Flying Geese Baby Quilt TGIFF Party

Welcome to TGIFF--Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday!

If you've never been here before, my name is Tish and every Saturday I host a UFO Busting party.  But really it's a party for everyone.  I want to celebrate finishing those UFO's, ignoring those UFO's, what ever you want to show us.  But today we are celebrating those ever so sweet Friday Finishes.  Today I'm sharing my Flying Geese Baby Quilt...and yes it was a UFO.

This quilt started life as a guild challenge project back in 2018; make anything using flying geese.  I wanted something simple and modern.  It was super easy to piece.  So why did it become an UnFinished Object?  Simple answer.

All of that open background negative space.  It seemed like a good idea when I was piecing it.  But when it came down to quilting I let all of that white get in my head and had no idea what to do with it.  Should I do something all over?  Should I try something custom?  Too scary...bye bye.

So it sat until now.  It's time.  And the funny part?  Once I started quilting I couldn't stop!  I decided on a divide and conquer method.  When in doubt start with some straight lines and echo them.

An echo makes everything better.  Then take those straight lines and add a small safe curve.

And before you know it you are swirling.

Then, BAM, a finished quilt that leaves you saying, but I want to quilt more.

I quilted this one using my favorite go to neutral Aurifil 50wt #2600 Dove.  

I love how this shade provides just the right amount of contrast without screaming "LOOK AT ME" on the white background.  I used a fun green/blue print from my stash to finish this one off.

  

How about a few more pictures?

I'll admit, I'm in love with this one.  I don't have a home in mind for it yet, so I'll probably hang on to it and pull it out and pet it occasionally.  It also serves as a reminder of, don't put it off.  You CAN do it.  Backgrounds are not to be feared.  So maybe I'll hang it in my sewing room?

Ok, enough about me.  Let's see your finishes!!!  Link up below and show us what has you doing a happy dance today.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

A huge thank you for stopping by today!  Come back tomorrow and party with us, and every Saturday, for UFO Busting, to celebrate what you've done for the week....UFO or not.

Top It Off-Island Batik Challenge

It's Island Batik challenge time again.  This month we were challenged with Top It Off, create a holiday themed table topper and use applique.

First part of the challenge, assess my Island Batik Ambassador stash and figure out what holiday I would tackle.  A bundle of blenders caught my eye, and I knew when paired with the solid white batik..I could make a beautiful Valentines Day runner.

Look at all those beautiful purples, pinks and turquoise!  It makes my heart go pitter patter.

Sawtooth and Me Reimagined

I was beginning to get a little worried my challenge project was not going to see a finish before the end of March.  But in the 11th hour I was able to regroup and pull it off.  This month the good folks at Island Batik challenged us to take a vintage quilt bock and reimagine it in some way.

Island Batik-Magnificent Minis

I'm so excited to show you my first complete challenge for Island Batik.  This month our challenge was to create a miniature quilt no larger than 24" square for the Magnificent Mini Challenge using fabrics provided to us by Island Batik.

When You Wish-Mountaineer Style

This is my first official finish for 2019!!  At the beginning of January I issued my quilt guild's first challenge project (with hopes to do a total of four this year); make anything but only using two colors.  You can use various shades of the two colors but only two colors.  I decided it get working on mine ASAP.

I have been crushing on this free baby quilt pattern called When You Wish at Bonjour Quilts for a while now and decided now is the time.  I am happy to report that this mini quilt is 100% from the stash.  No new fabrics were purchased to make this quilt.  For my color scheme, I went with one of my favorite combos...blue and yellow/gold.  Queue the WVU fight song!

Garnet Fireburst

I am bursting at the seams over here!  I finally have my first (of 5) Fireburst Mystery Quilt finish!  This is technically the quilt that started it all.  It was to be my submission to a guild challenge using birthstone colors (I ended up using another project).  As I pieced the quilt together I kept thinking it would make a great mystery quilt and I think as a mystery it held up pretty good.  Today I want to talk about the quilting on this quilt.

Americana Flag Finish 2018

Two small UFO's busted!  These sweet and innocent Americana Flags have been hanging out in my house, basted even, for three years...gasp.  Picture it, West Virginia 2015, a girl and a dream.  She wrote a tutorial for Americana Flags (you can find it here) a small wall hanging so easy you could piece it together in two-ish hours or less.  Her vision was to make flags and give them to all her loved ones for Christmas.  Needless to say five were promptly stitched up and given away.  Three were basted and banished to the back room.  Why?  Cause she's a quilter and got distracted by 20 million other things.

Then December 2016 one of those three flags managed to escape from the back room prison along with materials for some hot pads and found itself finished and gifted to a neighbor; leaving these two poor flags left to float around in UFO land again.  Their cries of anguish finally paid off.  The girl decided it was time to set these UFO's free!

Bohemian Baby Star Burst

Time to celebrate a long over due quilt finish!!  When a quilty friend of mine told me a few months ago she was expecting, I was so happy for her!!!  I know this baby will never grow up wanting for quilts, because it is being born into a family rich with quilters, but I had to make a quilt.  That's what we do!  After inquiring about how she intended to decorate the nursery, I knew these prints in Kate Spain's Voyage would be perfect; modern, fun and kind of bohemian.

Star Blossom is a beginner friendly, piece up quickly and an original design here in Wonderland.  If you'd like to learn more about it or pick up a copy you can find it here in my Craftsy Store.

Baby Quilt Finish

I'm celebrating a quilt finish today and it feels good.  As of right now, it doesn't have a name.  This was due to be the next quilt pattern release for Wonderland, but due to some technical difficulties, that has been delayed, but we won't get into that.  It's neither here nor there.  I still want to share this fun finish.

Mini Wayward Transparency

I do believe this little mini quilt qualifies as a squirrel, if ever one did.  About a month ago, I seriously decided to drop everything and make this quilt...DrEAMi?  While standing in line for a steak hoagie (glamourous right?), I ran into a girl I graduated high school with.  She and her daughter had been to the quilt show and she was telling me that her daughter fell in love with the blue quilt I had entered.  They were walking around picking which quilts they were going to vote for in the people's choice category and her daughter stopped when she spied my version of Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl's Wayward Transparency Quilt and said that that was her quilt.  When she read the tag she realized it was my quilt.  I thanked her for sharing that story with me it truly made me smile.

Alexandrite and Pearls

I'm not sure where to start because I'm so in love with this little 16" mini quilt.  Let's start with technically, it is not my quilt...legally only half mine.  Sorry, bad joke.  This little quilt is the brain child of my husband, Dave the Quilt Engineer and will be his entry in our guild's Birthstone Challenge.

When the challenge was issued, he decided to go with one of the designs from his sketch book.  The birthstone(s) for the month of June is Pearls and the more modern Alexandrite in beautiful purples and turquoise.  When he showed me the fabrics he had picked out, I knew no matter what he created it was going to be beautiful!  Plus there was a bit of jealousy because all I had to work with was reddish brown on mine.

2018 Aurifil Artisan-What It Means To Me

If you have been following me for any amount of time, it is probably no surprise to you that I love Aurifil thread.  I have been using Aurifil's thread for around four years now.  At the time I was searching for a thread that worked well in my machines and after trying several different brands, I was hooked on Aurifil.  What can I say, I like my thread like I like my bedsheets...Egyptian Cotton.

I think it's safe to say I own a few spools and I'm pretty sure this isn't all of it.  Actually, this picture cracks me up, because I remember when I first started my quilting journey.  I can be quoted as saying, "I'm a quilt piecer.  I will never quilt my quilts because I am in love with the piecing process."  Let me translate what that really means, knowing what I know now.  It means-I am sacred.  Quilting looks hard and I have no idea how to do it so I'm just going to make quilt tops.  Sound familiar to anyone? 

Garnet Star Crystal

I can finally cross this one off the list and call it finished.  Though it hasn't been hanging around for to long, as far as WIP's and UFO's go, I have set it down a few times to work on other things.  This is my version of Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl's Star Crystal Quilt.  How did this mini come to life?

I introduced a challenge to guild members to create something in their birth month colors to be revealed at our June meeting.  Being a January baby, meant my project would be full of rich dark brownish reds, representing the garnet.  I have to admit, this has never been my favorite color and I wasn't necessarily turning cartwheels at the idea of my color palette.  Then I found a pretty paisley fabric that would allow me to stay true to the concept but sneak in a few more colors...like blue.

 I decided to use an original design by myself and David.  I cut all my pieces and quickly went to work.  Standing back and admiring my work, I couldn't help but think, man this would make a great mystery quilt.  I talked the idea over with the mister who said, go for it!  So I did and Fireburst Mystery Quilt (going on now here) was born.  However this left me, the thrower down of the challenge, without a challenge project.  So back to the drawing board.

I needed something quick and easy.  I've been wanting to make the Star Crystal Quilt for quite some time and decided this would be the perfect opportunity.  Instead of the whole quilt, I went with just one block.  Lucky for me, I had just enough fabric left over from Fireburst to pull the one block wonder off.  Well I didn't of that deep red, but did of a more medium tone.

Once I was able to focus on the quilting, I was able to quilt it in just a few hours.  I wanted to keep my quilting threads matchy matchy with my fabrics.

My weapons of choice was Aurifil #2021 Natural White for the yummy Moda Grunge fabric and Aurifil #2460 Dark Carmine Red and, my personal favorite, #2260 Wine.  This is probably the only time it is acceptable to spill wine on a quilt...and spill Wine I did...all over that delicious dark red fabric.

I started in the background fabric first.  I knew I wanted straight lines and lots of them.  I just love the texture it gives. 

A little dot to dot ruler fun in the darker sections of the star.

Just for fun I added some continuous curves and pebbling in the other star points.  I have to admit the paisley fabric threw me for a loop...or swirl...or what ever paisleys actually are.  I didn't want to spend much time putting a filler in there because chances are the fabric is so busy you wouldn't see it.  So I went with straight lines like in the background.

I LOVE all the quilty texture I was able to cram into this little one.  After all that quilting and Aurifil Wine, I was drunk and in love.

I was able to finish this one in time for the local quilt show, but we will talk about that in another post soon.  Now I will bombard you with quilt pictures but I promise quilty goodness as well. 

I cannot wait to reveal my challenge project at the meeting next month and see what everyone else came up with.  Super Dave has his project pieced and if he doesn't quilt it soon, I may just have to steal it and quilt it for him.  Hopefully, the ladies will give me permission to share their projects with you as well.  Does your guild participate in challenges?  I'd love to hear about it.


Today I'm linking up with TGIFF, and Can I Get A Whoop! Whoop!

**As of Friday, blogger doesn't seem to be emailing of comment notifications and I am currently trying to figure out how to reply to comments by email without their help.  If you do not hear from me, know that I appreciate your comments and I'm tring to figure out how to fix this.  Hopefully, Blogger will fix it as well.**