Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt + More

Posted on January 11, 2015 by nwquiltedcat

Hi quilty friends!

I hope that your 2015 is off to a great start! I have a few quilty goals in mind for this year so I hope to add those to a blog post soon.

One goal is to participate in some mini quilt swaps on Instagram. I’m now signed up for 4 this year, and I’ll send the first one out later this week. There is a vibrant quilt community on Instagram, and you can find me there as nwquiltedcat.

The other day as I was driving home from work, some late afternoon sun beams hit Mt. Hood with a striking intensity. The volcano seemed to glow, and I pulled over to take a picture (along with several other people!). Unfortunately, I just had a little point-and-shoot, and the pictures don’t do the scene justice.

Mt. Hood at Evening

I’ve been participating in Bonnie Hunter’s latest mystery called Grand Illusion. She released the final clue last week so I have been working on putting my top together. I went with a smaller quilt center and just a solid aqua border rather than a thin inner yellow border and pieced outer border. I used some of my leftover pieces on the back.

Here’s the quilt flimsy:

Grand Illusion Flimsy

For the backing, I used units that would have gone into the pieced border along with some darker turquoise fabric that I had on hand. While trying to lay it out on the floor, someone jumped on the fabric!

Tiger on Grand Illusion back

After piecing the back, I framed it up on my HQ16 and just quilted an all-over meandering pattern with white Aurifil thread:

Grand Illusion on the HQ16

My Grand Illusion quilt (small version) is now quilted. I need to square it up and bind it. What do you think for binding – aqua or black or something else?

Grand Illusion quilted

You can view other finished Grand Illusion quilts at Bonnie’s link up party here.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

A Free Table Runner

Posted on December 29, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Happy Monday, quilty friends!

I hope that you are having a great week and enjoyed the holidays however you celebrate.

I finished up a Christmas themed table runner in time for the festivities last week by using some 2-1/2 inch precuts and a free pattern by Bonnie Olaveson of Bonnie and Camille. The pattern is called “Strippy and Bright” and you could really use any color combination to make a quick and easy table runner for any time of the year. You can find the pattern free at All People Quilt.

I used Aurifil 50 wt in white and free-motion quilted some swirls on the main blocks. For the white border, I free-motion quilted loopy lazy 8 shapes. The binding is completely scrappy from leftover pieces of my 2-1/2 inch strips.

Here’s a look at the finished table runner:

Strippy and Bright Table Runner

Strippy and Bright Closeup

I found this fun ceramic red cardinal to place on the table runner. I just love him! We don’t have red cardinals here in Oregon so it is fun to bring in a decorative one this time of year.

Ceramic cardinal

Since the new year is almost here, it is time to pack away the holiday decorations. I plan to make 2015 the year of finishing up some UFOs!! How about you?

Enjoy,
~Jennifer

Merry Christmas and Grand Illusion, part 4

Posted on December 25, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I hope that you are enjoying the holiday and making happy memories with friends and family.

Here’s a picture of our Christmas tree this year, a noble fir:

Christmas 2014

Our son had fun opening presents this morning, and then we took the dog out for a nice Christmas day walk. The rain stopped and the cool temperatures felt good against our bright and merry cheeks.

My husband and I have repainted several rooms in our house and switched the guest room/play room and my sewing room. I’m slowly moving things into the new sewing room and organizing it.

I finished up part 4 of the Grand Illusion mystery quilt, hosted and designed by Bonnie Hunter. For part 4, we made 2 different Broken Dishes units.

Broken Dishes, part 4

We did make Broken Dishes units during part 1, but these units have the colors rotated a bit differently.

Here are all my clues together:

Grand Illusion, parts 1-4

The next clue will be released tomorrow morning so I’m hoping that we’ll get instructions on how some of these units will be sewn together.

Merry Christmas!
~Jennifer

Grand Illusion – We Have Greens!

Posted on December 17, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Greetings!

For those of you following along with Bonnie Hunter’s latest mystery quilt, Grand Illusion, we got to play with our green fabric this week for clue #3! The instructions are still available from now until spring on Bonnie’s blog if you want to join in at any time.

For my quilt, I am mostly using Moda Grunges. For the greens, however, I am adding interest by using 4 different bright greens which match to Bonnie’s color recommendation. For more on the recommendations, see my earlier post here.

These are my greens:

Green Google It from the Giggles fabric line by Me and My Sister Designs
Swirly Scroll Lime from Wilmington Prints
Just Color Lime from Studio E Fabrics
Celery from the Folklore line by Lily Ashbury for Moda

I mostly stitch on the weekends and in the evenings after work so I finished assembling these units for part 3 tonight.

As I turned around to grab my camera, my quilt inspector sneaked in behind me and decided to pose with the blocks.

Greens in part 3 of the Grand Illusion Mystery quilt!

I’m making half the total number of units for a smaller quilt. Since we’ve now finished three clues, here are my units together:

Tiger with the first 3 clues for Grand Illusion

This is going to be a very bright and cheerful quilt! Tonight, I had hoped to go to a local quilt guild meeting, but hubby and I are in the process of repainting some rooms. One of those rooms is my quilting room so everything is quite hectic and unorganized. I can’t wait to get the new color on the walls and reveal it here soon.

Happy stitching!

~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

Grand Illusion Double Diamonds

Posted on December 10, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Hi everyone!

I’m participating in Bonnie Hunter’s newest mystery quilt, Grand Illusion. You can read about my broken dishes units for part one here.

For part two, we are making double diamond units using our pink, black, and neutral fabrics. I’m mostly using Moda Grunge fabrics for my project because I love the texture and dimension of the Grunges!

I’m making just 1/2 of the number of units for a smaller quilt. You can still join in and get the free instructions for a limited time on Bonnie’s blog. She will retire these instructions sometime next spring.

Here are my double diamond units, being inspected:

Grand Illusion Double Diamond Units

Since this quilt is a mystery, we don’t know how the individual units will be sewn together. So the layout in my photo is a complete guess.

Here are the double diamonds with the units from part one:

Grand Illusion, parts 1 and 2

I’m really loving the boldness of these units so far! On Friday, Bonnie will reveal the part three clue and we’ll be off stitching for another week. Hopefully, the greens will be used in the next clue.

Have you entered my giveaway as part of the larger Sew Mama Sew Giveaway? There are many fabulous prizes and fun blogs to check out as part of the giveaway so go check it out!

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Broken Dishes for the Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt!

Posted on December 2, 2014 by nwquiltedcat

Greeting quilty friends!

For those of you who follow Bonnie Hunter, you may know that she released the first clue in her latest mystery quilt, Grand Illusion. These clues will only be available for a short while, and Bonnie will retire them from her blog next spring for inclusion in a future book.

This quilt is named for the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan and draws its color inspiration from the hotel’s interior and grounds. I hope to visit it one day!

In October, Bonnie posted color recommendations in the form of paint chips. Although you can choose your own color scheme, I decided to stick with Bonnie’s choices as she has fabulous color sense, and I really wanted to see how these rich hues will play together in the quilt.

Here are my paint chips and fabric pulls. I’m using mostly Moda Grunge fabrics for the neutrals, black, turquoise, and pink. The yellow is Moda Marble Dot. I couldn’t find one grassy green that I really liked in a single fabric so I pulled a few fat quarter pieces into my pile.

Grand Illusion Mystery fabrics

We sewed broken dishes for part 1 this week. I’m making one-half of the normal amount of blocks so I can make a smaller sized quilt. I did buy enough fabric to make the full quantity of blocks so if I later decide to expand the quilt once the mystery is revealed, I can do so.

Here are my broken dishes units:

Grand Illusion Mystery, part 1

The colors really do pop, although my camera faded the intensity of the fabrics, particularly the turquoise. I really like how the turquoise Grunge fabric has yellow accents in it to play well with the Marble Dots.

The next clue will be released this Friday, December 5th on Bonnie’s blog so go check it out!

Happy stitching!
~Jennifer

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