What Shade Are You, Mr. Peacock

Say Hello to Mr. Peacock. He was made for the What Shade Are You Blog Hop hosted by RJR fabrics. You can see the original post at quiltwithlove.com.

For those of you who don't know, I quilt in a small town - Lake City, SC - and we just got our lake last month! It is a small lake, but then again Lake City is a small town, but what it lacks in size and population it makes up in charm. Especially every April when it is host to one of the biggest art competitions in the southeast, Artfields, which awards a total $120,000 to artists across 12 states. The art submitted ranges from prints and paintings to 3D artwork and sculptures. There have even been a few quilts entered over the years. I have yet to enter a quilt myself, but after working on the What Shade Are You Blog Hop, I have been inspired to give it a try next year.

I’ll admit I was a little nervous about what I was going to make. I wanted to make sure I could make something beautiful enough to showcase the lovely solids from RJR fabrics and I wanted it to be original.

I decided to start by answering the question, “What shade are you?” I love red, it is my favorite color and if you ask anyone around my house they would tell you red is definitely my shade, so my first thought was to make a quilt with different shades of reds, but as long as my mind stayed fixed on a red themed quilt no inspiration would come.

As I was mulling things over trying to come up with an idea the question, “Can you make a peacock quilt?”  kept popping into my head. A co-worker had asked me that question a couple years ago when she noticed all the quilts I’d been making for the weekly challenges of Project Quilting. Why that question from so long ago kept popping into my thoughts I didn’t know, but it would not leave my brain. So I decided to go ahead and draw something up.

I used the notepad on my cell phone and made my first rough sketches.

I drew a couple renditions and then added color. I started with blues and greens and a few purples but no red.  I really didn’t want to let go of having red in my project, but peacocks didn't have red in their feathers. I was about to totally give up on the idea of having my favorite color in the quilt when a phrase from the movie Toy Story 2 popped into my head, “You’ll like Amy, she’s an artist!”  Right then and there I decided to put red in my peacock quilt. I put it right at the tip of the feathers. After all, I told myself, I am an artist and artists can make their peacock feathers be any color they want.

From there I added several other colors.  I ended up using the following:

Pickup Truck 415  (The Red)

Orange Crush 412

Persimmon 413

Cantaloupe 209

Citron 337

Sour Apple 346

Turks & Caicos 292

Bora Bora 328

Proud as a peacock 289  (Couldn’t pass this one up)

Lake 427

Violet 423

Hydrangea 214

Schooner 392

Robin's Egg 391

Lucky Green 406

Spring 405

Royal Blue 126  

Optical White White 33

Black 34

As I was drawing the feathers loaded with triangles I decided to construct the quilt using foundation paper piecing.  That way I could be sure to get all my points nice and sharp.

To make the pattern, I taped several large pieces of paper together to get an idea of the finished size.  Then I made master copies of the feathered sections, duplicated them 9 times, and got busy sewing.

Once I knew the final paper piecing layout of all the feathers I drew the bird’s body.   Following the lines of the inside part of the feathers helped make the process easier.

 The cotton supreme fabrics are so vibrant and smooth to the touch. They were lovely to work with and created such a fun quilt.  It even looked lovely from the back side.

I'm still loving my new quilting machine. It makes quilting so much more fun. Especially my large quilts. No more laying on the floor basting and no more struggling with large quilts under a small sewing machine.

Make sure you follow Quiltwithlove.com they will have a new quilt a new quilt every Friday showcasing what you can do with solid color fabrics.

I am so grateful I was able to be part of this hop. It has inspired me to keep on creating and made me excited to submit a quilted entry in the Artfields competition next year.

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Heather Ross Mini Quilt Swap

I have really limited my mini quilt swapping this year so it can focus more on my UFOs.  So far I have only signed up for two swaps, a Heather Ross swap and the May the 4th Swap. 

This was the finished mini I sent my partner for the HR swap.

For the this swap you had to use mostly Heather Ross fabrics.  I had seen some awesome HR fabric collections on Instagram and admired them, but I only had a couple of pieces from a few of her lines. I jumped in anyway hoping my partner would still love a mini full of kitties and luckily she did.

I fussy cute each hexagon and then added inner triangles so I was able to sew the hexagons together in rows without any Y seams. This method allowed me to sew the top together quickly and easily.

I used the kitties from the Tiger Lily line and some of the fish from the Mendocino line.

Then I saw this pin cushion caddy on Instagram and knew the sides would be perfect for fussy cutting some mermaids. 

This swap required at least three extras along with the mini.  I love getting extras myself so I was happy to add extras. First I made the caddy and purchased several notions to go inside. 

 I also made a cute ear bud pouch from this cute bee fabric,  also from the Tiger Lily line. I nabbed the photo of the pouch from my partner since I forgot to get a photo of it myself.  She did a great job with pictures. 

My partner loved it and I got a pretty spiffy package in return from my other partner.  Lots of hexies and lots of different prints along with some great extras.  I am in love.

Another great swap.  Now on to finish the Star Wars mini and get it shipped out in time for May the 4th.

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Tacked Up - 30 Blocks 30 Days

Carla from Creatin' in the Sticks is hosting 30 days of simple quilt blocks.

Each day in April she is showcasing a new block with directions and pattern ideas.  

Today I get to help showcase block #6  Tacked Up.  

I am ready for Spring so I decided to use some lovely spring fabric.  I used a bright pink in place of the white in the original block and a bright yellow to replace the gray.  I also changed the corners a bit by alternating two different fabric instead of using just one. It has given the block a whole new look with just changing color placement.

When you put several blocks together your eyes are drawn to the zig zags pink rows and the yellow butterfly squares pop off the quilt. While the alternating corners subtlety create 4 patch blocks  throughout the quilt.

I did a 4 x 5 quilt block layout to create a little larger rectangular quilt.  

I also used the cute butterfly fabric as part of the backing and binding. This fabric that has been sitting on my shelf for way too many years.  It has finally had it's day in the sun, literally and figuratively.  

Make sure to check back at Carla's blog everyday this month to see a new simple quilt block that can create a quick and lovely quilt. She is also creating a modern quilt using each each block. Can't wait to see her finished quilt!

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Project Quilting 9.5 "A Stitch in Time Saves 9"

I had a hard time with the theme this week.  I was going to do Dr. Who, but I already have two Tardis quilts and wanted something different.  My mind kept going back to cats and their 9 lives, but I didn't see how that would fit with the stitch in time part.  

Then I told myself, "If you don't hurry up and pick a pattern you will be up all night Saturday night trying to stitch way more than nine stitches..."  So I decided pattern choosing procrastination fit the theme and went with cats and their nine lives.    

I have been following the #candycatsqal on instagram hosted by @schnitzelandboo and even printed out the pattern to play along with the Quilt Along but still hadn't made any of my own kitties yet. The pattern is free from Unicorn Hearts and you can get it here: Candy Cats Pattern.

My plan for this week was to sew 9 Candy Cats at half the size and turn them into a mini quilt, but then I got sick, nothing bad, just a horrible cold which make me feel like doing nothing most nights other than vegging out in front of the TV.

Come Saturday I only had 2 cats done... What to do?  I really want to participate in all 6 challenges this year.  It will be my first year ever doing all 6.  So I decided to alter my plan and I turned those two mini kitties into  two 4 x 6 postcards ready for mailing.  

I got out my "Postcard Supplies" box, which hasn't been opened in years and pulled out what I needed.  The box has peltex, wonder under, and muslin backing all cut to size and ready go to.  Thank goodness for that.  I trimmed my kitties to size and turned them into postcards in plenty of time for me to hit the hay by 8pm.

I'm still feeling under the weather today, but am super happy I got my 9.5 project complete!

Check out all the other entries this week and vote for your favorites after noon CST today.

http://persimondreams.blogspot.ca/2018/03/95a-stitch-in-timechallenge-5-of.html

Can't seem to have a photo shoot without one of the real kitties helping out. 

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Project Quilting 9.4 Mellow Yellow

The theme for week four of Project Quilting was "Mellow Yellow."  Not the soda, but the color.  We had to use Yellow as our main fabric for this project.

My quilt is titled "Yellow Bellied Birdies" and measures about 30 inch Square.

I decided to go smaller this week compared to last week as I had a busy week planned.  I managed to squeeze in a few nights of sewing this week and  it helped to have Monday off from work as well.

I actually have a lot of yellows in my stash and love using it in my quilts I just needed the perfect pattern to go with them. My first thought was stars since they are traditionally yellow so I went to my paper piecing board on Pinterest to find a good pattern I have saved and always wanted to make. As I was scrolling I saw this cute Bird pattern.

I couldn't find a link to it, just the image someone saved from someone else who saved it from someone else from an email...If that makes sense. 

I made one bird to test the pattern, then used the papers I tore out as templates to cut out all the background fabric pieces I needed for the rest of the 15 birds.

 The bird isn't too detailed and came together pretty quick. Particularly with chain piecing.

Once I had all the fabric cut to the right shapes it made paper piecing a 15 more blocks super quick.

Each block finished at 6 inches.

Make sure you check out all the other "Mellow Yellow" entries:

http://persimondreams.blogspot.com/2018/02/94mellow-yellowchallenge-4-of-project.html

And vote for your favorites starting at 12 noon CST on Sunday 2/25.

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Project Quilting 9.3 Bold and Brave

Quilt Measures 60 x 60 inches.

This project had me stumped as to what to make.  So I recruited the help of my kids.  I asked, "If you were looking at a quilt that was bold and brave, what would it look like?"

My oldest son said, 
"Maybe it could be like a shield quilt,

Or a lion,

Or maybe a superhero,

Or maybe a superhero football king in space!"

So I asked, "How about a Super hero football king in space with a pet lion?" 

My son agreed, but my mind was remembering the Geometric Lion pattern from Violet Craft.  I showed him a picture of it and he said, "That would be cool. Do you think you can do that in a week? It's just triangle things..."  

That was Monday afternoon.  So I bought the pattern online to check it out.  Later that evening after work I cut out all the pattern pieces, 126 of them, and was about to go with something else when my Hubby and my other son walked in the sewing room. They saw me staring at the pattern and all the pieces and both confidently said, "You can do that in a week." So I did.

I sewed about 4 to 5 hours every night and all day Saturday to finish him.

I took pictures of my progress each night before I hit the hay.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday 

Thursday

Friday - The goal was to gave the whole top finished by Friday. Didn't quite make it, but got pretty close. 

Saturday - I took my cat the vet in the morning and after that I sewed the whole day to finish this guy.

Sunday, I put the last binding stitch in at 12:02 am, so technically he was finished on Suday.

It was over cast this morning and about to rain. But I was able to get a picture of him outside before heading to church.

Go check out all Bold and Brave entries here:

http://persimondreams.blogspot.com/2018/02/93bold-and-bravechallenge-3-of-project.html

At 12pm CST you can vote for your top favorites.

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Project Quilting 9.2 - Triangulation

The theme for week two of Project Quilting season 9 was "Triangulation".  We had to use mostly triangles in our creation this week.  I love triangle quits!  I even have a "Triangle Quilts" board on Pinterest.  So the real challenge this week was choosing a pattern I wanted to make.

 I finally settled on the Morning star block.

Each block has 36 triangles in it for a total of 324 triangles.

This version measures 36.5 in Square.

I have made a similar quilt before.  A smaller 24 inch version for a mini quilt swap in 2016.  

I loved it so much It was hard to part with so I told myself I would make one for myself one day.

Well that day came this week thanks to the help of Project Quilting.  

This time I changed the coloring up a bit.

 At first had yellow as the outer stars, but when I left the room and came back to look at it it didn't look right to me.  I changed that last outer row to purple and got a two thumbs up from the teenagers in my life so I went with the purple outer triangles.

Check out all the other "Triangulation" creations this week here:

http://persimondreams.blogspot.ca/2018/01/92triangulationchallenge-2-of-project.html

And vote for your favorites.  Voting starts at 1pm CST.

To vote click the heart in the upper right hand corner of the photos.

If you are interested, you can get the pattern in several different places

Craftsy: https://www.craftsy.com/quilting/patterns/morning-star-block/271259

This one cost $, but she gives you templates and coloring sheets for several different size blocks.

or

Quilter's Cache:  http://www.quilterscache.com/M/MorningStarsBlock.html

This one is free but is only for a 12 inch block

or

You can use a kaleidoscope ruler that cuts triangles with  a 45 degree angle and cut out a bunch of triangles. That is what I did and I laid out my colors using EQ8.

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Project Quilting 9.1 - Hometown Proud - Murrells Inlet, SC

The first theme for Project Quilting this year was Hometown Proud.

I first thought about doing my current hometown, we have a great art festival each year in April, called Artfileds and some great re-vitalization going on downtown, but I wasn't sure how to turn that into a quilt.

Then I thought about my hometown as a kid and where we spent a lot of time as a family and I realized I still spend a lot of time there as an adult with my own kids.  Then it hit me what to make.

I decided to make a quilt showcasing the Marsh from Murrells Inlet, SC.

I didn't actual live in Murrells Inlet, but I did live in Myrtle Beach which is right next door, and I have spent many Saturdays throughout my life in Murrells Inlet. 

I started by going through my batik scraps and pulling out my greens, blues, and browns.

Pieced them all together horizontally in different strip widths.

Trimmed them up.

Added a couple egrets, there are always white egrets at the marsh, and quilted it up.

The water at my marsh isn't this blue, but the grasses do get a nice bright green in the summer.

Go Here to vote for your favorites:
Project Quilting 9.1 Hometown Proud

Voting opens at 1pm EST

The quilt measures 40 x 20.

These next few pictures are what I used for inspiration.

One of my favorite places to be.  This is at the end of the Jetties at Huntington Beach state park.  Marsh on one side, ocean on the other.

The marsh grass is super green right after the rain.

There are always birds to be seen

This day I was lucky enough to see Roseate Spoonbills.

They only come for a short time to visit our area and then move on.

This was us,the canoe too, on Christmas Eve last year.

Collecting oysters, clams, and crabbing.  We tried fishing a little too, but no luck that day with fish.

The Marsh grass isn't as green in the winter, but its still just as muddy.

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