Thursday, July 31, 2014

Stash Bee Blocks - March through June

Wow, I've pretty much only posted my blog hop the last few months. Between finishing that big commission quilt, a baby quilt for a coworker, and side-effects from some news that I'm not quite ready to share with the general public, I really have not been doing much if any sewing recently. Hopefully I can get my mojo back. In the meantime, I have been making blocks for Hive 8 of the Stash Bee every month (with more or less success in getting them done in time).

March Blocks for Leonie:


She asked for scrappy 9-patches in prints with economy blocks in solids arranged in this formation. I ended up cutting the corner triangle quite a bit bigger than the instructions called for, because I hate working with bias edges. But the larger amount of fabric meant that I could trim down without fear of losing my points.

April Blocks for Melissa:


Melissa wanted scrappy trip along blocks. I hate sewing this block because of all the seam unpicking and such. However, I have to admit that the finished blocks look good as do the finished quilts. But they don't look good enough for me to ever attempt to make one myself.

May Blocks for Tami:


These 16-patches went together super easy and were fun enough that I might consider making a quilt like this myself some day. I did have to unpick a seam because I wasn't careful about my strip placement, but despite that I had a great time making these.

June Blocks for Daisy:






Daisy wanted butterfly blocks. I made three 6" paper-pieced economy blocks with fussy cut centers. I definitely think they turned out well, but this was deep into my quilting slump and these did not get done in time. I also really wanted to make something more creative, but just did not have the energy or mental capacity to come up with anything.

July blocks for Sarah are in the works. She wants I Spy blocks and I signed up for black and red. I've picked my fabrics, gotten her approval, and just need to fussy cut and put them together. Of course today is the last day of July, so these are going to be late as well, as I probably won't get to them until my sewing day with the DCMQG this Saturday.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

For Pinks Sakes - July 19


Thanks for stopping by for the For Pinks Sakes Blog Hop. I am hosting this blog hop to raise funds for my mother-in-law's medical expenses. My mother-in-law is a wonderful woman, who has stayed upbeat and positive throughout her battle, but the medical bills from several surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy treatments have left her and her husband with a huge amount of medical bills and have put a major damper on her spirits and her joy at being cancer free after two years. It would be amazing, if you'd consider contributing towards those medical bills. There is a link here or on the right side of my blog.

The amazing ladies who have graciously agreed to participate in this blog hop will be making a pink block and sending it to me to make into a quilt to donate to the Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion in Grand Rapids, MI where my mother-in-law has had all of her cancer treatments. You are welcome to join in and make one too. Instructions can be found here. Everyone who participates either by contributing to my mother-in-law's medical bills, makes a pink block, or shares the link to the donations page will be entered into a give-away that I will be hosting on August 2nd.

Here is the list of participants, we've had one last minute addition, go visit our July 19 ladies to see what blocks they've made or if you haven't checked out what the other ladies have made, by all means, visit them too:

May 10
May 24
June 7
 
June 21
 
July 5
 
July 19

Saturday, July 5, 2014

For Pinks Sakes Blog Hop - July 5


Thanks for stopping by for the For Pinks Sakes Blog Hop. I am hosting this blog hop to raise funds for my mother-in-law's medical expenses. My mother-in-law is a wonderful woman, who has stayed upbeat and positive throughout her battle, but the medical bills from several surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy treatments have left her and her husband with a huge amount of medical bills and have put a major damper on her spirits and her joy at being cancer free after two years. It would be amazing, if you'd consider contributing towards those medical bills. There is a link here or on the right side of my blog.

The amazing ladies who have graciously agreed to participate in this blog hop will be making a pink block and sending it to me to make into a quilt to donate to the Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion in Grand Rapids, MI where my mother-in-law has had all of her cancer treatments. You are welcome to join in and make one too. Instructions can be found here. Everyone who participates either by contributing to my mother-in-law's medical bills, makes a pink block, or shares the link to the donations page will be entered into a give-away that I will be hosting on August 2nd.

Here is the list of participants, go visit our July 5 ladies to see what blocks they've made or if you haven't checked out what the other ladies have made, by all means, visit them too:

May 10
May 24
June 7
 
June 21
 
July 5
 
July 19

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Blue and Black Plus Quilt (Commission)

Final Stats
Name: Blue and Black Plus Quilt
Dimensions: 100"x96"
Pieces: Front - 392
Pattern: Plus Quilt
Technique: Patchwork
Materials: 100% Quilting Cottons - Kona Snow, Black, and Robin's Egg
Quilting: Machine quilting done on my little Euro-Pro
 
I don't do commissions often, because they have hard deadlines and even if I stop feeling inspired, I have to finish them. That's my biggest rule with commission quilts, I have to feel inspired about the project at least at first, or else I won't take it. I also have a family and friend policy where I contribute the labor if it's going to someone I know, and they pay the cost of materials. My husband's aunt, M, approached me about making a wedding quilt for her daughter, K. After some back and forth, and information gathering not just from her but also from her other daughter, J, I came up with a design in EQ7 that she approved. 
 
We decided to keep it all solids to save some money on fabric and because K likes things modern. Originally the quilt was going to be just black and white, but I learned from J that K had been buying some Robin's Egg blue things for her apartment recently, so I decided to add in the pop of color.

I cut all of the blue, white, and black 4.5x12.5" strips all at once. And then I strip pieced the plus points and sub-cut them into 4.5x12.5" strips as well. I chain pieced most of the quilt and it was super fast (once I finally got over my procrastination phase and actually started the thing). 

I found the backing in the "good" quilting fabric section of Joann's. It's a Robin's Egg blue with tiny black dots. And without having any of the Robin's Egg Kona on me, I'm surprised at how closely they match (yay, go me). It was also on major sale, so I ended up taking the rest of the bolt, which unfortunately ended up only being 6 yards, but already sub-cut into 3 yard pieces. To fill in the middle, I added the remainder of my bolt of Kona Snow (I still cannot believe that I've used up an entire 15 yard bolt of Kona Snow in a few months) and the rest of the Kona Black. I also bought a package of King-sized batting, because I knew my bolt of 90" batting wasn't going to make it without some serious piecing.

I straight-line quilted the thing about 1/4-1/2 inch from each seam. And added in some additional quilting lines in the row of blue so the plus would stand out more. My machine barely handled the queen-sized quilt, but it made it. However, I do not see myself being able to wrestle a king-sized quilt through that, no siree. Also, basting that thing on my living room floor used up every available square inch of floor space, so I don't think I'll be basting a king-sized quilt in there either.
 
The binding was a find at Capital Quilts. I do so love a stripey binding. It's a very thin black and white stripe. Unfortunately, and no one will notice this but myself, the white in the binding is a white-white and the Kona Snow is more of a yellow-white. But at the end of the day, there's very little binding on the quilt and a whole lot of Kona Snow.

The one thing I realize now, after the fact, is that I forgot to sign the thing. Usually I embroider my initials and the year into the lower right corner with contrasting thread, but I totally spaced on that part. I brought it with me to Michigan in my checked bag (thank goodness Southwest lets you check two bags for free again). I got to show my parents, my grandmother (who was there from Germany for my brother's wedding), and two family friends what I'd made. I left it at my husband's uncle's house, because that's where the wedding reception for K was going to be. Unfortunately I was not able to attend said reception, but from the pictures of the event, and the Facebook message I received from K, the quilt was appreciated. And that's really all any quilter can ask for. :)