Tumbleweed {Blogger's Quilt Festival}

No.   No need to rub your eyes.

Yes, this is another quilt for the

I had to show you my Tumbleweed Quilt, my favorite quilt so far this year. 

 The quilt for ME!

I have to admit. This is my absolute favorite quilt right now.   It is not at all my normal taste of fabric, but it was FREE!   I won it from another quilter on her blog!

I love the Houston Rodeo and really wanted to not lose the novelty of the prints so that I could have it out during the time it is in town.  However, I also wanted to have a bit of modern flair, so I tried something new with the tumbler pattern.

 End to end horizontally instead of vertically. (you can see the layout at the top photo).

But the reason this is my most favorite quilt and why I am sharing this quilt for the festival is the QUILTING!!!!

 Yeehaw!!! 

Cowboy hats!

 Horseshoes with loops

 More loops with....horseshoes.

Last but not least, boots....with spurs.
Cute no?

I had a TON of fun doing these freemotion all over the quilt on my longarm machine.  

I did not have enough of the free fabric for a backing so I chose this brown fabric.  

The flowers reminded me of Texas bluebonnets.

 I am pretending the roses are some sort of Texas rose too! 

Don't burst my bubble, okay?

I had enough of the scraps to do a binding, but I really liked this print when I saw it at the LQS.
It is Moda Grace Bias Stripe by 3 Sisters 

I had intended to just put the label in a random corner, but I just didn't like the way it was glaringly popping out on the brown fabric.

 I decided to piece some scraps at an angle and then needle-turned it to the center of the strip where I had a large expanse anyway.

Worked out brilliantly.

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Quilt Stats:

Measures: 54" x 63"

Pattern: Tumblers (end to end horizontally)

Fabric:  Various floral and cowboy motif fabrics from 

Moda and other high quality quilting fabric lines (fabrics were all scraps)

Quilt Pattern: Loops with Rodeo motifs by myself on my HQ Avante 18" 

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I have to laugh because as I was editing the pictures I noticed a stray thread from my EPP project on the left of the backing strip a few photos above!

Proof that I have already snuggled under this with Button!

Who has somehow managed to steal MY rodeo quilt and renamed it from my awesome name of Tumbleweed quilt to

Little Horsey's quilt.

Nothing is sacred in this house.

P.S.  Thanks for stopping by if you are from Blogger's Quilt Festival.
To return to the Festival, click on the image at the top!!!!!!!

Imagination {Blogger's Quilt Festival}

It's time!!!  Are you ready for some quilt yumminess throughout the quilt blogesphere?

Imagine is the name of the quilting bee circle I am a member of for do. Good Stitches.  

This is Imagination. 

 The quilt makes me think of philosophers, staring into the skies and seeing stars...imagining what life beyond is.

This quilt had many challenges and road blocks for me.  The original, Imagination post walks you through it all.  For the sake of the festival, I will keep it simple!!!

The blocks: 

The sashing....and a pretty cool shot of the quilting!

I loved this scrappy piano key border.

A cool "on the longarm" shot of the quilting.

Scallops!

Simple backing for somewhat complicated quilting.

Close up of the back.

 

Binding

Solid Red.

I was so happy with the results.  The amazing blocks from my bee friends made it so wonderful!
 I couldn't be more thrilled.   

Quilt Stats:

Measures: 66" x 86"

Blocks Pieced by: Imagine @do.Good Stitches quilting bee.  Fabrics from their stash.

Sashing, Border fabrics: A variety of strips from my stash.

Backing: Blank Quilting Pattern #6239 and Kona Ash

Binding: Kona Cardinal

Quilted: By myself on my longarm HQ Avante 18.

This beauty went off to Threading Hope.  

I hope it brings comfort and joy to its recipient.

Thanks for stopping by!  I now must commence my perusal of the entries. Every single "season" I start recognizing my favorite quilts or I see some that have me meeting some new blogger friends!!!

My Worst Enemy

ME!

I am on a mission to start hitting things hard.  I have a long list that needs to be tackled and I need to really spend every second I can working on it.  I just need to start ignoring "me" for a bit.

I have already been sidelined to make myself this cute Go Faster Box Bag the other weekend.

And I managed to work up a tutorial for my do.Good stitches bee blocks last week.

Card Trick Block in two different sizes!

Saturday, I managed to pull out all of my Fat Quarters out of their bins and get them out on a shelf so I can see them.

This past Sunday, I kinda-sorta tackled the list by finally making a new throw pillow out of placemats I bought for the family room.

And late night Mother's day, I was thinking about my little girl, and decided to design a Butterfly Kiss block.

It is paper pieced and am hoping to find a tester or two after I figure out how to get it into .pdf form.  I was able to finish it up yesterday morning.

Otherwise? I have been working on this.

I promised myself I would NOT take this up.  No knitting or crocheting.

But then I found the DVD I had thought I had given away and I just couldn't resist.   

The first starts were rough, and I do NOT plan on making sweaters any time soon.  But I have a project in mind for a simple square.  We shall see!

 Now to get focused on everything else on my list.  I can't even seem to blog regularly lately!  "Me" needs to settle herself down!!!

Linking up!

Go Faster Box Bag

Last week, I finished the last hexi rows for my Stars and Stripes quilt.  

I still need to applique the stripe rows on their backgrounds, address my stars on the hexagon blue star panel, piece the sashing and borders, oh...and quilt and bind! So there is still quite a bit to go.  However, I am feeling very good about getting it done by the end of June like I had hoped.  Memorial Day weekend might be out of my reach, but it IS possible.  We shall see.

And since I finished the last stripes, like I promised myself...

I get to start my Hex on the Beach quilt!!! 

There are still plenty of opportunities for me to be EPPing on the go!

And because I have spent a bit of time on projects for others, I felt like I had earned a special small project for ME!

She is cute, right?  

The Go Faster Box Bag from the HexaGoGo book!  

It took me a few hours, but I have to say it is pretty cute.  I used some fabrics I had acquired on an Instagram destash by Don't Call Me Betsy!   The only thing I added from my own stash was the Painted Canvas by Laura Gunn.  If ever you need a textured solid, I HIGHLY recommend it!  It is really nice design.  And of course.  I have to let you know about some of the changes and some of the foibles I encountered.  I must promise you.  Pattern and instructions are wonderful.  It always makes a project so much smoother!!!!

First off, I did not have a good fusible interfacing.  It says in the book heavy, but I don't think she ever meant for someone to use Pellon's double fused interfacing.  It was all I had on hand and I did not want to go on a interfacing run.  It just isn't my nature to buy something when I can make do with something I already had.  I ended up fusing muslin to one side and the side and bottom panels on the others side. 

It stands up nicely, but stitching it together was NOT fun. 

I also added a pocket to the end.  The one thing I like to do when I am on the go is to have my scissors handy at all times.

Hindsight, I wish I had thought of it before I stitched it together.  I ended up hand stitching it onto the side panel.  It works, but I would feel more comfortable with a lined pocket for scissors, perhaps even the full size of the side panel.

Inside?  I added a small fabric tube with a velcro tab at the end.  

I have bobbins on mine because my spools are huge.  I tried to wind some thread from my big ones onto smaller spools I had, but had no luck.  Anyone else try that?

I also added a small felt pad on the inside for my needles. 

 I tend to just thread them through any bag/pouch liner and thought using a small white rectangle might be smarter to find it more easily?  I don't know, but it is fun.

And can we just address the hexagons?  Are these roosters?  I nabbed them on a Instagram destash.  The pattern calls for 1/2 inch hexagons, but I didn't have anything really small...so I went with 3/4" hexagons!

Things have been crazy around here (when are they not, may I ask?) and I am really itching to do another to-go bag.  

So don't be surprised to see one in the future.

Card Trick Block {Tutorial}

It's my turn to come up with an idea for the month of May for Imagine @ do.Good Stitches charity bee.

I have loved the card trick block ever since I first started quilting 16 years ago.  I actually pulled out my Singer's Quilting Bible (circa 1997...whew...getting old here) and lo and behold?  I still had the quilt block marked!  However, I have different sizes planned then the ones in the book.  One 12" block and one 9" block!  Hopefully, my bee friends won't curse me like they were when they were paper piecing their blocks for Imagination!  I plan to share it as a free quilt pattern in the very near future.  In the meantime, I will share the tutorial for both blocks.

Shuffle The Deck Quilt

Free Quilt Pattern .pdf download will come in the near future.

Hopefully, I can replace the image below with the real thing in June with all the blocks my bee comrades have won!

12" Card Trick Block {Tutorial}
Unfinished 12.5" blocks
 

IMPORTANT:  Fabric Choices. 

I recommend high contrast or value fabrics for this block.  Each “card” will stand out more effectively while overlapping.  Too low of contrast will cause them to blend more.  For the sake of the bee quilt, I am requesting white backgrounds, but I think this would be an amazing quilt with a low volume background print!

1. Cut one 5 1/4" square fabric each of background and four "card" fabrics. A total of five squares.
2. Cut two 4 7/8" square fabric of background and one of each four "card" fabrics.  A total of six squares.

3. Cut through the larger squares (5 1/4") twice diagonally to make four sets of triangles.

4.  Cut through the smaller squares (4 7/8") once diagonally to make two sets of triangles.
Note: the photo below is missing the second background triangle. 
 It fell on the floor when I was taking photos *blush*

5.  Layout your triangle to create the overlapping square effect. Use this photo as a guide.

Note:  You will have two small triangles of each card fabric leftover.  Keep them for a future project. I'm planning on using these on the back of the quilt (flying geese?)

Stitch your triangles together.

Chain-stitching can be your friend. 

6.  Start with the larger triangles in the corners.

Stitch the background triangles to the card triangles.

7. Stitch the marked triangles. 

Stitch the smaller triangles first.

Then stitch the pieced triangle to the larger triangle.

8. Stitch the center block.

  Stitch two small blocks and then the piece triangles together.

9.  Press your triangles and trim off your points.

10.  Assemble each row.  Then each row to each other.

11.  Press block.

 9" Card Trick Block {Tutorial}

Unfinished 9.5" block
Optional sashed block for an unfinished 12.5" block

Note:  Fabric Choices.  I decided to do blocks to show that sometimes your fabric choices might be similar.  The pink in this selection has orange and can read orange when cut into triangles.

  In this case, make sure that the two fabrics are not adjacent to each other and use your other fabrics to have your high contrast!

1.  Cut one 4 1/4" square fabric each of background fabric and four "card" fabrics. A total of five squares.

2.  Cut two 3 7/8" square fabric of background fabric and one of each four "card" fabrics.  A total of six squares

Optional Sashing:  For the purpose of my quilt design there is sashing to take the 9" block to 12"

3.  Cut two 2" x 9.5" strips from background fabric.

4. Cut two 2" x 12.5" from background fabric.

5. Repeat steps 3 through 11 from the 12" block tutorial to have a complete 9" block.  The layout is the exact same, just smaller pieces!

Optional:  Once you have pressed the block, add the 2 short background strips (2"x 9.5") to each side of the 9" card block.  Press the seams.  Add the 2 longer background strips (2" x 12.5") to the top and bottom.

Press block.

Hope this tutorial is helpful!  Stay tuned for the entire free quilt pattern!