All Roads Lead to Home Quilt

I just finished this quilt, and it's another example of fast but fun quilting.  I used a Kaffe Fassett 6" design roll in "Smolder" with extra yellow fabrics thrown in to brighten it up a bit.  It's not my typical color scheme, but I was trying to coordinate with the recipient's family room decor. 

I call it "All Roads Lead to Home:"

I used a pattern called Going My Way, which was quick and easy to follow.  I liked that the large strips allowed for (a) fast improv-ish piecing, which I appreciate when I have such limited time to quilt and (b) showing off the beautiful Kaffe Fassett designs!  I used the 6 inch design roll as-is (instead of cutting it down to 5 inches) and added one more row to make the finished quilt a bit longer.



I quilted it with wavy horizontal lines using THIS great tutorial.  It is one of my new favorite quilting methods, creating fast but modern results.  I machine-bound it using a decorative feather stitch and washed it for crinkly appeal.

Closeup of quilting.

As always, I pieced the back, using more Kaffe fabric I found on sale and leftover scraps!






The quilt measures 56" x 70."  I can't wait to give it to the recipients this weekend!

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Stripe-Tease Mini Quilt!

I love using Kaffe Fassett fabrics, and my recent quilting projects have been no exception.  Yes, I'm still quilting, despite the very quiet blog...it's just been too busy to post with an infant in the house!

Here is one mini quilt I recently created for the NQA Little Quilt Auction coming up in June, which benefits the NQA's grant program.  It's called "Stripe-Tease!"

I used leftover strips from a Kaffe jelly roll and improv-pieced the horizontal and vertical stripe areas.  I then quilted it with randomly-scattered concentric circles.  As a final touch, I machine-bound the mini quilt with a decorative stitch.






It measures 21" by 26," and it was a lot of fun to make!  More mini quilts are in progress...they're nearly instant gratification!

Winner of the Wordplay Charmpack!

Thanks to all the folks who participated in last week's O, Hi! Star Tutorial and charmpack giveaway!  The winner of the Wordplay charmpack is:

Hilachas, please send me your address...enjoy the charm pack!

Blogger's Block of the Month - "O, Hi! Star" Block and Giveaway!

It's my turn to contribute to Peach Patch's wonderful Blogger's Block of the Month!

For my month, I decided to create a variation on the classic Ohio Star pattern, which I'm calling the "O, Hi! Star."  It's an easy ninepatch style block, and the mixture of colors produces some fun secondary patterns in the block.

1.  Cut the following fabrics:
a.  Four 3.5" squares in yellow (corner squares)
b.  One 3.5" square in yellow (middle square) - perfect for fussy cut fabrics!
c.  Two 5.5" squares in green (hourglass squares)
d.  One 5.5" square in dark pink (hourglass squares)
e.  One 5.5" square in light pink (hourglass squares)



2.  Place the green and pink squares right sides together, to create two "sandwiches."  Pin.

3.  Draw a line down the center of each sandwich.  Draw two lines on either side of the center line, 1/4 inch away.  These will be your stitching lines.




4.  Stitch along the 1/4 inch lines.



5.  Cut along the center lines, creating four triangles.  Press the seams toward the green fabric to create four squares.




6.  Repeat step 2, using one dark pink square and one light pink square in each sandwich.  Each sandwich should also have one green fabric on top-left and one on the bottom-right (the center seams will nest against each other).


7.  Repeat steps 3 through 5, drawing the lines perpendicular to the existing seams (see photo).



8.  Trim the four hourglass squares to 3.5 inches square.  The center of the hourglasses should each measure 1.75 inches from the edge.




9.  Assemble the blocks as shown, to create a 9.5 inch block.  Enjoy!


Please post your creations to the Blogger's Block of the Month Flickr group!
http://www.flickr.com/groups/2019628@N25/

Giveaway:
As a special thank you to the Blogger's Block of the Month folks and my followers, I'm having a little giveaway!  I am giving away a Charm Pack of Wordplay by Benartex, which features cool black and white prints with lots of text (popular these days).

Entry Deadline:  Saturday, March 23rd at 9:00pm (Eastern time).

How to Enter :  Leave a comment at the bottom of this post about your current quilt project!  If you sign up to follow my blog (or you already follow it), leave another comment and you'll get a second chance to win!

Notes :  U.S. addresses only.   Please include your email address or another way to reach you.  If a winner does not respond within 3 days, I will choose another winner.

As a reminder, here is the monthly schedule for Bloggers BOM.  Happy sewing!

Date	Name	Blog
Sept 15th 2012	Carin & Carol	Margarets Hope Chest
Oct 15th 2012	Jenny	Sew Kind Of Wonderful
Nov 15th 2012	Jennifer M	Ellison Lane Quilts
Dec 15th 2012	Natalie	Craftin Mechanic
Jan 15th 2013	Stefanie	Little Lady Patchwork
Feb 1st 2013	Jennifer I	Knotted Thread
Feb 15th 2013	Sandra	Sharp Quilts
Mar 15th 2013	Nicole K	Patchwork Duck Designs
April 1st 2013	Bree	Distant Pickles
Apr 15th 2013	Tracey	Itching 2 B Stitching
May 15th 2013	Felicity	Felicity Quilts
June 15th 2013	Erin	Billy Button Design
July 15th 2013	Nicole N	Mama Love Quilts
Aug 15th 2013	Dhia	Peach Patch Quilts

A Happy Absence

Hello again!  It's been a crazy few months, during which I haven't had a chance to update my blog.  Fortunately, it's been for a wonderful reason:

My husband and I welcomed our first child (a daughter) in late November!  It's been a whirlwind of bottles, blankets and bibs around here, but I'm finally starting to get back into quilting.  I'll probably post less often, but I'll keep this site updated with my various projects.

Stay tuned for my next post; a Blogger's Block of the Month post with my contribution!  I had a lot of fun designing a block, and I can't wait to post it.  Stop back on Friday for the post!

Good Morning Starshine Quilt

As a follow-up to my last blog post, here's another quilt that I recently finished!  It originated as the "Marmalade Stars" quilt top, which you can read about HERE and HERE.

I finished the baby quilt and renamed it the "Good Morning Starshine" quilt, after the song from the musical "Hair."  I love how it turned out!

The 9 sawtooth stars are randomly scattered across the quilt for a little detail, and the other areas of the top are just simple 5 inch charm squares.  Despite the easy piecing, it wasn't so easy trying to make everything look "random" and keeping the same fabrics or colors from being too closely spaced!

 

I quilted an orange peel design in the charm squares, which turned out a little messier than I had anticipated.  I later realized that I was using the wrong bobbin case for my free motion quilting, which explained why I was fighting with the sewing machine during the quilting process.  Oh well...it makes it more "modern," right?!

Orange peel design in the charms.

Enjoy!