Madrona Road Challenge Quilt is Finished!

Posted on January 13, 2013 by nwquiltedcat

Just in time for the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting this week, I finished my Madrona Road challenge quilt!

I did the quilting and binding last night. The quilt is about 34-inches by 34-inches. I’m calling it “Bird in a Window” because of the cute little birdie sitting in the center square.

Here’s a look at the completed quilt:

Bird in a Window Quilt Top

For the quilt back, I added some interest by piecing together a few more squares and hand-embroidering the quilt details onto the label:

Bird in a Window Back

Two close-ups:

Bird Block Close-Up

Label Close-Up

This has been a fun challenge for me, and I hope to participate in future challenges!

I plan on taking this quilt with me to the guild meeting this week. I think there may be a group photo taken at the meeting so I’ll try to post about it.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer~

More Progress on Madrona Road

Posted on January 10, 2013 by nwquiltedcat

I’ve worked a bit more on my Madrona Road quilt challenge and have finished assembling the top.

You can read about my start in this earlier post.

For the Portland Modern Quilt Guild, we had to incorporate a word so I choose to use the word, “bird.” There is a cute little golden bird that appears in one of the prints that I used, plus I decided to use a paper-pieced bird block as my center image for some whimsy!

Here’s a look at the center block:

Madrona Road Bird Block

And here’s a view of the quilt top:

Madrona Road Quilt Top

For the top, I took inspiration from Faith at Fresh Lemons and her Lemon Squares Quilt pattern. I altered the pattern just a bit to include my whimsical bird block and added an inner border from Kona cotton and an outer border using one of the Madrona Road prints.

Of course, my cat had to ask me: “Mom, why a bird and not a cat?”

Why a Bird, Ma?

This weekend, I hope to take the project over to mom’s house to quilt it.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer~

Black and White Block Swap

Posted on January 9, 2013 by nwquiltedcat

Have you ever wanted to make a quilt using just black and white blocks? Or perhaps black and white with a few bright zinger colors? If so, now is a good time to join Carol’s Yahoo group. We’re doing a 12-inch block swap using black and white fabrics.

I have a limited supply of black and white fabrics in my stash, but I found enough pieces to make my first block.

There is some Michael Miller black fairy frost fabric in my block. Plus, the white fabric actually has little shimmery white dots that my camera couldn’t capture in today’s light. I may try the pics with different lighting.

Here’s the block:

Black and White Block #1

I used the Switzerland block from Carol Doak’s book, Mariner’s Compass Stars. This block has 64 total pieces!

One cool aspect of making a black and white block is that it meets with the approval of my cat, Cow.

Here he is giving his paw of approval:

Cow Approves the Block

I hope to make a few more black and white blocks for the swap.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer~

Winter Snowman Quilt

Posted on January 2, 2013 by nwquiltedcat

I had a very “sewful” New Year’s Eve and New Year’s day and was able to finish up some quilt tops. Woo hoo!

This Winter Snowman Quilt is one of those projects! I had started and completed the 4 inner shooting star blocks in December, but then set them aside to finish up Christmas gifts. I originally planned on making more of the shooting star blocks, but ran out of my white snowflake print fabric. I like the smaller sized quilt as I can use it as a winter decoration on a table top or a wall.

You can read about the shooting star block designed by Carol Doak in my post here. I encourage you to join Carol’s Yahoo group by clicking the link in the right sidebar of my blog. She has a valentine heart challenge going on right now so it’s a perfect way to start paper piecing!

Right now, I only have pics of the quilt top but hope to have it quilted and bound soon! All the fabric in my quilt top is from the Fresh Fallen Snow line by Maywood Studio. I have a quilt recipe following the pictures below.

Here’s a look at the finished quilt top inside my sewing room:

Winter Snowman Quilt – Inside

I took the quilt outside to try and get a better photo of it, but it was a bit breezy:

Winter Snowman Quilt – outside

A close-up view of the shooting star blocks:

Shooting Star blocks

And finally a close-up view of the snowman border fabric. The snowmen are so cute and have little red birds sitting on their stick arms!

Snowman border

Quilt Recipe
If you’re interested in creating this cute Winter Snowman quilt, here’s what you’ll need:

Join Carol’s Yahoo Group to get the shooting star block.
Print out 16 of the 4″ shooting star paper piecing patterns.
Blue snowflake print fabric. Approx 2/3 yard.
White snowflake print fabric. Approx 1/2 yard.
Red accent fabric. Approx 1/3 yard.
Blue snowman print fabric. Approx 2 yards for both the outer border and backing.
Basic sewing and paper piecing supplies.

Here’s how to assemble the quilt:

Use a 1/4″ seam allowance. If you don’t already have basic paper piecing skills, then I recommend Carol’s excellent instructional DVD.
Cut out all the fabric pieces for the 16 shooting star blocks.
Sew the shooting star blocks.
Assemble each large block by sewing 4 individual shooting star blocks together. Make 4 large blocks.
Sew the 4 large blocks together to form the quilt center.
Cut 3.5-inch strips from the white snowflake fabric for the inner border and sew around the quilt center.
Cut 2-inch strips from the red accent fabric for the second border and sew to the quilt center.
Cut 5.5-inch strips from the blue snowman fabric for the outer border and sew to the quilt center.
Quilt as desired and bind.

My quilt top is approximately 35 inches by 35 inches. You can make your quilt smaller or larger by resizing the shooting star blocks.

Hope you enjoy this little winter project!
~Jennifer~

January 2013 BOM

Posted on January 1, 2013 by nwquiltedcat

For New Year’s Eve, I decided to work on my mystery block-of-the-month for January 2013. Yes, one day before the official start of the year, but what a great feeling to be a little bit ahead!

My regular readers have been following my progress on this mystery BOM program designed by Carol Doak. You can still join her Yahoo group and get the mystery BOMs by clicking the link in the right-hand column of my blog. You can read about my November block here.

For the December block, the group made setting pieces rather than an actual block. I decided to wait on making my setting pieces until after the mystery is revealed, so I can decide if I want to use my 2 main fabrics or an accent color instead.

After this January block, there are 2 more blocks to complete. Then, the mystery will be revealed and we’ll learn how all the pieces fit together and how to finish the quilt top.

Here’s a look at my January block:

January 2013 Mystery BOM

This block will be the centerpiece of the project. Can’t wait to see how it all comes together!

Enjoy and happy 2013 to everyone!
~Jennifer~

A Little Spring Birdie Quilt

Posted on December 26, 2012 by nwquiltedcat

For Christmas gifts this year, I focused on giving handmade items such as holiday soaps or quilted wall-hangings.

I wanted to make a fun bird themed wall-hanging for my sister in bright, cheerful colors. Why? Because she lives in snow country, and I thought that a little taste of early spring would be a welcome addition to her craft room.

I found a cute little paper-pieced birdie pattern by bcheri on Etsy. I made (1) 6-inch birdie block, but the seller does give you instructions for reducing or enlarging the block.

Once I had finished the bird block, I added an inner white (Kona cotton) border and then an outer border from a green leaf print. I added some hand embroidery details on the wing, the legs, the eyelashes, and added the word “Bird” to the lower right corner of the “grass” area.

I did simple quilting on my Bernina and then added a small black button for the eye. I used solid black (Kona cotton) for the binding.

Here’s a look at the finished Birdie wall-hanging:

Bird Wall-Hanging

Here’s a close-up look at the bird block:

Bird Block Close-Up

I found some great decorative wire hangers for little quilts online at Pumpkinvine Corner. I highly recommend this retailer because they shipped the hangers fast and adjusted the shipping costs after the sale to reflect the actual shipping cost! I will definitely order more hangers from this store for future projects.

I hope you enjoyed your holiday!

Happy crafting,
~Jennifer~

Shooting Star Block

Posted on December 12, 2012 by nwquiltedcat

I picked up some fun blue and white snowflake fabric by Maywood Studio for my stash a few months ago. I didn’t have a particular project in mind, but I really liked how these fabrics looked together:

Blue & White Snowflake Fabrics by Maywood Studio

This past week, I had some time in the evenings to put this fabric to good use by creating a Shooting Star block. This block is available for free, but only to members of Carol Doak’s online group here.

I decided to make 4-inch individual blocks. The complete block uses 4 of these smaller blocks so it finishes at 8 inches by 8 inches. A pretty good size to use in a quilt or other project!

Here’s a look at my completed block:

Completed Shooting Star Block

Isn’t it a gorgeous block for winter? I’m thinking of making some more of these blocks for a winter-themed quilt that I can display past the Christmas season.

Of course, one of my little quilting kitties just couldn’t resist getting his paws onto this block. Perhaps I should make a snowflake theme bed for him?

Quilting Cat with Shooting Star

What projects would you make with this fun block?

Happy paper piecing!
~Jennifer~

Primitive Santa Quilted Christmas Gift

Posted on December 8, 2012 by nwquiltedcat

Continuing on my Santa and mini-quilt kick, I’ve created another simple project using Carol Doak’s pattern. The Santa block is a small, 3-inch paper-pieced pattern that you can obtain if you join her online Yahoo group.

I really like this little pattern because it comes together very quickly and you can use scraps from your stash. I made this particular project as a Christmas gift for my mom. She has one Christmas tree that she decorates each year just using Santa ornaments! (Mom, if you’re reading this, just act surprised when you open this gift!).

I started out with 5 little Santas, but decided to use just 3 of them.

Here are the 3 little Santas up-close:

Primitive Santa 1

Santa 1 has a dark blue background with a white snowflake print in the foreground. The dark blue sky has little white dots for snowflakes.

Primitive Santa 2

Santa 2 has a black background with a printed word foreground featuring names of Santa’s reindeer. The black sky also has white snowflake dots, but I didn’t fussy cut it well enough to display them!

Primitive Santa 3

Santa 3 has a white-on-white background with a grey foreground. The white background has white snowflake dots, but my camera didn’t pick them up very well.

All the Santas have embroidered eyes and noses using black DMC embroidery floss.

I then added a 1.5 inch inner green border around all 3 Santas. The outside border is black with silver snowflakes and measures approximately 2.5 inches. The binding is the same green fabric as the inner border. I used my regular sewing machine to stitch around each Santa block in the green border and to stitch around the 3 blocks in the outer border.

Completed 3 Primitive Santas

The backing fabric is also a black snowflake print but features white snowflakes rather than the sparkly, silver ones. I need to save the sparkly fabric for other Christmas projects!

Since I don’t have an embroidery machine, I wasn’t sure what to do for a quilt label. Normally, I make labels at my mom’s house, but that would give away the surprise! Instead, I used another one of Carol’s little 3-inch blocks, a snowman, to make the label. Check at my earlier post here on the snowmen.

I hand-embroidered my wording onto the snowman block and then added a border using the backing fabric. I then stitched it down to the backing.

Here’s the whole back:

Primitive Santa Backing

Here’s a close-up of the snowman label:

Snowman Label

Happy Paper Piecing!
~Jennifer~

Snowmen and Santas, Part II

Posted on November 17, 2012 by nwquiltedcat

In this earlier post, I started working on a fun little mini quilt using 3-inch paper pieced blocks designed by Carol Doak.

I assembled the project and put the finishing touches on it this week.

First, I used 2 of the snowmen blocks and 2 of the Santa blocks and alternated them to make a little square.

Alternating Snowmen and Santa Blocks

Next, I decided to add a larger white print border to the blocks so that it resembled a window frame. The project needed a little more pizzazz, so I hand-embroidered french knots and dashes around the blocks and then added the words “Merry” and “Christmas.” A small darker blue outer border completed the look:

Snowman and Santa Mini Quilt

I used my regular Bernina to do some light quilting – mostly a few free-hand snowflakes around the inner white border. I used brown embroidery floss to make french knots for eyes on both the snowmen and the Santas. I used mini red buttons on each snowman and a larger white snowflake button in the middle.

To finish it off, I used the same dark blue print for the binding and stitched it down.

The mini quilt is about 11 inches by 11 inches finished and fits perfectly into a little table top stand:

Completed Snowmen and Santa Mini Quilt

I’m pretty happy with the end result, but I think I’ll add little embroidered noses to the Santa blocks to separate the face from the beard a bit more.

Here’s a closeup of the finished project: