We had such a beautiful weekend here (finally!). I spent almost the entire time outside with the kids and zero time at the sewing machine. We have to appreciate the warm weather while we have it, right? I did manage to get out to take a few quilt pictures though! Last week, I finished my latest quilt, Whimsical Windmills. (You can see more about the fabric and quilt blocks here.)

It was really fun to get a chance to work with Full Moon Lagoon by Mo Beddell (thanks Andover!) I love the colors, the artwork, really everything about this collection.

When I was brainstorming ideas for this fabric, I couldn’t stop thinking about low volume.

I really enjoyed making this little quilt a couple months ago. I started thinking about how great Ashley’s low volume quilt, Marcelle Plus, looked, with the brights mixed in. So I gathered my low volume fabrics to use as a scrappy background to a vintage block and started working.

After doing a lot of straight line quilting recently, I decided I wanted to get back to a bit of meandering free motion quilting for a nice, crinkly look. It took a few minutes to find my “free motion groove” again, but I just love the results – even if it is a bit harder to photograph!

My local quilt shop happened to have the great panel from the Full Moon Lagoon line, so I thought that would make a perfect backing. I was a little short – opps – so I added a simple strip of white down the side. The binding is a lovely, soft stripe from Cloud9 Simpatico. The finished quilt measures 48″ x 56″.

I know a lot of people have asked me about a pattern for this quilt, as I did paper piece my blocks. I created one and it’s in my shop – it includes the required fabric amounts, a cutting table, some quilt math for figuring how many of each print to cut, and the paper piecing template.

If you haven’t paper pieced before, you can find a tutorial here on my blog. I really like to encourage everyone to learn. It opens up such a great world of opportunities for you!

Full Moon Lagoon is now available. You can find it at the following shops:

Happy sewing everyone!

It’s done!! Last week, I finished up hand stitching the binding of the Arkansas Traveler quilt. I am in love with how it turned out. (For those that are new to the blog, you can find previous posts about this quilt here, here and here.)

A little backstory on this quilt…my aunt asked me to make something for my cousin and his wife who were married late last year. The design and colors were all left up to me (yes!) I have loved the Arkansas Traveler block ever since we made them in the Summer Sampler Series. They are a bit of work with the diamonds and the paper piecing, but they are just beautiful blocks.

When I was brainstorming layout ideas, I was inspired by the fact that this quilt was for a newly married couple, so symbolizing the bond of marriage was important to me. This layout is a nod to more traditional wedding quilts like a Double Wedding Ring or Irish Chain.

Measuring 72″ x 96″, I’m not sure if this is the largest quilt I’ve ever made, but it is close. It’s definitely the heaviest. Usually I use Quilter’s Dream Request Loft batting (the lowest loft), but for this one I used a slightly loftier batting, the Select Loft. The quilt is headed to Montana and I figured it was colder there so a thicker quilt would be nice.

The size and weight did make for a challenge when quilting. There were more than a few moments when I wondered if I should have sent it out to a long arm. I stitched horizontal lines, spaced randomly between 1/4″ and 3/4″ apart. I went through 12 bobbins and each of the 8 rows of blocks took about 1 hour, 15 minutes. I tried to quilt 2 rows each day. It was quite a workout!

The diamonds are all scrappy fabrics from my stash, but the neutral is Free Spirit Designer Solid in Sand Dune and the backing and binding is Submarines and Seaweed in Aqua from Tula Pink’s Saltwater line.

I’m heading to ship it out today. It’s hard to say goodbye but I’m really happy to have created something special for someone in my family.

I have been waiting to share this quilt with you for months…8 months to be exact! When editing my photos for this post last night, I noted the datestamp on my quilt photo was August 6, 2012. I can’t believe it’s been that long! I remember bringing my fabric and sewing machine on summer vacation last year, working to finish this quilt up.

Last Spring, Fons & Porter asked if I was interested in designing a quilt for a future issue, similar to the “style” of my Cutting Edge quilt which had been displayed at Spring Quilt Market. Well, that was a no brainer for me – of course I would! I was lucky enough to work again with the wonderful designer solids by Free Spirit.

Well, all these months later, I am excited to share with you that my quilt is in the now-available May/June 2013 issue of Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting. You can even buy a kit of my quilt, how cool is that!

This quilt measures 60″ x 72″ and the stars are all paper pieced for perfect accuracy. I quilted mine with a nice meandering design all over. I just love the solids and stars, the colors…I can’t wait to get it back in the mail!

Fabrics used in this quilt: Free Spirit Designer Solids in Lemon, Peach Blush, Chartreuse, Caribbean Sea, Light Jade, Jade, Sand Dune, Dogwood, Dark Coral, Flamingo, Winter White.

I thought it would be fun to share with you my original mock up for the quilt when I was in the design phase. (I do most of my design work in Photoshop).

I think the finished quilt is pretty close to the mockup.

And in weekend news, I’ll be speaking this Sunday (4/21) at 2:00 at the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. They meet at St. Peter’s Church at 500 Hannah, Forest Park, IL. Just a little talk about my journey through quilting, my style, what inspires me, my design process. Hopefully people will find it interesting. I always enjoy enthusiastic nodders, so if you go, you know, nod along. lol I’ll also be bringing my newly finished Arkansas Traveler Quilt to share, which I haven’t posted here yet. Is that any motivation?

Visitors just have to pay $5, so I hope you will stop by!

One of the fun things about living with a 3 or 4 year old is their always-going imagination. My son has been in a pirate phase for months. He walks around with a cup on his foot (his peg leg), his finger curled like a hook and he’s even given himself a couple pirate names. Depending on the day, you can call him either Captain Willypanels or Captain Root Beard. That’s why when I saw Sarah Jane Studios fabric line Out to Sea, I knew it would make a perfect quilt for him.

This quilt was really easy to make. I combined several of the Out to Sea prints with other coordinating fabrics from my stash. These include some of Moda’s Mono Pez, Lizzy House’s Pearl Bracelets, Sarah Jane’s Children at Play, and Aneela Hoey’s Little Apples. I think one of the keys to making a quilt that really pops is using different shades of each color. As you can see, there are several obviously different shades of blue. But also, the yellows and reds are different. The prints with the white background give your eye a place to rest.

I cut each rectangle 3″ x 10″ and the quilt has 6 columns and 24 rows, for a total of 144 rectangles. The finished size is 57″ x 60″.

I had a definite picture in my head when I started this quilt, and that vision included rounded corners. I found a circular picture frame in my house that was just the right size, and used that as a template to cut the corners. It’s such a nice detail that softens the look of all those rectangles. Just don’t forget to use bias binding when you make something with round edges, or your finished product won’t lay flat.

I also knew I wanted to quilt with wavy lines. It gives a nice texture and reminds me of the ocean which is perfect for this quilt. I’ve mentioned this technique before, but as a refresher, I use the Running Stitch on my machine (Bernina stitch #4) and max out the width and set the length to 4.0. I use my walking foot while quilting.

The backing is a dark navy minky, which made for messy quilting! I had to really work the carpet in my sewing room with the vacuum after I was done basting. The binding is a dot from Sarah Jane Studios Children at Play line.

My son loves the quilt. While I was working on it, he told me he wasn’t going to use it. I called his bluff though, and luckily I was right! It’s quite a nice feeling to know he’s spending time now cuddling under something I’ve made.