Primarily Circles Modern Baby Quilt Finished!

Cheers! I am celebrating another UFO completed!

Photos taken out our local library
Cool bikeracks, eh?

Primarily Squared Quilt Stats:

31" Square
Block tutorial from Linda's Quiltmania.
White Kona Sashing and Border.
Vintage Zoo Backing Fabric, from my Stash!
Ingeo-Fiber Batting
Random ZigZag FMQuilting with Aurifil 50wt, on my Juki TL98E
Flanged Binding: Suzie's Magic Binding at 52 Quilts, (modified with 1 5/16" wide strip blue fabric, and 1 1/2" strip of orange fabric).

This finish meets my January Goal with OMG!
And, my first Quarter One finish with the 2016FAL! (goal number one HERE)

Linking up today with the following Parties:
OMG: It's Finished!

Needle and Thread Thursday

Doin' a jig at Confessions of a Fabric Addict...

Fabric Frenzy Friday!

Myra is hosting TGIFF this week at Busy Hands Quilt!

Cheers,

Heidi!

Throwback Thursday!

Time to share another Blast From the Past!
Searching through photo archives, I selected snapshots of a few baby quilts to share!
All are made without patchwork,
A great way to practice free-motion quilting!

These were made when it was announced that good friends of ours were expecting twins.

I've gifted a lot of baby quilts over the year's, and always so grateful to receive photos later, of the babies with their quilts!

I stitched rows of 5" sailboats connected by waves on the blue quilt,
You will just have to take my word for it since they are not visible in the photos.

For the floral quilt, I followed the pattern of the print.
Spirals for each of the yellow flowers, outlined the pink posies, and connected them with loopy's.

I didn't even bother with borders for this third quilt:


Yellow flannel backing

Looks like I was stash-busting some JoAnn's fabric for all of these quilts.
I do love the big flowers stitched on this cute little bee print.

I was an Aurifil-lover before it was cool!

I may have to re-visit this pattern one day!

All three of these were made approximately 10 years ago(?), before I was aware of the wonderful online quilting community. Throwback Thursday, hosted by Jenn at Quarter Inch From the Edge, is a great way to share a bit of our quilting history!

Thank you Jenn!

Scrap Dance Finish, ALYoF

 

Scrap Dance hangin' out at the new Equestrian Park, River Mountains in background

Las Vegas in background

Somewhat low contrast with the background color choice, the quilting is an attempt to better emphasize the pattern.

Dancing with the Sunlight.

Lots of cute fabrics to 'spy'!

Binding Front Side

Binding Back Side 

Scrap Dance Quilt Stats:Finished Size: 39" Square
Pattern: Scrap Dance Mystery Quilt Along, hosted at From My Carolina Home.
More versions can be viewed at the Scrap Dance Flickr Group!
Fabrics: 2.5" square scraps, and solid blue-gray from my stash for background, backing and binding.
Batting: Poly Cotton/Blend, Hobbs I believe..
Machine pieced and bound with Bernina 1020
Free Motion Quilted with Juki TL98E

Checkmark: Lovely Year of Finishes October Goal MET!! (post here, link up #46) - Woohoo! Linking up with the Shanna for the Finishes Party at Fiber of all Sorts!

Checkmark: This is my second finish from my list of goals for Quarter Four, as linked with Adrianne at On the Windy Side 2015 FAL!

ALYoF October Goal - Scrap Dance!

The Scrap Dance Mystery Quilt Along, hosted at From My Carolina Home was yet another detour from my goals this year. I find a good Mystery Quilt irresistibly FUN, and great scrap busters...
A justified distraction!

Final directions were released in September. My trusty seam ripper helped me correct some of my strips(!), and then I was ready to piece and set the blocks for my wee quilt. Baby Scrap Dance is sandwiched and queued up for quilting and I hope to get to it in time to meet this month's A Lovely Year of Finishes Goal posted at Fiber of all Sorts!

BTY, this is a beautiful pattern that really shines when a bit more contrast is used - check out more versions posted on the Flickr Group!

Linking up with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework

Directionally Challenged, haha!

Le Challenge charged us this month with the theme "Direction".

I thought immediately of my lack of.

Sooo, rather than starting a whole new project, I chose a fairly old UFO to conquer...

Red & White Hourglass Blocks

To play fairly, I designed a border with great, big, directional, arrows!

Here, the arrow is presenting itself to you!

 

Elephant March, 40" Square

Each month, I try to further challenge myself by trying out a new technique. The idea is to steer me toward some art quilting, but this month I chose to tie the quilt as my new technique. I wanted a fluffy finish yet I am unsure how dense the quilting should be with the alternative down batting I used. This is an ingeo-fiber, made with plants and vegetation. It is a very lightweight batting and lifts nicely in the wind...

I used size 5 Perle Cotton, tied with a square knot, with a little extra strand tucked in each knot so it looks like four strands.

The backing is a very pale gray with subtle little safari animals.

Have I mentioned how much I love Le Challenge? Of course, it helps that I won the $25 gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop last month! I have not used it yet, been watching their daily deals in hopes of finding something fun I can share with followers for a wee giveaway!

Thank you, Le Challenge, for helping me "Take Direction" this month! This quilt also fulfills my July goal with A Lovely Year of Finishes, and my first Q3 Finish Along goal as well - both buttons found on my sidebar!

Introducing..

Baby Bubble Wrap!

 The big-stitching and binding is complete!

It is so nice to have achieved my July goal for ALYOF!   (linkup #24)
Time now to link up with the July Finishes Party at Sew BitterSweet Designs!

The pool seemed like a great place to shoot this one, and that is all the excuse I needed yesterday..

POCHO, Double-gauze cotton fabric Designed by Naomi Ito and Nani IRO

A few first's:

First time for a whole-cloth quilt (only 37" x 28" but it is a whole quilt!)

First time hand-quilting a complete quilt (ditto!) (Prevencia No. 8 thread)

First time using double-gauze. This fabric is so soft, and will be even softer each time it is washed.

First time wrapping binding from the front of fabric! Big-stitched binding keeps the 'organic' vibe...

Generally, I avoid marking quilting lines like the plague, but I used a blue water soluble here. I think it is Dritz. Twice I dabbed a wet cloth to remove the blue, but it still has some. I did not want to wash this as I think it is so nice to receive quilts when they really look crisp and new. I will try dabbing one more time...

Another aquatic shot..

And full-on...

Thank you for reading today! I am celebrating with other Friday-Finishes at:

TGIFF, hosted this week at Dizzy Quilts , and also with..

Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, at Confessions of a Fabric Addict - (Sarah has added a third quilt to her raffle, and it is simply stunning!)

Have a great weekend, I hope you get a swim in !!

LatiSphere - A lattice setting for Charm Squares on Point!

I had planned on doing a short tutorial for this quilt today. Instead, I got carried away with pictures and instructions, and next thing I knew I had cut up fabric and packaged it all up as Setting Kits for my Etsy Fabric Shop!

Really no mystery to it though, if you are looking for a fast pattern for a charm pack, this requires 41 x 5" Charm Squares, 64 sashing rectangles 2" x 5", and 40 cornerstone 2" squares (20 each of two colors).  Set it all up in rows, stitch it all up, and you have a quick and easy baby quilt top made with just one Charm Pack! I used Sphere by Zen Chic, but this color scheme works well with a lot of current charm packs as well.

I love the random zig-zag pattern, it is one of the easiest FMQ designs I have stitched; no marking required and it is very forgiving to errors!

Linking up with other finish partiers:
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF at Glory Be Quilter
Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts

Thank you for reading today and have a great weekend!

Scrambled Nines - It's a Wrap!

Ta-Da!
Oh, how I love a finish!
Especially when it fulfills a goal set for AYOLF! (May Party link #74!)

Scrambled Nines is my third finish using a Layer Cake of Nursery Prints from Quilting Treasures. It is my favorite of the three...
When I posted the May goal, it was stuck on Mr. Juki awaiting a quilting decision. I went with loopy quotation quilting.

I ran into some trouble with the yellow and grey checkered fabric from Clothworks. It is nice fabric, very soft with a bit of an organic feel to it. I found it shrunk more than average, and more in one direction than in another. Once I finished quilting the blocks, I realized it would look much better with blocking, since the center is quite heavily quilted. Blocking went well, and I was able to ease it all flat prior to binding. I was really surprised when it shrunk 1/2" more in one direction than the other during the blocking process, and I had to trim a bit more off the borders than I had anticipated. This shot shows a bit of hand-made waviness, although it looks worse than it is - the waves are enhanced by the wind, and by the folds of an all-cotton batting:

The backing is like a whole-nother quilt, eh?

I love the little chicks:

Now that I have done a half dozen or so machine bindings, I have found my favorite method. It is tight, and it looks almost traditional from the front.

Non-traditional on the back, but nice and even, and close to the edge.

Linking this finish up with Kelly at NTT,  TGIFF hosted this week by Sarah at Georgia Girl Quilts (she is running a giveaway there too!), Sarah for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? , and Link a Finish Friday with Richard and Tanya, and Elizabeth at Such a Sew and Sew for A Stitch in Time!