Garden Trellis Quilt from Fresh Lemons

Faith from Fresh Lemons is an amazingly talented quilter.  If you've never been by Fresh Lemons grab a snack and head on over :)  You'll be there for a while.  Today we're featuring her Garden Trellis quilt, which is also a pattern. I love the style of this quilt and the colors, it's fabulous!   Also see her amazing finished quilts gallery, clothing finishes and patterns & tutorials.  Enjoy! :)

Really quick…if you didn’t catch my post over the weekend, this afternoon I am going to be on Pat Sloan’s American Patchwork and Quilting radio show! Read Saturday’s post to see the details – I hope you all will tune in!

So, yeaaaa! I finally finished my Echo quilt! I loved Lotta Jansdotter’s Echo fabric from the moment I saw it. It matches my family room perfectly and I knew I wanted to make something with most of the line. I decided on log cabin blocks, set on point.

I took the quilt to my favorite local barn for pictures, isn’t it pretty?

I quilted this in a meandering free motion style and it measures 58″ x 68″. For the back, I used some blocks of white, Kona Ash, and one of the larger scale Echo prints.

And now for the reason this quilt took me longer to post…I developed anew pattern for it!

The pattern includes lots of detail – cutting diagrams, assembly diagrams, quilt top assembly diagrams. If you’ve never put quilt blocks on point, there are directions that you can use with any blocks. I hope you will check it out! It is available for instant download in my quilt pattern shop. It’s also available in my Etsy store and Craftsy pattern shop.

Great quilt finish from Quokka Quilts...

Great quilt finish from Quokka Quilts, and fun story, some of these quilts take a while to finish...even 12 years!  Ahhh, look at the puppy patches on the quilt! We introduced Quokka Quilts last week, with the competition from Fat Quarter shop, read up on it here...Make sure to visit her blog, and be sure to view her finished quilts...

TFIFF (or almost Friday) - Genesis of a quilter

No, TFIFF is not a typo. I'm just SO freaking relieved this is finished. It has taken a lifetime. Literally. This guy's lifetime:

Patches when quilt was started

Patches when quilt finished (yesterday)

Let me tell you a story...

1999: Girl gets Elna sewing machine as present. Girl decides to learn to quilt. On her own. (This is before the internet got big, when we learnt quilting from stone tablets these things called books).
2000: Girl starts a quilt involving triangles, cuts with scissors, buys polyester fabrics and poly batting. It ends up in the Salavation Army bin. Salvation Army gives it to the Lost Dogs home (for all I know). Girl gets puppy and names him Patches after new hobby.

2002: Girl takes classes, discovers applique and starts baby quilt for pregnant sister in law. Finishes quilt. Feels triumphant. Has BRILLIANT idea of designing own KING SIZE quilt as wedding present for friends. Finishes top in time for wedding (regularly tested by Patches). Grinds to halt.

Girl discovers fitting King size quilt through baby-size Elna potentially similar to giving birth. Takes 3 years to complete in-ditch quilting. Grinds to halt.

2003-2007: Couple intended as quilt receipients have first child. Girl thinks "gosh/darn/damn/crap/s$&#*/[insert increasingly rude word for each year here], I really should finish that quilt".
2008 - Girl gets Bernette. Girl discovers fitting King size quilt through standard size Bernette is still only slightly more feasible (and a lot less fun) than trying to fit camel through eye of a needle. Grits teeth and wrestles quilt through for straightline in-the-ditch quilting, bit by painful bit. Girl is faced by insurmountable problem of how to finish off quilting given large triangles of blank space. Grinds to halt.


2009-2010 - Girl either:
a) acts like dog that has had encounter with particularly nasty cat and pretends not to notice quilt every time she opens spare-room door or
b) wastes inordinate amounts of time pondering what to do with blank spaces in quilt.

2010: Original intended recipients of quilt celebrate 10th wedding anniversary.

2011: Girl suffers quilt induced nervous breakdown, buys new sewing machine with BIG space and extension table, works out what to do with the big triangular gaps in the quilt, starts TGIFF with M-R and FINISHES THE FREAKING THING.

So THAT, my friends, is why it is a TFIF Friday instead of a TGIF Friday.

Thank FREE-MOTIONQUILTING It's Finished Friday!
(That was what you thought the F stood for, wasn't it?)

Enough teasing, here are the proper photos. (For Giles, it's a black homespun solid with stars in very bright, marbled colours, set on diamond points, with little 1.5" squares crisscrossing diagonally across the quilt around each star. One very thin border with all the rainbow colours graduating and melding from red through orange, yellow, green, to blue, to purple, to pink and back again to red, all the way around, with a wider black border to finish off. Which is why it's called a jewelbox quilt - the colours fairly sparkle.)

Held up by camera assistant

Before nearly falling off wall with camera

Late afternoon sun on quilt in my bedroom

(I didn't get to wash it as it didn't fit in the washing machine!!! But I did sleep under it last night - first night sleeping under my own quilt!)

I have climbed Jacob's Ladder quilt....

Do you love this quilt! I love the contrast of the lights and blacks. Very well done! Rachel from The life of Riley made this gorgeousness! Check out this list of tutorials, I really like the grid mini quilt tutorial. And here are some finishes, go have a visit...

 The front and bindings are all batiks.

 I received 13 blocks and made 20. I would have made more, but I ran out of the green, plus I really like the layout.

 12 mitered corners.  That's a lot of sewing, un-sewing, and re-sewing to get them matched up.  Some went together the first time.  There was one seam I did four times.

 Green straight line quilting in the black areas.

 Black straight line quilting in the block areas.

 The back is a Kona cotton in black.  I just love the texture of the quilting lines.  Someday I will do a whole cloth quilt.

I just couldn't make this one fit in the layout, so he's high lighted on the back.

Selvage Quilt by From Three to Insanity

Quilt Market is officially over!  Although by the looks of all the things we dragged into Heather's craft room we'll be working for several more hours.  It's been fun and exhausting.  We have run the gamut of emotions from giddy to crying!!  We met up with a lot of really amazing people and cannot wait to share some pictures and stories with you.  But we're saving that for a couple more days so we can restore some peace to our lives :)

Today we've got Julie of From Three to Insanity.  She's got a great selvage quilt to share....so eye catching!  I love how she's got each block in it's own color, so cute.  After you check out her feature, stop by her shop and see the darling little dresses and other goodies she sells.

It's done!! The Selvage Quilt is done!!

I don't even know where to begin. I am so glad to have this one done - it really was a labor of love. I wish that the photos did it justice, but there are so many tiny details in each piece of selvage that so much gets lost in a picture. I love looking at each individual square, each tiny scrap of fabric, and each memory that goes with that fabric.


The quilt was made using string squares 8" squares, 80 in all, that are sashed in Kona Navy. On average, each square has about 14 selvages, which means that I used upwards of 1,100 strips of selvage. The flannel backing is All Star Blue Dots by Riley Blake. Binding is Alexander Henry's Raindrop Stripe (thank you Amber, for that awesome call).


This was sent to the long-arm quilter - there was no way that I was going to risk unsightly puckers on this quilt. The quilting is slightly more dense than I though it would end up, but I do like the way the pattern plays off of the diamond pattern of the string blocks.

(The color is way off here, but you can see the quilting design easily.)

This quilt was initially intended to be a lap quilt, but I was talked into making it a twin size - the finished size is 68"x85". Because I will still probably use it to cuddle on the couch with my sweetie and because I like some serious heft in my blankets, I had the quilter use two layers of batting when she quilted it. This quilt is seriously heavy - maybe a bit more so than I had intended. That said, it's going to be awesome come next winter.


A huge thank you to everyone who traded or donated selvages for this project - I couldn't have done it without you. Thank yous also to everyone who supported me as I obsessed, complained, and sewed (a lot!) through this project.

Prairie Points of Interest Quilt, so creative!

I recently moved from Missouri to Arizona.  My mom visited me in both places...and they are very different.  The funniest thing is each time she comes to visit she asks me things like, "What kinds of vegetation grows here?" "What's the story behind that non-remarkable landmark?"  Um...I have no idea!  I've since told her that she's welcome to go to the visitor's center whenever she wants!   Makes me giggle. :)  Well Helen from RobinStar Quilting wanted to make a quilt that represents where she lives.  I love how she put it together, so creative!!  You'll love this quilt, especially you Texans, y'all love your state :)

I have wanted to make a quilt that represents where I live in the

Texas Panhandle.  For a while I have had images of quilt designs

floating around in my head and I finally bought some fabric and got

inspired to come up with my "Prairie Points of Interest" quilt.   In

this design the center focus blocks represent the wild vegetation that

is naturally treeless, the flying geese are representative of the

Canadian Geese that migrate to this area over the winter (they are

everywhere, and I love it), the circles show the 'Playa Lakes' that

abound in the region, the stripes are the furrows of the countless

fields that are planted in corn, cotton, sunflowers, or wheat, and the

open spaces convey the feeling of openness that surrounds the high

plains.  I intended for it to have a modern feel to it and the

vertical quilting maintains that feeling.  I am really pleased with it

and proud of myself for doing it.  I even put a label on the back,

yeah!

 

Castle Peeps Circle quilt from Splendorfalls...

This quilt comes to us from Mary Clair of the fabulous splendorfalls one of our block party winners. I really like how these circles really pop out against the black. Check our her website. Super cute projects like this pillow. And her sewing and quilt link is a fun look through... Just a bright cheery quilt for a Monday morning.

 It's finally done.  Phew.
This was one of those quilts that evolved into it's final form as opposed to executing a vision.  First it was going to be raw edge solid Castle Peeps circles.  Then it was appliqued solid Peeps circles.  Then it was back to raw edges again but I had already cut the solid circles, which now were too big since I wasn't going to applique them.  That's when I decided to quarter them and sew them back together.
I'm sure I'm not the only one this happens to?

  I bit the bullet and free motion quilted this one; all I can say is thank goodness it's hard to see black on black!  It was my first real free motion adventure outside some practice swatches.  I joked with my St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild friends that they weren't allowed to look at it up close.{wink}
It's more practical that perfect and I think that's okay.

I do think the overall quilt turned out pretty cute though!

Can anyone tell me why black fabric is such a fuzz magnet?  Seriously!  Didn't help with the raw edges either; I think I used an entire lint roller on this thing.

I used a cheerful green Kona for the binding and pieced in my practice appliqued circles for the back! 

My sister in law is the recipient of this quilt and I'm happy for her to have it.

Calypso Swing Quilt

Today I've got the first Quilt Story for the year 2011, yahoo!!  One of our new readers, Cara from The Official Mark Cesarik Fabric Fansite, sent us a link to her first quilt (seriously so many people make amazing first quilts!).  Not only is it her first, not only did the design it herself, but her fiance is the designer of the fabric!!  Talk about a match!  Here's Cara:

I finished my first quilt last night! I really love how it turned out. Quilting is addicting - I think I'm hooked. I fell even more in love with Calypso Swing through making this quilt. The designs looks really great together if I may say so myself... I'm trying to convince Mark he should started quilting but he doesn't want to. Oh well - more fabric for me

The back of the quilt is just large rectangles of fabric pieced together. Next time I want to do something a little more fun for the back.

I designed the quilt to show off the fabric "Shuffle" and hand-quilted to emphasize the circular pattern.

Along the rest of the quilt, I hand-quilted circles.

Thank you for all of your help and suggestions with binding. I actually really ended up enjoying the process of sewing the binding onto the quilt. My mitered corners could use a little help, but I'm sure I'll get better with each quilt.

If anyone is interested in the pattern for this quilt, I am happy to write a tutorial. Just leave a comment to let me know. Thanks for looking!