Austen's Garden

Baby quilts are the best. That may seem like a big generalization, but hear me out.

Sewing and quilting a small quilt for a bundle of baby goodness means:

1. They are quick to complete! Okay, quick-ish. Considering I have a queen size WIP that would be in middle school if it were a kid, a 7 month turnaround seems like sewing-hyperspeed!
2. They don’t require stretching and cardio workouts to be able to wrangle under a domestic machine.  This = fewer sore back muscles and less cussing = win.
3. They get to go live and have adventures with little kids. Is it tummy time?  Afternoon tea 
4. party? Sick day? Grab a quilt!

Convinced yet? Well, either way,  I would like to introduce a newly finished baby quit, “Austen’s Garden.”

She was such fun to sew (the top was started before we knew gender, so it was a fun challenge to keep it gender neutral).

The backing fabric makes me smile every time I see it.

The quilting was quite an adventure! I vowed to try new techniques for both skill building and to branch out creatively. I quilted the majority of this at “Quilt Camp” – a 3 day retreat style sewing event.  Side note- I was in quilty heaven guys, and I cannot believe it took me so long to give something like that a try! 3 days of happy chatter, humming machines, chocolate, and show and tells. Heaven, I tell ya….

But back to the quilt... the intense quilt marathon session was what I needed to overcome the challenge of starting/ stopping and getting distracted while I try a new design.

Every row is a new-to-me free motion motif:  city skylines, stars, candy ribbon, lines and pearls, and swirls.

Then there’s that border…

Let’s talk about the border…

all 3.5 inches of intimidating solid color (wont hide wonky stitches) border.  I was stuck.

I took a few minutes to explore the quilt store and stretch and stumbled on to Free-Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3 by Lori Kennedy. I flipped through the book half-heartedly but as soon as I saw the flower design I knew that’s what the border needed. Sure that’s what it needed, but could I DO it?  Let me be a testimate to Lori’s amazing teaching skills, the steps were easy to follow, directions clear, and she breaks it into manageable pieces.  I practiced for a few minutes on a scrap sandwich and then dove in head first. After just a few flowers I got into a groove, liked how it looked, and dare I say.. had FUN free motion quilting! I used a variegated thread on the border, which has less contrast than white would have had, and that did make my newbie stitching a little more forgiving.

I finished quilting the border, happy danced, and immediately walked up to the register to purchase the book. I’m already excited to try more designs from it on the next quilt.

So there it is, Austen’s Garden in all her finished glory. It seemed fitting to take it out to my company’s garden for a farewell photo shoot.

I sent it home to give hugs and love to a sweet little girl, and I hope she (and her mom, my wonderful friend) have many comforting and fun moments together.

Quilt Stats:"Austen's Garden"

Size: 38"x 46"

Fabrics:  Stash, Michael Miller Petal Pinwheels,Alison Glass Sticks and Twine, Robert Kaufman Bluberry Park

Backing: Michael Miller's Pride in Candy from the "Origami Oasis" Collection

Binding: Stash

Pattern: my own

Quilting: Free Motion Quilting on my domestic machine

Completed: April 2017

Romeo, oh Romeo!

Have you ever had an idea, and jumped in head first with no solid plan?

That kind of happened with this quilt, and somehow it all worked out.

Our wonderful volunteers pieced 14 quilt tops at the inaugural Caring Star Quilts sewing day this spring. 

It was a truly inspiring day (read more here). 

There were a few more quilt tops that needed to be sewn after the fact, so a few core volunteers started work on additional tops before the big presentation to our local ill, injured and wounded veterans. 

I was one of them, and I knew right away that I wanted to play off of the improv squares we had placed into the border of the Team Juliet quilt.

I gathered up scraps from the sewing day and got additional scraps, large and small, from the project coordinator, Meg. 
The plan (if you could call it that) was to make improv pieced blocks and to ‘float’ them on the background.

So I started with these, and just kind of kept going. 

And I kept going.

And then I did some math. Kind of….

Just enough to make sure the final quilt was close to the required 60" x 70" dimension for Caring Star Quilts.

Okay, I really didnt do any math. Basically, I moved my design wall boards to the floor. It was a highly technical, advanced approach, that went something like this:

1. Lay design boards on floor.
2. Measure.
3. Cover ‘extra’ design board with the first blanket I could lay my hands on.
4. Grab blocks, toss on floor.
5. Stand back, squint, rearrange. Repeat.

I cut the background fabric, trimmed it down and squared as I went.
Here you can see (if you look carefully) that the white background is growing!

By the third photo there, my energy was low, it was late, I had no daylight, and the growing top was getting more and more difficult to wrestle under my machine.

I started to get cranky…. not gonna lie. Hubby asked if I was alright, and I responded that the quilt and I were having some growing pains. In that moment, I realized that the counterpart, to Juliet, was Romeo.

Finally, miraculously, I fudged seams and straight lines until all of it was pieced.

And I handed Romeo off to get quilted. 

I may be partial, but I think Romeo is a handsome fellow. Just look at the quilting! The volunteer who long-armed Romeo, chose just the right modern grid pattern to accentuate his wonky square awesomeness. 

Despite the growing pains and tight deadline I am so happy with how this quilt came out. It is made (with the exception of the Kona Snow yardage background) entirely from scraps. 
The scraps are the not quite big enough, not quite square enough, not quite right cast-off scraps that would otherwise be considered trash, or waste.

I may be over analyzing here, but consider that the motivation behind this project is to bring comfort and love to wounded ill injured, and to their caregivers. To bring hope and support to the unsung heroes who care for our veterans who feel broken, and maybe even a little cast-off.  There is a strong symbolism to turning these ‘scraps’ into something unique, and beautiful.

I can’t say that I’d make this quilt again.

Another improv quilt? Absolutely, but another one just like this? Nope.

It is a one-of-a-kind. There won’t be another in the world like it, one that has been touched by so many people who care, and gifted to one who is so deserving of their support.

Once again I am honored to be part of the caring Star Quilts volunteers.

So, Romeo, even though we only spent a short time together, you will always hold a very special place in my heart.

Welcome to the Jungle Quilt

Welcome, little Jungle Quilt, to the land of the finished projects!

When I wrote out my list of Finish Along (FAL) projects in April,
I stumbled across this work in progress.

At that point is was only a pile of strips and squares.
To be honest, I wasn't even sure what pattern I had planned on sewing.



By the middle of May the top was mostly pieced, but a long way from done.

That photo is prime late night cell phone quality, too. Yowza! Thankfully that's history...

With the 2nd quarter FAL deadline looming, I decided to kick my rear into high gear.

Here it is all quilted, bound, washed, and crinkly!

This quilt was my first attempt at free motion quilting on my new machine. Not bad for a first timer, right? I played with a few options, including the knee lift and the 'cruise control'. 

What I learned: 

- The knee lift is awesome 

- Pre-wind a ton of bobbins
- I am not a fan of fmq'ing with gloves on

- I need to practice, practice, practice curves

Some curves had those dreaded 'eyelashes,' but others were right on.

 The quilting pattern was simple, but it provided just the right level of challenge.
 And I even went on a limb with those corners, by improv quilting a squiggly fan.

I'm sure that's the technical description for that shape. Yup. 

Even though it wasn't complicated, it was scary going for those curves with no real plan.
Looking at it now, I'm glad I went for it! No risk - no reward, right?

An unplanned but cool effect is that the quilting sort of disappears into the stripe where the quilting was parallel to the print.

It sort of creates an illusion of a basket weave, see it?

Sure, I only have two finishes this quarter, but I feel like a champion! 

Quilt Stats:

Name: Jungle Quilt
Size: 32"x 36"Fabrics:  Stash
Binding: Stash
Pattern: Quilts for Kids
Quilting: Free Motion Quilting - Lines and Curves 
Completed: June 2014

"But wait, Annaliese, I only see one finished quilt here, didn't you say there were two?" 

That's correct. I am so excited about both finished quilts, that I think each deserves their own posts. 

Keep an eye out for my 2nd finish this quarter (teaser: I may have fallen in love with wonder clips and machine binding on it..)

Linking up this finished quilt to the 2nd quarter FAL party here.

Happy Quilting! 

Making a list

Katy's opened up the 2nd quarter Finish-A-Long! I work best with deadlines, so I'm excited to give myself a boost of motivation with this link-up. Ironically enough, tomorrow is the deadline for posting our proposed finish list, and here I am, getting in right under the wire! So proof positive - deadlines work!

Even as I write this list, I know I'm being over-ambitious. But if you know anything about me you know that is kind of my style. I have captured every single one of my started projects. Let's see how much I can get done in the next 3 months! It was a bit of a reality check to see how many there are. 

Small projects-

1. Monkey QFK-

This baby size quilt is destined for Quilts for Kids and it is so close... it's quilted so now all I need to do is put on binding!

2. Duck QFK-

This one is also destined for Quilts for Kids. Obviously it's not as close to finished but since it is a small project I think we can whip this out before the end of Q2.  I'm already thinking about how I want to put that maybe a modified Baptist's fan? Hrmmm, we'll see.

3. Turtle QFK-

Are we seeing a theme here? Top is pieced and needs to be basted.

4. Jungle quilt-

Pieces are cut and pinned, but I can't remember what the pattern was so I need to so some math before I can make real progress on this. 

5. Scrap-basket strip quilt-

I started this one as part of a block swap and have just sewn the last 20 6.5" blocks needed to get to this size. I don't know yet if it will stay with me or be gifted, but I do know that I want to try some free motion quilting on this one. Before I can do that though I'll need to pick out some backing and binding fabric. I pulled a black and white polka dot hoping I could calm down the crazy, what do you think?

6.  Halloween Table runner-

I ran low on the black fabric, got frustrated with the borders being too small to piece and stalled out this project. I will just bite the bullet and seam rip off the offending black border. The nice thing about this is even if I don't get to it before the end of the 2nd quarter, I'll have time to still get it done for the holiday.

Big projects-

7. The maroon and orange one-

That's a pretty unexciting name for one that I like so much... what should I call it?? These blocks are sewn, squared, and ready to go! I need to start joining rows. I haven't done so yet because some of the white strips in the middle are varying in widths and it will take a little bit of finesse to get things lined up. Thankfully now that I have a design wall I can lay things out without crawling all over the floor. So, no excuses, let's get this one done this quarter! 

8. Sister's grad quilt-

This is basted and has been since February.  I need to conquer my fear of wrestling this bad boy under my domestic machine. Well, sister graduated last May so it's seriously overdue.

9.  Anniversary quilt-

This is the biggest, hardest and most sentimental project on my WIP list. I've got quite a few more blocks to piece to get it to the planned queen bed size, and they are time consuming. But the result is so worth it! Hoping to get this done this summer, get it to a long-armer and enjoy it for our 4th wedding anniversary in August. We'll see...

10. Made in Color-

 Started as part of a quilt-a-long, I ran short of some fabrics in the fuschia colorway, and set it aside. Two more points to go before I can piece the background.

11. Across the sea

This was my first QAL! I got to the point where I needed to add the last and had to pack up to move. That was 2 years ago. Oh I am a compulsive quilt staller... is there a support group out there for us?!

12. Sisters quilt-

My sister and I picked up fabric for us to make matching quilts (same colored strips, but different neutrals). I am still in love with the idea of us having different but similar quilts, that we work on together. Our strips our cut, but the sewing has yet to happen. Sorry about the terrible cell phone photo. Trust me when I say those prints are CUTE!

13. Mod mosiac bonus quilt

I'm piecing these improv blocks to use up scraps. Since this is a 'bonus' quilt I am not putting the pressure on to finish it this quarter.  I'll put it here though to keep me honest when I get tempted to start something new.

Sheesh! I better get cracking!

This Quilt has No Name

because right now it sort of resembles a jelly roll on steroids!

My sister and I are doing this together- Same pattern, same fabrics, and a whole lot of sister 'tude.

SO EXCITED!  

The Story

My mother and sister were in town this June on their way to visit family in Indiana. I took them to my local fabric shop to appease our fabric appetite, and to spend some quality girl time. 

My sister brought along a (previously purchased) pattern with her so we began pulling fabric for it.  She has a great eye for color, but isn't always confident in her choices. We ended up pulling 15+ bolts out and began 'auditioning them'.

The more we pulled the more I loved the fun color and bold combinations. I liked them so much in fact, that that when my sister suggested we cut double and I do one too, I just couldn't resist!

Quilt Stats

Name: I don't know what to call this one.... yet.

Pattern:  "Jacks be Quick" by Cozy Quilt Designs

Fabric: So many! A variety of lines and designers.

Date: June 2011-???

Status: Strips are cut!

Swister and I are trying to finish some other WIPs up before we let ourselves go further with this one.... but that doesn't mean I can't take out my strippys and pet and oogle them once and a while, right?