Floral fabric designs

When I'm sitting around and watching (listening) to TV, I often play around with EQ7.  I have many of my fabrics imported, which I usually do when I purchase something online, so it's like playing with my stash.

I got this fabric some time ago with the idea of doing a French Braid with it but, after doing that pattern for my son and his girlfriend I'm not sure I want to do another just like it.  This is what I've come up with so far.

This is such pretty fabric that I want something that makes the fabric the star of the quilt.  I think I would only use the Bali Handpaints that very closely match the colors in the border fabric and flowers.  The large flowers are kind of between a purple and a pink, like the blues are leaning towards purple in the smaller scale prints.  I also like the idea of choosing just one of the colors, specifically the yellows in this appeal to me.

Just some ideas but never know what the final design will be until it's made. :-)

A Quilt for My bed

I've been on a quilting mission this long Holiday weekend and got three of them done.  I believe that there are only 6 more tops to quilt and I'll be caught up.  I have the backing and batting for at least 4 of them.

This one is for MY bed.  I posted about the fabrics and the design here and I found out when I got them that it goes perfectly with a silk duvet cover and sham set that I have.  My adjoining bathroom has beige, blue, and dark brown too.

I am so happy with this one and just love how it goes with my bedroom.  It's soft and feminine with light colors to balance out the heavy furniture.  I'll get it bound this week so I can actually sleep under it.

The quilting is a pantograph called Woodcut Camellias.  This was an intense pattern to follow, a whole lot of points!  It wasn't flowing at all and for the first day my top thread was breaking every couple of minutes until I gave up when the bobbin ran out.  The next day, with a new bobbin, it only broke a couple of times.

Fall quilt

I made this top earlier this year and got it quilted on Friday.  The pattern is a layout from EQ6 that I added the leaves and the outer border to.

I wanted something simple for snuggling and the colors go with my family room. The backing is dark green flannel so it will be soft and warm.

Fresh off the frame

Finally finished the quilting on my daughter's quilt.  She picked out the fabric, Metro Market, and I did the simple design.  I combined the basket blocks with Warm Wishes.  I was soooo careful about the placement of the sashing strips, thought I had it all layed out correctly but, you know how it usually happens that SOMETHING turns out wrong!  The first row doesn't have the red and black strips done the right way and I didn't notice until the whole top was sewn together and I wasn't going to take apart a whole row to fix it.

I'm going to bind it in black by machine.

96 little blocks

All of the light/dark 4-patch blocks are done for Faceted Jewels and I stuck them on the design wall.  I like these colors!  It gives me a feel of how the whole quilt will be, monochromatic and subtle.  I don't want it to be TOO subtle or the round block design will fade away.  A total of 105 4" blocks are done, only 370 to go....

Still waiting on the fabric delivery

I am at a little bit of a standstill on the Faceted Jewels quilt.  I got another 4 sets of light/dark JR strips sewn together to cut into sections and I think I only need to do one more pairing to complete all of the light/dark 4-patch blocks.  I was running out of lights then remembered the JR that I got of Fusions that turned out to not be what I needed for a certain quilt.  I got out the strips and took out all the colors that will go with this quilt.  I don't want to get too far ahead before starting to incorporate the other fabrics.  I've done that before and it can really stand out when there are some blocks that contain totally different fabrics that don't appear anywhere else.

I ordered another Capuccino Balipop, a 14 FQ set of Ice Tea, and a wide Tonga Leaf for the backing.  I decided that the batik yardage that I have is not enough variety for the large triangle and HSTs.  I am pretty sure that these, along with the 4 beiges I ordered, is enough for the quilt. :-)

So... since I'm not working on this one I turned my attention to finishing the quilting on the one that's in the frame.  It's been there for months but I am so bad at long arm quilting that I didn't like working on it.  Just bite the bullet and get it done!  I don't know that I would ever want someone to see this up close and hope my daughter doesn't mind.  It's just a small, fun quilt that she picked out the fabric for.  I need to get this done and off the frame so I can do the French Braid by Christmas.

Started on Faceted Jewels

I know, I know, there are other things I could be working on but... I started on another quilt.  I'm waiting on delivery of black quilting thread for the french braid and I don't feel like starting on the vines for the CW quilt though I did get the strips cut out for them and did a test of the bias tape maker.  It worked good.

I'm using a Cappuccino Balipop for this quilt plus some brown batik I have.  I found that I can use the strips for everything except the large triangle block center and the corner HSTs.  Another four cream batiks are coming with the black thread so I can't do the HSTs until I have that.

The lights are more yellow than I thought they were but I really like this.  The flying geese and the triangle are paper pieced.  I'm doing this practice block first and have about a third of the light/dark 4-patch sections ready to sew the halves together.

French Braid top is done

This one has been hanging around for awhile waiting on those dreaded borders.  I don't know why I have such a mental block about doing borders!  I've always disliked trying to get a long strip cut straight but I started tearing them and it is so much better that way.  I still put off doing them.  I am proud of myself for making good progress on two quilts this week.

The borders are wide but the braids are so long and narrow that I really needed to get some width on it.  I layed it on my queen sized bed and the borders hit the edge of the mattress very well.

I ordered black quilting thread yesterday so I really need to get the quilt done that's on the frame right now.  Hope to have this done by Christmas for my son and his girlfriend.

For my daughter

I've been thinking about the Faceted Jewels quilt and then I thought about my daughter wanting a quilt in browns to match her cream with brown pipping bedding.  She doesn't like frilly or flowery and she really liked the stack of brown batiks and balipops that she saw in my sewing room.  I'm sure I have enough since I have about 8 1yd cuts of various browns plus the balipops. I will need to get a few beiges for the lights though.  Ordering online is not a hardship. :)  I want to see the new Batiks at Connecting Threads and I need some black quilting thread anyway.

I think she will like this.

The body is almost done!

I put in a lot of hours over the last few days and almost got the body of the CW repro quilt done.  Don't know what I'm going to call it but I've been referring to it as the never ending quilt.  Maybe just Never Ending... with the vines and hearts.

This morning I got the two halves sewn together, turned under the seam allowance on the last five hearts and glued them on.  I don't feel like tackling wrestling with it to sew on the hearts yet and I still need to do the sashing strips on the top and bottom.

The fabric for the border and vines is washed and dried and waiting for me.  I got a bias tape maker, just the little plastic tool, and will be trying that for the first time for the vines.  Hope that goes easily as there is a lot of it to do!

I feel so much better now

After getting the round robin quilt done and mailed off yesterday it feels like a major weight off my shoulders.  I felt so light that I floated upstairs when I got home and I finished the machine applique on a row of hearts on the Civil War repro quilt.  I can now sew together the 4 rows (2 rows each section) and applique the hearts between them.  The last row of hearts is going to be a bear to sew since it can't be done until the two halves of the quilt are sewn together.

I didn't join this year's round robin. This is the first one I've done and not sure that it suits me.  I have so many quilts that need to be quilted, and so many designed that I want to do, that I need to hunker down and get them done.  Also need to spend some major practice time on the long arm if I'm ever going to get any better than doing pantograms with it. 

I'm excited about creating and quilting again!

Round Robin done!

Whew!!  I am so happy to be done and sending it out tomorrow.  Sure had a hard time deciding on what to do for the final round.  The funny-face snowflakes in the center along with the more traditional winter motifs threw me for a loop.