Brightly Broken

So the title sounds morose, but this mini is anything but!  Using the tried and true Broken Herringbone tutorial by Anne at Play Crafts, I (temporarily) left the black and white behind in favor of rainbow blocks ala Molli Sparkles.  I chose pretty much all bright jewel tones of magenta, purple, green and blue and sashed them in white.  It was pretty fun to shop for fabrics in my stash and I loved creating a bit of an "I Spy" in each block.

I spy...some fruit and fowl.

I spy...Aladdin's castle and Belle's bicycle.

I spy...snips and shells.

All those straight herringbone lines needed a bit of softening up, so I quilted it in one continuous spiral from the center.

It got bound with some Comma in black.

So what's with the extra herringbone love when I've still got a top unfinished?  Well....I've been given the opportunity to teach a class featuring this block at the fabulous Quilter's Way in February and wanted to create a few extra samples to show just how versatile and different these blocks can be.  I'll be making a few more little pieces in the next month, but this is the sample that will hang in the shop to advertise the class.  Hopefully enough people will be inspired to sign up and make it happen - I can't wait to give it a try!

Linking up with:

Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday

X Plus ScrapBeeLicious Equals Awesome...

Every quilting blog could use some good math puns, right?  No?  Guess it's just me then.  Alrighty...let me distract you from my lame jokes with some fabric goodness.

November's ScrapBeeLicious Queen was Alyce and she requested X Plus blocks with this Liberty print as our color inspiration:

Gorgeous, right?  Now a print like this makes me very, very aware of a big blind spot in my stash - prints.  Not to say that I have mostly solids, but about 95% of all my fabrics are monochromatic prints.  Not that this is usually a problem, but probably something that I should be more aware of when I fabric shop.  But I digress...

It's obviously not November anymore but thankfully (according to Wombat Quilt's very helpful Bee Etiquette post) I am not technically late yet!  This gave me a chance to scan our Flickr group and see what other bee members had already created.  I saw a lot of red centers so decided to mix things up a bit and use the mustard yellow along with Alyce's requested dark greys for the plus lines.

I got to sneak in one of my last few Birds & Bees scraps and a little 1001 Peeps too!

The X Plus block has been pretty popular lately and I've seen a lot of versions that are fantastic but this was my first attempt and it was a pretty fun block to make.  I can see how people can crank them out assembly line style!  

One thing that I am really glad I had read on Little & Lots' blog about her X Plus Quilt was how to use the large amount of triangle scraps that these blocks create.  She found a tip and turned the scraps from her X Plus into a WHOLE OTHER QUILT.  Love it!  So I followed suit and from just these two blocks, I now have a nice little pile of 16 pink and teal HSTs - I think they'll find their way into a small finish one way or another!

By the way, do any of you have blind spots in your stash or difficulty with prints like me?

Linking up:

Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday

ScrapBeeLicious Peeps...

Hey look!  I actually dragged myself away from Kindergarten drama to sew something!  All kidding aside, after a week and half at school, we have finally hit our school groove over here and I was actually relaxed enough to dust off the sewing machine and make something.

Gwendellyn at The Rainbow Revolts is September's ScrapBeeLicious queen and she requested Trip Around the World blocks with any color scheme but in some kind of "theme".  I don't have too many fabric collections to choose from for an easy theme (my stash is pretty much all bits and pieces), but I do have a TON of Lizzy House's Castle Peep fabric still left and they make any block look cute and fun.  Plus they make a pretty great rainbow of color.

Despite the fact that everyone and their mother has done a Trip Around the World quilt lately, this was the first time that I've tried that block design.  They were super easy and fast to throw together.  As an added bonus, I actually remembered to sew a scant quarter inch and they actually finished at the size that they were supposed to...which hardly EVER happens to me.

Hopefully the color isn't too loud for Gwendellyn's existing blocks.  I probably could have thrown in a white or light solid to punch up the contrast, but oh well.  I'm just happy to be sewing again.  Now I just have to catch up on a month's worth of other people's posts on Bloglovin.  One step at a time...

Blogger's Quilt Festival...Circle Peeps

Hey all!  This is my first time participating in the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side.  I'm submitting two of my (semi) recent finishes.  This entry is for my appliqued circle quilt featuring Lizzy House's Castle Peeps line:

Circle Peeps

52" x 64"

Machine pieced and quilted on my home machine with Guterman white thread

Category:  ROYGBIV Quilts

I loved this fabric line by Lizzy House as soon as I saw it and immediately purchased more fabric at one time than I ever had before.  I had also seen a great tutorial for an appliqued circle quilt that I thought would really show off the cuteness of the print.  I assembled all the appliqued blocks fairly quickly  so was feeling pretty pleased with myself. 

Originally I had made 6” wide strips of stacked coins from each of the fabrics for a border. 

But when those strips were all sewed and cut and I placed them against the quilt top, it just felt too busy.  So I put it all aside and promptly forgot about it to start something else fun and exciting.  Fast forward 2 years and all these pieces were still sitting around – those Peeps must be mighty patient.  

Umm...hello?  Remember us?

I wanted to finish up the Peeps, but those stacked coin strips were just hanging me up.  I tossed a bunch of ideas around and nothing seemed to fit, so I brought the whole kit and caboodle to the BMQG meeting in November for our massive show and tell.  Someone (sorry I didn’t catch who, but thank you!) suggested cutting the strips skinnier and sashing them in white.  YES!!

It turns out that I had EXACTLY enough to complete a full border and a long strip for the backing by cutting the strips in half – seriously!  There were only a few inches left when all was said and done!  The white sashing was perfect.  It gave the circle blocks a little breathing room and made those rainbow squares pop as a border. 

I had just enough of the rainbow strips left over to make a panel for the back, and added in a little knight's horse just for an extra touch of whimsy.

I really struggled with the quilting of this - not because it was difficult but because I love doing Angela Walter's chain squares pattern but still have not forced my machine into free-motion quilting submission.  Which meant that at every corner of every square, I was rotating this quilt through the tiny throat of my machine.  That's a lot of twisting and rotating!

It probably took the better part of a week of quilting a half-hour here and there and it was making me a little...resentful...toward the quilt in general.  But once the quilting was done and the binding was in progress, I started loving it again.

I was originally thinking that it would be fun to do a bright stripe for the binding, but couldn't find any fabric that I was really in love with for it.  Instead, I though this beige dot would be a nice compliment to the rainbow top.

I can't wait to browse all the categories, vote for some favorites and pick up some inspiration!

Trying Something New...

For our meeting this month, the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild held a workshop hosted by Amy from During Quiet Time to teach the basics of paper piecing.  Just so you know, Amy is an insanely amazing paper piecer and she created an original block to teach all of us that featured - what else - a sewing machine.  Cute!

I was super excited to pick up a new skill but I just couldn't find any fabrics that I really liked for the block - and ones that I wouldn't be too upset to have used if I managed to screw things up big time.  Fortunately for me (and everyone else in the group too!), Becca from Sew Me a Song brought along a couple bins of amazing fabrics for sale so I completely scrapped everything that I originally brought with me in favor of some new goodies.  The only thing that I kept (because it was so precisely perfect) was the fussy cut text from an ABC panel by Kumiko Fujita that I'm still trying to figure out how to use. 

It's kind of amazing how enthusiasm over new fabrics breathes a whole new level of excitement into something right?  I had seen Lizzy House's Pearl Bracelet line online before, but the colors in real life are really gorgeous. The table and the fussy cut ruler are both from Sewing Pattern in Pink from Homespun Chic by Melody Ross.

I love the finished block and Amy's workshop has made me less leery of trying it out on a larger scale.  Thank you Amy!!  Check out the SMQG Flickr Group for more sewing machine goodness.

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story:

Here Ye, Here Ye...

...Circle Peeps have arrived!  After an exceedingly long work in progress and with some lifesaving suggestions from the BMQG meeting, Circle Peeps has been quilted and bound and is ready to...well, I'm not sure.  It will stay in our house for now anyways, but I'm not married to the idea of keeping it. 

I had just enough of the rainbow strips to make a panel for the back, and added in a little knight's horse just for an extra touch of whimsy. 

I really struggled with the quilting of this - not because it was difficult but because I love doing Angela Walter's chain squares pattern but still have not forced my machine into free-motion quilting submission.  Which meant that at every corner of every square, I was rotating this quilt through the tiny throat of my machine.  That's a lot of twisting and rotating!

It probably took the better part of a week of quilting a half-hour here and there and it was making me a little...resentful...toward the quilt in general.  But once the quilting was done and the binding was in progress, I started loving it again.

I was originally thinking that it would be fun to do a bright stripe for the binding, but couldn't find any fabric that I was really in love with for it.  Instead, I though this beige dot would be a nice compliment to the rainbow top.  Ah, the satisfaction of a finish!! 

It's Nice to Have Goals...

I saw a linky party hosted by Traceyjay Quilts that gets you thinking about making 3 goals for every month.  I am all about getting to scratch things off my to-do list, so sign me up!  So here are my 3 things to do for December:

1.  Finish Circle Peeps - I'm in the middle of quilting, then all I have to do is bind this to wrap up a 2 year project.  Yay!  I ended up choosing to do the quilt in the Angela Walters "chain squares" pattern fairly large over the middle blocks with another smaller chain of squares around the border. 

Of course, the kinks in my free motion attempts still aren't worked out, so I've been doing this with my regular walking foot.  Which means shoving this entire thing through the tiny throat of my machine.  At every corner.  Meh.  But the end is in sight, so I'm pushing through!

2.  I started the Vivienne skirt for my oldest daughter with a fabric from Sarah Jane's adorable Children at Play line.  I'm doing the ruffled underskirt in a beautiful lilac Michael Miller Fairy Frost, so it has that sparkly sheen without looking like it's been dipped in glitter.  It's 3/4 finished, but those darn ruffles just take so long to gather and then attach, so it's sitting patiently on the ironing board until Circle Peeps is done.

3.  And then...I can actually start one of these ideas guilt-free!  *happy dance*

Now let's see if I can get them done...

Circle Peeps...WIP Wednesday

Its pretty bad when your idea list is 10 times longer than your WIP list.  Well maybe not bad exactly, but it gets hard to pick what to only half-finish first.  I have a Castle Peeps circle quilt that has been sitting at the bottom of the “to be finished” pile for about 2 years now.  This is just ridiculous and infuriating -  I loved this fabric line by Lizzy House as soon as I saw it and immediately purchased more fabric at one time than I ever had before.  I had also seen a great tutorial for an appliqued circle quilt that I thought would really show off the cuteness of the print.  I assembled all the appliqued blocks fairly quickly  so was feeling pretty pleased with myself. 

 

Originally I had made 6” wide strips of stacked coins from each of the fabrics for a border. 

 

 

But when those strips were all sewed and cut and I placed them against the quilt top, it just felt too busy.  So I put it all aside and promptly forgot about it to start something else fun and exciting.  Fast forward 2 years and all these pieces were still sitting around – those Peeps must be mighty patient. 

Umm...hello?  Remember us?

Before I can move along to any of the projects that have been rattling around in my head, I need to finish up the Peeps, but those stacked coin strips were just hanging me up.  I tossed a bunch of ideas around and nothing seemed to fit, so I brought the whole kit and caboodle to the BMQG meeting in November for our massive show and tell.  Someone (sorry I didn’t catch who, but thank you!) suggested cutting the strips skinnier and sashing them in white.  YES!!

 

It turns out that I had EXACTLY enough to complete a full border and a long strip for the backing by cutting the strips in half – seriously!  There were only a few inches left when all was said and done!  The white sashing was perfect.  It gave the circle blocks a little breathing room and made those rainbow squares pop as a border. 

Now all I have to do is figure out how to quilt it…

Check out other bloggers' WIPs here: