Thursday, February 23, 2017

Snowy Pines: A Finished Quilt


I named this quilt, "Snowy Pines"  due to the green triangles and snowflakes printed on the cream background.


 I cut the triangles out from 6.5 inch strips with the Creative Grids triangle ruler.  Then I put them up on my design wall.


My husband saw the quilt and fell in love with it.  He asked me, "What are you going to put on the back?"

I said that I had enough of one of the greens for the backing.  He then asked me, "Are you sure you don't want minky."

I told him that it would be good to use what I had.  Then I started piecing the triangles together.


He said, "It looks really good.  Are you sure you don't want to put minky on the back?"

It finally clicked and I asked him, "Do you want minky on the back of the quilt."

He answered, "Yeah.  If you put minky on the back then I will commandeer it."

Needless to say that I bought minky to put on the back for my sweet, supportive, husband.  He definitely deserves another quilt with minky backing.


I quilted it on the Bernina Q24 with hooked spirals.  It is still one of my favorite designs.


It reminds me a little of wind and is great for a masculine quilt.


The backing really is a cream minky.


The binding is the same green that would have been the backing.


My husband and I both love how this quilt turned out.


Quilt Stats #202
Name:  Snowy Pines
Pattern:  6.5 inch cut triangles
Fabric Used:  From my stash
Amount Used:  7 yards
Batting:  Hobbs 80/20
Size:  About 56 by 78 inches
Date Finished:  2017

I thought it looked really neat with the sun shining through the quilt.


When it is not in use, the quilt lives on the reclining chair in our bedroom.


However, I may have to borrow it for the family room for the month of March.  It was originally going to be my green throw quilt.  ;)

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun parties on my sidebar.  Check them out for more quilty inspiration.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Celebrating the First Quilt


Leanne at Devoted Quilter is having a linky party celebrating her 20 years of quilting by having everyone share their first quilt. I thought it would be fun to share some other first quilts in my family in addition to mine.

I finished my first quilt nearly 24 years ago.  Read more about it here.


This is my mom's first quilt.  Read more about it here.


This is one of my Grandma's early quilts.  It was my mom's wedding quilt.  Read more about it here.


These are my other grandma's only two quilts.  Read more about them here.


This is one of my sister's first quilts.  Read more about it here.


This is Cheetah's first quilt.  Read more about it here.


This is my niece Miss S's second quilt, but the first one I helped her with.  Read more about it here.


This is my niece Miss R's first quilt.  Read more about it here.


This is my niece Miss C's first quilt.  Read more about it here.


This is my niece Miss M's first quilt.  Read more about it here.


It is so much fun to see all these first quilts in my family.  I am sure there are more to come.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  Leanne's linky party is open through tomorrow.  Check it out to see more first/early quilts.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Springtime Race: A Finished Quilt


This is the quilt top I made with my mom and her neighbor Tracey when I was teaching them how to make a Chunky Race Quilt.  My mom and I looked through her stash and pulled out these spring colored fabrics that went well together.  We cut out 60 pieces each that were four inches by 21 inches.  44.5 of them were sewn together.  I ended up with sixteen rows about 56 inches wide.  Then I took 11.5 pieces and sewed them together.  I ended up with four rows about 59 inches wide.  I added it to the top of the big piece and trimmed it the same width.  Then I took three pieces and sewed them into one row, added it to the top, and trimmed it the same width.  I ended up with a quilt about 56 inches wide and 73 long.  It used 59 of the 60 strips I cut and gave me a great lap quilt.

I used some cream minky for the backing because I wanted to keep this one.  I quilted it on the Bernina Q24.


Every row has a different quilting design.  I enjoyed trying a few new designs.


I hope I never get tired of seeing a quilt as it comes off the frames.

I squared the quilt up and added a scrappy blue and green binding.


I named it Springtime Race due to the sweet colors.


All of the fun quilting designs really show up on the minky backing, even if the creamy minky looks more like a gray in the picture.


I think the hearts in the middle are my favorite design.


I really love this free-motion quilting row sampler quilt.


Quilt Stats #201
Name:  Springtime Race
Pattern:  My Chunky Race Quilt
Fabric Used:  From my mom's stash
Amount Used:  6.5 yards
Batting:  Hobbs 80/20
Size:  About 56 x 73 inches
Date Finished:  2017

Maybe this quilt will hang out in the living room if I change the colors for spring.  I love having a quilt ready for cuddling on this chair.


My mom has also finished piecing her quilt, but it may be a little while before she quilts it herself.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun parties on my sidebar.  Check them out for more quilty inspiration.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Golden Race: A Finished Quilt


This is my "Golden Race" quilt.  It is the fourth quilt quilted on the Bernina Q24.  It is also my 200th quilt in my numbering system.  Golden definitely seems appropriate for that.  :)

This is a chunky race quilt sewn using my calculations for race quilt variations.  I was using yardage instead of fat quarters so I left the pieces 21 inches long unlike the quilts I made at the end of last year using 18 inch strips.


I used six different golden fabrics.  There were 35.5 pieces cut 4 inches by 21 inches.  The quilt top ended up about 45 inches by 56 inches.  My backing fabric was only 42 inches wide, so I cut off a 3.5 inch strip from the side and pieced it into the backing.  That made my backing wider than my top and added some interest.

My mom and her next door neighbor, Tracey, (who also owns a Bernina Q24) came over to see how I put it on the frames and help quilt it.


My mom quilted one row and Tracey quilted two rows.  You can see how much my mom enjoyed it in the picture above.  I think this is the first time my mom has ever free motion quilted on a real quilt.  She liked it so much that she wanted to make a chunky race quilt from her stash fabrics and quilt it herself!  I'm such a proud daughter.  ;)  So this will not be the last chunky race quilt I make in the near future.  My mom and I raided her stash and I taught both her and Tracey how to make a chunky race quilt. (More on that later.)

We quilted this quilt with a wiggly line/u-turns in each row.  When I got to the bottom of the quilt I knew I was running out of backing.  (One of the drawbacks of quilting on a frame is that your backing needs to be more than a couple inches wider and longer than your quilt top.)  My solution?  Unpick the very last row.


After unpicking the row I was able to baste that bottom edge down to make it easier to bind the quilt.


I ended up taping one of my little bucket thread catchers to the top of the machine for all of my thread clippings.  A pin cushion with a slap bracelet attachment holds onto the second spool post.  I love the easy access to both a place for my threads and pins.


I was able to take a few pictures of the quilt in some rare winter sunshine before heading to my mom's for the sew day.


I love the texture from the wiggle quilting and how the golden fabrics shimmer.


The backing is mostly an old Hoffman golden waves fabric.


I love the subtle pieced backing.  Most of the fabrics really blend in allowing the creams to pop.


The binding was the last of the golden waves fabric.


This quilt will be donated somewhere sometime this year.  It was a great little stash busting quilt and I love how it turned out.


Quilt Stats #200 ~ I love that number!
Name:  Golden Race
Pattern:  Chunky Race Quilt
Fabric Used:  From my old stash
Amount Used:  3.5 yards
Batting:  Hobbs 80/20
Size:  About 41 x 52 inches
Date Finished:  2017

I just wanted to add, "Happy Valentine's Day!"


I cam downstairs the other day and found Monkey cuddled up under one of my Valentine's quilts, Through the Woods.  He didn't care what it looked like as long as it had minky and was made by mom.  This is why I quilt.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun parties on my sidebar.  Check them out for even more quilty inspiration.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Cheetah's Second Quilt


This is Cheetah's second quilt which he made with my mom and me.  My mom has been teaching the granddaughters to quilt with the basic Turning Twenty pattern.  It turned out that if the grandsons wanted to make a quilt that they just needed to ask.  (Or have a mom willing to speak up.)  We simplified the quilt a little so that there are only 10 different fabrics repeated more often.  We also used the original pieced border from the pattern.  It made the quilts a little smaller, but also made it easy to put minky on the back.  (A must for my boys.)


Cheetah finished piecing the quilt top with my mom just after Christmas.  He decided to wait until the new long arm was set up before deciding if he wanted to quilt it or have me do it for him.

I had him start by doodling on my white board.


Then I loaded a practice sandwich onto the frames for him to try out.  He wanted to have the handles up higher.


It looked pretty good!


My husband came in and saw what Cheetah was doing.  He asked, "Is that fun."

Cheetah's response.  "Not really."

My hubby had to try it out because he thought it looked a little fun.


While he enjoyed trying it out, it will probably be the only time my husband actually uses the frames.

Cheetah ended up deciding to have me just do the quilting for him.


So this is the third quilt which I quilted on the Bernina Q24.


I finished it while he was at school and quickly put on the binding.


I took it outside for some pictures in the rare winter sunshine.


Then I made his bed with it.  You can see his first quilt at the foot of the bed and a pillow he made.


He came home and was happy to see it finished and already on his bed.  He loves his new quilt that he made, and I am such a proud mama.


His quilt ended up about 70 by 86 inches.  One of my nephews has already started on his own quilt with grandma.  His will also have minky on the back.

XX,
Jasmine