All That Work

I think I finished this wedding ring quilt back in 2003. I am pretty sure I cried after the first time I washed it. You can see there was this one particular blue fabric I used that bled allover the quilt. :(

All that work!! Ruined by what was probably a cheap fabric I bought. Fabric that I had been collecting and hoarding just for this project. This would have been the time to be sure and prewash all of my fabric. Oh well, stitch and learn.

TBT Amish Pinwheel Quilt

Found another Throwback Thursday quilt. This is the third quilt I made called Feather My Nest. Finished it back in 1990. It's an Amish inspired quilt with pinwheel blocks and hand stitched feather quilting in the wide black border. In the center of the quilt, you can see broken diagonal stitching lines. I learned the lesson of not using cheap or old thread! It wasn't too many years before these diagonal machine quilted lines broke apart with daily use. The quilt could use more quilting in general in the center of the quilt and I didn't do any quilting in the turquoise border. Someday I need to fix that.

I think I sized this one for a waterbed.  ~~~  Anyone remember those things? They were cheap and warm for the Oregon coast. But such a pain to have to move.

xoxo, Happy Stitches!

Fleet Week quilt

This is a graduation quilt for our oldest son. Why is it so hard to make a quilt for guys? Chambray Union is gorgeous and adds a bit of texture. Something I think my son would love. I used the free Ship-Shape pattern by Alice Kennedy for Timeless Treasures. I'm naming this one Fleet Week. As a US Coast Guard family we got to experience many Fleet Weeks. NYC in 1995-96 and New Orleans 2012 are the most memorable ones for me. We were lucky enough to be stationed on Governor's Island, which is just a ferry ride away from Manhattan. Our building is gone now, but it would be nice to go back and visit the island again someday. It was one of my favorites! 

His favorite shape is a triangle. It must be true since he tied this triangular rock up during a beach vacation and dragged it back to the car! He loves sailing too. So, a nautical quilt was an easy choice. 

I wanted to use a RK Chambray Union, Parson Gray World Tour linen/cotton, and a mix of whites for the sails. Except for three sails. I saved those for his school color, garnet. I pre washed all of the fabrics since I was using linen. Here's a close up of the smaller block below. I had a really hard time getting good pictures of this quilt! Especially after it was quilted.

I think this was the most difficult quilt I've ever made! The chambray is gorgeous and light weight which is what I wanted. But I didn't realize how it would shift around. And fray! I was calling it chamfray the whole time. In the end it was still worth using it.

I used Seven Wonders Wind on the back with a couple of rows of half square rectangles on the back. I love using little bits of fabric that are significant to who I am going to give it too. This time it was plaids, travel, mice, greens, books, keyboard, and even a little steampunk.

I stitched semi-straight lines all across for the quilting. Not an easy task for the chambray! The first half went ok and then I tried more basting spray, more pins, and eventually lots of hand basting with dissolvable thread!! Did I mention this is the most difficult quilt I've ever made?

All that basting & machine quilting was worth it in the end. The light fabric & polyester batting give it a wonderful drape and texture!

Finished off with garnet binding of course! Cotton Couture is a wonderful weight for binding. It's so easy to work with. Almost like a voile.

Hugs & a Smooch!

Well hello! Isn't coming home one of the best parts of the day? Hugs and a smooch are just the ticket sometimes! Even better after a long day of commuting. This one is for the best guy in my world. Phew! He certainly deserves it and all of this straight line quilting. It sure makes for a heavy quilt. :)

I used a pre bundled pack of coordinating Kona solids to go with the Kona Modern Quilts yardage. I had already started sewing the half square triangles for the X's before I ordered some yardage of the sage green color. As you can see above, there is a big difference in dye lots! Oh well. Still love it anyway. And hst, never seem to get tired of those.

I stitched two rows of blue for every seven of salmon on top  and a lighter salmon for the bobbin thread. Love  Carolyn Friedlander's Architextures fabric. This orange and cream is my favorite! 

Here she is. Did I mention she's really heavy? About as large as I like to go when I'm machine quilting.

Happy Stitching,

RCQ

A bit of love in Blossom Magazine Issue No. 2

I've been a huge fan of Amy Butler for many years. She designs some of the most beautiful fabrics I have ever seen!! Her Blossom magazine is just full of inspiration. I had the chance to submit an image for her Heart Project on Instagram.  I sent in a red and white heart shaped mug rug I made in 2013. I had even used some of Amy's Temple Flowers fabric for the binding. :) What a treat! Thanks for the love and inspiration you give to everyone Amy!! You can see my heart on page 7.




Here's my heart mug rug/mini quilt. It's a off center log cabin made with random width scraps & cut into the shape of a heart. Had to use some red and white fabrics that I love the most from my stash! Quilting was hand stitched in the ditch with perle cotton.

Happy Stitching, 
RCQ

For Ellie

I made this quilt back in 2011. I wanted to try to make a charm quilt some white minkee I had been saving. Oh so soft! Minkee is quite a challenge to work with. I had to stitch very slowly and LOTS of pinning along the way.

I had some charm packs of Kate Spain's Central Park fabric. I think most of her fabrics look their best when paired with white. Love these prints! The colors look so happy! I did some simple machine quilting, trying to stitch in the ditch.

Baby quilts are so fun to make and not to big to quilt on a regular machine. 

My kind of rose garden.

There have been so many damp gray days this winter. I think that's why I've been so drawn to bright yellows and golds. This quilt went together super fast. My pieces are large, but then so are the moths in the beautiful linen fabric. And so that's how it came about.  Those moths looked like they wanted to take flight, so I better give them some room. 

I've had terrible luck trying to grow roses in my yard. The bugs always eat them. Or they get swallowed up by a fungus. Got a few of those around here. Here's my kind of dream rose garden. Blazing a trail up the lattice. Low maintenance. By the sea of course. And a beautiful bike path right there too, running right along through it.

Here's where I started. Pulling this sunny group of fabrics from my stash. I made a few changes once I got to the design wall, as usual, because that's the fun part!

A little Field Study. A little Hand Drawn Garden and Rosette. Botanics, True Colors, Weekends, and Beyond the Sea to finish it off. Love those sandpipers!

Here's another shot during our misty moisty morning today. The back of the quilt getting photo bombed below. Followed by a close up of the quilting.

Before I go, I've got a little Laignappe for you. Ever wish you had a third hand in the sewing room? I use my presser foot to hold my work sometimes. Especially when I'm ironing my binding. I use my flat hair iron to press the seams in my binding. Then I also my flat iron to press my binding lengthwise. The  presser foot holds it a section at a time. I hold the binding in my left hand and the iron in my right. Makes for very fast work!

Found an even better place to store my flat iron. And yes, I'm very compulsive about turning it off as soon as I'm done.

Thanks for stopping by. Happy stitches.

Purple cotton velvet. Oh my.

Purple? In velvet? And cotton to boot? Hello! That sure caught my eye! Winter makes me want to curl up in a comfy chair and stitch. I used to do a lot of cross stitch and crewel work. It's time to get back to that again. Anna Maria Horner's Escape Artist Bag pattern was just the place to put some stitching to use. A center panel just for quilting and stitching and embroidery and beads. :)

I bought a mixed scrap bag from her shop. In it was a piece of Ghost Wing linen with "luscious" colors I couldn't wait to use. I've been hanging on to some of Bari J's older fabric. Ahh, Full Bloom. Wish I had more of those beauties. Out it came to join the party! I machine quilted the Full Bloom with some bright yellow.

Here comes my favorite piece next. In cotton/linen. First time to use this kind of fabric. Love it!! (I ran all of the fabrics through the washer & dryer first.)

I highlighted the moth shapes and the edge of the linen with a straight stitch. Picked out some perle cotton for a row of embroidery. I added some glass beads as well later on. It's hard to know when to stop embellishing sometimes.

Time to sew the bag pieces together. Geez, am I rusty at following sewing patterns. I'm much better with lots of pictures. Show me where I need to be next and I'll probably get there. I spent a lot of time with my seam ripper on this project, but well worth it. And the next one will go much easier and faster. I noticed right away when I was cutting the velvet pieces that I wasn't going to be framing the center panel exactly like the pattern cover photo shows. I thought I had recut it, but couldn't find my second piece. Either way, it'll do. Live & learn. Learn to love it anyway.

I picked out some of Juliana Horner's and Heather Bailey's fabric for the lining. Love these colors together. I added some ribbon to divide the large interior pockets. The ribbon is great place to stash a pencil. Or pen. 

And here it is all done. Thankfully before winter is technically over and done with.

And the back of course. For my love affair with purple and blues and now brown.

A love for Calicos.

It's a flash back Friday. Seeing the cover of an old American Patchwork & Quilting magazine yesterday reminded me of an old wall hanging I did about 18 years ago. I had to just hit the back button because I typed 8 years ago. Yes, the 90's still feels like 10 years ago to me. Ha!

Sorry for the blurry pictures. Red seems to be hard to capture today and my other camera just broke! I happened to save the quilt magazine I used for the pattern, February 1995. How's that for matching the green fabric on the cover?

I sure have learned a lot since then! And I don't like calicos as much as I used to. But with Liberty of London cranking them out, I'm sure we'll see more of them. I just bought my second sweatshirt in the last few months. Yes, the 80's and 90's are back again. :)

So I learned that pre washing fabrics keeps your quilt from being all cattywampus and skinny in the middle like this one. Especially if you use cheap muslin on the back. I don't always prewash, but I am trying to do it with all of the fabric that I buy. Live and learn. Learn and love it anyway. 

I learned what machine stitches look like when you're tension needs adjusting. See those threads showing from the front! 

I learned I really don't like to appliqué, but this pattern used a very easy technique. (The hearts are two layers, right sides together & sewn completely around, slit in the center of the back, and then turned right side out. Clever.) 

I learned I really like a little hand quilting and machine quilting on almost every quilt I make. Happy stitches. xo xo 

Fan-tastic!

Fan-tastic, it's a word I've heard quite often in our house. And usually pretty dramatically! So here's a fan quilt I started last summer. Hope you find it as fantastic as I do. With all those beautiful fabrics out there to pick from, it sure keeps my creativity in motion. 

I've been hanging on to some Kaffe Fassett Paper Fans in Ochre for years. I wanted to keep it simple design of repeating diamond shaped fans with the fan fabric as a base for each diamond. I remember playing with old paper folding fans as a little girl. So much fun!

The succulents in our garden were looking very pink and a beautiful range of warm and cool green tones. Even a touch of gold. This was the start of my color story. 

I also had some of Anna Maria Horner's Loulouthi Summer Totem in Grapefruit that I had been wanting to use. The colors and the scale were perfect for a wide border!

I wanted to use some Peony fabric from Kaffe Fassett. I used the golden colorway for some of the fans and the deep red in the scrappy back. Sure wish Peony would get reprinted!

I brought this quilt along with us on Thanksgiving vacation. Love how we were surrounded by saw palmetto plants. Fits right in I think! You can also see how I started to quilt the fans. I ended up with only one diamond embellished with a fanfold zig zag at the top. The rest was quilted with a two step, two colored running stitch. I hand tied the whole quilt. A first for me. Just a little nod to the silky tassels that hang from so many antique fans. 

Points don't meet here. But that's not the point. Not always. Not for my anyway.

I wanted to do some widely spaced large quilt stitching across the border. As if somebody was looking out large plantation shutters into the garden. Fanning themselves in the heat of course! Thank goodness we have ceiling fans these days.

Took me what felt like FOREVER to find a voile to use for the binding. There's only hand quilting on this one. That creates a wonderful drape. And a heavy binding would take away from that. I love to use voile in our hot Louisiana climate, especially on a binding. I had a long date with a seam ripper before I finally settled on using some of Anna Maria Horner's Forest Hills voile. Fussy cutting it of course! That first choice of Sinister Swarm in Vivacious was just too dark. Changed the whole look of the quilt.

Finally had a sunny day to take a few more pictures. 

Thank you for stopping by and taking a look. :)