Out to Sea Modern Chevron

I had a roommate from college come visit me in the fall for a football game reunion weekend.  The same weekend, I participated on my first Farmer's Market in downtown Knoxville.  It was probably a great weekend to be there, with the home football game and perfect weather.

Anyway, she decided she wanted a quilt for her soon to be niece.  I love custom quilts and putting together new ideas for people.  So, we started with crabs and lobsters but decided on Sarah Jane's out to sea line.  I'm so glad she fell in love with that fabric bc I love it too.  While looking around for inspiration on what pattern, quilt market was happening and I spied a quilt from sassafrass lane, called wiley way.  It's a really great, quick pattern.  It only comes in one size and I wanted to do a big baby quilt so I shank it down a little using percentages... I had to trim up the ends a little but everything matched up beautifully!

I tried a new (to me) thin pink polyester thread from superior threads.  It worked great and looked really pretty.  

I attempted a paisley shape from Angela Walters book.  I thought it turned out SO perfect!  I will use this quilting design again!  I did practice drawing it a couple days in a row before I sat down to quilt. 

I bound it with a navy polka dot from Joann's.  They picked out the backing fabric but I added a crab and lobster... The baby's parents have an inside joke about which is better, Maryland crab or Maine lobster.

It made it safely to its new home and they love it!

Learning the Hard Way

As part of the Modern Quilt Guild, there is a Riley Blake Challenge going on right now.  Our guild, Knoxville, just finished our challenge and I wanted to share my experience with fusible web.  

We had to use curves on a piece no larger than 24x24.  So I decided on pillow and sunset.

Then, I went crazy and decided on an appliqué sun.  But after I had applied fusible web once I changed my mind... And changed my mind again... And maybe a third time... So when I finally decided to leave it alone I had this left:

I did a little research and decide to test alcohol on scrap pieces of my kona solids.  They didn't seem to be affected so I dove in and started scrubbing.  I used a towel and my fingers to get as much off as possible.  I was worried but it came off!  And you couldn't tell unless you saw me scrubbing the hell out of it.

This project took wayyyy longer than expected.  But I really love the appliqué with black thread, free motioned on.  Inspired by Amber @ oneshabbychickhawaii! 

Grandpa's Crown of Thorns Quilt

So, a friend from my quilt guild inspired me to make a quilt for my grandfather, after I saw the amazing quilt she was making for her grandmother for Christmas.  I decided to start this project after Thanksgiving dinner---giving me a little less than a month to get it ready for Grandpa. 

I enlisted help from my whole family.  I thought it would be better if we could say that we all worked on it.  I started brainstorming colors and wanted it to be masculine.  And found this one from my color combo board on pinterest.  And started pulling fabrics.  It was actually really nice to have a stash built so that I could pull fabrics and not have to purchase any... or so I tried. 

 

 

I ended up with a few other Denyse Schmidt prints and some gold, amber and cinnamon Cotton Couture solids (my favorite!!)

 

Then, my friend Emily reminded me about a pattern for a crown of thorns quilt that was in Quilty mar/april 2013.  Cause I had my heart set on crown of thorns.  

We cut everything one night and the next day finished a quilt top!  Mostly just the women of the family helped but my brother enjoyed picking out color combos for the blocks, he even added the backwards one with the dark fabrics on the opposite side of the light ones.

(Don't tell my brother and sister I posted these photos!  In her pjs and he didn't want it ever to be known that he was playing with fabrics.)