To See Such Fun ~~ finished!

And another finish! This little quilt is a 62 inch square of pink and yellow scraps to be given away this weekend. 

The pattern is Amanda Jean Nyberg's from her book No Scrap Left Behind. (The link goes directly to the QAL.)  I made another quilt (here) during her June Quilt Along in 2017. 

I made several changes with this quilt. Mostly I turned everything into  4½" blocks and then sewed those into strips. The center sections create large four-patch blocks, the cornerstones are made of broken dishes blocks and finally I made the 4½" strips in to square blocks and didn't worry about which way they got turned. 

My original version of this quilt
following Amanda Jean's directions.

Nope, wait. One more difference is that I didn't use the on-point setting. Hmm, is this still Amanda Jean's pattern? I'm not sure, but it was definitely inspired by her design.

To quilt it, I decided to use some of the curvy medium-sized motifs that are such fun to drop in. They are smooth and easy and, if I keep them large enough, are easy to see and appreciate. The quilt should be really soft and wrinkly when it gets washed. I haven't washed it because it's going to its new home this weekend after the church fair. We will have a silent auction, which I agreed to run, so I decided to add a quilt to the mix. (More on the fair and the silent auction early next week.)

For the back I used a fuchsia linen and some lighter, wide pink strips left over from previous projects. Every bit of fabric came from my stash or scraps. My latest roll of batting came in just days before I loaded the quilt, which was great timing. 

The title To See Such Fun is from a line of the "Hey Diddle, Diddle" nursery rhyme, so this quilt goes into that series. I just couldn't resist the title because everything about the quilt is simply fun.

		Quilt Stats
	Name:	To See Such Fun
	Size:	62" X 62"
	Fabrics:	4½” pink strip scraps, 4½” yellow scraps
	Pattern:	Inspired by Amanda Jean Nyberg QAL
	Backing:	Pink cottons and linens from stash
	Batting:	100% Cotton
	Binding:	Pink scraps from stash
	Quilting:	Mid-size curvy graffitti motifs

Oh, the LINK UPS!

The Scrappy Camper, who has her first linky party today. Good luck, Amy!
Alycia Quilts - Quiltygirl blog for Finished Or Not Fridays 

My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thurdays

Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

From Bolt to Beauty for Beauties Pageant

A Touch of Teal ~~ Finished!

I've had this little pink top sitting in the quilt queue for a while now. It had everything needed for a finish: backing, batting, binding. 

"How easy and quick would this be?," I wondered. "Quite easy and especially quick," I answered. 

So I loaded it and thought about quilt motifs. I wanted, as Richard loves to say, "Quick, fast and in a hurry." 

While quilt my last quilt, I stumbled upon a motif I like that is fast and pretty. It has the look and feel of a pantograph, except that it changes at random rather than repeat in a set pattern. It's kind of the best of both worlds: I get to enjoy the randomness but also have a pattern so it doesn't take long to come up with ideas. I can play a little with the motifs as I go along, and the openness of the motif quilts quickly.

I picked out my favorite motifs from One Big Finish, enlarged them and stitched them in in my usual, graffiti manner. All of the motifs have curves and wiggles to contrast with the straight lines of the Chinese coins pattern.

The backing was just a little short but I really wanted to use it since it has a pink, girly look that goes well with the front. It also has these small little teal flowers mixed in with the large pink and peach ones. How perfect is that?

To make it long enough, I just added a strip of hot pink on the top and bottom. Of course, I didn't have the sense to center the quilt top on the bottom, so the strips are not balanced, but I still like the quilt and the back is pretty awesome anyway.

	Quilt Stats
	Name:	A Touch of Teal
	Size:	35" X 46"
	Fabrics:	scrap fabrics from stash
	Backing:	scrap fabrics
	Batting:	100% cotton
	Pattern:	Chinese coins
	Quilting:	graffiti quilting w/ variety of motifs

The entire quilt was made from scraps and yardage from the stash. I made it back when Kaja and Ann had their AHIQ Chinese coins challenge. I can't find the original link to the challenge, but go to this link and scroll down to the labels which you'll find interesting.

Cotton Robin round 2

First the first time, I participated in the Cotton Robin hosted by Julie. See this post about round 1. What fun! I recommend that you look into it and join next year.

For round 2 I received this center block, but it didn't look like this. Oh no! It looked oh so much better. Don't get me wrong--this block is fantastic and anyone can see the potential. But some people just out do themselves!

See my problem!?!  Luckily, I was able to come up with something. Not anything great, and certainly not very competitive, but I'm not really much of a competitive girl. :) I play for fun.

I decided on a circle, although I had tried to make four hearts to go in each corner of the block. The problem became the corners of the block. Even though the circle is not perfectly round, I wanted it to appear somewhat so. My answer was HST's that didn't quite fit the width of the rest of the circle.


Luckily, the block went to Liz, who knew exactly how to quilt it. She quilted small hearts in each of the circle squares and small circles in the open white areas. 

Isn't this one precious little quilt? I love the small hearts in the inner border and the quilting is perfect!

Currently in Progress

I thought I'd give a little tease of the art quilt I am working on. Reds, neutrals, greens in snippets, slivers, and slices.

And because I can't remember whether I mentioned this big fat hexie pincushion, here she is. I bought a new hexie ruler last weekend at Joanne Fabrics and used the largest size to make a pincushion. I got so excited that I didn't think to quilt it! Crazy, I know. This one is going to my guild meeting to give away as a door prize. I haven't been in months, so it's definitely time to show up. lol I'm afraid they will forget who I am!

And that is my goings on for now. 
Come back tomorrow for Pin It Weekly. 
Happy Quilting

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: HOUSES

I've probably done houses before, I haven't checked my list, but I spent most of the afternoon checking out the houses on Jen and Jan's Blog Hop. What fun! There are so many interpretations of Jan's free pattern, "Quilter's Laundry Day." If you've read my blog in the last day or two, you're probably tired of seeing my version, but I do love it so. 

If you are interesting in seeing all the quilts together, you should visit my Pinterest board, which I built especially for this blog hop.

Preeti's small house blocks

Have a great week, everyone!

Roseate ~~ Finish!

On Tuesday I finished up a pretty little pink baby quilt, which I'm calling "Roseate." It's a modern mash-up of all that I've been reading and enjoying for the last couple of months. 

Most of that has been modern quilting books and several blogs that also toy in modern quilting. Of course, I also read a few blogs that are serious about modern quilting. Together, all this reading and playing has sucked me into a spiral of scrap quilting. It's unbelievable how many pounds of scrap fabric I have. And I honestly don't think I'll ever get it down to, say, half the amount that I have now.  

 But I plan to keep trying. And I'm happy with a little hope that it will be better each time I dip into a bin and pull out a handful of scraps. That's basically what I did for this little quilt. I pulled larger pieces of scraps and began sewing matching pieces together. Then I matched those to either another sewn piece or to a larger single piece. Just keep at it for hours with an occasional move from the machine to the iron, to the cutting table to straighten the edges. (More on that later.)

Eventually I had big, wide slabs of fabric that could be oriented in any way I wanted. I began cutting them into 6" strips that finish at 5½ using my biggest, longest ruler. Then I sewed those together to make long strips 6 X 30. The 30" being an approximation. I considered each strip a Chinese coin stack and determined that four would make a quilt. I added enough solid Kona Light Pink to the tops and bottoms of the stacks so they would measure about 42 inches.  And then added 4" (3½" finished) strips of the Light Pink between the stacks so that all together the quilt is 38" X 42". 

Quilting it was the most fun. I started out by quilting in the ditch around the perimeter of the stacks and then adding three more straight lines about ½" apart on the inside. I played on the light pink background: circles, leaves, shells, scrolls and a new motif that I created on the fly. Basically, I just had fun, but I like the outcome.

I finished it all up with a pretty Kona Fuscia binding and remembered to add a label. (Go me!) 

Please share you thoughts. I am open to opinions and suggestions. I want to improve my work, and your expert opinions are like getting gold for free! Thanks for that.

	Quilt Stats
Name:	Roseate (Scrap Quilt)
Size:	38" X 42"
Fabrics:	Scrap fabrics; Kona Light Pink from stash
Binding:	Kona Fushia from stash
Pattern:	Chinese coins (scrap coins variation)
Quilting:	Custom Free Motion Quilting
Completed:	February 2017

Linking up with some of my favorites:

Crazy Mom Quilts

My Quilt Infatuation

Busy Hands Quilts

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Brag About It @ My Husband Has Too Many Hobbies

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: C A N D Y

Happy Valentine's Day! I thought we might find some inspiration from the candy that sweethearts tend to rely on as the perfect gift. I hope my sweetheart brings me one of these: 

maybe one of you could give him a call and tell him.  Be specific. Say, "Go to Walmart and buy a Whitman's sampler for Mary for Valentine's Day. No other kind. Whitman's. Just Whitman's." Then write it on a piece of paper and hand it to him. Yes, it's like that.

Forget that I told him what I'd like. Then I told him what I want. Your job is to remind him that it's Valentine's Day and what, exactly, I want for a gift.

And as always, quilts in the theme...

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day. May you get your favorite candy and lots of it!