Whirlygig Quilt from My Quilt Diet

Heather met Marion of My Quilt Diet at her recent quilting retreat (of which I was very jealous!!).  I know Heather had tons of fun and really liked Marion :)  They both made these darling Giant Star Quilts while there.  Today's feature is another quilt Marion finished while at the retreat.  Anyway check out My Quilt Diet, read her ABOUT ME, I love her rules of what she has to do before she can quilt, I think I need to do those too!  And check out her amazing finishes, 2012 and 2013...unreal for quilting just over a year!!  

We've been up at a BEAUTIFUL lodge in Hobble Creek Canyon all weekend at Emily Herrick's Cabin Fever Retreat.

It has been SO much fun :)

I was able to quilt and bind the Whirlygig quilt for my sister.

Whirlygigs is one of Becky Morganson's $29 Mystery Quilts over at Stitches and Sew Forth.  They have a new $29 mystery quilt kit each month ;D  Oooh la la!

....and started a receiving blanket for my new niece Hadley who has just come home from the hospital :)

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."

Awesome Fire & Ice Quilt from the cute life

I am in awe of the cool quilt!!  It is entirely paper pieced using all solids.  Me=impressed.  This feature is from Amy of the cute life...if you'd like to make this great quilt you can find it in her patterns.  Amy also has some fun tutorials to share as well.  Thanks for sharing your great quilt with us today!



It's that time of year again! I'm so excited to reveal to you the (finally) finished Fire & Ice quilt. I paper pieced this quilt completely out of solids. I am so lucky that my mom lives near a quilting store with anentire wall of solids to choose from! My extremely wonderful husband helped me pick the colors out, which took quite awhile. Color choice was key in making this pattern really pop. They had to gradate well from one color to the next, and color intensity also played a huge role. Some colors didn't make the cut because they looked overly saturated or just too pale when placed next to the neighboring colors.

This has been a labor of love, and the first paper pieced pattern I ever designed myself. The shape is based on a keystone - as in, the middle brick that you place into an arch very last.

Keystones have a lovely wedge shape, and for some reason, I thought of depicting fire with the colors.Originally, there were supposed to be a lot more warm colors, with fuchsias, and just a touch of blue (picture the really hot blue flames) but you have to work with the fabrics available! The fuchsias in the store didn't play well with the rest of the colors. And this ended up working really well, with 8 warms and 8 cools, so I changed the name from the "Fire" quilt to the "Fire & Ice" quilt. I was hesitant to use black binding, as I feared it would be too pitch black, but I'm glad I went for it.

For the backing, I chose a graphic black and white print, which helped dictate the black binding. I pieced it with some black stripes in a simple, clean design:

I quilted it with straight lines, running from one corner of each piece to the opposite corner. Deciding how to quilt it was a real battle for me, and I got a lot of amazing suggestions, but in the end, I thought this went best with the feel of the quilt.

Since there were so many colors in the quilt top, I used monofilament thread on the top (you can see it shining in the light a little bit), and Sulky variegated gray thread on the back. The quilting hides in the busy pattern, but it's showcased in the black strips:

All in all, I'm so proud of this quilt - it's been my second baby for awhile now! - and I'm really happy to show it off to you. 

I hope to have a pattern soon, but that'll take some time, since it's a bit complex. So for now, thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out all the other awesome quilts at the Blogger's Quilt Festival!!! And many thanks to Amy for putting on such a wonderful link up.