My version of the Up, Up, and Away quilt

I've been working on this quilt this year. 
I got it back from the quilter in June, but just haven't posted about it yet.

This uses corner scraps attached to 3" triangles.




Close-up of quilting.



Back of quilt
Not my favorite backing ever, but it'll work.
I was trying to clean out some of my fabric stash.

Details:

• Pattern of "Up, Up, and Away" from Sunday Morning Quilts, pg. 132-137.
• Finished size 68 inches by 88 inches. Her original pattern is much smaller.
• Quilting by Lynn Peterson.

Candy Coated Finally Completed

I've been working on the bindings of the quilts that all arrived together.

Emily tells me that this one was the favorite of everyone who saw it. Who would've thought that it would've turned out so lovely when I bought those Marcus Bros. Civil War print fat quarters at the thrift store.  She even took it once to her quilt club while it was still out in Utah.  One of my aunts was eyeballing it according to my cousin.



I am SUPER pleased with how it turned out.
Love the quilting that Lynn did for me.
Just some nice wavy lines across all the strips.
I wanted something fairly basic to not out-busy the quilt itself.



We've already used it a couple different times while watching T.V.
It has been SUPER cold here.  And I do mean S.U.P.E.R.



Pieced back--using the scraps of the scraps for a portion of the back.

Quilt pattern I used--Candy Coated from Sunday Morning Quilts.

Quilt Top Completion--Candy Coated

One afternoon last week I pulled out one of my quilts in progress and determined that I would finish it. Period.



Here it is in progress earlier this year.

These colors aren't necessarily my first choice though I do love red.  But I scored all these fat quarters at the thrift store.  I have, to date, mostly made any quilts from scraps and not too many that were already coordinated and picked out for me.  I decided this would be a personal challenge to make it into something fun and interesting and not fuddy-duddy.






I ended up with 11 rows instead of 14 as the pattern calls for.  However, I also made my strips a little longer than Amanda Jean's.  I was trying to eek out as much as possible from my fat quarters.

Details:

• Final quilt top dimensions: 66 inches by 79 inches.
• Used 23 Marcus Brothers Civil War Print fat quarters

Linked up to Crazy Mom Quilts "Finish it Up Friday"

Candy Coated beginning

I decided to cut into the Civil War print fabric stack of fat quarters that I found at the thrift store and see if I would like it for the Candy Coated quilt pattern from the book Sunday Morning Quilts.

I may not quite have enough to do the quilt exactly like the pattern, i.e. I may have to eliminate a row or two,  but I'll know better on that front once I get all the pieces cut out.  It is going to be close.

For now this is how it is looking after completing the largest width row.





Not my normal choice of fabrics or colors, but overall I think I am going to like the look of this.  It is going to have a more manly feel, which is good.  Then the boys at my house will have something else to choose from.

Green Splash Quilt FINALLY Finished

I've been trying to get this quilt finished for some time.  The top has been done since November of last year.  I worked on some of the quilting in February when we all had our little retreat to St. George.  I just had the white border around the orange block to quilt and then it could be done.

With all the nasty snow we received this past week (and more forecasted for tonight--UGH!) It was a good week to stay home and get some things accomplished.  Happy day I got this one out of the sewing room and into the living room to be used.






Used a little wavy line quilting stitch on Emily's new machine to do the majority of the quilting.
Straight line quilting across the orange block
Pebble quilting within the white border around the orange block.

Finished dimensions:
53" by 67"

Pattern from Sunday Morning Quilts pg. 72-75.

Checkerboard Quilt

Here is my version of Amanda Jean's Checkerboard Quilt from her book Sunday Morning Quilts, pg. 128.

  
This is going to daughter #1 for Christmas since she loves blue AND she needs a larger quilt for her 6' body than one that she is currently using. (I'm hoping once she receives this one she'll be more willing to donate the other one--it's not my best work and really too small for her to use).  It should look nice on her bed against her yellow wall too.

Details:

• Cut 3 inch scrap squares in variety of blues.
• Also used scrappy white squares cut 3 inches.
• 25 squares across by 35 squares down.
• Thrifted yellow and blue striped sheet for the back
• Binding is a thrifted blue and white plaid sheet
• Finished dimensions: basically 64 inches by 90 inches

Splash Quilt Pattern

After checking out Amanda Jean's book, Sunday Morning Quilts, twice from my local library I decided I just needed to buy it.  I was able to attend one of her book signing / chats at one of the local quilt shops earlier this summer and it was so fun.  Those quilts are gorgeous! and even more so up close and in person.

I originally started making the Checkerboard quilt in blues (which I am still working on will be doing for daughter #1 for Christmas) and then decided to make the Splash quilt pattern in greens and orange (kids voted no pink).  Thanks to Cheryl for the green scraps giveaway to add to my supply.

I am really happy with the end result.  I did add another row or two on the length because we need it here at our house.  It'll be a fun quilt to "fight" over and use.

I'll be putting some orange polka-dot on the back and probably some green scrappy binding.
Now just need to decide how I'm going to quilt it--me and some straight lines or send it to Lynn for something "fancier"?

Getting My Improv On

I will admit that I am not much of an improv/wonky thinker.  Especially in my sewing life.  

It sort of scares me a bit. Or should I  say... a LOT!  

We all grew up sewing clothing, so precision and accuracy are critical skills if you don't want your clothes to "look" homemade.   Those skills work well for quilting, too, but maybe not as much for improv/wonky type things.  You need to be a bit more "free-thinking."  I'm trying, but I'll admit it's hard to unlearn some of that.  

So I am challenging myself to some improv this week.

These are my slabs made using the technique from the Sunday Morning Quilts book.  I was going to turn them into scrap boxes as suggested, but I'm sort of hung up on another idea I have brewing... So maybe boxes, and maybe not.  We will see.  But I'm happy with how they turned out.  Quite addicting!
  
How do you feel about improv?

Emily