for.  The batting is Hobbs Heirloom 100% cotton.

photo by K. Mellnik

The theme for this hop is Create for a Cause, so we are charged to create a quilt to donate to the organization of our choice.  This will go to one of the organizations in North Carolina that supports survivors of human trafficking.  I hope it brings hope and comfort to someone.

Bonus Donations

I've had this quilt done for a few weeks, and last Thursday I was starting to think about my quilt guild's current charity project.  This year we are making placemats to donate to Friendship Trays (a Meals on Wheels organization) so recipients will get something pretty along with their meal.  I remembered that I had some of my strip set left over, so I got it out to see if it could become a bonus donation.  I guessed that I could get 3 placemats out of strip set, so that became my Sunday sewing project.  I figured out the best way to separate the strips into smaller groups and added Island Batik's gray solid.  It was fun to play around with the leftovers! It's a modern guild so two of these are intentionally off-center and I used a different quilting design for each.

 

Giveaway

And now for a giveaway!  I've put together a small prize package with 2 fat quarters from an older Island Batik collection called Petal Party (the rest of the collection will be in my April project), a package of Schmetz chrome needs, a Schmetz pocket guide, a Schmetz luggage tag for when traveling is ok again, and a magnetic wand for pins.  Island Batik has a giveaway each week during the blog hop, you can enter this week's contest for a precut of Mystery, which will be featured this Thursday on the hop.

prize package

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to visit Jennifer from The Inquiring Quilter and check out what she made with Lavender Fields.  And you can find the full blog hop schedule here. 

photo by K. Mellnik