WIP Wednesday

The last chevron quilt is quilted!!  And I may not make another one by choice for a while LOL.  Like the pink one, I quilted this 1/4" on either side of the chevron in blue thread.  Next up binding.

While reading Maureen's post about her late night inspiration I was blown away by the simplicity of combining QAYG and strings.  I've been wanting to do a string quilt for a while but wasn't crazy about using a base.  Molli has a fantastic tutorial for string blocks but I wanted something a bit scrappier and bigger.  The brilliance of using my batting as the backing hit me and I needed to begin RIGHT NOW!  So last night I trimmed up some batting scraps and pressed/trimmed a handful of strings.  After a tough morning of uninspired "needs to be done" sewing I grabbed my pile and sewed up these four blocks.  And got happy :)

Over the weekend, as we made the bed, my husband said "We are going to need a quilt soon" and I sighed.  Because he is right.  The nights have been downright chilly.  Over the weekend I went to work cutting.  And cutting.  And cutting.  Several hours later I had this lovely pile of squares and strips ready for some marathon chain piecing sessions.  I do want to clarify something from my last post.  The close up of my first block does indeed show three 2 1/2" squares for the center white strip, but in all of my subsequent blocks I have used a single strip for that long white section :)

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced

Labels and Some Flower Fairies

Have you read this post by Amy at 13 Spools?  While I didn't participate in the comments the questions posed definitely got me thinking.  Especially this one

     Do you ever feel embarrassed to show one of your quilts to 

a "certain group" of quilters because of its style?

 

Because I have a quilt like that.  

 

A little background: I have several friends who are pregnant.  I have let each of them know that I would love to make their baby a quilt as my gift to them.  The first was Nolan's and while the color scheme was outside of my norm, everything else felt like me, as well as like Nolan and his Mom.

When Emma's Mom contacted me about her quilt she mentioned flower fairies and I can admit my heart sunk a bit.  First, what the heck is a flower fairy and second, how the heck do I make a quilt from them!  When I asked for more details, she sent me a photo of a quilt made from this Michael Miller panel.  This was really outside of my comfort zone.  But I really believe that if I am going to make a quilt for someone, it should be something they want.  Not something I want to make. So I bought the panel and made the quilt.

All along, I had no intention of sharing it on the blog.  It's so not my style and it doesn't represent Ella's Cottage.  But as I worked on it, I started to like it a little.  And I'm actually pretty happy with the design decisions I made and the finished product.  Reading that post from Amy made me realize that I should be able to share everything I make here.  After all, I hope that as Emma grows up she connects this quilt with the love that I have for her and her mother.

 

The details: The panel measures 22" x 42".  I beefed it up with an asymmetrical border in a green solid from my local fabric shop.  This is definitely the most styles of quilting I have ever used in a quilt.  I did some outline quilting of the fairies and flowers on the panel, connecting them with a meandering loop.  The small border around the panel was filled with four petal flowers.  And the green border is filled with a free motion flower from Angela's book.

 

 

The backing and binding is a pink/purple blender called Stonehenge.  I can't remember the Manufacturer and it seems my selvedge have been tossed.  I got it from my local shop and just looked for a blender that coordinated pretty well with the pinks in the panel.

You can see some fairy legs in this one

The quilting is done with a pale pink thread to blend in the panel and stand out in the border.  I really hope Emma and her Mom love it.  And I hope that you know you can share any of your quilts with me and I will appreciate them.  The more quilts I make, the more I truly appreciate the time, work and heart that goes into each of our quilts.  I would hate to know someone didn't show one of their quilts for fear they would be mocked or not taken seriously.

Bits and Bobs

I've got a whole bunch of little things to write about and none of them are really worth a whole post on their own so here is a little brain dump!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

First off, the winner of my 100th post giveaway!  I've struggled and struggled in the past to get the random number image in my blog with the number visible.  So this time I went old school.  I asked my husband to choose a number between 1 and 31 (the number of comments) and write it down on a piece of paper.  Then I had Ella hold it up for a photo op!

Congratulations to RobotMomSews!  You should have an email :)

#MSBHQAL

Well that's a mouthful, isn't it?!  If you haven't heard about the Molli Sparkles Broken Herringbone Quilt A Long yet, color me shocked :)  And immediately head over to read about it.  As soon as he began hinting about it, I knew I would be partaking.  Those broken herringbone blocks are so pretty and this way I actually tackle them instead of pinning them for years LOL.

I had a definitely plan to make a rainbow quilt from this block with each block representing a different color of the rainbow.  I'm honestly not really sure why I pulled these fabrics for my test block but I love it.  It will either become a cushion cover or a quilt LOL.  The tutorial by Play-Crafts is easy to follow.  It took me an hour to make this block but I'm hoping it will get easier as I get more familiar with it and don't have to read each step.

Churn Dash in Details

A few folks asked questions about my Jumbo Churn Dash so I thought I would answer them here in case others had the same question.

The finished quilt measures just under 44" square.  Some asked about my process for making the quilt.  Here it is :)

1. Decide how big I wanted the quilt.  I knew I wanted a baby size around 36".  So each block would be 12" sq finished.

2. Dig through my stash for appropriate fabrics.  Quickly realize that I didn't have enough blue or orange 12" square fabrics.  Choose the biggest ones and figure out how big my starting squares could be for my HST corners.

3. Make HSTs and measure to determine the size of my connector blocks.  Real precise LOL.  I'm just not very good as calculating HSTs so I tend to wing it if there isn't a pattern.

4.  From there I just assembled the churn dash and added a scrappy border to beef up the size.

I'm sorry it's not more precise than that.  I tend to not spend a lot of time thinking things through or calculating when I get an urge to make something RIGHT NOW.  And fortunately this block is pretty basic and forgiving :)  Here is a good tutorial for a 6" square if you aren't sure how to make one.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend that was less wet than mine!  I'm looking forward to getting back to a regular blogging schedule.

Jumbo Churn Dash Finished!

Back at the beginning of summer, I started seeing churn dash projects popping up all over the internet.  I was intrigued.  But I'm not generally a fan of traditional quilts and I like fast finishes :)  Then one day, I got a vision of it in jumbo and I could NOT get it out of my head.  Thinking about it all day.  

So way back in July, while my children were staying with their grandparents I whipped this up.  Took me less than two hours.  That's my kind of quilt top LOL.  Honestly the hardest part was coming up with enough large fabric pieces in my desired colours!  Then I folded it up and added it to my pile of finished tops waiting to be quilted.

You see, I had a definite vision of how I wanted the quilting to look.  And when I know exactly how I want something to look I get scared that it will take forever, or I'll screw it up, or it won't turn out how I want it.  But that picture up there ^ ?  That is exactly how I envisioned this quilting.

After reading a few other's experiences with spiral quilting I followed their advice and FMQ the very center.  But before I started that I took an hour to mark the quilt.  I marked out every inch from the center up, down, left and right.  Then I simply rotated my ruler, keeping the center point as the start, and marked 3 or 4 angled lines in each quadrant.  You can see it a little more clearly in this post.  After that it was simply a matter of connecting the dots.

It's backed with Simply Color Ombre in Tangerine and bound in scrappy blue to match the front.  I am truly in love with this quilt.  It's such a perfect option for a baby girl or boy which is rare these days.  It's going to be hard to part with this one but it is listed in my shop.  Hopefully it will got to a home where it will be loved and used often!

Linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts.

WIP Wednesday - The 100th Post Edition!

Today is my 100th post!  I was a little shocked when I saw that number yesterday.  It truly does not feel like I have been writing for that long.  And I'm double thrilled to share my 100th post day with Ashley from Wasn't Quilt in a Day!  Head on over if you don't already follow her.  She's got some amazing projects and has a giveaway to celebrate.  And since I love me a good giveaway as well, let's have one to celebrate mine!  Just leave a comment and Mr. Random will choose a reader to receive a Happy Go Lucky Honeycomb Precut!

Now on to the WIP goodness!

I've decided to get started right away on my ALYOF September goal.  This monster churn dash measures at 43" square.  It's all basted and the quilting is beginning today.

See all those lovely blue dots?  Marks for quilting.  It took a little time but I have a feeling it's going to be worth it in the end :)

Linking up with ALYOF Goals and Molli's guest post at Freshly Pieced.

On the Wall

I hope all of my North American readers had a lovely labour day weekend.  Hopefully one that was a proper send of to summer instead of the dreary rainy weekend we had here!  Don't forget, there is still time to take advantage of my back to school sale on fabric.  Just enter B2S2013 at checkout to save 20%!

Saturday was a rough day in my house.  I woke inspired to make all the things.  The kids were not so inspired LOL.  I didn't get a spare moment at my machine and after a two hour bedtime filled with screaming I had zero motivation to do any sort of thinking.  But I also know that an hour at my machine tends to soothe my nerves.  Then I remembered the simple patchwork quilt sitting in my WIP pile.

 

All of the squares were cut and half of the 4 squares were made.  An hour later and I had the rest of the 4 squares were made and I had a preliminary layout.  But the best part was the improvement in my mood!  And I'm left wondering why I put this off for so long!  It's coming together really quickly.  I'm excited to finish it up and get started on the quilting, which is what inspired the quilt initially.

What's on your wall today?

Summer Endings, Fall Beginnings!

School is set to start here and that always feels like a fresh start to me.  Back to routines, brand new school supplies and clothes.  It is so full of possibilities!  To celebrate, I'm offering 20% all fabric orders in my shop.  There's lots of great Moda to choose from so head on over to Ella's Cottage, fill up a cart and enter B2S2013 at the checkout.  I am more than willing to ship overseas, just PM to get a shipping quote.  And feel free to ask for a custom listing to save on shipping costs!!

When it comes to productive sewing time, August didn't start out too well.  But after a little whine, I realized I just needed to readjust my expectations.  Instead of expecting to get a lot done during the day, I had to set priorities and steal 15 minutes wherever I could.  Sometimes this meant sacrificing mindless internet time for my machine.  Seems like a fair tradeoff though!

Once that happened, I was able to finish String of Luck for the QAL at Christa Quilts.  This was my ALYOF goal for August. 

After that, I set to chain piecing Clementine Cross.  The orange is Bella Solid Clementine, the white is Bella Solid Bleached White.

And just this week, I finished up my Swoon quilt.  I couldn't resist joining #swoon2013 over on instagram.  But I wasn't feeling up to the full size.  So I cut back to four blocks and used Bella Zen Grey for the background.  The stars are made from fat quarters purchased from my LQS (I think 2 of them are Riley Blake?) and the green herringbone is from my stash (Robert Kaufmann, maybe?).  It ended up measuring approximately 54" x 54".  I'm really glad I decided to play along because I learned quite a bit doing these blocks.

1. HSTs are really nothing to be afraid of!  And they are so freaking versatile. 

2.  Ditto for flying geese.  I've been leery to try these for a while but nothing holding me back now!

3.  When working with HSTs and Flying Geese press seams open.  The first block was finished when I read Christa's Soapbox about pressing seams open.  I had some pretty bulky spots on that first block so I tried pressing the next one open.  It took a few minutes more but made a world of difference.  And I'm fairly certain I will be really happy when I'm quilting over some of those points!

4.  Don't wait until the last minute to take photos for the blog :)  It's rainy and windy today but I dragged my sick daughter outside to hold on for dear life #parentingfail  The pictures aren't great but I promise I will make up for it once it's quilted and bound.

Looking forward...

School starts next week which means a lot more sewing time for this lady!  However, not all of it will be quilty.  Christmas craft show season is rapidly approaching and my stock needs some beefing up.  Most of my time will be spent on that but I am setting my ALYOF goal to finish my Churn Dash quilt this month.

Linking up with ALYOF, Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF!