Granny Squares Quilt finish....FINALLY!

Hello again, Heather here. I think I am the last person on the planet to finish a granny squares quilt. I loved them when they first came on the scene. I just had a hard time finishing. I wanted tons of variety, and I was being really selective about prints. I LOVE how it turned out. So much!

Sweet Logan from Chocolate Dipped Quilts quilted this for me. I am MORE than happy with how it turned out. I love the orange peel design she die throughout all the sashing. She made all the white really pop, and somehow the contrast is even stronger than before the quilting.

I love this quilt, and it was nice meeting Logan from Chocolate Dipped Quilts twice. She was really sweet to me, a perfect stranger, and I cried to her on the side of the freeway when we first met to swap the quilt. My Dad was in the hospital, and I was just so scared. She asked if I was off to do some Christmas shopping, when actually I was off to the hospital. I was so caught off guard I just cried to her. She gave me a really sweet hug, and words of advice. Just love this quilting community. 

This photo was after the first wash and drying. When all the quilting really shows. LOVE

PS this quilt is for me. Not my children. It looks like a baby quilt, but it is mine. I love pinks, yellows and blues, and super love pastels. 

A close up of the granny block. She did a large flowerish design. Really neat. 

Also, I did the snuggly soft rosette minky on the back. So soft and warm. I love it so. 

One of my favorite finishes to date. 

Hope you like this quilt as much as I do. Thanks again Chocolate Dipped Quilts, I love this quilt, and it was nice meeting you twice. Logan was really sweet to me, a perfect stranger, and I cried to her on the side of the freeway when we first met to swap the quilt. My Dad was in the hospital, and I was just so scared. She asked if I was off to do some Christmas shopping, when actually I was off to the hospital. I was so caught off guard I just cried to her. She gave me a really sweet hug, and words of advice. Just love this quilting community. 

P's Double Pinwheel String Quilt

Paulette from The Way I Sew It has a great quilt to share today, and not only that but a tutorial too so you can make your own!  I love the color combos in this quilt, light blues and reds can really do it for me!  And, she figured out how to make this quilt all on her own...seriously.  Make sure to check out her cute blog, look at these cute potholders she just whipped up!  Nice!  Now on to the quilt:

Double Pinwheel String Quilt

Back in late winter, when the sky and remaining snow cover were often the same shade of gray, I dreamed of making this colorful double pinwheel string quilt. It was pictured in a book called String Quilts with Style, by Bobbie Aug and Sharon Newman, and it was just that—a picture. There were no instructions for this particular quilt. It was just a gallery example of an awesome string quilt.

 

 

Personally, I think ALL string quilts are awesome. I’ve never met one I didn’t like, a LOT. I feel the same way about pinwheel quilts. And scrappy quilts…and bold color? Bring it on! This quilt hit all my happy buttons!

 

 

Without instructions and just the photo for reference, I was left to fly by the seat of my pants. So I busted out the old plastic protractor to determine the angle of the inner red pinwheel, did some fiddling to create a template, and away I went.

 

I used all kinds of scraps for the strings—modern, traditional, vintage—which were pieced onto paper ripped out of the phone book. The blue fabric in the pinwheel blocks was a vintage fabric found at the thrift store. I ran short when it came time for the border, but fortunately there was a Kona blue that was an almost perfect match. It was quilted by my long arm quilter, Sandy, with multicolored variegated thread in an allover design that reminds me of windblown pinwheels.

You can find the details of how to make this quilt on my blog. I posted a four-part tutorial here. And if you make one, let me know—I’d love to see it!

linking to amylouwho

Thank you, Heather and Megan for the invitation to share this quilt on Quilt Story!

 

Thanks so much Paulette!  We really love this quilt and were so happy you would share :)

How to support your quilting addiction...

We've got another happy and bright quilt to inspire ya'll!  Danielle from Nacho Mama is sharing one of her many finished quilts with us today.  I love the prints and colors, it just seems so cozy!  She has recently revamped her blog so you must check it out.  She has a great collection of finished projects and quilts to go ga-ga over.  Here's her Mary Englebreit quilt:

Thank you, Heather and Megan, for having me on Quilt Story. The quilt shown does not have a name, nor does it have a label, and neither do any of the quilts I've made the last 17 years, unfortunately, but it does have a story that I'm proud to tell.

I've wanted a long arm forever, and finally, last December, I bought one. The inevitable happened. I found myself buying tons of fabrics for quilts that went together quickly (so that I could play on the long arm). In April, I looked at our family budget so that I could put us on an intense family savings plan (to buy a farm). I looked at our past two bank statements trying to get a gauge on how much I was spending and on what. The short version is that I was spending the equivalent of two car payments a month on fabric, consistently. Then the guilt set in since I felt like I was stealing from our family. At what point do you draw the line between hobby and addiction?

From that point forward, I decided that I must find a way for my hobby to pay for itself. I bought business cards, contacted the LQS about teaching for them, decided to take on machine quilting for other people, etc. Out of the blue, a friend of the family contacted me about a quilt that I had mentioned months before, back when it was just a top. She ended up buying the quilt, which wasn't actually for sale-- my first big sale since deciding to support my own hobby. After this happened, I was consigned to make ten quilts-- from start to finish. Along with all the long arming I'm doing, I'm definitely supporting my own addiction.

This quilt was one that was made using a layer cake (plus fabric for the border) in a mystery class at my LQS. This quilt was simple since it was just half square triangles, and it went together in very little time. The fabric used was Mary Engelbreit's Recipe for Friendship, and the quilting design is just a bunch of loops.

Thank you so much Danielle aka Nacho Mama :)  Linking with AmyLouWho.