Happy Distraction

I have been working on a very fun project - bumper pads for my new granddaughter!! They are finished and ready to be delivered this weekend when we go to visit.
My DIL chose Kumari Garden by Dena Design for Free Spirit. It's a beautiful, fresh bold line and it looks fabulous! The pink will be on the inside.

This light turquoise blue will be the outside with the matching pink ties. The walls are painted a lighter shade of this blue.

Here they are in my studio - which is kind of close in color to the nursery - it's probably a little more "blue-ish" (not sure that's a word :)).

And they do look wonderful. August seems like a long way away to wait for this new little member of our family :). Happy days......
Until next time,

-Karen

Not Square Anymore!

Here is my quilt in its finished form. I am very happy with the layout and the way it looks. I'm also very happy that it is rectangular and not square! You will also see that I added a row of blocks to separate the two light rows (remember I didn't like the two light rows being so close together). I decided not to border this as it was already getting quite large. My 6'1" husband had trouble holding it up as it is and since I'm hand quilting, it is plenty big for me! This is how I decided to solve my "square" problem. I made 12 more log cabin blocks but instead of doing them half light and half dark, I did them all dark (they are not this dark).

I then added them to two sides, creating a rectangle instead of a square.

I was pretty happy with the way it looked laying on the floor.

The biggest problem with this layout I'd chosen, was having to do all the half square setting triangles. I hate those things!! I love the way quilts look set on point, but I rarely do them because it's such a pain to do those setting triangles. Last summer at the retreat, I saw someone using this Marti Michell ruler. She explained how it made making setting triangles perfect and easy. I did not believe her, but when I got home I went a bought the ruler anyway.

I am here to tell you, she was right! My triangles were easy and came out perfect!! I am so happy with this quilt, next up will be pictures of the hand quilting so far.
Until next time,

-Karen

Wedding Memories Linger

Here's what I've been working on lately. I made my daughter's wedding quilt in 2002 and my son's wedding quilt in 2007. Last year I started piecing log cabin blocks. These are all leftover scraps that I decided to make into a quilt for me and I've named it "Wedding Memories Linger". I played around with several setting ideas.

I really liked the center square but wasn't crazy about the second light band so close. It looked a little boring to me - and it appeared it was going to end up square. While I have made some square quilts, I'm not as drawn to them as I am to a rectangular quilt - especially in larger sizes. So I had to figure out a solution to keep the center square but make the quilt rectangular.

Here's a close up of the center. The colors are mainly green, brown and rust. The lights are everything from almost white, to pale green, very light yellow and cream. I used mostly prints but also some batiks.

Even though the two quilts were different colors, they all went together especially in this block format. One thing I did was set the block on point. This meant doing setting triangles but it worked out okay. I already had this batik in my stash and it looked wonderful with the quilt.

I will show you the final set I decided on and the start of the hand quilting soon!! I have been so excited to get this quilt pieced and start quilting it.

Until next time,

-Karen

Chasing the Rainbow Challenge

When I realized I never posted pictures of my challenge quilt, I decided to use it as my entry in this year's Bloggers' Quilt Festival. Amy has again hosted this most fun event. Please be sure to go over and see all the great quilts (click on home to see the quilts)!! A few months ago our Guild had a challenge and I shared a few pictures of my quilt and of the rules. I had no idea how this quilt would look when I started it, but I must tell you, I was soooooo happy with the final results!! After I had pulled all the fabric that matched my swatch of challenge fabric, I just started making paper-pieced square in a square blocks. Not really sure how I would use them but did them in all colors and did some with the little center and some without. My initial plan was to completely surround the center medallion with blocks. I soon realized that would be chaos!!

So I put some blocks in opposite corners and decided to quilt in "ghost" blocks to complete that border. Since the quilt rules said the quilt had to be 36-40" square, I had to add strips to the applique piece to make it square.

The tiny innermost border is a different color on each side, green, red, black, gold. I also added little sashes in between the blocks to make the math fit and to make it easier for the points to lay flat. It's a little hard to see, but each of the quilted "ghost" blocks are done in a different color - just like the pieced blocks. I added quilted sashing where needed to make the math work in this part too. When you're making up a quilt with no pattern, there are no rules LOL!! The final element was the diagonal quilting in the border. It's also hard to see, but the quilting changes color from the center out.

I love the blue leaves on this. I've never done a black quilt before, and I'm so excited about the way this turned out. I'll be taking it to my office, so you'll see it again :).

Here's the kitty - a little hard to see. But he's there in the center of the flower.
Hope you enjoy the show.

Until next time,

-Karen

Roll Roll Cotton Boll

Today must be the day for mystery quilt reveals. Two of my bloggy friends are showing their quilts - Lori from Humble Quilts and Wendy from Snippets of a Quilter. I normally don't like to do a quilt that someone else has already done, but I made an exception this time and I'm so glad I did - this is a beautiful quilt. I took this picture out in the backyard a little while ago. My string pieced blocks are not quite as light as this.
In my last post I was concerned about how the border would go on with all those pieces and seams. I must say the border went on perfectly. Bonnie's directions for doing the corners was brilliant!!! The only glitch was that I had made too many units and had to rip and then my first corner went on wrong and I had to rip. After that it was smooth sailing.

Here's my kitty, the red fabric in the center. I can not tell you how happy I am that I did this quilt, and how pretty it is in person. The fact that it is 100% free is still very satisfying to me.

I would encourage anyone who wants to use up scraps and stash and know ahead of time that you will end up with a great quilt to jump in!! I hope to get this basted soon. I will be machine quilting it on my home machine, this will be the biggest quilt I've ever quilted. We'll see how that goes.

Until next time,

-Karen

I can almost see the finish line

My borders are done and aren't they beautiful?? These went together so fast and easy. Cutting was easy, piecing was easy, pressing was easy. Let's hope the actual attachment to the quilt is that easy. I have decided that of all the steps of quiltmaking, sewing the blocks together in the body of the quilt is probably my least favorite part. But now that it's done, I'm so happy. After squaring up the string blocks, these did fit together perfectly. Again, kudos to Bonnie Hunter for great directions.

So this is the last time you'll see this all in pieces. I'm determined to finish this top and then think about quilting it. I've got several tops that need to be quilted (including my glow in the dark pineapple quilt)!! Plus, I've got to start hand quilting my quilt for our Guild's quilt show next spring. I promised my DH I wouldn't wait until the last minute and do nothing but quilt for 8 weeks straight!!!

Until next time,
-Karen