The Carpenter's Daughter Who Quilts

Tag: Comma

Looking Glass Quilt Blog Hop and Pattern Giveaway

Hi, My name is Shelley and welcome to my blog, The Carpenter’s Daughter who Quilts. Today, I am the last stop on the Looking Glass Quilt Blog Hop. I hope all my US Readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday.

I was asked by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs if I would like to pattern test her latest quilt design, Looking Glass. I have developed a friendship with Cheryl for over a year now, since purchasing some of her other wonderful quilt patterns. Cheryl is the one who suggested to me to start this blog. I jumped at the chance to be able to play with her new design, Looking Glass. It’s a neat design that can be made from charm squares or layer cake squares, or if you want to cut your own squares from fat quarters. It can be made in all sizes from baby to queen size. The pattern goes together so nicely. It is very easy to assemble with chain piecing. Cheryl shows how to press your seams on your blocks and rows and everything joins up nicely in the end. I love that Cheryl’s patterns have numerous charts and tells you how many strips etc for each size of quilt you choose to make and the directions are in one spot so you can easily keep track of what you need to cut out.

I chose to make the Queen size version of Looking Glass. It ends up being 90 inches by 89.5 inches. I chose to make my top out of the Zen Chic Comma line of fabrics. I love the bold graphics and typography. These are colors that are not usually in my comfort zone. I am usually stuck in a “blue” color scheme. I used Zen Chic’s Barcelona line last year to make my Dad a quilt using Cheryl’s Adding Up Nicely pattern. The Zen Chic fabrics just have such a nice feel to them. It was a joy to sew with them. I had 5 of the Comma charm packs in my fabric stash saved for making a quilt for our bed and when I decided I wanted to use them to make Looking Glass, I had to do a major hunt online to still be able to find additional charm packs. There was not much of the Comma line available anymore.

My quilt top is not quilted yet. With it being a queen size, it will be one of the larger quilts that I have had to quilt. I think I am leaning towards using rows of a curvy, scalloped scrolling pattern (if that makes sense.) I unfortunately do not FMQ yet, but will be working on that in the new year. Since this will be one of the first quilts I have saved in years to go on our own bed, I have time to make sure I pick out the right way to quilt my top.

I do have a pieced back made for this quilt all ready. Cheryl’s instructions leave a few charm squares for you to add to your backing in a fun way, if you choose.

I added gray, black and white solids to make large color bands. Here is a close up of my pieced charm square center.

Now that I have shown you my version of Looking Glass, Cheryl has given all of us pattern testers a copy of Looking Glass to giveaway to one of our blog readers.

To enter the pattern giveaway, please leave a comment telling me an item that you are making for a Christmas gift this year. If you are a no-blogger, be sure to leave your email address so we can contact you.

For a second chance entry, let me know if you are a new or old follower of my blog. On the front page of my blog, there are links to email, Bloglovin, and Facebook. Let me know which way you are following in a second comment.

The giveaway will run til Friday, December 5th. If you can not wait to test your chances of winning, you can purchase the pattern on Craftsy or Etsy on sale for $5.50 til December 6th. If the chosen winner by chance has all ready purchased the pattern, their purchase price will be refunded to them.

And if you want additional chances to win check out the other stops on the hop.

Friday Nov. 21st: Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs
Saturday Nov. 22nd: Lin @ Lin’s Quilts
Sunday Nov. 23rd: Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts
Monday Nov. 24th: Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty
Monday Nov. 24th: Anna @ Fresh Dew Drops
Tuesday Nov. 25th: Chelsea @ Patch the Giraffe
Wednesday Nov. 26th: Shauna @ Shauna’s World
Friday Nov. 28th: Shelley @ The Carpenter’s Daughter Who Quilts (You are here.)

Thanks for stopping by and good luck on winning a copy of Looking Glass.

A winner has been chosen: Sarah Craig.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

November 27, 2014
Looking Glass Flimsy in Zen Chic Comma prints

Hi, I would like to share today my completed Looking Glass quilt flimsy. I am pattern testing the Looking Glass pattern for Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs. I made the queen size version which ends up being 90 by 89.5 inches. It fits nicely over the top of our full size bed. The pattern used 7 charm packs and I used Zen Chic’s Comma. I had 5 charm packs in my stash and had to do some serious searching online to find anymore charm packs available. I found some at a quilt shop in Minnesota.

The pattern instructions were great and everything went together smoothly. I loved being able to chain piece the blocks and only having two seams to worry about matching. The only problem I had putting together the quilt was adding the long sashing. I had added a sash to the top and bottom of the bottom pieced strip and when I went to add the next pieced strip, after sewing 3/4 of the way across, I saw that I was going to be short. I almost wanted to cry when I had to tear out 75 inches of stitching. I ended up figuring out that I was going to have to pin each end and a few places across the center and then everything went together smoothly. There is nothing wrong with the instructions, just need to allow the sewing machine to ease in sashing to the pieced rows. I really like how the quilt design worked out. I really love Zen Chic’s fabrics. They have such a nice feel to them. This is my second time sewing with that fabric line and I hope to be able to use more of her fabrics. Comma was especially fun since there were 40 different prints in the 42 charm pieces.

I have to make a back for the quilt yet. I am looking at using the solid gray and black and somehow include the 14 extra charms left from the 7 charm packs to make up a pieced design. I have found an orange, yellow and lime green solids to add into the mix for interest. I am still thinking over how I want to quilt this. Maybe rows of a scalloped stitch.

Thank you for looking at my quilt top. Please check out Cheryl’s blog as she will be offering up for sale the Looking Glass pattern in the very near future.

I will be linking up this finish with various weekend linky parties.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

November 8, 2014
Looking Glass Pattern Testing

Hi, This week I am pattern testing for my friend, Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs. She has a new quilt design in the works called Looking Glass.

I am working on sewing up the Queen sized version. I have made a few of Cheryl’s designs before on my own, but this is the first time I have pattern tested for her. I am using my stash of Zen Chic’s Comma charm squares. I had 5 charm packs stashed away for quite awhile, and managed to purchase what may have been some of the last Comma charm squares that were available online to make up the 7 charm packs I needed to make up the Queen size Looking Glass quilt.

Here are eight of the blocks sewn together and laid out with the sashing.

I have everything pieced and pressed to finish up making the 70 blocks I need for this quilt. I really like how the design goes together so nicely. Being able to chain piece everything and only have two seams to worry about matching when making the blocks is making this a fun project.

I am working on making a pieced quilt back pulling the black and gray and adding accents of yellow, orange and lime green. I was given a deadline of November 21st, so I am looking good at completing this before that date.

I have another quilt pattern I will be testing before Christmas for a different designer that I am working on pulling fabrics for this week too.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my quilts. I will be linking up my work in progress with this week’s linky parties.

Happy Sewing,

Shelley

November 5, 2014