August Week Two Wrap Up

 I think I read somewhere that it is good to clean your machine after every 4 to 8 hours of use and I wish I could say that I remembered to do this all the time.  I don't.  But as I was working on projects this week I noticed a bit of lint building up at the top of my needle and thought maybe it's time to stop and clean this baby out.

My husband purchased tiny little attachments for our vacuum cleaner that I can use to suck the lint from the machine.  Well worth the investment.  But I also find pipe cleaners work well for getting in those hard to reach spots.  What are your favorite tricks for cleaning your machine?

Monday was our guilds monthly meeting.  Since I'm fairly new to the group, I had yet to make my official Quilters at Heart name tag.  One of the ladies was nice enough to bring a small pattern of the heart that everyone used to make their tags.  I chose to paper pieces mine from scraps left over from the Modern Building Blocks quilt I'm working on.  I went with bright colors and of course added some quilting bling to it.  All that's left to do is sewing a backing on.  Hello my name is...

I also decided to mark the second block for the whole cloth quilt along I've been participating in on Face Book being lead by Ren at Free Motion Quilting with Ren.

  

Oliver insisted I point out that when I marked the feathers around the heart, I used a printed template that Ren posted for us.  It made this task a bit easier, although I had been practicing and could have probably free handed it.

When I marked the chevrons, I ended up drawing them across the heart to make sure everything lined up as it should.  Hopefully I can remember which are quilting lines and which are not when I start that project.  Thank goodness for water soluble pens, is all I have to say.  So what made me decide to work on the second block?

This little delivery from the mail man.  As most of you know, I have a long love affair with Aurifil threads.  I swear we didn't have a fight and I am not quitting them.  I've been hearing great things about Wonder Fil and thought maybe it's time to check them out.  I ordered:

Deco Bob--80 wt cottonized polyester

Invisa Fil--100 wt cottonized polyester

Konfetti--50wt cotton

I'm pretty excited to give these bad boys a try.

This little piece of paper haunts me everyday at work.  It's an evil little reminder of all the

quilt tops stacked in my back room waiting for my attention.  It has been killing me that I haven't crossed one off my list this year.  So a few weeks ago, I broke down and sent one to a long arm quilter.  I got the much awaited phone call this week that it can be picked up!  So hopefully, in a few more days I can mark one off this list and share a finish with you.

And lastly, (I hope you are still with me) I signed up for yet another blog hop this week.  

It is the Dog Gone Cute quilt a long at Sew Fresh Quilts.  Lorna will kick off the quilt along September 1st and the blog hop will start in October.  If you would be interested in participating or would just like to get the pattern click on over to Sew Fresh Quilts.

Other than finishing my block for Kat at Kat and Cat Quilts (read more about Kat, her cause here and the block I finished here ), that pretty much sums up my quilting week.  Hope everyone has had a productive week in all of your adventures.

Making A Block For A Good Cause

Toward the end of July, while surfing around on linky parties, I ran across the blog of Kat from Kat & Cat Quilts.  She was asking for people to make blocks to send to her for her charity called Covered in Love.

Photo courtesy of Kat&Cat Quilts 

Kat is a nurse and her charity makes quilts to give to the families of patients who pass away in the hospital where she works.  I thought this was very touching.  Quilts are forever hugs and what a great way to try to bring a bit of comfort to those that are hurting.  I contacted Kat to ask permission to share her cause with all of you and she happily said yes.  

For the month of August she was encouraging those that would like to participate to construct a 12 1/2 inch unfinished block using only flying geese.  She provided the following color chart 

Photo courtesy of Kat&Cat Quilts 

and ask that those participating construct their blocks using this color scheme. She also gave examples of blocks she had constructed.

Photo courtesy of Kat&Cat Quilts 

As I was working on my next 12 1/2 inch block for the Modern Building Block quilt, I realized it was made entirely of flying geese and would look great in these colors.  It reminded me of waves or ripples in water.

  I quickly gathered bits of fabric from my stash and started constructing two blocks.  One for my quilt and one to send to Kat.

Both blocks went together very quickly.

She is accepting these blocks through the end of August.  There is still plenty of time to make a 12 1/2 inch block to send to her, or more if you would like.  Please check her post Call For Blocks! for more information.  I know when I lost my father to a heart attack, my family was at its absolute lowest.  A void had been created that slowly takes time to fill.  Any act of kindness was so appreciated.  As I made my block I filled it with lots of happy, loving vibes so hopefully whom ever receives this quilt might feel some comfort during their time of loss.

The other block made it's way to my small design wall to wait with the others while the last block in section A is being constructed.

If you have some free time and extra scraps, I hope you will consider helping Kat with her quest.

 Today I'm linking up with:

@ Cooking Up Quilts

@Pink Doxies

@ Richard and Tanya Quilts

@ Quilt Matters

@ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

@ My Quilt Infatuation

@ Sew Fresh Quilts

Opinions Wanted

I set some time aside to work on the Modern Building Blocks quilt I started several weeks ago.  I have been in love with this quit since it was released.  Julie over at Pink Doxies (which a big shout out she just finished her flimsy) inspired me to get cracking on this project.  Between normal weekend duties and watching the musical Quilters maybe more than once (3 times) I made pretty good progress.  I still have one more 12 inch block and an 18 inch block to make and I will have section A finished and ready to piece together.

If you have ever seen this quilt or the pattern, the blocks are all sewed together with no sashing or boarders.  Just beautiful blocks build upon beautiful block.  I have longed to quilt this quilt from the  moment I laid eyes on it.  All those fun geometric shapes and the endless possibilities.  Because the quilt is 84 by 96 when completed I'm thinking it may be more than I want to tackle on my domestic machine as far as quilting.  So the question popped into my head, would this quilt make a good quilt as you go project.  I could:

1) quilt each individual block and attach all the blocks with binding strips (white maybe?)

2) piece each section then quilt it and attach the sections with binding strips (again white?)

My biggest fear is changing the look of the quilt with the binding strips.  Would it change the look too much to have small sashings in the quilt?  Plus I have not make a QAYG quilt using this method before.  

This is what the quilt looks like once it is pieced together.  What is your thoughts on turning this beauty into a quilt-as-you-go project?  Have you ever constructed a quilt using the binding strip method?  I would love to hear your thoughts.  I have plenty of time...only 40 more blocks to go!

Today I'm linking up with:

@Quilt Story

@ Funky Polkadot Giraffe

@Blossom Heart Quilts

@ Freemotion by the River

@Cooking Up Quilts

Yard Sales---Ahh---They Are Everywhere

For our small community, it's that time of year again.  County Wide Yard Sale Day--3 Day Event.  For some this is the day they look forward to all year round.  Time to gather up all the things you don't want or need anymore and sell to those that do.  I've been on both sides of this game and let me tell you people will buy ANYTHING.  For the past few years I have joined the group that choices not to play at all and try not to be over annoyed that travel in our small town breaks down.  People literally stop their car in the middle of the road to get out to buy lamps :)

Today as I was setting at my desk happily crunching numbers I received a phone call from a quilter friend that there is an amazing fabric/craft sale about two blocks away from where I was at.  All kinds of bolts and bit and things.  She told me she found lots of fabric for backings.  Funny, how we all tempt each other.  I thanked her for telling and said that I would spread the word.  Would I give in or resist??

I did what every quilter would do...I booked it straight there.  After a quick 10-15 minuets of browsing I left a donation and walked away with a few remnants of fabric.  Not sure what I will do with them but not a bad score.

I asked the lady how she acquired so much fabric.  She smiled rolled her eyes and said, "My mother."  I laughed and said I imagine my daughter will be having this same conversation one day.

This was the first time I have ever fabric shopped at a yard sale.  Heck, it's the only reason I went.  I'd love to hear your yard sale horror stories or even about wonderful quilting scores you've found.  Help renew my faith in the system.  I think I might start liking yard sales again.

Jungle Gym

I'm seven for seven.  This weekend I put the finishing touches on my July Aurifil 2015 designer of the month block challenge.  This month Pat Sloan's featured designer was Ebony Love and along with a great interview (you can read it here) she gave us a cute little mini she called Jungle Gym.  Ebony's quilt is full of bright vibrant colors;  green, red, purple, yellow, orange and white.  It just makes you want to jump up and play, like a jungle gym.  I wanted to make a version just as playful, but put my spin on things.  And I'll admit, it took me a day or two to figure out where this little guy was going.

Ultimately, I landed on a color pallet of turquoise, hot pinks, blacks and white prints.  I think there are two reasons for this.  One, I couldn't get Sandra @ Musings of a Menopausal Melon's Heart Quilt out of my head.  She created a wonderful quilt for a dear friend of her's using dazzling turquoise and pink squares and the quilting she chose for her quilt made this heart pop even more.  I hope you will take a few seconds and check this beautiful quilt out.  The second reason, is subconsciously I just love those colors so much and didn't realize it until Sandra's quilt revived them in my head.  Several years ago I created a quilt I call the Death Quilt (if you have time check it out here) and it used these same colors.

So after picking through my stash and grabbing a few filler in fat quarters I was ready to get started.

Poor Oliver was so tired he crashed right in the middle of my project.  The past few mini quilts went together pretty quickly.  This one took a bit more time with all the different colors and small pieces that made up the blocks.  I found myself following the pattern line by line and taking it block by block to make sure I didn't place something in the wrong spot.  I even kept Ebony's quilt up on my phone for a quick color reference.

Slowly all the blocks came together.

Now it was time for all of the real fun to begin...how to quilt it.  One thing I knew for sure was I wanted it to be covered from head to toe in quilting.  Every bloody inch of this 20 inch quilt.  I love dense quilting and some of the seams may not have been the straightest and I knew visually it would help to be a bit distracting.

This is a mock up of my quilting plan drawn out on Plexiglas.  I wanted the quilting to add lots of texture to the quilt but not detract from the prints on the fabric so I decided to match my threads as close as I could to the fabrics.  For my backing I went with a light gray.  The light gray would subtly show all of my thread changes and give the back of the quilt an almost whole cloth look (or at least that was my rationing).

Let's talk about the thread for a minute.  And let me start with, no one is paying me to say this...it's just my opinion.  I discovered and started using Aurifil 50wt thread about a year ago and I am in love with it.  I'm not sure how many spools I have now but lets say more than ten.  I love it because it is great to piece with as well as quilt with.  It is strong enough that I hardly ever experience thread breakage and light enough I can travel stitch over it with out things getting messy.  How about this, Aurifil thread is like a great lover, it is beautiful to look at, strong enough to hold you yet light enough to give you what you need.  (Am I full of it or what??)  No really, it is just a great product.   

For this project I ended up using five different colors.  I stitched in the ditch (every stinking seam) with Aurifil #2605 (gray).  This color blended into the backing fabric and was soft enough to blend into the seams of the front.  I quilted the front using Aurifil #1100 (pink), #1148 (turquoise), #2021 (white), and #2692 (black). 

I'm on a scrappy binding kick for no apparent reason right now, other than it is fun.

And so may I present to you...Jungle Gym...

I hope my pictures were able to capture some of the fun quilting.  I really wanted to get a picture of the quilt with a jungle gym, but sadly I think all of the parks in our town have done away with them.  Kiddos of 2015 I mourn the fun you are missing.  However, my cousin was nice enough to let me grab a few pictures with his son's amazing play house area.  

With us being over half way done with the year, there will still be five more designer interviews and five more free mini quilt patterns.  I love all of the ones that have been released to date.  If you would like to view my minis from January till now you can hop over to my 2015 Aurifil mini's page.  Thanks for stopping by.

Today I'm linking up with

@ Pink Doxies

@ Quilt Shop Gal

@ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

 @ Richard and Tanya Quilts

Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation

Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts

Linky Tuesday @ Freemotion by the River

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Sew Cute @ Blossom Heart Quilts

 Too Cute Tuesday @ Funky Polkadot Giraffe