Forest QAL, Weeks 1 & 2

Posted on March 15, 2015 by nwquiltedcat

Hi everyone!

Hope you’re having a good weekend, and working in a little bit of sewing time. We’re having a windy and rainy Sunday afternoon in Oregon so it’s the perfect weather to sit in and sew.

I’ve joined a new quilt-along by Quilt Art Designs called the Forest QAL. This is a 12-week QAL, and I worked on weeks 1 and 2 this weekend. It costs $1 per week for the pattern, and there is still time to catch up if you want to join. This is a paper-pieced pattern, and I’d recommend that you have some paper-piecing experience since some of the pieces are small.

For week 1, we pieced together some trees and sky:

Week 1, Forest QAL

I’m using a combination of modern print fabrics and solids for my quilt. My goal is to work entirely from my stash for this project.

For week 2, we pieced together more trees plus a little red bird and a chameleon, both hiding in the trees. Look how tiny some of the pieces are in the chameleon’s face!!

Week 2, Forest QAL

Tiny pieces!!

Here are the first 2 weeks, sewn together:

Weeks 1 and 2, Forest QAL with Tiger

For week three, we get to work on the flying geese in the sky section!

I’ve also been working quite a bit on mini quilts for some Instagram swaps. I’ll be able to blog about these soon and show you some pictures.

Linking up with Paper Piecing Part #10!

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

A NY Beauty Finish for February

Posted on February 28, 2015 by nwquiltedcat

Happy last day of February!

We had a beautiful spring-like day here in Oregon. I finished up a mini quilt that I’ve been working on this month featuring paper-piecing and a rainbow of colors!

The pattern is called NY Beauty Circle of Geese by Janice of Better Off Thread. I’ve been admiring this pattern on my Instagram feed for a while and finally decided to tackle the curved piecing!

I started out by selecting a range of rainbow fabrics from the new 2015 Sun Print line by Alison Glass and some Kona cottons. Just love these! My backgrounds are all low-volume prints from my stash.

Here’s the start of the paper piecing:

Paper pieced segments

The quilt has 4 quadrants with some small curved piecing on the insides of each unit. I finally used a 1/4-inch fusible tape technique to help with these curves rather than pins. Much less trouble! After finishing all 4 quadrants, I joined them together and quilted the mini on my HQ16 using Aurifil white thread and free-motioned some wavy, radiating rays from the flying geese out to the edges of the mini quilt. I did some tiny free-motion swirls on the inside low-volume fabrics and concentric circles in the middle.

Free-motion quilting close-up

Once I finished the quilting, I set the mini down on the floor for a quick picture when this guy showed up! My quilting inspector.

Tiger on the NY Beauty Circle of Geese

I think Tiger likes the mini quilt! I convinced him to let me have the quilt back so I could add the binding. I selected a gray print so that it framed the quilt without detracting from the rainbow fabrics.

Here’s my completed NY Beauty Circle of Geese mini-quilt!

Completed NY Beauty Circle of Geese Mini Quilt

I really enjoyed making this mini quilt. It’s so cheerful and bright in my quilting space.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

We Support You blog hop!

Posted on February 9, 2015 by nwquiltedcat

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my blog where I’m happy to be participating in the We Support You blog hop to encourage, support, and inspire all those who have been touched by cancer, particularly breast cancer. My mother-in-law passed away several years ago from complications due to breast cancer so I definitely know this cancer touches so many lives.

Thanks to Madame Samm of Sew We Quilt for encouraging us to make something cheerful and beautiful in this hop using her pattern and to Pat, our wonderful cheerleader for this hop. You can purchase the “We Support You” friendship pattern for $12 from Madame Samm directly by emailing her at madamesamm@me.com.

I’ve been participating in quite a few Instagram mini swaps lately, and all the beautiful rainbow colored quilts inspired me in my project for this hop.

I started by selecting a text print for the block backgrounds. This text print has encouraging phrases such as “No regret” and “Dream big.” Next, I made 3 little bras in colorful print fabrics to applique to the text backgrounds. The bra straps and hangers are hand embroidered using DMC black embroidery floss.

Next, I pulled some Kona cotton solids in various rainbow hues to create the borders and bound the whole mini using black weave print. I used a Superior variegated thread to do the quilting, alternating wavy horizontal and vertical lines.

I had this really cute little wire heart hanger so I added a sleeve to the back for a perfectly finished little project!