Project Quilting Week 2: Carolina Lily

This is my entry for week two of Project Quilting.

It measures 30 x 30 inches.

The theme this week was Carolina Lily.

Inspiration didn't come as quick as last week, I was stumped as to what to do.  I couldn't decide between an artsy abstract version or a traditional version.

After looking around on Pinterest I found this cute paper pieced block and put it on file for a back up mini quilt option if it came down to the wire. The only problem was I couldn't find the where this block came from.  The Pinterest link took me to blank page with just the image.  I copied and saved the image and dragged it into the google image search hoping it would take me to the original poster, but all I got were bad Pinterest links. So I put it on the back burner.

Come Friday I was still undecided.  That little block was going to be my best option, but I'd have to redraw it on my own to make it work.  Finally inspiration struck.

This image popped up in my Pinterest feed. It comes from Judy Martin's Book Shining Stars and I decided to recreate something similar using the Lily Block above.  I knew the Lonestar part would sew up lickety split using strips and chain piecing. It would be the 8 lily blocks that would take up most of my time.

The First thing I did was redraw the lily block so I could paper piece it. It didn't take as long as I thought it would in EQ7.  All I had to do was load the image and trace it. Piece of cake. Then I played around with some layouts.  I liked the one on the right with big lilies in the corners, but I knew I was already short on time so I went with the one in the middle.

By Friday evening I had my layout, my paper piecing pattern printed, cut, and fabric pulled, and was starting on my 8 lily blocks.

Luckily I had my most of my Saturday free to work on this quilt.  I finished up the lily blocks and got to work on the Lonestar pieces.  I went with rainbow colors again.  I can't help it, they are so pretty!
Since this quilt is only 30 x 30 inches, these Lonestar diamonds started out with 1.5 inch strips.

Working on the Lonestar sections.  I don't actually plan on making a Lonestar each week of project quilting, but it may end up being a fun side theme trying to see how I can incorporate a Lonestar pattern into each theme. We shall see what week three brings.

Saturday night I had all my pieces sewn and early Sunday morning I got up and put everything together.  I didn't have time for any fancy quilting on this one.  I barely had time to stitch in the ditch around some of the major areas. I finished the last binding stitch at 8:50am and went outside to take its picture.  It was pouring rain, so the front porch swing was my only option.  I put a very quick blog post up so I could link my entry and by then it was 9am and time to get ready for church.

It was a weekend full of sewing, but was so worth it!

Check out all the other entries HERE and vote for your 10 favorite!



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Project Quilting Season 8 - Week 1

This is the eighth year for project quilting and the challenge theme for this week, "8 is Great", was perfect.

I was inspired to make an 8 pointed Lonestar. I designed the layout in EQ7 and added 8 New York Beauty blocks and 8 distorted New York Beauty blocks.  

The Lonestar was the fastest part to put together.  I used strip piecing and it went together in a couple hours.  

I used all my brightest rainbow batiks! The next row of New York Beauties was also pretty quick, had them done in one night.  The last row of distorted New York Beauties took the longest with all those pieces in the outer ring.  The end of my week had me up late every night in order to finish by the deadline, but it was definitely worth it.

No time for fancy quilting on this one.  Just stitch in the ditch for now around the major sections. Maybe later I will go back and put in some free motion in the stars.  But this week didn't allow for any fancy free work.

This one measures approximately 38.5 inches square. Started and finished in one week in Lake City, SC.  It's my first finish for the year and my new favorite quilt!

Check out all the entries Here and vote for your 10 favorite!

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Project Quilting Week Three: All About That Thread

The theme for week three of Project Quilting is "All About that Thread".

I decided to go small this week after my huge bed size quilt last week.  

It made for a more relaxing week and I still got to participate even though I spent three days at the hospital with my son while he had his appendix removed.  We came home Saturday afternoon and I finished up my project while my son recovered on the couch.  He is recovering well thank goodness, which gave me time to finish up this mini quilt.

The Unicorn pattern is from www.robynieland.com.
I first saw it on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/crookedwhimsy/) and wanted to make one of my very own. I used a black background so I could show off some thread work for this weeks theme.

It measures 21 x 21 inches.

I used all brands of thread: Aurifil, Gutermann, Sulky, and Connecting Threads.

It was fun to paint my background with thread.  

My son said it looked like a cool drawing instead of quilting.

Check out all the fabulous entries and vote for your favorite here:
 http://www.persimondreams.blogspot.ca/2016/02/thread-challengetime-to-vote.html

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Project Quilting: Week 4 - Have a Heart

The theme for week four of Project Quilting is Have a Heart.  Our project had to have at least twelve hearts in it somewhere.  I started with a photo from this post over at the Quilting Board.  The pattern comes from a book called "The Bargello Heart" by Nancy Podolski.  I didn't have time to order the book though so I had to calculate my own dimensions.  Mine turned out double the size from the inspiration photo, so I doubt I got the dimensions right, but mine looks like the photo and I am good with that.

I started out cutting 2 1/2 inch strips from 12 different fabrics.  

Then I sewed them all together in a tube and cut them in what looked like the right size widths,

After that it was just a matter of opening the tubes at the right seams to get the heart design.

I finished the quilting and binding late last night with 12 hours to spare for today's deadline.

I named this one My Growing Heart.
The twelve hearts start in the center and grow in size with each new color.

The quilt measures approximately 72 x 53.
 

I did a lot of different quilting designs in my all over quilting - hearts, feathers, flowers and swirls.
Just what ever I felt like quilting when I got to that section.

I used an orange flower print for the back.
Since it was only 44 inches wide, I split it down the middle with a blue strip.
Fastest way to do backings for me without having so much fabric leftover.

One last picture of it, because I love it so much!

Make sure you check out all the other entries for this week
here at the Persimon Dreams blog.

Voting starts at 1pm eastern time today.

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Project Quilting Week 2 - Missed it by a few hours

The Theme for Week 2 of Project Quilting was Sunrise/Sunset.  

I had grand visions of creating a nice size quilt this week.
I had the pattern I wanted,
picked out my fabrics without any trouble,
and got everything cut out in record time.  

Piecing was going great and everything was on schedule to finish by Saturday night, and then my previously empty week was fill with appointments, family events, and my son's broken collarbone (Bone is mending fine thank goodness).  

At 11:45pm last night I seriously contemplating staying up to finish the quilting and binding, but when I started adding up the hours I knew I would be up till at least 5am and if I did that I wouldn't make it to church in the morning.  So I resigned myself to sleep and missed the deadline by 5 hours.

I still feel like a winner though having this new top finished.

And I am excited to vote for all the other fabulous entries for week 2!

Go Check them out Here!

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Project Quilting Season 6 - Week 1 - "Trees"

I turned this one inch pile of strips into my entry for the 1st week of Project Quilting Season 6.

The theme this week was "Trees".

I used the Jelly Roll Race method to turn them into the background for my tree silhouette.

My inspiration came from a tree shadow box I saw on etsy that was made out of old magazines.

I wanted my tree to be a winter tree at night. So I choose the blue background and the black silhouette.

This wall hanging measures 26 inches by 39 inches.

And I am naming it "Winter Sleep".

All the other entries can be found at Persimon Dreams.
At 1pm Eastern time you can start voting for your favorites.
To Vote you click the heart in the corner of the image in the linky list.
Voting lasts till Friday.

Go Check everyone out!

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Project Quilting Challenge 5

The theme for challenge 5 of Project Quilting was: The Grocery Store.

We were suppose to find three things at the grocery store that inspired us to make a quilted project.  I'll admit this one stumped me.  Thursday night had rolled around and I still didn't have an idea.  I had been to the store and looked around, but nothing was inspiring me.

I did enjoy looking at all the colorful fruit in the produce section though, and finally decided I should go ahead and work with fruit. Apples in particular, since I had some apple fabric in my stash.  I contemplated layouts and designs and even asked friends for ideas, but I couldn't come up with something I liked, or something that I liked that I could put together in the next couple days.

I decided I better get off the apple idea and move onto something else.  Then I came up with a great idea to make a watermelon log cabin quilt.  I even played around with some layout ideas:

But as I started to cut out the light colored fabrics I realized I just wouldn't have enough time to complete a log cabin quilt in two days, even a small one.  I could probably get the top done if I stayed up late both nights, but I wouldn't be able to baste, quilt, and bind it before the Sunday deadline.  So I scrapped that idea as well.

Then I got to thinking about strawberries, one of my favorite fruits. They have been looking good on the shelf in the produce section lately and a couple weeks ago I printed out a strawberry iris folding pattern that would be perfect for some Strawberry themed fabric postcards.  I decided now was the perfect time to make them.

Since my last few daylight hours of the week were spent playing with relatives at the beach, I had to work on these four beauties Friday evening and during the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning. I finished them in time to get a few hours of sleep before I post pictures and headed off to church.

I made four at a time because there are a few mailboxes I want these to land in during the next couple days. I am submitting a small project this week but hopefully inspiration will strike early next week and I can work on a bigger project for the last challenge of the year.

To check out all the other entries submitted this week and VOTE for your three favorites,

click HERE.  My strawberries are #19.  To vote click the heart in the upper right corner of the project you like the best.

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Project Quilting Week 4 - My Who-niverse

"Across The Universe" was the theme for week four of project quilting.  I wasn't quite sure what I would make when I first heard the theme last Sunday, but I knew I needed to have a great background fabric.  My husband and I visited a few fabric shops on Monday while running errands and he found the perfect universe fabric for me.

Once I had the fabric I still wasn't sure of my game plan.  I knew I wanted some stars though so I downloaded this four point paper pieced star from Crafsty and made a total of 8.

Then I felt like the project would need a sun and in my searching I found this Supernova pattern, again on Craftsy.  At this point I still wasn't sure of my layout but I knew this Supernova was perfect for my big light source.

Once the stars sewn together my mind kept going back to Dr. Who. I am a fairly new Whovian and this week's theme was perfect for that show.  I had seen some great Tardis patterns on the web in the past and when I went to go grab one I ran across a brand new one posted this Tuesday by Trillium Designs. The block is called "Tardis in Flight" and is the last block in their Dr. Who paper pieced series. Perfect timing for me and my Who-niverse quilt!

Once I had the stars and the Tardis complete it was time to figure out how to put them all together.  I laid out my background fabric on my design wall and fiddled around with placement, but there was still so much empty space.  And then it hit me, the universe needed some planets and moons.  I found the perfect batik fabric in my stash and got busy cutting circles.

Once the layout was decided and the planets hand stitched into place it was a piece of cake to quilt up.  I used some heavy weight thread for some of the galaxy quilting and then did a small meandering all over the rest of the quilt in a dark blue (which is hard to see in the photo).

I am loving my own little Who-niverse!

It measures 38 x 44 inches.

Go check out all the other week four challenge entries here.

At that same link you can vote for four of your favorites.

Just click the heart in the upper right corner of the photo you want to vote for.

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Project Quilting Week 3 Entry - Sweet Treats

The them for week three of project quilting was "Sweet Treats".  Your quilting project could be anything as long as it was inspired by sweets.  I choose lollipops.  I call this one Lollipop Orchard.  It measures 30 x 20 inches.

 When I think of visually appealing candy I think of great big swirly lollipops.  When I was a kid I loved seeing them in the store and wished I had one in my hand.   So I knew I wanted to do something with lollipops for the challenge.  

I started out by finding the perfect swirl graphic and printed it on the back of some wonder under with my regular printer.  This made it easier to mark and cut out the different swirled fabrics.

I used my exacto knife to cut out the center of the smaller swirls since my scissors were too big.  The exacto knife had no problem going through the paper and the fabric.

Once I had the lollipop tops complete it seemed natural to put them into a landscape scene.   

I did raw edge applique for this one.

It seemed the easiest choice for the smaller swirls given the time limit.

I thought about adding pink fluffy clouds for cotton candy clouds, but they didn't look right, so I went for pink binding instead.

There were 42 different entries this week.

You can see them all listed at PersimonDreams.com.

You can also vote for 4 of your favorites!
My Quilt is Number 28. ;)

Head on over and check them all out.

And don't forget to vote!

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Project Quilting Challenge 2 - Upcycling

This is my entry for Challenge 2 of Project Quilting.  Rules for Challenge 2 Can be found here.

Basically the whole project had to made from materials that had a previous life as something else.
We also had to include two materials that were never intended for use in a quilt or clothing.
Again you didn't have to make a traditional quilt but you did have to have either patchwork, applique, or three layers stitched together.  I decided to go the non traditional route and I appliqued the front door on in order to stay within the guidelines.

I really struggled with this challenge. I am not one to up-cycle anything. I usually give away old clothes and unwanted items, so I was racking my brain trying to come up with an idea. Finally near the end of the week I had the pincushion idea pop into my head.

I have a bin full of old denim pieces that I cut from worn out jeans. I save them to use as patches when needed. I decided the denim would make great walls for a cute little house pincushion.

I added some fringe, beading, and yarn as vegetation. These items came from my daughter who had salvaged them from other items.

The two items I added that usually can't be found on a quilt are a bottle cap, and a CD. I put the bottle cap as a wall decoration. It reminds me of the quilt images that can bee seen on the side of barns. I used the CD to make the windows. I cut it into tiny squares and glued them on.

The door is an old piece of felt that had been tucked away in a drawer.

The roof is denim covered in a gold mesh. Another treasure from my daughters stash.

The pincushion measures 3 inches wide x 4 inches tall.

You can see all the other entries at the Project Quilting Flikr Group.

Can't wait to see what the next challenge theme is.
Hopefully I can come up with something more quilty next week.

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Project Quilting: Challenge One

As I was hopping around different blogs the other day I came across something called Project Quilting. Since school doesn't start again for me till next week I decided to jump in the challenge.

This is season 5 of Project Quilting and this week was the first challenge of the season.

The theme this week is "String Along with Me". 

There were only a few rules that had to be followed:

1. The entire quilt (except the back) had to be made of strings - fabric strips 

no larger than 2.5 inches.

2. The quilt had to be started and finished during this week.

3. The quilt didn't have to be traditional but must have at least one of these three elements:

A: include patchwork

B: include applique

C: have three layers stitched together.

(When I first read these three items I didn't see the "at least one" so I ended up doing all three.)

At first I had visions of making a cool landscape quilt like this one, but I knew that wouldn't be possible to do in one week.  After perusing all the string quilts on Pinterest and Google images, I found this Exlpoding Star Tutorial.  I Instantly fell in love and knew I had  to make a quilt using that Star. 

I made 6 star blocks and fiddled with different layout designs till I came up with this one.
I measures approximately 40 x 56 inches.

When I was putting the Blue string blocks together it made me think of the Ocean. 

But I couldn't figure out how stars could fit into an ocean theme. Finally it hit me. Starfish. So I named the quilt "Relaxing Starfish"   The Rainbow stars are the starfish resting on coral, surrounded by the Ocean.

   I had been at a loss as to what to applique on the quilt,  but once I figured out the name of the quilt I knew what I was going to applique.  I punched out some green Starfish and placed them on the blue string blocks and machine stitched then down.  It is lightly quilted, just in the ditch, but if I come up with something clever I may go back and add more quilting to the blue string blocks.

From start to finish, this quilt was fun to put together. Even when it got to be the wee hours of the morning.  I do believe it is in the top ten of my all time favorite quilts that I have made.

All projects had to be posted by noon today CDT.

Go check out all the other entries  HERE.

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