Rick Rack Runner

It seems the busier and crazier things get at work, the more time I need to spend in my sewing room. Well this Rick Rack Runner is my 9th finish off my Q2 2018 FAL List - my most productive quarter yet - so you can imagine just how much time I've spent in my sewing room!

This is a pattern from the Modern Plus Sign Quilts book written by Cheryl Brickey and Paige Alexander. I have been meaning to make another table runner for our dining room for a while now and when I saw the pattern in the book, I knew I had to add it to my list for Quarter 2. (You might remember I made a baby quilt from the book for Paige and Cheryl's hop back in March.)

I had a small stack of 10" squares from a Bonnie and Camille fabric collection which I knew would make a very cheerful table runner and I paired them with some Kona Charcoal for a nice contrast. I didn't have quite enough of the Charcoal for the entire binding so pieced some scraps from the prints to make it work.

I stitched some wavy lines with the walking foot and Aurifil 50 wt in medium grey (#2605). The quilting didn't take very long - the runner is about 22.5" wide but it was very zen-like work. Stitch - turn - stitch - turn...  Sometimes you just need to be able to spend time on quilting that doesn't require much brain power.

Stats:

• Pattern: Rick Rack Runner designed by Paige Alexander from the book Modern Plus Sign Quilts
• Size: 22.5" x 86.5" 
• Fabrics: Kona Charcoal and 10" squares from a Bonnie & Camille fabric collection
• Thread: Pieced and quilted with Aurifil #2605 (medium grey) in 50 wt

I will be linking up at a few fun places this week:

• Lisa in Port Hope for TGIFF
• Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday
• My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday

Josef Albers Inspired Mini #3

It was my birthday this last weekend and my family was nice enough to leave me alone all day Saturday and most of Sunday. Plus, I took Monday off and it was pouring rain here so I got to spend a few hours in my sewing room.

During that time, I designed, pieced and quilted my Josef Albers inspired mini #3. (You can see mini #1 here and mini #2 here.)

I love pink and purple so those are the colours I chose for my third mini in the series: Kona Eggplant, Crocus, Bubblegum and Orchid. There's also some white in there as well as Charcoal for the background.

To stay consistent with the other two minis, I kept the quilting pretty simple - straight lines stitched about 1/4" apart with the walking foot and Aurifil 2605 (dark grey) in 50 wt. To keep the middle piecing from looking too puffy, I quilted in the ditch between each colour.

And just for fun, I brought all three minis outside and snapped a picture - I love them all!

This mini is finish number 8 on my Q2 List for the 2018 FAL!

Stats:

• Pattern: My own design inspired by the work of Josef Albers
• Size: 16" x 22" 
• Fabrics: Kona White, Eggplant, Crocus, Bubblegum, Orchid and Charcoal. 
• Thread: Pieced and quilted with Aurifil #2605 (dark grey) in 50 wt

I will be linking up at Slice of Pi Quilts for TGIFF and at Kelly's for My Quilt Infatuation's NTT!

Sunny Skies - A Baby Quilt Finish

I'm still working through my stash of patterns and trying to use up scraps whenever possible (and I swear - no matter how many scrappy quilts I make, I don't seem to be able to make a significant dent in those scrap bins!). This week, I finished a baby quilt based on Shannon Fraser's Pink Lemonade pattern. I called mine Sunny Skies because of the colour combination I ended up going with.

Shannon's pattern was written for three main fabrics, but it was really easy to figure out how to make the quilt with scraps. So I went through my blue, orange and low volume scrap bins and managed to pull enough to make the whole quilt.

I did mess up a little bit when stitching together the hourglass blocks so my quilt is a little bit smaller (I also had to do some quilty math to figure out how to re-size the HST blocks to fit), but in the end, everything worked out pretty well I think.

I used Kona Schoolbus for the binding and pieced together a few orange and blue fat quarters for the backing.

I used this quilt to demonstrate the flower quilting design during the last Montreal MQG sew-in and this design is so quick, I managed to quilt the whole thing in just that afternoon!

This is finish number 7 off my Q2 list for the 2018 FAL.

Stats:

• Pattern: Pink Lemonade by Shannon Fraser Designs
• Size: 55" square 
• Fabrics: Scraps and a bunch of fat quarters from my stash 
• Thread: Pieced and quilted with Aurifil #2600 in 50 wt

I will be linking up at a few fun places this week:

Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday
Devoted Quilter for TGIFF
Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday

A New Cleo Skirt

I'm super happy to show off another me-made garment - this time, a skirt. I don't wear skirts very much because I don't find them super flattering on me, but skirts are pretty easy to make and I need the additional practice. Also, I had a really nice Art Gallery woven print in red that I thought would look pretty in a skirt.

I used a Made by Rae skirt pattern - the Cleo skirt because there is a Creative Bug class that teaches you every step of the skirt construction pattern in addition to a bunch of really useful tips and tricks.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with my new skirt. The fit is almost perfect, it's really comfortable and it's got pockets!

I chose View B of the pattern in a Large and made no alterations at all - not even the length. The fabric is a little bit stiff (100% cotton), so I think for my next one, I'll use a fabric that drapes a little bit more, some rayon challis perhaps.

So that's two garments so far this year (you can read all about my Sorbetto tank top here) and I've got some gorgeous knit fabrics to make myself a couple of tops next.

This is finish number 6 off my Q2 list for the 2018 FAL.

Stats:

• Pattern: Cleo Skirt by Made by Rae
• Size: Large 
• Fabrics: Art Gallery cotton 

I will be linking up at a few fun places this week:

Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday
Anja Quilts for TGIFF
Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday

Layered Diamonds Lap Quilt Finish

I am a huge fan of the design team over at Quilt Theory so was really sad when they announced the team wouldn't be producing anymore patterns - although most of them will continue to offer patterns on their own website.

Anyhow, I thought it was a fun coincidence that I finished one of their designs recently.

Layered Diamonds was design by Yvonne Fuchs of Quilting JetGirl for Quilt Theory. I love Yvonne's work and have made quilts based on her designs a number of times already. This one was no different - it was fun, quick, very well explained and it makes for a really modern lap quilt.

I used low volume scraps and fat quarters for the background and scraps for the coloured blocks. I just love the pops of colour against the light background!

The quilting is a FMQ flower design which I really like. It's quick and easy and the texture is just wonderful. I'm actually going to be doing a demo of this design during the next Montreal MQG sew-in so it'll be nice to have a finished quilt to show my fellow guild members.

The backing is a super soft sheet I've had for a while. I use sheets as backing all the time - there is no piecing required, they are usually really soft and you can get some pretty nice prints! We don't typically use the flat sheet on our bed so whenever I buy sheet sets, I keep the flat one for quilt backings.

The binding is scraps from the low volume fat quarters.

This is finish number 5 off my Q2 list for the 2018 FAL. I'm really happy to have been super productive so far this quarter because with the nice weather coming, I might not feel like being in my sewing room so often!

Stats:

• Pattern: Layered Diamonds by Yvonne Fuchs for Quilt Theory
• Size: 54" x 67.5" 
• Fabrics: Scraps and a bunch of fat quarters from my stash 
• Thread: Pieced and quilted with Aurifil #2000 in 50 wt

I will be linking up at a few fun places this week:

Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday
Tish's Adventures in Wonderful for TGIFF
Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday

My New Baker Street Bag

I made another bag! Yay me! :-)

This is my Baker Street Bag (pattern by Sew Sweetness). Although this is supposed to be a beginner-friendly pattern, it does have some features I'd never tried before such as the recessed zipper. So I watched Sara's free tutorial video on YouTube before I attempted to make this one.

I'm pretty pleased with my new bag, even if not perfect. For my next one (yes - there will be a next one!), I'll make the straps longer so I can wear it as a cross-body bag, I'll choose prettier fabric for the zipper panels and I'll make the lining a little bit smaller (it's a bit baggy).

Sara's video was amazing - she provides so many tips and tricks in her videos. She also explains things very clearly and shows every single step of the bag making process. I'm not sure I would have had quite the same results if I hadn't watched the video.

If you haven't tried bag-making yet and want to give it a go, I highly recommend you check out Sara's pattern and her YouTube Channel. So many different patterns and all of them very well written. Many also come with a video tutorial to help you along.

Stats:

• Pattern: Baker Street Bag by Sew Sweetness
• Size: about 12" wide, 8" high and 3" deep 
• Fabrics: Rock N' Romance by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery and Kona Silver 
• Thread: Pieced with Aurifil #2600 (Dove) in 50 wt

I will be linking up at a few fun places this week:

• Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday
• Summer Lee Quilts for TGIFF
• My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday
• Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday

And this is finish #4 on my Q2 list for the 2018 FAL!

2018 FAL Q1 Winners Announced!

Today we are celebrating 533 (!!) finished projects in Quarter 1 of the 2018 Finish-A-Long. So many of you are joining in and getting their UFOs or WIPs out of that dark corner, and into the limelight to be shown off as a finish. If you are in need of inspiration go on over and have a look, there were so many great makes. And of course, thanks to our many generous sponsors, we are finishing off the quarter by announcing the lucky winners!!

Without further ado, the winners picked by the Random Number Generator of the 2018 Q1 FAL prizes are:

The Q1 Winner of the $50 Gift Certificate from Fat Quarter Shop goes to  Lynette who blogs at What a Hoot Quilts and she made this stunning wall hanging row quilt for her husband:

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The Q1 Winner of the 3 PDF Patterns from During Quiet Time goes to Helen on IG @archiewonderdog and she finished her "Not Too Big, Not Too Small" bag and isn't it lovely:

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The Q1 Winner of the $25 Gift Certificate from Sew Sisters Quilt Shop goes to Beth on IG @blue_dragonfly5 and she finished this patriotic quilt that will be donated to a veteran:

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The Q1 Winner of the 2 PDF Patterns from Quilting Jet Girl goes to Sophie who blogs at Luna Lovequilts and she made this beautiful quilt she named "Retro":

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The Q1 Winner of the $20 Gift Certificate from Sew Me a Song goes to Kathryn on IG @kathrynjonesquilts and she finished this truly stunning (and very large) quilt:

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The Q1 Winner of the 3 PDF Patterns from Happy Quilting goes to Kristina who blogs at Krissies Kollections and she finished this lovely quilt as you go quilt that taught her a lot of new techniques:

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The Q1 Winner of the 2 PDF Patterns from Charm About You goes to Cath on IG @cumbrianlongarmer and she finished this rainbow Morocco Quilt:

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The Q1 Winners (3) of the 6 Month Subscription to Make Modern Magazine goes to:

1.  Crystal who blogs at Crystal's Creations and she finished this adorable memory bear:

 

2.  Jennet on IG @featherednextstudio and she made this lovely You Are My Sunshine quilt (with minky backing) for her son:

3.  Sarah who blogs at Sarah Goer Quilts and she finished this lovely mini that represents her home town San Jose, California:

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The Q1 Winner of the $25 Gift Certificate from Studio 39 Fabrics goes to Jen who blogs at Branch and Vine Handmade and she finished this beautiful Cosmo bag (pattern by Amy Butler):

 

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 The Q1 Winner of the $25 Gift Certificate from Tartan Kiwi goes to Amber on IG @amberleighcrafts and she finished this whole cloth, minky backed baby quilt:

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The Q1 Winner of the Minikins bundle from Sew Sweetness goes to Christine who blogs at Cat in the Grass and she finished these two lovely pillowcases:

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The Q1 Winner of the $50 Gift Certificate from Mad About Patchwork goes to Terry who blogs at On Going Projects and she finished this extremely useful ID badge:

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The Q1 Winner of the 2 PDF Patterns from Blossom Heart Quilts is Heather and she blogs at Quilting and Beyond and she finished this quilt that showcases the "license plates" she collected from 2015-2017:

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The Q1 Winner of the $30 Gift Certificate from Clover & Violet is Charlene on Flickr (cyanh2o) and she finished these pretty felted mittens:

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The Q1 Winner of the $40 Gift Certificate from Bunny's Designs is Brandy on IG @thirteenquilts and she finished this pretty quilt that had been an UFO for quite a while:

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Congratulations to all the winners!  Thank you for playing along with us in the first quarter, and we hope you continue joining in for the rest of the year. We love to encourage you to finish up all those WIPs and UFOs, and to see what great makes will be finished next time.