Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2013

Have you heard about the Blogger's Quilt Festival that Amy hosts over at Amy's Creative Side? I love looking through all the entries each spring and fall, and I almost never remember to enter any of my quilts in time. For this festival though, I knew exactly which quilt I wanted to enter: my Gradated Mod Mosaic quilt.



You regular visitors here at Pitter Putter Stitch know how much blood, sweat, and tears went into this quilt. It started back in March of 2012. I had received a ton of color wheel charms and didn't have a clue as to what I should do with them. My month in the Sew Beautiful Bee was in April and inspiration struck as I looked through the colorful charms.

I started planning a ROYGBIV quilt. My goal was to create a quilt that would lead your eye through the color wheel in a gradated manner. I used Paint (yeah, I'm fancy that way) to draw a mock up of my idea to share with the girls in the Sew Beautiful Bee.



I sent out my fabrics,



made several blocks of my own, and then started piecing the quilt together. The top came together exactly as I envisioned.



Fast forward to the end of 2012 and I still hadn't finished the quilt. I wanted it to turn out amazing so I sent it off for quilting in January 2013. Unfortunately, the back was attached to the top sideways. I nearly started crying when I noticed that it wasn't on right. So I began the arduous task of unpicking all the quilting that had been done. My sweet husband even spent a night or two helping me.

Once all the quilting was unpicked and I was recovered from all the mojo-draining that happened, I re-basted the quilt and set out to quilt it myself. I quilted organic straight lines about 1/4-1/2 inch apart horizontally across the quilt. The quilting gave the quilt such amazing texture, which is exactly what I was hoping for!



For the backing, I used large squares of rainbow colors as a simplified/color-blocked version of the front. I also included the Sew Beautiful Bee label each of us received.



Thanks to all the ladies in my bee! I couldn't be happier with how this quilt turned out.

Finally unpicked!

It took forever, but I finally finished unpicking all that quilting! Now to add a bit of fabric to the backing and it'll be ready for round two.

Finished Circle of Circle of Circle of Flying Geese Quilt

April has been my month in the Sew Beautiful Bee. In 2011, I asked my bee mates to make me circle of flying geese blocks using yellow, green, blue, and gray fabrics. It was fun to see the blocks begin to show up in the group photo pool.



A year later, in April 2012, I finally got my act together to piece the center double circle of flying geese block and then pieced all the blocks together.



Then that quilt top sat for several more months until I finally pieced the back. By this time, Christmas was approaching and I knew I'd have to put it aside again. As the year came to a close, I decided that if I wanted to make a quick dent in my WIPs, I needed to be okay with the idea of sending some quilts out for quilting. (Before this past Christmas, the only longarm quilting I'd had done proved to be a bad experience. While the quilting looked nice, the lady charged me double what she quoted me PLUS she was really condescending about the design and fabric selection - not her style I guess, but she should have just kept her opinions to herself.)

Anyway, I talked with my good friend, Kayli, about doing the quilting for me and I think she did a great job! I really wanted there to be circles in the quilting since the whole design is circles upon circles. I really love the design she did and it wasn't something I had seen before.




She also added two layers of batting, so not only is the quilt nice and heavy and warm, but the quilting really stands out. And with all that white space, it's even cooler!



There were two blocks comprised of three colors, so I put those on the back with three colors of Lizzy House's Pearl Bracelets. (See? More circle repetition!) I also included the quilt label that Lee made for everyone in the bee that has all of our names and locations on it.



I made a scrappy binding of yellow, green, blue, and gray prints. (I'm really loving scrappy bindings right now!)

Quilt Stats

Size: 70x70 before washing
Design: Circle of Flying Geese paper piecing template found here; Double Circle of Flying Geese paper piecing template designed by Lynne of Lily's Quilts; design arrangement by me
Quilting: Kayli Taylor

Planning the Attack

Remember all the works in progress I listed in my fabric tracking post? Well, over the last several months, I've found myself making the same to-do lists over and over. I guess I figured identifying the same quilts in progress several times would help me keep track of them better. Well, it hasn't worked and I've found myself not always able to keep my head around what I've started and intend to finish first thing in 2013.

So, I thought about how I could better keep track of all these WIPs. Enter Excel! I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I finally sat down today and entered all my WIPs into a simple spreadsheet where I've noted the status, plan of attack, finish by goal, and priority.

I think this is the ticket! I can easily see at a glance what I need to do with each quilt. Since it's in a spreadsheet, and since I've already been in the habit of tracking my fabric purchases, I think this method is finally going to click for me and help me know what it is that I need to accomplish before starting anything new.

First up, I need to turn those quilt tops into finished quilts. I have three bee quilts ready to go. I usually quilt my own quilts, but since these three have been sitting around for months (4, 9, and 13 months to be exact!), I decided it's totally okay to farm the quilting out to two of my longarm quilting friends as well as a fairly local quilter who provided a coupon for services at Sewing Summit (hooray for discounts!). That should help shorten my to-do list pretty quickly right off the bat.

I'm having a hard time not caving in and starting my own scrappy trip around the world quilt. But, I've made a resolution to finish all these other items on the list before I go jumping on any bandwagons. Wish me luck.

2012 Tribute to Sew Beautiful Bee - I'll miss you ladies!

I finished up my last bee block of 2012 the other night. I'm kind of sad about it being my last bee block, but happy with how it turned out. Lee sent a gorgeous palette of solids to make these 16.5" unfinished blocks so she can make a quilt like Rita's Chicopee Giant Vintage Star Quilt.



After making blocks comprised of half square triangles (HSTs), I always say I need a break from them. Without fail. But, in this block, there were only six HSTs, trimmed down to 4.5" - totally doable. And I didn't get sick of making them. I may need to make myself a quilt like this one of these days.

As I finished up Lee's block, I thought back over the year and put together this mosaic of blocks that I made and received in 2012 through the Sew Beautiful Bee. Several of us are not continuing on with the bee next year due to other commitments. I'm sad to see our group disband, but understand that all of us have full, busy lives. We plan to keep our connection alive though by having a swap sometime next year, and of course we'll all be keeping tabs on each other through blogs, Flickr, and Instagram.

It's been such a joy getting to know all of you girls over the last two years. I wish you all good luck in your future endeavors!



I'm finishing up a couple quilts for Christmas and then I hope to finish up my Gradated Mod Mosaic quilt that these ladies helped me put together. It'd be pretty amazing if I finished a bee quilt in the same year that I started it!

4x5 Bee Blocks and October Sew Beautiful Bee Block

Last year, Sukie talked me into participating in the 4x5 bee that she was heading up on Flickr. I participated in the first round, but had so many other things going on that I didn’t join in on any other rounds (quarters). I’ve had my five blocks sitting in a drawer since then and decided it was time to do it once more so I could collect a few more blocks and put a quilt together.


For the girls in my hive, I made these broken herringbone blocks. (Check out the pouch I made using a modified version of this block here.) I’ve loved my group. Everyone picked great color combos, which I was lucky enough to have on-hand already, and everyone’s been really active in our discussion thread on Flickr.

Here are the blocks:











Friday nights seem to be when I get the most sewing done so last week I also managed to make this feather bed block (free block tutorial by Anna Maria Honer) for Katie for her month in the Sew Beautiful Bee.



The Field Study, Indie, and Quilter’s linen work so well together in this block.

Now that I’ve finished all my bee blocks for now, I need to get cracking on finishing up my Pillow Talk Swap pillow. I made a list of all the projects I’d like to finish by Christmas. It’s a bit overwhelming so I need to work hard at being as efficient as possible.

August/September Bee Blocks and Other Random Sewing

August was Megan's month in the Sew Beautiful Bee. She asked for Lone Starburst blocks. She sent a bunch of really bright fabric scraps and asked us to follow the tutorial found at the Six White Horses blog here. I loved, loved, loved making this block! I usually start to sweat a bit when asked to paper piece, but this one was very doable for me and I had a lot of fun with it. I'll definitely be making some of these for myself in the near future!

AnneMarie's turn was next for September. She asked for improv hexagon blocks inspired by Angela's block here. AnneMarie sent a bunch of Japanese import prints. It was fun to fussycut these fabrics for the hexagons.

While perusing Instagram, I saw Rae's maxi version of her Washi Dress and just about died. I stalked her blog for a couple days, anxiously awaiting the release of her pattern. I snagged one and quickly bought fabric to make a Washi Tunic and a Washi Maxi. Here's my "quick, honey, take a picture of my shirt with my phone" photo. I haven't tackled the maxi yet, but I am please with how the tunic version came together.

My older daughter is at the age where not only does she love to wear skirts and dresses, but she likes wearing things that I've made for her. I want to take advantage of that for as long as I can since I know all too soon she'll refuse to wear anything I make for her or even hint at thinking is cool, because of course anything Mom thinks is cool will be the complete opposite. Several Saturdays ago, she wanted to wear a skirt (of course), and I sadly, but not surprisingly, was behind on laundry. I pulled out some Heather Ross Crafy Chloe Pin People fabric and made a quick 10-minute skirt. My daughter's friend wanted to play, and when she got to our house, she saw me making the skirt for my daughter. She asked if I'd make her one too. I tried to hide my huge goofy grin, said, "Sure," and asked her what her favorite color is (pink). I finished my daughter's skirt, she got dressed, and the two girls went out to play. I then ran upstairs, found some pink fabric, and whipped together another 10-minute skirt for the friend. (I noticed she was wearing it yesterday when she came over to play...my heart sang!)

I mentioned earlier that paper piecing makes me nervous. But, I've really come to love English paper piecing (EPP). I've been accumulating supplies over the last couple months and decided it was about time I make a zippered pouch to store my paper pieces in. For this pouch, I cut two 10x10 inch squares from Melody Miller's Ruby Star Shining typewriter fabric and two 10x10 inch squares from Joel Dewberry's Deer Valley Lodge Lattice in Azure fabric, and used a 10 inch zipper. I boxed the bottom of the pouch, making the finished bag about 8 inches wide by 9 inches tall. It's the perfect size (for now), and it's great to have all my EPP supplies in one place.

Well, thanks for making it through that hodgepodge of a post. I have a couple more finished quilts to show over the next little bit. Have a good weekend, everyone!

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!

Pre-Weekend Catchup

Happy Friday, everyone! I got Instagram on my phone a couple weeks ago and I've been totally loving it! I'm so glad they finally made it available on Android. (I'm pitterputterstitch if you want to follow me.)

This week I've spent some time working on a project I can't show for a few weeks, but I've really enjoyed working with COLOR this week.

I laid out all the blocks I have so far for my Gradated Mod Mosaic quilt and I think it is looking a.maz.ing! Can't wait to get the rest in the mail and finish my four blocks!

I also decided to make a quilt out of melon patch blocks. It's a bit slow-going right now as I only have four of the 64 segments pieced, but I think it'll look great in Anna-Maria Horner's Innocent Crush.

I've been so obsessed with color lately. I commented to the mister last night that I wonder if I'll get sick of all this rainbowy goodness and have to make a few projects out of neutrals or something. I sure hope not. I just can't get enough of color!

Coming Along

My limited sewing time this week has been spent on my Granny Squares quilt and my Gradated Color Mod Mosaic bee quilt.

This week's granny is purple and black/gray. Four down, sixteen to go.

This is going to be a colorful quilt. In fact, I used scrap pieces in every color.

I love how these Mod Mosaic blocks look. I just wish that they didn't take so long to put together. I also find it a bit time-consuming to get the final size right. I want all the blocks to be 12.5 inches. For this block, I had to add a couple additional strips that weren't part of my original layout. It ended up being fine, but it takes more time to stop and plan additional aspects of the block.

But, I'm so excited to see the blocks my bee-mates are posting on Flickr. I CAN'T WAIT to put this one together. I'm hoping to churn out my remaining four blocks before I receive all the other blocks in the mail. That way, I can get this puppy put together ASAP!

Isn't it coming together so nicely?!

WIP Wednesday: Granny, Melons, and Fabric

I've been slowly chipping away at my to-do list this week. Let's get on with it, shall we?

Accomplished this Week

I managed to make another Granny Squares block - a Halloween version.

I also put together this bee block for Andrea. The directions she gave us calls this a melon block. I'm not sure if that's the correct name or not, but I sure do like it. I want to make a pillow out of this block for my living room, but with each quadrant rotated so the finished block looks like a giant cathedral window instead.

I also finished my Sew Beautiful Bee 2011 quilt top, which I'm calling Circle of Circle of Circle of Flying Geese. Read about it here.

I also made some x&+ blocks, but haven't taken any photos yet. Stay tuned.

No Progress Made

I haven't worked on any of my other WIPs. I realized too that I need to start yet another quilt for my BFF who's getting married in June. She and her new hubs needs a quilt, methinks.

My in progress items include:

• 1001 Peeps Supernova Quilt
• Single Girl/Retro Flowers Quilt
• Twin Quilts
• Mom's Quilt
• Lorax Quilt
• Daughter's Quilt
• Gradated Mod Mosaic Quilt

But, I did manage to take some photos of new fabric that's arrived at my house lately. I get so happy just looking at all of it!

Flea Market Fancy

Chevrons

Alphabet Soup and Pezzy Prints

So that's what's been going on around here. What about you? What have you been working on this week?