Kaleidoscope Quilt

My kaleidoscope quilt, made with blocks from my online quilting bee, is finished! I chose a few borders in Kona Ash as well as a narrow strip of a large scale print from Leanika. This was a bit of an experiment, but I like the movement this creates. The narrow piece only shows small parts of the large pattern at a time which creates an interesting effect, I think.
I used the same print for part of the backing, along with the herringbone from Modern Meadow. The binding is Kona Coal.

What I'm most excited about is the free motion quilting. I did that! No marking. It's far from perfect, but it is something I couldn't have done even six months ago. It's a great feeling to think I can envision a FM design and then make it happen myself.

You can read more about the process of making this quilt here and here.

Midwest Metro Link

I love this quilt and am so glad it is staying at our house.Thank you to Carla for suggesting purple for the binding. I knew that was the only option as soon as I read her comment. I found Kona Berry, and it is my new favorite color!I especially love how it looks with the Word Play fabric I chose for the back of the quilt.I stuck to straight line quilting, and it reminds me of fold lines on a paper map as well as city intersections. The metro link pattern is by Paisley Pear Quilts, and I wrote about the process of making this quilt here, here, and here.

Opportunity Knocks

It's sort of a weird feeling to find quilt store, designer fabrics at Joann's but it is happening to me more and more (some of Alexander Henry's Farmdale is there now, and on sale too). And now Denyse Schmidt has designed her own line specifically for the craft superstore. It includes a great mix of Flea Market Fancy-esque tiles and Katie Jump Rope-like dots. And they look like they were made to go with these two Farmdale prints! Chances are your stash includes a lot of prints like these that you love but don't have definite plans for yet, and here is a wonderful opportunity to use them. Crafters making dresses for Dress a Girl Around the World have posted several free, simple pillowcase dress patterns. They are so easy and quick to make. I literally used a pillowcase for my first attempt, but I have my eye on a few prints in my fabric bins that would be perfect. I also think this would be a great project to use to teach girls to sew! You can embellish a solid dress with a band of print, like I did, or get creative with freezer paper stencils like Amy!

Decisions

I finished quilting my Metro Link, and now I'm trying to find the right fabric for binding. I don't usually have trouble picking a binding fabric, but with the scrappiness of this quilt, the best choice has been less than obvious. Hmm. I auditioned prints, but I think a solid is a better way to go on this one. Coal? Or azure?

Maybe brown, but it doesn't look as good with the back. The backing is the black and white print.

A Winner and a Tutorial

The randomly selected winner of the camera strap cover is Bailey. I'll send you an email to get your info. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Here is a simple tutorial so you can create one of your own. They really are quick to make!

Quilted Camera Strap Tutorial

Quilted Camera Strap Cover

My camera strap has needed some sprucing up for a while now. There are dozens of tutorials online for making a strap or strap cover, but none were exactly what I was looking for. My strap seems to be narrower than many, so I made up my own design. It's really very simple and a great use for scraps. Let me know if you'd like a simple tute, and I can write one up for next week. I'm not sure which one I like better! So, I'm going to give one away. You pick which you'd prefer, and I'll keep the other. Just be sure it'll fit your strap (1" wide by 23" long) before you say you'd like to enter the giveaway. I'll pick a random winner tomorrow night. Feel free to comment, even if you don't want to enter!

A Beautiful Sight

My completed Good Folks collection:

As usual, I didn't really discover with this fabric until after it was out of print and hard to find. See fantastic quilts made with the fabric here, here, and here.I scoured the internet for all 24 of these prints designed by Anna Maria Horner. Several ladies have helped me on my way with swaps - thank you! I was still able to buy a few prints at some online shops, but the smallest increment I could purchase was 1/2 yard. I only aspired to a fat quarter set, so I have some extras listed in my shop. I have 14 FQs of the 24 prints, if you now want to start your own collection. :) Update: these have been sold.

Bee Top In Progess

I've finally pieced together the blocks from my Bee Lovely flickr group. I wrote more about the block here.

Piecing the top has been quite a challenge, which is mostly my fault for choosing this particular block. It requires a lot of precision; even slight variations in seam allowance and pressing habits make blocks from different sewers tricky to join satisfactorily.I'm thinking of adding a border to make the stars seem to float on a sea of gray.I think hand quilting will be the most forgiving way to go on this top. I think it will also help define the shapes too, since my fabrics are fairly low contrast.

Thanks to the ladies who contributed to this project!

Spring At Last!

I finished up my last winter therapy quilt just in time for spring to finally arrive.

This quilt is from Rachel Griffith's Scruffily Quilt pattern. I added another row to make it 57 x 66 which should be perfect for snuggling on the couch. I saw this pattern last year and immediately bought fabrics with a specific friend in mind. It is almost too sweet for my taste, but it'll be perfect for her. I'm glad I finished this quilt, even thought my interests have moved on since I originally put it on my to do list.

I definitely had fun picking all the fabrics from my stash to coordinate with the Hunky Dory ones you see here. I used sun spots from Amy Butler's Love and full moon dots from Lotus, some Spa, a Leanika print, Sandi Henderson's Farmer's Market, a Cosmo Cricket print, and Heather Bailey's Freshcut and another print (Bijoux?) I now must find again to stash. So glad spring is finally here.