Shoo Fly {a finished quilt}

Back in the fall of 2012, I saw a gorgeous Shoo Fly quilt on Sotak Handmade.  I few weeks later I made a quilt top with the same design, and happily it is a WIP no longer!!!

The finished quilt measures 60” x 72”.  If you want to make your own, I used this 12.5” quilt block tutorial on Quilter’s Cache, and adjusted the fabric choices for the squares so that the design makes a ring.

Red, white, and blue is such a classic color combination, and after making the quilt top I got it into my head that it would be a perfect Quilt of Valor for a woman.  Keeping that in mind, I picked a dark blue with white star fabric for the binding to keep it patriotic. 

I had a hard time picking  backing for this quilt.  The white with aqua pindots was a simple solution.  I like how the pindots give the fabric some liveliness, but the overall simplicity of the back makes the front really sparkle.

I just meandered all over the front with white thread.

I get a feeling of Zen using my longarm—I just enjoy doodling around and no more pushing and pulling the quilt through my domestic machine or sweating the stitch length.

Thanks for visiting!

A+ Quilt {finished Penny Patch quiltalong}

The title of the quilt really has nothing to do with the design.  It is a Christmas present for my daughter’s teacher (for her almost 2 year old daughter).  So my husband started calling it the A+ quilt when we were working on it, and the name stuck.

I wanted to use the new Wallflowers fabric by Allison Harris (Cluck Cluck Sew) and a bunch of stash fabrics for the red, blue, and yellow color palette.  I love how the low volume grays, blues, creams, and whites make the bolder colors sparkle.

There were quite a few small squares left over from making the penny patches, so I used them on the back along with a scrappy star I made from leftovers too.  I’ll have Bea sign the label of the quilt when she gets home from school today.  She assisted with all the cutting, piecing, pressing, and pinning.  Unfortunately my machine was skipping stitches like crazy and had to be repaired twice before it was fixed (and I’m sad to say it still skips stitches every once in a while—but that’s another post), so we ran out of time to do the quilting and binding together, but there’s always a next time!

I quilted a fmq flower in the center of each block and then used a decorative squiggle stitch over the seam lines to make a grid. 

The finished size is 41.5” x 53”.  I have quite a few favorites in the Flickr pool.  You can check them out here.

More QAL Progress

These are the blocks Bea and I made for the Penny Patch QAL so far.  We need to have 32 done, so only 14 more to go.  Bea sewed a few, but she preferred doing all the ironing, which made making these blocks really fast.  We had a system down after just a few!

This bird block is my favorite of all of them.  The color scheme of red, white, and blue is probably my favorite.  Hopefully the yellow adds a !pop! of color.

I’m going over my cousin’s house later this week to help her get her blocks done.  I volunteered to do all the ironing and help with pinning, so maybe we could get all 60 of hers done in a few hours? 

Hope you are having a great day!  Thanks for visiting!

Old and New Projects

This Saturday was the DC Modern Quilt Guild’s field trip to Material Girls in La Plata, Maryland.  Five of us met up there to sew and shop and have fun.  I left with these two patterns.

I haven’t opened them up yet, but I have plans to use the Bizzy Kid pattern with some beach themed fabric as a gift for friends who let us use their condo in Ocean City.

As for old projects, I got the top pieced to my Shoo Fly quilt.  Now I just need to piece together all the flying geese I accidentally made when I sewed the wrong squares together in the beginning of making the shoo fly blocks and make the backing.

And as for new projects, yesterday I finished up all the blocks for my Tula Pink quilt I plan to enter into the Sew Along.  Full Moon Forest was my second ever designer fabric purchase and I’ve had two fat quarter bundles since the line came out.  It’s time to cut into it I guess!  I also used some Prince Charming, Birds and Bees, and some Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner fabrics.

I read a little bit about making scrappy quilts “work” and tried to use all different scales and values of fabric, but I fear I may have missed the mark on this one.  I hope to have the finished top to share later this week.

My friend Donna is having a giveaway on her blog for a pack of Lecien fabrics and a copy of her pattern “Sweet Scrappy Love.”  It would make a perfect Valentine’s quilt.  I hope I win, but you should pop over and enter yourself, too!   The giveaway closes November 2nd.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!