Modern Quilts
Positively Puppy Stars Finish & Pattern Giveaway
Hi, I am sharing the quilted finish of my Positively Puppy Stars quilt which is a pattern test for Sea Stars by Meadow Mist Designs.
Positively Puppy Stars
I really like how it turned out. I had originally wanted to quilt it with a serpentine stitch, but my walking foot did not care for all the seam intersections while attempting to sew that stitch. It wanted to make a huge knot. I ended up quilting 1/4 inch from all the seams on the pluses and stars. I finished off the quilt with a yellow and white striped binding.
Modernized Disappearing 9 Patch center square
I love how the Modernized Disappearing 9 Patch tutorial ( by Kristy Daum) turned out. It adds a really fun element to the back of the quilt. I definitely will be using the tutorial again to make a full quilt.
Positively Puppy Stars
We have had very unstable weather this week. We started Monday out with a 10 hour power outage due to wind and rain. It was just minutes after finishing taking these photos that we got a major down pour yet again.
Modernized Disappearing 9 Patch
I love this quilt even after all the fits that the 192 Half Square Triangles gave me. It will be hard to give it up to our little cousin. I hope that she comes to love it.
Sea Stars was released for sale on June 25th and is being offered at a sale price til July 11th at $6.00.
Sea Stars Pattern Launch Blog Hop and Giveaway
Hi, Today is the day! Sea Stars by Meadow Mist Designs is being released to the public today. I pattern tested the lap sized quilt and I am calling my version Positively Puppy Stars.
Positively Puppy Stars (Sea Stars pattern test)
I love, love all plus and cross quilt block patterns and to add a star into the mix will make an interesting quilt design. Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs always has wonderful instructions and charts/diagrams to show how to assemble the quilt blocks. Sea Stars uses alot of half square triangles to make up the star components of the design. I had a couple unfortunate issues with what ruler I used to trim up my half square triangles and whether you should press before or after you trim up. I ended up losing a 1/4 inch on all my blocks and ended up with a 56 inch versus 60 inch top. Quilting is always a learning experience no matter how long you have been doing it. I still ended up with a lovely quilt.
Modernized Disappearing 9 Patch
I decided to use up all the scraps for the backing of the quilt and pieced together a small version of Kristy Daum’s tutorial blocks Modernized Disappearing 9 Patch. I added white to the sides and a large band of gray solid to the top and bottom.
You can read about the making of my quilt top 1, 2, 3 and 4.
I am still in the process of quilting my top. I hope to have it completed yet today and will be updating this post with completed photos. It’s been a rough week in our neck of the woods, with bad storms on Monday that resulted with trees and power lines snapped and our family experiencing a very long 10 hour power outage. It is pouring rain again today but so far no thunderstorms.
Sea Stars is being released for sale today and is being offered at a sale price til July 11th at $6.00.
WIP Wednesday: Puppy Stars
Hi, I thought I would share a quick post on what I am working on this week. I am creating the back for my Positively Puppy Stars (Sea Stars) pattern test quilt for Meadow Mist Designs.
I am using the leftover scraps of the puppy print fabrics and solids from the front of the quilt. I am playing with the Modernized Disappearing 9 Patch quilt tutorial by Kristy Daum at St. Louis Folk Victorian. I sized mine down from 5 inch squares to 3.5 inches to use up what I had available. I have been wanting to try out this design for quite a while. I think I have multiple pins for this quilt pattern on my Quilting Inspiration Pinterest Board.
I have made a disappearing 9 patch before but this version totally changes how you make your 9 patches. It seemed weird at first sewing some of them together. It was easier to visualize once the 9 patches were cut into fourths.
These were some of the blocks I started out with.
Modernized Disappearing 9 Patch
This is all the blocks sewn together. It ended up being 26 inches square and I need approximately 66 inches square for my backing so I am looking at to fill in the back with bands of white and gray solid.
KATIE
Here is a quick pic of our new Australian Shepherd puppy, Katie. She is keeping me quite busy.
FYI: There is still time to enter for a chance to win a copy of Grande Scrappy Tiles, the newest pattern by Meadow Mist Designs. I will be drawing for the winner Saturday June 27th morning.
I will be a stop on the pattern launch blog hop for Sea Stars on Friday.
Thanks for stopping by.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Grande Scrappy Tiles Pattern Launch Blog Hop & Giveaway
Hi, I am sharing today my version of the Grande Scrappy Tiles pattern that I tested for Meadow Mist Designs. I am calling my version, The Cowboy Way. I made the twin size version. It is made in a cowboy south western theme for my daughter. Grande Scrappy Tiles is being released for sale today.
I had a lot of fun putting this quilt pattern together. It goes together so smoothly. No major seams to match up. A single block is 24 inches so you can have a large quilt in no time at all.
There is so much potential in one pattern. It allows you to showcase some of your larger favorite prints. I am thinking of making another version of this quilt in all different plaids from my stash (from when I made/sold primitive cloth dolls).
You can read more about my quilt The Cowboy Way here, here and here.
Grande Scrappy Tiles will be on sale for 2 weeks at $6 (until July 4th) and is available on etsy, craftsy, and payhip.
Positively Puppy Stars: Flimsy Finish
Hi Everyone, I hope you are having a Happy Friday! I am finally finished with the quilt top I am calling Positively Puppy Stars, which is a pattern testing for Sea Stars by Meadow Mist Designs. Sea Star’s pattern is set to be released for purchase on June 19th and there will be a parade of the all the quilt testers’ versions of the quilt on the Meadow Mist Designs website. So be sure to check out my quilt and all the other lovelies on Cheryl’s web page on June 26th.
Positively Puppy Stars Quilt Flimsy
I have blogged over the past few weeks on the troubles that I had with my Half Square Triangle making process. I tried the technique where you trimmed them to final size while still folded in half and then pressed open. I thought I was cutting the proper size with the ruler I was using. It ended up not the case and I had to trim all my pieces down a 1/4 of an inch or completely remake another set of 192 HSTs. I ended up with a quilt top that is 56 inches square versus the planned 60 inches square. It is quite painful to lose all that work, but in the end I still have what I think is a beautiful quilt top. The recipient is going to be 3 years old so she will not care one way or another.
Positively Puppy Stars
This is a closer photo. I still have to learn some things on the new camera (Samsung WB380F). Hopefully when I am finished, we will have a sunny day to take photos. I am fairly happy with how my points matched up. It was harder than I thought it was going to be to spread out 8 different colors in combinations of 3 around the quilt in a random fashion.
For Pieced Backing of Puppy Stars
This is what I have for scraps from cutting the top out. The orange print fat quarter at bottom of photo was the one print of the fat quarter set I chose to not put in quilt top design. The puppy prints are 3.5 inches by 7 inches and 3.5 in. by 21 inches. The solids are 4 inches by 13.5 inches. I am thinking of cutting all down to the 3.5 inches and make up some floating plus blocks set in a white background and finish off the back of quilt with a gray solid. Maybe set the pieced plus block section off center in the back for more interest.
I have pattern tested 3 designs for Meadow Mist Designs in the last couple months. I working on getting my Cowboy Way quilt top which is a pattern test of Grande Scrappy Tiles done in time for the pattern release of June 19th. Since Sea Stars pattern is not releasing til June 26th, I should be able to be finished with this mine in time for that date. Plus Plus has all ready been released and I am still deciding how I want to quilt my version. I am really pushing to get more of my tops quilted and bound before starting another big project.
I will be linking up this flimsy finish with Crazy Mom Quilts, Richard and Tanya, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, TGIFF and Crafting Comment Karma over at Prairie Sewn Studios.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. We are having a family gathering to honor a foreign exchange student friend of my husband’s family who stayed here for school around 30 years ago. She and her family have been here numerous times over the years. My family is hoping that we will be adding a new member to our family this week, an Australian Shepherd puppy. Fingers crossed that all works out.
Until next time. Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Mod Gears Update
Hi, I thought I would give a quick update on my progress with my Mod Gears quilt top.
I have added borders that were not called for in the pattern to add size and interest as I rounded the corners.
I cut 4 inch white strips for my borders and then used a dinner plate to round the corners.
I am going to use the orange fabric as my bias binding. I have not used a bias binding in ages and I certainly have not hand sewn a binding in as many ages. I won the Scraptastic Tuesday’s monthly drawing and have a shipment of 100 Wonder Clips coming in the mail from Massdrop as my prize. They should arrive in time to help with attaching my binding.
This is my striped backing for the quilt. I used all the fabrics from the front except the orange for binding. I appliqued the little boy’s name, Eli John on the back as well. I chose to use a smaller lowercase letter this time around. I remembered seeing a baby quilt online with the name Eli or Elliot on it that was done in the lowercase and it turned out pretty cute.
I use Lite Steam-A-Seam 2 for my appliques. It stays soft and flexible and with it’s two glue layers you can temporarily finger press your pieces down and remove them and move around before you do your final pressing. I just straight stitched close to the edge of the letters.
I am still deciding on how I want to quilt this top. A possible organic wavy serpentine stitch or follow around each churn dash and plus with a 1/4 inch inside borders of blocks??? Either way I hope to get started doing some quilting yet today.
I am linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, Let’s Bee Social , Needle and Thread Thursday and Crazy Mom Quilts.
Thanks for stopping by.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Mod Gears Baby Flimsy
Hi, I am sharing today my completed Mod Gears quilt top. It is made from the Mod Gears by Elizabeth Dackson, Don’t Call Me Betsy quilt pattern. It is made for a friend’s new grandson. Both parents ride Harley motorcycles, so I thought the theme and color of the quilt was quite fitting.
It finished at 56 inches square. I am thinking of adding a white border of say 4 inches all around and then rounding the corners. I have seen a quilt on a Pinterest that gave me that idea. I would then need to make a bias binding. I have quite a bit of the orange and red left that can go towards binding and as part of the back design.
I am wanting to applique the baby’s name Eli John to the back as well. I am thinking in a lowercase letters to add interest.
I had no trouble creating these half square triangles. I am still trimming up the batch for the Sea Stars quilt.
I am still learning how to use my new camera. It was pretty slick transferring photos from the camera to the computer by wifi sending them direct to my email accounts. It was great not having to fight with usb cords as this camera only came with a 12 inch cord.
I will be linking up my quilt top finish with Needle and Thread Thursday and Finish It Friday at Crazy Mom’s Quilts.
Thanks for stopping by.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Friday Projects Update
Hi, I hope everyone has had a good week. I thought I would share a Friday Projects Update.
I have been slowly but surely working away on my half square triangles for my Sea Stars quilt pattern testing. I should put the emphasis on slowly. The sewing part is no problem, it is getting them all pressed and squared up that is so time-consuming.
(The pile of trimmings make pretty confetti. See my pretty new rotary cutter. Zebra striped. )
I have tried a couple different techniques for squaring up the half square triangles. One is to press open first and then square up on all four sides, if needed. Then I tried where you trim before pressing open and it trims off the little ears in one swoop. I am not going to say yet, which one was better for me.
Has anyone tried this specialty ruler for creating Half Square Triangles? It’s by June Tailor and there is a video online how to use it. I bought it with a 40% off coupon at JoAnn’s. I have been using the 4 1/2 inch square ruler with pink Post-It tabs taped to where I need to cut my HSTs. I used the full size on the Mod Gears quilt blocks, and will move it smaller and smaller to make the sizes need for Sea Stars and WoW-E quilt blocks.
I always like to have a non quilting sewing project to work on for some down time. I have been wanting a new purse to carry and I like the cross body styles of bags as they cause less stress on my shoulders.
I am looking at Noodlehead’s Trail Tote or Swoon’s Ramona Mini Hipster bag. They both are free patterns that you can download. The Trail Tote closes with a magnet, and Ramona closes with a recessed zipper. I really am more comfortable using a zippered purse. So I am thinking of applying the recessed zipper technique to the Trail Tote???
I love this text and postage stamp canvas print. It has ridges or ripples in it. It is a remnant left of the fabric my Mom made a purse out of. It was the purse she carried up until the day she passed away in June 2013.
This is a very intricate machine embroidery of the Eiffel Tower that my Mom made as a sample. It is on a piece of white cotton that measures 6 by 11 inches, and the embroidery is 2 by 5 inches. I have had this set aside for something special and thought I could use it on an inside pocket of a purse so I would have a daily reminder of my Mom with me.
I have also come across another free pattern for an awesome tote bag that I would like to make. It is the Day At the Beach Bag with Rope Handles at Sew 4 Home website.
These are two gorgeous quality canvas fabrics that were some of the last fabrics I knew my Mom purchased. She had purchased them online. My Mom loved to make all kinds of bags and purses. And she loved France and everything French. It was her dream to travel to France. I took three years of French classes in high school many moons ago. It has not been used much after marrying into a German speaking family. lol
I have numerous bag making supplies. I have some painters canvas tarp material left over from other projects that can be used for the plain top portions of the Day at the Beach bags. I all ready have grommets and roping in the supplies as well, so it is a sign that I need to make these bags.
Hope all the Moms had a wonderful Mother’s Day. I had a great day with my husband and kids. My kids went all together with my husband and got me a new camera for Mother’s Day. I have not had a chance to truly play with it yet this week. It’s Wi-Fi enabled so it is supposed to upload my photos to my email or possibly Facebook accounts.
It is a Samsung WB380F camera. It has white simulated leather finish, so it should be interesting to keep it clean??
I hope to make some more progress sewing up all the blocks and pieces to make Sea Stars and Mod Gears quilt tops this weekend. I have not touched WoW-E yet, other than cut out all the pieces and bag them up in a ziploc. I am redressing which way I want to make my HSTs since the little ones in WoW-E finish at 1.5 inches (you want them accurate on the first try.)
I will be linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.
Have a great weekend.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
HST Progress (2 out of 3 quilts)
Hi, I thought I would give a quick update on the progress I have made on working on my 3 kid size quilts that have the half square triangle palooza going on with their creation. I have sample blocks created for two of three quilts (Sea Stars and Mod Gears). I have all the HSTs made for Mod Gears and Sea Stars is still in production.
I am making HSTs in 8 bright colors for the Sea Stars quilt which is being pattern tested for Meadow Mist Designs.
I have 4 different focus prints that I will be making the plus blocks from and I plan on mixing up the 8 potential HST colors amongst the prints to get a good mix for each block.
I have all the HSTs made for Mod Gears, but only have 4 out of 16 blocks sewn up. I did not make any additional progress on this quilt top this week yet.
It has been a very somber week at our house as we had to make the decision on Monday to have our beloved Australian Shepherd Mattie to sleep. She was 15 years old and had cancer. I have had numerous dogs in my lifetime but this is the first one that I had to experience this with. It is not a good feeling and we know our 10 year old Black Lab, Abbey is noticing that Mattie is missing. Mattie was my husband’s dog and he has taken this extremely hard. We will leave it up to him to say when he is ready to get another dog. We got Mattie three weeks after our first dog, Freddie passed away.
On a happier note, I would like to remind everyone that I am participating in Sew Mama Sew’s Giveaway Day this week. The contest is open til Sunday May 1oth evening, and the winner will be drawn by the morning of May 12th.
I am giving away three charm packs of fabric and the winner’s choice of 3 of Meadow Mist Design’s patterns (pdfs).
Thank you all for stopping by and I hope all the Moms out there have a great Mother’s Day weekend.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
Fresh Sewing Day: May 1st
Hi, It’s the First of May and on the first of the month we review what we accomplished the month before and share our blog posts over at Lily’s Quilts Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet.
I finished quilting my Old School NFL football jersey print Adding Up Nicely quilt. It is a gift for my 1 year old nephew Casey. I appliqued his name on the back of the quilt.
I dug out of storage one of my oldest flimsies (from 1999), a quilt top for my son. I am working on designing a back for it and will be quilting it in the near future.
I have two quilt tops made from pattern testing for Meadow Mist Designs. A queen size Plus Plus and a twin size Grande Scrappy Tiles.
In the last days of April, I have pulled fabric and cut out all the pieces for three small kid’s quilts. One is a pattern test for Sea Stars for Meadow Mist Designs. The other two are made from patterns I purchased at the end of last year. One is Mod Gears by Don’t Call Me Betsy and the other is WoW-E by Sew Fresh Quilts. You can read more about these quilt projects on my last blog post. All three quilts have a major amount of half square triangles to create.
Last week, I purchased some new fun fabrics, the twenty fat quarters set of Katrina Roccella’s Skopelos fabric line. I am not usually drawn to overly flowerly fabric lines, but this one is quite beautiful and I love all the coordinating prints. The Art Gallery fabrics have such a nice feel to them.
I purchased one new quilt pattern in April. I got Star Crossed by Color Girl Quilts. I purchased Jumping Jacks by Color Girl as well a month or so. I have seen the designer make up versions of her quilts in Skopelos fabric line so that was what sparked my first interest in the fabric. I do have Katrina’s other line of fabric, Indelible to play with yet too.
I also purchased a new clothes pattern. I have not sewn any clothes for my daughter or myself in quite awhile. We have collected some cute new knit fabrics and I found a neat top that does not take a whole lot of fabric. The Spoxxy Top by StitchUponATime.com and it’s sold on Etsy. I purchased a men’s under armor type material shirt on clearance that I am going to upcycle some of the material for the back to go with the jersey knit we have to make this shirt hopefully. I need to rethread my serger as that will make easy work of this pattern and help manage the knits better.
I do have an update on one of the kid’s quilt patterns that I started sewing this week. I got all the half square triangles created for the Mod Gears quilt top. I need to finish pressing and squaring them all up. There is 64 HSTs in this quilt top and I squared up 8 of them so far to do a mockup of the two block versions to show what it is going to look like.
What do you think? Should I put the orange pluses with the gray or with the black gears?
I will be participating in Sew Mama Sew’s May Giveaway Day on May 6th -10th. I am giving away some pretty fabric charm packs and a set of quilt patterns. Be sure to come back then and enter the contest.
I am linking up this post with Lily’s Quilt Fresh Sewing Day, Crazy Mom Quilts, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? and Prairie Sewn Studios’ Crafting Comment Karma.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Happy Sewing,
Shelley
