Riding The Wave Quilt Done!

We had such a fun weekend, it was amazing how much we were able to fit into the 3 days we had off! We were able to leave town in the early afternoon and drive the 4 hours down south to Coos Bay, Oregon. Coos Bay is on the coast, and has a huge Sand Dune state park. Our friends invited us to come and stay with them for the long weekend. They had rented a house right on the dunes so you could ride your 4 Wheelers or Dirt bikes to them. We had a wonderful time!

While we were there, I was able to finish a quilt. I got the binding sewn on before we left, so I could hand stitch it down on the drive. I got half of it done on the drive down and the rest done on Saturday in between riding 4 Wheelers. I am happy to show this quilt to you, I have been working on it for a long time and am glad it’s done to use now. The mermaid fabric is by Heather Ross, called Mendocino. I bought it when it came out a few years ago, and still love it as much as when I bought it!

The pattern is called New Wave by Elizabeth Hartman, at Oh Frannson! It took awhile to piece the top, because as you can see, it’s pretty huge. I quilted it doing a stipple pattern using aqua thread, and put a soft blue flannel on the back.

I had Charissa take pictures for me at the house there. Wouldn’t that be a nice yard to use for pictures year round?? Too bad it’s so far away :)

Garden Trellis Quilt Done!

I finished up the Garden Trellis quilt this week, and I am so pleased with it! I used a Martinique Jelly Roll, designed by 3 Sisters. I love pretty much every fabric line that 3 Sisters designs, they always seem to match my house :)

I've been drooling over my Jelly Roll Quilts book for a few years now, and finally made a quilt from it! The pattern is called Garden Trellis. It went together easily, the hardest part was most of the fabrics in this collection are lighter toned, so I had to be careful how I placed the strips so that it didn't blend together.

This quilt is going to be given to Jessie's teacher Mrs. McCullum. I am making another quilt right now for her other teacher Mrs. Petrick. I hope I can get the second one done in a few weeks! The backing is pieced, I need to baste, quilt and bind it though... hmmm...

I found the backing on clearance at Craft Warehouse for$4/yard SCORE! It matches really well, I am happy about that, and it's my fave color, AQUA. Mmmm.

After taking photos of this quilt, I am realizing it really matches my beachy decor. Oh no.

I may have to keep it! (yeah right)

Ragged Squares Baby Quilt

In my effort to use up the stash this year, I decided to make a baby girl quilt for my soon to be born niece! I have had a lot of this fabric for quite some time. I googled: baby rag quilt patterns and up popped a tutorial from Crazy Mom Quilts! I love her quilts and her blog, so I happily cut my fabric up and made this quilt. It was quick and easy.

The tutorial can be found here: How to Make A Ragged Squares Quilt

It's a good sized baby quilt, kind of big, so it can be used for growing up years. I love this size.

I love the scruffily edges it creates, I washed and dried it, then cut off all the excess fuzz and strings.

The backing fabric I've had for awhile too, I think it is SOOO cute. I love princesses and castles though, I can't help it, I'm so girly like that. As you can see from the picture below I didn't have quite enough of it, so I had to add a strip of yellow fabric. I even pieced the batting from scraps! I plan to put a label on it as soon as I find out what her name will be. I am happy with this pattern and plan on making some more in my future for more babies.

Rectangle Squared Quilt Finished

The pretty Rectangle Squared quilt is all done. It is going to a new home this summer. How lovely are these colors?? I really do enjoy this quilt, it's very happy. While I was in Montana in October, I stopped at a quilt shop in somebody's home called 4 Winds Quilting. She had some gorgeous bright fabrics. I fell in love with the Amy Butler print you see on the border, it is from the Love collection. I like the dark purples, and the flower print on it has many different colors to match to. I then went through my stash and pulled out lots of lime greens and purples to go with the Love fabric. By the way how do you like my cute quilt models?? Adorable kids! I like that my kids and my neighbor kids are unfazed with my quilting, they are all involved in it, whether it is ironing, helping me choose colors, or just watching me. I have an audience all of the time LOL!I stipple quilted the quilt using a lime green thread on front and back. On the border I used a dark purple thread so it'd blend in better. The pattern is called Rectangle Squared and can be found at Film in the Fridge.
I am trying so hard to use up my stash and not buy a lot of new fabric this year. The back of this quilt shows that. I had about 2 yards of that green flannel in my stash, the purples on the sides were used in the Trip Around the World quilt you see on my side bar. I've had them forever!
It looks good in my living room right?? I may have to make another quilt using these colors. See that painting on the wall? I just hung it this week, and it is soooo pretty. More on that print to come soon.

Hexagon Quilt Finished

Well here she is, after almost a year of working on. The hexagon quilt is officially done and ready for use! I kept the quilting straightforward and simple. I outlined the star and the inside pattern of the block. I used a turquoise print for the binding, my favorite color.

I got creative with the back, I only had 3 yards of the flower and bird print. So... using the leftover triangles from the blocks, I pieced them into long rows and added them. I had the pink in my stash and it was just the right color, so I added a strip of that to the bottom.

This is for sure the hardest quilt I've pieced, but all of that hard work and unpicking of seams and re-ironing was worth it. It's such a pretty quilt. The fabric I used is called Plume. Tula Pink designed it for Moda. It was a jelly roll, with white background fabric. Julie at Jaybird Quilts had a quiltalong for it. I really encourage you to make one!

McGuffy Schnibbles for Lara at the PMQG

Last month at the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting we were asked to bring a sandwich baggy full of fabrics. The idea was to have somebody else bring home your baggy of fabric, make something out of it and only add one fabric to it. Then they bring it to the December meeting and give it to you. The bag of fabric I received was from Lara. She stuffed in that bag 80 5” x 5” squares of batik fabrics! She had wrote on the note inside that she “loves Batiks and is not ashamed” LOL! It’s okay Lara, I love batik fabrics too, they are so pretty and colorful. You all know what I like to do with 5” squares. Make Schnibbles quilts of course! 80 squares is pretty much the perfect amount to make one, so it was meant to be.

I chose the pattern McGuffy, from the book Schnibbles Times Two, I like the square in a square pattern, it’s clean and simple. It needed to be a simple pattern for this crazy fabric anyway. The fabric that I added to this quilt was the red, I had over a yard of it in my stash, so it worked for the border, binding and backing.

I used a red variegated thread to straight stitch on it. I was happy how it turned out. It’s very busy and bright, and very refreshing for me to make. Thanks for the fun fabric Lara! Jen had my fabric, and I will post photos of it next time, I am in love with what she made. The meeting last night was so much fun. There was lots of food, and the projects that everybody made their partners were AMAZING!! There were so many bags, placemats, journals, quilts, a growth chart, they were all awesome. If there is a Modern Quilt Guild in your area, I highly encourage you to attend, it is worth it.

I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I will not be posting until after Christmas, we have the week off, and I plan on relaxing and enjoying my time with the kids. I hope you all can enjoy being with your friends and families this coming week. Thank you for your friendship and encouragement, I really have been blessed!

Love, Heather

This is the photo I sent out in our Christmas cards. It was taken last month up in the San Juan Islands at Friday Harbor, it was so beautiful there!

Quilt #3 from Stash

Making quilts from your stash: Quilt #3

Magazines are one of my favorite things to get. They are full of inspiration, tips and ideas. I love my magazine stash! I’ve said before my favorite quilt magazine is Quilts & More. It’s published by Better Homes and Gardens. You can’t subscribe to it (darn it!), and it’s quarterly. So if I see one I just pick it up. It has lots of simple quilts and fun little projects. Check one out if you can.

This magazine is dated Spring 2008: I was searching for ideas to make a two color quilt. Then, I happened upon this photo. I love this quilt, isn’t it pretty?

My chosen colors are cream and green. I have lots of the colors in my stash and wanted to use them up. Plus the recipient of the quilt would love these colors, it matches their newly remodeled basement. I pulled out the calculator and started figuring out how many squares to cut to make a twin size quilt.

The green fabrics varied in value, lots of dark greens and light greens. I think it would have looked a little better if the greens had all been darker, but I still like how it turned out. There was no way I was buying more green!

The quilt size is: 80" x 80" So, yes it’s bigger than a twin size. I don’t ever make a small quilt… it’s hard for me! I backed the quilt in a green flannel, and put some of my leftover tan flannel stash in the center strip. I stipple quilted it using my domestic sewing machine. The thread color is tan. It's really soft and snuggly.

So, I got all 3 quilts from my stash completed in time to give as Christmas gifts, I am thrilled about that. It was a lot of work, but the people I am giving them to are worth it :)