Celtic Solstice, Part 5

Posted on May 5, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Happy Monday, quilty friends!

I finished up all the individual block units for my Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt this past weekend by completing part 5, the split triangle units! This mystery quilt is designed by Bonnie Hunter and all the instructions for this quilt are available on her website until June 1, 2014. After that date, the instructions will be included in one of Bonnie’s future books.

Here are my completed split triangle units (100 of them) for the small quilt. I also stitched together 1 sample of each block that will form the body of the quilt: the Birthday Girl block (originally from Quiltmaker Magazine’s 100 Blocks, volume 2) and the 54-40 or Fight block.

Celtic Solstice, Part 5, Split Triangle Units

For this quilt, I’ve used scraps and pieces from my stash. I’m hoping that I have enough of the same fabrics left for the borders. The only fabric that I will probably need to purchase for this quilt is the backing, although maybe I can hobble something together using scraps. We’ll see!

I have about 1 month until I get to take 2 workshops with Bonnie! I really want to have the quilt top finished, at a minimum, so that I can take it to the workshop. This is my first large-size, all-scrappy quilt!!

In between sewing these split triangle units, I’ve been working on cutting out my fabrics for the Aviatrix Medallion quilt-along, designed and hosted by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Fransson. I will post my fabric selections for this project soon.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Triangle QAL Finish!

Posted on May 1, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Hi everyone,

I’ve been following along with Paula’s Triangle QAL over on her blog, The Sassy Quilter, for the past few weeks.

Our last assignment was to finish up those quilts! We had 2 weeks to finish up the quilting and binding for the final photo link-up.

My beer themed Triangle quilt is for my husband. Here in Oregon, we are surrounded by many great brew pubs, and I thought this quilt was the perfect choice for a “manly” quilt! You can read about the fabrics in this quilt here.

I decided to use straight-line quilting on my domestic machine by using my 1/4-inch foot and echoing the outside and inside edges of the triangles to create a large lattice effect. I used Aurifil 50 wt thread in a beautiful gold brown color (#2372) that perfectly complements the fabric.

In this photo, you can see the lattice/diamond quilting:

Up-Close Look at the Quilting

Here’s my hubby holding up his completed quilt. He picked the name, “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” after our 8-year-old suggested it.

Triangle QAL Completed!

Triangle Quilt, Blowing in the Wind

For the backing, I used up most of my left-over Brewsky fabric:

Back of Triangle Quilt

I’m really happy with how this quilt turned out, and really enjoyed following along with Paula and many other talented quilters during this quilt-along.

Cheers!
~Jennifer

Sunny Savannah Mini Quilt

Posted on April 30, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Dear Stella and Timeless Treasures are hosting a mini quilt challenge called Modern Traditional. The entry quilts must be 20-inches by 20-inches and have to include at least 2 prints from each company and no solids allowed! Entries are due today, April 30th and will be judged by two guest judges, Julie Herman and Katy Jones.

I decided to jump into this challenge with my entry called Sunny Savannah!

The fabrics that I used are:
Wee Gallery, Wild, Safari Animals in White (Dear Stella)
Wee Gallery, Wild, Safari Animals in Black (Dear Stella)
Zig Zag in Black for the binding only (Dear Stella)
Alice Kennedy, Matilda, Chevron in Citron (Timeless Treasures)
Woodstock, Stitched Swirl in Gold (Timeless Treasures)
Crosshatch Sketch in Grey (Timeless Treasures)

Since all the pieces in the quilt are very angular, I wanted the quilting to pop out a bit but still enhance the overall design. I decided to do an off-center swirl pattern in 1/4-inch increments on the entire quilt. I used a yellow Aurifil 40 wt thread for the quilting and Aurifil 50 wt Light Sand for the piecing. The swirl pattern reminds me of the sun shining down on the safari animals and so I decided to call this little quilt, Sunny Savannah. I really love the overall effect!

Here are some photos of the completed mini quilt:

Sunny Savannah, Completed Quilt

The back of the quilt is the Chevron in Citron fabric from Dear Stella with a label. I love the spiral quilting!

Sunny Savannah, Quilt Back

Just for fun, I took some pictures of the quilt flimsy. I thought it might be interesting to show you the backside of the quilt top because of all the neatly pressed rectangle shapes!

Sunny Savannah Quilt Flimsy

Quilt Top Backside

Some close-ups of the spiral quilting! I spray basted and then went slow and careful on my Bernina.

Spiral quilting in process

Spiral quilting close-up

I want to give a shout out to Charlie and Lindsay at Hawthorne Threads. Since I wasn’t able to pick up the fabrics from my LQS, I ordered my fabrics from Hawthorne Threads on a Tuesday evening after work and had them in my mailbox on that Friday! Thank you so much for the quick shipping!

I hope you enjoyed looking at my mini quilt for the challenge. If you’re on Instagram, search for #DSTTchallenge to view other entries.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Pin Cushion Exchange

Posted on April 27, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Hi everyone,

I had a terrific time this past week at the April monthly meeting for the Portland Modern Quilt Guild. I met new people and saw some wonderful quilts as well as a preview from Violet Craft’s new fabric line called Brambleberry Ridge.

This month, members were invited to make a pin cushion and bring it in a brown paper bag. At break time, we got to exchange pin cushions by choosing a brown paper bag and finding our surprise inside!

I made a cute little bird pin cushion using red and aqua fabrics. The pattern is by Joel Dewberry. You can find the pattern for free here.

After I finished the bird, I took a wooden spool and wrapped it in red ribbon. I then attached the wooden spool to the bird to give it a cute little base.

Here’s a look at the pin cushion I made:

Bird Pin Cushion

Bottom of Wooden Spool on Bird Pin Cushion

I received this great pin cushion in exchange with colors that I really like. My thanks to Ellen Colburn for making this beautiful pin cushion!

Colorful Pin Cushion

Today, I worked on quilting my Triangle QAL. I hope to get the binding stitched on later tonight and will take photos of the finished quilt this week.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Vice Versa BOM, April Blocks + A New Quilt Along!

Posted on April 23, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Over the last several evenings, I’ve cut out the fabric and stitched my April blocks for the Vice Versa BOM, hosted and designed by AnneMarie over at Gen X Quilters.

My fabric selections are inspired by Radiant Orchid, Pantone’s color of the year. You can read about the fabrics in my project here.

This month, we made star-within-a-star blocks. Here are my completed blocks:

Vice Versa BOM, April Block

Vice Versa BOM, April Block Inverse

I did take a photo of my January through April blocks together on a white design wall. I wanted to take a picture of the blocks with a higher contrast background so you can really see the richness of color. But, it is so rainy and windy here in the Pacific NW that I couldn’t get an outdoor shot.

Vice Versa BOM, 4 months of blocks

There is definitely still time to participate in the Vice Versa BOM so come join in on the fun!

I also wanted to mention a new quilt along that I’m so excited to start next week. It is the Aviatrix Medallion quilt along, designed and hosted by fellow Portland Modern Quilt Guild member Elizabeth Hartman on her blog, Oh Fransson! This week is fabric selection. Next Monday, we start in on the fabric cutting. You can do all solids, go scrappy, or do whatever fabric combination you want in this fun quilt along. Hope to see you join us!

Happy quilting,
~Jennifer

Wedding Quilt Triangles

Posted on April 18, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Triangles seem are pretty popular among quilters lately so when Julie of Jaybird Quilts posted about creating triangle blocks to send to her for a wedding quilt, I decided to hop aboard!

Having just finished my Triangle QAL flimsy, I kept my triangle theme going and ordered the Kona cotton color bundle from Pink Chalk Fabrics. These are colors that Julie has specifically chosen to keep a uniform look to the wedding quilt.

I started off by piecing together some rows of colors in graduated sizes so I could cut out 1 6.5-inch, 60 degree triangle.

Wedding Triangle with Graduated Color Bands

I still had a portion of the pieced row left, so I decided to make a second triangle by adding a solid color to one side of the block and flipping the orientation of the banded rows.

Wedding Triangle with Solid on 1 side

Now I had some really strange-shaped pieces of that pieced row left. Hmm, what to do? I decided to sew them together in a rough square shape. Then, I took the triangle ruler and cut out a third triangle block. This is my crazy triangle!

Crazy Triangle!

Here are all 3 triangles together:

3 Triangles for the Wedding Quilt

I have packaged up these colorful little triangles and sent them to Julie. She is still taking blocks until April 30th, if you want to send some. Check out her blog post to view the list of Kona solids.

This is such a fun idea, and I can’t wait to see the finished quilt!

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Triangle QAL, Rows Joined!

Posted on April 13, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

I stitched my rows together this morning for the Triangle QAL, hosted by Paula over on her blog, Sassy Quilter!

The rows on my manly, beer-themed quilt went together fairly quickly. As I was trimming off the zig-zag edges along the side, my hubby walked in and saw the quilt top. Ooops! I just told him to act surprised when I give it to him once the quilting and binding are completed.

So off my hubby went to Home Depot while my son and I decided to take the quilt flimsy to a local park and get some pictures of it. The sun is shining and the leaves and flowers are bursting open in early spring.

One problem – the wind didn’t want to play along! (Or maybe it was playing along and just being frisky).

Here are some poses we tried to catch while the wind played with us:

Triangle QAL Flimsy on Rocks – Too Windy!

Triangle QAL Near Giant Bear Statue? Still Too Windy!

Triangle QAL Quilt Top on Play Structure? Almost!

Finally, I decided to place the quilt flimsy on the sidewalk and take a picture of it while standing on a bench, in between wind gusts.

Triangle QAL Quilt Top!

I want to think up a clever, beer-themed name for this quilt, but I haven’t thought of anything good. Do you have ideas?

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Triangle QAL Rows

Posted on April 9, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

I made progress this week on my Triangle QAL by stitching together the triangles to form rows!

You can still join in on the Triangle QAL by checking out Paula’s blog, The Sassy Quilter.

I’m using the Brewsky line by Clothworks along with 3 Kona cotton solids. You can read about my fabric selections here.

The 12 rows of this quilt took up my entire design wall. It will shrink down a bit when I sew the rows together during next week’s assignment, and I think the finished size will be the perfect beer-themed quilt for my wonderful hubby.

I’m trying to make this as a surprise, but I’m pretty sure that he knows something is up when I told him don’t go into the playroom! My sewing room (a spare bedroom) is too small for a design wall and cutting table so I’ve taken over a corner of the all-purpose playroom.

Here’s a look at the rows on the design wall:

Triangle QAL – Completed Rows

Some of the prints are directional so I had to be careful to keep those triangles pointing in the correct direction!

Directional Triangles

Oddly enough, this quilt continues to be a project that holds very little interest to my feline quilt inspectors. My dog has been my quilting buddy on this project instead!

At first, I wasn’t too sure about the bold red, but I did match it to the reds in the print fabric using my Kona color chart. The red is growing on me, and I think it adds interest while still keeping in line with a “manly” themed quilt.

Enjoy the triangles!
~Jennifer

Aurifl BOM – April’s Block

Posted on April 6, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

It looks like spring might have finally arrived here in Oregon! We expect sunshine and about 70 degrees tomorrow. I had a very sewful weekend, having spent about 5 hours each day on various quilting projects. I have so many going at once!

First up is the Aurifil BOM for April. This block is a fun take on the classic bear’s paw, designed by Angela Yosten. She has added a nice hand-embroidered touch to the block with stitches running around the inside of the bear paw. I am undecided if I should add this accent or not. I may wait until I get all the Aurifil BOM blocks completed to decide.

I’m using Kona cotton in Shadow for my neutral across the BOM. The other colors are various coordinating reds, blacks, and whites from my stash.

Here’s a look at my Aurifil BOM April block:

Aurifil BOM – April Block

And here are my first 4 blocks together:

Aurifil BOM – First 4 Blocks

I finished sewing about half of my rows together for the Triangle QAL. I hope to have these finished by Thursday in time for the latest photo linkup.

Finally, I worked on several more blocks for the Reach for the Stars quilt. I have 1 more block to finish for step 2 and I’ll show some pictures of my progress.

Hope you have a great week!
~Jennifer

Triangle QAL + Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe Win!

Posted on April 2, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Greetings quilty friends!

The assignment this week for the Triangle QAL hosted by Paula over at Sassy Quilter is to cut out all our triangle shapes!

I’m using 7 fabrics from Clothworks Brewsky line along with 3 Kona cotton solids. I think this line is now out-of-print, but you may still be able to find a few pieces if you search for it. This will be a fun beer-themed quilt project for my hubby!

Here are the pieces stacked together, looking rather like a slice of fabric pie!

Triangle QAL Fabric Pie

And here are all 204 triangles!

204 Triangles

Next Friday, we’ll begin piecing all these wonderful 60 degree triangles together.

Last week while at my sister’s house, I learned that I had won an April Showers by Moda charm pack from one of my favorite local quilt shops, Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe. I highly recommend a visit to this quilt store if you visit the Portland area. Hollyhill has a sister store across the street called Boughs of Holly, featuring wonderful Christmas and holiday themed fabrics year-round!

Here’s a picture of me in Hollyhill with the charm pack. I should have taken off my brown winter coat!