Tulip Mini Quilt for ALQS7

It's been a long time since I've had a chance to work on many personal projects as I've been very busy the last 2 months with the Taylor Bridge project, but I had to take time out to participate in Kate's ALQS7 as I absolutely love how her swaps work!

For those not familiar, usually you're assigned a partner in a swap like this, and there's always worry and strife about whether the recipient will love your final product. There's also the stress about meeting the deadline, or what to do if someone gets sick and has to drop out. Not so with Kate's swap! There is a deadline to get the photo to her, and as long as you make that deadline you're in. If you can't make it, no worries, you just won't participate in that round. She then lets all the participants send her a list of their favorite quilts among those submitted, and she has the difficult task of divvying them all up...but she does a fabulous job and we appreciate all her hard work!

So here is my little quilt. The challenge this round was to make a 12" mini quilt. Yikes! I started on a tiny little Hawaiian Applique piece but abandoned it as I decided my design wasn't good enough (self designed, first attempt). Maybe another time....then I had an idea to use some of my collection of Australian fabrics, but before I had a chance to do anything with them I got a Craftsy email with a free pattern for a 10" Paper Pieced Tulip block. Hmm...10" block + 1" border = 12" mini quilt. Score!

The batiks proved to be difficult to photograph, and in editing the colors to make the tulips, leaves and borders look right I ended up washing out the aquas. Here I've added some extra photos to show how the background looks.

I also wanted to give a shout out to my friend Shelley (aka Pirate) for her great Freezer Paper Piecing tutorial. I love it, and refer to it every time I need to paper piece something like this!

Sadly, Blogger ate half of my original post so I may have to come back later and add some forgotten details, but here are the rest of the photos in the meanwhile...

Hawaiian Applique - Halfway Point!

Hawaiian Applique - Halfway Point! 7443, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I've been working on this on the go...and maybe I should stop working on it in the car, based on some of the lousy curves, but it's all good! I'm learning as I go :)

I'm right handed and working counter-clockwise. The stitching begins at about 4:00 and ends at 10:00. I'm taking a class by Nancy Lee Chong on Quilt University, and loving it!

Hawaiian Quilt Class Progress

The inside Vs are the hardest part so far, but I learn a little bit more with each one I complete. Almost 1/4 of the way done!

Hawaiian Quilt - Basted

 

The result of the first lesson in Nancy Lee Chong's Hawaiian Quilt 101 class I'm taking from Quilt University online. Tonight we'll learn her techniques for needleturn applique. I'm so psyched!

I should note that we were told to baste it with "ugly thread" so we'd be motivated to make progress on the block and therefore get to remove more and more of the "ugly thread". This is why it's basted in brilliant orange! ;)

Quilt University Class

I signed up for my first Quilt University class the other day...actually I signed up the very day that class started! It's by Nancy Lee Chong and it's Hawaiian Quilting 101.

I followed the instructions on how to email pictures to the Dean to the letter...I made sure I scaled the photos down in size, etc. For some reason, however, they still saw fit to crop the images significantly, showing only a small portion of the fabrics I'm considering. Here I've posted the full photos so you get a better idea of what my fabrics look like. The background is not my counter top, LOL, it's the white batik with purple detail that I'll be using for the background of my applique. I'm undecided at this point whether to go with the teal/blue fabric or the fuchsia/blue for the applique itself.

I'll decide Friday which one to use and will cut out my Ulu pattern provided for the class. I'll continue to post my progress as the class continues over the next few weeks!

Drunkard's Path

DP misc, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
A sampling of some of the fabric combos for the Drunkard's Path quilt I'm working on right now. I wanted a take-along project and I'm appliqueing the quarter circles down. I know this isn't a traditional way to do it but that's ok with me!

Here are some of the block layouts I'm playing with...nothing at all has been sewn yet. The quarter circles have been glue basted to the backgrounds with Elmer's School glue.

I've Been Nominated!

Thank you to my generous friends who nominated me in Amy's Creative Side's Blogger's Quilt Festival for Mum's quilt. They've finished the nomination portion and now it's time to VOTE for your favorites! Here's the link, if you'd like to participate bloggers-quilt-festival-vote-now


There isn't much time, as the winners will be announced at the end of the week, so please vote ASAP. There are so many lovely quilts to choose from!

Turtle Bay

Turtle Bay after washing DSCN7274, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

Wow, this is the 6th of six baby quilts I was making this spring. I had made another top with these fabrics (except the Kona solid) and while I liked it, the borders had "issues" and while trying to figure out how to fix them I saw a cute idea on Pinterest.

This, however, is NOT that idea, LOL! The idea was to make an interlocking chain-like design with the prints making one set of chains and the solids making the other. It was actually a tessellation, and while it looked really cool in general I decided that I liked this layout better for these fabrics. (Both designs are a simple 2 bar rail fence block.)

If you click on the photo you can see more close ups of the quilting, before and after I washed it.

Mum's Special Quilt

AmysCreativeSide.com is running a really neat Quilt Festival right now, complete with a contest! Here is my entry, #563:

One of the reasons I became interested in quilting was to make special gifts for friends and family.

My mother tried to teach me to sew clothes when I was younger, but I wasn't all that interested. I didn't know about quilting, or the creative process it could encompass.

A few years ago I began quilting, and knew that I'd make something special for her one day. She and I both love Laurel Burch and when I saw this panel I just knew it would be the right starting point for her quilt.

I designed my own Dahlia applique pattern, and spent months carefully stitching down each little petal. In the end, one of the more challenging aspects of this project was turning those tubes inside out to make the stems!

FMQ on my Singer 404

With its beautiful gold accents, the Laurel Burch panel was just begging me to quilt it in gold...but I was new to FMQ and not familiar at all with using metallic threads. Through trial and error (and a lot of help from my friends on about.com!) I finally got the right combination of needle and thread and did some really fun, swirly quilting in the flowers. I also did outline quilting on the animals in the pattern.

Here we are, holding up the final quilt! She was afraid to use it at first, but I insisted that it was made to be snuggled under, not just displayed!

Devyn's Paisley Owl

Finished this owl quilt the other day for my co-worker/friend Holly. Saw the baby yesterday and she's so precious! I had given the finished quilt to a mutual friend on Tuesday to deliver it, but would've held onto it had I known the were coming by work Thursday. So I will have to get a pic of Devyn WITH the quilt later.

Thanks to Melisa for holding it up for the photo. More pics including a close up later. I'll also post the sketch for the design once I'm home.

(note: the owl looks a little discolored in the middle because the fleece backing is showing through. There is no batting in between)

Hannah's Quilt is Done!!

Hannah's Quilt, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

Well, it's finally done! I started this in January and had intended to finish it soon after, but I torqued (sprained) my wrist and just as it was improving I headed out to Phoenix for my yearly retreat with the Valley of the Sun gals. Unfortunately that didn't do much to help my wrist to heal so I had to wait a bit longer before I could wrap this up.

I had already quilted and bound it, I just hadn't buried all the tails and added a label. I found out 24 hours ago that my MIL was going to be meeting up with my Sis-in-law this weekend (who lives in NM) and so I quickly finished the quilt so she could take it with her. Nothing better than hand delivery!

Via Flickr:
Tropical Turtles. This shows the full design, but you need to look at the other photo for a better idea of the richness of the colors :)

Made for our niece, Hannah. The appliqued turtles are my own design. The inspiration for the quilt was www.hoffmanfabrics.com/EDocs/Site10/A%20Is%20For%20Alliga...