Saturday, September 29, 2018

Island Batik Ambassador's Starstruck Challenge Part 3

I am so happy with how my Island Batik Ambassador's Starstruck Challenge turned out!  I used the new All A Flutter line.  Let me know you how I finished quilting it.  If you want to see the first two parts in the series click below.



Here's where we were last time.  All the interior star is quilted, just the purple and background remain to be quilted.  I used my favorite Hobbs 80/20 Cotton/Poly blend inside.


Check out the back!  Isn't it fabulous?  You can really see the thread.



Here are my amazing Aurifil thread choices.



For the background here I wanted something simple so I chose to make triangles.



In the purple I really wanted the dragonflies to pop so I stitched around them and parallel lines between them.


You can really see what it looks like on the back.  After I'd quilted two out of four of these I was wondering what in the world I was thinking!?  However, i love how it looks.



Here we are with all but the background done.



And the back!  It looks so different and amazing on the back....



For the background I decided to keep in simple and do more triangles like I did in the interior gray sections.  I'm really happy with how this turned out.  I used a simple pink to bind because I didn't have enough gray left and because I like colored bindings.


I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Friday, September 28, 2018

Free Motion Friday - Futuristic Flowers - Part 7

Since I needed something to fill space at the top of my futuristic flowers I decided to add a moon.


Here's a detail shot.  I wanted to fill some of the space inside the moon, but not all of it.  I may go back and add more.  It depends on what it looks like when I get the rest of the quilting done.  



Here's where I'm at currently.


I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Island Batik Ambassador's Starstruck Challenge Part 2

In my last post I showed you how I created my original block below using paper piecing.  I had a blast using the Island Batiks All a Flutter collection.  I also used my favorite Aurifil gray to do the piecing.  Now onto the quilting!




I started by layering my quilt with Hobbs 80/20 cotton/poly blend, my favorite batting.  Now what?  I decided to use all Aurifil threads to quilt my quilt so the fabrics can really shine.  I didn't want to ruin the blue hexagons so I decided to simply stitch around their outside edges. In the pink areas I knew that I wanted those birds to POP out so I echo quilted around them so they really puffed up.  I'm thrilled with how it turned out.



  
Next was this beautiful dark pink that has a raindrop print.  I decided to echo the fabric again.  I quilted around the drops and did micro stippling in the background.



Here's a closer look.  The raindrop print in this color is really subtle.



Last came this pretty pink and blue flower print.  You really can't see the flowers well so I decided to do a simple pebble over the whole thing to add a nice texture.


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Here's the back so far.  You can really see how much thread was used!


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I'll be back Saturday with the final part of the quilting!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Monday, September 24, 2018

Random Inspiration

Here are a few pictures I've taken lately.  The first is a table cloth that was on a table at school.


This is from the Owl Diaries book.  I love how the pumpkin is broken into pieces....hmmm.


Fall flowers


I love the pink in these leaves.  Hmmm....


I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Saturday, September 22, 2018

American Album by my MOM!

We were over the moon excited to find out that my mom Kathy Shier's quilt received a teacher's choice ribbon from Margaret Solomon Gunn at MQX!  She is so excited.  She had a blast making this stunning applique quilt from P3 Designs.

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I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Friday, September 21, 2018

A Formal Garden Debuts

My newest show quilt A Formal Garden has debuted at MQX Midwest this weekend!  It won second place on it's first trip out.  I am thrilled!  MQX is one of my favorite shows to enter because I love the feedback I get on their scoring sheets.  







I also have a sick kid so it's 11 and we just got home from the doctor.  I'm tired!  

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

My Happy Place Row Along!

I'm excited to be back again this year doing the My Happy Place Row Along with Marian at Seams to be Sew.

I must admit that my happy place stumped me for awhile.  Someone else had done everything I was thinking of.  I even asked my third graders what their happy places were.  I finally decided on my favorite flower - cone flowers.  I myself have a very black thumb.  I am not a gardener.  However my mother grows cone flowers and I enjoy the ones in our local county parks.  I love to see the monarchs on them.



Northcott is not only sponsoring a giveaway on my blog today, but they provided fabric to the designers for our patterns.  Here are the three fabrics I chose:

39303-84 became the flowers
 39303-84

9025-76 became the stems and leaves
9025-76

21390-62 became the background
21390-62

I added a brown for the flower tops and that was it!

I also had a lot of fun quilting my row.  I wanted the background to look like a breeze and added some fun swirls to the leaves.


I quilted the brown tops in bubbles and added a fun ribbon detail in the middle of each petal.



You can download the free pattern HERE.

Be sure to visit the other designers sharing there patterns today:
Clever Chameleon | Adventurous Applique and Quilting
Heleen Pinkster Quilt Design
Cynthia’s Creating Ark | Seams To Be Sew

My giveaway is from Northcott - some gorgeous Banyan Batiks.  Please be sure to read the rules as shown on the rafflecopter link and can be found here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please stop back again soon or join my Facebook Group - Machine Applique Adventures.  I share links to all my blog posts in the group as well as other interesting quilty thoughts and inspiration.  I also love to see what everyone is making!  I post every Monday (inspiration), Wednesday and Saturday (projects), and Friday (free motion quilting)

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Monday, September 17, 2018

Snail Inspiration

Wouldn't the snail make a cute quilt?  


And some end of summer flowers...





I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Saturday, September 15, 2018

Island Batik Ambassadors Star Struck Part 1



Quilters love stars.  I've made many, many star quilts over the years, but they always draw me back in and I make another.  For September's Island Batik Ambassador Challenge we were asked to make a star quilt.  

I chose this gorgeous collection of fabrics called All a Flutter.  I knew that I had two 10 inch squares of each fabric and I kept this in mind while designing.





I decided to create a paper pieced block that is an original design.  Below you can see that I am laying out fabrics trying to figure out what I wanted to put where.  One thing I keep in mind while doing this is to make sure there is enough contrast between the different pieces that are next to each other.  I also knew I wanted to include all the colors from the collection - blue, pink, and purple.


For the background I chose a new Island Batik solid called Shadow.  It's a light gray and the colors really pop against it.  I wanted to conserve fabric so I laid out my pieces to best fit and then cut between them.


Here is my block all together.  I LOVE the star and I will more than likely make more of these eventually.  


I also love it when eight points come together so neatly!  Isn't this hexagon print amazing!  It's one my favorites and I keep buying it in more and more colors...I might have a problem.  Not!


Come back next week to see how I quilted this beauty.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy