Red Bow Ties - Anyone Thinking Doctor Who?

Having just watched the latest episode of Doctor Who, I created this cute quilt that is reminiscent of the 11th Doctor's bow tie.  OK, only as I am looking at this quilt now did I relate it to the Doctor.  Still, it does pay homage...

Here's how I made it.   I had some jelly roll strips left over from another project - of which I have no recollection what that project was.  Humph!  Anyway, I started with half square triangle squares of red and yellow, then added the jelly roll strips to only two sides of the square - the red triangle sides.  I added an additional strip to one side creating a rectangle.  I love how this created sort of an off-set red bow tie.  Since this is such a scrappy quilt I added sides and top fabric scrappily alternating red and yellow.  I think it turned out to be a super-fun quilt top.  I hope to quilt it soon.  Sorry Whovians - next time I will make it in Tardis Blue and red. 

Strippy -Scrappy - Pink Floral and Happy

I attended a quilt guild meeting where they had a scrap swap.  I came empty handed, but at the urging of swappers, was offered a few scraps to take home.  Feeling guilty about taking without giving, I challenged myself to use these scraps and make something great.  The scraps were actually a few strips and a couple of pieces of coordinating fabric - less than 1/4 yard each.  I liked the 3 dudes quilt from Missouri Star and tried to make it.  U fortunately, I laid the pieces out wrong and had a "very special and unique" set of blocks.  I chose to forge ahead with the special blocks - now named 3 dudes and one nutty gal block.   I added pieces of white to make a bit of an off-set pattern.  Once I put it all together, it was a very white quilt with some colorful patches.  This is why people buy patterns and follow them.

I set this hot-mess quilt aside, and worked on a few other projects.  I thought that I could quilt flowers in the large blank white spaces after attending the quilting class at the Quilt Festival.  After ruining another quilt top while attempting simple flowers, I decided to forego that idea and keep that quilt top un-done.  Then I attended a quilt guild meeting where the speaker spoke on applique.  She made it look so good, and made it sound easy.  I have appliqued placemats before but think of applique as either something for craft projects, or difficult needle turning on quilts - really, how do people have the patience and skill for that - I so admire it, but have no desire to do needle turn applique.

Anyhoo, I cut out flowers similar to the flowers on the print fabric and fused them to the quilt.  I set to work adding the applique stitch from my machine to finish the flowers.  I though this would be tedius and look sloppy, but actually it went really fast, and looked quite lovely!  I am pleased!

Mumbo Gumbo -ish

Have you ever made something that just did not do it for you, but the rest of the world just loves it?  Well, this little quilt follows that same story line.  I attended a charity quilt event where some gals in a bee were creating blocks for a bunch of mumbo gumbo quilts.  Mumbo Gumbo is a great scrap busting quilt, and is very forgiving. Here is the link to purchase the pattern:  http://www.pieintheskyquilts.com/mumbogumbo.html.  So, being a gal with a HUGE bag of scraps, I decided to follow the same concept as Mumbo Gumbo and create some blocks.  I cut strips of my scraps, and made half square triangle squares out of larger pieces.  I sewed and sewed and sewed.  The way I sewed this was joining strips into one long piece, and put the HST squares under the strip on my sewing machine, and chain sewed until I ran put of squares. Then I pressed seams open, cut strips between the squares, and repeated the process as I sewed the next side.  Then repeat.  Then repeat.  Then repeat.  I learned much too late that I made way too many HST squares and as a result I ran out of strips before I was able to create even one largish block.

OK, this project had to be set aside until I created more scraps.  Fast forward to completed blocks.  I trimmed the blocks into squares, joined them, and created the quilt top.  At this point I laid out this tedious quilt top and my husband came into my sewing room and commented (unsolicited) how much he like the quilt.  Then my 17 year old daughter came in and admired it as well.  Mind you, I had created really cute quilts prior to this -just scroll thru the blog... -which rarely got unsolicited praise from my husband.  Anyway, I finished the quilt and used scraps for the back.  I made bias binding from the rainbow striped fabric (OK, that part I LOVE).  It turned out well.  Who knows, I may make another one - I have a jillion small blocks waiting for new scraps to be added.

A couple more mug rugs

Well, now that I know I can make a mug rug, I decided to make a couple for my parents.  I had this cute snowman face embroidery design, and thought it would be festive.  I had seen something on Missouri Star about snowballing (I think that is right), where you add small triangles to the corners of squares, and it makes squares look rounded.  Anyway, I am always up for something new so I rounded my snowman's face, and added cute leftover fabric from a jelly roll on each side.  OK, these are not as well made as the ones for my swapee - sorry mom and dad, but they are very cheery!

Mug Rug Swap

I have decided to take a few more chances with my sewing.  I recently joined a holiday mug rug swap.  The way it works is that I make a mug rug for a stranger who also signed up for the swap, and someone makes one for me.  From her posts, my swapee likes bells, and celebrates Christmas.  I decided to use an embroidery design of a bell as my centerpiece, and coordinated the colors to a holiday fabric I had in my stash.  Two comments on mug rug swaps  - 1. They are small so there is less room to mess up, and 2. There is added pressure when you make something for a stranger - it cannot be as flawed as the items one makes for say, mom...  Anyway, I took my time, chose colors carefully, and actually created a mug rug I can be proud of.  I hope my swapee likes it.  And I cannot wait to get mine in the mail.  I will post a picture of the one I receive once I get it.  Here is the one I made.

Sweet Quilt

Again, a stash search yielded another lovely charm pack - I don't even remember buying most of these...  I created half square triangles, and sewed four of them into a square.  For some reason I am drawn to a white background - could it be the impracticality of a white quilt...  Anyway, once I finished the front I went to my local quilt shop - Quilt Emporium - to find a great backing fabric.  I searched for yardage of the un-named fabrics, thinking I would use the teal fabric.  But, thriftiness led me to the sale rack and I found this neat green fabric.  I thought it added some quaintness to the quilt, and at 1/2 price, I can save money and buy more charm packs.

I went to a class on machine quilting at the International Quilt Festival.  I learned quite a bit.  I also learned that I am not that good at drawing.  Lastly I learned there is a world of difference between quilting on the super-duper amazing longarms supplied at the festival and the rinky-dink eBay DIY short-arm that I created using various sources.  Having demolished a quilt top thinking my long-arm skills would transfer, I opted to stitch in the ditch on this one.  These straight(ish) lines worked well on my machine, and the frame did a great job holding my sandwich together well.

To complete the quilt,  I first watched a video on bias binding.  All in all, it turned out pretty well.

Kaffe Fassett Big Star Quilt

I have fallen in love with Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  Besides their vibrance, the chaos of the prints hide many an error!  Yay!  I saw the Big Star Quilt on Missouri Star's website and had to make a quilt using that layout.  I used yardage of Kaffe's fabric, and wanted to go bold.  I tried out the stars with the pink-orange sashing (first picture).  But then decided the shapes created without the sashing (second picture).  

All in all, I love this quilt top.  It may be the best one I have ever created.  Now if I could only get my quilting machine working again...

 

Simply Color by Moda and Orange Quilt

If you are like me you cannot resist a cute charm pack.  I was going through my stash and found an adorable charm pack - Simply Color by Moda.  I wanted to show off the charms in their entire glory so I just sewed them together in fours and bordered them with an orange batik.  It turned into this cheery easy quilt.  I am pleased, both with the simplicity and the result.  Now I need to quilt it.