Churn Dash Love

Yay!! I received my doll quilt in the mail last week. I am thrilled with the little quilt that was made just for me.  It came all the way from California, made by Wendi. Isn't the design so cool? I just love churn dashes and stars, so this just works in so many ways. (It also reminds me of a block that I like that was in my bee quilt.) Check out the binding. She aligned it with the colours in the block!

She sent along some wonderful goodies. I got some great text fabrics that look like typewritten words and some yummy chocolate. I am so spoiled!

And let's not forget about this wonderful zippy pouch. I really like it a lot! The colours are just awesome. I keep meaning to make myself one, but that hasn't seemed to happen yet.

The back is just great too, with lots of lovely handwriting fabric and a cute label. Also, Wendi made some hangers for it. Very practical for hanging on my wall.

Here it is on the wall behind my sewing machine with the doll quilt that I got last year! I'm so excited to have a collection now. Maybe I should make something to go up there too.  (If I ever get around to it.) Maybe I'll just participate in some more swaps!

I haven't forgotten that I need to show you the completed Owl quilt.  I'll get to that soon.

xo Nicole

Beginner's Luck

I did finish it! It's all quilted and bound (in a fabulous orange nonetheless) and hanging in its new home at the quilt shop. I just love the Amy Butler peony fabric that I based it on and I am so pleased with the outcome. Too bad that I can't cuddle with it at home.

Isn't the middle block so wonderful? I love how part of the shoo-fly blocks make it look like the centre star has a second star around it.

I don't know why, but stars and shoo-fly blocks are two of my faves.  

I am also very happy with the final sashing choice, since it wasn't my original choice. I had originally chosen a rich brown and a soft lavender for the cornerstones. They ended up being totally wrong and too harsh for the blocks. Luckily, at the time that realized I needed to find something better, Katja had just brought in some wonderful Pat Bravo fabric that worked perfectly with my colour scheme. I'm so delighted that the colours were exactly as I had originally pictured in my mind.

Here is the quilt in its current location above the wide backings and flannels. (Oh, and look to the left - you see Carla's cute birdie quilt and my little twister quilt. And in the foreground is a glimpse of my placemats and Sixteen Again quilt.)

If you (or someone you know) are interested in making a Beginner's Luck quilt, contact Katja's Quilt Shoppe. The first class begins on May 22 at 6pm.

xo Nicole

Doll Quilt Swap

I managed to finish up my doll quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap 12 on Flickr.  I am so thrilled with the results.  It was rather difficult to send it off after all that work!

I have always maintained that I hate foundation paper piecing, but I thought that I would try it again with some special paper.  I found that the paper made a good difference, and I think that my machine being serviced and the tension being so much better helped out a great deal as well.

I designed this quilt on EQ6 and printed out 5 papers.  Then I grabbed my test fabrics and tried it out.  It worked quite well and came together just as I had hoped.  I dove in with my chosen fabrics for the swap and made up the blocks over 2 weeks or so.  I think it took me about 1.5 hours for each block.

Then I still had to take all the paper off - ugh!  I still hate that part of paper piecing, although my pointy tweezers helped me out in some tricky spots.  After basting the layers together, I decided to hand quilt it with some matching red embroidery floss.  I think that the design pops!  I also added in some green quilting, kinda in the ditch to secure the outer part of the quilt.

I hope my partner loves it.  I expect that she will get it sometime this week.  She doesn't know this is coming from me, so hopefully it will be a lovely surprise.

I am still waiting to receive a little quilt, but I have no idea which one will be mine.  There are some absolute stunners in the photo pool!

xo Nicole

Slowly Finishing

I managed to meet and even exceed one of my goals for the last week.  I really wanted to finish the quilting on this Beginner's Luck quilt.  I did that, and I am almost done sewing on the binding.

I used a light aqua thread and stitched in the ditch.  It made me realize that I really don't like stitching in the ditch.  It matters if you go off the lines.  With free motion quilting, its a lot more forgiving.  I'm going to focus on the positive though, and take delight in the fact that I'm not perfect.  It's much more fun that way.

Anyway, I am super happy that its done because I started sewing this quilt before Christmas I think.  I was planning on having it done by the end of January, so that I could run a Quilting 101 evening class this spring.

That didn't really work out, but it will be offered for the end of May through June.  More details to follow when I get some good pictures of my completely finished project.

I also have some other fun stuff to share that will be coming to this blog very soon.

What have you finished lately?

xo Nicole