Disappearing Nine Patch for Kenya

Back in October or November I heard about the Lala Salama group that was collecting quilts for a children's wing in a hospital in Kenya--they hoped to collect 100+ quilts, one for each bed.  They're facebook page states, " The aim for this project is to provide a special quilt for every child's bed in the new Bethany Kids Pediatric Wing at AIC Kijabe Hospital in Kijabe, Kenya. This project is scheduled to be complete in mid 2014. This hospital will serve vulnerable children all over East Africa with medical and surgical conditions, especially Spina Bifida and birth defects. "

I signed up to make a quilt, imagining I would have plenty of time after Christmas to make it (that time was eaten up by this commission quilt).  By mid-February I was starting to freak out with all the things I had to finish by April, including the Lala Salama bed quilt.  A friend on FB heard my concern about not finishing the quilt, and offered to help.  She has two little kids too, and her sewing speed is similar to mine, so the timing worked out really well.  I gave her a pile of fabrics (all from my stash, and only one with a print on it as my blue and green stash has been nearly depleted in the past year!), and we agreed on a disappearing nine patch quilt.

I went to her house a few times to help where I could, but most of the top was pieced by her.  The layout was planned out by her and her husband.  She gave me the completed top, and I basted it last night.

I think I have a plan for the quilting, and will hopefully get started on it today--and finish by the end of the month, right on schedule, hooray!

They are still looking for more quilts to be made and donated!  If you are interested in making one, go check out their facebook page or this blog post.

Chugging Along FULL pattern set GIVEAWAY!

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED!

Last week I was lucky enough to win Esther at ipatchandquilt's recently released Chugging Along (paper pieced) pattern.  The entire 31 block pattern set of train cars, buildings, scenery, everything!!



An awesome giveaway win for sure!  BUT, instead of keeping it for myself, I am going to give it away to one of you!  I am super happy with the mini version I made from pattern testing and want to spread the Chugging Along goodness!

To see more photos of this pattern, check out this post over on Esther's blog.  And check out this awesome quilt Esther made:

What train lover, young or old, wouldn't love this?!

Giveaway rules:

- If you are a no-reply blogger include your email address in your comment!!  If I can't contact you, I will select another winner!

- If the winner does not reply to me within 48 hours I will select another winner.

- The giveaway is open to EVERYONE (it is a PDF download)!!

- Giveaway ends on March 28th, 2014 at Midnight.  

To enter: go to Ester's Craftsy page and tell me which is your favorite pattern (or pattern set).

Followers of my blog get a second entry--just tell me how you follow me in a second comment.

 GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED!!

Ashley's Medallion Quilt

About a month ago I was invited to join a quilting round robin, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Quilts with some of my online quilting friends.  I was overwhelmed with everything I needed to do, or expected I would need to do...but accepted anyway.

I got Ashley's (from Wasn't Quilt in a Day) quilt starter first, with some very specific instructions/wants:

Make a medallion quilt using these colors, she said.  Measured about 17"x17".

 Luckily I got it right as I was finishing my daughter's birthday dress, so I had an immediate opening on my sewing table.   The first thing I did was set the block on point:

Then I added a simple border to help frame it all:

Now it measures about 28" square.

And that is where I probably should have stopped.  But the rules for how much to add to each person's quilt are pretty unrestrive and I really wanted to add another border.  So I added a small plus border:

Now it measures 39" square.

I did a lot of fussy cutting for the neutrals. 

And now I am DONE.  Just need to make a signature block and I am putting it in the mail before I add another border.  This quilt is just so pretty and fun to work on!  It makes me want to start my own medallion quilt right.now.  I have one planned for later this year at least!

Oh and here's my quilt starter, which went to Laura at Little and Lots first:

Can't wait to see what she does with it!

Ghost Wing Geranium Dress

I finished my daughter's birthday dress just in time for her 2nd birthday!

Bribed with stickers and singing Happy Birthday to her repeatedly.  She's wearing a pink t-shirt under the dress because it was a little chilly.

I used the Geranium dress pattern from Made By Rae.  My little girl is so skinny I decided to make the bodice the 18-24m size, but keep the skirt in the 2T size.  I could have gone done a size smaller even, but want her to have some room to grow!

Buttons found at Hobby Lobby.

The fabric is linen Ghost Wing in Aqua by Anna Maria Horner.  I loooove the linen--it was light and easy to work with, and washed beautifully!

My son insisted on posing with her.  He was pretty jealous of all the birthday attention she was getting.

The only thing I wish I had done differently is to make the cap sleeves instead of the flutter sleeves so the bodice butterfly wings would reach out a little further.  But now that it's done it seems like a small thing to regret--plus the flutter sleeves are adorable!

Radiant Orchid mini quilt

You can read about the process of making this quilt here.

Each wedge is quilted with my own version of Angela Walter's plume feather pattern.  I love how well the plume feathers can be tweaked to fill a specific shape.

It measures 20" x 25" (not including the hanging sleeve that sticks up above the binding since it is a double sided quilt).

A bright spot in our dry, wintery yard.

Fabrics used: Purples scraps and various others from my stash, Pixel Dots by Tula Pink, Kona Navy for binding and hanging sleeve.

I used 50wt Aurifil #2545 --it is a gorgeous, rich purple and a 28wt Aurifil #1148, light teal.  In the bobbin I used a 50wt Aurifil.

Since the quilt is double sided, I signed and dated it discreetly, rather than adding one of my quilt tag labels.

Here's a peek at the other side, which you can see more of here:

The Pandorica Opens

Linking up with the Radiant Orchid Challenge!

Making of Radiant Orchid

I made this to go on the back of the Pandorica Opens quilt, and also for my entry in the Radiant Orchid Challenge over at Play Crafts.

This quilt was heavily influenced/inspired by this quilt.  I used this tutorial to make a custom template for the wedges (which are 10" long), leaving the point sharp (but trimming off the extra seam allowance to avoid extra bulk in the center) and the end rounded.  

I collected all of my purple fabrics and scraps and laid them out, separating the more blue-ish ones from the more red-ish ones.

There was a bit of trial and error getting the fabrics in the right order as I started sewing them together.  I only had to redo a few of them luckily.

Once I had pieced all the wedges together, I carefully measured around the perimeter marking and trimming so it was exactly 20" diameter.  It turned out to be worth the extra time because piecing the circle to the border piece was a piece of cake.

In retrospect I wish I'd made it smaller than the Pandorica Opens quilt.

I considered quite a few different colors for the border (dark purple, black, brown, charcoal) but none of the fabrics I had were just right (and I didn't have black, boo).  So I went with this Pixel Dots by Tula Pink.

I used  this tutorial (specifically week 2 and 5) to make a template for the border pieces, and pieced it together.  Here's the border pieced together, laying over the exploding tardis.

Pinned, and ready to sew these curves:

It was seriously so easy to sew the border and center together!  I was ready to quilt in no time:

I spent a lot of time trying to decide on how to quilt it.  Finally I decided on quilting each wedge with my own version of Angela Walter's plume feather pattern.  I used Aurifil #2545--I LOVE this color.

Kind of a shame this side will be hidden!

For the border I quilted concentric circles (not a spiral--each go-round is independent) at various widths using my walking foot and Aurifil #1148 in a 28wt thread. 

I use all Aurifil in the bobbin too.  My machine loves it--I has SO much fewer issues than any other thread.

Then I trimmed it down using the Pandorica Opens side as a guide:

I kind of hated to trim that much off!

I basted the two sides of the quilt together around the edge before adding binding and a hanging sleeve for a double sided quilt.

I'll be post the finished quilt tomorrow and link up with the Radiant Orchid Challenge starting the 14th!