Quiltville Mystery - On Ringo Lake Clue 1 (and a GO! cutter tip)

I've watched the Quiltville Mystery for the last two years, but haven't joined in. However, Bonnie Hunter had me with her colors this year.  I love coral and aqua together!

I had a bunch of random cream scraps I was able to cut into squares using mom's AMAZING GO BIG! Cutter from Accuquilt.  What an amazing gadget!  I am looking forward to using it again soon.  I've thought about buying my own....but she's three blocks, so what's the point?  I can share.

This time I learned a new trick from mom.  To cut one strip form each fabric, I lined them up.  Then overlapped it on the cutter to get one strip.  Then I rolled up the part that stuck off.

I then put it through the cutter....

(Here's the proof)

And got my strips without a lot of waste!  Who knew?  Mom's are amazing.

Then I cut my squares.

And then mom showed me how to do it using folding instead of scissors....(I'm using batiks, she's using prints).

Ta da!  Lots of lovely blocks.

I can't wait until Friday for the next clue.  I know what I'm doing this weekend.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Sky Inspiration

We've had some gorgeous sunsets here lately.  Here are two that I love for color schemes.

This first one is pale yellow, pink, and a purple.  

This one is sky blue, white, and peach

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long Extra Block - Christmas Tree

The original pattern for this was ripped out of something....not sure what....many years ago and hung on my design wall for years.  I finally made it up into a table runner last year.  I knew I wanted to include it in this quilt so I sized it appropriately.  It was fun using all sorts of different greens to make this tree.  I also varied the size of the blanket stitches depending on the sized of the feather.  Big stitches for big feathers and little ones for little feathers.

You can see the difference in the stitching on the back.

I had fun stitching around a snowflake I cut out of a white print for the star.

And the final block!  Such fun.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Free Motion Friday - Quilting Vintage Part 6

I had such fun making this quilt!  Here's where we left off last time.  I'd completed the feathers, not to finish the corners.

I wanted the corners to be very different from the rest of the work on the satin, so I decided to do some grid work.  You can see below that I filled the area next to the feathers with small pebbles as I did in the rest of the quilt near feathers.  

Since I couldn't mark the fabric, I started with these doctor paper (like Golden Threads paper) outlines. I stitched through them and then ripped away the paper.  Then I added the detail quilting.

And here is the quilting all finished!  I added a white binding and it's all done.  It's been such a fun project.  I just bought some coral satin for the next one!  Time to start planning. 

Be sure to check out the links to the previous posts

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long - Presents!

When I saw the original for this block I loved the 3D effect, but I didn't want to piece my blocks, I wanted to applique.  I ended up with this, two presents and a gift bag (so much easier!).  I had a lot of fun picking out eh fabrics for this block.

This bow was an interesting challenge to blanket stitch!  Lots of tiny, tiny pieces.

Love this"bow"

This bag is definitely my favorite part of the block.  And even though I'm trying to stick to red, white, and green, the cat had to have a pink nose.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Houston Inspiration

A few more amazing quilts from International Quilt Festival Houston.  I love the fun of these flowers.

I've done sun and moon art projects with my students before.  Love this one!

I love the village!

I wish I had a better picture of this one.  It's made on metallic pleather.  I love the contrast all the thread gives it.  Oh, and those solid areas that are blue?  ALL THREAD!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

I Wish You a Merry Quilt-a-long Extra Block - Santa

I found this adorable Santa pattern at Stitches of Love.  I love his floppy layered hat!  I had a lot of fun making him.  I contemplated a leather beard for a while and then decided that was too weird.  So here he is all done!  I used a large size blanket stitch on his beard to make it stand out.

I fussy cut a snowflake to fit right into the pompom on Santa's hat.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Free Motion Friday - Quilting Vintage Part 5

Quilting Vintage Part 5 today!  Today I get to start quilting in that yummy blue satin!  I discovered last time that I can't mark the blue satin, so I used doctor paper to help me stitch the lines.  Now for the fun.   For the area next to the border I used one of my quilting designs Curl Echoes.  It did them very small to add texture to the space.  I love the way it came out.

Be sure to check out the links to the previous posts

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

It really tacks down the area and will leave the thin border to shine.

I knew that for the next border I wanted to go back and add more feathers.  I moved the safety pins so they were in a line (you can see this above and below) so I knew where the boundary was to stop my feathers.  Then I used the existing stitches as the spine.  I did rip a few times on this part when my feathers got too large compared to the others.  I love how it turned out.

Below you can see the full spray of feathers going up the sides.  It was such fun to stitch!  I am a firm believer that you can never have too many feathers.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Playing with Decorative Stitches on Applique

I had a blast in Jane Sassaman's Moths and Moons class in Houston.  I got to try out the new Bernina 570 QE and fell in love with her.  I totally bought one that will come just before Christmas!  YAY!  It has a ton of built in stitches and a built in walking foot!  Sew excited!

Here is my moth before any stitching.

Here is my moth after stitching.

And with the head and antennae.

You can see I had fun using a lot of different stitches.

On this piece I did some orange stitching right at the edge of the big piece and then some purple outlining.  I wasn't sure if it would work out spacing wise, but it did.

Here's a closeup.  The orange is stitch 427.  I love it.  It's my new favorite!

I had some trouble with this oval.  If you look closely you can see some red triangles going into the circle.  Then I added a pink satin stitch all the way around the edge, but I didn't like it, so I added the purple stitching on top.  The purple stitching was done with a 28 weight Aurifil thread.  I love it and can't wait to use more 28 weight.

The yellow in this is such a fun stitch!  I like how fat and random it is.

Here's a completed top wing.

And a closeup of the bottom wing.

This is my first attempt at changing the width of the satin stitch as I sewed.  It's a little clumsy, but I'll get better.

This was such a fun class.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy