#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.

Finished Modern Yardage Quick Curve Ruler Star Block Quilt

At the end of June, I posted about a new quilt I had started featuring some Modern Yardage fabric called Personality by Emilie Daly.

I set to work cutting the fabric and trying out my new Quick Curve Ruler (blogged about here and here) to make these star blocks. The blocks themselves used almost exactly the two yards of fabric that I received from Modern Yardage - talk about a happy accident since I didn't plan that! I pieced the blocks together and then added a border to make it a bit bigger. Here's how it turned out.

For the backing and binding, I pulled colors that I had on-hand in my stash that went with the Carefree colorway of the Personality fabric.

I wanted to try out my echo quilting foot so I free-form followed the shape in the negative space between the blocks. It was a bit tricky getting the hang of using the echo foot. By the time I hit the center of each section, my lines were more curved rather than boxy so I'll definitely need to practice more. I love the texture it created though.

Starting a "My Precious" Quilt and a 4th of July Skirt

For my birthday this year, my mother-in-law got me the Quick Curve Ruler by Jenny Pedigo of Sew Kind of Wonderful. I've heard a lot of great things about this ruler and was excited to give it a try. For our June quilt guild meeting, we had a pillow cover swap. I thought it would be the perfect time to try out this ruler using some Katie Jump Rope and Flea Market Fancy squares that I already had precut. I loosely used the tutorial here to make this block (I started with larger squares for my four-patch and added a border to make the block approximately 19 inches finished).



I didn't end up making the pillow for our guild's swap because I liked how it turned out so much that I decided to make more blocks and turn it into a quilt. Sorry guild ladies!

I also used this ruler for my Modern Yardage star quilt, which I shared a bit about here.

***

As I'm sure any of you regular readers know, The Middle loves wearing skirts and dresses. Some days it bugs me (wear something else, kid!), but other days I'm glad that I can whip up quick and easy skirts for her. I had this Dress Up Days zig zag print on hand that I thought would make a fun 4^th of July skirt. I added a bit of ric rac trim to the bottom. The skirt is a little on the long side, but it’ll work for this summer AND next.

For those of you in the states, have a safe and happy July 4th holiday tomorrow!

What I'm Working On: A Quilt Featuring Personality by Emilie Daly for Modern Yardage

I've recently had the opportunity to work with some fabric from the new manufacturing company based here in Utah called Modern Yardage. I met April Cobb, the owner, at Sewing Summit last year. When she told me about her idea for this new way of digitally printing fabric on demand, I was really intrigued by the idea. (I secretly wished I could have a machine like that of my own.)

If you want to learn more about this company, Craft Buds wrote a great article during the company's launch in March. You can read it here.

One of the great things about Modern Yardage is that your order is printed in a resourceful way. This shows two yards printed in fat quarters on the least amount of space possible.



The width of fabric is 58" so you can fit a full yard, and there's extra space for instructions, designer highlights, advertisements, etc. This feature is about Emilie Daly, designer of the Personality line, which I received in the Carefree colorway.



After receiving the fabric, I cut up the fat quarters and set to work on a quilt based on the Quick Curve Ruler star block from Sew Kind of Wonderful. Another cool thing about the way Modern Yardage prints is that since they use environmentally-friendly inks, the process is eco-conscious and the colors are really vibrant. You can also choose the scale of each print. So if you're working on a project where a lot of the fabric is visible, then you can use the large scale prints. In my case, I wanted small to medium scale prints since I knew I'd be cutting the pieces up a fair amount.



Here are the twelve blocks I made.

























The background is Kona white and the Modern Yardage fabrics actually feel a lot like Kona cotton to me.

I've pieced the blocks together, but still plan on adding an outer border. I'll post about the full quilt as soon as I finish it (which will hopefully be soon since I've loved working on this project).