This is my third year participating in the Hands2Help Challenge at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Unlike the first two years, I knew the Challenge would come during a crazy busy time for me. (I have been moving and settling in my new house.) So I decided to make my quilt earlier this year. Things have been so busy that it has even been hard for me to make it to the post office. However, I can now say that my quilt for Happy Chemo is in the mail. :)
I decided to donate my Blue and Green Race Quilt. It is a super fun and fast quilt pieced together using the Jelly Roll Race method and my calculations for different sized quilts. Be sure to check out my original post about the quilt if you would like more information. Here are some more pictures just for fun.
Thanks for stopping by! What is your favorite charity to donate to?
XX,
Jasmine
P.S. I will be linking up with the final linky party for Hands2Help.
Welcome to my creative space, which I normally call my craft room. I was tagged by Preeti who blogs at Sew Preeti Quilts as part of the Creative Space Tag. And I am tagging Val who blogs at Val's Quilting Studio. So look for her post on her creative space next week. :)
Not much has changed in my craft room in the last year, because I really am loving the set-up. If you would like to see what my room was like in 2014, you can check out this post. If you would like to see what it was like in 2013, you can check out this post.
The main change in my craft room is the addition of the whiteboard near my Tiara quilting machine.
I love having it there, because I can warm-up for FMQ by drawing my design at the same size I will quilt it. Then I can refer back to it while quilting.
I have also taken down the decorations on the shelf above my quilt, and added rainbow scrap storage. I love having my scraps organized by color.
I am now used to having the cutting table behind my sewing chair. (Although one of the flaps has broken off, and this is now as big as my table gets.) I really love having access to three sides of my cutting table.
I usually work on one project at a time, so my design wall (a queen size flat flannel sheet) sometimes seems really empty. My plan is to add a rod above it which I can hang quilts from. I really want to have "Floating" hanging up in here when the design wall is not being used.
And just so you know, this is NOT my creative space...
That is my dumping space, and what my craft room looks like when I haven't been working on projects in there for a couple weeks. I am unable to create when my room gets messy. I had to clean it up just so I could add the binding to that blue quilt you can see on the floor (finish post coming soon). Having it clean to take pictures was just an added bonus. ;)
And in case you have missed any of the posts in the Creative Space Tag, here they all are:
I finished "Floating" just in time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival. It is currently my most favorite quilt. So I am entering it in the large quilt category. If you are visiting from the BQF, welcome and thanks for stopping by. If not, you can click on the button to see what everyone else has entered in the festival.
The pattern for this quilt is called "Magic Carpet," and it is designed by Christina Cameli. I changed the pattern a little bit, and you can find out more about my changes in this post. Christina Cameli has also written two books about free-motion machine quilting, and I mostly used designs from her books with a few of my favorites added in. You can check out this post for more information about how I quilted it.
I named my quilt "Floating" because magic carpets float in the air, and the squares seem to float on the black background.
I love to see how quilting changes a quilt. While I really like how the top turned out...
I absolutely love the finished quilt!!!
Every single one of the overlapping squares is quilted with a different FMQ design. Including the square spirals on the black fabric, there are 72 different designs on this fun FMQ sampler. You can see the whole quilt in this picture.
While it looks pretty in the shade...
It really sparkles in the sunlight.
I quilted it with Floriani's polyester embroidery thread, and I love how it turned out. There are more than 350,000 stitches on this quilt, and my thread only broke twice. (I love the stitch counter on my Baby Lock Tiara.) I used nine M-class bobbins and spent 18 hours on the machine quilting. Totally worth it.
The quilt top is all Kona solids. Starting in the center and working toward the edges, I used: Cerise, Valentine, Candy Pink, Violet, Magenta, Tulip, and Black.
The backing is a Riley Blake Blender in Magenta. It really is a deeper color than it shows up in the photos. (I'm blaming that on the sparkly thread.)
It looks really neat with the sparkly threads and the light shining through as well.
I bound the quilt in Kona Black to keep the floating look. I stitched it down to the back by hand.
I used a scrap of the backing for the label, so it blends in nicely.
I had so much fun experimenting with photography on this quilt. It was too big for my favorite spot on the fence...
And the quilting didn't show as much in the shade where I normally hang it on the deck.
So I tried somewhere new.
It might have seemed a little windy.
But it was just my little helper.
Maybe quilts are more fun than the swings. ;)
We both like my new hanging spot, and I wonder why I haven't hung a quilt there before.
Quilt Stats #140
Quilt name: Floating
Pattern: Magic Carpet
Fabrics used: Kona Cerise, Valentine, Candy Pink, Violet, Magenta, Tulip, and Black
Backing: Riley Blake blender in Magenta
Amount used: 11.5 yards
Batting: Hobbs 80/20
Size: About 75 x 87
Date finished: May 2015
What I learned:
I can quilt more than 70 different designs! Two years ago I had a hard time quilting only 12.
The more designs I quilted, the easier they became.
I love the look of Floriani polyester embroidery thread on solid fabrics.
I tense up up a bit more when quilting densely and couldn't quilt as long at a time.
It was more difficult (read impossible) for me to prevent tucks when quilting this densely and one color at a time. (I quilted all the black first to stabilize the quilt then started in the center and worked out.)
Custom quilting takes a long time. I pieced the quilt in 6 hours, but it took 18 hours to quilt it.
I need to check for grease on my needle bar before quilting, especially if I just had it serviced.
I plan on keeping this quilt in my craft room, but Cheetah thinks it would be perfect for a game of Twister. Silly boy.
Thanks for stopping by!
XX,
Jasmine
P.S. I will be linking up with the Blogger's Quilt Festival and other fun linky parties for my finished quilt. The buttons are on the sidebar. Check them out to see what other people are doing.
When Daniar from Fat Quarter Shop asked me if I would like to make one of their short cut quilts and blog about it, it took all of ten seconds for me to agree. (I just had to double check the completion date because I was still doing my sneaky sewing.) Then I did the happy dance. :) I really like their short cut quilts, and have already made one using the Layer Cake Lemonade pattern. I called mine. "Blueberry Juice."
This quilt uses one layer cake (with at least 36 ten inch squares) and one charm pack (with at least 36 squares) or yardage. The video tutorial for Layers of Charm is very helpful. The Fat Quarter Shop is even sponsoring a giveaway on my blog today. So be sure to read to the very end. ;)
I selected the line "Into the Woods" for my quilt, using yardage of Kona Snow instead of a charm pack. The lap quilt uses only 36 layer cake squares. I had fun arranging them on my design wall. (I also had special plans for the bottom row, because I am not that fond of square cuddle quilts.)
It looked cute, but I was amazed at how much charm the charm squares added. Plus I liked the look of the top and bottom border I added which was just cutting the extra layer cake squares in half. (My layer cake came with 42 squares.)
I fell even more in love with the pattern once the top was finished.
I wanted to emphasize those cute diamonds, so I planned special quilting for them. I used circle templates to mark a cute flower.
I am so pleased with how those flowers turned out!
Because I was putting minky on the back (my first time doing free motion quilting with a minky backing), I kept the rest of the quilting simple with a loopy line.
I bound the quilt in the red polka dot from the line and added a corner label.
I am so glad I decided to add the pieced border. I really like the way it turned out.
Quilt Stats #120
Quilt name: Through the Woods
Pattern: Layers of Charm from Fat Quarter Shop with extra border
Fabric used: Into the Woods layer cake, and Kona Snow
Amount used: 7 yards
Batting: Hobbs 80/20
Size: About 57 x 67 inches
Date Finished: December 2014
What I learned:
Simply adding a contrasting corner can make a big difference in the overall look of a quilt.
I can do free motion quilting with a minky backing
One thing I did when piecing the top was draw an extra line a half inch away from the diagonal with my Frixon pen. (I use sandpaper to grip the fabric when I write on it.)
I sewed down both lines and used the scraps to make this cute little mini quilt. It finishes at 21.5 inches square. I trimmed the small HST down to 4 inches so they finish at 3.5 inches.
My family really loves this quilt, and I love how simple it was to make while still being super cute!
I decided to name my quilt "Through the Woods," because the words, "Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go." Kept repeating in my mind over and over while working on the quilt. I may name the mini, "Over the River" once I get it finished.
I am sure I will be making more of the Short Cut Quilts from the Fat Quarter Shop because their instructions are very clear and the quilts so much fun to make!
Now, the Fat Quarter Shop will give a $25 gift certificate to one of my readers. :D
To be entered in the giveaway, please leave me a comment telling me what your favorite quilting design is. It can be free motion or with the walking foot. I'm always looking for ideas.
My followers (new and old) can leave a second comment for a second entry telling me how they follow my blog.
Good luck in the giveaway! I will be contacting the winner through email. So if Blogger doesn't recognize your email, please include it in your comment. I will keep the giveaway open for one week, and announce the winner on Monday, February 16. I will try to respond to all of your sweet comments, but may not be able to if many people enter the giveaway. ;)
If you check out the Jolly Jabber, you can download the free pattern, see the video, as well as see what other bloggers have done. Believe me, it is lots of fun checking out all the links. (And making this quilt.)
XX,
Jasmine
P.S. I will be linking up with Oh Scrap, Let's Bee Social, Needle and Thread Thursday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop, and Finish it Up Friday. (Links on sidebar.)
P.P.S. And thank you, Fat Quarter Shop, for your generosity and for asking me to participate.
Hi! I am excited to be participating in this year's blog hop for new quilt bloggers hosted by Beth at Plum and June. Welcome to my blog, Quilt Kisses. My name is Jasmine and I live in Utah, U.S.A. I have been quilting for over 20 years, making more than 100 quilts. I am a stay at home mom, with a super supportive husband.
While I love more modern fabrics, this year my focus has been on stash busting. I have used more than 160 yards of fabric this year. I hope to work through my stash and update it with newer fabrics.
I would like to share with you four of my favorite quilts that I have made this year. All of them were made completely with fabric from my stash.
This is Solstice, a twin size reverse star quilt measuring 72 x 90 inches. I finished Solstice in January.
I finished Rich in Love in February. It is a large lap quilt measuring 72 x 80 inches.
A Lovely Twist is a twin size quilt measuring 70 x 88 inches. I finished it in March. It is one of my favorite quilts because I figured out a way to make a twister quilt without the special ruler.
Sunrise, Sunset was a gift I made for one of my sisters in April. It is a lap quilt measuring 58 x 72 inches. (I am half done with my goal of making a lap quilt for all of my siblings this year.)
These quilts have really helped me appreciate the fabrics in my stash. I love making something useful and beautiful out of fabric that has been sitting in my craft room for nearly ten years.
Both Solstice and Rich in Love were quilted with my Janome 6500 in a corner of my craft room. I quilted with my Janome for over ten years.
A Lovely Twist and Sunrise, Sunset were quilted with my Tiara, Princess El. I have only had her for the past three months. I love all the extra space!
My favorite quilting tip is to use a Post-it when sewing on binding. I place the triangle along the bottom edge and stop when I get to it. Then I back stitch. I find that this helps when mitering the corners of your binding. (Click here for more details.)
My favorite part about blogging is meeting new people and forming friendships. So my advice to you is to leave comments and respond to those left on your blog. ;)
A few random facts about me:
I can not wear shoes while using a sewing machine. I have better control of the foot pedal in socks or bare feet.
I like it best when I only have one or two works in progress.
I am OCD when it comes to keeping my craft room clean.
What is one quilting habit you have that you love or would like to change?
Don't forget to visit some of the other lovely people participating in the New Quilt Blogger Blog Hop. We have all been blogging about quilts for less than two years and will be sharing some of our favorite tips.
