Wednesday, July 30, 2014

WhIPped into Shape

Summer is always a busy time of year, especially if you live on a lake. All picnics are here. I have four of them in the next week. Sunday is my quilt guild picnic, so you know I have to get my sewing room in order. ;)

So I spent some time this week organizing my scraps.

These are the scraps for my Victoria Findlay Wolfe scrap quilt project

A tote full of the rest of my scraps

Scraps of solids and batting to make practice FMQ samples

My fairly organized sewing room
As you can see in the picture of my sewing room, I also had time to get my Modern Scottish baby quilt basted.

I love the backing for this quilt, which by the way was found in my stash! It was EXACTLY the right size, not an inch to spare!

Even though there is no official WIP Wednesday, this is the best way I know to keep track of my projects.

Here are this week's stats:
In-process: (6)
Express Your Love
Humphrey's New Bed
Mod Ovals Quilt
Pantone Quilt 2014
Modern Scottish Baby
IMQG Block Swap
VFW Scrap Fabric Quilt
 
New projects: (0) 


Finished (0)



Color Me Quilty!
Pat

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Quilty Pleasures

The other day I stopped in at a new quilt shop in my area, Quilty Pleasures, located in Geneva, NY. I LOVE that we have a new store in the area, easier to do a little fabric therapy!

They have a good selection of solids, which if you know me, you know they are my favorite.

A huge selection of marbled fabric

And even a selection of modern fabrics.
PLUS, Quilty Pleasures carry two of my very FAVORITE items.

Aurifil Thread

Quilters Dream Batting

 They are still working on opening up another section of the store and they have a list of products ordered, that are arriving daily. They are offering classing and have a long-arm quilting service.

I met one of the owners, she was very nice.
Be sure to check out Quilty Pleasures, they have an online store too!
I'm linking up today with Free Motion by the River for Linky Tuesday and A Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday.




Fresh Poppy Design












Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

QBL Class with Victoria Findlay Wolfe

I spent the last two days in a class at Quilting by the Lake (QBL) taught by Victoria Findlay Wolfe. The class was based on her book 15 Minutes of Play. Basically, you use your scraps to make fabric.




I'm not a huge fan of scrappy quilts, but I'm pretty pleased with the effect of this technique. I really want to make a quilt out of this. I know I certainly have enough scraps!

Here are some of the projects that others made in this class.


There were quilters from all over the country. Absolutely amazing work. If you ever get a chance to go to QBL, you won't be disappointed.

Well, another project to add to the WIP list!

Here are this week's stats:
In-process: (6)
Express Your Love
Humphrey's New Bed
Mod Ovals Quilt
Pantone Quilt 2014
Modern Scottish Baby
IMQG Block Swap
 
New projects: (1) 
Scrap Fabric Quilt

Finished (0)


I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!




Color Me Quilty!
Pat

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Fearless Free-Motion Quilting

I'm so excited and honored to write a guest blog post for Jess at Elven Garden Quilts. She starting a Giant Chevron Free Motion QAL.

Elven Garden Quilts


I shared lots of tips on getting started free-motion quilting, by setting yourself up for success.

  1. Practice samples
  2. Sewing Machine set-up
  3. Thread and Batting
  4. Ergonomics
  5. The quilt project
 Please stop by Elven Garden Quilts for a visit, let me know what you think!

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Should I Re-Purpose These Quilts?

When I was a little girl, I spent my summers on Keuka Lake (one of the finger lakes of NYS). The woman that took care of me quilted two identical quilts for the bunk beds in their cottage. This was sometime in the late 1960's.

 The fabric isn't really "quilt" fabric, but it really is wonderful (I would buy this in a heartbeat if I saw it in a store). She hand quilted them. They are both 55" W x 103"L. She left them to me about 11 years ago. This was a very special person in my life, but my step-daughters and grandsons have absolutely no connection with her. I would love to use them, but I don't have any twin sized beds.

She pieced both sides of the quilt to make it wider.

Simply beautiful hand stitching.


I don't think that as quilts go, they are particularly valuable, more sentimental to me. Would it be wrong to either join them together or add fabric to them to make them bigger to fit on a larger bed?

Give me your opinions!

Linking up with A Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday and Free Motion by the River for Linky Tuesday.

Color Me Quilty!

Pat

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

WIP Wednesday

I haven't written a WIP Wednesday post in a couple of weeks, so it will be interesting to see my progress on my list of projects.

I finished my MQG/Michael Miller Fabric Challenge quilt, quite pleased with the result. You can see and read more about this quilt here.


I also started a new project, my Modern Scottish Baby quilt. You can see and read more about it here.

One of my favorite quilt shops (Quilters Corner) had a wonderful sale recently and I finally picked out some backing fabric for my Pantone Quilt 2014. You can see and read more about it here.



At my guild meeting on Sunday, we started a block exchange. Everyone created five bags of scraps, totaling at least to a fat quarter for someone else to make a block for them. We then exchanged bags. Here's the fabric from several of my fellow guild members.


Here are this week's stats:
In-process: (4)
Express Your Love
Humphrey's New Bed
Mod Ovals Quilt
Pantone Quilt 2014
 
New projects: (1) 
Modern Scottish Baby
IMQG Block Swap

Finished (1)
Michael Miller MQG Challenge quilt

I'm linking up with  Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday!



Color Me Quilty!
Pat

Monday, July 7, 2014

A Modern Scottish Design Wall Monday

I'm making pretty good progress on my Modern Scottish Baby quilt. It's going together fairly quickly and easily.

The top is done, except for some fine trimming around the reverse applique'

I like how the Thistle "tattoo" turned out. The fleece will be really tactile for baby.

I still want to trim out more of the fleece. I don't want the dark grey to show through on the front.


Now I just need to play around with some straight line quilting to make the yellow check more plaid-like.


Friday, July 4, 2014

The Modern Quilt Guild/ Michael Miller Fabric Challenge Finish - YIPPEE!!!

Fastest quilt finish I've had in the longest time. Yippee, I finished my MQG/Michael Miller Fabric Challenge quilt. And I'm pleased with the result - The Deconstructed Pinwheel!








The back



This was a fun quilt to make. The finished size is 40" x 55 1/2". I used Quilters Dream Wool batting and of course yummy three different colors of Aurifil 50wt thread.

That empty spool on my Pfaff is my fav, # 5004. Fortunately, I just order some more of it through Hawthorne Threads.

To all my U.S. peeps, Happy Independence Day! To everyone else, Happy Finished Friday!


Today, I'm linking up with TGIFF,, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop and Finish It Up Friday


Color Me Quilty!

Pat