Churn Dash Cosmonaut {a finished quilt}

Here are the final photos of my Modern Quilt Guild Michael Miller Challenge quilt.

The pattern is called “Unchurned” and comes from the book “Accentuate the Negative” by Trisch Price.  I followed the dimensions for the quilt but made the corner pieces 4 inches bigger than necessary and cut them wonky, but maybe not wonky enough for it to really show.

I tried to include selvages from every fabric used in the quilt.

There are many pieces that read Michael Miller or are the color dots from selvages. 

I thought it would be cool to include the color dots because really this quilt is about using all those colors—from new Michael Miller fabrics like Petal Pinwheels and Just My Type to mixing in Madrona Road and Whimsy Windows.  If the color worked, I tried to incorporate it in the quilt.

Using solids was also a goal for this quilt.  The solid dark gray is Michael Miller cotton couture in charcoal.  The coral is also Michael Miller.  The provenance of the green, grays, cream, and aqua is unknown.

The gray rectangles are quilted densely with back-and-forth lines. 

And each of the gray half-square triangles are quilted with big and small circles.  The top thread is dark gray and the bobbin thread is light aqua.  Getting the tension right took a lot of practice, but overall the stitching is really good.

The rest of the quilt is stippled densely with aqua thread on top and bottom. 

The different quilting styles give the quilt a nice texture that is not stiff at all.

I tried to get creative with some of the piecing.  This flower is pieced from yellow and blue fabrics.

There are several fussy cut cats.

And one bird.

A fun little curved piece.

A pretty yellow flower.

And some flying geese.

 

The back has a pieced section…and quite a few puckers.  It was a major disappointment on my end.  I made the mistake of quilting the solid sections before the center section, and ended up with too much backing fabric in the center.  The good news is this quilt is going to hang in my living room, so no one will be the wiser, and it’s a lesson learned to always quilt from the center out.

The quilting on the back through these flowers is my favorite part of the quilt.

This quilt is entitled “Churn Dash Cosmonaut” for the fact that it’s a micro and macro view of a churn dash and the cat fabric is called “Atomic Tabbies.”  The song “Low” by Cracker may have had something to do with it too…

The finished size is 72” square.  I’ll be linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts and Fort Worth Fabric Studio.

MQG Michael Miller Challenge

Finally finished up my quilt for the challenge today…whew!  It was a whirlwind of sewing and I’m hoping to get some good photos of the quilt tomorrow.  Unfortunately the rain kept me from getting any today.  So in lieu of good photos, I thought I’d share a few process photos from along the way.

It all started with putting up a temporary design wall.  I marked out the sections and sizes with painter’s tape so I had a good idea of the spaces I needed to fill with patchwork.  Immediately my human helpers started using the wall for their very own projects.

I really wanted to use some text fabric in the quilt.  The rules state you can use any kind of Michael Miller fabric, so I dug out some Madrona Road from last year’s challenge and decided it added just the right dark depth to the Petal Pinwheel collection for this year’s challenge.  Then I had what I thought was a brilliant idea.

Why not use some “text” fabric in the form of selvages?  I’d never sewn with them before, but it couldn’t be that hard, right?

The pieces were teeny tiny, plus keeping the letters lined up was easier said than done.  But overall, the effect is what I was going for.  My husband had the piggy-back brilliant idea of putting a huge strip of “Michael Miller” across the quilt.  I was digging through my stash trying to come up with enough pieces, but I settled for this strip, about 12 inches long in the finished quilt.  Unfortunately, a few inches of the original strip had to be amputated while trying to fit together the center panel.

I tried to pay homage to all the designers of the fabric I used in the quilt.  Patty Young’s name got bisected, so one selvage reads “Young Michael” but I thought that was kind of funny and left it in.  You can see I gave Violet Craft a shout out this year.  Too bad I didn’t think of this last year…

I got pretty excited when the pieces started going together and I could get a feel for what the quilt was going to look like.  My daughter made me a cute “good luck” sign that she pinned to the design wall.  I wanted to make sure a few signature pieces were included in the quilt, like a bunch of wonky churn dashes.

Then I wasn’t sure if I had enough recognizable “blocks” included in the quilt top, and I added flying geese even though they aren’t part of a churn dash.  I wanted the judges to see that I could piece points very accurately.  These babies are pointed (except the top point, which had to be sacrificed to make it fit).  There’s also an impromptu curved piece I made just winging it.  Just so they know I can actually sew…lol!

Then it was finally time to sew the nine patches together!  My trusty non-human helper inspected all the seams and fastidiously cleaned up any errant threads.  The bird fabric in this quilt reminds me of him, so this quilt is dedicated to him in thanks for all the quality control support he’s given me on this and many other projects.

Yay!  The top was finally done and I could sit back and relax, maybe enjoy a celebratory glass of wine?  Uh oh, not so fast, this was Tuesday, and the quilt had to be finished by Friday…

I got the backing on the long arm.  The center strip of the backing is pieced with the label in another churn dash and the two fabrics other fabrics are Michael Miller Birds of a Feather “Tweet” and Atomic Tabbies.

See, this quilt is dedicated to a cockatiel, but also to a cat.

The photo is a little fuzzy because it was taken around 6am this morning as she was helping me finish up the quilting.  She loves scraps almost as much as my children.

And that’s the end of the story.  Oh, and here’s the finished quilt right before it started raining again this afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by!

A little bit of sewing…

I was sick, now 2 of my 3 kids are sick (the third probably will wake up with a fever tomorrow), so I have not had the time to do much sewing the past few nights during my down time after (or if) the kids go to sleep.  Anyone else get cranky if you don’t get your “me” time?  So in between kids waking up and crying every few hours the past few nights, I’ve managed to get a few things crossed off my list.

These super modern wonky crosses are in the mail to Beky.  I loved making these blocks.  They were easy to do and pack a visual punch.  Can’t wait to see the wedding quilt she makes!

This is not my first x & + block I’ve made for a bee.  It’s a popular block and relatively easy to make, too.  I could just imagine making several versions of this quilt in different colors and fabrics if I had the time…

This star may be the death of me.  And the reason I might not sign up for another bee.  It literally took about 7 hours, which is a huge chunk of my weekly sewing time.  And it’s not perfect, kind of irritating after I spent all that time on it.  I realize some people adore paper piecing, but I now know I am not one of those people.  This is the second time I’ve had to make this exact block for a bee, so it was late going out in the mail because I basically procrastinated until the very. last. second. and then couldn’t get it finished by the end of the month.  But it was mailed on Monday and should be to its new owner by now.

 

This block I made recently but never shared on my blog.  It’s an Anna Maria Horner tutorial which I’m sure you’ve seen if you look at quilts online.  I found it to be pretty easy to make, but my block finished up a little shy of the measurements, so Jen kindly let me add a strip to the top and middle to even it out.

Here’s another x & + block in pretty blues and yellows.  I think this block is hypnotic with the relaxing colors and that Tula Pink wavy line fabric.  Look away, look away!

And then this is another bee block that’s rectangular and made from diamonds.  Loved it!  Probably because it was a challenge I was up to and purple is my favorite color.

This block is called a Bento Box I think.  It was fun picking aquas and oranges from my stash to include.  That orange/aqua strip is one of my favorite fabrics ever.  It’s Anna Maria Horner (I think LouLouThi).  It comes in other colors, but I really like the color combo in this version.

And this is one more block—I Spy Mittens—for Laura. 

We have been having many insect visitors this year.  My kids raised two batches of American Beauty caterpillars into butterflies and one group of ladybug larvae into ladybugs.  Then we collected every single tent caterpillar within a 1/2 mile radius of our house and had to feed these beasts twice a day with fresh leaves from a specific tree for almost 2 and a half weeks before they all finally made cocoons.  Now they are hatching into brown moths my kids love to hold, carry around, accidentally release into the kitchen where they scatter to the ceiling and I can’t get them down without a ladder.  But most notable are the cicadas.  This is the 17 year brood and it’s pretty darn crazy how many fly by every day.  They are not the most graceful flyers, and I laugh every time I see their romantic pursuits, unless it ends of course with one or both of them getting annihilated by the front end of my minivan going 60 mph on the highway.  Yes, they are everywhere, flying in front of traffic non-stop.  Climbing up and dying on my front porch by droves.  Luckily it’s almost over because the noise is unbearable some mornings.  Can’t even have my tea out on the front porch.

Here you can kind of tell they have bright red eyes.  Their legs are strong for clinging to your hands and clothes, but they don’t bite so my kids aren’t afraid in the least.  I was going to include a couple photos of all the holes they dug in my yard, but suffice it to say there about a million tiny holes the size of a pencil eraser in every conceivable spot in my yard.  Not a big deal though—their tunnels help aerate the soil so I don’t mind.

And here’s of those little brown moths that came from the tent caterpillars.  About 40 of those have hatched so far, and we might still have twice that many left to go.  I’m not kidding when I said my kids picked up every single one of the caterpillars.  For some reason, like clockwork the past three years there has always been a super HOT day after the caterpillars first emerge and if they spend too long on the blacktop road in our neighborhood, well they just dry out and get crunchy.  So my kids take it upon themselves to save them all.  So we did.   I will be happy when I can finally put the mesh butterfly habitats back away in the garage!

My caterpillar loving child, Bea!  This caterpillar is named Zig for the one bold zig zag on his back.  I thought we should send the photo off to Denyse Schmidt so she could use that idea for her next line of fabric.

Got a few other personal things going on right now.  The big dance recital is in two weeks and there are extra practices, plus I am a room mom for one of Bea’s classes (she does ballet, tap, & hip hop).  Esther is in tap & jazz, and little Ronnie just does the  minis.

And a few days ago we acquired a new pet.  Esther finally got her cockatiel.  Her name is Rosie.  Esther is ecstatic and so far has done an outstanding job taking care of her new charge.  She loves to read all about cockatiels and read to Rosie, too.  She even colors some pictures of cockatiels to decorate the wall next to the cage to welcome Rosie.  So we are now full up when it comes to pets.  “No vacancy.”

So between a new pet, everyone being sick, and the big dance recital coming up, I don’t think I”ll be getting a lot of sewing done.  I’m just going to concentrate on a new quilt I started. 

I’m going to call this quilt “taxi!” (imagine Carrie Bradshaw hailing a cab) I picked this yellow/black combo for my block for the Make It Modern bee, so hopefully with those 12 blocks and others I have been working on, I will have enough for decent sized quilt.

Enjoy your weekend!!!!!!!  Thanks for visiting!!!!!!!!

Potluck Churn Dash

This quilt came about through two extra churn dash blocks I made last month for Stash Bee.  A friend had a baby girl, and originally I thought I’d make her a star quilt, but then I got to thinking I’d use these blocks to make something bright and colorful.

I started with the orange and aqua block and put the other one aside to use for something else.  I decided to use some of my Denyse Schmidt fabrics for the other blocks.  Rachel at Stitched in Color is hosting a Shelbourne Falls Contest, so I incorporated a few of those fabrics into it. 

Once the quilt was 3 x 3 blocks, which was a good size for a baby quilt, it didn’t feel right to me.  Was this going to be the ugliest quilt ever, or just colorful?  At this point my husband gave it a thumbs down and I decided I’ll just go with my original idea to make a star quilt for my friend’s baby and keep this one, just in case it doesn’t turn out like I had hoped.  I added another row of blocks to make it a little bigger so my youngest daughter could use it on her bed.

A lot of the fabrics are Denyse Schmidt, with a few Anna Maria Horner and an Amy Butler print thrown in.  The back is an AMH print from Innocent Crush that all my daughters really love.  I pieced together the rest of the back from leftover fabric.

The quilting is a criss-cross on the diagonal—I marked it with masking tape and used 50 wt. pink Aurifil thread.

The binding is a Notting Hill print.

So, is it an ugly quilt or just colorful?  It has a vintage vibe to it that I really dig, but I honestly don’t know!