Quilt top done! for twin-sized spring version of Aspen Glow pattern

Despite lots of things to get done for work over the break, I managed to have a couple of evenings of quilt-sewing binge and the twin-sized Aspen Glow quilt top is done!

As you might be able to tell, it's not very spring-like here right now.  We had 6-8 inches of wet, heavy snow on Wednesday, right before Thanksgiving. 

Yay! Finished with E blocks for Spring version

Finally, the last blocks for the Spring version of the Aspen Glow quilt are done!:

I am looking forward to starting to piece the larger blocks together.  I really don't know how this quilt will look when I'm done. It is going to be scrappier than the original pattern, because I used a fat eighth bundle for this one.

I've never made flying geese before.  I like how they look when I chain piece them. I don't like the trimming involved with these blocks, but it seems necessary to keep from getting too wonky.

Finally! Blocks C and D for the Winter version of Aspen Glow

Well, it took a while longer than I expected (sort of) to complete the next round of blocks for the Aspen Glow Quilt-along, but here they are:

The C blocks took a really, really long time to get through.  Between selling a house, having two birthdays in the family, and a round of tests and subsequent grading at work, it just seemed like they were never going to end!  The D blocks (squares) were a lot easier to plow through in a spare moment.

I am going to switch back to my spring quilt to make the pointy E blocks.  That one is only twin-sized, so it is always goes much faster.

First ever entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival: Wonky Stars from Minnesota

I am happy to submit an entry to the Fall 2014 Blogger's Quilt Festival on Amy's Creative Side.  This looks like a really great way to share ideas, by seeing others' incredible work.

I'm submitting my Wonky Star quilt.  The original blog post on making this quilt is here.  I bought the fabric in Minnesota after we drove there from Virginia on a family trip.  My husband and I left the teenagers at the Mall of America with aunts and uncles, and took off to look for some interesting rocks an hour west of town.  We promptly ran over a huge metal bracket left in the middle of the highway (ah, construction season in Minneapolis) and ripped all four tires to shreds.  After pulling off into a hotel parking lot, then an impromptu purchase and installation of all new tires, we started on our way, again.

 We did find the quarry with some of North America's oldest rocks.  On the way back, we stopped by a quilt store and I bought some charm packs of PB&J. 

There are some other fabrics in the quilt.  One of the red ones was found in my grandparents' house shortly after they died.  My grandmother always loved the color red, so it's a nice reminder of her.  I bought the backing fabric on an earlier non-vacation trip, the night before I gave a presentation to almost 300 people in Newport News, VA.  It was an incredibly important point in my career - the research ideas I was lecturing about got me tenure. So, this quilt reminds me of a lot of different things that happened in my life.

D blocks for the Spring: Aspen Glow Quilt Along

Not a lot of time this week to post!  But, here are my various D blocks for the spring version of the Aspen Glow quilt.

Block B for the winter version of Aspen Glow

And here are my completed B blocks for the larger, queen-sized version using the winter setting of the Aspen Glow pattern available from Cora's Quilts:

I'm doing this version in queen-size, and produced a giant pile of blocks during sewing!  This is one of the only times there wasn't a cat sitting on them as well.

So far I've only done mint blocks, so it will be neat to start in on the other fabrics for the next set of blocks.

Blocks C1 and C2 for the Spring version of Aspen Glow

It took all day (in between doing other things), but I finished the C blocks for the twin-sized Aspen Glow quilt I'm making using Bluebird Park:

 Lines of little chain-pieced strips for the C blocks.

The completed blocks.  I'm using the Autumn setting for this quilt, so I actually do have a C1 and C2 version of the block. All of the ones visible in this picture are C1 (green on the bottom).  The C2 blocks have yellow patterns on the bottom.

Block A for Winter and Block B for Spring: Aspen Glow pattern

After I got the flu shot and then promptly came down with a bad head cold for a week, I finally felt well enough today to get a little piecing done for the Aspen Glow quilt along.

These are blocks A for the large (queen-sized) winter version of the quilt.  I really like the background color I'm using for this one.  It's light stone gray, but to me it looks like the color of my morning coffee, which is actually half coffee and half creamer.  The mint pattern is from Winter's Lane.

I also sewed through block B for the spring version (it's actually the autumn pattern, but I'm making it with the spring-y fabrics of Bluebird Park.

I had to use the flash on this one- it is getting darker earlier and earlier every day. :( At least the weather has decided to cool down to something more appropriate for September.

Block A for Aspen Glow Quilt-Along: Bluebird Park

I managed to get all of my squares and rectangles cut for my Bluebird Park version of the Aspen Glow pattern.  There is a little bit more time here in September before things just become totally crazy with my job, so I went ahead and finished Block A for this quilt:

 Squirrel-y block.

 

I am working with fat eights of material, so it was necessary to use more than one fabric in the line for the "medium gray" squares in these blocks.

 

Aspen Glow Quilt Along

The Cora's Quilts Aspen Glow quilt along is starting on 9/1/14 and I signed up.  It's my first quilt along ever (cyber or real).

These Bluebird Park fat eighths have been sitting around in my stash for a while, so when I saw there was a quilt pattern using Kate and Birdie Paper Co fabrics, I thought, "hey I should make that and I can use these."

This picture was actually taken a week ago- I finished cutting these into pieces for a lap quilt, though I am still working on the many little pieces of white fabric.

Believe it or not, I have ambitions of completing a second Aspen Glow quilt for our queen bed.  This does not mean that the quilt will cover the entire bed, because DH is sort of like a spaghetti spoon in bed and twirls everything - sheets, quilts, sometimes cats- around him as he tosses and turns at night.  But, I can certainly use it if this winter was anything like last winter.

So, here is the general idea for the fabrics for the second quilt.  Some Winter's Lane, a plaid called Honky Tonk Chili Pepper Campfire Coffee (!) by Moda, taupe fabric from the local quilt store for the background.  I'm probably not using the gray with white flowers for this one- but it works as a stand-in until the real fabric arrives.

I wanted something similar to the color choices in the winter color-way as described in the pattern instructions.  It should match the bedroom wall color, and I just like the mint, red, and white together.  One of my favorite color combinations.

I look forward to seeing what others choose for their fabrics!

Goodnight Moon! the quilt

The wonky star quilt took nearly a year of fiddling, procrastinating, and finally quilting for me to complete.  It is beautiful and I already love cuddling with it (and usually a cat).

And then I saw this Goodnight Moon fabric on sale online, and when it got to my house I made a complete quilt out of it in three days.  Three days! If inspiration would always hit so quickly.  (Maybe not- I can't really afford to make a quilt every three days).

I love Goodnight Moon.  This was required, repeated reading in the house growing up, and since I was the oldest of four kids, I did my share of reading it to the younger kids.

There were actually these panels for sale, which are from Quilting Treasures, and also some organic fabric with Goodnight Moon patterns from Cloud 9 was on sale.

I didn't follow a pattern. I cut out the individual panels and then made borders around each one so that they came out to be all the same size.  Originally, two panels were smaller than the others.

I decided to use the rest of the fabric in what I guess you could call a three-patch pattern - one long rectangular block paired with two square blocks to create a larger square.  I included some white blocks in there to stretch the Goodnight Moon fabric farther, but also to break up the rich primary colors of the fabric, as inspired by the book.

Then, put the panels in near the top and sewed it all together.

I did meandering free-motion quilting, just like on the wonky star quilt.  It turned out ok- my Janome machine seems to get choked up on the top thread a bit, though.

I did actually remember to save a selvage to make a label this time.

And the final quilt...

Which was immediately taken over to my parents' house and loved on by my mom, my 6-year-old niece, and I'm sure the border collie as well.

Wonky Star Quilt

This is my wonky star quilt inspired by this tutorial, and by this quilt on Flickr, using PB&J charm squares plus some Denyse Schmidt fabrics and one red fabric that belonged to my late Granny.

This quilt took nearly a year to make.  It started on an eventful day about a year ago, when my husband and I left the teenagers at the Mall of America with their aunts and uncles and drove west to see some Archean gneiss in an abandoned quarry.

No, I will not spare you from pictures of rocks.  Actually, we only got a couple of miles down the road before we hit a huge piece of metal on the highway in Minneapolis and ripped our tires to shreds. So first, we had new tires installed on the car.  Then we went to the quarry.

On the way back, we stopped at this cute quilt shop, and this is where I found the PB&J charm packs.

I had seen wonky stars in various places on the internets, but it took me a bit to come up with a design.

 I started with the idea of having lattices surrounding the squares, but I liked the stars so much I didn't want to detract from them.  So then I was left with this:

Which didn't have enough color for me.  Lucky are those people who can actually have mostly-white quilts- I don't think one would stay pristine in my house for very long.  Also, this was meant as a lap quilt, and this was not nearly enough stars.  So, I started adding reversed stars and smaller stars, and rearranged and rearranged...

The backing is Denyse Schmidt fabric from Joann's.  Binding from PB&J.

And the result, unquilted:

And quilted:

This is the first time I tried quilting in a meandering pattern- ie, not straight-line quilting.

Woohoo! This one is a lap quilt for me.  I am not looking forward to winter after the last one, but at least I can cuddle under this in my armchair in front of the fire.

November XOXO Quilt

Ok, so it's been 6 months since my last blog post.  Time flies when you're applying for tenure, teaching, taking care of various people.  I actually have accomplished some quilting during this time.

This first quilt I made over the course of about a couple of weeks in November.  Our friend and neighbor was hospitalized, so I made a quilt for him so he could stay warm in his easy chair in between medical treatments. 

Here is the final result:

This was an easy quilt to piece.  It just has one block!  I had seen similar quilts online, so I just figured out how to make the block by looking at pictures.  However, there is a nice video tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Company that explains how to make this type of quilt.

Each block takes one 5" square and two 2.5" squares that match each other.  This is great for using up (a small portion of) the scrap bin.

I was not quite so fastidious as the quilting video method- I simply lined up the 2.5" squares with the corners of the 5" squares and sewed - no pre-ironed creases.

It took a lot of rearranging to figure out where to place the light and dark X's and O's.  At first, I arranged the X's and O's in a linear fashion like a tic-tac-toe board, but it just didn't look right with this scrappy quilt.  So, I offset the rows.

The back ended up looking somewhat scenic with some trees and a swath of blue fabric from the local Gift n' Thrift.  I kept the quilting very simple because I'm still not very good at it, and I had very little time to get this done.

Woohoo!  Washed and ready to go.