Making a Ski Patrol Themed Pillow, Part 2, the Reveal!

Posted on May 26, 2020 by nwquiltedcat

Hi everyone,

In my last post, I talked about making a pillow front as part of a special graduation gift for my nephew. Although we are not able to travel to his modified graduation ceremony, I still wanted to make him a gift that he could take with him to college in the fall.

For the pillow back, I designed a foundation paper pieced block based on the logo of the ski resort where he worked as a ski patrol member. I thought it would a fun personal touch!

I used solid Kona cottons in red, blue, and white for the ski resort logo. The background is the same ski lift print from Dear Stella that I used on the pillow front.

For quilting, I used the channel locks on my HQ Avante for hand-guided straight lines. I wanted to keep the quilting very simple. I used Glide thread in white. I did quilt all three of the pillow panels at the same time using solid pieces of backing and batting.

Quilting the ski patrol pillow panels

Once I finished quilting the panels, I cut each panel down to the appropriate size, using the dimensions in the free “Simple Quilted Pillows” pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.

Ski patrol pillow panels after quilting and trimming

I did bind the two back panel pieces using the same red Kona cotton for a nice pop of color on the pillow back. I pre-washed all the fabrics, and washed the red Kona two times with color catchers. I wanted to be sure that my nephew could remove the pillow cover and wash it without worrying about the red fabric bleeding into the other fabrics.

Ski patrol pillow front

Ski Patrol pillow back

Ski Patrol pillow front, close-up

I really love how this pillow turned out, and I hope that my nephew enjoys it as he starts his college life!

Happy quilting,

~Jen

Alpaca Anyone?

Posted on July 17, 2019 by nwquiltedcat

Oh my, I haven’t blogged in so long! I have been working on many quilting projects in my spare time, and you can see more real time progress on my Instagram account.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend some classes at A Quilter’s Affair in the week leading up to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. I usually attend each year, but my sister got to join me after she missed the prior 2 years.

I wanted to surprise her with a fun gift as a memento of our trip. We stay at the Best Western Ponderosa, which used to have a llama herd. The hotel retired the herd and replaced it with an alpaca herd! These alpacas have been at the hotel grounds for just a few weeks so they are still a bit shy.

The lovely Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts recently posted a series of new mini quilts that she designed, including an alpaca! It was fate!! I immediately purchased the pattern and set out to make 2 alpaca minis.

This pattern is traditionally pieced and goes together pretty quickly. Here’s a look at the quilt tops with my inspector:

Romeo inspects the alpaca quilt tops

The solids are hand dyed from Cherrywood, the background is from Karen Lewis Textiles, and the alpaca body is the aqua Fairy Dust print from Tula Pink’s line called Pinkerville. The other prints are various scraps from my stash.

I quilted these alpaca minis 2-up on my HQ Avante. I did a combination of ruler work to outline the alpacas and some free-motion swirls in the background. I used a black and white striped print for the binding.

Quilting the alpaca minis

I surprised my sister with her choice of quilt last week. She picked the alpaca with the orange hair, and I’m keeping the alpaca with the green hair.

I just couldn’t resist getting a picture of the completed mini quilts with the alpacas at the hotel. One alpaca was very brave and came to check them out!

An alpaca inspects the completed quilts

We had such a fun week together! In my next post, I’ll talk about the classes that we attended at A Quilter’s Affair.

Happy quilting!

Jen

Soak Up the Sun Quilt

Posted on May 21, 2018 by nwquiltedcat

Hello quilters!

The sunflower is one of my favorite flowers because it is always in bloom during my birthday month. I love how bright and cheerful sunflowers are while dancing in the sunshine.

When I saw the Soak Up the Sun quilt in a new book, Mini Wonderful Curves by Sew Kind of Wonderful, I fell in love and had to make this quilt right away.

I purchased some Pepper and Flax fabric from my local quilt store to use as the sunflower petals. In the book, the petals are all scrappy yellows, but I wanted to use this pretty fabric for all the petals.

The background is made up from 5 different gray and white low-volume fabrics from my stash. The green petals are from 4 different fabrics, and the dark gray centers are also from 4 different fabrics. A great way to use up some stash!

Soak Up the Sun block

This quilt uses the QCR Mini ruler, and it goes together pretty quickly. Don’t let the curves scare you! The ruler makes it easy and fun.

I assembled my quilt top over about a week, sewing most of a weekend and then after work in the evenings.

Here’s my inspector performing his initial cat scan and quality check:

Tiger Inspects Soak Up the Sun Quilt Flimsy

Now onto the quilting! I used my HQ Avante, and did some free-motion flowers and swirls using Glide thread.

Soak Up the Sun Quilt, Just Off the Longarm!

I used a dark gray fabric from the Pepper and Flax fabric line to bind the quilt. My backing material is also from the same line, but I selected a lighter gray with yellow flowers.

Here’s a look at the completed quilt: