#SLMQG May '14 Mini Quilt Swap

I missed out on our guild meeting last night, but I was able to virtually participate in our mini quilt swap via Instagram (thanks for posting, ladies!). Here's the mini I made (and that Barbie took to the meeting for me).

I had an orphan English paper pieced block (star blossom) sitting around that I just didn't know what to do with. I initially was planning on turning this into a pillow or bag,

but then I had this leftover block from a quilt I'm working on using my quick curve ruler that matched the color scheme and fabrics. I added a border from one-inch scraps and a section of patchwork below it.

Then I joined them together.

I've really been enjoying a fluid approach to quilting lately. I haven't been planning out quilting designs and instead have just been quilting a quilt however I want. If I change my mind during the process, I let my quilting change. This mini is no exception. I started hand quilting the black background half. I quilted a few Xs and just kind of went with it.

I quilted three rows around the star and then went willy nilly around other sections.

Since most of the fabrics on the front are from Denyse Schmidt, for the backing I used a piece from her Chicopee line, which I think goes really well with the fabrics on the front.

I used two blue/green solids for the binding, which I machine stitched to the front of the quilt and then hand-stitched to the back. I usually do my binding all by machine, but I wanted to sit in front of the TV instead of in front of my sewing machine to finish this one. And I'm happy to report that my hand-binding is getting better!

I don't know the exact measurements of this one. I think it's around 16"x22" or thereabouts.

Simply Charming Mini Quilts Blog Tour

***Giveaway closed***

I'm so happy that Konda of Moose on the Porch Quilts asked me to participate in the blog tour for her new book, Simply Charming Minis.

Back in 2010, when I first started quilting, I happened upon Konda's blog and saw that she was hosting a jellyroll sampler quilt-along. I thought this'd be the perfect opportunity for me to learn new skills. Remember, I was brand spankin' new to quilting at the time, and I learned so many techniques making each block.

I ended up meeting Konda a couple months later at one of the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild meetings, and I was so impressed with her vast knowledge of all things quilting. (As a long-arm quilter, she even backed me up when I ranted about a quilt I had gotten professionally quilted that I wasn't too happy about. Thanks, Konda! Glad to know I wasn't off my rocker.)
About her new book: Simply Charming Minis is comprised of mini quilts made in traditional and modern colorways. I love how each quilt takes on an entirely different look just based on the fabric used. Here are a few images from the book so you can see what I'm talking about.

As a technical writer, I want my instructions clear and easy-to-understand. Konda has done a great job with this. You'll have no problems following her directions, even if you're a novice quilter.
In addition to the blog tour, Konda will be hosting a quilt-along based on the book. It will run from September 11 through April 2. We'll be making four quilt tops every two weeks and then taking a couple weeks in between each cycle to finish each quilt. Come April, you'll have 12 mini quilts. Konda will even have prizes along the way!

Now, if you'd like to win a copy of the book for yourself, leave me a comment on this post. It can be anything, but since my annivarsary is coming up (as well as my parents' 50th!), it'd be nice to get some ideas on fun and/or creative anniversary ideas (either for a gift or date). I'll draw a winner a week from today on August 3.
Be sure to visit the rest of the blogs on the blog tour.
Sat, July 28: Sherri McConnell at A Quilting Life
Sun, July 29: April Mazzoleni at Making Ends Meet
Mon, July 30: Vickie Eapen at Spun Sugar Quilt
Tues, July 31: Konda Luckau at Moose on the Porch Quilts and Michele Foster at Quilting Gallery

WIP Wednesday 6/6/2012

It's been a while since I've linked up to WIP Wednesday. I'm finding myself wanting to stray from my to-do list so this post will help serve as a reminder of the things I MUST get done before the end of June - and time is running out. Nothing like a good splash of cold water to wake you up in the morning, right? So, let's get to it.

My current #1 priority is to attach the binding to my EZ Dresden mini quilt for which I'll be posting a tutorial on Friday for the blog hop. I've got a teeny bit of hand-stitching to do still as well. I've already shown a couple sneak peeks, but here's another.

The next priority item on my plate right now is this melon patch quilt. My best friend is getting re-married at the end of the month and I really wanted to make her and her new hubby a quilt. I've got my work cut out for me to get this finished by the time we head out to Oregon in a few weeks! The quilt will be four blocks by four blocks. Each block measures 16 inches, I think (or is it 18?), so it'll be a nice sized throw quilt. The fabrics are Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush (Potpourri colorway) and Kona white.

I'm still considering this next block a WIP since I haven't made it to the post office yet (sorry, Angela!).

For May in the Sew Beautiful Bee, Angela asked for improv pineapple blocks using this tutorial. She sent out a bunch of Hawaiian prints for us to use as the center square with blues, greens, and oranges for the strips and corners. I'm so excited to see her quilt come together. It's going to be gorgeous!

This last block isn't a WIP for me, but I think it still is for Sam, and since I haven't blogged about it yet, I'm including it here. In our local guild bee, La Beeda Loca, Sam asked us to make paper-pieced single girl blocks. I've done a bit of paper piecing and I still find it a bit challenging. I'm not sure what it is about it though. If anyone has any tips they'd like to share, I welcome them!

That wraps up what I've been working on the last little while. I've made a couple simple dresses for my three-year-old that I haven't had the chance to photograph yet. I'll hopefully post about those one of these days. In the meantime, you should check out the other WIP Wednesday posts, the EZ Dresden blog hop posts (there have been some really great ones so far!), and then come back here on Friday for my EZ Dresden tutorial.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

My Favorite Little Quilt Swap

There's this swap on Flickr that I signed up for that's a bit different from traditional swaps. It's called My Favorite Little Quilt Swap. How it works is everyone who wants to participate makes a mini quilt and then emails photos of the quilt to the administrator. After all the quilts have been posted (deadline is December 3), we vote for our top 10 favorite quilts. The more votes your quilt gets, the more likely you are to get a quilt higher on your list of top ten. Make sense? Anyway, I wanted to participate in another swap and thought this would be a fun one to use some scraps. Not only did I want to use scraps, but I wanted to do minimal cutting. Here's what I came up with:


When I made my Life Is What You Make It quilt back in the spring, I had lots of little squares and strips left over. I used them to make 16 mini log cabins for the center. I added a border in Moda Bella Snow and then another larger patchwork border in some charms cut in half lengthwise. Easy peasy.


With my huge to-do list, I opted not to add a binding. I was tempted to stitch something on the back, but had to nix that idea since I didn't have much time to devote to this mini quilt. I did, however, add a couple tabs for hanging the quilt if the recipient is into that sort of thing.


For the quilting, I stitched diagonal lines through the corners of the log cabins. Then I did a decorative stitch in the white border and a different decorative topstitch around the edges.

Quilt stats:
Fabric: Make Life by Sweetwater; Moda Bella Solids in Snow; goldenrod fabric from Joann's
Size: approximately 16.5 inches square
Quilting: straight-line grid; decorative stitches
Top pieced: November 6, 2010
Backed, basted, and quilted: November 16, 2010