The Carpenter's Daughter Who Quilts

Category: Fabric Friday Frenzy

Logo-Locomotion: A Train Inspired Warm Wishes Quilt Finish

Hi, I thought I would share a my quilt finish in honor of birthday week in our family. It was my Father inlaw’s birthday last week and our grandson’s birthday this week. I did finish up my two Scooby quilts 2 days ahead of time but I will hold off showing them until after the birthday parties this weekend. I will be sharing the quilt I made for my Father inlaw today.

We are a farm family so of course we love tractors. We also love airplanes, well a very specific airplane. My Father inlaw’s Uncle designed and built the Monocoupe airplane back in the 1920’s on the old family farm place. You name it we have it with Monocoupes on it, from books, Christmas ornaments, models to coffee cups. I have blue prints from one of the racing Monocoupe airplanes that was made into a toy model. I need them framed yet for our office someday, but I can envision some sort of quilt with the designs embroidered or maybe having some Spoonflower fabric printed with the designs would be the ultimate fun. Somewhere and somehow in the last 10 years, my Father inlaw and his brother got interested in the Railroad and specifically Speeder Cars, the motorized cars that the railroad maintenance guys run up and down the tracks with. A friend had one, so they ended up with one. A few years later, and I think they now own at least 3 speeder cars between the two brothers. They load them up on trailers and haul them to events all over the Midwest and ride the rails on abandoned rail lines with their group of folks from all over the United States.

It is always hard to come up with an original gift for birthdays and holidays for my Father inlaw as if there is anything he might like, it is likely he may all ready have it. I decided to make him a quilt of his own. I had made him a fleece blanket years ago with John Deere tractors on it. I was on a mission to find something unique or at least different from what others might have, that was railroad related. I do not have access to many large quilting or fabric stores, so my fabric searches always goes online. I came across some rather interesting quilting material that had all sorts of train company logos all over it. With train companies that are no longer under some of the names listed. I do not recall ever seeing this fabric and they were selling it in a 3 yard piece on Etsy. I think I watched this particular fabric item on Etsy all summer long, hoping and praying they still had it while I made up my mind what exactly I could make with it. I finally decided to just go for it and purchase the fabric. I was not finding anything like it anywhere else, the amount of fabric was good and the price was really reasonable. I am not sure if the fabric is vintage new old stock. It was only 36 inches wide. It does not have the large selvage edges like we see today on fabrics. I think the only item I have come across online made with this material was curtains. I almost wonder if this had been curtains and someone cut off the hems. Whatever it was intended for originally, I was going to make a quilt with it.

I chose to use the Warm Wishes quilt pattern and match up my train logo colors with some pretty bright marble tone on tone fabrics.

I really like the black, red and blue marble blender fabrics. They add a major punch of color to the quilt. It ends up being a very manly quilt. I choose blue for the backing of the quilt and I ended up using every last bit of the vintage train logo fabric in the quilt piecing extra in to the back of the quilt.

Warm Wishes ended up being a fun and fast quilt pattern to use. I had seen it mentioned over and over again on the Quilting Board as a favorite quilt pattern. This was my first time using it, and I will most likely use it again someday as it is an easy way to show off your favorite prints. This quilt of course was well received by Dad. I finally found something he did not have.

I will be linking up my quilt finish with Link A Finish Friday, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop Friday?, Fabric Frenzy Friday , Finish It Friday, and Show Off Saturday.

September 26, 2014
Max and Whiskers: A Dogs and Cats Quilt for a Veterinary Student

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I would like to share today the final one of three quilts I made for our graduating nieces last year. I had come across what I thought was a fabric line of some really cute dog and cat prints. It would make an awesome quilt for upcoming veterinary student.

The fabric I chose was called Max and Whiskers by Basic Grey for Moda. I had purchased a layer cake of the fabrics and searched for a quilt pattern that would showcase the cute prints to their fullest. I came across a new to me designer from Australia, Roslyn Mirrington of Bloom. She had designed a neat column based quilt design that you could use a layer cake and make two quilts from. The design is called Abracadabra. The pattern makes a twin size bed quilt and a nice size throw that would work for a toddler quilt. You can change things up for the second quilt by adding a different background and applique a name on it. I do not use too many precuts so when I do, it is important to me to get the most mileage out of my fabric choices.

The instructions to Abracadabra are pretty straight forward with two cuts to the layer cakes, you can get creative on where you lay out your squares and rectangles. There is alot of sashing to be attached to the rows. And with careful pinning, the larger quilt went together nicely. I had a problem piecing the smaller quilt. I had to change sewing machines between the time of piecing the large quilt and the smaller one. I was having a problem with the presser foot of my Pfaff not going all the way down to resting on the feed dogs like it should. There must have been a difference in my seam allowance as the first 6 rows of the small quilt went together but some how the last two rows and the sashing seemed to have grown in length and there was no way they wanted to match up. I did not have a person in mind for the smaller quilt so it was no problem to scrap this one for the time being. I had just thought it would make a cute kid’s quilt.

For the back of this quilt, I found a neat dot print that had all the colors of the Max and Whiskers fabrics in a single fabric. I purchased it from JoAnn’s. I pulled a brown solid from my stash and added the golden mustard marble print as a striped accent to the back. The mustard marble also came from JoAnn’s. I finished it off with a light blue. It might have been a Moda solid but I do not recall now which color it was. I like how it shows off the quilting so nicely.

I really like how this quilt turned out. I like the columns and find the differing sizes of squares and rectangles give alot of interest. A little more fancy than just a simple coin quilt design. Our Vet student niece really liked the quilt and has taken it off to college with her. As for the pieces from the smaller quilt, I am thinking of reusing them to design a matching pillow. I have scraps stashed away from the other nieces’ quilts, Chain Linked and Pegs that all could be used to design pillows. These are on my future WIP list for possible Christmas gifts. Fun projects to try out the quilting modules on my inherited Designer 1 sewing machine.

I will be linking up this quilt finish with Anything Goes Mondays, Show and Tell Tuesdays, Linky Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, I Quilt Thursdays, Needle and Thread Thursdays, Fabric Frenzy Friday, TGIFF, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? , Link A Finish Friday , and Show Off Saturday .

September 19, 2014
MPC Pegs Quilt made in V & Co. Simply Color

I thought I would share another fairly recent favorite quilt finish. 2013 was the year of high school and college graduation gift quilts. I made three quilts for our three Nieces who graduated that year. This would be the first quilt I made using the sewing machine I inherited from my Mom. This is the second graduation quilt I have shared so far.

This particular Niece was the only one to have a suggestion on what she wanted as a quilt. She wanted “Green”. All right I thought. This should not be so hard . There are so many shades of green and the only one I have used much of in the recent past was what was considered “John Deere” green. That is not necessarily a girly color. I do know many girls like the color and even like the tractors. My daughter and this Niece would be included in that group. This Niece said she would likely like anything that my daughter would pick out.

We took a trip to one of our favorite quilt shops. We wandered the aisles of pretty fabrics and nothing really popped out at us at first. This shop always has lovely quilt examples hanging all over the shop walls and even the ceiling. We did a couple walks around the shop looking up and down and kept circling back to the quilt that was hung on the ceiling right in the front door. My daughter really liked the look of the quilt. I did as well. The big selling point was that they had it made up in “Green”. I usually do not choose to make a quilt up exactly as a store example. We both liked it as it was exactly made. Now please tell us, you have the pattern and the fabrics still in stock. Score!!

The quilt pattern our quilt was made from is Pegs by Kari Nichols for Mountain Peek Creations. I thought it was ironic that the designer’s last name was the same as my maiden name. The fabric that the quilt is made up in is by V & Co. Simply Color line. I shared with the quilt shop clerk that Vanessa of V& Co. had recently moved to Iowa from Utah. Some times just little things like these coincidences make a project extra fun. This quilt is made up from the green and gray prints and solids from this fabric line.

I used a coordinating gray solid as my background that I had on hand. For the back of the quilt, I chose a fun limey green solid as main color and pieced together the rest of my remaining fabric strips from the main body of the quilt. I really like how the quilting shows up.

I really liked how this pattern turned out. Mountain Peek Creations quilt patterns have great instructions. I really enjoyed working with V&Co. fabrics. I hope to soon obtain some more fabrics from the Simply Color line, if they can still be found and also her Simply Style fabric line that so nicely coordinates with the previous line. Of course, the best part was the quilt was well liked by everyone involved. I have been thinking this pattern might be a good one to remake in some of the patriotic prints I have in my fabric stash. I love how the large rectangles can showcase any kind of fun prints.

I will be linking up this quilt finish with Finish It Fridays , Fabric Frenzy Fridays, Link A Finish Friday , TGIFF , Sew Darn Crafty, and Can I get a Whoop Whoop?

September 12, 2014
WIP: Charming Quilt made with 39 Black and White prints

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Today I am sharing my largest Work in Progress quilting project. It is a Queen sized quilt made from the Charming quilt pattern designed by Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs.

I came across Cheryl and Meadow Mist Designs last Fall, from pinning various quilts of hers to my Pinterest quilting inspiration boards. I was on a search for different cross and/or plus quilt block designs. I first come across her Adding Up Nicely and Charming quilt designs. I really liked the look of her designs and that there was many different options in either the blocks or quilt size. Cheryl has great cutting and sewing instructions.

I had purchased a fat eighth bundle of Moda’s Shades of Black fabrics. I was looking for a design to use as many possible black and white prints. Moda’s Shades of Black fabric line has white on white, black on black, gray on white and white/black combo prints. The Charming quilt design has two quilt design options, the first would use upwards of 6 charm packs or 245 charm squares or option two allows you to add in some alternate solid color cross/plus blocks and only use 120 charm squares of your favorite prints. I chose to use the second option and add a pop of color with turquoise cross blocks.

For my fabric choices, I decided to purchase extra black and white print fabrics to add more interest. I set aside the white on white and gray on white prints. I purchased a set of 12 different fat quarters and a set of 50 black and white charm squares from some Ebay and Etsy fabric sellers. This is how I came up with 39 different black and white prints in my quilt top. I cut my own charm squares from the fat eighths and fat quarters. By purchasing the extra fabrics and cutting an extra assortment of 5 inch squares to get the look I had in my head for this quilt, I now have fabric cut ahead that can be used for other quilts. I have 157 extra charm squares plus a pile of 3.5 inch strips from the fat eighths. If I would add a totally different solid color, like lime green or pink or red, I can have endless different looking quilts.

I spent extra time making sure I had an accurate 1/4 inch seam allowance. I had recently changed sewing machines and was creating too large of a seam allowance. I figured out it was needed to use the inside of my presser foot and moving the needle over one stop. I am in love with the turquoise crosses in this quilt design. I think it gives just the right amount of color.

Now my task is to figure out how exactly I want to quilt this quilt. I have made numerous quilts, but not one quite this large. I have never truly attempted free motion quilting on my domestic home sewing machines with much success. I am quite proud of this quilt top and I want to do it justice and not just use straight line quilting and cross hatches. So today, my quilt top is setting in my to finish bin where it can stay safe and clean.

I am linking up with Freshly Pieced Modern Quilts WIP Wednesday, Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation, And Sew We Craft Together Linky Party and Sew Darn Crafty @Sew Many Ways.

I am up to hearing any and all suggestions on how other quilters would quilt this design???

September 3, 2014