Oakshott Scandinavia Challenge Quilt {a finished quilt}

Today I'm really excited to show you my latest finish: a Scandinavia inspired quilt sponsored by Sew Mama Sew and Oakshott Fabrics.

The call for contributors said:

Are you ready for a sewing challenge? We're looking for 6 people to sew with the gorgeous fabrics pictured here in an Scandinavian-inspired challenge. You can choose what to make (apron, mini quilt, table runner, etc.) but it has to use the fabrics from the collection and it has to be "Scandinavian inspired." 

Well I jumped right on that.  My paternal grandmother (or Farmor) is from Finland, a country I have had the opportunity to visit four times in my life, and hope to visit again very soon when we can find the time and money to go.  I find great inspiration in the simple, clean designs found in the region and really wanted to be able to create something that honors that piece of my heritage and family.  

The weekend before the fabrics arrived I visited Keepsake Quilting to pick up some (hopefully) coordinated fabrics to mix in with the Fat Quarters that would be coming.  I ended up buying several yards of various white and grey fabrics, unsure of what would match.  I had to stop and just admire these when they arrived, with 12 days to spare.  These fabrics are gorgeous!  They are all shot through with a creamy white that gives them the most amazing soft shine.  Pastel without being too Easter-y or babyish.

I had several ideas sketched out, and ended up texting my "more Finnish" cousin (as my Farmor says)  for help narrowing the choices down.  In the end I pulled out the Ittala dinnerware that we received for the wedding two years ago and used that as a jumping off point.

Feeling inspired at the moment. #oakshottscandinavia #iittala #inspirationeverywhere #thanksforthedishesGram #FinnishQuilt - See more at: http://iconosquare.com/viewer.php#/detail/1058925302181042470_1222082853

At first I thought I would make a large quilt inspired by the black and white dinner plate and mug pictured above.  I pieced a couple of arrows and then laid them out to take a picture but what I saw changed my direction completely.  The next few nights were spent piecing the rows and then after an emergency trip back to Keepsake to get more Kona Charcoal, and a marathon sewing night ending at around 1:30am, I had a finished top.  The next morning it was off to the quilter.  Ideally I would have quilted this myself but given the time crunch I thought it was best to have someone else do it for me this time.  I got the quilt back just in time to get binding on over the weekend and then enlist the help of my Dad and brother to photograph it.  I have to tell you, I'm in love with this quilt.

Thank you little brother and Dad for holding this for me!

The pattern came together really quickly since it's all row based piecing.  I really love how the simple grey and white let the beautiful Oakshott fabrics shine in all their glory.  I took a really ad hoc approach to adding in the colors, letting them fall where ever they would in the final top.

a glimpse into our bedroom with the quit in it's new home. notice the nicely coordinated pre-existing paint swatches...

The quilting is simple.  Katie Smith of Home Hearth Quilting quilted it for me in a simple birch tree-esque design following the direction of each row of piecing.  I love how it adds texture to the quilt without distracting from the overall design.  She did a great job and I highly recommend her if you're in the NH/VT area. 

in love with this quilt.

quilting detail

The quilt is backed in a Lotta Jansdotter print and a large scale Windham Fabrics print.  I chose these because of how they played into the simple, clean line astetic I was going for for the overall design.

This quilt finishes at 90" x 86" and will hopefully be plenty big enough for the two of us to sleep under.  I didn't set out to make such a large quilt but once I got started the fabrics and pattern made it easy to keep going.  Plus, I had the added encouragement that my husband get's genuinely upset when I make small quilts.  

I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to make this quilt.  The final quilt is really true to my original vision and reflect the emotion I was hoping to convey.   I think my Farmor would be proud.  Currently there is no pattern for this quilt but I am debating writing one up if there is enough interest. 

I highly recommend the Oakshott Scandinavia collection if you're looking for a soft, light, and airy color palette for any quilt.  They were absolutely beautiful to work with.  You can find them here:

Oakshott Scandinavia Collection

Be sure to check out the other bloggers participating in this challenge as well, either through the links below, or with the hashtag #OakshottScandinavia on instagram.

Jessica Skultety from Quilty Habit
Jennifer Fullerton from Never Just Jennifer (you are here)
Mary Kolb from Mary on Lake Pulaski
Casey York from The Studiolo
Deborah Fisher
Caitlin Topham from Salty Oat

I'm linking up with Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story today.

Choosing Fabrics {Midnight Mystery QAL}

I did it.  I finally chose fabrics for the Midnight Mystery Quilt-a-Long with Meadow Mist Design.  This is a fun mystery quilt along which will be running from June 2015 through March 2016.  Except I hate surprises.  They literally cause me anxiety.  So in an effort to keep my sanity I actually took advantage of Cheryl's "peak option" to see what the finished quilt will look like (hint: it's fantastic!).

For some reason I had a REALLY hard time choosing fabrics for this quilt but a day spent shopping with some real life quilt friends sealed the deal and I was in.  I was inspired by my Clashy Classy Brights entry into Stiched in Color's last color mosaic contest.  (In other news this palette matches my running shoes almost perfectly. At least I know what I like...)

I didn't end up winning the contest, though I still really love the colors I picked.  So when it came time to decide for this QAL I knew I had a winner.  My mosaic is below:

Nuanced Neon #2 - Clashy Classy Brights

Fabrics are as follows, left to right, top to bottom: 1. Speckled in Periwinkle, 2. Pressed Leaves,  3. Butterflies in  Red, 4. Gingham in Silver,  5. Leaves in Ultramarine,  6. Chasing Butterflies in Fruit Punch,  7. Word Find in Pink,  8. TinyScript in Red,  9.  Leaves in Plum

And with the help of Sarah at Smiles too Loudly while we were at Keepsake (more on that later), and Karin at Leigh Laurel Studios on Instagram, I was able to pull together the fabrics below, A-D, left to right.  My main color group inspirations were Kona Watermelon, Radiant Orchard, scrappy Low Volume, and Blue-Violet.  I have to admit, I'm still not super satisfied with the pinks and may have to revisit that one again....

Now I just need to cut and I"ll be caught up for July!

You can join in on the fun in the Midnight Mystery Facebook Group and find all of the instructions to date on Cheryl's blog.

Also, don't forget to enter my 200th Instagram Follower Giveaway, open until Friday 7/24!

I'm linking up with Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story today.

2015 Finish-Along {Q2 Recap}

I did pretty good this quarter getting some of my goals finished.  Let's review what I accomplished.


1. Finish Commission Quilt 1 of 2 by the end of April.  The top is done.  I just need to sew the backing and then baste/quilt/bind for my customer to gift.

Done!  My customer gifted it to her brother on July 4th, her mother's birthday.  He loved it!!  You can read more about it here.

2. Finish this fun Modern Hexies mini-quilt I started working on.  Quilting is done, just need to bind and hang.  

I Finished the binding in the nick of time on July 1st while listening to Moby Dick on YouTube with my husband, but ran out of time to photograph.  Hopefully I will do so in time for the Q3 linkup.  

3. Pull fabrics for a commissioned baby quilt for a nearby family member.  We'll be using this pattern and have decided on a color scheme:  gray, light blue, mint, navy, white and a green apple color.  

We didn't use the pattern we had first chosen but did stick to the color scheme. I just need to sew the binding down and take some photos.

4. Start/Finish some secret sewing I have to finish for a secret person that I can't tell you anything about yet.

This was my delectable mountains blog hop quilt.  I have all the fabric cut.  I just need to sew up the rest of the blocks and put it together.

5. Finish making additional blocks for my Low Volume Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt then put the whole thing together.  I think I want to back this one in Voile or Lawn for a nice, light, summer quilt.  

I got the fabric strips cut but haven't had time to start sewing more blocks.

6. Finish my Modern Double-Cross Quilt.  It's a graduation gift for a cousin who graduated high school LAST YEAR.  No pictures yet, since it's a surprise.

Still not put together.  Late is better than never right?

7. Quilt and bind my #orangepeelQAL quilt from last year.  

Done!  It's called Hot + Cold.  You can read about it here.

8. Quilt and bind my scrappy red and white hourglass quilt, also from last year!  

DONE!  I'm calling it Sailor's Take Delight.  Blogged here.

9.  Bind the wedding quilt made for my Uncle and Wife who got married in October 2013.  Also very late.

Not bound yet.  Hopefully soon!

I'm linking up with Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story today.

Crown of Thorns BOM Blocks

Each month at my local quilt guild we do a block of the month drawing.  The Block of the Month Committee chooses a pattern and color palette the month before and then each person has the option of making as many blocks as they'd like.  At the next month's meeting we display all of the blocks and draw a winner out of a hat to receive all of them.  Each person gets one entry for each block they make.  The more blocks you make, the more entries you get!

I don't participate in these often for this month I just had to.  We used this pattern to make 15" Crown of Thorns blocks in Purples and Greens on a beige background.  Lucky for me I had just picked up the A Neutral Notion 1/2 yard bundle for Fabricworm so I had plenty of beige on hand.

block 1 laid out and ready to sew

I used the quick make 8 at a time method to make the exterior HST and the 4 at a time method to make the interior two-tone HST for each block.  They were quick and easy to pull together.  After my first two blocks I cut the pieces I needed for another 4 and then chain pieced and cut them all.

block 2 finished with fabrics for blocks 3-6 cut out.

When I finished I had 6 - 15" blocks to show for it!  I had so much fun making these and REALLY hope I win them at the meeting next week.  This block has been on my bucket list for a long time and this was the best excuse to try it out.

The other bonus is that because of the method I used to make my HST I had 4 exterior HST left over from each block.  I used these to make a mini-quilt that will be going to our silent auction at our quilt show on April 18th and 19th this spring.

shoddy picture of 4 of my finished blocks

I'm linking up with Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story today.

Round #3 - Kim @ Ties That Bind Quilting {Round Trip Quilts}

Have you met Kim from Ties that Bind Quilting?  She is one of the participants in our Round Trip Quilts adventure.  Read more about that here and here.  Most of the time you can find Kim on Instagram and Flickr.

Straight out of the package.

Instead of going with a theme for her quilt Kim decided that her colorway would be her theme to tie all of our additions together.  Both Heather and Liz did an amazing job adding to Kim's quilt top so I knew that my addition had to be equally fabulous.

Final fabric pull.

I simply spent a long time looking at Kim's quilt.  It was so busy! But in the best way possible.  Each idea I came up with felt like it would detract from what Kim, Heather, and Liz had already done and just make it busier.  Everything I auditioned made me feel like the quilt was holding it's breath!  And I really felt like it needed to exhale.  I finally decided to do some wonky triangle-type things.  When I laid them out I had two options...

Layout Option 1

Layout Option 2

I liked option 1 best.  I liked the weight that the center diamonds gave the block.  However, I put the question to Kim to find out which she preferred.  I'm glad I did.  She liked option 2 better.  I still wasn't sold.  So I let it sit for a few more days and came back to it.  I'm glad I did.  When I was playing with the pieced trying to decide which way I wanted the option 2 "butterfly centers" to face I stumbled upon a third option I hadn't though of before.  Wonky, crazy, flying geese!  I started with the blocks/colors mis-matched but then realized that I could match them up to make the geese more prominent in the design... and I LOVE IT! 

Like Kim's notebook says: TRUST YOUR CRAZY IDEAS

Close up of the border

I really like how what I did still creates movement in the top and I think the geese still reflect some of the weight that I liked about my first option.  I hope that Kim agrees.

I'm still playing with possibly trying to attach what Heather added to the top with the addition of some more of my crazy geese, but I'm not totally sold on it yet.  I still have 7 days to decided before our mailing deadline.  This one is heading to Canada to stay with Leanne for a few weeks next.

Quilt top after my addition.  Looks crooked but it's because the ground is sloped.  

The other nice surprise is that when I was making the base squares for my design I sewed a quick 1/4 inch seam on the other side of the piece I was cutting off and saved them.  They make the cutest little half-square triangles.  The biggest one is only 1 1/2 inches across.  I'd like to keep them and make a fun little mini quilt to hang at work with the first one I made out of extra blocks from Heather's quilt (which I just realized I didn't blog about, time to fix that!)  I like the idea of having a little gallery of minis inspired by and created out of the pieces that I'm added to these quilts.  It would be a fun way to remember each project.

Happy Quilting!

I'm linking up with Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story for the first time.

Round #2 - Heather @ QA Creations {Round Trip Quilts}

I had a lot of ideas when I first received Heather's beautiful Round Trip Quilts top.  Liz at Green Cheese Quilting had done an amazing job and I was very excited to dive into my addition to the top.  I had to laugh because Liz had some difficulty at the post office so the package looked all beat up but everything was there, right where it should be!

Heather sent me some extra words to work with half-way through but I already knew exactly what I wanted to make.  Eventually this pile of fabrics turned into a pile of blocks.  Then I had to get busy top stitching.

I used white thread to top-stitch my sample block but kept going back and forth about using some brighter colors.  It was a solid toss up between a beautiful purple variegated thread and some fantastic hot pink that was the perfect clashy-bright color.

The purple variegated won out.  It went with Heather's color theme better.  The color is good.  It blends nicely on some of the pieces and really pops on others, without being overwhelming.

I managed to finish up my addition on Friday after Thanksgiving, only three days late.  I was travelling for the weekend visiting family so I quickly snapped some shots in the snow on Saturday morning before I left the house and popped it in the mail as soon as we drove by an open post office.  Leanne, you should be seeing it soon!

The piece I added is nearly the same size as what Liz and Heather created but I think it will coordinate nicely with the rest of the quilt.  I like how my brighter pinks accent the pinks that Liz used to make her "waves".

When I was done piecing I had  20 extra window blocks and debated between keeping them to make another mini quilt or sending them along with the top for someone to add later.  I thought that since I already had a mini I should let Heather and her daughter enjoy them instead.  If you want to make some of your own, I wrote up a tutorial on how I made these.

Happy Quilting!

I'm linking up with Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story for the first time.