Button’s Globe {Teacher Quilt}

This year, Button and I got together in April to plan his thank you quilt to his teacher.

Button requires a little extra patience and care at school and we were grateful, as a family, for her extra kindness and support. We pulled out the Spelling Bee Book by Lori Holt that I had made the Joy pillow, butterfly and fox pillows.  I had originally planned to do letters, but he fell in love with the Vintage Life layout with the globes since his favorite subject seems to be geography.

He immediately became “bossy” and insisted on the fabric choices he pulled from my stash. 

I quickly was able to piece the blocks together. 

There was a bit of a slow down while I chose what to do with the “wire”.
I settled on a twisted chainstitch with a brassy gold perle cotton. 

We ran to the store to buy some sashing and border fabric.
He spotted the dotted blue fabric from the heart globe and we soon had a finished top to quilt. 

I was excited to be able to use my new Prostitcher program to do the crosshatch quilting on the globes. 

And also able to have fun and do free motion quilting everywhere else.  Stippling in the block backgrounds, wishbone in the sashing, and wild feathers in the borders. 

His backing choice wasn’t exactly what I would have chosen, but I just couldn’t argue because he was so determined to make decisions about her quilt.

We had fun digitizing his heart and signature for the quilt label. 

And I loved how excited he was to gift it to her. 

Quilt Stats:

Measures: Lap Size 

Pattern: Vintage Life by Lori Holt

Fabrics: Various scraps and stash. Sashing, Border, Backing and binding Joann Fabrixs. 

Quilting: Crosshatch and free motion on HQ Avante and Pro-stitcher

It was fun to see her open it

and also to see the reactions of his classmates and her!

And now it is summer....his favorite and my time of the year!!!

Lancer Spirit {Auction Quilt}

"Go, Fight, Win, Stand Up and YELL!!!"

If you have followed me long enough, it has become a habit of mine to find and make what I call School Spirit or Pride quilts.  I love to donate a quilt to each of my sons' auctions in their school colors.

Part of the fun is finding new patterns to use and I lucked out when I stumbled upon this pretty simple pattern at Riley Blake's School Spirit Quilt HERE.

I tried to use most of my stash, but it was getting a "muddy" feeling that felt forced, so I made a quick run to Joann's Fabrics.

 This is where I'm supposed to tell everyone that hubby picked out some of the important fabrics.  Insert rolling eyes emoji and saying "oh yeah...like I wouldn't have found them myself....."

This year, I finally braved the school logo for the first time and made a layered applique.

I will admit here and now that the embroidery was intense to design and execute with my multi-positional hoop.  The love-hate relationship with my machine and software saga still continues.

When I bought the fabric, I really wasn't sure what binding I would end up choosing.
 I had to use both the blue and green dotted fabrics to cover the entire perimeter.

I've learned through the years that it isn't always prudent to overdo the quilting.

To get a nice texture without spending hours, I did a free-motion quilting straight line quilting.
I'm not sure what to call it, but you can see it is almost like giant horizontal oval bubbles, of a sort.

I had to add a printed label to the minky quilt backing.  I can't help myself.

Quilt Stats:
Measures: 54" Square

Pattern: School Pride by Riley Blake

Fabrics: Joann Fabrics

Quilted: Freemotion on Handiquilter Avante

It did a little better than the School Spirit Twister Quilt and took a lot less work (other than the logo) and I hope even the smallest amount of money goes to the operation budget of a very small and wonderful school!

Independence Day {Quilt}

"In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved."

~Franklin D. Roosevelt

I mentioned last year that I loved the Quake pattern I have made.  It inspired me to raid my pre-cut bundle bookshelf and cut up a bunch of rectangles to make quilts for gifts and charity.

This quilt was a Red, White and Blue fat quarters with a few other random patriotic styled Fat Quarters from Joann Fabrics.

The Quake pattern, once again, came together very quickly.

I will admit that I'm not sure what happened when I was piecing this one last summer, but the strips really started to get very curvy?  I suspect it was an example of mindless piecing where I didn't make sure the weight of the strips were evenly going along my foot.  OR I was just impatient, as usual,  during the tube/cutting process that I didn't cut evenly. 

I did unpick and re-pieced the entire top with a bit more luck.

I decided on pieced backing with fabrics I had in my stash.

 and paired it with a Moda Three Sisters Diagonal Stripe.

I found a fun quilting pattern that I've been seeing around the internet. 

After practicing and seeing the example I was shooting for, I realize now where I went wrong. 

But I really don't mind the results!

Binding red and white ticking home decor fabric I have used a few times. 

 I sometimes like using unexpected fabrics for my binding.

Quilt Stats:

Measures: 54" sqaure

Pattern: Quake by All People Quilts

Fabrics: Joann Fabrics, Moda Fabrics

Quilted: Freemotion on Handi Quilter Avante

I've decided that I don't like the quality for a charity or a quilt gift.  I don't have a quilt that I keep in the car for picnics or fireworks?  I also noticed that it fit right into hubby's traditionally styled home office when I was trying to take photos, so I think it will work out for the more patriotic holidays!

Monster Bash {Quilt}

 My first 2017 finish....a Halloween quilt....am I early or late is the question?

To continue with the 2016 Theme of Sewing my Stash, this past October, I rummaged through my precut bookcase and found one remaining Halloween charm pack.  It was Monster Bash by Moda Fabrics I had bought to use as a backup option for quilt I made a client called Trick or Treat Quilt. However, I eventually found the original charm square pack she had requested like the original I had made.

I also pulled some stash for background, Essex Linen in Natural, and added a few leftover Riley Blake Lost & Found layer cake cuts from my Halloween Checkmate Quilts.

 This block is suuuuper easy to make using Material Girl's tutorial HERE.

Even Button became interested and very involved.  He loved "flipping" the pieces.

And he was so determined that we finish the quilt, he helped me with the piecing on the machine since he was determined to have it finished by the end of the weekend. We both agreed we liked the thin black with wider linen borders to make it larger.

I didn't have a good amount of yardage I liked for the backing, so I did purchase some fabric from Joann's.  We chose this Witches on Brooms on a gray background.

I was skeptical when I brought it home because I realized there weren't any gray blocks on the front, but went with it because I have no plans as of this moment to make another Halloween quilt since we currently have five.  I then changed direction from the original orange/brown dot fabric for the binding and pulled this black and white dot from my stash.

I have to say that I actually liked the gray background now. The white and black spiderweb blocks read that same tone.

I REALLY enjoyed quilting on the linen. In the past, I've been a bit frustrated that my quilting hasn't "shown" up and sorta blends in.  But the Essex linen played nicely.

I origianlly had intended to do spiderweb blocks and only did one small corner and changed direction with the more floral center.  The border is a wavy triangle all around.

I love that it will blend right in our more formal room, we jokingly call The Library.

Halloween 2016

I think it will bring in some color for Halloween?  

Don't you?

Quilt Stats:

Measures: 50" square

Pattern: Disappearing Four Patch (Tutorial at Material Girl's)

Fabrics: Moda Monster Bash, Riley Blake Lost & Found, Robert Kaufman Kona Black, Robert Kaufman Essex linen, Joann Fabrics Witch and Black and White Dot

Quilted: Freemotion on Handiquilter Avante

The best part?  When I finished the binding and presented it to Button? 

His response was "WE made that mom!  Great job team!" with a double high five.

He makes my day in an instant!

Sweet Silhouette {Quilt}

This was the first time I have had complete artistic control from start to finish on a school auction quilt and I could not have been happier!

I saw Angela Pingel's Profile quilt tutorial on her blog, Cut to Pieces, and knew that I had to make it for Button's Kindergarten year!
 

Her instructions on taking the pictures were perfect.  The only thing I made the mistake of was focusing in on some of the kids, when you should, ideally, stand at the same spot and make sure your camera lens is the same distance each time.

 
I had this great stack of solids I had picked up at Quiltcon in Austin and had used some of it for a quilt I'm working on for Button....just enough to do a quilt for 13 students. I found larger scale Alphabet fabric that I've used before from Joann's for the backing.

  I struggled to figure out a layout and decided to just do some empty blocks to make it a nice lap size.

I liked the idea of printing on fusible, but I already had a bolt of Pellon Wonder Under in my studio.
 I also really wanted my profiles to face the original direction, so I used a sharpie around the printouts, then flipped them over on my light box and made a line on the back.  Then I laid my fusible (sticky side down) on top and traced.  I cut up close to the edge, then ironed on, and then cut the fabric with fusible out.

My longarm ruler base was cracked in the move, so I didn't feel confident I could get the crosshatch that Angela's quilt had.  So I fused and stitched my applique and then quilted with it with a piece of scrap batting on my domestic machine.

I then cut away just to the edge so that it would help the trapunto effect I was going for with this quilt.


Before I pieced the blocks, I added their embroidered names.  I went in to the classroom and had each child write their name in the same size space.  I scanned and digitized them in my embroidery software so that they could be stitched out their EXACT penmanship.

Here is my confession part.  I told myself that a neutral thread throughout would work.
 I didn't want to change threads constantly.

And it looked alright-ish until I got to the end of the first row in the dark fabrics.....

I have not been listening to my gut the past few weeks and have paid heavily for it.
I spent six hours unpicking and reminded myself that sometimes there is a reason we should do the extra work.

This was the second time I used double batting on a quilt and I LOVE IT!!!
I chose a wavy crosshatch quilting on the empty blocks to make sure the eye always returned to the profile blocks.  They were fun and will definitely do it again!

I decided to quilt the profile blocks with free motion "doodling" and making sure I did an outline around the profile to emphasize the trapunto effect I was going for. I think it worked well.

See all the fun colors on the back?!?!  I was too hesitant to tempt fate and use a neutral color.  I'm thankful the backing was busy enough to handle it.

Had to share Button's little profile!  Unfortunately, I did not have a matching thread color for his fabric choice.  I'm not totally in love.  But his little handwriting!!  I melt....

I tried to match the letter backing, but soon discovered the lines just weren't matching.  So I added three primary colored strips.  I like how it draws the eye to the label though.

A solid black binding seemed the best choice to frame out the all solid quilt.

And, of course, I had to embroider a label for the back!

The thing I love the most is all the texture!!!

Quilt Stats:
Measures: 56" x 60"
Pattern: Profile Tutorial by Angela Pingel
Fabrics: Moda Bella Solids, Kona Black, Joann Fabrics Alphabet
Batting: 2 layers of Warm & Natural Cotton
Quilting: Diagonal Crosshatch on Babylock Symphony
 and Freemotion and Wavy Crosshatch on HandiQuilter Avante

And off it went to Auction....
and was successfully sold for a VERY generous amount to my co-room mom!
 I couldn't think of a better Mom-Son duo to win it!!!