My Whimsical, Vertebrae Quilt

I love following Nancy Purvis, owensolivia's work on Instagram.  When she announced she wanted ppl to make projects from her book, I was really excited!  She asked me to make the Vertebrae quilt.  (I love her version!  She makes solids so exciting!)

I started with a fabric pull, and I'm really enjoying Lizzy House right now, so the choice was obvious.  

I also love adding in solids to help highlight the colors in the prints or to make a more distinct color palette.  PS these butterflies are so perfect... And I don't usually like butterflies. 

I wanted to make my version scrappy, with very few repeats.  I used up some of my favorite Lizzy House prints/scraps.  I had just enough of those favorites to make it happen.  I had to use the design wall to make the placement and piecing easier.  

Little by little it came together pretty quickly.  I loved putting the strips together --the colors just popped!  

The quilting, well, I tried to do two designs (I also used two color threads) and wish I would have just stuck with one quilting design and one color thread.  I'm definitely not comfortable mixing up FMQ designs, and the dark gray thread bugs me.  But every quilt I learn something.  So, I'll take this as a lesson, and remember for the next one.  Maybe another note for myself, SLOW DOWN!

I'll see if I can figure out how to get my final photos on here!  I went to my best friend's inlaws and took pictures in their gardens, with a camera, not my phone!  (their 'Southern Living' gardens)

Oh and see that scrappy binding!!?  Crazy heart eyes about the scrappy binding.  

I can't wait to get my hands on. Copy of the book, Quilting From Every Angle!  I have loved what I've seen so far.  Congrats and thanks, Nancy!

Tinsel + Score No. 7

Is it too early for a Christmas quilt on my couch?!  Cause I'm in love with this guy.  I purchased Sherry Lynn Wood's new book, the improv handbook for modern quilters and have been dying to jump in!  (I really, really enjoyed hearing her speak at QuiltCon and would love to take a class with her!  Anyone else in Knoxville wanna have her here for a class?!  Maybe 2016!). But anyway-- my Tinsel by cotton and steel was begging to be cut into.  I wanted to pair it with some solids I had on hand so that I could make a lap quilt and get the curves to pop out.

Unfortunately, like Score 7 calls for 'getting lost', I played it safe and used the same cuts and layout as a quilt in the book.  My life with a newborn is crazy, lost enough so I just wanted to SEW!  And the quilt in the book is SO good!

I started by cutting 17" squares of 20 fabrics, 9 prints, 11 solids.  I wanted one more solid but ran out of solid navy so grabbed a FQ from another C&S line, matched perfectly!  Then, I paired up the 20 squares into five piles of 4 fabrics each, mixing and matching values and no more than two prints in each stack then started cutting! I'd say my favorite blocks turned out to be the two that were all solids.  Go figure.  (Keep buying prints Melissa, keep buying prints!). 

I thought piecing the odd shaped wonky blocks together would be really challenging.  I decided to piece 4 together at a time (like I did with my meadow blocks which lizzy house showed us at QuiltCon!) in a large square, two up, two down and it worked pretty well!  I wanted it to be off, just as the blocks are off, so I didn't trim, I laid the two blocks on top of each other, right sides together, making sure there was good overlap everywhere, pinned, maybe even draw a pencil line to help you with your seam line... Perfect!  Then, lined up the seam line on my mat and trimmed after two were together, so I had a straight top and bottom.  It worked well for me!  

I love the results!!  And deciding on quilting came pretty quickly -- overlapping arches!  A little late I decided to add in some other quilting patterns, which I adore, but wish I had done a couple more near the top.  I can't wait to make another improv quilt.  It was a very rewarding quilt and I started and finished in a week. I'd reccommend this book to anyone interested in improv!

Backing: 4 left over FQs from my bundle with 2 yards green star print from Juliana Horner's collection at Joann.

Batting: Pellon Nature's Choice, Cotton Batting with Scrim, Natural Color
Thread: Aurifil 2830 50 weight

Finished Size (before washing): 62 in x 73 in