Penny and Fletcher Pictorial Quilt from Penny Dos Patchwork

Amazing quilt today from Kerry of Penny Dos Patchwork.  I am sooo intrigued by pictorial quilts, it's hard for me to wrap my brain around!  Kerry dabbles in lots of creative ventures, editing magazines, designing boots, making chocolates and now patchwork!  To get the full story see here to see the start of the freezer paper template.  See here for the dogs complete in applique and see here for the finished top.  Kerry sent this quilt to a competition show and you can see here for the judges results!!  Thanks for sharing Kerry!!

It’s finally done, the binding is on, the sleeve has been sewn onto the back, the paint has been set, my label is attached and it’s in the post…

I’ve pretty much dedicated my weekend to this quilt. Aside from housework, a jaunt to Morrisons, a nap, reading Giant George’s book, watching Snakes on a Plane again and cooking roast beef, this is what I’ve been doing.

Saturday saw me finish the quilting after finally getting to grips with the free motion pre-flight checks I had to run on the machine, then Sunday morning was the painting and doubt stage (thank you to everyone who gave me feedback on the painting!), by lunch time I had set the paint and by tea I had sewn on the binding, made the sleeve (using this tutorial) and sewn that on too. By bedtime the label was tacked to the back and the threads had been tidied up and lint rollered to remove real dog hairs. It’s being posted today!

I would probably make another one. I say that- I actually quite liked the process and WANT to make another one, I’m not yet sure of the subject matter though. I’m planning on selling the pattern from the next one I do so it will take a bit of thought. Maybe a puffin from my photos last week? Or the vintage HMV dog (if I don’t sell the pattern), or maybe even a landscape. I’m really not sure yet but if you have any ideas of something other people might want to make too, you know where the comments box is!

One month today and I will be seeing it on display at the Festival of Quilts! Are you going?

“Penny & Fletcher” Technical details:
Finished size 48.5″ x 30″
Technique: Machine Turned Edge Applique
Fabrics used: Mostly scraps from my box- I didn’t keep track of them all, but there is some Pezzy Print by American Jane, a scrap of my own fabric, some Meadow Friends by Deb Strain and a couple of grey fabrics from Ruby by Bonnie and Camille.
Paint: Pebeo Setacolor in transparent black (with lightener), transparent tan and transparent dark sienna.
Piecing: Madeira Monofilament
Quilting: Machine quilted in thread painting style on dogs, bubbles on noses, squiggles (and name) on white and straight line on blue. Gutermann thread, mostly 414 but some dark grey, tan, dark brown, black and a varigated Aurifil at one point.
Backing: Peach Klona cotton
Binding: White Klona cotton

Gingham Geese Quilt from The Life of Riley

Another fabulous finish to share from Rachel of The Life of Riley.  A sweet modern flying geese quilt! I myself just finished a flying geese quilt top...such a great block you can do so much with.  Rachel's a lot like us and probably many of you...stay at home mommy of four little ones, likes to cook, sew, craft!  My kinda girl :)  Check out her great tutorials and finishes from this year.

 This quilt ended up with Three names!

 Mr. Riley dubbed it The Mario Kart Quilt - because in the game you drive over arrows to speed you up.

 I dubbed it the Bubble Wrap quilt after all the circles were quilted in.

 Officially I think I would call it Gingham Geese.

 It went to my sister, who just turned Thirty!  I figured there was no way a mostly white quilt would survive long in this house.

 It is backed with a woven turquoise gingham.  Nice and soft!  Bound in a solid magenta.  Final measurements: 49" x 69" (I think.  I wrote it down, but of course now I can't find it! Grr!)  Anyway, its a good couch snuggling size.  Not quite twin.

A huge Thank You to Elizabeth at Occasional Piece-Quilt - who sent me the gingham and got me going! 

Love of Solids Wall Quilt, awesome!

Leanne from She Can Quilt is very talented, no doubt! Just check our her newest finish, Kaleidoscope Quilt, amazing!  I love looking through her posts or her flickr account, very inspiring.  And today's quilt...I love this quilt, it makes me want to go out of my comfort zone!

I have finished the wall quilt I am making for my secret partner in the Love of Solids [a modern swap]. It is 29.75" x 21.25". The fabric is an assortment of Kona solids, some are the organic solids, some are the regular. There are two different Essex linen or linen/cottons as well.

The spiral pattern was made using the Parfait Cafe tutorial here.

This quilt had several inspirations. I hope you might be reminded of the beach - logs, water, shells, sand, plant life, and also the movement at the beach.

 

I think you will see some of my inspiration in these beach pictures.

The pixelated squares, or sun-shattered views, or whatever you might see, are made of squares that finish at 1". The boards on the deck are 5"wide to give you a bit of scale.

I quilted it heavily. It has not been washed, and still you get a lot of quilty puffing. You might have a glimpse of sunbaked, ocean tossed distressed wood, sand, shells, and water.

Here is the back, which is a piece of Essex Linen or maybe their linen/cotton blend, I cannot remember. I used thread from 3 different spools of hand-dyed thread from Valdani Inc. - backyard honeycomb, subtle elegance and silver foam. This thread is a dream to work with and is made from a beautiful highly mercerized long staple cotton.

The quilting is by machine, echoing the patterns, somewhat randomly and not perfectly, much like the distressing nature causes.

The binding was interesting. I wanted the front to finish without any edges but I wanted the quilting to show on the back. I considered this tutorial by Lisa Call, combined with this tutorial by Kerry at Verykerryberry, to come up with this. The part you see on the back is about 3/4". If anyone wants a tutorial for what I did exactly, let me know. It hangs nicely with pins, I have to add some kind of hanger to the back, in case my partner is partial to using a dowel or a wire for hanging.

I just love it - it is going to be very hard to send it away, but I have plans for another one or maybe several more, similar but different, for me. Thanks to my friend Marianne at The Quilting Edge, for encouraging me on this project, I think I have managed to really stretch and I am very happy with where it has taken me.

Owls for Jett from Jaclyn Quilts

I love seeing boy quilts, having two myself I just am drawn to all things boy I guess!  I love seeing new fabrics, color combinations and patterns geared towards the little guy.  I love the quilt that Jaclyn from Jaclyn Quilts created as a gift.  The prints, design and color choices are so great for a little boy, and can grow up with him too! ...AND she has only been sewing for a little more than a year.  WHAT??  I had been sewing for 10 years before I tried to quilt!!  Take a minute to check out her blog and her flickr for some fun modern takes on quilting!

This quilt was made for the son of my wonderful wedding photographer, Nathan Walker. Him and his wife saw some of my quilts and asked if I would make one for their almost 2 year old son and I was happy to do it! Then then told me they wanted twin-sized. Eeeekk! I had second thoughts…actually not really, it was the kick in the pants I needed to try a bigger project.

We went through some fabric and decided on the main fabric and design together. Once again this is a variation on a pattern from Oh, Fransson! I have made this pattern many times, from simple modern baby quilts, because I love the pattern and apparently so does everyone else. So taking Elizabeth Hartman’s basic block I constructed a much larger quilt and improvised the back.

Now that the quilt is safe and sound with its new owners here is how it turned out.

Front:

Back:

Quilting (Done by my favourite long-arm quilter):

Binding and new label:

I really love the way this one turned out and I love the Aviary 2 Wood Grain binding!

I hope they love it too.

Later this weekend I will post about the process of making the quilt.  Complete with rudimentary drawings!

FAB boy quilt from in my sewing room

When we got this submission from Kerrie of in my sewing room, Heather and I were won over!  Both of our "babies" are boys.  It's really fun for us that our kids that are the same age are all boys...although currently my boys boss Mr Weston around, hopefully in the future they'll be as BFF's as H and I!  Back to the great boy quilt, well...see for yourself!!...

When my sister and her family moved into their new home this summer she decorated my nephew Donovan's room with a "transportation” theme so I designed this quilt to go on his bed.  After eight months, in December 2010, I completed what I dubbed the Dump Truck quilt (actually called Convoy, from a Buggy Barn pattern).  It was originally to be a gift for my nephews 3rd birthday.... but since his birthday was in July that didn’t exactly happen!  I pieced most of the blocks in the spring and in the fall I finished sewing the quilt top together.

In November I bought a new sewing machine for quilting and began the huge job of quilting a full sized quilt.  I spent quite a bit of time searching on-line for the best design to use.  I decided to begin with the roads.  I did free-motion quilting and made a gravel pattern in circles.

Next I did a boxy stippling pattern around all the free area’s.  It took quite a while but it turned out exactly the way I’d hoped!

  I made a scrappy type binding and I absolutely loved the way it added to the overall look of the quilt.  As usual, my two cats were extremely helpful in breaking in the coziness of this quilt while I did the hand sewing on the binding!  Gotta love ‘em!

The trucks and tractors needed to be quilted as well.  So after the binding was done I went back and added stitch-in-the-ditch quilting to the tractors and dump trucks.  It was the perfect finish!

  

The best part was giving the quilt to Donovan and seeing the joy in his face when he opened his gift! 

  I have to say, I think  it was a perfect fit!

Thanks again Kerrie!  Make sure to stop by and say hi at in my sewing room.  She's really creative and a fun read!


PS Stay tuned for later today when we are having a Denyse Schmidt fabric giveaway!! You read that right, can't wait to share some with ya'll!! :)

FINISHED QUILT! FABRIC giveaway!

FRESH SQUEEZED FABRIC GIVEAWAY and TUTORIAL

and

I am finished! I did free motion stippling all around, and I LOVE it a lot! I did super tiny stitches, and it took me 4-5 hours. (is that embarrassing? do you all do it in like 45 minutes) It is the biggest quilt I have done. I am loving playing with my machines free motion quilting, plus, if I add my girl math, that is another $50 less the cost of my machine. (remember every time I machine quilt a quilt myself, I get to deduct $50 off what I paid for my machine) My husband said "soon I am going to be owing you money"...thats the spirit!  

Don't you just love the just out of the dryer crinkliness? (is that a word, I was sure it was, but spell check sure thinks it isn't)

EASY TUTORIAL

1. Create six dutch pinwheels here

2. Assemble the 6 pinwheels according to quilt photo.

3. Add 2" brown stop borders

5.  Add 6" outside borders

Finished quilt size 50 x 68

 Now on the the fun stuff!  Fresh Squeezed fabrics is giving away this stack of fat quarters that I used to make this quilt!

These are the fun fat quarters just waiting to jump in the mail to you from Randi at Fresh Squeezed Fabrics


 If you would like to win, you have three chances, leave a separate comment per entry:

• If you were stranded on a island, which celebrity do you want with you to repopulate the earth, what dessert would you bring, and what craft project...?
• Another comment if you are a follower 
• Peak on over to Randi's shop and tell us what you like...

ENTRIES FOR GIVEAWAY THROUGH MONDAY MARCH 7th, WINNER ANNOUNCED TUESDAY MARCH 8th.

This giveaway is now closed.

Fabric Tuesday #23

Heather and I are back together again!  Not only are we in the same city crafting, we're in the same house.  My two boy's and I have been making ourselves at home for over a week, and it's awesome!  And to celebrate, let's have 

Fabric Tuesday

edition 23

Our dear sweet mother came over Monday afternoon and we both whined for a nap. (We have been staying up til past 1 am crafting almost every night).  So she said "Sure." I told her I wouldn't mind if she assembled dinner for us either.  When Heather and I were rudely woken from our deep slumber 2 hrs later, our mom had made dinner, cleaned the kitchen, babysat our children, ironed Heather's pile of snowball blocks, cut my binding, and organized Heather's much needed tupperware cupboard.  Makes me want to nap again just listing all she did. Heather and I can't accomplish all that in one whole day together! We don't know how we were born from her uterus and not nearly as productive or organized as her!

Heather has a GORGeous quilt to show off today, isn't this a great quilt pattern?

This is the fabric I got from Fresh Squeezed fabrics. It is not my normal color choices at all, but I LOVE it. It is my favorite style of fabrics, vintage and floral. My heart always goes back to those. A couple months ago I posted this tutorial how to make the dutch pinwheel's. I finally got it all together, ready to quilt. I think I am going to attempt to quilt it myself, this would be the largest quilt thus far (scary) but I want to try.

Also, Fresh Squeezed Fabrics is going to do a GIVEAWAY of these great fabrics right here on Quilt Story so you could make one of your own!!  Stay tuned.

Here is a photo from the tutorial on how to piece the Dutch pinwheel block. Cute?

Sorry Mother dear for showing my quilt in front of my dead annual flower pots. Yes, I know you told me to move those to the garage. No I obviously didn't, and what is the point now? In no time you will be back over here replanting them for the spring!

FABRIC TUESDAY!

Edition 23

Link up a recent craft project that uses fabric...if you're new don't be shy!  This is for everyone.  Click the button to add your link at the bottom and link up a recent blog post where you used fabric to create or enhance something. Below are a few "rules" to play.

Mention us in your post with either a link or make it easy and add the button to your blog sidebar and you won't have to remember each week. ***You can take either our blog or our Fabric Tuesday buttons on the sidebar.***
PLEASE READ ME:
Most everyone does this, but please actually mention that you are linking up to Quilt Story in your post...even if you have the button on the sidebar there needs to be mention in the post :)  We've just seen a couple where we can't see any button or link to us and then we scroll way way down and there's the button...we want to make sure everyone knows so everyone can play!  Thank you!!

You don't have to do this to link up, promise. However if you want to follow us, we follow back :) But please comment telling us you did so and we will hop right on over and make sure we're following too!

And how about we each take time to comment on the link just before yours, that's easy enough right? We'd love for this to be a linky party where everyone gets comments, so if you take the time to look, take a second to leave a comment!

***We've been having problems with McLinky since it was changed to a paid subscription...he tried to do some system upgrade and it's been a little crazy.  SO if you are not seeing the linky try back a little later.  Cross your fingers!!

What projects have you been working on the last two weeks??