Quiltville Mystery - On Ringo Lake - Part 1

Its time for Bonnie Hunter's Annual Mystery Quilt.  This year's theme is On Ringo Lake.  The color palette (aqua, peach & brown) isn't one I'd normally put together, but I decided to go with it.  Once I pulled out all my fabrics it started to grow on me. 

I have a lot of browns, so many in fact, that I ended up making way too many of the brown/neutral strip sets.  I ripped out a few of them because I needed more aqua strip sets.

I finished the blocks the same day the pattern was released and am chomping at the bit for Part 2!  I know this quilt will be a beauty!  You can check out everyone's progress and learn how to join the party here!

6 more finishes - #14-18

I designed this pattern and made this as a sampler for a machine quilting class.  The class focuses on using templates and making your own templates to mark the quilt for FMQ.  The entire quilt was FMQ on my Sweet Sixteen.  I used Fabulux 40 wt. thread and some 50 wt cotton thread.

This quilt is 12" square and was a shop sample for a paper piecing class I taught.  I custom quilted it using 40 wt. Fabulux and 100 wt. Invisafil.

I used my new Lisa Calle 1/16" spacing line ruler toil in around the stars.  Using the ruler is addictive.

I made this Beary Patch quilt for Tim & Karen Maimone's baby at the request of Tim's dad Richard.  This is made mostly from scraps. I quilted it myself on the Sweet Sixteen.  The best part of this is that the baby was born on my birthday!!

I found the perfect pink bear fabric online for the backing.

Last weekend Gudrun Erla gave a trunk show and taught a few workshops for the quilt shop.  I worked on the first day during the trunk show and the quilt-as-you-go table topper workshop.  Gudrun's trunk show was amazing. She has a great story and brought a ton of awesome quilts.  Her presentation was very good and included short tutorial videos demonstrating how to use her rulers and how to make several of her unique blocks.  Since I was working and not participating in the workshop, I was itching to make my own table topper(s)....why make 1 when you can make 3?  This Which Way topper is a great way to use a single charm pack. The 3-D prairie points are fun to make and this topper is super cute.

This is Kaffe Fasset fabric I bought at Quiltique in Las Vegas.  I paid a fortune for the charm pack and wanted to make something special with it.  I think this topper was a great use for it and I love how it turned out.

This topper is made using a winter collection of fabric.  I used a metallic dark teal fabric for the backing and binding.  This was leftover from some kitty-cat place mats and I didn't have enough for the full backing, so I pieced in leftover charm squares.  This one was a stash-buster!

Pieced backing came out really cute.

 

 After making the backing and quilt label I only had this much of the backing/binding fabric left!  Talk about a close call!

 And finally, the first topper I actually made was this Halloween one.  I figured its never too late to decorate for Halloween.  2 days, 3 toppers, 3 charm packs used and some yardage used up as well, I consider that a successful weekend!

 My hand-made glass pumpkin was looking a little lonely on my kitchen table.  With the topper now its looking much more festive.

Four more of finishes - #10-13 for 2017!

First up we have "Batty Lou Boo".  This was a fun little Stitch by Number project from Happy Hollow Designs.  Its similar to paper piecing, but different.  You iron the pattern pieces to the back of your fabric, then cut them out.  Next you Sew them to another piece, similar to foundation piecing.  I enjoyed it and think she came out super cute. I made this entirely from scraps.  She's not finished in the picture because my cats stole her nose before I could glue it on.  So, technically she is completely finished now minus a nose.  I need to find it before I can take a fully finished picture.  Silly kitties.

I stitched in the ditch in the center and quilted parallel lines in the borders and an X in each corner.  Simple and sweet.

 I got a request from a co-worker to make two quilts for his twin nephews who were about to be born.  He wanted a nautical theme.  We poured over patterns and fabrics for about a month until he decided on these two.  The fabric is the Lily and Loom, On Deck collection from Craftsy.  I used Kona, Silver for the background.

The first quilt is from the book New Ways with Jelly Rolls. Its the first pattern I've made from the book.

My mom quilted both quilts with a pattern that has boats and anchors.  Super cute!  I also machine appliquéd the twin's initials on the quilts.

I had a really fun time with this backing.  Since the quilts were so different, I wanted the backing and binding to be the same.  I made one super long backing.  When my mom quilted these she quilted one and then the other without cutting the long backing in-between.  Voila!  Identical backings!

The second quilt was offered as a kit from Craftsy.  Unfortunately the pattern had a mistake and the boat masts were specified to cut at .5" wide when they should have been 1" wide.  I was able to down-size the boat bottoms and make this work out.

The boat quilt kit came with a FQ pack and there was a TON of extra fabric left.  So much that I ended up making another entire baby quilt from the scraps!  This quilt is called Going My Way? and is a Cutie Quilt pattern designed by the fabulous Debby Brown.  The pattern takes 16 fat eights and some yardage for borders and sashing.  I used Kona Silver again for the sashing but everything else was leftovers from making the other two quilts.

I had these quilted with the same boat and anchors pattern as the others.

I used more leftovers on the backing and more Kona Silver to finish it up.

Finish #9 for 2017 - Back to 2012....

I dug deep into my UFO pile for this quilt.  I purchased it as a kit w/o a pattern from Keepsake quilting in 2011.  I cut out all the pieces for the Fab Shop Hop "Close to My Heart Sampler" pattern in 2012, and there it sat......

I pulled it out as the April UFO for the American Patchwork & Quilting UFO Challenge.  This quilt went together really quickly since everything was already cut and organized.  I did get confused with the cornerstones and ended up making different ones that the original ones I cut.  I also cut new background fabric as the bright white I had cut was too stark against the off-white of the rest of the fabric.  I ended up using Kona snow.  Little Lucifer 2 loves this quilt a lot.  She comes running whenever I lay it down.  I think its her favorite quilt that I've made.

I have been trying out a new method of basting.  I start at the top and secure the backing with blue painter's tape, then I work my way down the sides and along the bottom.  I then spray baste the batting and then the top.  I've done a couple this way so far and they seem to come out great.

Lucifer 2 approves of my basting job.

I decided to custom-quilt this.  I stitched in the diagonal ditches and along the borders with my regular machine and walking foot.  I then custom quilted the rest of it on the Sweet 16.  I used a combination of Magnifico, So Fine, and Bottom Line threads.  I used feathers, ribbon candy and swirls.  I used a simple egg and dart on the flowered borders.  Lucifer 2 LOVES the finished product! I'm really happy with how this came out and with my new bobbin case, I didn't have any tension issues quilting it.

Finishes 7 & 8 for 2017! I'm on a roll!

I'm caught up on Pat Sloan's Children's Library BOM.  I love these blocks and I love this fabric!

 I recently finished the "quilt I'm currently mad at".  I made this tulip wall hanging as a class sample for my paper piecing class.  It was fun to make and it came out great.  It was a little ambitious for the class due to the amount of cutting required and I spent a few hours in the shop just kitting it for the class.

I am mad at this quilt because I had grand visions for the quilting.  To make a long story short, I believe there is something wrong with the bobbin case on my quilting machine.  It WILL NOT sew with proper tension when I use thicker threads (50 wt. cotton).  It swings wildly between too tight and too lose completely at random.  I've had this problem since I've had the machine and always assumed it was something I'm doing.   Over time I've come to the conclusion its something w/ the spring mechanism in the bobbin case because I can get the machine to sew beautifully with thinner thread in the bobbin.  After messing with this for a while I finished quilting the top part of the sky using my regular sewing machine.  I was unhappy with how the quilting came out, so I put it aside for a couple weeks.  When the shop sample was needed I erased the marking lines I put on it and just slapped the binding on.  I didn't even take a picture of the finished product.  I can always go back and finish quilting the flower pot and border later, but for now this quilt and I need a break.  I'm counting this as a finish and leaving it at that!  I'll report on my new bobbin case when I have a chance to try it with a few different threads.

This next pile of scraps is what is leftover from my most recent finish.  I always have so many scraps!!!! Why!!! I've been working really hard to use fabric I have, but alas, borders and bindings cause so many scraps!

I made this quilt at the request of a co-worker for  his family member's baby.  He asked for appliqué letters, which Shadowfax just had to help me put on.  This quilt came from a magazine and finishes at 59" x 59".  It called for a different amount of fabric, but I was able to make it perfectly with 13 fat quarters from my stash!  I bought the fat quarters at the same time and loved how they all worked together even though they were from two different fabric lines.  Mixing fabric lines takes me way outside my comfort zone, but I'm really happy how this turned out.  I love the pop of green too!

I quilted the quilt with simple horizontal wavy lines.  I got a little frustrated at the small bobbles in the quilting due to maneuvering the full quilt side to side and having to re-position my hands so many times, but overall the quilt came out really cute and the amount of time I spent on it was reasonable.

This quilt is ready to be basted.  It was really fun making these blocks and I can see myself using some of these in other quilts in the future.  I'd like to quilt this myself, but since its almost a queen size, that is going to take me a while....stay tuned.  I might end up sending this to my mom if time doesn't work on my side.