Five Shadows

This past week, I worked on two applique quilts, using two different methods.

Ribbon Cone Flowers, by Castilleja Cotton

For this quilt I pieced the background, then sandwiched and quilted it. Once the quilting was done, I then fused the flowers in place, buttonhole stitched the stems and leaves, and free motioned quilted the flowers and veins on the leaves.

Tea Party, by Lauren + Jessi Jung

Even though this pattern is designed for needle turn applique, I used fusible web and stitched around each piece using invisible thread. It went together much quicker than I expected. It is a cute Springtime quilt – just like the pattern says.

Both are shop models for Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe, Roanoke, IN.

One more Not Just T-Shirts Quilt ready for quilting – This clothing quilt used jackets, slacks, Hawaiian shirt, knit shirts, dress shirts, flannel shirt, jeans, and purchased panels & theme fabric. When I received the clothing and fabrics, I knew I would have to present this mix in some unifying way. Because of the size of the panels, I decided on 19″ blocks and then decided to refine that even further by using only one block design. I like the results!

Again, using Vicki’s color palette and Joined at the Hip, 2000 Basket and Blooms Block of  Month – here is my block for March -

I have NO grays in my stash! None! So I used tans instead. I’m pleased with the results.

And here are the blocks from the Craftsy BOM using the same fabrics as in the basket block. What a difference a pattern and color placement make!

Last week I made 5 quilts all in the Jelly Roll Race style as shop models for Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe, Roanoke, IN. These would be fun quilts to make at a retreat and also would make quick quilts for charity.

The youtube instructions say to open the Jelly Roll and sew the strips end to end (mitered) just as they come from the Jelly Roll. That is what I did for the first quilt, but I didn’t like how the strips of similar color did not show up the mitered seam. Having that mitered seam pop, I think, is the whole point of this method.

For the next quilt I used a baby jelly roll – just 20 strips of fabric. I mixed up the strips instead of working straight through the jelly roll, and liked the results much better. The top ended up being a perfect crib size quilt.

Next, I moved on to 5″ strips – Deborah Roehm, the quilt shop owner, wondered if a 5″ strip would work for this method. We didn’t see any reason for it not to work – so I made two of them. A flannel, and a batik. (Batik pictured below)

I love the look of the 5″ strips! So dramatic, and the mitered seams show up well. I think we used 20 strips. Deborah did the cutting and I did the sewing. We also made two crib size using flannel.(no pictures) Deb cut kits for her Saint Patrick’s Day Sale and they all sold!

I have a bit of a stock pile of various rulers, templates, and fun gadgets to use in my quilting. Recently, a blog caught my attention, Life takes a turn, with an interesting challenge going on. Nancy is challenging fellow quilters to dig out those rulers, templates, and gadgets we got suckered in to buying bought with enthusiasm, dust ‘um off and put them to use. Go check her out and join in the fun of using your purchased items! She is encouraging those participating into making at least a 12″ block. No biggy. Do-able.

Here’s just a few items I have and would like to use:  Scrap Master Ruler, Pineapple Ruler, Tri-recs tools, Boondoggle Ruler, Flip-flop template, Drunkard’s Path templates, Leaves Galore, and Easy Angle.

Really, what interests me right now are all the gadgets and things hanging on quilt shop notion walls.  Why all those rulers and templates and things and no one using them? So I’m on a personal mission to figure them out myself. I’m starting with Sweet Mint Pattern and Templates by Laundry Basket Quilts. Just got them and fabric this week, so will show the results in a later post.

If you hop over to Nancy’s blog – let me know what you think. I’ll be posting reviews as I get crack-a-lacking on my stuff here.

NOT completed! I just could not bring myself to work on it! I’ve decided it was a bad idea. I’m moving it to a pile I call “OK to practice free motion quilting on.” And I’m just not going to worry about my original plans for these little tumbler blocks.

And for March we are to work on #8. Yeah! #8 on my list is a pattern and fabric I bought a few years ago but never got to it. I’m looking forward to working on this – Fire Escape pattern by Atkinson Designs. My goal is to have a complete top made this month. And then move it to the “needs to be FMQ” pile. Once I’m confident in my FMQ skills, I’ll attempt to work on tops in that pile. Pictures are the fabrics I’m planning on using.

The UFO challenge is sponsored by Judy Laquidara of Patchwork Times.