Dala horse mini

Just a little mini-fabric wall hanging of a Dala horse (aka Swedish horse) that I made for my son's room.  It's fusible web applique with a straight stitch around the perimeter and some quick free motion quilting.

I've been given odd pieces of fabric of dubious quality -- it's probably from JoAnn or Walmart, and it just doesn't look as substantial as the quilt shop quality cottons I like working with.  Little pieces like this one are a great place to use those sub par fabrics.  I also can use up the tinyest bits of favorite fabrics --- the framing blues on the piece above are from Summer House -- one of my favorite fabric lines ever.

Just another day or so

I spent a month and 3 days in the hospital with my son as he recovered from a spinal fusion surgery and complications. My sewing project during that time was doing the hand applique on these Dresden Plate blocks.

They're very scrappy blocks, with portions of a pack of charm squares from "Vintage Modern" by Bonnie and Camille, together with all the scrappy bits in my stash that remotely go with the dominant floral print. I didn't spend a lot of time with placement of individual blades in these blocks, preferring to go with a very scrappy and informal look.

I appliqued the 12 blocks in 14 days, each day thinking, maybe we go home soon.  But then D had a bunch of complications which lengthened our stay, for "just another day or so". I had to wait until I had a few hours at home to make the center circles, which I completed during the last week we were in-patient.  My little trick for applique circles is to use water soluble interfacing to back the circles-- it disappears after the first washing, leaving perfect (or as close to perfect as I get) circles with a uniform turned edge.

Here they all are-- just need to decide on a sashing and cornerstone blocks. I have a grey print I plan to use for the back and binding. And there is enough to use it for sashing too, if I decide to go that route.

Quilting Bees -- 2014 style

As a little challenge to myself to work outside my own comfort zone, I joined an online quilting bee.  The idea is that each member takes a turn as the Queen of the hive and picks a block, colorway, and style for the blocks which each member will make and then send to her. Each of us (theoretically) will make a block for every other member, and will in turn receive 10 blocks from other hive members.  I've been in online swap groups before, so I know the potential for disappointment and failures, but it's still fun, and a good way to force myself to try something new.

For January, we made these strip pieced star blocks with a pallette of black and white, grey, navy, aqua and salmon/peach.

Pretty, yes?

For February, the block requires paper piecing and curved seams-- a  New York Beauty pattern.

These blocks just about did me in. There's a reason I've sworn I would never do curved piecing ever again, as these blocks reminded me.

I'm mailing them untrimmed, leaving it to the queen bee of the month to figure out how to trim to uniform or at least usable sizes.

The ikea quilt

This quilt just went out to a good friend.  She was actually the person to introduce me to Ikea stores; she was a big fan, and had named her cat Ikea.  We lost touch over the years, but recently connected again on Facebook.  I made her this quilt, pulled together with 5 inch squares from 2 charm packs of Spa, by Deb Strain for Moda, together with solids from Kona in white and Pacific.

The quilting is a loose stipple, to keep the drape nice and get 'er done.  I chose a bright yellow backing and binding, just to break up all that blue.

True disclosure-- the blue kona ran dreadfully in the wash.  I did use a color catcher, but even so, there was a lot of bleed into the charms.  A long soak and an second run through the wash with 2 color catchers helped some, but even then, the color catchers were fully saturated with blue dye.  I've had such a good track record with no issues from using unwashed fabrics, this was kind of frustrating, specially since it was intended to be a gift.

As for the photographs-- well, it's been raining a lot here, so an outdoor shot wasn't going to happen. But where better to photograph the Ikea Quilt than in front of a fully loaded Expedit shelving unit, with assorted Ikea storage boxes and products kin of in view?

Sunnyside quilt -- Gifted

Just sent this quilt to a dear friend.  Made with a jellyroll of Moda's Sunnyside fabric by Kate Spain, plus a few random charm squares, a strip of kona cotton in light grey, and some kona bleach white.  Free motion quilting-- simple stipple in the print fabric areas, pebbles on the grey, and improv sun motifs along the white border-- those truly weren't planned, I just kind of felt like doing something interesting along there as I was wrapping up the quilting. Backing and binding are a light grey chec, and just to break up all those lines some more, I rounded the corners and did a bias binding.

The quilts of 2013

Pinterest Board: Quilts of 2013

I'm still hoping to complete a few more, so it's a work in progress.

Using up more scraps:design wall this week

I've had leftovers from a collection of French General fabrics in my scrap box for years, but finally pulled them out to put together some seasonal projects.  The top photo is a Trip Around the World -- very traditional design.  It's a big quilt-- a good 96" square, so I'm not looking forward to quilting it. 

Other scraps were better suited to the nine patch and snow ball blocks in the second photo -- enough to make a table runner and possibly a table topper or a small wall hanging.