Mt. Hood Elevated Abstractions Quilt

Posted on April 26, 2018 by thequiltedcat

Hello quilters!

I love the landscape of the west, particularly in my home state of Oregon. When I saw the Elevated Abstractions quilt by Violet Craft, I just knew that I had to make it.

This quilt is a wonderful abstraction of Mt. Hood. It is entirely foundation paper-pieced using Pure Elements Solids by Art Gallery fabric and Aurifil thread in 50 weight.

I wanted the quilting to take a back seat to the piecing so I took a modern approach with straight-line quilting using channel locks on my HQ Avante.

MtHood_2

Once I took the quilt off the frame, my trusty quilt inspector instantly arrived. How do cats know?

MtHood3

I decided that the quilt needed a pop of bright color for the binding so I dug into my stash and added some orange Notorious fabric by Cotton + Steel. Then, I took the quilt on a 9 mile round trip hike to visit Pup Falls in the Mt. Hood National Forest. Quite the scene for a little photo op! My son took this picture while I balanced precariously on the muddy trail, working hard to keep it out of all that mud!

I really enjoyed piecing and quilting Elevated Abstractions. I need to find the perfect spot to hang it in my home.

Happy quilting! ~Jennifer

Forest Abstractions Bunny + Giveaway Winner

Posted on October 31, 2014 by thequiltedcat

Happy Halloween, everyone!

My little guy is getting excited for trick-or-treating tonight, and I’m excited to get some more sewing time in this weekend. We carved some jack-o-lanterns last night:

Jack-o-Lanterns!

Recently, I had the great pleasure of meeting Violet Craft in person at an open house at a local quilt shop called the Pine Needle. I’ve been eyeing her paper pieced Forest Abstractions pattern for a while so I went ahead and purchased it. I love paper piecing, but haven’t done much of it during the past year. I’m going slow and easy, working in the blocks in between other quilt projects.

I decided to use a variety of low-volume prints for the backgrounds instead of using solids. I picked up a fat quarter stack of lovely fabric from a quilt shop in Spokane called Charming Lulu when I met my sister there for a little shop hop several weekends ago. They carry a wonderful selection of modern fabrics, and I hope to visit next time I’m in Spokane.

I haven’t found a website for Charming Lulu, but they are on Facebook.

Field Guide Fat Quarter Stack

Charming Lulu Quilt Store

For the bunny, I chose some wonderful purple and magenta fabrics that I picked up at a quilt show last year. I’m pretty sure that I’ll use different colors for each critter in the quilt, but we’ll see.

Forest Abstractions Pattern and Fabrics

Here’s a look at my completed bunny block:

Forest Abstractions Bunny

I hope to make another block from this pattern soon.

If you participated in the Black Cat Crossing blog hop, I offered a giveaway on my post here. I used a random number generator and the lucky winner is . . . .

Carole (her blog is From My Carolina Home).

Carole, I will be emailing you today to make the arrangements.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the blog hop. I do hope that you enjoyed all the wonderful Halloween creations.

Stay tuned because I’m participating in Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks Blog Tour in November. I have a block published in the next issue, and I can’t wait to show it to you!

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Werewolf, Death, Mummy, and Cat Halloween Quilt Blocks – the Final Row!

Posted on October 5, 2012 by thequiltedcat

Yippee – I recently completed the final row in my “Happy Halloween” quilt designed by Amy Bradley. This final row features 4 adorable little critters! They are without their eye buttons for now, but I hope to be able to get the whole thing quilted this weekend.

Go to this post for earlier pictures and details about this fun project.

Here’s Mr. Werewolf and Mr. Death’s up close photo:

Werewolf and Death Close-Ups

And the Mummy and Cat close-up photo. The black line detail on the mummy are actual stitching lines over a piece of white fabric!

Mummy and Cat Close-Up

Now that I have all the Halloween critters assembled, I sewed them together into one large rectangle with a “Happy Halloween” row separating the 1st character row from the 2nd character row.

Here is the quilt top before I added the borders. There will be a small black and white inner border and then a larger purple polka-dotted outer border.

Happy Halloween Quilt Before Borders

I will post again showing what the finished project looks like with the borders, quilting, binding, eyes, and other finishing details. This has been such a fun project for me and a great way to use up some of my Halloween fabric stash. All the different colors that you see in the various critters are little individual pieces of fabric appliqued onto a background block.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer~

Spooky Haunted House – Halloween Challenge

Posted on September 15, 2012 by thequiltedcat

I enjoy creating projects using scrapbooking paper and embellishments. When I read that SVG Cuts is having a Halloween Challenge contest (grand prize being a new diecut machine!!), I thought I should give it a try!

I’ve posted my entry to SVG Cuts Facebook page. You can view the other entries and comment on them. They all look great so far!

For my project, I decided to make the haunted house from the Elmhurst Hollow SVG Kit. You can purchase this kit from the SVG Cuts website for $6.99. You will need to have one of the recommended cutting machines and software as posted on the FAQ page.

I’m so excited at how wonderful my Elmhurst haunted house looks now that it is completed. I’m now inspired to decorate for Halloween!

Here is the whole Spooky Haunted House with normal lighting:

You can see a slight glow from the flickering LED lights.

When the lights are out, you can really see the glow:

I added some fun embellishments to this project including ghosts, extra spiders, Halloween twine, glitter, spider webs, and a black cat. Don’t you just love the “BEWARE” sign across the front door? Too cute!

As I added these embellishments, my 7-year-old decided to help. He wanted to add his own special touch and came up with the idea of adding a yellow crescent moon with a flying bat. He cut the moon shape and colored it.

The backside of the haunted house faces a wall so it won’t be seen too often. However, Ian decided it needed a little yellow star with a pumpkin button that we made using my Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Tool and a round #14 bubble cap. It turned out cute!

The whole project took me about 3 hours, but I did take my time choosing papers and embellishments from my stash.

Hope you enjoy this early taste of Halloween!

~Jennifer~

Ghost and Witch Halloween Blocks, plus completed first row!

Posted on September 12, 2012 by thequiltedcat

In several of my earlier blog posts, I mentioned that I’m working on a fun applique quilt by Amy Bradley for Halloween. The quilt has different famous characters featured on each block.

I’ve completed the ghost and witch blocks! I’m having so much fun with this quilt because each block is so unique.

Here’s the ghost block. He has the cutest nose!

Ghost Halloween Block

And here is the witch block. Don’t you just love her hair? I also couldn’t resist fussy cutting fabric for her hat band so she could have several black cats.

Now that I have the first four blocks appliqued, I decided to add the borders and cornerstones before tacking the second set of blocks.

Here’s the completed first row with just the inner borders and cornerstones. There will be outer borders once all the blocks are completed.

Top Row of Halloween Applique Quilt

You may be wondering – what happened to their eyes? Yikes! Don’t worry – the eyes were only placed temporarily for photos. I’ll add the eyes and other embellishments once the quilting is complete.

Hope you enjoy!

~Jennifer~

Completed Cat Pumpkin Halloween Wall Hanging

Posted on September 6, 2012 by thequiltedcat

On my August 29th post, I showed 1 cat in the pumpkin paper pieced block that I finished. I made 2 more cat pumpkin blocks and then sewed them together into a small wall hanging to display on my door this fall.

Each cat pumpkin block has a different 1-inch border.

For the outer border, I cut 2-inch strips out of a dark orange fabric with little gold stars. I used a 1/4″ seam allowance to add the border to each completed cat block and then joined them all together.

If you look closely, you’ll notice that I added some hand embroidered whiskers to each cat before quilting.

I created a quilt sandwich with some batting and a backing using a black print with orange pumpkin vines. This same print is used as the binding. I think the orange outer border and black binding really make the piece come together to celebrate the season.

I didn’t have time to use my mom’s mid-arm machine and, since this is a relatively small project, I quilted it free-hand using my trusty Bernina. (Note to self: I need to convince my husband that I need my own mid-arm/quilt frame combo!).

Once quilted, I added the binding and some finishing touches. I used small green rhinestones for the cat eyes, some 5/8″ black grosgrain ribbon for the hanger, and a cute black Halloween cat button as a hanger accent.

Here’s a picture of the completed wall hanging:

Cat Pumpkin Wall Hanging

Close-up of cat button sewn onto ribbon hanger:

Close-up of cat button

One more view of the cat wall hanging:

Close-up of Cat Pumpkin Wall Hanging

I hope you enjoy looking at my little cat Halloween project!

~Jennifer~

Halloween Cat in the Pumpkin Challenge Block

Posted on August 29, 2012 by thequiltedcat

As a member of Carol Doak’s online group, I was so excited to see her posting a new miniature block for Halloween with a cat!! I had my orange quilting cat with me, and he “assisted” with picking out the fabric.

This block is tiny, measuring 3 inches by 3 inches before I added the green fabric border. Since it is so adorable, I’ve decided to make some more of these blocks, sew them together, and create a whimsical wall hanging for my front door for Halloween this year.

You can join Carol’s group by going to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CarolDoakQuiltingGroup/.

Enjoy!

~Jennifer~

Halloween Dracula Vampire Block

Posted on August 7, 2012 by thequiltedcat

In my continuing quest to finish a Halloween quilt, I have finished a second block from Amy Bradley’s Happy Halloween pattern.

See my Bat block post to see the first one that I created a couple of weeks ago.

Presenting a very cute and fun looking vampire for a change! Nothing scary or creepy about this Dracula:

Vampire Block – Happy Halloween Quilt

I used a purple print with satiny dots for his collar to give him a bit of sophistication. I think he looks really charming with his muppet-like nose and little pointy teeth. The button eyes won’t be sewed down until I’ve finished the quilt.

Hope you enjoy and happy sewing!

~Jennifer~

Halloween Bat Block

Posted on July 27, 2012 by thequiltedcat

In my last post, I talked about my ever increasing stash of Halloween fabric.

One of my favorite applique designers, Amy Bradley, has an adorable ‘Happy Halloween‘ pattern set. I decided that these patterns would be a perfect application for my stash! I purchased the pattern and it arrived a few months back (whoa, how time flies!).

I selected the Bat Block as my first one to do this week. The eyes are only on the block temporarily. I’ll add them later once I have the whole project quilted.

What a cute bat!

Happy Halloween Bat Block

I have 1 out of 12 blocks finished. Who knows if I can finish it for this Halloween or perhaps for next year?

Happy crafting!

~Jennifer~

Halloween Fabric Stash

Posted on July 25, 2012 by thequiltedcat

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love the traditions and fun associated with kids trick-or-treating and the crispness of the autumn air. I love carved pumpkins sitting on porches and the colored leaves as they blow across lawns.

I really love Halloween fabrics. There are so many cute designs that I just cannot resist adding a fat quarter here and a 1/2 yard there to my stash.

I looked at my Halloween stash recently and decided it was overflowing, and I need to pick a project already!

Part of My Halloween Fabric Stash

Hmmm, are you wondering what I’ll pick? It is a delightful pattern full of whimsy and mischief from one of my favorite designers. I’ve been working on the first block this week and will post a picture of it when I’ve completed it.

Here’s a hint . . . it’s the same designer who created this crazy cat quilt pattern set that I did a few years ago and is now hanging in my sewing room.