Conquered Curves

This Polarity quilt pattern caught my eye the minute I walked into Mad About Patchwork in the summer of 2019.  I have always shied away from curves, but with my DH's encouragement to give them a try, I purchased the pattern and material - mostly dark blues and neutrals in Kona solids.  I added only one  dark blue print to the mix.
 
I procrastinated in starting this project and then we moved, delaying the start even more.

Once my new sewing area was set up I decided it was time to give the pattern a go.   No longer allowing those darn curves  - which I had tried a few times over the years - to keep me at bay.

The pattern comes with a template which I copied and put on a firm piece of cardboard for the concave and convex pieces.  I did a few sample runs with some fabric from my stash.  I discovered after this first try,  I'd have to be careful to match the seams and followed some helpful suggestions that the designer, Stacey Lee O'Malley, from SloStudio, had written in the pattern.

Feeling more confident,  I started the cutting process -  first strips, then squares, then cutting the pieces with the template.

I always am a bit hesitant when I start cutting the required strips and find that I don't get the same number pieces that the pattern says I should get from that strip. I make it a habit to wash and dry my fabric before using and this causes a small bit of shrinkage in the fabric.  Most cottons are a 44/45" width with the selvage being part of this width.  It would be great if pattern designers took this into account, as I have run into this problem before.

The wonderful thing was,  I was able to contact Stacey, the designer, and she had some suggestions to overcome this issue.  I appreciate it when a designer is available to offer help.

 
While I was cutting the first of my pieces with the template, I saw that there was a lot of waste from each piece.  So I did some rejigging and found a way to get more pieces from the material.

I watched several You Tube videos for best way to sew concave and convex pieces together.  Many opinions are out there on which is the best method - pins, no pins, some pins.  I went with the many pins method and things went well.  I used a scant 1/4" seam allowance.

Once sewn, each square was pressed and trimmed to 10 1/2".

Once trimmed, the pieces were then placed on the design board (and design floor) 😊

Although the quilt top was finished, I had to wait for a bit before I got it quilted (pandemic and all you know).  The design I chose was Easy Orange Peel and Jen at Happy Wife Quilting did a spectacular job. 

  

I added a label and chose a binding which was one of the quilt top fabrics (navy blue with small white crosses which show intermittently around the quilt).  And voila, my curved quilt was complete.  

 

I'm really happy with the final result and so glad I rose to the challenge and conquered curved piecing.

Christmas Stockings 2018

These cute Christmas stockings made with modern seasonal fabric are perfect for the holiday season. I purchased the fabric from Mad About Patchwork.  It was there I saw a sample of the stocking.  A workshop by Katy was planned for that afternoon.   It looked so cute that I had to make them.

 

There are lots of tutorials on-line or perhaps a workshop at your favorite LQS can get you started with these.  They don't take long to sew together and make nice gifts and ideal decorations.  

I may try some scrappy Christmas fabric stockings.

Flying Geese Quilt

Fall here in Almonte has flocks of geese flying south for the winter.  Seldom a day goes by without seeing the birds flying in V-shape formation and honking loudly as they continue their journey.  This inspired me to make a quilt based on flying geese.  I saw the Grey Goose Quilt made by Beech Tree Lane .  I loved the symmetry of the flying geese and the shades of grey and negative space.

I wanted to make a much larger size - almost 94" square and use more print fabrics.  Instead of a white background, I chose Grunge in Paper White by Moda.   Mad About Patchwork staff suggested that as an alternative to the white.  It has a bit of grey in it and worked perfectly.

 

I constructed the flying geese using the 4 at a time, no waste method.  It really did cut down on the waste and I was left with only bits from each block.  

There are lots of tutorials on the internet for the No Waste Method.  Here's one I found quite helpful.
Wing Clipper Tool  I made the blocks without using the tool.

Once all the blocks were made - over 200 of them -  I used my 'design board' to play with placement. 

When I was happy with the placement, I sewed the blocks together in columns.  Then joined the columns, alternating the geese going up in one and down in the next column.

I quilted my quilt using the  longarm machine at Happy Wife Quilting.  Jen's new machine is fantastic.  I chose the Samuri pattern after much hemming and hawing. 

  

The backing of the quilt is Wideback Spackle Newspaper Clipping from Windham.  It's a busy fabric to contrast the simplistic geese pattern.

Finally for the binding, I chose a red with black print.  I was originally going to use a black with very small polka dots, but the red makes for a nice contrast.  Happy with the final result.

Craftsman Quilt

I really like the Craftsman quilt designed by Amy Smart from Diary of a Quilter blog.  

Amy has some wonderful patterns.  Check out her site when you get a chance.

As I made this one for the Victoria's Quilts, I needed to have a specific size which was slightly different from the pattern.  I made a few changes to size of blocks and ended up with a great looking quilt .  Brown and orange fabrics pop against the white background fabric.  The variety of fabrics makes it such an interesting quilt.

Bound in an rusty orange and quilted with straight lines in varying widths.  

Quilt #6 for charity this year.

Bit of a Challenge

Here's is Quilt #3 for Victoria's Quilts for this year.  I decided to try to use as much of the contributed fabric as I could for the next Victoria's Quilt I was going to make. 

I chose a main fabric and went with that for colors.  As it turned out, even with my stash I couldn't quite get it to come together.

So, a trip to the quilt store - Mad About Patchwork - was required.  It wasn't a hardship that's for sure - I love quilt store visits.  

I was looking for some fabric that would work with what I had.  Once again, Katy came to the rescue and found  the brown and lilac fabrics.  

Not sure if this block has a special name, but I'm calling it Square in a Square.

This is a tied quilt (not my favorite finishing method) but in the need for expediency, I went with that.

Black and White Quilt

I have always wanted to make a black and white quilt. My opportunity came when I picked up some material from my local Victoria's Quilt group.   I saw some prints that I could work with.  

Now sometimes when I use material from the group, it may be hard to match. But this one worked out well.  I included several prints from my own stash and purchased some other prints as well.  And voila, another quilt is made.

This quilt is tied, but I prefer finishing my quilts with machine quilting. 

Not sure the name of this pattern, but I like the look and the yellow stripe down the center of each block makes it pop.  

                             
 

As Victoria's Quilts has asked for more quilts that would be more suitable for men, I thought this one would fit the bill.  

Strip Ribbons Quilt

The Strip Ribbons quilt pattern was designed by Gudrun Erla of GE Designs from Iceland.  The pattern comes in 4 sizes - crib, lap, twin and queen.

The pattern was easy to follow.  Using a variety of more masculine colors was off the usual beaten path of my quilt colors.  Nice to venture in new directions :)

The fabric from a variety of designers was purchased at Mad about Patchwork with Katy providing lots of helpful color advice.

I took the plunge and quilted some diagonal lines (simplistic as it was) with my new Bernina.  Such a difference from when I tried this many years ago without the aid of a walking foot.  No puckers and it went like a charm.  Thanks to Tallgrass Prairie Studio for the tips on straight line quilting.  As she recommends, avoid sewing on the tape as it's a pain to remove if the needle hits it.  (Learned from experience :)  )

The guides attached to the foot, helped to keep lines a consistent distance apart and straight,  once I had the first straight line stitched. 

I made this quilt for my brother-in-law, hope he enjoys it.

Even a Mouse Christmas Runner

Saw this cute fabric called Even a Mouse at Mad About Patchwork and decided to make a  Christmas runner.    I have done many Christmas star runners over the years and I wanted to try something different. 

Came across the Broken Herringbone tutorial .  It was for a 12 inch square block but I wanted to make a table runner in this pattern.  So, I made some adjustments and designed it to be approximately 12 1/2" x 36".

It went together easily - always making sure that I was cutting the proper 45 degree angle when trimming.  

Put it together with batting and backing and bound it with the striped fabric called Merry Mistletoe by Dena Designs.  I stitched in the ditch around the individual sections.