Viewer’s Choice Finalist!

Posted on May 26, 2015 by nwquiltedcat

Hi everyone,

The spring Blogger’s Quilt Festival voting is happening this week over at Amy’s Creative Side!

I’m happy to announce that my mini butterfly quilt made it into the Viewer’s Choice category as a finalist.

Viewer’s Choice Finalist!

If you have the chance, hop over to the site and check out all the quilts in many different categories. You can vote for up to 3 quilts in each category. Each photo takes you to the quilt maker’s blog so you can read about individual quilt details.

If you’re inclined, I’d love your vote!!

Happy quilting!
~Jennifer

Spring Blogger’s Quilt Festival: Art Quilt Entry

Posted on May 16, 2015 by nwquiltedcat

Hi everyone!

I hope you’re having a great weekend and have a little time for sewing.

My regular readers will recognize my entry into the Art Quilt category for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival.

It is a penguin mini-quilt based on Charley Harper’s original artwork! I made this mini quilt for an Instagram-based, Charley Harper themed swap. I made the design up as I went along so there really isn’t a pattern for it.

I started by gathering up blue, aqua, and low-volume neutral fabrics. Some of the fabrics are from the Charley Harper fabric lines by Birch Organic. I created a background by stitching together 2.5-inch squares, with the darker blues in the upper left-hand corner fading towards the low-volume neutrals. The bottom piece represents the ground.

For the penguins, I was inspired by the Charley Harper Nurture penguin fabric. I made my own applique pattern and used individual pieces of fabric to represent the parent penguin and the chic. I then carefully stitched around each fabric piece. The yellow accent lines are straight-stitched using Aurifil thread.

For quilting, I used my Bernina and my walking foot and did some simple, straight-line quilting using white Aurifil thread. I really love the results!

Here’s a look:

Charley Harper Penguin Mini Quilt

Penguin close-up

The backing piece uses all Charley Harper fabrics plus a label:

Hop on over to Amy’s Creative Side and check out all of the wonderful entries in the festival. I’d love your vote in the Art Quilt category!

Happy stitching!
~Jennifer

Spring Blogger’s Quilt Festival: Mini Quilt Entry

Posted on May 15, 2015 by nwquiltedcat

Happy Friday, everyone!

Today, I want to reveal this beautiful butterfly mini quilt that I made for an Instagram-based quilt swap.

I used Cotton & Steel prints and Kona solids to create this stunning, paper-pieced butterfly. The pattern is called Take Wing by Lillyella Stitchery. It finishes at 24-inches wide by 15-inches high, but you could increase the size by adding borders.

I did free-motion quilting using my HQ16 and white Aurifil 50 weight thread. I think the wavy quilting adds to the fluid, fluttering nature of this pretty butterfly. For the antennae, I hand-quilted using purple Razzle Dazzle thread by Superior.

Here’s my completed butterfly:

Beautiful Butterfly!!

Beautiful Butterfly, Side Angle

Butterfly on a Lavender Bush

Beautiful Butterfly!

Here’s a look at the wings prior to assembling with the body. The Cotton & Steel fabrics work so wonderfully with the Kona solids!

Beautiful Butterfly wings with pins before attaching to body!!

I loaded it onto my HQ16 for the quilting (late at night, but a gal has got quilt when she can!!):

Quilting the Beautiful Butterfly!

I really enjoy paper-piecing and the process of making this beautiful mini quilt. In June, it will be winging its way to a new owner, and I hope she enjoys it as much as I do!

Please hop on over to Amy’s Creative Side and the 2015 Spring Blogger’s Quilt Festival and check out all the entries. I’d love your vote in the mini quilt category!

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, Volume 11 Giveaway!

Posted on April 20, 2015 by nwquiltedcat

Happy Monday everyone!

I have some exciting news to share with you. My block, Snow Cat, is featured in volume 11 of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks magazine! This magazine will be on newsstands soon so you can pickup a copy!

My Snow Cat block is appliqued using white wool felt for the cat body and red Kona fabric for the scarf. I made the round, white snowflakes from Fairy Frost. I did a machine button-hole stitch using silver thread by Superior around the cat body, the scarf, and each round snowflake.

The cat’s facial features are hand-embroidered using black floss. The buttons are attached with the black floss as well.

Here’s a look at the whole block:

Snow Cat, Block 1001

Close-Up of Snow Cat’s face

For my blog readers, I’m giving away a free copy. To enter, just leave a comment on this post. I’ll pick a random winner on Thursday morning. You can have a second chance to win a copy over on Instagram (@nwquiltedcat).

Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, Volume 11

Good luck!

Thanks,
Jennifer

Dog Days of Summer Mini Quilt Swap Signups!

Posted on March 31, 2015 by nwquiltedcat

Hi everyone,

I’ve decided to host my first Instagram mini quilt swap, using a dog theme! I recently participated in a cat themed swap so I think we need equal time devoted to our canine friends.

Dog Days of Summer SignUps Now!!

The signups for the “Dog Days of Summer” mini quilt swap are now live. This is an Instagram only swap so you need to have an account. My Instagram name is @nwquiltedcat so please visit me!

The URL to sign up is here.

I’ll leave signups open until April 15, 2015.

The rules:

Swap is open to everyone of all skill levels.
You are committing to making and sending a mini quilt to your partner by August 10, 2015.
This is a blind swap. Don’t tag your partner!
Mini quilts are typically no smaller than 12×12 and no larger than 24×24.
Use the tag #dogmini2015 for all IG posts.
Post an inspiration mosaic to IG for your partner to get ideas!
Post a minimum of 3 progress photos throughout the swap.
Be sure to post a pic of the mini you receive and thank your partner!
Additional details will be in the partner assignment emails.
Have fun! woof! woof!

If you have any questions, please email me!

Enjoy!

~Jennifer

Aurifil BOM December Block + SMS Giveaway Winner

Posted on December 13, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Happy Saturday, quilty friends!

Today, I stitched together my last block for the 2014 Aurifil BOM program. This month’s block is called “Not Afraid of Flying” designed by Carrie Nelson.

I kept to my theme of Kona Shadow as my neutral with some blacks, reds, and whites. The flying geese in this unit did give me some trouble. I could say it’s because I’ve been battling some strange vertigo lately, but I think I may have just rushed it. I think that I will redo this block before assembling the quilt top.

Here’s the December block:

Aurifil BOM December Block

And here are all 12 of my 2014 Aurifil BOM blocks together in random order. I haven’t decided on a final layout yet.

2014 Aurifil BOM Blocks

If you missed the BOM this year, Aurifil just announced their designers for 2015 here. So exciting!

This past week, I participated in Sew Mama Sew’s giveaway event for the first time. Let me tell you that I was blown away by all the lovely comments. I received over 250 in total! I love all your comments and read each one. I really enjoy being part of such a warm, caring, and creative worldwide quilting community.

The random winner is . . .

Farmquilter!

Congratulations! I’ve sent you an email with all the details.

Wishing you all the best,
~Jennifer

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Week!

Posted on December 8, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

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Hi everyone!

It’s that fabulous time of year again – Giveaway Week at Sew Mama Sew.

For the giveaway, I’m offering 2 Moda mini charm packs of “Holiday In the Pines” plus a spool of 50 weight Essential cotton thread by Connecting Threads in Caramel.

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway

I will ship internationally!

You can enter twice by:
1. Leave a comment on this post telling me how you would use the mini charm packs. I love hearing about your projects!

2. Follow me either here on my blog or on Instagram (nwquiltedcat) and then leave a second comment on this blog post letting me know that you follow me.

The contest ends this Friday, December 12th at midnight Pacific Standard Time. I’ll draw a name over the weekend and contact the winner and post here on my blog.

That’s it! Hop on over to Sew Mama Sew to view all the other fabulous entries!

Good luck!

~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

A Supernova Finish for Blogger’s Quilt Festival

Posted on October 28, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Happy rainy Tuesday (at least here in the PNW)!

Yesterday, I blogged about entering my Celtic Solstice into the scrappy category of the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, hosted by Amy Ellis.

Today, I want to share my entry into the modern category with you. This quilt is very special to me because it is the first one that I have done with a swap partner. I joined the Supernova Friendship Block Swap earlier this year and partnered up with Cindy Wilson of What’s One More Project. Starting in June, we each made 2 Supernova blocks and kept one for ourselves and then mailed the other one to our partner.

We swapped our last blocks just this month. We used the Ansonia fabric line by Denyse Schmidt. Cindy took the pink colorway, and I took the green colorway.The background is Kona Snow.

Here’s a look at our October blocks:

Supernova October Blocks

Lee over at Freshly Pieced designed the Supernova quilt to have borders, but I wanted my finished quilt to fit a smaller space. So, I made a decision to leave the borders off on my finished quilt top.

I used a light cream Aurifil thread to quilt an all-over design so that the attention stayed on those exploding Supernova blocks! My family loves this quilt because it reminds them of fireworks.

The binding is a dark brown piece from the Ansonia line. The quilt measures 54-inches square versus the original design of 62-inches square.

I really wanted to take pictures of the completed quilt in natural light, but it looks like the rain just won’t let up this week. So, with my quilting assistant standing by, I took some pictures this afternoon (having just finished the binding last night).

Tiger on Supernova

Another View of the Completed Supernova

Completed Supernova Quilt

Since I had one extra Supernova block, I decided to make the quilt back scrappy by using the block, left over Ansonia fabric, and a label.

Here’s a look:

Supernova Back

This quilt was so much fun to make, and helped me to stretch my piecing skills! I made a new quilting friend along the way and now have a one-of-a-kind quilt to proudly display in my home.