And More Quilting :)

Yes, folks, we have another finished quilt for Kat's Covered In Love charity. Second one this week! If you missed, click here to see the first one :) I quilted this one second because, quite honestly, it had me stumped. My initial thought was feathers, swirls and pebbles. I knew immediately what I was going to quilt on the first top so I put this one up on the design wall and let it simmer. . . sometimes quilts just need to simmer for awhile :) As I looked at the quilt it seemed that it could go masculine or feminine and masculine quilts are sometimes hard to come by. . . so I decided to keep the quilting 'gender neutral.' I have seen the quilting design I used on this quilt in many different places. It's common, it's easy, it's versatile, it's forgiving and depending how it is laid out - it can give vastly different looks. Most importantly, it gives quilts the best texture ever!

Enough talk, let's look at some pictures, shall we? :) I wish I had taken a before picture of the HST quilt. I just love to see the difference quilting makes on tops. I did take a before of this top - it's inside, it's not the best but you get the idea :)

Uh, this picture was taken pre-iron. . .

And After!!

Will definitely be using this design again!

I could run my hands over this quilt all.day.long!

Debated on binding. I had a couple of browns and then put that green up. Sent a picture to Kat and said, you chose! Green won :) BTW, Sandra also voted green. The only vote for brown was my husband's. . . he was out voted ;)

And the back!

Lots of lovely texture :)

One more, a little windy in the AZ desert today :)

What do you think? Pretty big difference yes/no? Did I mention this was quick? Two days. It took me two days to quilt this and that wasn't two eight hour days. LOL I did mark out squares in the blocks that are not 9 patches. I wanted it kind of uniform but not really. I was going for perfectly imperfect. I knew the quilting wasn't going to show much and what this top needed was a LOT of texture :) I used Superior King Tut Cedars 40 wt cotton thread for the top and Aurifil 50 wt in the bobbin. Love the basket weave effect of this quilting when just a simple alternate direction is taken.

These two tops are going to be winging their way to Kat today. Again, if you want to check out how you can help with Covered In Love, click the link. Kat does a block drive in which she posts a tutorial of a different block each month. Make one, make 100, make a top, chose what's comfortable for you. It's a wonderful program and I am very honored that Kat has agreed to let me help by quilting some of those tops!

Yes, I still have a flimsy to share with you - it will happen. . . soon! I am now off to start a new project. . . what? I'm not going to share exactly what it is but suffice to say that my friend Lara over at Buzzin' Bumble has a new book out!! How flippin' exciting is that??? You can buy yours right now over at Amazon ;) Crafted Applique - New Possibilities. People, I am so excited about this project I cannot even tell you!! Me? Applique? This is going to be epic!! Stay tuned, the hop is in May. That is not an affiliated link, BTW.

OK, now linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it Up Friday! Check out the awesome finishes people are sharing!

Until next time, keep on quilting!!

Quilting, quilting, quilting!! :D

Where is my happy place? At my machine quilting! I've been spending a good amount of time doing just that over the past several weeks. I have a finished quilt to share with you today. I have been doing some quilting for Kat for her Covered In Love charity. I have been thinking about how I might be able to help Kat out with this charity for awhile. I had given her a rather large box of my pesky scraps and it has been so fun to see those fabrics being made into quilts that cover someone in their final days and then go home with the family when that someone passes. If you haven't visited Kat's blog or are not aware of her charity, please check out the link above. She has a block drive every month. Each month she gives instructions and color themes for blocks. You can send one, 100 or a finished top. The block drive has produced many quilts already and there are many in the works. As I was thinking about how I could help out, I had one of those slap your forehead duh moments. . . I can quilt some of those tops! I'll admit, this was a little bit selfish on my part - like I said in the beginning, quilting definitely puts me in my happy place! So I emailed Kat, told her I would be more than happy to help her out and she said yes! And I did a happy dance! A week later I received two tops in the mail. Let the fun begin!!

Here's my first finish:

I know, weird shadows this morning! Yes, I should have taken the time to move it over. . . but that would have meant moving chairs around, risking falling on my head and generally eat into time I need for quilting! ;)

I really did try to restrain myself and not quilt the crap out of this quilt. I think I found a happy medium place. I used wool batting (of course I did!! haha) so this quilt is very soft and snuggly!

I had the quilt folded and getting it to hang without a bend in the center was not happening. Love the texture and how  those little squares pop out of the triangles. I used a yellow gold thread for the feathers (Aurifil 40 Wt) and orange for the squares and loops (Aurifil 40 wt).

How cool is this picture from the back with the sun shining through???? LOVE!!

I used matching thread in the bobbin for all of the quilting. I have been finding that using the same weight thread (not necessarily the same color but in this case it is) reduces my thread breakage to nil. I think I had two thread breaks in this entire quilt. Not bad!

I thought about agonized over what to put in the corner squares for far too long . . . in the end I decided to do the same feather design as the one in the middle diamond in the quilt. The border had me stumped too.... In the end, I just sat down and started quilting. Sometimes that works for me, sometimes it doesn't - this time I think it worked out well :) The border and squares were quilted with Aurifil Poly for long arms. I absolutely LOVE this thread!! It is also 40 wt.

I bound this with fabric in my stash. . . check it out - it is the same exact Handspray fabric that is found in the quilt!! What are the chances? :)

I have the second top basted, ditched and I've started the quilting. That one should be finished in the next day or two. I told you, sitting at my machine quilting is definitely my happy place!! So I have found a way to help Kat out with her charity and I am having SO much fun doing it! If you want to get involved, make a block, make a top, make a quilt, go check out Kat's blog and see what fun blocks she is collecting this month! And here is the link directly to her Covered In Love page on her site.

I have also finished a flimsy. . . I'll blog about that this week as well - really! ;) In the mean time, I am going to get back to my machine!!

Linking up with Lorna for Let's Bee Social and Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday. I can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to!





Until next time, keep on quilting!!

Blaze Pattern Test - Finished Quilt!!

When Joanne over at Canuck Quilter asked me if I wanted to test her pattern for Blaze (not an affiliate link), I said YUSSS!!! I showed the finished flimsy last month and promised some crazy quilting in that negative space ;) As I said in my previous post, Joanne's pattern is fabulously written and comes together pretty quickly. AND the resulting quilt is absolutely awesome!!

Pictures? Well, since you asked ;) And I'm not apologizing for the number of pictures. . . I couldn't decide which to put in so I put them all in!

Oh Yeah, I had a blast quilting this one!! :D

Flowers, butterflies and dragonflies curtesy of Judi Madsen's, "Quilting Wide Open Spaces" book. The templates were there, I resized them when I printed them out.

The bigger circles were done using Westalee's circle ruler. OMG! Seriously going to get more sizes of circle shaped quilting rulers! They took my circles to a whole new level!!

I wish you could run your hands (or face!!) over this yummy texture!!

And the back! I used matching threads on the back. And I took lots of pictures so you can see all the pretty colors I used :)

Sun is shining pretty bright. . . the yellow thread shows up pretty well on the back but what you are seeing here is more fabric color :)

Have I said how much I love the back? :D

OK, I'll stop now :D This quilt makes me SOOO happy!

I made the lap size quilt but added a couple of rows. . . more negative space ;) haha

Again, you can get your pattern for Blaze at Joanne's Craftsy store right now!! Jump over and check out this and all of her other great patterns!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday!!

I'll be back soon. . . a squirrel might have ran through my house . . . and left in its wake a quilt top!!! ;)

Until next time, keep on quilting!!