1/20/2015

Building Houses, FMQ and Paper Piecing

One of my quilty friends sent me a charm pack last year of Sweetwater's Road 15, thanks again Moira! I instantly knew I wanted to make a wall mini house quilt. I love Sweetwater, they will always be my favorite designers I think!



I originally was going to use a tutorial from Moda Bake Shop but I wanted doors. I found a super easy tutorial on you tube. It uses only charms and 2.5" squares. These were so fast to cut and easy to sew. I will share more when it's completed.

I really didn't make any resolutions this year. I have been struggling more each week with my health. Finding answers has been a long road. I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer a couple weeks ago. My testing has shown a mutation that can indicate a more aggressive strain. I'm just in the beginning of all this, so there's many unknowns still. I don't think this is the whole of my problems but I'm hoping I am at least on a path now of getting back to better at some point soon! I decided this year I want to focus more on doing things I WANT to do in quilting. I love house quilts so that was first on my list. I also tried free motion quilting for the real first time! I think I did pretty good you guys!


I know I need lots of practice but I was pretty darn happy with my first go and I can totally do this someday!


I did enough that I know what speed will work good for my machine. I only had one issue and it was only in a couple places, what I think they call "eyelashes" on the back. I can't remember what causes that so I need to go back to my Craftsy class and look that up. Or I'm sure one of you have the answer :)

 Next I tried a very simple paper piecing. Twice. And I failed. I learned that you have to start with pretty big scraps until you get more experienced. I followed directions (what I thought to be) exactly and two of my pieces still ended up going the wrong direction. I will get it figured out because I love the beautiful quilts that can be made with this technique. Another one of my goals this year is to make harder quilts. Ones that may take twice as long but will be worth the effort!
I wanted to share something I found at Big Lots. They had these newsprint packs on clearance for 75 cents! I bought the last 3 they had hoping it would work through my printer and it did, perfectly! I had to trim them slightly to fit through my printer but they worked great for printing my paper piecing patterns. I may need a lot of them...


Anyhow, if you paper piece and have a Big Lots near, you may want to raid the clearance aisle!


1/06/2015

Christmas Quilt Finish

I love holiday quilts. I have never made one! I decided it was time.


I wanted something fun, simple and with traditional colors. I think this quilt fits those things. Sorry for the dark pictures. I forgot to get photos until it was almost dark. Our snow won't last long!


I see lots of Christmas quilts in this design and I love them :) I bought some 1/4 yard cuts from Fort Worth Fabric Studio of this cute line, Home For The Holidays, by Riley Blake Designs. I was determined to not use any solid white in this quilt. I use so much white that I'm getting bored with it. For the back I used the main print in white (there's that white again!) and added scraps to the left side.

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 I love how it turned out. I only have one disappointment. Half way through the piecing, I realized I had figured way wrong with my blocks. It ended up much smaller than I'd wanted. Only 47 x 60. I was going to put it in my store but decided it's big enough for the grand kids to enjoy next Christmas :)


I have other fabrics to make 3 more Christmas quilts. I plan to work on them throughout the year instead of waiting until the last minute. Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and Fabric Frenzy Friday at Fort Worth Fabric Studio