Exit on the Left

This year's guild challenge for International Quilt Festival was to take the traditional friendship star block and make it modern. I submitted a quilt and it was accepted to the show again, which was fun.

My idea was to take a large-scale print and cut it in a way that created a new look.  I was inspired by this quilt I spotted on Pinterest.  The image comes from the Australian fabric company Umbrella Prints.  I loved how the large-scale print was chopped up and used in an unexpected way.

The large scale print I decided to use was the gorgeous Ghost Wing by Anna Maria Horner.  I started with the mint fabric, and bought the dark grey for the back.  Halfway through the process I realized I loved the dark fabric even more than the mint and decided to make it the front.  I made the mint into a mirror image of the front, so the quilt is completely reversible. 

Nikki Maroon quilted this for me and I adore what she did. 

Modern Hexie Table Runner

During our vacation out West last summer, my aunt and uncle hosted us for a couple of days in their beautiful Colorado home.  I wanted to thank them with a handmade gift.  I decided on a table runner because it would be quick but also useful.

I wanted to try a technique made popular by Nicole of Modern Handcraft.  Instead of sewing the hexies to each other, you tack them down with fabric-friendly glue, then sew lines through all the points, on the diagonal.  It's a kind of cheater's applique that ends up looking amazing in its own right.

I made the hexies from a charm pack of a fabric line called Barcelona, so they all played together perfectly.  Then I pieced the background with strips from my stash.

My aunt and uncle were very appreciative of their gift, and I will always be grateful to them for showing us their corner of the gorgeous state of Colorado.

Matchbox Valentines

I tend to save match boxes because they are so darn cute and I always think maybe I'll make something out of them.  And I finally did!  I made Valentines for my co-workers.  They are stinkin' adorable and easy.  I will share my process so you can make some too.

If you want to create some valentines like these you will need:

• 1 paper matchbox, the kind with the outer sleeve and "drawer" that slides out
• 1 piece of small chocolate.  I used Ghiradelli's mini squares
• 15" thin ribbon
• 15" string
• decorative paper, cut down to 2" x 4 1/4"
• contrasting decorative paper, cut down to 3/4" x 4 1/4"
• two postage stamps, approximately the same size as each other
• double stick tape or other adhesive
• optional, little name tags (mine are Recollections brand, from Michaels)

First wrap the larger strip of paper around the sleeve of the matchbox.  I used a tape runner (Memory brand, from Paper Source) as my adhesive.  Next put adhesive on the skinny strip of paper and wrap it around.  Both strips of paper should meet up on the bottom of the sleeve, so the ends aren't showing.

For the tiny card, I picked two postage stamps of about the same size, and carefully fed them through my sewing machine.  This way they could open like a little card.  If you don't have a sewing machine, I think writing on the back of one stamp would be just fine.  If you don't have postage stamps on hand, trim down a piece of paper to roughly the size of the chocolate. 

I tied the card to the chocolate with a length of string.  Make a little bow and then trim off the excess.

Put the chocolate and card bundle into the drawer part of the matchbox, and slide it into the sleeve.  Then use the ribbon to make a bow around the matchbox, and attach the nametag to the ribbon, if desired.

That's it!  Not hard but very cute!  Enjoy and Happy Valentine's Day.  xoxo

Quilt for Our Bed

We needed a new quilt for our bed.

When we moved to our new apartment I splurged on a beautiful comforter from Anthropologie.  I loved this comforter so much.  Unfortunately, the fabric was tissue-paper thin, and then we got two cats.  Within a few months, my poor, gorgeous bedspread was torn beyond repair.  Very sadly I said goodbye to it.  I kept a swatch of the fabric, though, so that I could match colors and use them as a starting point for a new quilt.

(the following are progress shots, taken as I put this huge quilt up on the design wall.)

Since I had some practice cutting curves on my Sunset Waves quilt, I felt brave enough to tackle a drunkard's path design.  I admired so many variations: random, serpentine, minimal, Star-Wars inspired (apparently), deconstructed, and many more.  In the end I honed in on the phenomenal 5:HTP Squared quilt by Jen Carlton-Bailly.  I liked how the blocks in her quilt formed shapes that looked almost like letters, but weren't.  (I later had the chance to ask her in a facebook conversation about the inspiration for her quilt.  She said it was inspired by a mid-century modern wall decoration in her grandfather's house, if I recall correctly).  This got me thinking about making actual letters from the blocks. 

Since this was for our bed I wanted it to be sweet and loving.  I settled on the words Nate and I say to each other every night before going to sleep.  This is a big one!  Measures approximately 108" square.  Gorgeously quilted by  Nikki Maroon.  I also extensively pieced the back, as you can see in the picture above. If I had it to do over, I would change a few things, but overall I'm very happy with this design and proud of how it turned out.

I'm pleased to say that this quilt appears in the pages of Quilt Now, issue 7.  And that it will also be hanging in the show at QuiltCon, if it doesn't get lost in the mail.  Things are looking a little dicey at the moment so cross your finger for me, would you? 

Edit: I'm thrilled to report that this quilt made it safely to QuiltCon and went on to win the People's Choice award. It was such an exciting day. 

There is a pattern available for this quilt. Click here to purchase. Thank you!

My first quilt swap

A fine gentleman on instragram recently  organized a mini quilt swap and I thought it would be fun to jump in.

I was assigned a partner and commenced stalking her IG feed.  She seemed to like subtle colors and beautiful, small scale floral prints.  I had recently purchased a some pre-cut London of Liberty florals in a rainbow of colors, so I decided they would be my main fabrics.  I decided on a plus quilt.  There are so many great design options when laying out a plus quilt, and I spent a lot of time on Pinterest looking at inspiring quilts.  I ended up basing my layout on this gorgeous quilt by Megan of  City Stitches. 

I used a variety of whites and greys for my background, since I had them on hand from another project.  I wanted to add something a little special, so I decided to make teeny tiny wonky stars for the center of each plus. I tried to use contrasting colors to make each star, but sometimes they ended up blending in with the plus more than I intended.  The stars were so small that sometimes the secondary colors in the prints came to the forefront, and the stars didn't stand out as much as I thought they would.  It bothered me at first, but then I decided to embrace it as another design element.  Some stars that pop out, and some that blend in.  I had this quilted by Nikki Maroon and she did a beautiful job.  The finished piece measures 24" square.

It was fun to make this quilt and see my partner leaving comments about how much she loved it as I posted progress pics, since she didn't know it was intended for her.  I didn't have to worry about whether she would like it.  I already knew.  I also really enjoyed picking out extras to send with her quilt.  Paper Source is an excellent place to buy swap extras, it turns out.  I didn't take a picture of those, but I think I sent some washi tape, a notebook, a candle, and some candy.

I received a fabulous quilt from another IG user, which you can see here.  All in all, a successful swap.  I'll definitely do another when I have the time.