Palatina {Mini Quilt}

I decided to join one more Schnitzle & Boo mini swap and this is what evolved.

My partner mentioned she liked the Lizzie House Meadow quilt.  

Since I haven't taken her workshop and her pattern wasn't available, I seriously contemplated making my own version.  But, then I remembered my friend, Lindsey at Happier Than a Bird, using a pattern for a pillow cushion that she had made awhile back.

Palatina Pillow

I shot her a quick message and she directed me to the the Palatina Pillow from There's a Thread.

I think the one thing that intrigues people the most with the Lizzie House Meadow quilt is the colors in the background.  I knew I wanted to switch the original idea of the low volume at the "back" of her pillow, behind the appliques. I instead wanted to move the low volumes to the front so that the colors revealed that cool secondary shape.

I chose the Cotton & Steel Basics fabric line to get COLOR!!

Here is my confession.  Their fabric lines tend to not really "fit" me. I like them, but generally can't see myself using them....until I bought their Basics line!!!


The big, giant DISLIKE my partner had was pink.  She said NO PINK!!!

 So I pulled as much pink from this GORGEOUS Cotton & Steel basics bundle  as I could.  I really worried she wouldn't like the purples I left in, but I felt that the mini needed their "cool" tones for balance.

I used the whites and taupe fabrics of my crosses.

I decided to use cardboard to secure the edges of the crosses while I hand appliqued them.
 When I was finished, I cut from behind, close (a bit more than 1/4")  to the seams on the back and then pulled the cardboard out.

The original pattern had minimal quilting, so I hesitated to matchstick the mini.

I do not regret it.  One bit.

The quilting hardly showed up on the linen backing.  I've been feeling lately that if you plan on doing intricate negative space quilting, don't use linen as a background!
 

 I love using a black and white binding on colorful or rainbow quilts! 

The quilt label is the circle of Cotton & Steel basics bundle. 

I sent along the mini with this coordinating hexie pincushion caddy.  

More details HERE.

Quilt Stats: 
Measures: 18" Square
Pattern: Palatina Pillow by There's A Thread
Fabrics: Cotton & Steel Basics and Essex Linen
Quilting: Matchstick with Gutermann Thread on Babylock Symphony

 I also made a Daysail version as a gift HERE.

But I still have a serious hankering to make a larger version with the Cotton & Steel Basics leftovers!!

Nativity Tree Skirt {School Auction Quilt Project}

 "and she gave birth to a son, her first-born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the living-space." Luke 2:7

 When we arrived to Salt Lake City, my friends all wondered out loud how long it would take the schools to find out about my quilting experience.  All it took was an Auction meeting in September to offer my services to the committee. The kindergarten room traditionally did a quilt for the class auction and they needed help.  How could I not speak up?

 I met with their room mom who had chosen coloring book images for the kids to color.  I sent her on her way with the approximate size, preparation of the muslin fabric with freezer paper backings, and my collection of fabric markers.  She chose the fabrics for the sky and background based on the fact that she wanted to do more "traditional" Christmas colors.

 She returned with two sets of Nativity scenes, unsure if I would need it to "fill up" the tree skirt.  However, it was too much, especially knowing that we had to keep the adorable drawings toward the edge of the skirt.  I saved the second set for the Nativity Wall hanging Quilt I made for the end of the year Kindergarten teacher gift.

I was really worried about the figures getting lost in the background and satin stitched them to some black felt and then appliqued them on the backgrounds.  It ended up being the part the parents loved the most.  The colors the kids chose and the fabrics the room mom picked evoked feelings of an authentic desert nativity scenen.  I made the creche oversized, had the shepherds gathered on hills of sand with palm trees, and the village of Bethlehem in the distance behind the Wise men.

This photo is actually from the wall hanging.

 I think I went a little crazy with the dense quilting, but I wanted to showcase the figures and also give the feeling of shifting sand dunes and swirling dense stars.  I can't seem to find a photo, but I made covered button closures at the opening.
 I also made a printed quilt label with the kids names on the back.  They were the main artists!

 Quilt Stats:

 Measures: Approx. 40" diameter

Pattern: none

Fabric: Kona Parchment, Kona Brown, Northcott Christmas Reindeer Prance, 

Henry Glass Beige Baroque, Moda Swirl

Thread: Omni Thread Natural Linen by Superior Threads

Quilted: Free motion on HQ Avante

I have to admit, I was pretty excited to hear how well it did at the auction! 
I hope that I can help them out to do just as well next year!

Barn Bat Pillow {Quilted Pillow}

"When witches go riding, and black cats are seen, the moon laughs and whispers 'tis near Halloween"

I think I've mentioned it before, but my love for Halloween decorations can probably be correlated to the fact that I grew up in a No Halloween/ No Trick-or-Treat house. Every year I end up making a pillow or a quilt for the holiday.

I thought doing my nails would be enough. But it just didn't satisfy my need for a quilted thing. 

Thankfully I had this special stack of scraps that my friend Lindsey had sent me. I really was trying to stay strong and not buy this amazing Witch Hazel line from Riley Blake. I'm still sad I didn't buy any. 

I knew it would have to result in a pillow or some abstract quilt. Luckily, I stumbled onto Elizabeth Hartman's Barn Bat Tutorial. I had the right dimensions and only needed to add four solid black blocks and one Essex linen block.

I adored the bats with the very first strip.   

Before I knew it, I had made a pillow top, hidden zipper back, and binding. 

I decided to just outline the bats in black thread on my domestic machine.  Stitched the front and back together and attached the binding. I love using the binding like a piping. 

I'm already thinking about next year's Halloween project. 

Flowers for Eleni

"Where flowers bloom, so does hope."

~Lady Bird Johnson

#flowersforeleni

This quilt. It is just amazing. I've been so honored to work on group quilts before, but this one?  This one just means so much to me. 

In the spring, a very loved quilt blogger, Rachel Hauser at Stitched With Color, and founder of Do. Good Stitches had something happen to her that I could so relate to.  Something was wrong with her baby.  She was so beautiful and shared her fears and worry over her baby daughter after her delivery. She wasn't sure of she what was in store for her darling Eleni's future.  I remember saying out loud. "Please God. Please do not let her join the babyloss club I joined in 2009. None of us members are excited to see new members". 

Then. In a flash. Jodi Godfrey of Tales of Cloth was doing a shout out for a bee blocks. Hashtag Flowers for Eleni. The irony was that I had just started making a mini charm pack of Simply Color by Vanessa Christensen that I had won in her Quiltcon class.

Within a day, I had six blocks for her to send to Australia.

As I packed them up, I had already noticed that she was receiving a huuuuge response for the flowers. And then I thought about how large it was going to be. And then I thought how expensive it would be to ship a quilt back to the states.  

Then, as if my darling Jamie Lynn had whispered in my ears "tell her you can quilt it" 

The back:  TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY QUILTERS NAMES!!!!

Fast forward to the finished top. It took Jodi a bit longer to send it to me than we had anticipated. Because she had received 
550 Flowers. 
From 240 quilters. 
From 4 continents. 

It took the efforts of my tallest son and husband to hold this mammoth quilt up!

Amazing, right?

Here's the ugh part. I had to take down Ole Betsy right before for our move to Utah within days of its arrival on my doorstep in Texas.  Bummer.  I reminded myself that I could get up and running pretty quickly. But then I ran into a big problem. We didn't realize someone had smoked in the house we bought, and most of it happened in what was to be and is my studio. 

Finally. Gloriously. The flooring was finally installed and I was able to load her up. 

And I might have had a bit of stage fright when I first started.

But I finally found my groove and decided on treating each hexie flower as an individual.  

I quilted leaves and swirls around each flower.

And tried to do individual designs on each flower center.  

Of course, there was repetition...but I really tried to be thoughtful for each flower.

And I would be lying if I didn't say I poured all my love and prayers into it.

Jodi sent along the great fabric for binding.

But it was a shy short, so there are two pieces of this V&Co orange added in.

Rachel should receive it soon.  But it was a crazy mail week with Columbus Day around these parts.  I sure hope she doesn't mind it came later than planned.  And I hope she knows how loved she is by her fellow quilters!  

And I love that they all Did.Good Stitches