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

Scrap Happy Rails Top

This is the second top I've made from Crazy Mom's "No Scrap Left Behind"book (I previously posted about it here)  and the fifth modern quilt I made with scraps this year.  With the exception of the June quilt which was made with feedsack scraps, the scraps for this quilt were from all of the Cotton + Steel quilts I ever made since the fabric line came out as well as the other modern fabrics which I don't use or have as much.  This is a happy quilt because my modern scrap stash is pretty low now which means I need to make quilts with new modern fabrics so I can replenish my stash.  As much as I like the "cleansing" feel when making a quilt with scraps, I need to re-stimulate myself with the new fabrics which have been sitting too long on my shelf.  Tula Pink, here I come, oh wait, there's new Cotton + Steel fabrics.  I'm hoping to start quilting the Scrap Happy Rails top today since the backing has been sewn.  Maybe I should dangle a fresh fat quarter of new fabric in front of me to really help me press the metal to the pedal?

Quilt Size:  60" X 84"
Block Size:  12" Finished, thirty-five blocks total
Block Construction:  Three rectangles, 4.5" x 12-1/2" Cut, middle rail plain (Cotton + Steel Macrame) with two scrappy rails on the outside 

Previous YTD Total:   -49.75 yards

Current YTD Total:    -62.25 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

Smitten Blocks: Sew Ready Now For A Quilt

Slowly but surely, the Smitten Blocks are starting to look like a quilt.  It's been well over a month since I finished sewing all of the blocks with the exception of the side triangles which I needed to make  the paper templates myself since they were not included with the paper piecing kit I purchased. For the price I paid for this kit, it would have been nice if these twelve triangles came with it but I understand why since these triangles at the base measures over 10".  

Well, I was not looking forward to making these twelve triangles and I took my sweet time to finally realized they could easily be rotary cut--I just measured the width of the base and the height of the triangle, cut the rectangles, determine the center and cut along the 60 degree lines on my ruler (I should mention that I now finally understand how the degree lines) and voila' they were done.  I only messed up once and I still have all of my fingers.  Once the side triangles were basted, I was finally ready to lay out all of the blocks.

I had an extra block and decided that this one would be the one to be left out of the quilt.  I chose this one because I thought it would stick out because of all of the light diamonds on the outside and thought I could make a pillow with it.  I realized that the two girls in the center hexagon reminded me of my friend Carol and I--Carol is the reason why I am making the Smitten quilt.I thought I could give it to her but I decided I would just send her the paper pieces and fabrics so she can make it herself after she finishes her Smitten blocks.  I really do like this block.

I see plenty of late night sewing while finishing binge watching  Blue Bloods. I'm only on season two and still have five seasons left, so hopefully the top could be sewn together by the time I finish watching all of the episodes.  I'm keeping my fingers crosses even though I know my fingers are going to be sore.

Linking up with KokaQuilts: Sew Stitch Snap Share

Backings, Blocks and A Baby Blanket

Another "B" week for me, lots of sewing but no finished quilts or tops yet.

• I sewed backings for five quilts which I've sent to my Long-Arm Quilter, Jan.  It's that time of year that  have to decide which quilts I want to do myself and these are the ones that need more than straight line quilting.  Four of these quilts were made before I started blogging so once they're done I'll have something new to post.

• My seventy-two rail blocks have been sewn and trimmed and ready to sew with the Cotton+Steel gray fabric which I've been saving for the right project.  This quilt will be the second quilt I've made from Crazy Mom's "No Scrap Left Behind" book and it made quite a big dent with my modern scraps.

• Sixteen framed square blocks measuring 18" and made with blue and green Cotton + Steel and Thimbleberries fabrics (talk about modern traditional) and ready to be quartered to make another Stacked Square quilt.  I got the idea to combine the two fabric lines when I received the New Attitudes book by Lynette Jensen who made quilts using her patterns, one with Thimbleberries fabrics and the other one with Cotton + Steel fabrics.  I thought combining the two fabric lines in one quilt would be fun, after all I have just as much Thimbleberries fabrics as I do Cotton + Steel, which is now the fabric I have to buy everytime a new line comes out.

• My Granddaughter, Micah Rose, has a pink "storebought" fluffy fleece blanket which she is very fond of and I being the thoughtful Grandmother decided to make her a pink fleece blanket with some cute yardage that's been sitting in my stash--it's good for Micah to have a back-up "Grandma-made" blanket when her pink blankie needs to be washed or heaven forbids it somehow gets "lost" when I happened to be visiting.

My Minus 100 Yard Challenge is improving with all the backings I made this week plus it really helps that it's been over a week since I purchased any new fabric. It's going to be a busy next four months seeing that I still have over fifty yards to use, that is, if I don't buy any new fabrics.  Losing weight and using fabric is a never-ending battle for me.

Previous YTD Total:   -38.125 yards

Current YTD Total:    -49.75 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

Pets on Quilts 2017

Today is the first day of the Pets on Quilts 2017 Linky Party and I would be remiss if I did not enter Sophie's photo, a.k.a., the World's Worst Dog, you can read about Sophie and her quilt here.  This photo was taken right after her grooming appointment last week and I was totally unaware of this linky party until I read about it today on Lily Pad Quilting's blog: The Best Show Ever! Pets on Quilts 2017!

There are wonderful sponsors and prizes for this Linky Party, so be sure to enter.  It's a great way to see the pets of quilters, I wonder if any of them have their own quilt like Sophie. 

Linking up with:  Lily Pad Quilting

It's the Ernie Interruptus Quilt's Turn To Be Finally Finished

I made and finished this quilt while I was waiting for the birth of my first granddaughter, Micah in March, and previously posted about the inspiration, stats and the thinking behind the making of this quilt, you can read the post here.  It only took me four months to finally quilt it and I was probably working off the adrenalin from quilting the Dear Tula Pink quilt last week.

I backed this Ernie Quilt with some of the few remaining yardage I have of the Ikea Nummer fabric which I dearly love and only use it for my modern quilts which are Nummer worthy.  If I could be granted one quilting wish, it would be for Ikea to bring back this fabric because it is so perfect for backings.  As you can see, I did straight line quilting along each strip row with intermittent diagonal quilting. The quilt feels so nice and soft.

This is the fourth quilt in the Ernie Quilt series I made which was inspired by Mr. Quilt Muse himself, Ernie Jo Mauer, the American Farm Tiger owned by Mary Etherington, Country Threads, who also made the first Ernie quilt, you can read the post here.  The Ernie Quilts are strip blocks made with 2.5" strips which can be made any size depending on the fabric or jelly roll you may have.  This is one of my favorite patterns since I can use my die-cutter to make the strips and also a great way to use up stash and scraps.

These are the other three "Ernie" quilts I've made and you can see this pattern is so versatile and can be made with modern, traditional, reproduction, etc. fabrics.   I have other "Ernie" quilts lined up to make which I can't wait to make--I have some new Cotton+Steel prints in my stash--whoo-hoo!

I'll wait until the next post to give an update to my Minus 100 yards Challenge. I thought I finally stopped shopping but then Crazy Mom's new fabric line "Emma & Myrtle" came out and I had to buy the four yards I just had to have now which should be arriving soon.  Hopefully I can get some quilt tops done to reduce the stash down before then.

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
Main Crush Monday

The Dear Tula Pink Quilt is Finally Finished

I started my Dear Tula Pink Quilt in 2013 right after I retired and this was going to be the quilt project to make sure I kept my focus on quilting and not waste any of my newly acquired "free time."   

I purchased Tula Pink's 100 Modern Quilt Blocks right after it was published in 2013.  To prepare for this project, I had the book spiral bound, purchased a Moleskine graph paper book to keep track of the blocks and the fabrics used for each block and I even set up a Pinterest board.  I called this project "Dear Tula Pink" because this was going to be, for me, like the "Dear Jane" quilt started by Brenda Papadakis which was very popular at that time, and may still be, and it was the quilt to make for those who like a challenge.

One of my favorite color combinations is black, gray, brown, tan, gold, taupe and beige. I used a mash of Civil War, Asian, Traditional, Modern, Blenders, Florals, Geometrics and Novelty prints for this quilt.  Luckily for me after I pulled these fabrics from my stash, I found a print online of the Skyscrapers which, to me, tied in all of these colors.  I was planning to use this for the borders.

These are some of the blocks which you can see the different fabric types used.

And now for some stories as to how my Dear Tula Pink was made and finally finished after four years.  First of all, I intended to make all 100 of these blocks.  After I had made a few of the blocks, I happened to show them to my two quilt peeps and they wanted to join in--it would be a nice group project they said.  Each one of us would make three of the same blocks and share them with each other. Unfortunately, this idea ended less than a year after one peep made around 30 blocks and the other one whose idea was to do this together only did 21. I ended up making 39 blocks.  I was disappointed, but understood, that the other two peeps didn't have as much time as I did and when you think about it, 39 blocks multiply by four (I made two of each for myself) is 156 blocks and I was getting tired of them, especially making four of the same blocks and they were 6" finished which is too small for me.  I do like to think if I did the project by myself and only made one of each block, I probably could have made all 100 blocks.

After the decision was made to discontinue making the blocks. I made this quilt using some of the blocks made by one peep based on one of the layout ideas in the book.  I used two shades of dyed muslin and a colorful stripe fabric I had in my stash.  It's only a coverlet, no batting, just a backing of tan corduroy with light quilting.

It took me around two years to finally come up with the layout for my blocks and the funny story is that I had just finished putting together my Gypsy Wife blocks last year and if you are familiar with this pattern, the blocks are set in strips of fabric which I just didn't want to do (I was mentally exhausted after making those GW blocks) so my blocks were laid in a Sampler layout.  But with my Dear Tula Pink quilt, I wanted to set these blocks with fabric strips and solid pieces of the Skyscraper print.  After a couple of false starts this year, I finally quilted Dear Tula Pink with straight line quilting using a variegated black, brown and tan thread.

While I was finishing up this quilt and I was on Pinterest, I noticed that someone had pinned one of the blocks I had on my Dear Tula Pink Project board.  It turned out it was a block made by my dear quilt blog friend Susan Snooks, PatchworknPlay, and I had probably pinned before we became friends.  I noticed her block had similar colors and fabrics like my quilt so I went on her blog to find her finished quilt and I was amazed at the similarities between our two quilts using the same colors and fabric designs and that her blocks were laid out in the skyline layout (remember I featured a Skyscraper print in my quilt).  I sent a message to Susan asking her for the link to her quilt so you can check it out for yourself: Susan's City Skyline Quilt.  Pretty freaky, don't you think?  Susan started and finished her City Skyline quilt in 2013.  Too bad I didn't know her back then, maybe I would have made more blocks, we definitely could have shared blocks.

On my Minus 100 Yard Challenge, I guess I shouldn't have been so over confident that I could reach this goal, maybe I should have tried for a Minus 10 Yard Challenge instead.  In defense of my fabric purchases so far this month, all I can say it's July and that means sizzling Sidewalk Sales.  Sadly I didn't have to leave the house to make my purchases.

Previous YTD Total:   -49.125 yards

Current YTD Total:    -38.125 yards

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