A quilted Christmasy quilt

Today's quilt is one I quilted for my friend, Susan. The pattern is called Wrap It Up and we made it in a class at our LQS. It uses just three colors, but has a nifty interlocking "box" look. She used black with beautiful gold metallic swirls, red with gold dots and black with gold dots. Christmasy, but not too christmasy.

I have a harder time using pantographs, so I've been practicing my freehand allover designs. The only way to get better at it is to just quilt some quilts.  So I took the plunge and quilted her top using a freehand allover holly leaf and berry swirl with some pine branches thrown in. I used black Omni for the top and black So Fine in the bobbin with black 80/20 batting.

A berry grouping with a flourish

 

A lot of texture without being too distracting but lending to the Christmasy flavor.

Here you can see some of the holly leaves and pine branches.

 

A helpful tip: I always practice on paper or a whiteboard first. Once the quilt is on the frame, I put my big piece of acrylic (with colored tape around the edges to mark the boundaries) on the quilt top and doodle the design. Then I really get an idea of how the quilting will look on the quilt. I'll try and get a picture of that for my next post.

Quilting Interconnections

 

It's crazy how the quilting world, with the help of the internet, has become so interconnected. I started this post & then realized how MANY different quilting and idea resources we have at our fingertips - it's never ending! So here goes:

 

NJ1. Extra bits & pieces from a quilt that I work on off & on. The quilt pattern is by Sandi Irish using her Quilted Jewel template and was in the Summer 2013 Quilt Trends magazine.

2. I love the Comma fabric by Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic, farbstoff-bridge.blogspot.de.  Love her blog, her fabrics and her patterns. (The black & white is something else)

3. My DIL asked for mother & daughter aprons for Christmas & I found a neat pattern by Mary Claire Allen, splendorfallsmc.blogspot.com in the 2012 Modern Patchwork magazine. The photo looks like linen combine with quilter's cottons, which I've been wanting to try, so it's perfect.

I happen to have some linen and I'm staring at these extra bits & come up with a way to make a pieced panel that's topstitched onto the linen apron, kind of like Mary Claire's chevron panel. So voila:

A modern retro look?  Piecing with Comma fabric using the Quilted Jewel template following Mary Claire's pattern!  I attached the bias tape using my new bias binding foot, which I figured out how to use by watching You Tube videos. See! There's no end to the learning and new ideas to try. So thank you to all the quilters who are so willing to share!

Mommy apron

 

 

and Daughter apron

 

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A furry foot wrap

I got some really cute snuggle fabric with some of my birthday money, but wasn't sure what I was going to make with it. I always keep a little blankie under the covers to keep my feet warm and my M.I.L. mentioned getting cold at night and so ah ha! I knew exactly what to do.  I popped those puppies on my longarm (no batting needed), did some loops and hearts with blue Omni thread. Added some blue binding and voila! A super soft throw to keep the toes warm and toasty. What a fun project.

A Christmas quilt in process

I saw this charm pack (that's 5 inch squares) called Aspen Frost that just appealed to me. I was doing my birthday discount shopping at the quilt store and couldn't resist.  I think it will make a really nice throw for the couch during the holidays. It's a simple pattern that I just made up.  Sometimes I get such a great feeling of accomplishment seeing all the pieces come together so nice and neat.

A Quick Little Bag

I got this kit for a trick or treat bag at the Quilt, Craft, Sewing Show last month and finished making it this weekend.

It has pieces of metal ruler in the front and back orange part so the bag stays shut. I'll make some more of these, but I'll change a few things: I'd make them a bit bigger and the stacked prairie points bigger too. It would be fun to do some white ghosts or something on the black straps. Ooh, a button or embroidery on the purple points would be fun too.

You can't see it, but I did free motion quilting on the black part. For me, it's sooooo much easier to quilt on the longarm than my DSM. I have the hardest time getting the tension right - extreme pokies on the back. I finally got the extra bobbin case, loosened it 3/4 of a turn and cranked the top tension to 6. The bobbin thread still just lays on the bottom fabric but at least most of the pokies are gone.

This is a good size for my youngest grandson.

Help I Can't Stop

making fun pillowcases that is. They're a fast, useful project and it's just fun to pick out colors that go together.

What delicious colors! I love how the purple and chartreuse pop. These are for the grandkids.

Had to Have this Fabric!

Isn't this just the cutest Halloween fabric?

 It's call Mona Makes Magic by Alexander Henry. And the cats are great too - so fun!

So they both had to come home with me and become pillowcases:

I did some decorative stitching on the skinny accent piece with glow-in-the-dark thread (how fun is that). This one kinda looks like spiders:

and this one is like the bubbles in the witch's brew:

 

 

Poppa says Grandma steals his pillow, and I had some extra pillows so these are going to their house!