Zig Zag Quilt

I decided to quilt the Zig Zag quilt myself. I love my new walking foot and it makes the job so easy.  Since the quilt was made up with precise angles. I wanted to use a combination of straight lines and some curves ones as well, but I wanted it to still have a crisp look.  After paging through a magazine, I came across an ad for a drive along Route 66.  Just looking at the lines intersecting and how some were straight and some had a little curve to them, I was inspired.  So I took my queue from that map and made my straight, clean lines and some that curved like the road does on my travels.  The end result was a nice, neat finished quilt. I can't wait to curl up with it in my hammock in these last days of summer.

Synchronized Squares Quilt

I finally decided to take my Synchronized Squares quilt to a professonal quilter with a longarmer.  I wasn't sure where to start when it comes to entrusting my quilt to someone. I didn't know where to start so I did the obvious, I googled it.  I found people who want a basted quilt and backing with the batting in-between, some who wanted all three layers separately, and some who didn't specify.  I didn't like leaving anything to chance so I got a referral from my quilt group. 

I brought it in with the batting and backing as well.  The quilter explained to me that she only uses Quilters' Dream batting and that it must be purchased from her.  She went on to explain how Warm and Natural contains stuff in the fibers that can break the needle of the longarmer, or at least dull the needle.  So the Quilters' Dream didn't have those issues.  The prices weren't terribly out of range, so I didn't mind.  Then we went on to discuss thread.  She uses a heavier weight thread on the top and a lighter weight one on the back so the stitches don't poke through to the front.  After picking the colors for the front and the back, we moved on to the design.  That was really the hard part.  There are so many to choose from.  After paging through many designs, I settled on one that mimicked the swirls in the fabric I used for the backing.  I also learned that I had to make sure there was at least 9 inches of extra fabric on the top and bottom of the backing in order to attach it to the longarmer.  I had to take it back home and add more to the back.  After three weeks, I got it back, all basted, squared up and trimmed after quilting.  It is absolutely beautiful, she did a wonderful job.

Off Track by Cluck Cluck Sew

One of the patterns I picked up recently is Off Track by Cluck Cluck Sew.  Over the winter I purchased a bunch of jelly rolls on sale and it was time I found a pattern to start using them.  Off Track is a perfect fit.  It's modern and uses 2 and a half-inch strips, the pattern actually called for a jelly roll. I pulled Liz Scott's Domestic Bliss off my shelf and starting sorting the strips.  Some of the prints were really pretty and some were so-so.  That is one of the things I love/hate about jelly rolls - they get me to use fabrics I wouldn't normally choose and sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes it's not so good. The amazing thing is whether I love them or just kind of like them, in the end, they all go together wonderfully.

I dug out one of the 5-yard pieces of Kona cotton I kept in my stash.  (Yes, if there's a great sale on Kona, I will buy a neutral color in a large enough piece to either become the backing of a quilt or be used for filler between prints.)  Even though this is not a complicated pattern, I did struggle to make sure I had all the pieces turned in the right direction.  I also wanted to make sure I had the prints dispersed somewhat evenly - I didn't want to end up with an entire row of pinks.  I spent some free time cutting all the pieces at once. Then over the course of a week, I stitched the top together. I spent around an hour a day working on it, jsut before bedtime.  Amazingly, it was finished by the end of one week.

Sweetwater's Label Crew

Today I joined Sweetwater's Label Crew. I've been considering it for a while but it felt a little like adding something to my ever-growing to-do list.  And I really don't need any more obligations.  After some thought I realized that the only obligation to joining is to make something crafty or quilty and there's nothing  I like more than that! So why not? Besides, just because I get a pattern and some cute little labels doesn't mean I actually HAVE to make something with them.  I can always just keep them around because they are cute.  That's not so bad. So here are my first month's labels...

 And wouldn't you know it, I just had to go to their Etsy shop and buy the kit to make the pillowcase.  It should be a quick project that will look fantastic in my new sewing room. Especially in this pretty orange colorway.

Sweetwater's Zig Zag Quilt

I bought the Sweetwater's Zig Zag quilt pattern quite a while ago.  Since then I've shopped and shopped for fabrics to make this quilt and nothing ever seemed right.  After weeks of searching for fabric, I realized my procrastination was because the fabrics that were used on the pattern were the fabrics I really wanted for my quilt.  Sweetwater's Reunion collection is beautiful. It is also much different from the pastels I usually use.

I ordered exactly what was used in the pattern photo except I chose a red print from that same collection for the backing. (My UPS man blog post has all the fabrics for this quilt in the photo.)
Amazingly, it didn't take me long to put this together.  I thought the triangles would mean trouble, but they were pretty easy to cut.  Over the course of the weekend, I ended up with a completed quilt top.

Pick-It Fences Backing

A while back I made the quilt top, Pick-It Fences from an issue of Quilts N More magazine.  It used up many scraps from my stash (26 different prints to be exact).  I was lucky enough to have also used some strips from larger chunks of fabrics, not just scraps.  Some selvedges revealed that a few of the fabrics were manufactured as far back as 1986! I sure hold on to things for a long time.

I decided to cut 8 x 8-inch blocks from the leftovers and let them sit until I figured out what to do next. Since the quilt top has lots and lots of white in it, I really wanted a lot of color in the quilt back. I incorporated white strips in-between the squares until I ended up with 5 rows of 7 squares.  That used up most of the bigger chunks of fabrics.  I still had a ways to go to have a piece big enough to back the quilt. I cut strips from the rest of the prints the same width as the white strips for a consistent look.  Since the strips were all different lengths, I sewed white on each end so that the print was exactly in the center of the row.  I ended up with 10 rows so I sewed 5 on each end of the patched piece.  So now I have a quilt back! I cannot wait to quilt it and sew the binding on.

Coins & Quilts - A new local quilt shop

We have a new quilt shop in our area called Coins and Quilts. One of the ladies in my church quilting group recommended this shop to me since I was looking for a quilter with a long-arm machine to finish one of my quilts. I looked up their hours which weren't very convenient for me (10 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday). Since I work until 4 pm and the shop is more than half an hour away, I know it will be difficult to get there. And that's the last thing I want is a time crunch when in a quilt shop! So my first visit was on one of my afternoons off.

The shop is on Highway 100 in Greenfield, which is very busy and currently under construction making it more difficult to get to.  (I hate driving on a good day.) When I got inside I was greeted by the friendliest couple ever.  The shop is called Coins & Quilts because the husband is a qualified numismatic (coin appraiser for us who aren't in the business) and the wife is a long-arm quilter. Thus a marriage of hobbies was born.  The shop sells a wide variety of high-quality fabrics, patterns, notions and of course, quilting services.  The shop wasn't very cute or fancy, but it was new and I am sure in time, it will get prettier as more quilt samples get added to the bare walls.

As a novice to the use of a longarmer, I was treated with patience and respect as I learned the process that my quilt top and backing was going to go through to get the end result.  After spending lots and lots of time choosing a quilt design and thread colors, the estimate for the work was written up.  Surprisingly, it was very reasonable to me. So I left my Synchronized Squares quilt and backing in her care and look forward to seeing the results in a few weeks.

Sampler Quilt Along Blocks 1 - 4

Here are the first four blocks for the Sampler Quilt Along. Each block has a cute summery name. One more, and I am all caught up!

Time for Ice Cream Block

Jump in the Pool Block

Peek Over the Fence Block

Play Hopscotch Block