Twirling Flimsy Finish

This flimsy is not only quilted. . . it is with its new owner. This is the second of the three commissions I have been working on over the past couple of months. You can see the finished first one here. Do you remember Twirling Aqua? It's the inspiration for this one. HSTs and their tendency to multiply confuses me. . . ;) I might have cut twice as many squares as I needed. . . Only in a couple of colors - I caught the mistake relatively early on, thankfully! Although, one can always use 8" squares right? lol

Here it is:

The background fabric is Kona . . . what color of Kona you ask? Ummm. . . I'm not sure. I bought it on sale at my local LQS who just happens to carry almost every color at a very reasonable price. But I bought this on sale awhile back for just $5.99 a yard! Gotta love that! All of the blues are Grunge, all of the blues are Grunge as well, except for the lightest purple. That is Handspray. Originally I had thought about doing a gradation of blue light to dark and then where the background fabric is, do a gradation of purple dark to light. . . clear as mud? When I sent the mock up of both to the client, she picked this. I'm glad she did. I think it worked out well :)

Except for one thing. . . there is a mistake in the piecing of this top. I'm not going to tell you what it is. Can you find it? I didn't. . . until I quilted over it! Talk about sinking feelings. . . I'm also not going to tell you what I did . . . start ripping for hours? Leave it? Something else? Stay tuned. I'll tell the rest of the story when I post the finish! Soon. Very soon! Oh, and I made a matching pillow too, I'll show that in the next post as well :)

Linking up with Beth for MCM and Judy for DWM and Amanda Jean for Finish it Up Friday. SO much eye candy to see. . . as if I need to add to my list of things to do!

Until next time, keep on quilting!

Quilt Finish - First Q4 Goal Finished :)

I posted about this quilt almost two weeks ago. At the time I said it would be finished by the weekend. And it was. Because the quilt was commissioned, I didn't want to post about it until after it was received . . . that happened a week ago today. . . ahem. . . yeah. I'm behind in posting. I have another finished quilt and a flimsy that will be finished by the weekend. . . my sewing machine has been going non-stop! :) What that has meant for the blog is crickets. . . loud, chirping crickets. BUT, here's the first post, three more to come soon ;)

This quilt was #1 on my Q4 FAL list. #1 Check, crossed off list, done and dusted :) The new owner of this quilt is "thrilled!" So here is the oversized D9P all quilted up and bound!

The client asked for an all over quilting design instead of custom quilting. She saved me from myself! And gave me a great reminder of the wonderful texture and the fun of an all over quilting design. :) I had a blast quilting this quilt!

I debated on thread color . . . green? . . . variegated?. . . in the end I chose grey. And I chose Glide. . . Last time I used Glide, I had a LOT of issues with shredding and breakage. So I did some testing. I tried different threads in the bobbin and went to town on some scraps. Turns out, my machine likes a heavier weight cotton in the bobbin when I use Glide. Since I have a large cone (you know, the BIG cone) of Aurifil 40 Wt in light grey and another in lighter (Massdrop. . . no, still haven't cancelled that membership!!), I was in business! The other thing I did that helped a lot? I put one of those nets on the cone - it also made a huge difference in the stitch quality! I guess just that little added tension on the thread coming off the cone (I always use a thread stand) was just enough to stop the very occasional thread nest I would get on the back, on the top the machine would skip stitches so I knew there was something not right. The other thing that would likely help? Rosanne is due for her spa day(s). . . I just cannot be without my machine for days right now. I'll baby her until I get done with this quilt. Then I'll treat her to a day or two off! ;)

I'll be posting soon about the other flimsy I had finished in my Q4 post. It is also all quilted and bound and will go to its new home on Friday. Oh, and she added a pillow to the order so that will also have to be finished by Friday. . . Don't worry, it's mostly finished! :)

Two posts in one day. . . that hasn't happened around here in a very long time! Stay tuned, there's lots more to share!

Oh yeah, and if I don't talk to you again before Saturday, HAPPY HALLOWEEN ;)

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it Up Friday. And linking up with Adrianne over at On the Windy Side for the Q4 finishes party! Three out of five isn't bad when one considers I had two surprise commissions come in on December 5th for two finished quilts! And yes, those got made, my Loominous fabric is still uncut and Renee's mini is so close to finished it hurts!! LOL

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Large Category - Shanee's Sparkle

I was going to skip the festival this time around, my head has been down, I have been sewing up a storm. I have two finished quilts and a flimsy that should be finished by EOD tomorrow. . . and I have blogged about none of them! But I was talking to my mom this morning and she said, "You have to enter Shanee's quilt! You aren't going to believe this, I have been soooo engrossed in the current projects that I forgot about Shanee's Sparkle!! Whut?? Yeah. Totally forgot. I've either been really busy or I am officially old ;) So here is my entry into Amy's very fabulous Blogger's Quilt Festival (Large Category), just for you mom!

I made this quilt for my Goddaughter. Yes, she already has a quilt and yes, she loves it. But when I saw the fabric (Amy Butler, True Colors) and either the same day or very close to the same day, saw the Sparkle Punch pattern over at Oh Frasson! I knew the combination of the two must become a quilt and that quilt would be perfect for Shanee. So here is Shanee's Sparkle. Oh, and she absolutely loved the quilt. Sent me a picture of it on her bed. I just LOVE seeing the quilts I gift being loved :)

You can read more about this quilt here.

If you are here from the festival, welcome! And if you haven't checked out the festival, go, look gawk, be inspired!!

Until next time, keep on quilting!!

Oversized D9P Flimsy

If you saw my post on Monday, you have seen this flimsy. I finished this quilt last week. I've been quilting it this week and will finish it today, if my machine decides it is going to cooperate better today than it did yesterday. . . more on that in a few. . .

This is a quilt based on TUQ. For that quilt I used a layer cake. Making a 9 patch with 10 inch squares presented an issue or two. . . that's one whopping big block to cut into four equal parts. . . I muddled through and got the quilt together. For this one, I wanted bigger blocks. . . So I decided to make the blocks individually. I started with 12" inch squares. The prints are pretty large in these fabrics so I wanted them to shine. I used 5" x 12" rectangles and 5" squares for the three other units of the block. This quilt went together quick. This is a commissioned quilt and they wanted the sashings between the horizontal rows like I did in TUQ. Those sashings were cut at 5" (the top and bottom sashings) and the middle sashing worked out at just about 4". It was a border fabric (same as the one used in TUQ) and I had to go with the width it was. So enough of the background, how about some pictures? :)

Picture of fabric prior to cutting. Michael Miller Carnival Bloom, Brown; Amy Butler Violette Garden Fete Grass, Intrigue Floral Garden Pink/Burgundy; Amy Butler Cameo Harriet's Kitchen Sugar; Jinny Beyer Pallette Dahlia Olive; Michael Miller Batik Spa Scallop Turquoise; Kaffe Fasset Serpentine Magenta Lewis & Irene Bumbleberries Black (binding fabric) and for the backing Art Gallery Recollection Voile Sunday Clippings

Shot without sashing and prior to sewing together. Because the Amy Butler fabric is directional, I wanted to have all of the blocks laid out on the design wall prior to sewing. Yes, that second block in the last row is laid out wrong - I caught it prior to sewing everything together :)

Here it is all sewn together :) You can see I did a little tweaking with the block placement once the blocks were sewn together.

I fussy cut the two Amy Butler fabrics. When I laid it out to cut, I did not like how the cuts would end up really hacking up the design in the fabrics. Took a little time but definitely worth it :)

I am almost done quilting it. I would be finished if my machine was cooperating. Every so often, it decides to 'throw' stitches. And when it does this, the stitches are very loose. So I have to stop, rip out the stitches, redo the threading and bobbin and go on. I have not decided if this is about my machine not liking Glide thread (you might recall I was having this same issue the last time I used Glide) but I question that because this did not start happening until I had about half of the quilt quilted. Strange gremlins :) I will not use Glide on the next quilt, we'll see if this issue continues. . . Look for a ta da it's finished post soon ;)

Linking up with Finish it Up Friday. If you need some inspiration or just want to look at pretty things, check it out!! :)

Until next time, keep on quilting! :)

Q4 FAL List

I have been sewing up a storm and regular readers are about to see a couple of finished flimsies that I have not blogged about yet. . . I know, I've been more than a little quiet and it wasn't that long ago that I ran right to my computer after finishing something to post. These days I just keep sewing! So here is my Q4 (Does that sound so odd?? What happened to Q1, 2 and 3???) FAL list. Linking up with Adrienne over at On the Windy Side for the Q4 linky party. Last quarter was such a success, I'm hoping for a repeat ;) The link is open until the 15th - there is still time to join the fun!

1. Finish quilting this quilt:

No, I haven't blogged about this yet. . . and yes, I've started quilting it!

This is a commissioned quilt and I will have it sent out by the end of the week. Yes, I said will! :) Done!!

2. Another never seen before flimsy, another commissioned quilt (Done!):

I have not started quilting this one yet - but I am itching to get started!!

3. I have almost all of the fabric and the pattern will be the new Fat Quarter Shop pattern called Welded. This is another commissioned quilt. Requested color, pink. . . yeah, me and pink ;) I'm excited about this one. Lambs, horses, pigs and chickens have been requested. I'm going to fussy cut the Cotton and Steel Mustang in pink fabric for the sashing blocks. The centers of all of the other blocks will either be lambs, pigs or chickens :) I'm actually very excited about this one, I think it is going to be pretty cool if it turns out half as good as it looks in my head :) Done!

4. I'm doing a mini (not mini mini) quilt swap with Renee. We planned this months ago. Months. I'm putting it on my list because I know if I do, it will get done :) I'm not going to provide details but I have everything I need. . . including some pretty epic thread! I couldn't just use any old thread for this one right?? ;) Quilting is all that is needed for this one :)

5. Massdrop strikes again. . . When I saw the drop for Anna Marie Horner's Loominous line, I resisted. Really, I did. Until right at the end! :) If you have not petted this fabric in person, I highly recommend you do! It.is.gorgeous!! BTW, it is up again. . . and you have time ;) Then I was skipping through the sale fabrics at Hawthorne threads and found this:

Linen. Backing. SO soft and beautiful!! 'Nuf said.

I have Loominous for the front and that beautiful Valori Wells Liv print for the backing. And I have a plan. This is going to be my quilt. It is going to be big. I will use every inch of the Loominous fabric. I have a plan. . . This is to be started only after I finish the other four items on this list. . . Really!

I know there will be other things that pop up. Don't they always? :) This list is totally doable! I'm not putting the rose linen quilt on the list this time. . . I do plan on getting some quilting done on it though.

Until next time, keep on quilting!! :)

Q3 FAL - Shanee's Sparkle - Finished!!

Oh yeah!! Another to add to the done. done. and done. list! I am truly amazed at how motivating making a list can be!! LOL This was my first time linking up with Adrienne over at On the Windy Side for the FAL and I have to say, this has been a success! The linky party is now open so make sure you head over and check out all of the amazing finishes people have linked! Shanee's Sparkle (named after the recipient and the name of the pattern, Sparkle Punch) was number 7 on the list and my 'stretch' goal. I had my doubts about whether this one would get put on the finished list. . . that might have been due to my slightly insane quilting . . . it didn't start out that way. . . but then, when do things ever end as they are intended here?? ;)

OK, here it is!!

I wish you could run your hands across this quilt! The texture is amazing!!

I had SO much fun quilting this quilt! I was sitting with pencil and paper drawing out various designs and all of a sudden, the design that went into the pinwheels was born :) Then, after quilting just one of them on the quilt I started thinking about those stars. . . rulers? No, they are wonky stars so ruler work didn't seem to fit the bill. Back to doodling on paper. . . and then I thought, spiral, swoosh through each of the star points. That works! Imagine my surprise when I quilted it out, turned it over and saw that the design made a secondary design, framing the pinwheels!! I just love unintended happy secondary designs!! :)

Cue Happy Dance! OK, is is really only noticeable on these solid pieces of fabric on the back BUT how cool is that???

First, I stitched in the ditch around all of the gray pinwheel/whirly giggies. In free motion with a ruler. If you haven't tried SITD with a ruler in free motion - seriously, try it!! But even though it was FMQing, and you know how I love to do that, it was still SITD so when I came up with the doodle for the pinwheels, I was excited and had to check it out. I did one and sent it to my #1 fan. The response? "Intricate much? lol" . . . yeah, told him I needed my head examined.... there are a lot of those in the quilt! His response? "Lots of hospitals around! Haha" . . . How's that for encouragement?? Thank you #1 fan. . . I think ;)

After doing that first motif, I got excited, really excited and SITD lost its luster! LOL BUT I plowed through it and did it. I was really shocked at how square this top ended up being, there was a LOT of potential for wonk to set in with all of that bias. I wanted to keep those blocks square while I was quilting and I know of only one way to do that. . . the dreaded SITD :) OK, more pictures!!

Those pinwheels are one of the about bajillion things I love about this pattern. I wanted the quilting to really put some emphasis on them :)

Instead of stitching over the spine of the feathers, I chose to do a fill that took two passes to complete. A little trick I learned from Gina Perkes! :)

I used various different colors of thread for the stars. White, maroon, yellow, green, blue, gray. . . I had to break thread anyway so why not? LOL

Shanee is lucky I love her so much! This one is going to be very difficult to send away!!

And the back. I used voile (Floral Asphalt by Sarah Lawson for Art Gallery) for the backing fabric. It is absolutely YUMMY! I may or may not have miscalculated how much I needed. . . OK, yes, yes I did miscalculate but I was able to find two fat quarters in my stash that matched perfectly! Combine those with a little creative pieces and VOILÀ!

So I found out Shanee, like her auntie, is not a huge fan of pink. . . oops! BUT she is a huge fan of vintage :) I thought maybe the blue and orange would pull out more of those colors.... it kind of worked. . . LOL

Had to include this picture, just love how the stars shine through ;)

And one more picture of the front. . . just because :)

It just makes me smile :)

For the binding, I used one of the fat quarters from the bundle and some of the background fabric. If you are interested in more information on my experience piecing this quilt, go here. :)

OK, making my list for Q4!! . . . watch for that post soon. I have three commissions (I know, no, I typically do not do commissions but they all asked nicely! LOL), a private mini swap and something totally awesome for me planned!

Wait, what about number 6 on the list? Um, no, didn't even put one stitch in the rose linen quilt. . . it will go on the list again. . . But I completed 6 of the seven items on the list! Not only that, this FAL thing has renewed my blogging bug :) Not to the point that I'm posting multiple times a week, but at least I'm getting more than two posts a month ;)

As I said at the top, linking up with Adrienne for the Q3 FAL party, head over there - there are SO many finishes. I dare you not to be inspired!! ;) Also linking up with Lorna for Let's Bee Social, make sure you check out the awesomeness over there too! One more, Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday!


Until next time, keep on quilting!!

Flimsy Finish Friday

OK, this is going to be a quick post. The flimsy for Sparkle Punch is finished. If you want the low down on the process of sewing this baby together go here. Many details and thoughts shared :) I finished this flimsy on Sunday. It was basted quilting began on Monday. I have had my head down and I have been quilting like crazy but it seems like I am making no progress! Does that ever happen to you? Yeah, I might be quilting it to death but jeeze. It seems to be taking forever! :) OK, that's it, the only thing I have to say about sewing the flimsy together is this - I only turned one block and I caught it early in the game so it only required a very little ripping :) Without further ado, here it is!!

As promised - short post :) I'm going back to the machine to continue the quilting . . . Still not convinced this is going to be finished by the 1st. . . . focus!! :)

Linking up with Finish it Up Friday. Make sure you check out all of the awesome makes people link up to this very popular linky party!!

Until next time, keep on quilting! I know I will be ;)