Tuesday Talk

It's Tuesday!

 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!  My day is a busy one, as I am working on a big card order, so there will not be any sewing, unless I do a little tonight to relax. 

 

I wanted to share a quilt that I quilted for a friend this past weekend.  She put together the quilt top and decided she wanted me to quilt and bind it.  Now, I just did some simple straight lines and in the ditch quilting, but it turned out really great!  You can't see the quilting very well in the picture, but it is simple straight line diagonal criss-sross from corner to corner in the middle heart section.

I love the heart shape design and I love these colors!

 

Close up of basting

 

Quilting in the ditch around borders

Pinning the binding

Finished quilt

 

Yesterday, one of my blocks was featured on The Modern Quilt Guild Blog for the QuiltCon Block Challenge.  There were some wonderful blocks in that post that were similar.  Today, they are featuring Scrappy blocks!  Go check it out and get some inspiration! 

 

Quiltcon Block Challenge

 

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Have a Terrific Tuesday!

 

Big Hugs,

Stephanie

Thankful Thursday!

It's Thursday!  Time to be Thankful!!!

 

Today, I am thankful for beautiful weather and beautiful views.  We are having some wonderful weather here in East TN right now.  It is unusual to have low to mid 80's weather for August.  I love it!  It is great weather to sew by.  I took this picture back in April at our Quilt Guild Retreat in the mountains.  We had some beautiful sunsets then and we have had several recently, but I have not had my camera in hand to catch them.  I am going to try harder to have it with me more often. 

 

 

"The world has enough beautiful mountains and meadows, spectacular skies and serene lakes. It has enough lush forests, flowered fields and sandy beaches. It has plenty of stars and the promise of a new sunrise and sunset every day. What the world needs more of is people to appreciate and enjoy it." ~Michael Josephson, whatwillmatter.com

 

I am working on several projects right now.  I have my card order in the works and I took some time to work on the quilt that I am quilting.  Today has been a busy day so far, so I am now back to it!

 

Have a great Thursday!

Backyard Beauties

Happy Sunday to you!

I hope you are having a great day!  Here is a special baby quilt I made recently for my sister who just  had a baby.  My new nephew's name is Saxon and this baby quilt is called "Backyard Beauties!"

I made this quilt using Michael Miller's fabric line called "Backyard Baby" by Patty Sloniger.  It has fabulous critter prints, like bugs in jars, backyard critters, maple leaf whirlygigs, and birch trees with woodpeckers.  These prints were perfect for this quilt, because we grew up with several big maple trees in our front yard and many birch trees in our back yard.  We always had woodpeckers around pecking on these trees.  When I saw this fabric line, I just knew it would be perfect for a little boy and  to bring back the memories of us growing up.   

I also used Kona solids in Aqua and Peridot for the background.  I decided to do wonky star blocks for this quilt and alternated the blocks and backgrounds!  These blocks were nine inches unfinished, so the final measurement was about 36" x 45".

Before quilting

Before quilting...close up

Backing...Birch trees with woodpecker

Finished quilt...all washed and crinkly!!!

I just love how this quilt turned out and I think my sister and nephew really love it!  I also really enjoyed designing, piecing and quilting this quilt.  It now has a special home and will be treasured for a very long time!  That is why we quilt...to make special things for special people!

Quilt Ramblings Starting Tomorrow

Hello!

     I have decided to focus my blog more on my quilting and sewing adventures.  Since we start the next half of the year tomorrow, I plan to start posting pictures and quick posts about all things sewing and quilting.  Some days my posts will consist of my past projects.  Some days, you may see projects in progress and other days you may get some kind of information from the sewing/quilting world.

     Please join me on this adventure as I try to grow to be a better quilter! 

Lets have some fun with all our projects!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2012

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2012 at Amy's Creative Side

     My name is Stephanie and I am so excited to be participating in the Blogger's Quilt Festival for the very first time!  I want to thank Amy for this truly amazing quilt festival!  I love quilts and the Modern movement and I am part of our local Modern Quilt Guild in Knoxville.  I have enjoyed looking at all the quilts over the past couple of years, but I never entered one and this spring, I decided to change that.  It is truly amazing to see all the wonderful quilters and their designs and I am so inspired by all of them! 

     The quilt I am featuring is called "Orange Slice" and it is the very first big quilt that I made.  It is approximately 60" x 80".  I had only been sewing and quilting for about a year and had done mostly smaller baby quilts.  Then, in January 2011, I decided to join the ps i quilt Postage Stamp Quilt Along.  I was so excited to do a quilt along, but didn't know what kind of jelly roll or fabric to use.  Some were using the Sweetwater line featured for the quilt along and some were going very scrappy. 

     I only had two jelly rolls at the time and I just loved the "Fresh Squeezed" line by Sandy Gervais by Moda, in my stash.  It was so bright and yummy and of course, I live in Tennessee...Go Vols!!  As I looked at some of the others' fabric choices, I noticed that many were using a very light, neutral background with their jelly rolls.  While that was great for some lines of fabric, I wanted to go bright and bold!  So after some debating, I found the RK Kona Orange, which was an absolute perfect match for this!

     I cut up all the fabric, put all the colors together, followed all directions and came up with this beautiful quilt top.  I had no idea at the time it would be so striking with the movement of color! 

     I decided to use some of the left over strips on the back, paired with RK Kona Turquoise. 

     Then, I was trying to decide how I wanted to quilt this quilt. I held on to it and waited and waited.  In November 2011, about nine months after I had finished the quilt top, I found a wonderful long arm quilter, Sharon, who was just starting out and had done some amazing work on charity quilts for our guild. After talking with her, she found this fun, citrus quilt pattern to quilt my quilt! It is absolutely perfect and just what I wanted!!! 

     It turned out so beautiful!

     I decided to bind the quilt with some of the fabric I had bought in the "Fresh Squeezed" line that was turquoise with orange flowers.  This fabric was perfect to tie the whole quilt together. 

     Now, when I do binding, to be different, I have learned to use what some call, a feather stitch, on my quilts.  I love this stitch!!  It is unusual and adds a touch of flair.

     The quilt along was such a wonderful learning experience!   I am very proud of all the work that went into this first big quilt and it is, by far, my favorite!  Recently, I took my quilt to our KMQG quilt retreat. We had such a wonderful time and there just happened to be a beautiful sunset up in the mountains, so I got several pictures of my quilt on the porch. 

     Thank you for taking the time to stop by!  I hope I have inspired you to quilt something beautiful!