Schnitzel & Boo Mini Quilt Swap - Sent

Shortly after signing up for my first instagram swap I saw the posts about round four of the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap.  I've admired the mini' that are made for this swap for a long time and immediately jumped on the chance to participate. 

I was paired with Joy, @J.Meadows, from Texas who said she loved bright happy colors.  In her free time, when she's not sewing, she likes to workout and spend time with Tiny, her Grate Dane.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to make at first and ended up pulling out the scraps from Two Birds, One Stone, my Pantone 2015 challenge quilt and playing with the leftover blocks.  I had a few small blocks left and started by chopping them up to piece a teeny-tiny star block.  This sucker finished at 2.5" square. 

After that I added two more rounds of star points to make the finished mini about 12" around.  It was fun to use of these little scraps from my favorite quilt.  I hoped that the bright, scrappy colors would translate to something that Joy would like.

I ended up procrastinating and getting caught up with work and other things and didn't get back to quilting my mini for about two months.  I finally sat down to quilt it two weeks ago.  I wanted to play with shapes for the quilting and started by outlining two squares, on point behind the largest and the middle stars.  Then I filled in the background of each star, starting with a micro-stipple, bubbles for the middle, and straight lines for the outside.  I'm really happy with how the quilting came on this.  Although I must say that the foot I used for my machine started to squeak really badly after a little while.  Any thoughts on how to stop that from happening again?

I used a large scrap for the backing that I happened to have on hand.  It's not my favorite fabric but I though the colors did coordinate nicely.  I bound the quilt using a bright yellow strip I had on hand.  It was a littler narrower than I usually like to go for bindings but I managed to make it work by glue basting the unsewn side down before machine stitching it.  That's a trick I picked up at retreat earlier this year.  It's my new favorite method for perfect machine binding.  Let me tell you, those corners are tight!

For extras, I included a charm pack of V and Co's Simply Style since my partner mentioned that she liked their fabrics.  I also had a cute notepad and package of buttons that I had won previously at quilt guild but wasn't going to use.    Joy asked for notions in her extras so it seemed like a good fit.  Since I'm on a diet and I know that Joy likes to work out I threw in some yummy EPIC beef jerky instead of chocolate or sweets which was a win.  She's had to hide the jerky from her husband since they both really like it!

This was a great experience for me and I think I would definitely participate in this swap again.  Hopefully I'll be on top of things and catch the signup period on Instagram before it's closed for round 5!

You can find even more of the amazing quilts that were made 

for this swap by searching instagram for any of the following hashtags

#schnitzelandboominiquiltswap

#quiltersofawesome

#makeaquiltmakeafriend

Linking up with Sew Modern Monday.

Nearly Wordless WIP Wednesday

package received

sneak peak of packaged received

finishing the quilting for my package to send

mini to send complete

All pictures are from my instagram feed.

Modern Hexies Wall Hanging

I have had this fun wall hanging done for awhile now.  I made it to demo my machine binding technique at our local quilt show this spring but it was born long before that.  My husband is on the road a lot: travelling to and from jobs, going to look at other potential work, or driving to find a great deal on equipment.  Since he usually does these long drives on the weekends often times I'll go with him.  Which presents a serious dilemma: I can't bring my sewing machine with me in the car.  I don't do a lot of hand sewing or quilting but usually try to grab my bag of papers so that I can make hexies while I wait.  Since I get car sick so I can't do much sewing when we're actually moving so it's not really that productive but since we're usually somewhere without service, hours of facebook/instagram/candy crush are out of the question.  

I started these hexies on January 10th of this year and slowly worked up to 40 of them in various shades of peach and orange (probably my all time favorite color combination by the way).  They finish at 1.5".  I had some yardage of Moda grunge in the color grey and used that for the background, spacing them a little less than 1/2 apart.  I really eyeballed the spacing relying on my obsessive detail about space and distribution.  The quilting was done using Aurifil 28w thread in a light pink.  I followed each hexie from corner to corner to create the distinctive diamond pattern you see on so many of these quilts.  Normally I wouldn't use such a heavy thread but I really love how this one looks and will probably be using the weight again for future quilting projects.  Martin Cat helped me square up the edges when I was done quilting and then it was a quick machine binding job to finish this one up.  I used Squared Elements in Cetrine since I couldn't resist adding a little more color to the quilt.

I used lots of favorite fabrics in this quilt making something with just enough "whimsy" to truly reflect me.  There are lions, butterflies, bicycles, sea horses, and tiny hearts.  The backing is this fun large scale floral print.  I don't have any of the salvage though so I don't know what it is.

Since I'm short on wall space at home I've hung this one up outside of my cubicle at work.  I'm pretty much convinced that my coworkers think I'm insane though.  This quilt makes the total number of quilts and wall hangings at my desk 8.  I love having it though.  It brings a little sunshine to my otherwise grey and beige cubicle. 

Thanks for visiting!!

Simply Mini Swap

Back in August, I think I signed up for my first ever mini quilt swap.  It's entirely managed on Instagram.  You can find it by searching #SimplyMiniSwap for the full group or #SimplyTeamConni for my pool.  For some reason I always seem to miss the sign-ups but I managed to catch this one and it seemed completely doable.  The instructions?  Make a mini quilt.  That's it.  No extras, just a mini quilt.  Well the mailing deadline is this Saturday and I'm embarrassed to say that my partners mini isn't done yet but I'm off to retreat tomorrow for four days and hoping to sew tonight so finishing up shouldn't be a problem. (Don't worry Partner!)

In the meantime I wanted to show you the quilt that I received from Mariah who you can find on Instagram at @Gr8Manythings.  She's an adventurer and nerd like me! Plus she has two seriously cute kids (not like me!!) and she made me the most amazing mini quilt!  It's made up of teeny-tiny flying geese on a grey chambray background.  I LOVE the orange and green ombre geese and the fun pink polka dot binding.  It's backed in a nice bright green polka dot too!  Plus how fun is this little green corner in the bottom?  

I'm so lucky to have received such an awesome quilt and I can't wait to finish up my partners quilt to get it in the mail ASAP!  Thanks for visiting!  Stay tuned for pictures from my first ever retreat this weekend and hopefully lots of newly completed projects.  I'm bringing a long list with me!

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday.

Currently Nameless | A Finished Mini-Quilt

Every two years my local quilt guild holds a quilt show to exhibit our work and help raise money for our guild sponsored activities.  Our next show is this spring: Saturday, April 18th and Sunday, April 19th.

One of the ways that we help to raise money is by holding a mini-quilt silent auction.  Guild members are asked to donate mini-quilts through out the months leading up to the show and then we hold two separate auctions, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  Well I've been trying to work up some mini's to donate and had time to finish one up on Monday night.

When I was making my Crown of Thorns blocks this month, I ended up with a bunch of leftover HST and I decided to make up a mini using them.  I laid them out randomly at first and snapped a quick B&W picture to see how the values looked.  I wasn't in love.  But I did notice how strongly those darker values stood out.  I went back to rearranging...

layout option 1

In the end I really liked this layout.  The left side is a little washed out from my lamp in the picture below but you get the point...it's fun right?!  

layout option 2

I had to cut a few more background squares to finish off the design like I pictured it but it was worth the extra effort in the end.

Finished Mini

I tried my hand at match stick quilting in the background using a beige-y colored thread and left the colored areas un-quilted.   I've no idea what the brand is.  I like the texture it gives the quilt and that it really makes the colored squares pop off the wall.  I used scraps from the top to make the binding and thought it would be fun to throw in a few colorful bits.  I didn't space them very well because the purple bit got lost in a corner but I still like the overall effect.

Quilting detail

The mini finished at 17" square and has fast triangle backs for hanging with a dowel.  I absolutely love the mini and brought it with me to work this morning so I could admire it for a few days before it goes off to the mini-quilt donation pile next week.  Now I just need to name it.  Any suggestions?

If you're in the New England area and want a chance at this mini you'll have to come and visit us at the quilt show Saturday, April 18th and Sunday, April 19th in Lebanon, NH!  Who knows?  Maybe I'll try to buy it back for myself!

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday and Crazy Mom Quilts!