Christmas Week ~ Day 1

Things have been a little quiet around here.  It is not because I haven't been sewing, but rather that I have sewn so much and spent so much wonderful time with family that I haven't had computer time.  I have decided to make the time to share at least the seasonal items I have made in the last month.  I hope to share one project a day this week.  :)

This first is a very special quilt because my sister-in-law JoAnn pieced it many years ago.  She was very new to quilting  and had just joined the local quilt guild.  She made a Christmas block and entered it into their monthly drawing and won all the blocks.  They challenged her to sew them together quickly and share it at their next meeting and she did.  One of the blocks is dated 1991, so I think she pieced this 26 years ago. 

Back then she and my mom hand quilted everything (very slowly) so she never quilted this.  After she passed away it sat hidden in my mom's closet.  I saw it earlier this year and decided to finish it up.  Now, the only challenge is that my mom and I both want the quilt.  We have decided that we will rotate years who gets to host JoAnn's Christmas Tree quilt. 

I loaded this on the Bernina Q24 and debated what thread to use and how to quilt it.  I wavered back and forth between an all over quilting design and custom quilting.  Knowing that this will really only be used one month of the year, the all over quilting won out.  Call me crazy, but I actually decided to use a metallic gold thread for the quilting. 

I tested the thread out on a small practice then moved to the big, queen size quilt. (About 90 inches square.)  I thought I was going to go crazy after the fifth time the thread snapped, but then noticed that it was twisting at the beginning of the threading path.  I simply skipped the second hook at the top.  Having the thread go up and then down rather than up, across and down helped so much!  It solved my thread tangling and breaking problem.  (The bobbin thread is a golden tan thin cotton which blends with the metallic gold color.)

Needless to say I was relieved when it came off my frames. 

I raided my mom's stash for the perfect binding.  I found a dark green with tiny metallic gold flecks. 

Most of the backing came from my mom's stash as well.  It is a cute Hoffman Christmas Village print. 

It wasn't wide enough so I added a strip of dark green left over from the backing of my Autumn Race quilt.  I love how the quilt turned out and all the sweet memories it brings. 

My boys love looking at all of the different blocks.  I love the glitter from the metallic thread. 

I put it on my bed to see how it would look and couldn't bear to move it.  So it has stayed on my bed since I finished it last month. 

I'll be back tomorrow with another finished Christmas 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. 

Uneven Nine Patch Quilts

I enjoyed making these simple baby quilts.  They are just a large uneven nine patch block made with two coordinating fabrics which were 1.5 yards.  The inner section is 24 by 34 inches and the borders are 8 inches wide. 

I bought the fabrics when a quilt shop nearby was closing earlier this year.  They are all Riley Blake/Penny Rose fabrics. 

I quilted the first one on my Tiara. 

I quilted the second one on the Bernina Q24. 

I found it easier to quilt this design on the sit down quilting machine because I could keep the borders more continuous.  I chose a simpler border design on the second one to make up for that. 

The first one has wild quilting in the center, feathers in the border, and flowers in the corners.

It has a cute red with daisy stripe binding. 

The same red daisy is on the back. 

The second one has a heart/swirl combo in the center, circular loops in the border, and flowers in the corners. 

It has the same red daisy stripe binding. 

The backing is the cute strawberry print from the top. 

They both finish about 40 by 50 inches and will be donated somewhere soon.  (I might take them to the local Project Linus.)

I love simple baby quilts!

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 up to. 

November Decor

I enjoyed the Halloween decorations and quilts so much that it was hard to put them away.  At least I was able to pull out some November/late fall decorations. My November bunting is the only one I didn't sew, but I did make it at a craft night at church. 

I folded two Halloween quilts so that the orange minky showed and put them in my cabinet.  I like how they look with the table runner I made in September. 

An older mini quilt is on the kitchen table. 

A Thimbleberries quilt is by the stairs along with Spring Race folded to see the minky and quilting. 

It needs a little more color over there, so I have planned some more fall quilts. 

I hope I have time to get to them later this month.  However, I have Christmas things I need to make and these will probably have to wait for next year. 

My basement is still decorated for fall, but I have been itching to see what my new Christmas tree looks like...

My husband keeps expecting to come home from work and see some early Christmas decorations in the basement.  It hasn't happened... yet!

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I think he just wants me to put the tree up early so that he can put his trains up early. 

Framed Quilts Finished

It is no secret that I enjoy making quilts that are pieced simply so that I can spend more time playing with the quilting.  When I saw the "Big Square" quilt in Christina Cameli's first book, First Steps to Free Motion Quilting, I knew I wanted to make at least one.  Well, I made three and can see myself making more.  The difference is that Christina's pattern is for a "Big Square" and I like rectangular quilts.  So I altered her pattern by making the top and bottom borders bigger.  Since it was no longer a square, I started calling these my "Framed Quilts."  The center panels have some really big frames.  These quilts all finish about 40 by 50 inches.

The first quilt was made from a fat quarter of Jungle Party fabric which I saved for this quilt when making animal quilts last year.  I just couldn't bring myself to cut the cute print into four inch strips.

I quilted this on the Bernina Q24 with a spiky spiral which reminds me of claws.  I thought it was a good design for a little boy quilt.  The center panel is quilted with a medium stipple.

The quilting design was so big that it was a bit difficult to fit it around the center panel on the long arm.  It would have been easier for me on my sit down machine.

I bound the quilt in the same blue as the inner border.

It is simple, but I think it turned out really cute.

The second quilt used some cute Riley Blake princess fabric I have used on a couple other projects.  The center is actually a rectangle because I had enough fabric to make it a little bigger.

It was quilted on the Bernina Q24.  I quilted spirals in the center, loops in the inner border, and wild quilting in the border.  This improv style of machine quilting made it really easy to quilt around the framed section on a long arm machine.  I could just use a design that would fit whatever space was there.  It was so much fun to quilt like that!

Instead of a collection of closed designs (like on this table runner), I used open FMQ designs that echoed.  I quilted spirals, flowers, hearts, leaves, paisleys, and anything else I felt like in the moment.  They all played really well together.

The binding is the same blue as the inner border.

I really love this one and hope a little girl will as well.

The third quilt used part of a Snail Trail panel I bought on clearance at my LQS a few years ago.  Other parts of the panel were used in a stripe quilt I made last year.

I also quilted this one on the Bernina Q24 with wild quilting in the large solid border.

The difference is that I quilted spirals in the center of the large flowers, inspired by the flowers in the panel.

The princess quilt had a simple loop in the center of the big flowers.

I really like the spiral flower centers.

I bound the quilt in a darker green.

I didn't piece an inner border because the panel had its own wonky borders.

It is such a bright, cheerful quilt!

All three of these framed quilts will most likely be donated to Primary Children's Hospital at Christmastime this year.  The solid fabrics were purchased earlier this year when a quilt shop nearby was closing.  The solids were by Moda and Riley Blake, but I don't remember the names.

I look forward to playing with the open/echoed wild quilting designs some more.

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.

Amanda Murphy Class

My mom and I recently took a three day longarm class/workshop from Amanda Murphy at Nuttall's Bernina.  The classroom was amazing and a lot of her quilts were hung around the room.

I loved this free motion quilting sampler.

They also had a lot of her fabric for sale.

And here is a close-up of the quilt on the left, because I told Sandra how awesome it was.  ;)

The first day was about free motion quilting on the Q-series machines.  Here is a peek at some of what I did that day.

The second day was about ruler work and combining it with free motion.

The third day was about using the Q-matic and combining it with free motion quilting. I didn't take any pictures of that.  ;)

It was wonderful taking a class from a Bernina Quilting and Long Arm Spokesperson.  Amanda Murphy was able to give little tips and tricks for doing things on the Q24 which I found helpful.  It was also wonderful spending that time with my sweet mother.

My mom and I bought some of her fabric and patterns, and I'm looking forward to trying some of her techniques on future projects.  

XX,

Jasmine