In which I learn I know how to quilt

Do any of you have one of those friends who believes you are capable of so much more than you are? I took Mystery with me to the quilt shop last weekend to find a good thread for quilting her. One of the members of my quilt guild works there and gave me advice on thread color. I was figuring this is only my fourth quilt doing free motion quilting on so I was going to keep it simple with an all-over swirl. Kathy suggested that it would look really cool to do a different design in the ribbons to accent them. My initial response was, "I can't do that." She had the perfect come back, "Why not?" After helping me find the perfect thread for my quilt that little question kept haunting me. 

When I first looked through my quilting book to find the swirl pattern there was a really cool half-daisy design that I liked. Again my brain said, "That would look nice, but you can't do that." All of the sudden I heard Kathy asking me "Why?" I flipped through the book and found a leaf that would be really pretty in the ribbons and decided to try it. 

Turns out I'm better at quilting than I thought I was. It's not as perfect as I want, but an amazing thing happened when I laid it out on the bed and took a step back. All the little imperfections weren't so noticeable anymore. Amazing how much better the quilt looks with that single step back. Now if I can decide what to do for the borders. Any suggestions?

Check out that cute little leaf. I hate to say it, but Kathy is right. I can quilt!

Lovely Year of Finishes April

After writing my Yarn Along post for today I've realized that it would be a good idea to make a list of everything I want to finish before this year's quilt show. Since Fiber of All Sorts hosts a linky party for this every month I'll be linking up over there.

First up is to finish the binding on my comma quilt. This poor thing has had the quilting done since the beginning of February and still isn't finished. I do have the binding attached and have sewn half of it down already so hopefully this will be finished this week. Along with the binding I want to put labels on this quilt and the Hobbit quilt.

The big project for this month is the mystery quilt. I've gathered my backing, batting, and thread. Friday my quilt guild is hosting a work night so I should be able to baste my quilt then. I think I've decided to quilt this with lots of swirls. I debated doing something to highlight the ribbons and just do a single swirl in each churn dash, but then I remembered my FMQ skills aren't there yet.

Finally I'm putting my Crosshatch Bag on the list. I made the center portions the right size and started assembling the blocks when my bobbin ran out. I was getting tired so I took that as my cue to quit. I need to finish putting the blocks together and then make the bag. My focus this month is going to be to finish the Mystery Quilt so this one might be on the list again next month. One of my friends is hosting a Great Strides Walk this summer to raise funds for CF research. I'm planning to sell my mystery quilt for her walk, but I'm pretty sure people will only want to buy a finished quilt.

2013-14 Mystery Quilt Step 6

The final step is a little bit complicated. Basically you alternate the blocks made in steps 4 and 5 lining up the HSTs in the Contrary Wife with the lower HST in the Churn Dash. By twisting the direction of Contrary Wife every other way it creates this interesting woven pattern. 

You can go here for the official pattern.

I tried to take this top outside to take some of those beautiful snow pictures I see everyone else taking. Unfortunately I forgot about the fact that my glasses have tinted lenses that get darker when I go outside so all of my pictures were over-exposed beyond the point of saving. Combining that with the bitter cold and the wind that kept stealing my top I've decided to save outside pictures for the spring. 

My husband and I have started scouting locations for photo shoots and have found some great possibilities. I'm sorry for teasing you, but please bear with me during these winter months. Better pictures will be coming.

I went back and forth on including these borders. Most of the quilts I've made so far don't have borders, but I decided to trust the instructions and include them. I'm so glad I did. The green was a bit over powering, but with the tan and purple borders it really helps control it. I love the HSTs in the corner of the first border. 

2013-14 Mystery Quilt Step 5

I have some confessions to make before I begin this week's post. First: I bought the fabric for this quilt because one of the new Kona colors is called Kiwi and I love both the Kiwi bird and fruit. I did like the shade of green, but I picked it because of the name and found colors that I thought looked good with it. I also picked colors based on how they looked on my computer screen. I've since ordered a color card so next time I order solids I'll know exactly what color I'm getting. Second: I followed the link in my first post to see what the finished quilt looks like. I know this is cheating, but I didn't want to change the design without first knowing what the design is.

Step 5 calls for the remaining HSTs and the 3.5" light/medium blocks to be sewn together. (I was looking at my Farmer's Wife group and saw this block is in that quilt too. I'm sure it has many names, but in the Farmer's Wife it is called Contrary Wife.) This is where the risk of buying fabric online comes in. I was a bit hesitant when it arrived, but I decided to go with it. Then as I was cutting I found out that I only had 1/2 yard instead of 3/4 of a yard and didn't get the 74 squares called for. As I auditioned it with the last week's block I became more frustrated with it. It clashes a little bit in the picture, but on the ironing board the lilac really showed that it didn't belong.

The good part of buying fabric because of the name is I bought lots of it. My thought had been I would use it to bind the quilt, and possibly use it in a pieced backing. I had enough green to cut seventy-four 3.5" squares and there's still a bit left over. (I told you I liked the name fabric.) I love how the green looks with the tan and purple.

I tried four blocks together to see how they look. I am so glad I decided to use the kiwi instead of the lilac. It really brings the quilt to life. I can't wait to share the finished top next week. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough that I can get some shots outside in good light.

2013-14 Mystery Quilt Step 4

In November I wrote about the first three steps (here, here, and here) about the mystery quilt along that my quilt guild is doing this year. I was sick the night step 4 was handed out so this project was put on hold for several weeks. I was really worried when our January 6th meeting was canceled due to extreme cold, but thankfully the organizers of the mystery e-mailed us steps 1-5 so we could keep working. I've seen the churn dash block popping up all over the place and was so excited to discover step 4 had us using the HSTs from step 2 and the divided squares from step 3 to make 14 churn dash blocks. 

2013-14 Mystery Quilt Step 3

Sorry for the recent absence. I'm not really sure what bug hit our house, but it was not a nice one. Thankfully health has slowly been working it's way back in among us. 

Step 3 for the mystery quilt along is a very easy one. Take the 2" strips you cut in step 1 and strip piece them.  After you press you should have 5 sets that look something like this.

Next cut your strip sets into 3.5" blocks.

I told you step 3 was an easy one. Unfortunately the illness that hit our house prevented me from getting to the meeting where step 4 was handed out so this quilt might be headed for a little bit of a break. Probably a good thing since there are quilted Christmas projects that need some love.

2013-14 Mystery Quilt Step 2

Last week I shared Step 1 of the mystery quilt I'm currently participating in with my quilt guild. Not surprisingly this week I got to start sewing some of the pieces I cut in step 1. 

Using the (60) 4" squares of medium/dark2 and the (60) 4" squares of light fabric, make 120 half square triangles. Square up blocks to 3.5". 

I have to admit I am falling a bit behind. I have all of my squares sewn and pressed, but only have trimmed about 20. I also need to finish working on step 3 this weekend since I think they'll be passing out step 4 at Monday's meeting. Hopefully this weekend will see some good sewing time and I can get back on track.

2013-14 Mystery Quilt Step 1

I'm super excited with my quilting projects right now. Unfortunately I really can't talk about any of them right now so I hope you'll bear with me for a few weeks. One of the projects I can share is the Mystery Quilt I'm working on. Since I'm not sure how long my other secretive projects will take I'm going to release the steps one at a time. 

I talked with the ladies running the Sioux Prairie Quilt Guild's Mystery Quilt this year and have gotten permission to share the steps on here. The pattern is from http://www.quiltbug.com/Free/catercorner.htm (I'm keeping the mystery in this quilt so I haven't visited the site yet.) I was super excited to learn that this pattern is from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. One of my best friends has CF and is organizing her first Great Strides Walk in our home town next summer. Check out her blog Life of Cheriz for all the details. I haven't figured out all the details yet, but I think I'm going to raffle off this quilt somehow to raise money for her walk. Okay, enough of me babbling and on to the quilt. 

Clue #1

Fabric Requirements and Cutting Instructions

Light: 2 yards (may choose fabric to "fussy cut" on cutting instruction 2. If you choose to do this you                               will need more fabric)

Light/Medium: 3/4 yard

Medium/Dark 1:3/4 yard

Medium/Dark 2: 2 yards

Binding: 1/2 yard-this can be the same as the 2 yards of Medium/Dark fabric

All strips refer to Width of Fabric (WOF)

• Cut 7 strips 3.5" wide by the WOF of the light/medium fabric. Subcut these strips into (74) 3.5" squares.
• Cut 2 strips 3.5" wide by the WOF of the light fabric. Subcut these into (14) 3.5" squares. *These can be fussy cut if desired.
• Cut 5 strips 2" wide by the WOF of the medium/dark 1 fabric.
• Cut 5 strips 2" wide by the WOF of the light fabric.
• Cut 6 strips 4" wide by the WOF of the medium/dark 2 fabric. Subcut these strips into (60) 4" squares.
• Cut 5 strips 3.5" wide by the WOF of the light fabric. These will be used in the boarder.
• Cut 6 strips 4" wide by the WOF of the medium/dark 2 fabric. These will be used in the second boarder.

All of my fabrics are Kona Solids. I'm using Wheat for my light, Lavender for my light/medium, Kiwi for my Medium/Dark 1 (I'm also planning on using this for the binding), and Dark Violet for my Medium/Dark 2. 

Unfortunately when I ordered my fabric I entered the correct amounts, but they only sent me 1/2 a yard of Lavender. I haven't decided yet if I'm making a smaller quilt, substituting another fabric, or ordering more Lavender. I'll probably make that decision as I get more steps and see how things are looking.

New Fabric

Thursday was such a happy day. I got a box of fabric from Fat Quarter Shop for two quilts and a box from my MIL full of Halloween goodies. My excitement level was about equal with the fabric box coming out slightly ahead (come on, it's 5.7 pounds of fabric.) When I got home from work my husband and I were digging through the boxes and discovered she sent us individually wrapped peeps!!! I didn't even know they made Halloween peeps let alone individually wrapped ones. The glare on the wrappers is too harsh so there's no pictures of them. :-(

Happily the fabric has no glare so I can share photos of what I got. Every year my quilt guild does a challenge and a mystery quilt. This year they even let me plan the challenge quilt! I might be driving some of them a bit nuts with my loose rules, but I want everyone to have fun. When I announced the challenge I handed out paint chips and participants must find fabrics that match at least three of the colors on their paint chips. Fabrics can be prints so long as the colors on their prints match the colors on their paint chips. We're also able to use neutrals such as black, white, and grey. 

I'm not completely sold on the two fabrics furthest to the right. They lean a little more towards the red scale than the purpley pink I was hoping for. I've decided one of the things I'm adding to my Christmas list is a color card from Kona. I'm really embracing using solids and can't wait to get a swatch of all of fabric colors Kona offers.

I attempted to participate in the mystery quilt along the first year I joined the guild. I did okay with altering the fabric (i did a two-step process of bleaching and then when it was too light coffee stain), embellishing the fabric with quilting, cutting the fabric into seven pieces and reassembling, and adding beads and buttons. My mystery quilt was turning into this cute little bookcase runner with 7 owls. Then the last step instructed us to turn our fabric into a vessel. I couldn't figure out how to turn my bookcase runner into a vessel and the beading on my owl wings was becoming ridiculous. My owl runner currently languishes in UFO purgatory. I have trouble calling projects UFO because in my mind if I intend to finish it and have a plan of when it will be worked back into the schedule/finished it's still a WIP. To refer to the owl runner as a UFO tells you that their hopes of being finished are zilch. 

This year's mystery quilt we've already been told will finish as a quilt. Our guild makes Comfort Quilts for the DA to hand out to victims of violent crimes and their families, and to an organization that assists women and children leaving domestic violence situations. This year's organizers have planned a quilt that will finish 50"x76" which is one of the requested sizes for comfort quilts. We aren't required to give away our quilts, but I've decided my mystery quilt this year will be a Comfort Quilt. 

I forgot to ask when they handed out the first step, but I'll talk to the organizers of the Mystery Quilt and see if I can share the steps here.