March 2013 BOM (and with a twist)

Posted on February 23, 2013 by nwquiltedcat

The March 2013 block is the final one in an almost year-long mystery block-of-the-month (BOM) quilting odyssey hosted by Carol Doak on her Yahoo group site. She gave us all a little treat and posted it a bit early! Next month, she will reveal the mystery solution and everyone will be assembling their quilt tops and posting gorgeous photos to the group site. It’s not too late for you to join in on the fun!

Here’s my March block:

March Mystery Block

For a twist, I decided to shake up the colors a bit for a black/white/zinger swap. This is the same block, but the look is completely different!

March B&W Block

And here are the blocks side-by-side:

March Blocks Together

I hope to finish up both my traditional BOM quilt plus my black/white/zinger quilt this spring! What crafty projects do you have going this spring?

Have a sewful weekend!
~Jennifer~

Finished One Sunny Day Mini Quilt!

Posted on February 17, 2013 by nwquiltedcat

I started this mini quilt last week in my post about a batik play day. I had to take a quick 3-day business trip to Austin, Texas during the work week so I did not get any sewing time. On Saturday, I had a whole sewing day and finished the One Sunny Day mini quilt pattern by Carol Doak.

There was a brief ray of sunshine this morning that illuminated my back fence. I decided to snap some quick pictures of the completed quilt. It measures approximately 21 inches by 21 inches.

Here’s a look at the whole quilt:

Completed One Sunny Day Quilt

I used a really pretty fabric that changed from dark blue to turquoise for the binding. Then, I thought: why not add a little bling? I added just a few sparkles by applying crystals to the sun rays and the tulips. I also practiced using some different types of free-motion quilting using my home Bernina. I did some wavy lines, pebbles, cloud shapes, and swirls. You can click on the individual photos to see a larger image.

Close-up of the crystals on the sun rays:

Crystals on Sun Rays

Close-up of crystals on tulips and dragonfly button:

Crystals on Tulips and Dragonfly

How do you like the little dragonfly? I had wanted to put a cute little frog button at the base of the tulips, but I didn’t have one in my button stash. Instead, I found this sparkly silver dragonfly that I think adds a little fun to the quilt.

Enjoy this early taste of spring!
~Jennifer~

Batik Play Day!

Posted on February 10, 2013 by nwquiltedcat

Originally, I had planned to work today on a snowman block-of-the-month program that I started more than a year ago. I have all the blocks pieced, but I needed to add on the inner and outer borders before prepping it to quilt.

Then, Carol Doak surprised us Yahoo groupies with a special paper pieced project since we have reached 8500 members. Usually, we get a great block when we reach milestones, but this time she wowed us with a mini quilt pattern called One Sunny Day – yippee! A little bit of sunshine and springtime is most welcome!

I’m going to do this mini quilt in batiks. I spent a good hour or so this morning sorting through my batik stash and loving the rich, warm colors. I’m picking the fabrics out as I go along and selected a few for the top portion of the quilt.

Here’s a look at the first row:

One Sunny Day Top Row

I just love the beautiful rays of sunshine and the gorgeous rainbow colors in the flying geese!

These flying geese are quite small, and Carol recommended that we use the add-an-eighth ruler rather than the usual add-a-quarter ruler for paper piecing and I did take her advice.

Here’s a close-up of how tiny those flying geese are as compared to my finger (picture compliments of my adorable 7-year-old son!):

Flying Geese Close-Up

I only had time today to finish this top row. I hope to be able to work on this fun little quilt some more next weekend.

If you’re interested in making this quilt, please join Carol’s group by clicking on the Yahoo Groups button in the right-hand column of my blog.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Black, White & Zinger Blocks

Posted on February 1, 2013 by nwquiltedcat

I’m working on a swap using 12-inch blocks with a black & white color scheme or a black & white plus zinger color scheme. All the blocks must be designed by Carol Doak since the swap is with members of her Yahoo group.

I’ve made some black and white blocks, but wanted to try adding a zinger color. For the zinger, I knew that I wanted to stick with batiks but didn’t really know which color to choose. My 7-year-old looked at my collection of batiks and promptly picked out a lime green!

So I present the first black/white and zinger block:

August 2012 Block with Lime Green Zinger

This is the August 2012 block from the current mystery block-of-the-month program on the Yahoo group.

Here’s a pic comparing the black/white/zinger combination with my blue/cream combination that I’m using for the BOM:

Comparing August Blocks

Next up, I decided to try using a solid black in the background. I chose the Africa block from Carol’s book, Mariner’s Compass Stars, and used a yellow batik zinger.

Africa Block with Yellow Zinger

I think it is very dramatic, and I’m going to make a second one to keep for myself.

For this last block, I wanted to make a block in memory of my grandma Sylvia who passed away several years ago at 98-years-young. She was born in beautiful British Columbia so I used the Canada block from the Mariner’s Compass Stars book with a red batik zinger.

Canada Block with Red Zinger

I’m going to keep this block and use it in my black/white/zinger quilt once the block swap is finished.

Hope you enjoyed these zinger blocks!

Enjoy,
~Jennifer~

February 2013 BOM and Solution Guess

Posted on January 27, 2013 by nwquiltedcat

Before I talk about the BOM and guess, I’m adding a bit to my last post on the “Visit Your Local Quilt Day” contest. I’ve uploaded my photo to the Facebook contest page, but I need some votes! If you can, vote for me at this link. Thanks for your help!

You can find the patterns and information on Carol Doak’s 2012/2013 block-of-the-month mystery by following my Yahoo Groups link on the right-hand side of the blog.

Carol gave us a special treat by uploading the February block a little bit early. Instead of being a single block, we have 4 individual flying geese squares to sew. I had some time today so I sewed the February pieces as well as the large December setting blocks for the mystery quilt.

Here’s a look at the February mini blocks:

We have just one more block to receive in March and then the finishing instructions and mystery will be revealed in April!

Here’s my guess with my blocks laid out on the floor with a substitute block plus cat for the March block:

What do you think? Do I have a good guess? Just a little bit longer and we’ll get the final reveal!

I did get a chance to visit the Stitches in Bloom Quilt Show at the Oregon Garden yesterday. I need to download my photos, and I’ll share some with you in my next blog post.

Until then, happy quilting!
~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~

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: