Toes in the Sand Completed + Giveaway Winners

Posted on November 24, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Happy Monday, quilting friends!

I’m so happy that it is a short work week due to the Thanksgiving holiday! I hope to get some extra sewing time in over the long holiday weekend.

Recently, I finished a long BOM project called Toes in the Sand by Jaybird Quilts. I started this project back in April 2013! I’ve had the individual blocks assembled for a while, but finally finished the top and quilting recently.

My hubby and I decided to celebrate our 14th anniversary by going to the Oregon coast for a weekend. We stayed in Seaside and really lucked out with the weather. It was clear, sunny, and not too breezy with a high of about 48 degrees. I knew that my Toes in the Sand quilt had to come along for some beach photography!

Here’s a look at the finished project, front and back sides:

Toes in the Sand – Found some more triangle shapes in the swing set

Toes in the Sand Completed Quilt, Seaside, Oregon

Backing with My “sidekick” Brutus

I free-motion quilted Toes in the Sand using an Aurifil cream thread in 50 wt and an all-over “wonky triangles” pattern that I made up as I went along. I think it accents the blocks perfectly without overwhelming them. My backing is made from a few left-over scraps of PB&J fabric by Moda along with larger pieces of Kona cotton in Aqua.

After the photo shoot, my “sidekick” Brutus showed his love of the beach!

Brutus at Seaside, Oregon

What could be more fun than seeing a picture of a happy dog? Winning an issue of Quiltmaker’s 100 blocks magazine, volume 10!

In this post, I announced a giveaway for 2 copies of the magazine. I randomly selected winners and have emailed them.

Congratulations to the winners:
dezertsuz and Cathy Melancon

Happy quilting!
~Jennifer

Butterfly Block for Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, Vol10 + Giveaway

Posted on November 17, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

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Hi everyone,

I’m so excited to share with you my first block published in Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks magazine. My block is #958 and it appears in volume 10 which arrives at retailers this month.

My block was inspired by my son and his love of butterflies. The block has a modern twist to it because I decided to use plenty of negative space and a block (pixel style) design.

While visiting the Victoria Butterfly Gardens earlier this year on vacation, we saw this beautiful Blue Morpho butterfly.

Blue Morpho Butterfly

Soon after, this other butterfly decided to crawl up my son’s arm much to our surprise!

Butterfly on hand

Butterfly on arm

I started drafting my butterfly block by sketching it out on paper and then did my fabric calculations.

Next, I cut some squares from various blue fabrics and some strips from white fabric:

Butterfly Block Components

I made a blue version and a pink/purple version. The blue version appears in Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, volume 10 and I kept the pink version.

Butterfly Block in Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, Volume 10

Here are the two blocks together:

Blue and Pink Butterfly Blocks

This block is very versatile and you could use it to make quilts, table runners, or pillows. I decided that I needed a cute butterfly pillow for my office so I used my pink block, some extra Kona Snow fabric, and some silver metallic thread by Superior to make an adorable pillow.

Yes, I did use metallic thread on the free-motion quilting using my domestic machine, and it turned out wonderfully.

Butterfly Pillow

Butterfly Pillow Back

Butterfly Pillow Close-Up

Butterfly Pillow with Assistants

Ready for a giveaway?
Quiltmaker is giving away 1 free copy of Volume 10 to one of my blog readers, and I’m giving away a second copy! To enter, just leave me a comment, and I will pick a winner using a random number generator at the end of the blog tour. Please leave me a way to contact you. Sometimes Blogger and WordPress do not communicate very well.

I hope that you are enjoying Quiltmaker’s 100 blocks blog tour and that you find inspiration in the many wonderful blocks!

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Quiltmaker’s Blog Hop Starts Today!

Posted on November 16, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Happy Monday, everyone!

Quiltmaker’s blog hop tour for volume 10 of the fabulous 100 Blocks issue starts today! My blog date is tomorrow where I will feature my block and have a giveaway.

For today, I want to show you what I made for this issue as a block tester. In all, I tested a dozen blocks over the course of a few months. I then had the opportunity to make a sample quilt using 3 different blocks. I called my quilt “Bali Posies” and it appears in the Block Tester’s Gallery section on page 95 in the magazine.

If you happen to be in the Golden, Colorado area between December 2014 and February 2015, all the block tester quilts are on display at Quiltmaker’s office. Wish I could go see them in person! If you do go, I’d love to see a picture.

I used 3 different blocks in the layout:
#947, Nine-Patch Posies by Kay Mackenzie
#989, French Twist by Celine Perkins
#999, Diamonds are Forever by Susan Work

The fabrics are Bali Paradise and Bali Batiks from Hoffman California Fabrics.

Here’s a look at Bali Posies:

Bali Posies Quilt Front

Bali Posies Quilt Back

I added some interest to the center block (#947) by applying some crystals to the center of each flower and along each leaf.

Here’s a close-up of the center block:

Bali Posies Center Block

I did free-motion quilting using Aurifil 50 wt. cream thread with an all-over pattern over most of the quilt. I did some echo-quilting in the posies petals, circles in the posie centers, and some other detailed stitching in the leaves and flower pot.

I was also excited to see that Sandy George, another block tester, made a quilt using my Butterfly block (#958). Her quilt is called “Butterfly Kisses” and you can see it in the Block Tester’s Gallery on page 94 in the magazine.

Come back tomorrow and see the inspiration behind my Butterfly block and for your chance to win a copy of the magazine!

Enjoy,
~Jennifer

Aurifil BOM – November

Posted on November 12, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Greetings from a very windy Pacific Northwest!

We’re having a bit of a wind storm here proceeding potential snow and ice tomorrow. Last night before bedtime, my hubby and I heard a loud crack and thud. As we dashed outside, we noticed a large tree branch had fallen across the street and landed on a neighbor’s vehicle. Scary! We decided to do an impromptu shoving aside of stuff in our garage to park the car inside overnight just in case another tree or limb decided to fall.

I’ve been following along with the Aurifil BOM starting in January this year. I finished November’s block called Tossed Salad and designed by Scott Hansen over at Blue Nickel Studios. This block came together really quickly, and I love the interesting design.

Tossed Salad Block designed by Scott Hansen

You can find the free pattern for this block on the Aurifil blog. This block is the 11th one in this year’s BOM so we only have one more block to go! I love this gray, white, black, and red palette. My gray is Kona Shadow.

Here are the 11 blocks together in random order:

Aurifil BOM – 11 Blocks

I’m getting excited to reveal my block for Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, volume 10 issue. I hope you’ll join the blog hop starting next week on November 17th. I will have a post on November 17th to show a test quilt that I made, and then another post on November 18th to show my block plus a giveway.

Happy quilting and stay safe in this crazy early winter weather!
~Jennifer

More Little Critters Plus Birdseye Mercantile

Posted on November 10, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

A few weeks ago, I posted about creating a little forest critter out of flannel. Later in October, I had a chance to visit with my sister and we set out to make more critters using wool in place of the flannel.

These little critters are from the book Countryside Softies by Amy Adams. They are really quick and easy to make!

We made 2 foxes, a robin, a swan, and a dragonfly. We stayed up late each night having fun stitching these little guys together, and then we did some quilt shop hopping during the days.

Here’s a look at our critter collection:

Critters on a Bench

Critters in the Ponderosa Pines

Here’a close-up of my fox wearing his cool heart-shaped shades. He’s going to be my little sewing room buddy!

Fox Critter with Cool Shades

One afternoon, we took a little drive to visit Birdseye Mercantile in the little town of Avon, Montana located between Missoula and Helena. This adorable quilt shop has low overhead so they price all their quilting cottons at $7.50 per yard. Batiks are a little more. What a bargain! I took the opportunity to add a few pieces to my stash.

Birdseye Mercantile

If you are in the area, be sure to stop by and take a peek at this store. They are only open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays so it is always a good idea to call first.

From Avon, we headed towards Seeley Lake to visit another favorite quilt shop, Deer Country Quilts. They have a beautiful log cabin building with over 6000 bolts of fabric!

On the way to Deer Country Quilts, I took this picture of a lake reflecting the tamarack trees and their yellow autumn splendor. I didn’t have my good camera so this picture does not do them justice. They were just beautiful!