Falling Leaves

Finished my leaf quilt top the other day!



The pattern is called Prismatic Plants and it's a free download from DoYouEQ.com. You can use the project file in Quilt Design Wizard, EQ6, or EQ7. If you have one of these softwares and aren't taking advantage of the free monthly projects, you're really missing out! Heidi designs the cutest stuff!



I opened the project file in EQ7 and made a couple of quick changes. I deleted some seam lines in the leaves because I planned to make each half of the leaf all the same fabric, and there was no reason to have that extra seam in the "body" of the leaf. Plus, I was foundation-piecing the leaves, so who cares about funky-shaped triangles!



And I choose to print the patterns at 7", rather than the original 8", because I wanted the quilt to fit in the wall space above our fireplace. I want to get some use out of this quilt before it's time for Christmas decorations, so the quilting will have to wait because it's going up on the wall today!



Choosing all the fabrics for these scrappy leaves was a fun challenge! Although I make such a mess when I'm working on a scrappy project like this (and I don't have the luxury of a dedicated sewing room anymore where I can just shut the door and walk away!). I liked using the fabric swatches on the download page as my guide--



Being a photographer's assistant can be a tough job!

Christmas Star Quilt

I did it! I finished this quilt before Christmas!



I finished it several days ago, but the weather has been so overcast and gloomy lately on the days that I've been off work, I haven't wanted to take pictures. The only reason I was able to take photos today is because I'm home with a sick kid sleeping on the couch. I tricked the sun- it knew I wasn't supposed to be home today!



Lots of straight line quilting, because I still keep talking myself out of free motion quilting on a "real" project. Those practice sandwiches are piling up though!



Now it's back to the mad rush of finishing the handmade gifts I have planned! The list keeps getting "amended" each day we get closer to Christmas... Happy Holidays Everyone!

Christmas Star Block

I made this star block over the weekend and just love it!



If I had all the time in the world, I'd love to make a full-size quilt of these stars. But I'm short on time and fabric, as I'm using the leftovers from the advent quilt I made a few years ago. The fabric is from Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas collection. I just love her holiday fabrics! I've been hanging on to a layer cake of her Joy collection too, just waiting for the right project to come along.



The above quilt is a pattern I designed for work, and you can download it for free here.

So now I'm trying to decide what to add to this block to make it into a decent wallhanging size. Here are a few options I've mocked up in EQ7:



I'm leaning towards A... what's your pick?

WIP Wednesday - 4/23/13

This week I've been working on finishing up my quilt for the BlockBase Sew Along.



The top is a bit busy, but all those bright colors just make me so happy! My blocks are two different sizes- 10" and 5". Sewing the blocks at different sizes makes a sampler-type quilt a bit more fun to work on. And it can give you more interesting options for the final layout too!

Here's my favorite block from the bunch:



I'll be starting a new sew along over on the Do You EQ blog next week called the EQ7 Summer Drawing Series. If you have EQ7, and are interested in drawing your own blocks, I'd love for you to join us!

Archery (and a free pattern!)

I settled on a design for my arrow blocks...



It screams "Valentine's Day!" a bit more than my original vision for these arrows, but we can enjoy it for a few more days!



I did some simple outline quilting around the arrows and heart. I thought about adding more straight line quilting to the background, but after trying out a few lines I decided it was too busy. If you look closely you can still see the little holes from the quilting I ripped out. I tried steaming them with the iron and it helped, but the holes are still visible. Any suggestions on how to get rid of them??



The arrows and the heart are all foundation pieced. I drew the arrow in EQ7, and I'm sharing the pattern with you! You can download the pattern here. The finished size of the block is 8" wide x 5" high. Make sure when you print the PDF that you have Page Scaling set to None. If you use the pattern, I'd love to see it!



Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

WIP Wednesday - 11/28/12

Done:
A cozy little flannel & minky quilt I posted about yesterday.



In Progress:
It's Christmas Gift Crunch Time! I'm going to have to be more selective about what I share here, but I think I won't spoil any surprises by sharing these two gifts I'm working:



This hummingbird paper pieced block was inspired by a post I saw on the Sew, Mama, Sew! blog a while back. I downloaded the free origami font mentioned in the post and used it to trace my pattern in EQ7.



The SMS post uses a freezer paper method of paper piecing, which I've never done. I just printed out my pattern and used the regular ol' sew-on-the-lines, through-the-paper, method (that's the official name of the technique, right?).



And here's a little cross stitch gift I started this past weekend. I always underestimate the time it will take to finish a cross stitch project. I look at a pattern and say to myself "that looks fast and simple!" and then about halfway through, I'm all "Why am I only half finished?!?".

Blogger's Quilt Festival: 40th Anniversary Quilt

This is my first time participating in the Blogger's Quilt Festival, and I'd like to share with you the 40th Anniversary Quilt I made for my parents!



I have three other quilts I'm working on right now, and I had considered trying to quickly finish one so I could show off a new quilt for the festival. But I decided I'd rather just take my time with them. I like to keep my sewing/crafting on the fun side, and rushing for a deadline kind of takes the joy out of it. Just ask me how much fun I'm having 2 days before Christmas when I'm trying to finish up all my handmade gifts. ;)

So instead I'm showing off the 40th Anniversary Quilt I made in celebration of my parents' wedding anniversary. I spent a lot of time finding and/or drawing blocks that are meaningful to them and their life together. Designing this quilt gave me the opportunity (or maybe the motivation?) to really think about my parents' marriage and what it means to be together for 40 years. And I think that's a wonderful way to honor an anniversary!



Pansy: Mom enjoys gardening • House: they built their house together • O: they met at the Ohio State University • Pig: they were hog farmers when I was a kid



Heart: for love! • Truck: my dad's job • Boat: boating is an activity they like doing together (this isn't the right kind of boat, but after several failed attempts at drawing a motor boat, I went with this easy-to-sew sailboat!) • Fish: fishing is another hobby they both enjoy

Not only did choosing the blocks take a lot of time, but finding just the right layout for those blocks was a big part of my design process. I wanted something more creative than a straight horizontal set. You can see some of my rejected layout ideas back in the original post.



I just love this quilt! And so did my parents, which makes all the time and effort well worth it. I even like the back:

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats

Finished quilt measures: 40″ x 40″

Special techniques used: paper piecing

Quilted by: Me!

Best Category: Wallhanging

As Seen on TV.... ME!

Yesterday I spent my morning at a TV studio in Cleveland taping a segment for Quilting Arts TV! I demonstrated how EQ7 can be a useful tool for the modern quilter. Here I am with the wonderful host Pokey Bolton.



I was quite a ball of nerves the last couple of weeks prepping for this segment! Public speaking is soooo not my thing. But everyone at the studio was so nice and friendly, it helped to put me at ease.



I love seeing how things work "behind the scenes". They tape the whole season in a week-- what a well-oiled machine! It was so interesting to see the other quilters/artists prepping their projects in the green room. I wish I could have spent more time hanging out there admiring everyone's work.

The episode won't air for several months; I'll be sure to post when it's available!

40th Anniversary Quilt

I am so happy to finally be able to say that this quilt is finished! It's a quilt to celebrate my parents' 40th wedding anniversary, which happened back in June, but really thoughtful gifts are worth the wait, right??



Each of the foundation pieced blocks represents something about my parents and their life together.



Pansy: Mom enjoys gardening • House: they built their house together • O: they met at the Ohio State University • Pig: they were hog farmers when I was a kid



Heart: for love! • Truck: my dad's job • Boat: boating is an activity they like doing together (this isn't the right kind of boat, but after several failed attempts at drawing a motor boat, I went with this easy-to-sew sailboat!) • Fish: fishing is another hobby they both enjoy

I had a fat quarter pack of Deb Strain's Cherish Nature collection I knew I wanted to use because it has my mom's favorite blues in it. It was pretty easy to find blocks I could use to represent my parents as I've known them all my life and have plenty of material to work with *wink*. But I took a ridiculous amount of time finding just the right layout. I almost always use EQ7 to work out my design choices, so I thought it might be interesting to see some of my rejected layout ideas.



The winner:



It's fun to see how a design evolves. My original intention when thinking about this quilt was to make the foundation pieced blocks a secondary design element. Not something you noticed right away, but saw after looking at the quilt for a while, which is why I made them all in neutral fabrics. That's not the way it ended up; I think the blocks are pretty center stage in the quilt. But I love the way it turned out. And I figured if I'm going to spend all that time making these intricate picture blocks, people better notice them!

A peek at the back:



Sewing time was pretty sparse these past few months, so this project pretty much took up my whole summer. But it was well worth it and the summer was spent doing lots of fun summery-type things. However, I'm so ready to tackle some new sewing projects! My oldest starts first grade tomorrow and I look forward to finding our new family routine, which I hope includes a bit more sewing time for me.