A Neutral Quilt

It's rare (like never) for me to make a neutral colored quilt. But I did want to try one and made this the end of last Summer. I just got it back from the quilter, got the binding on and done!The fabrics are mostly neutrals from several Anna Griffin lines with a taupey gray Moda Bella solid for the star points.
Now back to some color! I finished the machine quilting on my Dresden Plate quilt. Next I'm going to try some hand quilting with Perle Cotton in the center circles. I'm hoping that's the perfect final touch!

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Winner!

Random Number generator chose #3 and so the magazine goes to Megan! Thanks for all your great comments. A few commented on how difficult the pattern looked. While it's certainly not a candidate for a first quilt - it's really quite simple. The diamonds are cut from strip sets that are sewn back together to create the large star. I do recommend doing some pinning at each of the intersections when sewing the diamond rows together. They are bias edges and this keeps them in line. I go an email from ibemomof2 because she was having trouble with just that. When I suggested she pin each intersection just as you would in making a Lone Star quilt, she wrote back saying that helped tremendously. So give it a try!

And because a blog post from me wouldn't be complete without pictures, I thought I'd share a couple of red, white and blue quilts. I don't have many - need to remedy that.



To all of you in the US - enjoy your 4th of July holiday and your freedom!!

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Swoon 2 and 3

Swoon Block 2...Swoon block 3...
Boy, these are fun to make!
Stay tuned for the sequels ~ Swoon 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

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Welcome, A Give-away and keeping it real...

My "Welcome" quilt came home from McCall's today. And those nice people at McCall's sent me two issues of America Quilts for the Home where the pattern is published. It's a great issue and since I can't use 2, I'm giving one away. Just leave a comment here and I'll pick a name on Friday. (US only - it'll cost more than the price of the magazine to send out it of the country).I was pretty happy with this new-to-me quilting design that I used for the background. And it was easy! Love that!
I've found two wonderful versions of the quilt on flickr. I wanted to post them here (with owners permission), but can't figure out how to post pictures from flickr. If anyone can tell me - please! fill me in!

The first using the gorgeous Loulouthi by AMH was made by ibmomof2. Click here

The second by modernsewl uses the new DS line at Joann's. Find it here

If you've made one let me know. It's one of my favorite quilts now and I love seeing it made up in different fabrics.

So yesterday I was "Swooning". This large Alexander Henry print is my focus fabric. I've been saving it for something special. All was going well until I completed the block and realized that the black is too overpowering for my lovely fabric. This block is going into the scrap pile!
I redid it today and I'm so much happier. Each block uses 2 fabrics and I've learned that although there should be contrast, not to let one fabric scream over the other. Lesson learned. Hope the remaining 8 go better!
Don't forget - leave a comment for a chance at the magazine!

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The quilt list

Remember my Summer Sewing list? Cross number one off the list! This weekend I pieced this super easy Easy Bricks Quilt from Moda Bake Shop. I used "My Happy Garden" fabric and added lots of additional aqua blues and citron green fabrics.I also changed up the size of the bricks a little. Mine finish at 3" x 6". Since I wasn't using the layer cakes called for in the pattern I was able to cut 6 1/2" strips of my prints and 3 1/2" strips of the white solid. I sewed the strips together and subcut 3 1/2" segments to make the blocks.
It really has a fresh Summery look to it!
Today I started pulling fabrics for the "Swoon" pattern by Thimbleblossoms. It seems lately everything I make has aqua in it, so I was determined to do something different. I pulled pieces in reds, pinks, grays and blacks. It was looking pretty good, but then I decided it might be kinda cool to have one turquoise block. I tried :)

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I love Summer...

There are so many things I love about Summer. For one you can get a nice photo shoot of your quilt outdoors most any day. My Kaleidoscope quilt is done and bound and goes nicely with my Sweet Potato vine. You can find out how I made the block here.The quilting is simple - straight lines diagonally and 1/4" from the seam lines.
More lime green in the garden!
I have a bit of Summer reading thanks to a couple of give-aways I recently won. Thanks to Sinta from Pink Pincushion and Kathy from Pink Chalk Fabrics.
I've also made my Summer sewing list. Looks pretty long! We'll have to see how much gets done in these lazy days of Summer. (Love those lazy days too!)

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The Shopping Part...

In 5 days we hit 7 quilt shops. Two of my favorites were new to all of us.

Quilter's Compass in Monticello, Wisconsin was an adorable shop that has been open only 10 months. Filled with the latest modern and traditional fabrics, we had a ball trying to decide what to go home with. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera to show you pictures of the shop, but it was darling. The owner and her daughter were as nice as can be and they do mail order fabric if you find something in their on-line shop!

Here are my goodies: Cloud 9 Organic cotton "Happy Garden".
And I was so thrilled to find this. "Free to Grow" is another organic cotton line that I didn't buy when it came out last Fall and I kind of regretted that!
The second shop that we all just loved was Tammy Tadd in Sycamore, Illinois. The shop has beautiful fabric, but the displays were pure eye candy. Pink was the theme and if you look close you can see a pink Weber grill on the right side of this display.
A wonderful selection of 30's reproductions.
This had to be my favorite - the pink bike!
Just an adorable shop!!!

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