Happy, Happy, Happy Completed - Things I've Learned

The AYOS pattern for the month of June was Dulcinea, by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. I changed it just a bit by adding sashing to the pinwheel blocks, and I left off the suggested border.

I used two charm packs from Moda's Avalon by Fig Tree and bound it with Sherbet from Moda's Ruby by Bonnie and Camille. I am particularly fond of the dots of Sherbet against the dotted cream background fabric.

The colors of this quilt inspired its name of Happy, Happy, Happy - it is bright and cheerful! The quilting was primarily straight line, done with my walking foot, and free motion circles and swirls on the border.

The back looks like a window to me. I made a panel of blocks from leftover fabric and used the same sashing as the front.

Things I've Learned:
I love the look of quilting on light valued fabric. As I was hand-stitching the binding, I got to admire the back of the quilt, especially the effect of the quilting on my background fabric, P&B Textile's Apple Cider Cream Dot. I love it!

Maybe being hard on myself is a good thing. I caught myself being hard on myself today as I ripped out a couple of hand stitches that were evident on the back side of my binding. In spite of the fact that probably no one would ever notice those stitches but me, I knew there was no way I was going to leave them in, because they were so obvious to me. That is what I term being hard on myself. However, I believe in "good practices", and I decided that making the quilt as perfect as I possibly can is OK, not only because it is a good practice, but it also makes me happy!

Straight line quilting is very effective. The quilting for this quilt was influenced by straight line quilting by Townmouse. I love the clean, fresh look it imparts to the quilt.

This month's pattern is Lincoln. I downloaded the pattern, and although I may not have time to join in the quilt-along this month, I will definitely check out the parade on August 1.

10 Things This Summer

Sherri and Anna have made a list of their goals for the summer and encouraged their readers to do the same. Sounds like fun, so here goes!

1. Number one on my list is to continue on my ultimate lifetime quilting quest, which is to make a quilt for every member of my family. My immediate family comes first, then I will start on in-laws, nephews, and nieces. My grandmother made quilts for all of us, and I want to continue that tradition.

2. Finish my daughter's quilt. I've had the original fabric that she chose since 2010! I have added to that stash and subtracted from it, found a pattern I liked and modified it, then was unhappy with the result, started my own version of the pattern, and was unhappy with that result. Then I arranged the blocks in a different way on my design board, and I can finally say I am pleased with the result. I have put way too much pressure on myself for this quilt that will grace her guest bed. I want to finish it so I can start on the king-sized quilt for her bedroom.

3. Finish my niece's quilt top. My niece (at my insistence) sent me the quilt her grandmother (my SIL's mother) pieced for her but never completed. Unfortunately someone washed it along the way, and now the edges are tattered, frayed, and separated. I took it to my LQS where I was advised to press it carefully, repair as much as I could on the edges before I sandwich, quilt, and bind it. I found some glorious reproduction fabric to back it - a pretty blue print from the Aunt Grace Garden Party collection.

4. Make a quilt for my youngest granddaughter's birthday - in August! I have the main fabrics, in periwinkle prints and a Honey Honey dessert roll, and I will soon choose a pattern for her lap-sized quilt.

5. Design and quilt a wall hanging in a star pattern for my husband. My number one fan was so taken with my first quilt that he asked me to make a quilt to hang in our entry. Sadly he is still waiting. I have looked at several patterns and not found one I like yet, but I did purchase fabric to begin my stash - in cream, blues, teals, and golds. He would like some sort of Texas lone star.

6. Repair my daughter's fiance's blanket. I made Chris a warm blanket for Christmas with Texas Tech-themed fleece. He was so proud of it! His big sweet dog decided to tear out a piece of it, so I need to patch it.

7. Break down and sell or give away some of my yarn. I love to crochet, but I got out of practice the last 10 years. Since I started quilting, I spend far too much time trying to refresh my memory on crochet stitches and not enough time practicing. Even though I whittled down my collection before we moved, I have collected more yarn for patterns I have yet to use them in. The groupings are so lovely and alluring to me, but I need more space for fabric. Notice I said "some" of the yarn; I'm not sure I can give it all up, so I might just pack it up and put it high on a shelf.

8. Clean out the old family photos. Since I am the last of my family of five, there is no one left to remind me who many of the people are in the vintage photographs that I inherited from my Mom. They are taking up storage space in a large guest closet. No one has even opened the boxes since Mom died in 2010, and they have remained exactly where they were placed when we moved into our house last year. Some boxes were labeled and roughly organized by my daughter several years ago, but a big bunch remain loose in boxes.


9. Refinish our fireplace screen. We inherited the black metal screen from my daughter, and it disappears in front of our dark green marble fireplace. I will use copper metallic wax rub on the decorative vines and edges of it to make it stand out a bit.

10. Organize and brighten up my sewing space. I share space with a guest bedroom, with its beautiful white comfort-ed bed with black wrought iron headboard and black beadboard nightstand. When I moved in, I brought a repurposed kitchen table as my cutting table, covered it with a mega-sized cutting mat, added a clamp-on magnifying lamp, put a big Xerox printer underneath it, and put my sewing machine on an old computer table next to it. I added a vintage nightstand to hold my quilting books and sewing machine paraphernalia and made a design board to cover one of the walls. I have an old 23rd Psalm that my Mom embroidered, and it needs to be reframed and hung. Although I love my space, it looks cluttered, and I want it to reflect my bliss, not my disorganization.

Happy, Happy, Happy - AYOS

The Vintage Schnibbles pattern for June was Dulcinea. I am joining the monthly Parade of Schnibbles, sponsored by Sinta of Pink Pincushion and Sherri of A Quilting Life.

I ran a little behind this month, so I am still working on the border. I varied the pattern a bit, adding sashing to provide a little definition between the pinwheels, but I'm not sure I like the result. After I uploaded the photo of the quilt, I noticed I forgot to sash the outsides of the outer blocks. Oh well, I do love my seam ripper.

Moda's Avalon by Fig Tree was my chosen fabric, along with a piece of yardage from P&B Textile's Apple Cider collection for the background and a navy print for the sashing.

I love the colors in Avalon - for me they are happy colors. And every time I hear the word "happy", I am reminded of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil saying "Happy, happy, happy". Perfect quilt name.

I'll be back with a final post after it's complete!

Key Lime Butterfly Complete - Things I've Learned

The vintage Schnibbles from my quilt-along is finished. I added the border of the white fabric with script, and the black and white hexagon patterned binding made the other fabrics pop.

The back is pieced with vertical panels of leftover fabric along with a coordinating swirl fabric.

The final size is 30-1/2 by 30-1/2 inches.

I finally worked up the courage to free motion quilt, and after all was said and done, I am pleased with the way it turned out. I cut a template for a butterfly design, marked it on each block with a Frixion erasable pen, and used my darning foot to stitch. There was a bit of pesky "eye-lashing", but only on the back. I did straight line quilting on the lime green bordering the blocks. I added a butterfly "body" with one of the embroidery stitches on my Janome.

Things I've Learned:
I learned that joining a quilt-along gives me the discipline to complete a pattern from start to finish with a deadline. No one pressures me but myself. On the day of the "parade", it is not only fun to see the variations but also to "meet" other bloggers and read their ideas and tips. I almost didn't do this month's Schnibble, and I'm so glad I decided to do it.

I learned that I can overcome any fear in quilting. Free motion quilting should have been fun for me, and up until this project, it wasn't. I finally began to get into a rhythm and feel the instant gratification and pleasure that comes from quilting a quilt. This feeling of "I can do it!" prompted me to enroll in a paper piecing class at my LQS.

I learned that even though I try not to be too hard on myself, perfect points are still very important to me. I found this tutorial about a positioning pin on Connecting Threads, and it worked!

Here are some photos of fabric I bought from Pink Chalk Fabrics, (shipping was fast!) and fabric from my LQS for my granddaughter's birthday quilt.

Here is all the loot from Pink Chalk.

I love these polka dot Petit Embroidery Scissors. I saw them on another gal's blog and had to have them!

Fabric from left: Lida Enche Painted Summer Butterfly in yellow, Trenna Travis Bekko Swirl Orchid, and Valori Wells Wish Treasure Patience.

Brejer Mon Amie City Multi. I have visions of using it for a bag.

Kate Spain Honey Honey Lavender Violet, which I picked up to go with the grouping below this one.

My youngest granddaughter "loves periwinkle", and her birthday is in August. For her quilt I purchased coordinating fabric along with a Dessert Roll in Honey Honey from Quilt 'n Sew, my local quilt shop in Katy.

Vintage Schnibbles - Make Mine Ruby

Thanks to a mention of it on Jennifer's blog Seams Crazy, I am joining my first Another Year of Schnibbles (AYOS), a quilt-along co-hosted by blog authors Sinta Renee and Amy Smart. Read about it on their blogs, Pink Pincushion and A Quilting Life.

The pattern for this month's Schnibble quilt is Hat Trick, which I purchased from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co and downloaded a few minutes later - I love downloadable patterns!

Ruby by Moda, which I described in this post, was my fabric of choice.

The pattern suggested using two charm packs and additional fabric, but since I only had one charm pack, I decided to go with the option of Amy Butler's Lark (Souvenir in Persimmon) for the center square and for the binding as well. I featured a green fabric with a light yellow dot (can't remember the name of it!) for the other solids and also for the inner border.

I will hang the little quilt in my sewing room, which doubles as a guest bedroom. On the bed are two of my Mom's old pillowcases. I pulled one of the pillows off the bed to show how beautifully the Ruby fabric blends.

I had fun with this one and definitely want to join in for next month!

Juggling Summer Complete: Things I've Learned

The quilt for my oldest granddaughter was finished one day before her 12th birthday. I love to cut it close! Her Papaw and I joined her and the rest of the family for an early celebration at Saltgrass, and she seemed very happy, not only with her quilt but also her birthday cash.

Since her bedspread is a black and white zebra print, and her current color love is mint, I purchased a fat eighth bundle and a jelly roll of a collection I love - Moda's Juggling Summer, which blended well with all of that. I chose a mint print from Moda's Noteworthy line and a coordinating Juggling Summer print for the backing, and the neutral fabric is White Out, a white dot on white pattern. I pieced the binding from all the black prints of the collection, and it may be my favorite part of the quilt. Black really made all the colors pop.

I named her quilt "Dream in Color", which is my wish for her.

My son snapped this shot of her enjoying her quilt at home.

I employed my walking foot to quilt mainly large zig-zags, straight lines, and squares, with the only curves being in the inner border.

Here are more Things I've Learned during the creation of this quilt:

I learned that pattern instructions are not always clearly written.
I am not criticizing the person from whom I purchased the pattern. I am guessing that it is difficult to write a quilt pattern! In my inexperience, my first glance at the downloaded instructions indicated they would be easy to follow, but I discovered that there were too few illustrations, and many of the directions were vague. It is possible that a more competent quilter would not notice the lack of details. Either as a result of the pattern itself or my cutting errors, I had trouble with the inner border, and I had to add pieces to make everything fit. I loved the pattern, and I was able to figure it out, so all was well in the end.

I learned that I need to slow down and pay attention.
I noticed that as my time ran out, my mistakes became more numerous. I even put my bobbin in the wrong direction once and quilted an entire area before I noticed the funky look of the quilting.

I learned that I am getting more relaxed with machine quilting.
I am not as critical as I was with my imperfect quilting, and I am learning to look at the big picture. People who don't quilt don't see these imperfections. They see the quilt and think you are amazing for making it.

I learned that I love every step of quilt-making.
There are parts of it that I like better than others. For instance, cutting the pieces is not my favorite part, but using a rotary cutter is actually fun for me. There is no part of making a quilt that I don't enjoy. And the sense of accomplishment is, for me, indescribably fulfilling.

Katy the kitty, whose tail is lower left, and Buddy the dog had to see why my husband was holding a quilt on the staircase.