Pastel Nightmare OVER! :)

I won't bore you with going into a rant about how much I dislike pastels. If you have been following this blog for any length of time, you already know that and have read previous rants. I also won't indulge in discussing how much this quilt killed my sewing mojo. If you want to read about that, go here. It is done. Completely 100% finished. And I don't have to deal with it any more! 

As usual, pictures first (ummm... a lot of pictures. . . I haven't shown much of this quilt in process. I'll make up for it with a lot of final pictures!).

Quilt Stats: 59" x 71"

Fabric: All Michael Miller fabrics. Solids on the front and prints on the back. Since the quilt was originally designed to be submitted to Quiltcon for the Michael Miller Challenge and was pieced prior to my decision to forgo entering it, I followed the rules. . . how unusual for me! LOL If you want names of any of the specific fabrics, email me or comment, I'll look them up. :)

Thread: Completely pieced and quilted with Aurifil 50 wt thread. I matched the colors in the quilt. The quilting in the negative space was done with all of the colors used in the stars. 

Batting: Quilter's Dream Wool. My go to batting. This quilt is pretty densely quilted - it is not stiff. At.all. Love working with this stuff :)

Piecing: I used Jaybird Quilts Sidekick ruler for the diamonds. I only had to do two Y-seams. This was my first attempt at doing Y-seams it it really was not that bad! It lined up with no puckers on the first try both times!! Not sure why I have been skeered of Y-seams for all of this time! 

Quilting: I had a quilting plan all laid out. . . and even finished it - and then learned that those out there in blog land that had written about too much thread coming together at a point will make a quilt bow, weren't kidding. . . I had to rip it all out! I didn't even take a picture of it. Believe me, it was a mess. So much so that I spent an entire four days of ripping. . . full days. 8 hr days. . . I ended up doing straight line quilting echoing the stars (OK, not exactly straight but pretty close). For the straight line quilting in the negative space and to echo the inside of each of the stars I used my walking foot. The fabric stars were FMQed with different designs in each one. By the time I hit the last one I was struggling with something that would work in what turns out to be some rather odd spaces. As you can see in the green star, I started with one design, decided I did not like it and instead of ripping it out (seriously, after ripping for four days on this thing I was not about to spend one more minute!!), I just started doing something different. . . I see it clearly. Did you notice? :) I'd love to hear what you think! 

What did I learn in making this quilt? Well, first a major positive - I will never pass on a design or decide I can't do a particular quilt because it has Y-seams! It was actually kind of exciting turning it over and holding my breath in anticipation of seeing whether or not it actually worked! LOL It's the little things people! I watched many tutorials on Y-seams. In the end, an oldie but a definitely a goodie was the one I followed. She had me at "we're going to break the rules a little from what you may have seen". . . Kaye Wood break rules?? Sign me up! :D

Another positive - the Sidekick ruler - LOVE it! I also have the Hex 'n More ruler but have not used it yet. . . I think with the two of them, one could make some pretty amazing quilts! Well, we know that, I'm sure you've seen the quilts on Jaybird Quilts blog!

And one more positive - Michael Miller's Cotton Couture fabric is really wonderful! Not as heavy as Kona but I wish you could feel how soft it is! I will be using Cotton Couture fabric again - just not these pastel colors :)

I said it a few posts ago and if you followed the link at the beginning of this post you already have read that I also learned that working with colors that do not inspire me - is a creativity killer for me. I can already feel my mojo coming back in force! I have my next quilt mostly designed and will start cutting today! YAY I'll post more about that in a day or two. 

With the completion of this quilt, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I can move on! It is amazing that once I decided I was not going to submit this quilt to Quiltcon, I sat down and just started quilting - whatever came to mind. And I think it works rather well. 

So there you have it. I didn't name the quilt. The recipient's name is Kimber. . . this is Kimber's quilt LOL I know she will love this quilt. Maybe she will take it with her to Kindergarten for nap time and sleep under the stars :)

Linking up with Design Wall Monday, Amy over at 13 Spools for Mistakes and All, Let's Bee Social and Finish it up Friday. Woohoo, two consecutive Fridays with completed quilts! Gotta love that!!  

Off Course Done and Dusted

We took Off Course outside for her photo shoot yesterday. The binding is sewed on and she has been through the wash. I submitted her to QuitCon. Now, with all of you out there that have entered quilts, I wait. I don't like this part! haha I would be thrilled to have her hang at QuiltCon but I know the competition is stiff and if the quilt number Off Course was assigned is any indication of how many entries had been received up until yesterday afternoon - holy wow!! 714!!! I'm kinda not holding my breath on this one. . .

Speaking of waiting. The wait is over for Spin as to whether or not she got accepted into Road to CA. She did not. Disappointed? For about 10 seconds, yes. I was a little  surprised at how little the 'rejection' effected me! I guess my perspective helps. . . it's a crap shoot (literally!! LOL) and the process is subjective to those who are doing the jury process. What floats my boat may not float theirs. Wouldn't the land of quilts be a totally boring place if we all loved the same things?? I for one hope that never happens!

Here are some pictures of Off Course Done and dusted. . . OK a LOT of pictures LOL

Close up of quilting.

Another closeup of quilting....

And another. . . Yup that's my arm and hand LOL

And another for good measure :)

And another close up just because.

And a shot of the back :)

Quilt Stats: 58.5" x 68"

Fabric:The New Colourshott fabrics for the background, Vintage Silver (COTX28), Charcoal (COTX29), Black (COTX30); the blues are Banda (COTX16), Timor (COTX17) and Celebes (COTX18); and the pinks/purples are Lilac (COTX19), Sweet Pea (COTX20) and Dusk (COTX21). I have said it before and I will say it again - these new Colourshott fabrics are nothing short of amazingly awesome! Michael's customer service can.not.be.beat! Check out the Shotthrough blog for free patterns and lots of inspiration! You might see Off Course there. . . OK, you will if you go here!! How cool is that?? :D I used Widescreen by Carolyn Friedlander in black for the back. Seriously LOVE this fabric for backings!!

Batting: I used a double bat of Quilter's Dream Wool and Quilter's Dream Select 100% Cotton. I have used this combo on several quilts - LOVE! Even though this quilt is pretty densely quilted, it is not stiff or hard. Gotta love that!!

Thread: Isocord for everything. . . colors? Not sure. . . Black for the back. I matched the colors for the front.  If you are interested in the color numbers, let me know, I'll stop being lazy and look them up! HA

Piecing technique: I did not paper piece this however I did draw up two different templates. One for the blue geese, one for the purple/pink. I cut the triangles for the geese and the 'wings' from the templates and then pieced them together. It actually worked well. The blocks finish at 9". For the negative space, I cut 9.5" wide strips and pieced them to the geese by rows and cut them to size as I went. Probably not the most efficient way of doing it. . . but then again we all know there are times I'm not known for my efficiency :D 

My biggest lesson learned in the process of making this quilt? Sometimes what seems like a complete total disaster in quilting turns out to be exactly as it should have been from the start! You can go here to read about my little melt down moment when I was quilting this quilt :)

So there you have it folks. Finally, a completely finished quilt! It seems like FOREVER since I had a finish! Oh yeah, it has (at least for me)!  I have an hour of quilting left on the MM Challenge quilt that is no longer going to be entered into the challenge. I'll do the big reveal of that quilt when it is finished (Monday at the latest because I am planning on going to start a new quilt tomorrow. . . WOOHOO! Since I made the decision not to enter the quilt - I'm liking it a little more! AND the quilting plan came together right after I wrote my last blog post about how this quilt killed my mojo!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday and Sew She Can for Show Off Saturday.

Miss me? :)

Crickets. . . there loud over in this little corner of the internets lately aren't they?? I decided I was going to put the pedal to the metal and get the MM Challenge quilt finished and hand sew that binding onto Off Course. In the process, I have been skimming blog posts of all of you wonderful quilters out there on my phone. Which means I'm not commenting much. . . And it also meant that I was insanely green with jealousy every.day. of all of the beautiful eye candy being finished out there and me sitting here. . . with this (I don't even know that I can come up with the right adjective right at the moment and most of them I am coming up with are probably not appropriate) quilt that I really intensely do.not.like. I'm going to give you my conclusion in case you get tired of reading this post half way through ;) I have decided this quilt is not going to be submitted for the challenge. It has stymied me for a month in terms of how to quilt it (and of course I thought I had that all figured out prior to finishing the top but NONE of what I had thought was 'perfect' came even close) and then when I had quilted the negative space, all of it had to be ripped out (4 days of ripping). It would.not.lay.flat. I might have it finished by the deadline, but I don't think it is going to rise to the level of being a quilt that should be submitted to a challenge. Honestly, I feel like a great burden has been lifted and I am now going to contemplate what I am going to make next. What I have learned so far in making this supposed 'challenge' quilt (Unlike AZ, it is cold and cloudy today - pictures are just not possible but I'll share updated pictures soon. . . it can't stay cloudy for long right??):

1. I need to think longer than 2 minutes before jumping into a challenge. . . It seems that I am not one that can take fabrics (more specifically colors - MM Cotton Couture fabrics are really fabulous to work with . . . just not these colors. . . for.me.) I really do.not.like and turn them into something 'spectacular.' I have made a couple of other quilts in which I used fabrics with which I was not happy. I hated the entire process of making those quilts. It seems to turn the entire process into a job. I don't have a job. There's a reason for that! haha 

2. I had not realized before (and maybe because my process is changing) that I start the process of making a quilt long before the fabric is purchased and the first cuts are made. I need to have a picture in my head. A plan of action. Even if it is going to be an improv quilt, I need some order to the chaos. Perfect examples are Spin and Off Course. The designs for both of those quilts came to me pretty much at the same time. I played around with blocks, techniques and colors (for almost a month) before I committed to making either of them. I think my days of seeing a new Jenny Doan video and running to the LQS for fabric to make it are likely going to be few and far between. And that is how I quilted for the first 9 months of my quilting journey. The tides seem to be turning. . . 

3. Putting pressure on myself to finish a quilt that has to be 'quilt show quality' does absolutely nothing for me but completely squash, stomp out, bury, completely destroy my sewing mojo. Pretty sure I'm not going to put myself through that again (any time soon... I admit, I'm impulsive it might happen again but if it does - could you please send me an email with a link to this post in it? lol)

4. When I don't sew. . . I find other ways to get my need to make things met :) I'll show you some of my crocheting makes at the end of this post. Oh, and lest you think that crochet might save you some money over quilting. . . I have officially found that this is NOT the case LOL 

Those are the biggest lessons so far with this nightmare challenge quilt. I am currently contemplating where this quilt will call home. . . in the mean time, I'm going to straight line quilt those stars, put a scrappy binding made up of the left over solids and call it good.enough.

OK, just so you have some pretty pictures to look at :) Here is what I have finished and started with my hook(s) :) 

This is a Minni Mouse beanie I made for a little girl's first birthday :) The ears and bows need to be repositioned. . . that will happen on Monday when I see her and mark the correct placement. I used this WONDERFUL basic beanie pattern for the beanie and this pattern for the ears and bow (with my own little changes thrown in ;)

Remember this mitten (go to bottom of post) I didn't like... so I ripped it out and made these - LOVE!!! :D Easy peasy made with this pattern. My only change was that I did not do back loop only, I used both loops - I wanted these babies to be dense :)

And last but certainly not least. . . LOVE this!! These are all of the colors, I'll do two rows of each color (as seen with the start of the second blue strip), then do three rows of each color, back to two rows and then one row. . . I might even add a border. . . I have never done a border in crochet before... we'll see :) The plan is for it to end up a very large throw. . . yes, I need to go back to the yarn store for more of the yarn. . . I am using this absolutely FABULOUS (and mindless - good for I'm too tired to sew times!) pattern. There is a link in the pattern to the tutorial - it is also awesome, highly recommend!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it Up Friday.

Until next time, keep on quilting!!

Sweet Progress

Few words, many pictures. . . really! Don't have time to write a long post (adult responsibilities are calling loudly and I have to get out of the studio!) but just quick, Off Course is squared, binding is sewn on the front and glued to the back. Let the hand sewing commence! I have had no issues so far - I'm going to say it again, if you are having 'binding issues' (of the quilty kind of course) watch Sharon Schamber's binding video. More steps and more work? Might seem like it but I can tell you this, it was WAY faster for me than having to take the binding off and put it back on ;) I even took a couple of snaps of the back! And finally a couple of pictures of some crocheting I have done out of necessity - cooler temps are here in the early morning hours. We take the pups out mountain biking every morning and I have been F R E E Z I N G. So I whipped up a cap, fingerless mittens and I'm working on a scarf :)

Enjoy the show!

Linking up with Connie for Linky Tuesday, Lee for WIP Wednesday, Lorna for Let's Bee Social, Kelly for NTT. Check out all of the inspiration found at these wonderful linky parties! Oh, and don't forget to vote for your favorite quilts over at the Bloggers Quilt Festival!! 

P.S. I think my sewing mojo is back! YAY :)

Until next time, keep on quilting!!

Off Course Quilting - It's a Wrap!

WOOHOO! Quilting on Off Course is complete! I was so excited about finishing it, I took it out from under the machine and ran outside to take pictures! We all know that this one has dragged on way too long. Well, this week has been a bit of an up and down ride while quilting. . . On my last post, I showed some of the wave quilting and the geese were quilted into the negative space but the 'wings' were not quilted. At the time, I said one more solid day of quilting and it would be finished. . . that was until I hung it up on the design wall after finishing the wavy lines and Cs on the right side. . . I hung up the right hand corner (standing on a stool, with a pin, this quilt is heavy and I am short!) and looked down. . . the wavy lines were going down. . . wait. . . I have it hung up wrong. . . no it's not. . . OMG. . . NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I could feel a tantrum coming on and a word that I won't type here was uttered. I sat down. Looked at it. Yup, they are going vertical not horizontal as planned. . . if you read my last post, you know I had already spent three days ripping stitches. . . this would take three weeks! I'm not inclined to spend the next three weeks ripping stitches! NO WAY! Then I cried. Then I decided that was getting me pretty much no where. Then I thought, well, initially I had kicked around the idea of putting the wavy lines diagonally across on one side of the blocks and horizontal on the other. . . vertical might has to work. Then I emailed sent distress signals to two blogging buddies whose opinions I value and respect (Yvonne over at Quilting Jet Girl and Sandra over at Musings of a Menopausal Melon). I had taken really bad indoor photos and attached them. Asked them both if they thought this was a fatal mistake or if I could work with it and call it a 'design element'. . . Both of them were so sweet doing their best to talk me off the edge. Both thought it was not a wash. Both took a good amount of time looking at the pictures and writing their emails to me. I thank both of you ladies heartily and send a big cyber hug and MMMWAH your way! 

How did this happen you might ask? Well, I had not put the quilt back up on the design wall after I finished quilting the blocks. I just started quilting the lines. What I know all to well now is that when quilting on a domestic, it is easy to get the orientation of the quilt all wrong. . . especially when there really is no clear indication by the direction of the blocks - let's face it, I've got geese flying every which way on this bad boy. Note to self - check often and if in doubt, put it up on the wall - being lazy about that could cost a whole lot of hair stitch ripping later!

It took me an entire day to wrap my head around my blunder. And then I forged ahead. Left side horizontal, right side vertical:

This picture is sideways. . . it is right side up in my computer file. . . flipped when I uploaded it. . . This quilt truly does have a mind of its own ;)

I was so excited about the finished quilting, I took it directly out from under the needle and outside to snap pictures :)

Close up of block detail. Nice pinky in the air while taking pictures don't you think? haha

LURVE the texture in the wings of the ghost geese!

I used a double bat, Qulter's Dream wool and 100% cotton, love the poof too!

Hmmm. . . I was so excited about getting these pictures posted, I forgot to take a picture of the back!! :) That's ok, you'll be seeing the finished quilt all bound and washed very soon!

I wish you could see this quilt in person. All of the fabric is from the new Oakshott Colourshotts. They are spectacular! And they were a dream to quilt. I used Isocord thread (two spools. . . yeah, I know!). The combo of the sheen on the Isocord and the colors of the Oakshotts is nothing short of amazing! Oh, and the weight of these cottons? They are as heavy as any of the other the quality quilting cotton I use. It is not thin and it is not 'see through.' I cannot wait to make another quilt with Colourshotts. . . umm, yeah, I have more, don't judge! One more thing, I am receiving nothing for raving about these fabrics (or the thread for that matter). I bought them myself. I love them because they are fabulous :)

On to finish quilting my Michael Miller Challenge quilt. . . first there's some major ripping that is going to have to happen. . . UGH! The negative space didn't turn out quite as I would have liked... the good news? I did it with the walking foot - ripping is WAY easier. I didn't say more fun, I said easier ;)

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and DWM at Patchwork Times. Also linking up with Amy over at 13 Spools for Mistakes and All. To see the final post on this quilt go here :)

Quilting Update

The quilting of Off Course continues. . . on and on and on :) I am making good progress! I have the plan all laid out now (we won't talk about the fact that it took months to come up with a plan.... and more to actually start executing the plan....) and it is coming together well. It has not been without some major time with my not so favorite friend, Mr. Seam Ripper. . . I had the brilliant idea to do a topography type of design in portions of the negative space. So I went for it. . . and I knew it was probably not going to work out as I was quilting but . . . you know what I did. . . I kept on going. . . So after three (THREE!!!) days of ripping, this is what it looked like:

You can see where the quilting was. . . It was a little too wrinkly and a little too wobbly gobbly.

After I finished ripping (and photographing) I spritzed it with water. The bagginess went away as did the quilting lines. OK, that isn't going to work, so I went on to this:

Now this is a design I can get behind :)

 Much better. . . IMHO. I decided instead of doing a different design where my 'ghost' flying geese make their appearance and divide the light and dark negative space, I would use this same design. Try to pull together the lighter and darker negative space. . . So now I have this:

This picture is with flash. . . hence that weird shadowing down the center of the dark negative space.

No flash but not quite as clear.

One more shot. . . Haven't put this up on the design wall yet and these pictures were taken at night... I just needed to show that I am quilting and there is progress :)

I could probably come real close to finishing the quilting on this bad boy today. . . if I did not have to be a responsible adult and maybe see that there is food in the fridge ;) And clean clothes. . . that might be good too! haha

Going to get back at it. . . I still have not done the Week 4 snowflakes for the Snowalong. . . I need to set up my other machine so I can do some snowflake sewing on my quilting breaks! A clone would be nice right about now!!! :D

Linking up with Connie for Linky Tuesday, Lorna for Let's Bee Social and Lee for WIP Wednesday. I'm hoping to be posting later this week with better photos of the finished quilting!!

Until next time, keep on quilting! 
 

Blogger's Quilt Festival!

It is time for the fall edition of the Blogger's Quilt Festival graciously hosted by Amy over at Amy's creative side! Unless you are living under a rock, your computer died and your smart phone is not delivering your blog feeds, you already know this, eh? :) If you haven't been over to check out the completely A MA ZING collection of quilts this year, go have a peak. . . I dare you not to spend the next couple of hours days looking at wonderful quilty eye candy!



I was going to skip out on the festival this time. . . and then I see all of the wonderful quilts popping up around blog land. . . and I just had to get in on the fun! I'm entering this quilt in the Large Quilts category.

I decided to enter the quilt I gave to my sister. I still haven't figured out. . . which is the front and which is the back :) I think she likes the back better - when she shared it on FB she only showed the back! I concur wholeheartedly!! 

Is it the front, or is it the back??? Hmmmm. . .

Back :) Was kind of a shame putting all of that work into a back! LOL

Spirals and leaves created all over quilty goodness.

And a closeup of the 'front' just because :)

You can see the original finished post here. The making of this quilt was not without its issues. . . there were many . . . Ahh but I think the finished product was well worth the PITA that occurred along the way!

Make sure you follow the links and check out all of the other quilts and vote for your favorites! You will be amazed, I promise!!

And for even more amazing inspiration, check out DWM over at Patchwork Times and Finish It Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts!!

Until next time, keep on quilting!