Online Swap Blocks

Since I don't have a lot of spare time for quilting, attending a local quilting group meeting can be hard to fit in my schedule.  Because of that, online quilting groups have been the perfect answer for me.  I can fit participating in them whenever I have a free moment, and they have been great for keeping my quilting mojo strong.

I've mostly done online quilting bees.  Each person in the bee agrees to create and mail a block to the Queen of the month, with each member being Queen once.  I love being able to sample a wide variety of blocks without ending up with a bunch of orphan blocks.  It has also pushed me to try things I probably wouldn't have otherwise (paper piecing) and taught me what blocks I really don't enjoy making (log cabins).

Here's a sampling of some of the blocks I've created for members of the bees.

When I started participating in online bees, it was through the Threadbias website, but unfortunately, Threadbais closed last fall.  A lot of the members there transitioned to Flickr to keep our swaps going.  We are about halfway through our current bee, and it's been as fun as ever.  Flickr's format makes it harder for keeping a group organized and getting new members though, so before the bee ends, I plan to explore running a bee through Instagram.

Quilt Top Finishes

I have been woefully absent from updating this blog in the past year.  I did manage to finish a couple of quilt tops that I had posted about earlier, so here's a look at the finished projects...

The Snow Gatherings quilt top for my mom.  It was made from 2 charm packs and some yardage with a lot left over.  She's planning to make matching pillows from what's left.

Wonky Star Rainbow quilt.  I love, love, love how this top turned out.  Again, I have to give some design credit to my teenage daughter.  She gave lots of input on the layout of the stars and suggested the idea to do the border as one color fading into its neighbor.  I am currently working on hand quilting this.  I'm doing big stitch quilting with pearle cotton--each star is quilted with matching thread.  I'm using white for the rest of the quilt.

I still need to piece the top from my 2015 Newbee Hive swap blocks and since May 2016 is my month a queen, I'll soon have a bunch more blocks to to piece into a top.  

Wild Structure...Melon Mosaic

I've been a reader of Stitched In Color for a while now, and I think her mosaic contests are fun, but I've never entered one...till now.  Here's my submission for the contest.

I named it Wild Structure as that was the contrast that developed in my fabric choices.  

Quilts in progress...part 2

This weekend has been a very productive weekend for me, sewing wise.  I also had time to take some pics, so I can do an update to my works in progress.  I have 3 active projects going right now and a couple of swap projects.

A couple more wonky blocks done...

I've got them up on the design wall now trying out a possible layout, which will help me figure out how many more blocks I'll need.  Right now, I'm thinking this quilt will have a lot of white space.  I have the fabrics pulled for 5 more stars, so they should come together fast.  Still need to go by my LQS to replenish my scraps...I especially need reds and oranges.

The second project I have going is a Christmas quilt for my mom.  She found the fabrics and had intended to make a quilt herself, but since she's so busy and I'm obsessed with quilting, she asked if I'd do it.  Um, yes!  These are fabrics I never would have picked for myself--I like bright colors!  And the quilt pattern uses a ton of half square triangles.  I got those out of my system with the first big quilt I made.  Now, I'm finding that I have to push myself more than usual to work on this quilt.  So many HSTs to trim, UGH!  I really hate that part.

Project number 3, the quilt from the blocks I received during my month as queen of Newbee Hive #9 at Threadbias.  My hive mates made some lovely blocks--they've been up on my design wall for the past few weeks.  I've loved looking at them every day.

I'm thinking about sashing these in a light gray because I think it will make the blocks pop.  Sashing in white strikes me as too boring for these blocks.  I held up a dark grey that I have, but didn't like it at all.  Another reason to visit the LQS...

Quilts in progress...

So in an effort to get all the quilty stuff out of my brain, to make room for the boring important stuff I need to keep up with too (you know like work, paying bills, keeping up with my kid's schedule), I'm posting the quilts I have in progress right now.  Plus, what's the point of having a blog if I don't update it every now and then??

First up, wonky star blocks done in colors of the rainbow.

I had posted a WIP pic of the pixelated rainbow heart quilt to Facebook to get some feedback on if folks could see the rainbow effect in the heart.  One of the commenters to that post was another of my long time, very good friends saying how much she loves rainbow quilts. Well, if one good friend gets a quilt, then they all do!  I've wanted to try the wonky star block, so again, a win-win.  This one is going to take a bit longer to make though.

And, I need more scraps, I think.  I'm planning to make a trip to my LQS to raid the scraps bin--they do the coolest thing there with scraps there.  People donate scraps, and then you can purchase anything that will fit in a gallon size zip up bag for $5.  They then use the money to purchase supplies to make Quilts of Valor.  Cool, huh?  Since I'm fairly new to quilting, I don't have a large stash.  This is a good way for me to get useable scraps.  You'd be surprised at how much fabric can fit in a gallon sized bag!

I don't have pictures of my other project yet, so more to come...

Pixelated Heart Finished!

I wanted to follow up on my last post by showing the finished quilt.  I did get it done in time to give a completed quilt to my friend (yes!).  But first, here's what it looked like when all the squares were up on the design wall. 

  

I ended up not having enough grey fabric from my first trip to the Goodwill Outlet, so I went back for a few more pieces.

Here was my view finishing up the quilting on Christmas.  I had to have the quilt done by the end of Christmas Day--nothing like quilting till the last minute!  

 Binding is on and it's all done.  :)

 And here it is being held up by the recipient.  She loved it (whew)!!!

This was not the most challenging quilt to make, but it was fun, and it's always such a good feeling when you finish a quilt.  The fact that my friend likes it so much is definitely icing on the cake.

Pixelated Rainbow Heart

While I'm waiting on blocks from the Threadbias Newbees block swap (loving what I've received so far!  People's creativity never ceases to amaze me...), I decided to start a new project.

I have a dear, dear friend who loves all things rainbow and to whom the heart symbol has special meaning in her family.  After seeing several pixelated heart quilts around the 'net, I was inspired to make a gift quilt for her combining those elements.

So after drafting it out on paper, I pulled out my stash to see if I could make it work.  Since it's Christmas time,  I don't really have extra funds to put toward fabric buying.  With some adjustments to my original color layout, I found that I had enough!

Here's the beginning layout of the heart...

Many thanks to my daughter, Madeline, for helping with perfecting the fabric layout!  My first idea was to use a variety of black and white prints for the background of the quilt, but when we played around with the fabrics, we both agreed that the heart got lost.  Then I had the idea to outline the heart in black and use shades of gray for the background.

Here's the heart outlined in black...

I didn't have enough gray fabrics on hand to complete the quilt, though.  I looked at purchasing some charm packs online, but still wanted to meet my no spend goal.  We have recently moved to the Charlotte area, and I just discovered that there is a Goodwill outlet here.  You can by clothes there for $1.39 a pound!  I decided this would be the best solution--I would not be spending very much $$, I could get a variety of fabrics, and I'd be recycling (which my friend will love!).  So I brought home 11 pieces, one of which is a really cool sheet that I will use as a backing fabric someday, for $9.  Yay!  Gray dress shirts are perfect for this project.

And here's a pic of the current state of the quilt...

I'm steadily cutting out 5" charms from my Goodwill stash and placing them on the design wall.  I hope to be ready to sew by Saturday.  I have to admit...I'm a little obsessed with this quilt right now.  I wish I could put everything else aside and just work on it.  But I am very happy with how it's turning out.  I really think my friend is going to love it!  I am going to spend the week after Christmas visiting her, and I very much doubt that it will be completely done by then, but I would like to be able to show her the completed quilt top.