Swoon Quilt Complete!

I finished up the Swoon Quilt just in time for Christmas.

It's only taken me about a year.

This is a big quilt!

I really BIG quilt to quilt at home!!

So I decided the next best thing to long arming it would be to quilt straight lines.

A LOT of straight lines!!!

I mean like 4 days of quilting straight lines...

and countless spools of thread.

I had to go to every quilt and fabric store in a 45 mile radius to find the correct thread.

Each time I bought all the store had and was sure that would be enough.

I was WRONG!

Here I am at the beginning blissfully unaware of the shoulder aches I would have.

I wish this picture was of better quality.  But since it was a bad weather day I couldn't take it outside to lay it out.

And i didn't have a space big enough inside to lay it out either.

You should have seen me trying to make the quilt sandwich with the quilt hanging off a table top.

Like I said this was a gift so I got this puppy wrapped up and now it is gone.

I did however promise that there would be throw pillows to match.

So today I will begin on that.

I think I will take pictures of the blocks as they come together and post pics soon!

Happy Quilting!

Chicopee Chevron Quilt

This quilt has taken me some time to do.  I started it at the beginning of the Fall semester.  I had most of it pieced when I decided to make it larger.  I had to order more fabric and that took sometime to get in.  Then I didn't like how I laid it out originally and wanted the chevron pattern to match up more fluidly.  I can't tell you how long I stared at a halfway pieced quilt on my design board before I decided to just stop thinking about it and sew.  I would figure it out through trial and error.  Luckily it panned out without much trouble but then the finished quilt top stayed pinned to the wall until this past week and I finally started on the back.

Remembering I changed the size and never ordered more backing fabric, I had to come up with a solution for the back and just used the fabric I had on hand.  The end result is kind of neat I think.  I had to put my math skills to the test and don't tell anybody but it wasn't exactly as I had drawn out.  None the less I like it!

My first instinct was to quilt by outlining all of the seams making the chevrons pop.  But to be honest I didn't want to make all those turns and struggle with the quilt.  I also didn't want to take the chance on getting my backing off center.  So I decided on wavy lines.  I thought it would be a great contrast to the seams and soften the quilt a bit.

I'm so pleased with this quilt!!!

the fabrics are lovely,

the Essex yarn dyed linen is yummy,

and I think this quilt will make someone very happy for a long time to come.

Will it be You?

As much as I hate to let this one go I must!

It's listed in my shop here.

A QAYG 241 Tote

I finally decided to dip my toe in the "quilt as you go" craze.

I have been wanting to make the 241 Tote by noodlehead for a long time.

Since I was able to pick up some Echino at sample spree I thought this would be the perfect project to fussy cut some of it.

The echino fabric paired up with Chicopee nicely and

I was super thrilled with how it turned out!

The QAYG method was a lot of fun and I definitely  will be doing more of it.

I was able to use a lot of fabric scraps along with my fussy cuts and

I just love how each panel you make will be unique and the possibilities endless!

The one downside...

my sewing room in now a complete mess!!!

Happy Sewing,

alician

Sunday Inspiration

Today the sun is out and it's a beautiful autumn morning.  A happy sight since the last couple of days have been overcast and muggy.  To make the morning even more fabulous was getting to cut into my recent fabric arrivals, Chicopee and yarn dyed Essex Linen.  I have been coveting this collection since it first came out but wouldn't take the plunge for the whole collection.  Finally, after seeing a price I couldn't refuse and knowing it soon would be extremely hard to find I bought a fat quarter bundle from The Intrepid Thread.  I selected a few of the prints and matched them with the yarn dyed Essex linen in black.

All of the prints are delicious but I wanted to stick to just one colorway for the quilt that I am envisioning.  However, I may throw in a couple of the brighter prints before it's all said and done.

As I am cutting and piecing, each fabric I touch becomes my new favorite!  I can't believe I waited so long to get my hands on these fabrics.  I've also never  worked with a dark neutral like black in a quilt before and thought the black linen would be a good first try.  It's dark but the variation in the thread colors softens it a bit and of course it's a dream to sew.

I can't wait to finish this quilt, it may just end up being my favorite as of yet! I hope you find what inspires you too on this beautiful Sunday!

Reunion Quilt Top

I have been holding on to some Reunion charm packs by Sweetwater for some time now.  I finally started to put them together last week. I decided to do a similar layout to my Salt Air Quilt, but instead of quarter half -square triangles I am doing just half-square triangles.  The end result will be a little less piecing and a slightly bigger quilt.  I love hanging my quilt tops up in a window to take pictures.  The stained glass effect is so stunning!

Hopefully this will be quilted and binded by the end of next week.  Then I will put it up for sale in my etsy shop.  I hope it sells as fast as my Salt Air Quilt did!  SOLD!

Have a great Friday!!!

Riley Blake Small Dots

The Small Cotton Dots are in from Riley Blake Designs and I can't wait to make something out of them.

They are now available in my shop!

I also am getting restocked on Chevron (small) and the rest will be in on Monday.

They sold so quickly it made my head spin a little bit.

A big thanks to Applique Market for mentioning me on Facebook.

They sell very cute applique patterns like this

Everybody has been so excited about these fabrics, there are just so many ways you can use them.

Have a great weekend sewing!

Trying to Finish

This quilt top has been finished for a couple of weeks and just hanging on my design board.  Since school has started back up I've had precious little time to sew.  I decided to take the day off from the ToDo list and just concentrate on finishing this quilt.

Of coarse other things get in the way like grocery shopping, making lunch, and the US Open (exciting matches today).  All I had left to do was piece the back (check), Iron quilt back (check), make quilt sandwich (working on it), and figuring out how to quilt the dang thing (scratching my head).  Hopefully I can at least start quilting it today.  Come tomorrow I turn back into a pumpkin and must get some school work down.  Sometimes I wish I could just make time stop for a few hours so I could squeeze in a little more sewing time.

 

My Helper

Once this quilt gets quilted and binded it will go up for sale in my Etsy shop.

SOLD!

Happy Accidents

Thanks to my lovely "cat" alarm I was able to wake up before the sun came over the trees to take pictures of my newly finished quilt in the nice morning light.  I was taking my time setting up each shot  since I had some time before the sun would start to peak over the tree tops.  As I was taking the last shot my batteries died on my camera. UGH!  I quickly ran back inside to get the back up batteries and finished up my shots.  I came back in poured myself a cup of coffee and set down to upload the photos and edit them.  Except... there was nothing! nadda!! zilch!!! on my memory card.

I grabbed the quilt and ran back outside and of course the sun was already too high.  I did manage to find a spot that was decent enough to take pictures but by the end I was in the sun.

But, I'm glad that happened because a couple of shots came out really well that show off the quilting.  I think the pictures came out better the second time around too, even though I was rushing.  I must admit I didn't know how this quilt was going to turn out.  I was just winging it and making decisions as I went.  I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out!

And thankfully we have had some rain recently that has helped lessen the drought and green up the grass.  If you would like to purchase this quilt it is available in my shop here!

The Tic Tac Toe Quilt

I recently updated my shop with the Tic Tac Toe Quilt.  Please visit if you are interested in purchasing the quilt.  It was  a blast making it!

 

if you are interested in making this quilt for yourself,

you can find the quilt pattern here.

Introducing Tic Tac Toe a quilt pattern

I finally finished my first quilt pattern.  I have been wanting to dip my toe in the pattern making world for a while now.  I learned a lot about the limitations of computer software.  It never can do exactly as you want it to, as easily as you want it to.  Luckily, in most cases I was able to figure out work arounds in EQ7.  I hope that what I learned sticks so I don't have to relearn it next time.  I hate when you figure out how to do something on the computer and then you immediately forget how you did it.  So Frustrating!  anyway I digress...

So, this quilt pattern is super fun to make.  Pretty, simple, and a fast sew.  It measures 42" square.  I wanted something small enough that you didn't have to piece the backing if you didn't want to.

This Pattern is available in my esty shop for purchase here!

I hope you check it out

Vintage Modern Baby Quilt

The Vintage Modern baby quilt is all finished and up in my shop.

The colors are so bright and really pop. This quilt only took one charm pack plus a few solids.

I still have another charm pack to do something different with.

It's the perfect size to fold up and stick in a diaper bag.

This quilt is available for purchase here!

Laying Out My Swoon

I'm finally making some progress on the swoon quilt.  I had to put it aside for sometime to get some other projects done that had a deadline.  I finished all the blocks and deciding where I want each one before adding the sashing.  I have three options that I took pictures of







So what do you think?  Which layout do you like the best?  I'm so ready to be finished with this quilt...it's taking up my entire design wall ;0)

Finished!

I finally finished the salt air quilt!!!  It turned out better than I thought it would when I first started.  I just love all the geometry in this quilt and the colors really pop.  This quilt is also the first quilt I'm putting up for purchase in my etsy shop.

I hope to make many more to put in the shop.  I'm almost finished working on the baby quilt I was laying out a few days ago and it should be finished today and photographed tomorrow.







I hope you've enjoyed following me along on this quilt journey.  I can't wait to start my next project.  I just got in my charming solids club selection of Vintage Modern!  I'll have to think of something extra special for that collection.

As I said before the Salt Air Quilt is listed in my etsy shop Salt Air HST Quilt  SOLD