X-Plus Masterpiece Quilt from Simply Pieced

I am so in love with this X-Plus Masterpiece quilt!!!!!  In love!!  It is made by Janet from Simply Pieced.  I absolutely love her use of color.  Make sure to check out her other super cute finished quilts and her blog, Simply Pieced.

The anticipation of finishing this quilt has been such a motivation for me.  It was always a side project since it didn't have a deadline and it was a personal quilt for myself, but I was determined to finish it up before the Christmas projects started.

For this quilt, I used every single Denise Schmidt collection fabric I could find at Joann's within this color scheme.  I slowly started collecting these fabrics over a year ago in 1/4 yard increments.   Every time I stepped into the store, I would swing by the DS collection aisle and see if there was anything new and snatch it up.

I knew I wanted a scrappy feel for this quilt, which the x-plus quilt pattern lends itself to nicely, but I also wanted to create a sense of order.  I wasn't sure if using the oranges and yellows to highlight the plus signs would work out, but I was blown away once I saw the blocks come together.   

The various shades of blues and grays also add a lot of texture to the quilt top.

The quilt back is all the scraps.  I just started piecing everything together and this is what I came up with.  I didn't really have much of a plan when I started, but I really love how it turned out. 

The binding utilizes the orange and yellow fabrics to tie it all together.  I thought about going with a solid binding, but the patterned fabric was just too much fun to pass up.

This quilt simply makes me smile.  I've already snuggled under it on the couch and it is proudly displayed on my quilt rack in my sewing room.

Fresh Lemon Quilts Kaleidoscopic Kites quilt...

Faith from Fresh Lemon Quilts made up this darling colorful quilt and we just loved it. The colors really pop! Plus, she offers it as a free pattern on her blog here. How awesome is that?  We love her colorful blog, she has some amazing projects and patterns. Go check her out! Thanks Faith!

I am very excited to have this latest quilt finished to share with you. I plannedthis one last month and instantly knew this would be a great choice as my second free quilt pattern to offer on my blog.

It really is a rainbow of color. Although my 4 year old is quite disturbed that I did not include purple. Honestly I just don’t have a lot of purple fabric. No fear, you can always replace the brown with purple if you’d like.

This is a great quilt for beginners. The cutting is easy. Each block only has 4 pieces so they go together rather quickly, especially if you are chain piecing. I used a variety of fabrics from my stash in order to have a scrappy look, but I think this pattern would look just as nice with solids, or all fabrics from one collection such as Denyse Schmidt’s Katie Jump Rope.

The backing is my new favorite style of giant randomly placed blocks of fabric. I dug into my out of print fabric stash that I have been hanging on to – it felt good to really use it in large chunks. Kind of like spring cleaning for the fabric soul. The binding is an old print from Anna Maria Horner’s Garden Party line. This was the only print I had from the line and have been wondering what to do with it for awhile now, so again, it was good to see it in action. I quilted this one free motion style. The final size is about 63″ x 72″. It will be listed in the shop shortly.

I am finalizing the graphics and details for the pattern for this one and will post it probably no later than tomorrow! I hope you will come back and make one yourself. As always, you can find links to my patterns on the right column of this page, or by clicking on the Quilt + Patchwork Patterns tab at the top.

Super cute Heather Ross quilt....

Sara from Sew Sweetness created this super duper darling Heather Ross quilt I am SO jealous of! I love it. She has so many of Heather Ross prints that are super hard to find, and if you do, you will have to sell an arm and a leg to get them. Make sure to check out Sara's blog, really cute stuff!

I just finished my Heather Ross quilt and I couldn't be more excited! A small group of us banded together for a Heather Ross Quilt Along. Some people used other fabrics than Heather Ross, which was just fine! Everyone in the group was so supportive of each other...it was amazing! The tutorial used was the Boxed In quilt pattern by Freckled Whimsy. I also used this McKinley quilt tutorial from OCD: Obsessive Crafting Disorder for the sashing and the lovely band near the bottom of the quilt.

So, first of all, I could not have made this quilt without my friend, Kim, who sent me pieces of her entire Heather Ross collection, including bits of Munki Munki pajama pants. Kim is so generous and selfless, it's unbelievable. She sent me both of the goldfish prints and some dots for Christmas, and the rest later when we decided we were going to make this quilt. As a matter of fact, her grandson is due any day now, and look at the cute little Heather Ross outfits she just made for him!

Outfits that Kim made for her new grandson!

And as a matter of fact, Kim's daughter-in-law joined the quilt along, too, and she started on a Heather Ross play mat for the new baby! Isn't it the cutest?!

Heather, the mother-to-be, is working on this quilt top! Isn't she amazing?!

Oh man, I've got the warm and fuzzies now. :-) Anyway, so my quilt, I just finished it. I used Heather Ross fabrics for the inside of the squares (no print used more than once), for a total of 42 blocks. For the outside of the squares, I used a variety of Kona solids in really bright colors. Along the way, I hemmed and hawed about the use of these solids, but seeing the finished quilt, I think I made the right choice.

Spray basting the quilt in my grandmother's living room, because she has the space for this, lol!

For the back of the quilt, I used a polka dot cotton shower curtain that I got at Target on clearance for only $7! The shower curtain was 72" x 72", so I made it a little bit bigger by cutting it and adding strips of Heather Ross Mendocino prints in pinks and orange.

The back of the quilt: mermaids and octopi and seahorses, oh my!

This was a very easy quilt pattern to assemble. Easy, but beautiful, and the added tutorial from OCD: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder has a great impact, I think. If you're new to quilting, this would be a great quilt to start out with. I like that the blocks are wonky, but if you are more of a symmetrical girl, you could also make one like Heather did for her baby's play mat. I quilted it using wavy lines, 2 inches apart, thanks to Megan at Canoe Ridge Creations, who helped me out and answered all my questions after I saw her Sliced Coin Quilt. Wow, thank goodness for those wavy lines, I only had to quilt in one direction. The one part I hate about making quilts was accomplished much faster! Yay!

I bound the quilt using four different colorways of Heather Ross dots from the 'Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries' line. I didn't have enough to do the binding in one single color, but I think it's sort of cool with the alternating dots.

My daughter, Violet, and I enjoying the quilt.

The best part about this quilt is that I used so many different tutorials to make it...it just goes to show what an inspiration all the blogs out there in blogland are! Everyone is so creative and individual!

I'm so happy that this is finished...now on to the next quilt!!

Spinning Coins Quilt Tutorial

This is a quilt I finished up over Christmas, and today I'm giving you all the details so you can make one too!

I really really super adore this fabric, all of it.  How can you look at it and not be happy??  Seriously, whales, polka dots, argyle (oh argyle), owls...pears...I love it all.

I got this gorgeous fabric from Jody

It is a combination of fabrics from designer Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman

Remix, Metro Market and Urban Zoologie

Materials Needed:

• 6-8 fat quarters for the coins and pinwheels (the colored strips)
•  1 yard white cotton for sashing and borders
• 2/3 yard for binding
• 2 yards for backing

Any Nigel fans?  He's checking you out from the left, half-way up :)

this tutorial is assuming 44" width fabric and 1/4" seams

Step 1: Create 4 (or more) pinwheel blocks, finished size 8 inches.

Step 2: Cut fat quarters to 8 inches wide and a variety of lengths.  I just eyeballed it and made three piles of short, medium and tall strips.

Step 3: Sew three rows together using pinwheel blocks and fat quarter strips, each row should finish at 51 1/2" long.

the measurements above are from the finished quilt, figuring in the 1/4" seam

Step 4: Cut 5 inch strips in fabric width (44") from the white cotton.  Using the photo as a guide, sew coin rows to the white strips, one on each side and all together.

Step 5: Sew a 5 inch white cotton strip to the top and bottom of your quilt top.

And you've got your quilt top!  Easy Peasy!

Jody sent this fabulous pink polka dot backing, and trust me this quilt is going to a home with many many girls, it'll be a hit :)

I used straight line quilting pattern for this. On the coin strips I stitched approx. 1" apart, and on the white sashing I stitched 2-3" apart.

And this binding, I need more. I have never been more pleased with a binding!  See these rainbow stripes??  It's already inspired me for another quilt.

Finished Quilt Size: 40 1/2" x 60", lap size

Fabric line: Remix, Metro Market and Urban Zoologie by Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman and 100% white cotton

I got all of this gorgeous fabric from Fabric Shoppe

Quilting: Straight-line

Who is this quilt for?: You!  This is a perfect beginners quilt, especially if you want to challenge yourself by trying more piecing (ie pinwheels) but not so much piecing it's intimidating.  This is a great quilt for scraps.  This is a great quilt to finish in a weekend.

*Please let me know if you have any questions or if anything is unclear.

*Please send us pictures of your finished quilt!  We'd love to see!  Send us an email myquiltstory{at}gmail{dot}com

*Please give us credit if you do use this pattern and post about it.  This is intended for personal use, making this as a gift is okay, but please do not to sell the pattern or quilts.

Thanks mommy for your beautiful home as a backdrop!

(and dad, but let's be honest, he doesn't even know what a blog is)

Love birds wedding quilt from Pickledish...

Okay I am in LOVE with this quilt and I wish Lesly was my friend and she could have made it for me as a wedding present, or just for my birthday! I am not normally drawn to these vivid colors, I am normally a muted tones type of girl...not neutrals, just soft colors...in my fabric choices, and on my walls. Anyhow, I saw this post and asked Lesly of Pickledish if we could pretty please feature it, and she kindly said yes. Lesly is one of those girls with eleventy billion finished quilts on her sidebar. (Oh how I wish to be one of those girls) go check her out for some great quilts!

This one went down to the wire, friends! I stayed up very late to finish the quilting and sew the binding to the quilt sandwich.

I watched many episodes of The Jewel in the Crown while I was doing the FMQ - I had forgotten what a good series that was! It was a pleasure to see it again. I couldn't finish off the binding - I was seeing double by the time it was sewn to the quilt top, and it was 3am before I found my bed. I forced myself out of bed at 7 to baste the binding and then sew it on. I don't know how people manage to machine-sew binding on when it is held in place with pins - my hat is off to them!

I would have hand-stitched the binding in place, since it was for a wedding present, but there was no time. As it was, I packed my overnight case while the quilt was in the wash, and took my shower while it was in the dryer. I whisked it outdoors for some quick photos while my husband was tapping his foot and looking pointedly at his watch.

We raced down the 401 to Toronto and checked into the wedding hotel - which, as it happens, was the same hotel where we spent our wedding night, 24 years ago!

I was very happy with the label for this quilt. I printed it on one of those Printed Treasures sheets, and then pieced it into the back, with a piece of the linen showing the two lovebirds. I've used these printing cotton sheets before, but this is the first time I've pieced in into the back. I like it!

The groom has been a friend of ours for many years. This was his second marriage, and his son and daughter were the only attendants. I had never met the bride, and I hoped she liked purple. While I felt fairly sure that Denys would like it, I had certainly been second guessing myself as I put this together - what on earth was I thinking, making such a hugely and utterly purple quilt for a woman I had never met! Purple isn't everyone's cup of tea - maybe she would be a purple-hater! Imagine my relief to see that the underslip to her elegant lace gown was a beautiful soft purple!

Thank you much Lesly, I am sure you have inspired many with this beautiful quilt. I hope they all loved it , and I hope you got alot of ooohhhs and ahhhssss...  make sure to visit pickledish.

And we still have our amazing fabric giveaway courtesy of Ladybug Quilt shop going on here, so make sure you've entered!

Purple Wonky Quilt by Merry Made Quilts

Rebecca from Merry Made Quilts created this oh so happy purple quilt for her grandpa. It really caught my eye because I've been going back to the days were I love purple!  I love the look of this wonky bento box, very fun and refreshing.  And what's more?  This girl likes to hand quilt!  Amazing! Hop on over to her blog to read about her love of fabrics, quilting and her cute kiddos.

Never, mind the crazy baby in the background!!

Over the course of about 3 months (mostly evenings) I hand quilted this lapsized quilt. I really enjoy the look of a hand quilted quilt. They just look so much more cuddly!

I made this one from scraps of purple mostly from Joanne's fabric, some from my mom's stash, some from mine. I love the feel of a "wonky" quilt so that's why I chose to do a variation of a wonky bento box.

There are a ton of examples of this online so after some blog cruising I decided to make it up as I went! I made this one for my Grandpa because he LOVES purple. That's his favorite color and I decided it would make great payment for a wooden quilt hanging he recently made for me!

I think my favorite part of a finish (besides getting to start the next) is the photo shoot!!

I just love the feeling of accomplishing something!

Linking to amylouwho

 

Thanks Rebecca.  I still can't believe you hand quilt...so talented. :)

 

AND be sure to check back Monday!!  Some of you may have noticed our new sponsor in the corner, Ladybug Quilt Shop...she has an absolutely amazing FABRIC GIVEAWAY for you on Monday.  And there will be more than one winner, so check back!

Lavendar Quilt finish FRESH POPPY DESIGN

Hi, it is me from FRESH POPPY DESIGN...our other great blog, where we show off all our other crafting, quilting, and decor projects. Come check us out...

I have to interupt all the great quilt stories to bring you my (Heather) latest finish...If you know me at all I have ADD. I can't focus on one thing. I want to go from one thing to the next and some projects take me years to finish, or sometimes I just don't finish it at all...

This one I was proud of...

Here is the beginning stash...you can read about it here

Here is the finished quilt top...you can read about it here

The basic story behind this quilt is that I realized if I take a few minutes here and there when I can focus my ADD.  I can sew a stack of blocks. Or I can pin a pile of fabric while I am watching a show with my husband. Or I can iron a little pile in the 15 minutes while I am waiting for the carpool to pick up my daughter and have to be downstairs anyway. I always think I need 4-5 hours in peace, maybe a girl's craft weekend, Or a late night. But if I take advantage of the 15-20 minutes I can sneak off and do each day, I can actually accomplish a quilt rather quickly.

So here you have the final product...

This is going into my daughter's room after I finally finish the nursery they are next!

Check out the gorgeous quilting done by my fabulous nice Aunt. Love her! Love her quilting!

Details: Pattern from Livin' Large by Anka's Treasures. Designer Heather Mulder Peterson. Pattern "Modern Day Diamonds"

Fabrics: Most from Little House by FreeSpirit. Various other lavendar prints.

Thanks for looking. linking to amylouwho.
Heather