Minky Blanket

It is no secret that my family loves quilts with minky.  I have ended up with a lot of minky scraps that are in strips (leftover backing pieces).  I found some great fuzzy minky on clearance that I could use as a backing plus some cute elephant minky.  I decided to add that to my scraps and make a minky strip quilt.

I added one row at a time and sewed through it in a quilt as you go fashion.  I pinned each strip down at my cutting table.

Then I sewed through it on my little Pfaff with the built in walking foot.

I kept adding strips until it was done.  Then I trimmed it up and added my first minky binding.  Next time I would round the corners even more to make it easier.  All in all I ended up with a really cute and super cuddly minky blanket.

Between the strips and the binding I think I used scraps from eight different quilts.  The only problem is that there is one blanket and five of us.  I'm now on the lookout for more ultra fuzzy minky for another minky scrap blanket.

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.

HST Quilt Progress

I last shared this quilt with you in March.  At the time I had the three inch (unfinished) HST blocks sewn and trimmed.   Now I have all of the ten inch blocks (finished size) pieced together.  It is turning into another WISP (work in slow progress).  The blocks have gone up and down from the design wall a few times.  Sometime I will finally add the sashing and cornerstones like in my sketch.

But for now, the blocks are sitting in a box waiting for attention.  I tell myself that it is okay for some quilts to take longer than others.  It seems that the more intricate a quilt is, the more breaks I need from it.  So I am going against my norm and letting this quilt simmer.

I'm just keeping it real.  :)

XX,
Jasmine

Mischelle's Quilts

My friend Mischelle called me and said she had a couple quilts that she needed to get quilted soon and wondered if I would be able to help her.  I told her to bring them by the next day.  This is the first quilt.  All pink and made with the Falling Charms pattern by Missouri Star Quilt Company.  It is a retirement gift for a friend and was signed by people who worked with her.  I quilted it in a large meander with little flowers thrown in.

It has a white minky backing.

This is the second quilt, also using the Falling Charms pattern.  It is all green for the husband of the recipient of the first quilt.  Husband and wife retired on the same day from the same company.  

It was also signed by people who worked with him.  I quilted it in a large meander (without the flowers).

It has a cream minky backing.

Both quilts were quilted very quickly in one night on the Bernina Q24.  The best part was chatting and laughing with my friend Mischelle while working on them.

XX,
Jasmine

Fire and Ice

{A Picture Heavy Post}

This is my Zen Doodle quilt which I designed during a class taught by Sue Patten.  She calls it a "Zen Suedle" or a "Not-Your-Grandmother's Wholecloth Quilt."  I decided to name mine "Fire and Ice" due to the thread colors I used.  During the class we got the quilt top marked.

I decided to quilt this on my Tiara because I have more control with tiny designs while sitting down.  I started out quilting red and a little orange.

I added more orange and then the yellow.

Once I switched to a variegated thread I had tension problems.  Twenty minutes of quilting led to two hours unpicking.

That really slowed me down.  Eventually I was able to fix the tension and quilt all the warm color variegated thread sections.

Then I added a pop of blue variegated thread for contrast.

The blue added so much to the overall look of the quilt.  At that point I realized all my chalk pencil markings for the background had disappeared.  I had to put the project aside until I felt like marking it again.  I find that I need more breaks on more detailed projects.

Finally, I marked the background and quilted it with a very dark gray thread.  I really like that the background thread is a little lighter than the Kona Black.

The quilting took a little over two months.  It has nearly 200,000 stitches.  That is as many stitches as a large queen size quilt I quilted in the past.  I love how all the quilting turned out.

I am so pleased with how it looks on the back as well.

I am grateful that even though I quilted by color and not from the center out, there weren't any tucks on the back of the quilt.  It is almost a double sided quilt with the solid black top and the printed gray back.

 Now on to the finished quilt...

I will let the pictures speak for themselves.  ;)

I'm loving this finished quilt which finishes about 41 by 53 inches.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with some of the fun parties on my sidebar.  Check them out to see what other quilters have been creating.

Sue Patten Class

Shortly after I taught my mom a little FMQ on her Bernina Q24, we took a three day workshop from Sue Patten.  It was an absolutely amazing class. She is an incredible machine quilter.  In the picture above she was telling us why she quilted what she quilted on her quilt.  Pretty much, she just quilted whatever she felt like quilting where she felt like quilting it.  She said she likes to mix things up so she doesn't get bored.  ;)

This is my favorite close-up which I took from that quilt.

That is a very tiny design.  I love the hearts!

She definitely has her own style with lots of color and what she calls "a gross misuse of thread."

 The quilt above wasn't much bigger than a fat quarter.

The first day we spent doing free motion quilting on the long arm.  (My mom and I shared a Bernina Q24).  This is a sampling of what I quilted that day.

The second day we did a lot of ruler work and grid work.  Here is sample of what I quilted the second day.

The third day we marked a quilt with a Zen Suedle design.

We used stencils and traced shapes on black fabric.  Then we took it home to quilt it.  I will be sharing the finished quilt soon.  It took me more than two months to do all of the quilting on my Baby Lock Tiara.  (Which is one of the reasons why it took me so long to blog about the class.)  Here is a sneak peek at my little practice for tiny quilting.

 
I think that is the smallest I have ever quilted!

If you ever have a chance to take a class from Sue Patten, I highly recommend you take it.

XX,
Jasmine Stephens

Teaching My Mom

Earlier this year my mom came over a few times and I taught her how to do free motion quilting on her Bernina Q24.

We started by loading a sample sandwich (about 21 x 36 inches) where she could practice quilting in rows.

Once nice thing with practicing on old fabric is that it doesn't matter what the end result looks like.  She used a couple different colors of thread and quilted each row several times.  This was a great way to develop muscle memory.

This is the first little quilt she free motion quilted all by herself.  It is spirals which end up looking like upside-down e's.

This is her second little quilt.  She quilted it in wiggles.

I love the texture from quilting in rows, and I am so proud of my mom.  She plans on quilting another little flannel quilt before quilting a chunky race quilt like mine.

XX,
Jasmine

My Niece's Sixth Quilt

My niece, Miss S, bought a stack of five inch scrappy flannel squares at a local quilt shop.  On her last visit to Utah, she brought them to my house.  We laid them out on my design wall to determine a balanced layout.  Then she sewed them together at my Mother-in-law's house.

We quilted it on the Bernina Q24 with the Qmatic.  She chose a cute flower design.

It turned out so cute on the scrappy flannel patchwork quilt.

While the computer is fun and has great results, I could have quilted it faster than it took me to set it up on the computer.

She chose a soft pink flannel for the backing and binding.

This is the first quilt that she did most of the binding herself.  She did great mitering the corners!

Here she is with the finished quilt (on a really windy day).  She left for home the next day.

Miss S has already pieced her next quilt.  It is a jelly roll race.  I look forward to her next visit to Utah so that we can finish it together.

Quilting with my family is so rewarding.

XX,
Jasmine

July Decor

Happy Fourth of July!  I have decorated with as much Red, White, and Blue as possible in my great room.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Upstairs is decorated in a summery green, aqua, and navy.

Happy Summer!  Thanks for stopping by!

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  The Lego flag is another one of Panda's creations.  The little Lego tree was Monkey's addition.