Rainbow Waves Finally Finished!

At long last the Rainbow Waves quilt that I've been showing you sneak peeks of is done! This quilt began as an attempt to use of scraps (of course). I cut as many 3.5" squares from my colored, prints scraps as I could, which eventually became (768) 3" HSTs.  I have made a traditional ocean waves quilt before and I love the block, but went looking for something a little different this time.  The design was borrowed from The Cre8tive Quilter's blog.  To see how the blocks come together go here. 

The quilt measure something like 75"x95", so I am calling it a full size.  It was already 60"x80" before I decided to add borders.  Don't ask me what I was thinking making a large, heavy, difficult to quilt top even bigger with borders. I suppose I was thinking that it was a way to cram more scraps into it.

I got into my strings bin and pulled everything that looked to be less than 1.5" wide.  I trimmed them to 3/4", 1", and 1.5" widths and pieced them end to end. Then I sewed the strings around and around and around the top to make the border.  The innermost round of the border is just a 1/4" wide.

Full disclosure: the corners did not lay remotely flat before washing.  All better now :)

I decided for simplicity's sake to just stipple the whole thing.  A wonderful friend modified my desk so that my machine bed sits level, which made this possible.  I actually stippled the borders first, then trimmed the sides and went ahead and bound it before stippling the body of the quilt. I figured I needed to lose every little bit of bulk I could before the real quilting began.

There are lots of fun favorite fabrics in this quilt. I snuck in a few patches of fabric from my alma mater.  Trimming my HSTs carefully made all the difference as far as matching up corners in this thing.  Not all the corners are perfect, not even close, but I'm really happy with how many of them are good.

Like all the best scrap quilts, it doesn't look like much up close but from a distance the design comes out.  It's kind of like an eye-spy looking in close. (I see a couple more A&M fabrics and part of a snowman in the section above.)

I used a cotton sheet with a cool pattern for the back and, of course, bound it in scraps. I had almost enough left over binding in solids to do the whole quilt but ended up having to throw in a couple of prints.  I keep my leftover bindings wound around each other like a jelly roll. This quilt took the diameter of my binding-roll from something like a dinner plate to just 4" across.

Delicious krinkle in the sunshine. I can hardly wait for winter again so I can put this on the bed! On and interesting note, it's always hard to guess how many yards of fabrics are sitting in our scraps bins. But, I used an equal amount of white fabric to prints in the HSTs for this and I know I went through at least 3 yards of white, probably more. So I pulled 3 yards of good fabric out of my scraps, and there's still plenty left!  Goes to show, there's more fabric left in scraps than you'd think.

Linking up to Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and HSTeria at Vicki's blog.

Crumb Jar Quilting

It seems like I just go from one are of my scraps to the next, tackling whichever is the most out of hand.

2" scraps

First it was the "stacks," which are larger pieces. Those went into the Rainbow Waves quilt.  Then it was strings, those became several small and large quilts.  Most recently the crumb jar was packed full and could hold no more.  The last time it got full I cut 1.5" pieces from it to make the Sherwood Forest quilt.

2" squares from the crumb jar

This time I decided to cut 2" pieces. I separated out the 2" squares but also cut a pile of crumbs that are 2" on their long side.

Tonight I sat down to sew and quickly made a bunch of these mini nine patches. More to come tomorrow!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.

Squirrely Triangles {Triangle Quilt Along}

Happy Friday Finishes! My Triangle Quilt Along quilt is done and I decided "Squirrely Triangles" would be an apt name. 

These fabrics were pulled 100% from my stash, about a dozen or so, based off the color palette from the squirrel and bunny fabric.  I'm super please with how my spur-of-the-moment fabric pull came together! The colors are so soft and pleasant.

The thing about triangle quilts-- the reason they are so "squirrely" are the points.  Paula at The Sassy Quilter did an excellent job guiding us through the steps to make these quilts successfully.  Personally, I think that perfect point are overrated (you can read my little rant about that here).

All the same I was tickled to find that probably 70% of my points in this quilt are what I would call "good."  (Full disclosure: I didn't starch.  I mixed quilting cottons and cotton lawns.  And my precision cutting leaves something to be desired.) What I'm saying is, if I could do it, you can do it, too.

I quilted it very simply with my walking foot, outlining all the seams in yellow thread.  I like the little stars this makes at all the intersections.

For binding I went with a yellow solid double fold, machine stitched down to both sides.  Binding along the zig zagged edges was time consuming, but not that difficult.

The backing is a cute floral with the same teals and greys as the top. I wish I'd found something more gender neutral, but oh well.

Label sewn under the binding.  It's done, washed, and ready for duty!

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday and the Triangle Quilt Along.

WIP Wednesday: Still Stippling

Quilting away on this beast and thanking God for the friend who modified my sewing desk. Quilting this myself would have been impossible without a recessed machine.

Happy Wednesday! Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

Spring Has Sprung!

After the two aqua string quilts (here and here) I was feeling like I needed to make a more girly quilt.  And while this one isn't exactly pink and pastel it certainly is feminine!

I started with that babushka fabric (near the top of the quilt), which came from a Hawthorne Threads scrap pack, and pulled fabrics to match the colors.  Many of the other fabrics in this quilt also came from scrap packs. I cut WOF strips in assorted widths from the available fabrics and laid them out in a simple stacked layout.

Two of the strips are ruffled, and idea which I can't take credit for but unfortunately can't find where I saw it first.  The other strips got various FMQ designs. It was super fun to match the thread colors and pick a design for each strip, please humor me as there are lots of quilting photos below!

This cool purple flower fabric got a waving FMQ that goes around the flowers, creating a bubbled texture.

This was my last decent sized piece of this orange fabric. I'm normally not much for orange, but I have loved this fabric.  It got my favorite FMQ design, leaves on a stem, while the strip above it got the square-spiral (an Angela Walter's design).

The large scale flowers got Angela Walter's flower power design in a cranberry colored thread.

The babushkas got a simple stipple.  Those cranberry colored strips on either side of it are corduroy, a lucky find in the remnants bin ages ago that worked out perfectly in this quilt!  I bound the whole thing in a crisp, spring-y green solid.

With the various quilting designs, the ruffled strips, and the corduroy this quilt is a feast of textures.  I opted to back it with soft flannels and I had the perfect colors in my stash.

The quilting texture shows up soooo nice on the back.

The quilt measures 40"x50", a generous toddler or baby quilt.  Quilt Inspector Wilson has declared it fit for duty!

This quilt is listed for sale in my Etsy Shop.

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly {Triangle Quilt Along}

Work on the triangle quilt continues.  I forgot to get a pic of the finished top before I began quilting it, but I'm not quite ready to show you the whole thing yet.  So, in the interest of brutal honesty and full disclosure, I thought I'd show you some of my points.   That's right, no artfully blurred shots from a distance here. Up close and personal and definitely not perfect.

This one classifies as a "good" point, although not perfect.

Points are the main reason triangles are so scary, because it's so difficult to keep them, well, pointy and get them lined up just so. 

"The bad."  Ok so they don't line up. I'd like to point out that are all still pointy, though.

From close up it's easy to see all the mistakes, but I promise, once you get done quilting it no one will ever be examining your points that closely again. (Unless you enter it in a show.  Bah Humbug on them!)  Also, I think that echoing the seam lines with quilting does a good job of distracting from less-than-perfect points.

And the just plain "ugly".  I should be ashamed. And yet, I'm not ;)

This is my personal beliefs on quilting:  it doesn't matter whether your points line up or your Y seams lie flat or maybe you have to quilt down a few tucks when you're quilting.  Only another quilter would ever notice those things, and they ought to have the decency to forgive you. We don't quilt for other quilters. We quilt for new babies and ailing grandmothers and happy newlyweds, who can't quilt for themselves or else they wouldn't need us. And believe me, none of them will even notice the points.

This is one of my favorite things about quilting. That things can go really, horribly wrong with the design and you'll still wind up with a good blanket that can keep someone warm and comfortable.  Quilting is so forgiving!  And so are the people we quilt for.  So relax, chop off a few points, enjoy your quilting and don't agonize over a few mistakes.

The elusive "perfect" point.

And when it does all come together perfectly, smile, enjoy it, and maybe take a picture to brag to your quilting buddies, but don't let it define you.

Just my two cents :)

Linking up to the Triangle Quilt Along.

WIP Wednesday: Quilting

No sooner said than done, my freshly modified desk and machine were delivered back this evening and I am already quilting away!  The triangle quilt along quilt is first up on the machine.

I'm going with the traditional straight line quilting on this one, outlining the seams. I will also be leaving the zig-zag edges rather than trimming them.  I'm also working on the Rainbow Waves quilt bit by bit.

This pic is from when I basted it (of course Wilson was helping).  I am planning a simple stipple but it is such a large quilt that it will be a real bear to quilt.  Here's to a happy day's quilting!

Linking up to Lee's WIP Wednesday.