Quilting is my Therapy too...

I'm sure most of you have found the blog of Angela Walters, Quilting is My Therapy. I thought of it this week as I started the quilting on my Glamclam quilt. You all had great ideas about a quilting design and by far echo quilting got the most votes both here and on Instagram.

I basted the quilt and really thought echoing would be a great idea. I sat down to quilt and to be honest, after weeks of packing, purging, and cleaning our house, I felt pretty exhausted and really needed some quilting therapy. At the spur of the moment, I decided to do one of my most relaxing, mindless and easiest designs - organic straight lines.

My backing is this luxurious feeling Cotton+Steel lawn. Combined with some thin Dream Cotton batting this quilt is developing the most glorious comfy feel. 

I love how it's turning out and it's providing me with some nice relaxing therapy. Win! Win! Full reveal soon!

Most of you know that my kids grew up with a quilting mama. Ever wonder what kind of influence that turns into? Seems I've been a bit of an inspiration to my daughter, who has turned her need for a creative outlet into some awesome photography skills. She's sharing info, and interviewing some inspiring creatives on her new site and blog. My interview about living a creative life is up today and you can find it at andreakatolin.com  (you'll also see some pretty cute kids!)

The full site: andreakatolin.com

And if that's not enough, I'll be chatting on Monday with Pat Sloan on her weekly podcast!
Find the show at All People Quilt here Monday at 4PM Eastern. I'll be back Monday with more!

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Happy-go-Lucky...

Oh, how I enjoyed quilting this one! It's my 9-patch/snowball combo quilt made with Happy-Go-Lucky by Bonnie and Camille {plus a few stash pieces thrown in}. It was done with Charm Squares and you'll find my method here.

I do have a love affair with fabric and what made it fun to quilt was all the eye-candy as I sewed.

And the quilting was pretty simple. Straight lines through the squares and a free-motion design in each of the Snowball blocks.

I struggled choosing a border for the quilt. If you remember my earlier post, I was determined to put a navy border on it. In fact many of you agreed with my choice. But it started to seem a little overpowering for the quilt and I ended up with the aqua and a navy binding.

The back is one of my favs from the collection.

Couldn't resist this overexposed shot with the garden and the beautiful blue sky.

Hope you have a "happy-go-lucky" day too!

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Catching up on some quilting...

So last year I was determined to finish up all the tops that were piling up or give them away. Yay! I pretty much did that and have been determined to quilt each top as I make it ~ as all of you do?

I've done well, by keeping an ongoing list. Something about putting it down on paper, {or whiteboard} that keeps me on track. Until now... oh no, I've got 5 tops on the list. There's something about that pretty fabric that keeps calling me to cut it up and sew!

Today I promised to make a dent and pin-basted 2 tops. So hopefully, I'll have some finished quilts to show soon!

Even though this lovely fabric pile keeps calling my name. I won't touch it ~ promise. 

{I'm doing "Fresh" from Simply Retro}

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What I'm working on...

No finishes to share this week! But I did cut into some fat quarters of Simply Style by Vanessa Christenson. Oh how I love her 2 lines - they're such beautiful, colorful, modern, graphic lines. And they work really well together.

I've had this block drawn up in my design notebook for a while. Then I saw Rita's version over at Red Pepper Quilts and couldn't wait to try it. Vanessa's fabric was perfect for the look I wanted with a couple of stash pieces added for more variety.

The half-square triangles finish at 2 1/2", which makes the star 40" square. I added a small white border to separate it from the binding.

I'm also working on finishing up my Steam Punk quilt. Yeah!

The quilting on this one is a bit unusual from most...
I started out by quilting in the ditch along all of the gray sashing strips.

Then I machine quilted around each of the center circles in the blocks and did the setting triangles. I used this wonderful graphic piece in the triangles which actually gave me some quilting lines to follow. Love when that happens! Since the edges were all stitched down, I decided to finish it off with the binding.

And now I'm hand quilting 2 concentric circles in each block. The hand quilting is giving the quilt the needed texture without super-obvious lines that could be distracting. It's making for some nice relaxing summer evenings. I've been watching Friday Night Lights and catching up on the past years' movies on DVD. I'd welcome any movie suggestions!

Finally, I love to do embroidery. Haven't picked up in years. I probably did my first when I was 8 or 9 years old - learned from my grandmother who was an amazing needleworker! Some day I'll tell you more about her...

These are from Anna Maria Horner's Love from A to Z and for my granddaughters, Elyse and Madelyn.

Well, this looks like a WIP post and it's Wednesday. Guess I ought to link up to Lee over at Freshly Pieced! What are you working on?

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Baby Sewing...

We're all getting pretty excited about the new baby coming in about 7 weeks. (yes, we're counting) I've done a lot of sewing for my first grandson in the past few weeks. The inspiration fabric was a Moda line called Apple Jack. It has some beautiful colors and the girls are already having fun with the i-spy, ABC fabric.

Two floor pillows for the sisters to sit on in the baby's room (although I'm wondering if there may be some migration into their own rooms). These take only 1 yard of fabric each and some piping. Free tutorial: Floor cushion

A divided storage basket....

There are tons of free tutorials for these, but this one is a nice size (easily holds diapers) and I like the divider. Pattern: Divided Basket by Noodlehead

This would look more interesting if I had a crib - but it's a simple pleated crib skirt. Free pattern: Pleated Crib Skirt

My daughter chose the BreathableBaby mesh crib liner. I spruced it up with fabric binding and ties.

The baby quilt...

And a lap quilt for the Mama to use on chilly nights. Thank you to all of you for your encouraging comments on my big mistake. I've embraced the imperfection and am so pleased with the quilt. The pattern is by Lee from Freshly Pieced and included in the new book Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe. I reduced the size a bit and added a little more negative space on each side. 

It's quilted with machine guided wiggly lines, backed in Simply Color Sprigs and bound in solid aqua.

 And last but not least the baby shoes. Pattern: Reversible Baby shoes

I'm thinking he may be one stylin' baby. We can't wait to meet him!!!    . . . Cindy

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Dilly Dally, FMF, and auditioning quilting designs

Dilly Dally ~ a Thimble Blossoms pattern that was made last year and is finally quilted.

Made to showcase one of my favorite lines ~ Flea Market Fancy. When it was first released, I loved it but bought only one half yard (seeds in blue and I still have a 6" square!) because I really didn't know what to do with it. When some gorgeous quilts started popping up, it was no longer available.  With the unheard-of rerelease last year, I snatched it up, ready to make myself a quilt!

I added a few prints from newer Denyse Schmidt lines and love how each and every print gets to shine in this quilt...

I wanted to custom quilt this one and was stumped on what to do. It can be a tough decision and if you've ever ripped out quilting, you know how helpful it is to get it right the first time! Here are some great techniques for auditioning quilting designs:

Use some heavy-weight clear plastic, (available by the yard at your large fabric stores) place it over your quilt top and draw designs with a dry erase marker. An important tip - use painters tape on the edge of the plastic, so you don't accidentally run off the edge of the plastic and write on the quilt!

This technique is great for quickly trying different designs and seeing them directly on the quilt.

Draw your block on paper, make several copies and doodle different designs on paper. This also helps determine how easily the design will flow, if you'll have to start and stop and is great practice for stitching.

You could easily piece a practice block, but I like to just draw it on fabric and actually stitch the design to see how it will look quilted. Once I started stitching this one, I decided that the quilting would be too dense and adjusted the design as I went around the block.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

With some more FMF on the back...

. . . Cindy

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WIP - Lone Starburst

Linking up with Lee today at Freshly Pieced

This may be the year of paper piecing for me! I'm working on getting some projects ready for a retreat in March. The Lone Starburst block has been on my to-do list since the moment I laid eyes on her. Yes, this is a time-consuming block. It has 56 pieces! And takes me about an hour and a half per block. But so worth it! I'm using mainly Field Study scraps and a solid for the outer border.

Three blocks done...

The remaining are cut out, packed and ready to go!

(And don't think this is going to be a subdued quilt ~ pops of orange coming!)

 Rene's bee block also done...

And some major time spent this week quilting my FMF quilt. This is almost done and oh so pretty :)

Hope you're having a great week and spending some time with some yummy fabric    . . . Cindy

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