Broken Diamonds Quilt from Blueberry Patch

Love this quilt today from Cathy at Blueberry Patch, really striking.  I've never done an all solids quilt but I get tempted when I see awesome finishes like this! I've had an idea for one for my husband for a while, maybe I'll finally get around to it in cold DC! :)  Cathy has a lot of great finishes and she shares a lot of fun fabric and sewing projects on Blueberry Patch.  Thanks for sharing today!

I finished this the other day and hung it up on the barn for a few pictures.  This is Inspired Broken Diamonds and I am calling it that because I was inspired to make it after seeing this quilt on Kati's blog From The Blue Chair.  I found her Broken Diamonds quilt mesmerizing and I knew that I had to try it.  It took me awhile to get around to it but I did.  

So what did I do?  Lot of solids cut into strips in a variety of widths.  The strings are paper pieced in matching quarters and then sewn together with other matching quarters.  There are no repeats.  The "diamonds" are all different sizes for the most part.  Then the fun came when I put them together.  That was a bit of a construction project!  I had to sash the blocks in a way that allowed them to fit together.  Once that happened, I filled in the empty space with giant triangles and we were away to the races.  That was until I realized I had goofed with the orientation of the quilt and I had to un-sandwich it and tweak the quilt a bit so I had the blocks in the right orientation.  Long story.  Short story is it makes me happy.  There is one wee diamond in a different orientation.  Can you see it?  That was an oops but it is an okay oops.  The quilt advisor (a.k.a. Husband) thought the diamonds should have their lighter sides to the left as if the sun might be on them.  Do you see what I mean?  All the diamonds are in that orientation except the one little oops.  That one slipped by me somehow!  

The quilting is straight lines about an inch apart, in Aurifil 50 wt in white and I think it looks just great!  The binding is Kona Charcoal and I used some leftover solids on the back with Ikea's Britten Numbers. So much fun!!!!!  I was stitching the binding when I noticed the number forty two on the back!  Forty two is such an auspicious number!  The answer to the secret of the universe, right?  Nothing like a literary reference on a quilt!  (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

  Quilt stats

Name:  Inspired Broken Diamonds

                     Design:  Inspired by Kati's quilt Broken Diamonds

Size:  64" by 74"

Fabric:  Kona Solids and stash fabrics

Binding:  Kona Charcoal

Backing:  Ikea Britten Numbers and Kona Solids

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 50 wt in white

Yellow and Gray Quilt from My Lift in Binding

Today's feature is a gorgeous quilt from Catherine of My Life in Binding.  You must read her About Me...it made me giggle!!  Catherine is a busy PhD student, I wonder where she finds the time to make such beautiful quilts!!  After reading about her great quilt and feature stop by and say hi, she's new to blogging and quilting so let's make some new friends!!

When my best friend told me her wedding colors were going to be yellow and gray, I had my doubts (and fears—I was petrified I’d have to wear a yellow bridesmaid dress—not a good look for me) about the color scheme. Nevertheless, that’s what M—who is an interior designer by trade, with impeccable and modern taste—wanted. I had only been quilting for a couple of months when I decided I should make her a wedding quilt, so I didn’t have much of a stash to speak of. I spent several months checking out local fabric shops wherever I went, purchasing yellow and gray fabric that looked “M” to me.*

Choosing the pattern was much easier. Before I started quilting for real, I read Diary of a Quilter (like, the entire thing—it was a little crazy, admittedly) and at some point ran across Amy’s “Chain Linked” pattern. You know how you just know when you find something that is perfect for someone? This was perfect for M, so once that was decided, I just had to procure enough interesting scraps in the color scheme for the middle of the blocks.

M’s wedding was at the end of July, and I didn’t get the quilt done by then (ooooooh boy, not even close!) I did manage to make her a large pillow out of scraps from her quilt that I presented to her at her shower (she didn’t know she was getting a quilt, but I think she had her suspicions!)

So I plugged steadily along with the quilt through the fall. I live halfway across the country from M and really wanted to present it in person, which meant that Christmas break was my new deadline. This was the largest quilt I had made, and that presented unique challenges in basting space and quilting.  I ended up basting the quilt in the basement of the building where I work. I wasn’t confident enough to try FMQ, so I chose to trace the white areas of the quilt, which meant a TON of turning! I think it was a pretty good choice for the quilting though. I originally intended to trace inside the gray too, but time and laziness prevented that.

The backing was part of an IKEA duvet cover, with the addition of a row of blocks to make it long enough. The binding was a happy accident—the yellow I was originally saving for the binding just didn’t look right at the end, and I headed to my LQS to try to find something else. I found nothing. Dejected, I was about to settle for a dark gray solid when I spotted some light and dark gray striped fabric. Perfection!

 M and her new husband loved the quilt (even if it was five months late) and I am extremely proud of it! There’s nothing quite like making something that you just know is perfect for its recipient, and it is my favorite quilt I’ve made so far!

Pattern: Chain Linked by Amy Smart

Finished size: 61” x 82”

Fabric: Kona Charcoal and Kona White, with assorted others

  

*Don’t worry, I got to wear a dark gray dress instead. Phew."

Bennet's Quilt from Stitch Fancy

Super sweet nursery quilt finish today by Tara from Stitch Fancy.  A darling quilt for her sweet baby boy!  It's no secret I love this fabric line, Backyard Baby, I'm about to have a quilt finish of my own!  I love her take on it, her pattern choice and the sneak peeks of the nursery!  Stitch Fancy is a fun blog to visit, home decor, baking, quilting, she does it all :)  Thanks for sharing!

I’ve had this quilt finished for a few months now but haven’t gotten around to taking pictures of it.  It matches the other bedding I’ve already posted about here.  Once his room is finished, I’ll post more pictures of everything all together.   My husband is sanding the wood floor in the baby room as I type, and it looks like we should have the floor finished within a couple of days.  That’s the last major step, so once the finish cures for a day or two, we should be able to start moving furniture in, hanging curtains and pictures, etc.  It will definitely be nice to have things more together than they have been.  We’re really cutting it close on this one—my due date is two days away.  However, with my luck, the baby will go late (ugh), and we’ll have things ready and waiting.  At this point, I don’t even care what’s finished and what’s not.  I just want this baby OUT!

Onto the quilt—I chose a chain-link type pattern.  There are several patterns for sale, and the one that I followed most closely for mine was from Cluck Cluck Sew and can be found here.  I did not buy the pattern because I wanted to make several changes to it for size and visual reasons, so I thought it would kind of be pointless since I wouldn’t be following the actual pattern anyway.  I first saw this type of design in a very different quilt on flickr, which led to some googling, and this quilt was born.

For the back, I had hoped to be able to make it work with just one width of fabric across the quilt, but it turned out to not be quite enough, so I added the polka dot scrap strips down the middles.  I like the look, though, so it probably worked out for the best anyway.

For the quilting, I again went out of my stippling comfort zone and did right angles intersecting each other in box shapes.  I thought this mimicked the quilt top better, and I’m very happy with how they turned out.  However, since I don’t have the skill to do right angles (and keep them straight!) with the free motion foot, I had to use the walking foot, which involved LOTS of turning, which was soooo not fun.  However, I’m happy I suffered through it because I love the end result.  Maybe one day I’ll be good enough to do that with the free motion foot, which would make things a lot easier.

I bound the quilt in a gray matching print, and I haven’t added the label yet.  I think I’d like to make one with his name and birth information on it, so I’ll just sew that on later.

PS I saw this on her sidebar and had to add the photo!! Congratulations!

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! 

Teje's Baby Stars Quilt

Teje from Nero's Post and Patch is always posting and sharing such fabulous things, we constantly feature her on Fabric Tuesdays :)  And with a backdrop like Greece she always get great pictures.  Make sure to see Teje's shop, her finishes and some great tutorials too!

Hello my Dear Friends! I have a great day at home! Even lots of works are waiting still it’s so nice  not to go anywhere! Long time I was waiting to show you my latest quilt, but it was a secret so it had to wait till the little baby was born.

My dear friend is now grandmother for a sweet baby boy and when I returned from Finland with beautiful fabrics, I began this quilt. Still I had to wait if it’s a girl or a boy. For the girl I would have made orange binding and for the boy this green.

Because we didn’t know if it’s going to be a girl or a boy, I chose colours to be nice for both. I new that mom likes orange and green and they had used yellow for the baby-room. I saw that I do need more yellow fabrics for my stash!

I have seen so many beautiful quilts with different kind of star patterns and I really love these wonky stars! I had made few just to try these happy fabrics and then I realized they would be nice for this quilt. I have had in my  ‘to do list’ a quilt with this kind of squares so here they are now.

When I made these stars, I cut first stripes and then squares from them. There was some stripes left, so first time I used a little  colour also for the backing …

Now I understand better how you enjoy making the backing also like an other quilt. I only wish my fabric stash could be big enough for that! By the way, did you know that you can click photos to see them bigger.

Quilting by hand is one of the best parts! And again I was able to use different colours – even more fun! I have always loved stitching – every where – in bags, shoes, cloths any where!

Now the new born baby boy, my dear friends first grand child, has this quilt and all the family were happy and liked ‘Baby Stars’! And … I have a custom order for an other baby quilt … for a girl! I think I shall make it similar with this but perhaps not stars …

I think I could use few butterflies for the girly quilt! I have been also very lucky to sell the blue baby quilt ‘Ripples’ and two pillows from my etsy shop, ‘Jumping Dog’ and the ‘Pic Nic’ pillow! Thank you so much for the wonderful buyers!

Lucky Lucky Lucky me … again I have win! I won a jewellery from Emma’s give away! Emma is very talented artist and writes a beautiful blog ‘silverpebble’!She has etsy shop full of the most cute and beautiful creations! Thank you so much Emma! Emma was also featured in the latest ‘Country Living’ – the magazine we all enjoy so much!

Also I like to say big thank you for Maureen, who is one my favourite bloggers! She makes so unique,happy and colourful crafts! Her blog is ‘Maureen Cracknell Handmade’ and I won fabrics from her give away! Thank you Maureen! Only thing is that I won them just when I was shopping fabrics in Finland and still they haven’t arrived here … I’m so affraid that they have got lost! But I hope the best and perhaps they still come because Nero got also once his Christmas present from Ronja (from Finland) after 2 months!

Summer is the most busy time here in Crete! It’s the hot holiday season and fortunately we have lots of lots of tourists even the economical situation is difficult for us who live here. Some people say that they are affraid to come here, but everything is like it used to be. There are no difficulties for tourists, everything is working like always and Crete and Greece is one of the best holiday places! Beautiful beaches, friendly people, the most delicious food, lovely nature, warm (hot) weather and so much sunshine!

So you can guess that I am also very busy and unfortunately can’t see you so often. I don’t want to say that I shall take a brake from blogging, because I miss you a lot. So I do my best and now and then I hop here … or I think it’s better I’ll ask Nero to do that! He has again ‘adventure’ – now he has an infection between two toes. I think something has scratch there and then it got worse. No we have ‘therapy’ moment every morning and evening. Washing, betadine, bactroban, clean white cloth, clean sock, some tape to hold them, lots of ‘nami nami’ (Nero’s sweets) and antibiot. He is such a good boy when I have to take care of him, but in the vet he tries to eat his vet!

I leave you with Nelli’s surprised face, because this really describes my latest weeks!So many things has happened … oh I miss my slow boring (why I said boring, it’s never boring here with 3 dogs and a cat and so much sewing) winter life!

Could you guess from this link, who was eating from Nero’s plate last Sunday afternoon?! Yach!!!

Thank you so much for being the most wonderful friends and readers! I wish you the best ever summer and happy holidays! I shall visit you often … perhaps too tired to comment every time … but I’m there some where …

TEJE 

Boys will be Boys Quilt from a maiden hair fern

We featured Linda from a maiden hair fern earlier this month with her Tanner Reunion Quilt.  Lots of times we get features where we know we'll be begging them to do another!! :)  (And to those of you who we've featured before...we most definitely feature twice! Or thrice!  So submit even if you've already been featured.)  Linda is a talented quilter as I mentioned before based on her impressive finishes.  I love this quilt she made for her nephew and the fabulous circle quilting.  Thanks again Linda for sharing!!

Shipped today to my new nephew.  Adapted from Reveille, of "another Bite of Schnibbles", Carrie Nelson's newest book.

 This darling fabric is from the Boys Will Be Boys collection designed by David Walker.  You can still find some on etsy.

UPDATE (5/3/12):  Last week I saw some of this fabric in Corn Wagon Quilt Shop, Springville Utah, if any of you happened to be headed there soon.

I used my new circle rulers for quilting.  They took some getting used to.  And I found that I preferred the 5" and smaller circles, more crinkle after washing.

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Twister Quilt from A Quilting Jewel

One of the fabulous things about doing features weekly not only is inspiration...but it reminds me of projects I want to do! :)  I had a Twister Quilt on my list for a while and I forgot about it until I saw this quilt by Jen from A Quilting Jewel!!  I love the design, love the bright colors (It's A Hoot is such a great line!) just love it all!  Jen is a modern quilter with a great list of completed quilts and some awesome free patterns and tutes.  Check out A Quilting Jewel!

This weekend I finished putting the binding on my twister quilt.

I love the way it came out.  I used two It's a Hoot charm packs for the twister portion.  I then used coordinating fabric for the binding and backing.  The white around the outside of the quilt is a Kona white.

I quilted this little quilt on either side of the horizontal and vertical seams.  I was trying to think of some way to play off the twisting pinwheels, and realized that with this type of quilting, the quilting would go through the long point of every pinwheel.

 I love this mini quilt.  I think it would be a perfect baby quilt.  I know so many people having babies this year, so who knows, it could wind up being for one of them.

I can see myself making more of these twister quilts in the future.  They come together so quickly and look great.