Quilt retreat turns 3!

This past retreat marked our third anniversary. I managed to finish the two baby quilts in time before my niece has her twins. (Still waiting...) She told me that she was expecting last summer by giving me a bundle of fabric and asking me to make two baby quilts. That fabric was gender neutral, but once she told me that the twins were both girls I decided to go all-out girly! Both are fabrics designed by Bonnie and Camille. The first is Scrumptious, four packs of pre-cut hexagons.

 The second quilt is Marmalade, three charm packs plus some Moda Snow solid.

 Finally, I finished piecing the Pickledish quilt from hell. I started it three years ago at the first retreat. I still like the bright colors, but the piecing looks horrible. Hopefully it won't look too bad after quilting and washing. At this point, I just want it done!

I then started a couple of new quilts. I'm going to make another Swoon, this time with Tula Pink fabrics. I'm thinking of that one as a long-term project as she comes out with new fabric lines. The second is a sampler quilt from the new book Vintage Quilt Revival. This book is so fabulous, and I look forward to completing all the blocks.

Pillows!

I love making pillows. They are small quilts you can make in a day! These are recent pillows and are all 18" squares. I guess I should branch out and make some other sizes.

First up, to go with my hexagon quilt, I used up the tiny triangles left over from cutting the hexagons. That lovely lady posing with the pillow is Dixie. She looooves pillows.

I finished three more pillows recently. One was a repeat, using up tiny triangles left over from the Hopscotch Quilt I made for my mother for Christmas.

Finally a couple of Christmas pillows. There are many, many more recent pillows but I didn't get pictures of all of them.

 

 

December Retreat

I only have a couple of finishes from the December retreat, both of which were already pieced and I only quilted and bound them. They are both heavily, free-motion quilted.

The first is a Hopscotch quilt, pattern by Camille Roskelley, that I made for my mother. I really like her patterns a lot. They have easy to follow instructions and very efficient use of fabric. This one uses a jelly roll. I used Hello Luscious designed by Basic Grey.

The second is a quilt I pieced early in the year but deliberately saved until December to quilt so that it would be "fresh." I tried a new quilting pattern on it: holly berries and leaves. It is really hard to see the pattern, but I know it's there! The fabric is Cherry Christmas designed by Aneela Hoey.

A (Sewing) Room of my Own

My oldest daughter moved out in June (sad), but that opened up her room for a sewing room (happy!) It was already painted a cheery yellow, which has turned out to be a great color for quilting. I have three main stations in the room:

My sewing area is housed in a computer armoire with a flip-down table. I took it over for crafts long ago! It is along the back wall and below is the view from the door. This room opens into the living room, so I can leave it open if I don't want to be isolated or close it if I'm working on a secret project!

 

 

 Along the front wall is my cutting and main storage area. I lucked into a 10-runner Elfa drawer system for $10 at Goodwill and bought another for $60 on CraigsList. We bought a table top from Home Depot, attached it with extra-sticky Velcro, and now I have a tall cutting table that suits my rather tall body! It has loads of storage underneath.

The third main area is my design wall-comfy chair. My poor husband had been living with the design walls propped up against my closet for the past year and the armoire taking up a large corner of the bedroom, so he was as happy as I was to get them out of the way. I scored the Ikea chair on CraigsList for $25. The cover easily comes off the cushions and it washed and dried fine. You can see the clothes rack that holds my waiting-for-quilting tops to the left of the chair.

There are a few more details that I enjoy. First an extra bookshelf that has my pressing needs on top and additional storage for pre-cuts, notions, and books.

I also have my great-great-grandmother's sewing machine! It sits (for now) on a flip down desk but I hope to find a treadle table for it to fit into since the original was was not saved. I also have several family quilts--I come from a long line of quilters on both sides of my family. More about that on some future post!

Final photo: my happy spot. The view from my sewing machine when everything is set up and ready to go!

Quilt Retreat #10 (ish)

I went to the Wimberly Quilt Ranch with some of my fellow seamstrixes this past weekend and completed two quilts. First, quilted and bound my Swoon quilt that I've been working on for a year (or more). Love the pattern, love the blocks, instructions are great, but I could only do two or so blocks at a time. It's intense! I quilted with what is becoming my favorite free motion design from Angela Walter's book: big mum-looking flowers.

 The second finish is a baby quilt for my nephew and his wife who are expecting (obviously) a girl this fall. I had so much fun making blocks according to What the Bobbin?'s fussy square block pattern, a swap I'm participating in.

Catch up, and a new sewing machine.

It's been ages since I posted, but I have been quilting. I finished three quits during the Christmas holidays, all of which were pieced a while back.

First, though, my new friend Juki! I purchased this right after Christmas. If Santa ain't good to you, you've got to be good to yourself! It is a Juki HZL-F600. The extended table and larger throat space have made free motion quilting much easier than with my old Babylock.

The first quilt finished is for my daughter. Her requirements were "blue and yellow" and "pinwheels," so I went with a simple Irish Chain alternating with Pinwheels. It was quilted on a friends longarm before Christmas with an all over paisley pattern.

Next up, a quilt for my niece who graduated college last year. She has a king sized bed so I made it as big as I could tolerate! Quilting it on my home machine was challenging to say the least. I did simple lines with a walking foot and the pattern was 12 + 2 = Q. Instead of a sheet for the top I used Kaufmann yarn died linen.

Next I finally finished the Easy Hourglass quilt I pieced during a retreat two years ago! I gave that one to my sister-in-law, Mom of the niece above. She is one of the sweetest people I know and I am so lucky to have her for a sister! For this one I used a pattern from Angela Walter's book on free-motion quilting. The pattern is an all-over flower design and was remarkably easy (easier that meandering, which is all the free-motion I had done before.) My new Juki made it easy to maneuver the quilt around while quilting!

That's all for now. Next retreat is in February.

Windmill Whimsey

I finished up a quilt for my son's bed during the August retreat. The pattern is called Windmill Whimsey I saw on the Film in the Fridge blog. It was a quick and easy pattern using Kona Ash and Malka Dubrawsky's fabrics again. I just love the colors in that fabric line!

I used the same pattern for a Block Party swap that my quilt group is doing.