Hot Flash, The Quilt is Finally Finished

After over a week of 90 degrees weather, it seems rather timely and appropriate that I finally finished my Hot Flash quilt during this heat wave.  I purchased the Hot Flash fabric by Luella Doss and Andrea Schuster around 2012 and but didn't make a quilt top until several years later.  I've been meaning to finish it for the past several years but it still didn't make it on my 2017 Project List.   Since I was sending some other quilts to Jan, my Long Arm Quilter, I decided to add the Hot Flash Quilt top to get it finished once and for all.

I didn't use a pattern for this quilt; I just let the fabric dictate the design and it helps that I have a penchant for making big block quilts whenever I'm working with wonderful big prints.  Only two rows of this quilt were pieced and the rest of the rows were made with just solid pieces of the two large focus prints. Because of the simple design, the quilt looks like it is a panel or cheater cloth and since I backed it with another print from the collection, it hard to tell which is the front and which is the back so I guess you can say I made a reversible quilt.   I mentioned in my last post that I normally don't back my quilts with fabric from the same line but for this quilt I did--I definitely bought this fabric when it was on sale.  

This is the second of the five quilts which were sent out to be quilted. Jan did a wonderful job with the big organic scroll machine quilting and she used a variegated thread which picked up the different colors in this quilt.

I thought I provide some quilt stats so you can see how simple it was to make this quilt.  All of my measurements are divisible by four which helps to make it an easy design.  It's also a quick quilt to finish, either you do it yourself with straight or organic wavy lines  or send it to your long arm quilter.  I spent more time thinking (also known for me as wasting time) if I was going to quilt it myself but again I am glad I decided to send it to Jan.  

Size:  56" x 72"

Side Borders (A):  8"(finished)

Black & White Sashing (B):  4" x 40" (finished) (there are six rows)

Top & Bottom Rows (C): 8" x 40" (finished)

Rectangles, 2nd & 4th Rows (D): 4" x 8" (finished) each row has 10 patches

Center Row (E): 16" x 40" (finished)

Since the in-law arrangements are almost done at my son's house, I will be leaving this quilt there since my sweet granddaughter, Micah Rose, just loves looking at prints, especially ones with black and white.  I'm thinking her eyes are going to be extra stimulated with the Hot Flash Quilt.

And speaking of Micah Rose, when she was visiting several weeks ago, I started working on her first Halloween Quilt.  I happened to be digging around my studio and found a bundle of Halloween prints by KP Kids/Kari Pearson which I know I purchased over ten years ago.  I just love these prints of bright colors which to me don't seem to be as popular today as they were when I first started quilting.  Since the bundle included a panel which featured Kitty Cats in costumes, I thought this would make a cute quilt for Micah, after all there are four cats in their house, but I wanted to make sure her Mom liked the fabric.  She did.

Again, I made a quilt which looks like cheater cloth but only the left side is a panel, the right side is made with twenty-one, 2-1/2" x 20-1/2" cut strips and the black border is 3-1/2" cut strips (the only print which is not a KP Kids print.

Also, I shouldn't call this a quilt but a coverlet since I decided to only backed it with a piece of purple Minky which I had in my stash.  I wanted to put batting in the middle to make it a quilt but if I had, then I wouldn't have been able to use the Minky.  And the purple Minky looked so pretty against the quilt top.  I'll be mailing this quilt to Micah so she has the whole month of October to enjoy it.

So happy to say that I finished two projects which were unplanned but nevertheless is a finish.  With the end of the year fast approaching, I really need to get some more projects on my list finished.  As for my Minus 100 Yard Challenge, it was looking good but since I'll be taking a workshop with one of my first Quilt Idols, Kaffe Fassett in early October, I had to purchase some new fabrics to prepare for his class.  We need twenty half yard cuts and then some for this class. And that doesn't include the border fabric since he wants to help us decide what the border print should be, therefore, won't be purchased until after the class.  Once the new fabric arrives and other things are added and subtracted, I'll be ready to post an updated tally.  I'm still hoping I'm going to meet my challenge.  And if I don't, I'll just have to say it was Kaffe Fassett's fault which wouldn't be the first time I said this.

Linking up with:

My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday

Crazy Mom Quilts: Finish It Up Friday

Confessions of a Fabric Addict:  Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?

Busy Hands Quilts:  Finish Or Not Friday

Mostly Manor Sweet Sixteenpatch Quilt

It's the first day of Fall and we're experiencing 90 degrees weather for the next few days, so it'll still feel like Summer which I can't decide if that's a good thing. At least, my Mostly Manor Sweet Sixteenpatch Quilt has some pretty Fall colors to set the mood for the cooler days ahead.  I made this quilt top well over a year ago and it was on my 2017 Project List to finally finished it.  I decided this past August that I had too many other projects I needed to get done and that this quilt, plus four other tops, will be sent to my Longarm Quilter, Jan.

When I first received my Mostly Manor (designed by Victoria Findley Wolfe) Layer Cake of 10" squares, I noticed that the orange floral print reminded me of a Kaffe Fassett print and thought these squares would look nice with the Kaffe Fassett shot cottons and the Pepper Cory solids I had in my stash. And the perfect and easy pattern for using prints and solids would be a sixteen patch, a really big sixteen patch that I could use my die-cutter. 

I paired up a solid with one of the prints and some of them complemented the prints so nicely while some of the pairings were in contrast with each other.  Since I needed eight 4.5" squares for each sixteen patch, I was limited to using layer cake squares which had duplicates and thankfully there were enough for me to make the sixteen blocks.

Here are the Sweet Sixteen Stats:

Quilt Size:                  64" Square

Number of Blocks:     Sixteen

Quick Block Size:      16" Finished Squares comprising of sixteen 4.5" cut patches

If I were to have quilted my Sweet Sixteenpatch quilt, I would have done my usual straight line quilting but thought this quilt would look nice with some swirly quilting to break up the straight lines of the blocks.  I glad I decided to send it to Jan because  I loved how she quilted it with a flowery scroll using a variegated thread.  Whenever I purchased a fat quarter bundle or another precut, I always make sure I order yardage for binding at the same time (big lesson learned when I didn't do this), so the quit is bound with the wonderful red and pink diagonal stripe from the Mostly Manor fabric line.

Since the shape of the quilt was determined by how many blocks I could make with the layer cake and unless the quilt is for a baby or for a wallhanging, I do not like making square quilts.  I was resigned to thinking that this quilt would make a nice picnic quilt but am having second thoughts now on whether I should keep this quilt in the car.  The shot cotton really makes this quilt so nice and soft and I'm sure it'll get even softer once it is washed. I usually don't mention the backings on my quilt because not very often I use the same fabric line as the quilt top unless it happens to be on sale, otherwise I just use something from the backing stash of great sale fabric.  With this in mind, I used a traditional gold print, that's been sitting around for a long time, thinking this quilt was going to be laying on the ground.  It looks fine but like I say what goes on behind my quilts is only for my eyes. I'm just not creative when it comes to backing.

Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side is once again hosting the Fall Edition of the Bloggers Quilt Festival and this is a wonderful opportunity to view and be inspired by the many quilts which have already been linked.  This is the first time I'm participating and you are allowed to enter two quilts.  I've already entered my Flutterby quilt which was finished earlier this year (you can read about it here) and I will now be entering my Sweet Sixteenpatch quilt.  I'm thinking viewers of my two quilts will see that I do like making quilts if I can use my die-cutter.  Be sure to visit Amy's blog, by clicking on this link, and plan on visiting for awhile because I am sure you will be inspired and will meet new bloggers.  The Bloggers Quilt Festival is running from September 18th through the 25th and you will want to make several visits because there is so much to see and read.

Linking up with:
Amy's Creative Side Bloggers Quilt Festival 2017 Fall Edition
My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday

Crazy Mom Quilts: Finish It Up Friday

Confessions of a Fabric Addict:  Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?
Busy Hands Quilts:  Finish Or Not Friday

Bloggers Quilt Festival 2017 Fall Edition

This week starts the Fall 2017 edition of the Bloggers Quilt Festival (you can read all the details here).  I am participating in the Bloggers Quilt Festival for the first time.  For the past few years, I only was an observer but now that I have been blogging since October 2016, I am excited to finally be able to officially participate.  Since Spring of 2009, Amy of Amy's Creative Side has hosted a linky party for quilters to post two of their finished quilts.  It's a great way to discover and follow new quilting blogs and also participants are eligible to win some pretty great prizes from the wonderful sponsors Amy always round up for the Bloggers Quilt Festival. 

I decided I would post my Flutterby quilt which was completed earlier this year.  It is a Jen Kingwell pattern which I modified the size of the blocks so I could use my die cutter since there were over a thousand pieces, some were half rectangle triangles, in this quilt. You can read more about this quilt from my earlier post here and it is my most popular post.  What I like about this quilt is the mix of bright color and low volume prints which seems to be my fabric choices for 2017. Also unusual about this quilt is that I forced myself not to use any of my much loved Cotton + Steel prints. I quilted it myself with narrow straight line quilting which I love and besides wavy organic lines, is the only style of machine quilting I do.

This definitely was the year of making scrappy quilts and I do like a pattern which helps me reduce the never-ending stash of fabric I seem to accumulate.  Apparently, I still need to find some more patterns.

If your visiting my blog for the first time from the Quilt Festival, welcome and thank you.  I am looking forward to visiting the other bloggers who are participating in the Bloggers Quilt Festival and I know I will find new blogs to follow.

Linking up with Amy's Creative Side Bloggers Quilt Festival 2017 Fall Edition

Hometown Girl Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt

This week I am excited to show you my Hometown Girl Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt. For the past two weeks I've been working on two Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilts (I posted the Autumn Woods quilt last week, you can read the post here ).

The Hometown Girl fabric line was designed by  Pat Sloan for Moda and was available in two lines; regular prints and batik which I chose for this quilt.

Back in May, Moda announced that September 16th will be National Sew A Jelly Roll Day, (you can read about it here) when quilters will be encouraged to finally break out the Jelly Rolls they've been saving (I think the word "hoarding" is a more appropriate word) and making something for them, for their family or friends or for charity (there are several quilt drives for the victims of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma which you can check out on the Internet).  Moda has done a pretty good job of promoting this event with their designers posting patterns or giveaways on their blogs.  Even though I have a die-cutter and can cut my own 2.5" strips, there are times I can't resist buying a jelly roll especially when they are on sale. The Jelly Roll Charm Chase pattern is the one I designed using a Jelly Roll and a Charm Pack of the same fabric line and it was chosen to be a Moda Bake Shop pattern back in June (you can find the pattern here) and (read about my experience here).

It's just purely coincidental that I've now made two Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilts with fabric lines that had "Hometown" in the name but this is the first time I've made one in batiks and I think this might be my favorite version so far.  The nice thing about working with batiks is that there's no wrong side, and I've learned, there is selvedge even though it doesn't look like it.  I had to do some research online to verify this because I was tempted not to trim the strips.

And yes, I am in love with the wavy organic lines machine quilting I did for this quilt.  I've been seeing other quilters use three different thread colors lately but being that I have trouble picking just one color, I decided to use a variegated teal thread and am very happy how it accentuated the fluid lines of the quilting.  I think this is one of the reasons why I love this quilt so much. Before quilting, this quilt measured 58"x72" but because of the intense quilting the length shrunk 2"--wow, wasn't expecting that.

As mentioned before, I've already made four of the Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilts and thought I post a photo of them so you can see how this pattern works with other types of fabric design.  This pattern can be easily adapted to using your own 2.5" and 4.5" squares cut from your fabric stash and I'm thinking I would like to make one with the many Asian prints I have in my stash.  There are so many possibilities with my stash and it could be just something I can do when I want to make an easy quilt which is pretty often. Of course when I do make this pattern from my stash, I will have to change the name to Strippy Square Race since no Jelly Roll or Charm Squares would be involved.

I went into writing this post thinking I only had a few Jelly Rolls but now realized that I had seven of Moda's and three from other fabric lines--ten in all and now I'm thinking Moda probably had me in mind for this day.  Just a little disclaimer here, I had taken a photo in my basement studio of all of the Jelly Rolls in my stash and I thought the photo would be better if it appeared to have been taken outside, so PicMonkey photo editing once again came to the rescue. (Hmmm, I could put them on the bison from my Yellowstone photo again). I know of one quilter/friend (her name rhymes with Bee) who has more than me and between the two of us we should be participating in a Jelly Roll Month.  The one problem I have with Jelly Rolls is untying the pretty ribbon and using them.  I know from my own sons and from watching the Big Bang Theory, that action figures increase in value only if the packaging stays intact but I don't think it's for investment purposes, (although that's what I going to tell my Hubby now), that I'm saving my Jelly Rolls.  I know when I see the right pattern, I'll use one and there's been several patterns I've seen lately that is calling for one of these Jelly Rolls to come out and play.

My post is ahead of National Sew A Jelly Roll Day and was done in the anticipation of the arrival of my Granddaughter Micah Rose who is staying with me this week and won't be leaving until Saturday.  I knew there would be no participating in this event on the scheduled day because there's a priority who comes with a big smile and thinks Jelly Rolls are toys.

I hope everyone will have time to sew a Jelly Roll, either this Saturday or any other day.  I know there are many of us who have heavy hearts and minds during these past weeks with all of the hurricanes, the worries for our families/friends and the damages it's causing or caused.  I am working on sending a fabric package to the West Houston Quilt Guild who are in need of supplies (you can read The Constant Quilter's (Wendy Caton Reed) post here) and I know there will be other organizations/groups I will be sending one to also. Because of this, I won't be posting an update of my Minus 100 Yards Challenge this time because I pretty sure I'm going to be meeting my goal now.

Linking up with:

My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday

Crazy Mom Quilts: Finish It Up Friday

Confessions of a Fabric Addict:  Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?

A Finally Finish: Autumn Woods

Since arriving home from Yellowstone last weekend and reuniting with my sewing studio, I have been focused on Jelly Rolls and quilts for the upcoming National Sew A Jelly Roll Day (you can read about it here) on Saturday, September 16th.  One of my favorite jelly roll quilt patterns is the Jelly Roll Race which is a great quilt to make when you just want to sew easy especially after working on a mind-numbing project like maybe a Gypsy Wife Quilt. (It's been almost two years since I made mine and I'm still in recovery mode).  I designed a variation of the Jelly Roll Race Quilt called Jelly Roll Charm Chase which combined a Jelly Roll and a Charm Pack of the same fabric line together and it was chosen to be a Moda Bake Shop pattern back in June (you can find the pattern here).

Prior to this pattern being published, I already made two Jelly Roll Charm Chase quilts several years ago and the Autumn Woods was the second one I made.  This quilt is different from the Jelly Roll Charm Chase quilt pattern being I did not use a charm pack for this quilt but instead 4.5" cut squares of the same fabric from the same line of Kate & Birdie's Autumn Woods fabric. This quilt  measures 60"x68" which is a little shorter than the pattern because only two additional strips were added for the border instead of four strips.  I made this top several years ago and for some reason I didn't like the way it turned out which can happen when you make a Jelly Roll Race Quilt.  But sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder, because after finally quilting and binding it, I really like the quilt now. It's perfect for the season and will look nice on the living room couch.

Autumn Woods was lightly quilted with only quilting on each row so it's very soft and cuddly which I like.  It's the first large quilt I machine quilted on Hazel, my new Juki HZL F600 sewing machine.  I'm not too happy with the way Hazel handled the quilt, there was some drag and fabric pushing resulting in some re-basting, but I sure do love the serpentine stitch.   I'm also not use to quilting on a small harp space and maybe Hazel would do better with just baby or smaller quilts.

One of the reasons why the quilt top languished in the studio is I couldn't decide on the backing which for me sometimes takes longer than picking fabric for the top because of my indecisiveness if the fabric used for the backing might be needed for a future top--it's sort of like a commitment issue. After agreeing and commenting on a blogger's post that making pieced backings was not one of my favorite things to do, I found myself making a pieced backing, in fact, I ended up making three pieced backings that week.  It's still not one of my favorite things to do although it is a great way to use up the fabric stash.

Here's a sneak peek of a new Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt I'll share on next week's post.  I've already finished the top and should be ready to start machine quilting this weekend.  The backing is ready to be sewn and this time there was no commitment issues.

Last week I shared some photos of my Backseat Sewing Studio project and thought I would post photos of all the blocks made which were two small runners and 18 blocks.  Just a reminder these were sewn driving to and from Yellowstone and not during because I did not want to miss any of the scenery.  Sadly, I think we're done traveling for the year except maybe for visiting my son and his family who live four hours away. We may be traveling with our two dogs: Dewey will be sitting in the front seat next to Hubby and Sophie will be in the back seat with me and there is no way she is going to let me sew, my arms are meant for holding her.

I'm still not ready to update my Minus 100 Yard Challenge but I will say after the next calculations, my total is going to look pretty good finally.  I still can't believe I did not visit one quilt shop during vacation.

I'm linking up with:

My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday

Crazy Mom Quilts: Finish It Up Friday

Confessions of a Fabric Addict:  Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?
Busy Hands Quilts:  Finish Or Not Friday

Have Scraps, Will Travel

While I am traveling on a road trip to Yellowstone National Park with my hubby and son, I have once again set up the Backseat Sewing Studio which really is a nice way to travel.  I decided my Create On the Go project for this trip will be sewing fabric scrap pieces onto scrap batting cut to 5" or 6" squares which is a great way to use up both of these never-ending stashes. I plan on using these squares for either mug rugs or pincushions.  I thought I would share a scrappy story and the blocks made along the road.

I guess my Hubby does not read my blog because he would know that a Ninja with a rotary cutter, I am not.  As we started on our travels to Yellowstone, I was in the backseat behind my hubby while my son occupied the front seat next to him.  After a couple of hours into the road trip,  I started working on my hand-piecing project.  I brought my brayer/roller so I can press the seams as I sewed along which made a squeaking sound. I could somewhat hear a conversation between the two guys; hubby asking my son a question, he responding: "What's that?" and then talking about a pizza cutter and then my son slowly turning around to look at what I was doing and then telling my hubby "No".  Hubby thought I was using a rotary cutter while he was driving.  I am pretty careful when it comes to using my rotary cutter--two feet on the floor, eyes focused, mindful of where the rotary cutter is going and something I would only do in the comfort of my studio/home and not in a moving vehicle.  I will admit though, I did entertain a thought of bringing my Sizzix Fabi Die-cutter to cut a gazillion 1" HST while in the backseat but I didn't want to make a mess in my backseat studio. 

I sewed these scrappy blocks on the way to Yellowstone  The one in the top photo I'm thinking would make a nice mug trough and the ones in the middle will be for pincushions or mug rugs. (BTW, the block on the very bottom was a test block made before we left and it was trimmed.)  The bottom ones are my favorite so far and I love the improvisational look. I'm sewing the scraps the Crazy Mom's Scrap Vortex method and involves finding and sewing scraps which are the same size or shape. It's really a nice, relaxing project for the road, albeit the squeaky brayer. I'll trim these squares once I'm home where the rotary cutter will be waiting for me.

I brought my Happy Trail Rails Quilt, which was finished last week,  along on our road trip (you can read about it here).  Diann of Little Penguin Quilts suggested I take some photos of the quilt in Yellowstone.  I am not too adventurous and still camera shy when it comes to photographing my quilts outside my house but I think these two photos turned out quite nice.

These photos are better....I'm just having a little fun here--no animals nor  I were harmed; the photos are courtesy of picMonkey photo editing and my quilt being photographed at the right position.  How do you like my watermark on these photos?  Just like not using a rotary cutter in the car, I would never think of using wildlife for a photo prop for one of my quilts; it's not right nor allowed plus I can't run fast anymore.  It sure was funny when hubby asked me how I did I that; I think for one brief second he thought maybe the quilt was actually on these beautiful creatures.

Well, it should be no surprise that I already purchased 7.5 yards of fabric before we arrived at Yellowstone.  I like to visit Wal-Mart whenever we're on vacation to see if I can score any deals in their fabric department and I did find some backing and some basics.  I'll tally my new total for my Minus One Hundred Yard Challenge on my next post since there may be a chance I may actually visit a quilt shop on the return trip home.  Maybe I should add a rule that fabric purchased while on vacation does not count, especially if money was saved.  At Yellowstone, we finally purchased our National Park Lifetime Senior Passes for $10 each, just two days before the rate was going up to $80 each, so that's a $140 saving which does buy a lot of fabric.

Linking up with:

KokaQuilts: Sew Stitch Snap Share

My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday

Crazy Mom Quilts: Finish It Up Friday

Confessions of a Fabric Addict:  Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?
Busy Hands Quilts:  Finish Or Not Friday
Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework: Oh Scrap

It's Been A Scrappening Kind Of Week

The Scrap Happy Rail Quilt is a finally finish and was only a "flimsy" for less than a week.  Last week, I posted about the making of this top, you can read the post here and normally, once I finish a top, it usually lays around the studio for at least several months or seasons before it is quilted.  I must be having some good quilting mojo since this is the third quilt I've quilted in the last four weeks.

I couldn't decided if I wanted to quilt it with straight lines or wavy organic lines so I did a combination of the two and I think it turned out pretty well.  I wanted to make sure my post included some close-up shots since my last post had only one photo.  Thanks for the gentle nudge, Preeti!

I backed this quilt with my last piece of Ikea fabric which is no longer available, of course.  I'm so glad I bought this several years ago when they had this fabric and other fabrics like Nummer which was so perfect for backings.  The last time I backed a quilt with this fabric was for another scrappy quilt--this print just picks up all the colors of the quilt top and I wish Ikea would bring this print and the Nummer print back.

As if I haven't worked with scraps enough this year, I have now completed a trifecta of Crazy Mom quilts.  (I previously posted my June Quilt, you can read the post here ).  While searching for some scraps for a road trip project, I came across two pieces of my Scrap Vortex quilt which I started around  two years ago.   In order to finish this top, all I had to do was sew two scrap slabs, one measuring 13"x 47" and the other 10" x 57" and since the scraps for this project were still together I decided to finish this top once again even though I was supposed to be cleaning my studio and getting ready for a road  trip.  This is the sixth quilt I've made with scraps this year.

When I originally finished the top the first time, I was so excited that I was going to straight line quilt it with my then brand new Juki 2010Q.  As mentioned in previous posts, the Juki Walking Foot does not like to do straight line quilting.  After quilting around a third of the quilt and seeing how the quilt was getting distorted, rather than removing the stitches, I chose to cut off the part of the quilt that was quilted and made one very long mat for exercising.  Now that I can straight-line quilt on the Juki, I looking forward to quilting the second Scrap Vortex top and I'm really hoping I won't be making a matching floor mat again.

I did get a chance to make some other things from my fabric stash. I've made some blocks for another Christmas quilt, one of the blocks, the Tree Farm Block designed by Janda Bend Quilts is from the A Very Merry Christmas Quilt Along, you can read the post here.  Teething time has arrived for my Granddaughter, Micah Rose, so some leashes with teething rings needed to be made.  I wasn't looking forward to adding the snaps since I wasn't very good with eyelets but I have to say these KAM Snaps purchased from Amazon went on like a "snap"--no problem at all, there is a very good YouTube you can watch.

As I am posting this today, I am traveling to Yellowstone with my husband and son and have taken the Scrap Happy Rail Quilt, which has now been renamed the Happy Trails Rail Quilt.  My road project will be doing some hand sewing with scraps.  I just can't seem to be able to get away from scraps.

Hopefully during this trip, I will not be tempted to buy fabric because I had a little tumble this week.

Previous YTD Total:   -62.25 yards
Current YTD Total:    -59.25 yards

Linking up with:
My Quilt Infatuation: Needle and Thread Thursday
Confessions of a Fabric Addict:  Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?
Busy Hands Quilts:  Finish Or Not Friday
Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework: Oh Scrap
MMM Quilts: dreami Linky #7