Red, White & Quilted

It may not have been done in time to celebrate the fourth of July, and it definitely isn't hanging on my lovely rose colored front door now, but I've finished my patriotic door quilt!

I talked a bit about this project here, but I wanted to show you how I made it as well. 

I've been playing along in the Color Challenge over at 15 Minutes Play, where each week we "make" fabric using the week's challenge color and whatever we think goes with it. I didn't have any big red or blue fabric pieces that I loved, and I feel like many patriotic quilts start looking country quickly, so I decided to create some blue and red made fabric to work with.

 Here's the blue:

And the red:

I cut strips from the red and pieced it with solid white strips to make the bottom portion. You can see my quilting here--a back and forth free motion line on the white, and simple straight lines on the red (cause there was enough going on in the fabric itself!)

I used solid white and the blue made fabric to paper piece the star for the top portion. I did just one row of outline quilting on the white, and then stitched radiating straight lines from the star's "elbows," if you know what I mean. 

Another close-up. I'm really happy with how this turned out (and how quickly it came together...now I just need to start a project more than 2 days before its intended holiday and I'll be set!) 

Linking up with the One Thing, One Week Challenge over at Amy's Creative Side and Fabric Tuesday over at Quilt Story.

Fabric Friday and 2 Winners!

Thanks so much to all who commented for the 100 Followers giveaway. 

And thank you for continuing to visit my blog! 

With help from Random Number Generator, I picked two winners. 

Elisabetta and Jennifer Gail, congratulations! 

I'm sending you emails to get your mailing address. Please respond with your preferred colorway; whoever answers first will get first choice. 

And then it's also Fabric Friday! My pick this week is another collection on my wish list, Rhapsodia by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics. I've always been a fan of Pat's designs, and I love these rich color palettes! Gorgeous, aren't they? 

Bring on the Red, White and Blue!

(Click here to enter my 100 followers giveaway!)

I'm starting our 4th of July celebration a bit early! Strawberry shortcake last night, and then some feverish sewing on the patriotic door quilt that I decided to start on Saturday night. (Yep, I'm a last-minute kind of girl!) Since that clearly isn't going to be finished for Wednesday, I thought I'd share a photo of the flag quilt I made for my dad a few years ago (2005 or 2006?). 

I had just finished a bargello quilt and wanted to play more with the effect. My dad works for a flag company, so an American flag wall hanging seemed like the perfect gift. This was my first pattern-free quilt--I just kind of made it up as I went along (which of course led to a few tricky spots!). I stitched light cream/red and dark cream/red bargello loops, cut them into strips, and pieced them to create the illusion of a flag waving in the wind. I pieced a short section for under the blue square, and then used blue scraps to make the pieced blue square. I did a little of everything for the binding--blue by the blue, and alternating red and cream for the rest. And ironically, today I came across this post, where Debbie at A Quilter's Table talks about the concept of a "matched" binding.

Even though I'd make it a bit differently now, six or seven years later, I'm still pretty proud of this quilt, and very happy that it still hangs in my dad's office.

Now back to my current project, which won't be done for tomorrow's holiday. Which, let's be honest, with a rose pink front door (on the to-do list to be painted this summer!), a red, white and blue decoration isn't going to look that great anyway!

Here are two "in progress" images:

 I've really enjoyed "making fabric" for the Color Challenge over at 15 Minutes Play. I used that technique here, choosing blue and red scraps to make fabric. Rather than appliqueing, and worrying about the dark fabric showing under the white star, I made a 12-1/2" square paper pieced star using Carol Doak's free pattern. I need to finish my red strips and then sew the red pieced strips and white solid strips together, add the star to the top, and get it quilted. But I'm liking it so far! And now I've got even more incentive (like I really needed it--a rose pink door?!?!) to get that front door painted. And the garage doors...

Linking up with Quilt Story today for Fabric Tuesday, WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.
Happy 4th of July!

p.s. Just curious...can anyone top rose pink as a front door color? 

100 Followers Giveaway!

The highlights of summer--bike rides, lazy weekends on a lake, wading pools and backyard barbecues keep pulling me away from my sewing and my computer. I admit I don't regret it one bit, but it's so nice to see other quilting bloggers engaging in the same tug-o-war! 

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING!

To celebrate reaching the lovely century mark of followers, I'm having a giveaway! 

I've got two bundles to give away, both from 

Dena Designs' Kumari Garden collection for Free Spirit Fabric. 

Let's call them generously cut fat eighths. 

1. If you're already a follower (thank you!), leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite summertime activity is.

2. If you're not yet a follower, please become one, and then leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite summertime activity is.

3. BONUS: If you link to this giveaway from your blog (and let me know in the comment section), you'll receive an extra entry. 

  **Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you're the winner.
The giveaway is open through Friday, July 6 at 5 pm, when I'll pick two winners. THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.
Thanks so much for stopping by!

100 followers & 1 Placemat

I'm thrilled to have hit the century mark for followers! I'm digging around in my fabric to find a good giveaway to celebrate, so check back in the next couple days to see what I can bear to part with find. Thanks so much to followers old and new!

Here's what I've been playing with lately: Placemats.
Why? First, they're quick and can be finished quickly My UFO list is piling up to obscene heights. Second, it lets me practice some small-scale machine quilting, something I badly need to do. (see evidence below)

It all started when I saw this pillow on the clearance rack at Target.

It caught my eye, and when it was still there on my third trip during a two-week period, I took it as a sign and snapped a quick photo. Small segue: Somehow I made it to Target three times in two weeks WITHOUT any kids. That's almost unheard of. And heavenly.

Using the design as inspiration, I pulled all kinds of large florals from my stash, went solid fabric shopping again, and found a shape I liked in my clip art book.

I mocked up a small and large design versions in Illustrator.

Then I moved to fabric. Here's what I made first:

 I really thought I'd like the ultra plain placemat--besides topstitching around the edge, the only stitching is a little raw edge applique around the motifs. But it actually seemed kind of boring.

So I added a little free motion quilting, just following the "grid" of the shapes.

At this point I knew that this particular placemat was not going to be a finished product, because I'd prefer to quilt just the top and then add the backing, pillowcase-style, so I decided to play a bit, experimenting with different stitches and seeing if I liked anything.

Notice that I'm showing you the full shot first, where it's hard to see detail. Go ahead and ooh and ahh now, because the close-ups below won't spare you the gory details.

But first, a few things about free motion machine quilting:
1. I picked the absolute worst fabric and pattern to start practicing on--wide open space with no boundaries to help me contain the quilting, and a solid color that hides nothing(!) in terms of mistakes.
2. When I was in high school, I used to umpire middle school girls' softball games. Let's just say that split-second decision making is not a skill of mine. When I called balls and strikes, about 50% of the time I regretted the call I had just made. Machine quilting is not so different. I'd made a decision (turn here!) and then two stitches after turning, decide I should have gone the other way.
3. For me, machine quilting is grind your teeth, tense your shoulders stressful. I think I need to work on changing this mindset almost as much as I do the quilting stitches.
4. All that aside, I fell in love with this book:

I want to BE Angela when I grow up. I LOVE her quilting, and really enjoyed trying out many of her stitches. If you haven't seen this book yet, definitely check it out.

Ignore my fluctuating stitch length, my herky-jerky curves, and other messiness, and take a peek at these close-ups. Because while I know I have a lot to learn, I really enjoyed the process the finished results and I can't wait to practice some more.

Swirls and a meander

Upper left: Circles (I had the most trouble with this one); back and forth (top center), paisley attempts (lower left) and just a wavy grid (lower right)

Modern clamshell (one of my favorites!) and a random grid

Here's my question--how should I quilt these placemats? One of the designs you see here? Straight or wavy-straight lines before I add the appliques? I'd love to hear what you think because I can't decide!

p.s. Linking up to "Can I get a whoop whoop?" over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict!

Fabric Friday

Happy Friday and happy weekend!
Today's fabric is another on my wish list and not yet in my stash: Grand Hotel by Jenean Morrisson for Free Spirit Fabric.

I love how this collection has a retro feel to it too. I also love Jenean's description of the line, which you can read here. There's a blue and pink colorway as well, and while I'm usually a blue girl, I was drawn to the orange and teal and maroon combo here. I would love to use this with some white solid, or maybe even a teal or orange solid. 

What is your favorite new fabric line right now? 

Scrappy Mosaic Pillow

When I first started this blog, I made a list of all the ideas I had of projects to sew and showcase. One of the first things I put on that list was the Mod Mosaic Floor Pillow tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman. I'm a huge fan of her blog and her work.

When I saw this post by Danny at Mommy for Reals, asking for 20" square pillowcases for an outreach program for teens, in need, I knew I had my chance.

Last night, I took these scraps, plus white solid:

And made my own version of the Mod Mosaic pillow:

I had so much fun sewing this; I definitely will make one again.

Here are some close-ups:

The original tutorial calls for quilting the pillow top before adding the backing, but I skipped that step because I didn't have time. Still cute, though, and a great way to use up leftovers!

Check out Elizabeth's tutorial, and if you have time, consider making a pillowcase (any pillowcase, not just that one) for Danny's endeavor.

Linking up with Quilt Story and Confessions of a Fabric Addict "Can I get a whoop whoop!" to show off my fun new pillow!