Two Quilts Done!

I usually don't have a lot of deadlines with my quilts, but I find that when I do, I'm able to actually finish them in a timely manner!  These two quilts are perfect examples of that, because not only did I finish them on time, but more than a week early!  And that feels good!

The first one up is the Kona Solids Challenge quilt that I made for the ECMQG.  I mentioned this before, but for those of you who are new to my blog, I did a Solids Challenge Quilt before, when I was part of the LAMQG.  I hated that quilt, and still do!  So to have a second chance at this challenge was a good thing.  I'm much happier with this quilt.

It only consists of three blocks (which I posted about here), but each of those blocks consisted of over 50 pieces.  I wanted this to be a functional (meaning, kind of big) quilt, as well, so there's alot of negative space in it.  This quilt is for our couch, and it's big enough for me to snuggle under with all the kiddos.  It's also big enough for my husband to use comfortably.

I have to give some serious props to my husband.  I had no idea how to quilt this.  I posed the question on the Modern Quilt Guild Facebook page, and got some great suggestions, but I needed the quilting to not be really time consuming, because I'm still new to this three kids thing, and the quilt needed to be finished by the meeting, which is on March 30, and I needed to finished another quilt by March 31.  So when my husband gave me his suggestion, I realized that would be the quickest option.  And it turns out, I really like it, and think it was the best way to quilt it.  I basically just outline each star, and made the lines extend out as far as they would go. 

After the main quilting was done, I thought the stars still needed a little more detail, so I traced those inside and out with black thread.  I have never quilted with black thread before (remember this for later), but after I did one of the stars, I really liked the way it looked, so I did it with the other two.

For the back, I just wanted to keep it simple.  So I used the scraps from the stars on the front, and improvisational pieced together a block. 

I like the way the black-outlined stars look - it gave it a little more oomph to what otherwise have been a pretty plain back.

I used Essex Linen in Natural for the front and the back.  I don't know if it's obvious from the pictures, but I had two different dye lots of the linen, and the color difference is pretty substantial.  Turned out looking pretty cool, though!  I used the lighter dye lot on the strip of stars going down the front of the quilt, and going across with the improv block on the back.

For the binding, I chose one of the colors from the charm pack - Kona Coral - to use, but I also put in a few more scraps on one part.

I can't wait until our meeting to see what everyone else made!

This next one, I mentioned last week, was totally and completely inspired by a quilt I saw on Pinterest.  I needed to make a quilt for someone who's getting married, and when I saw this, I knew I had to make it! 

Moda Crossweave seemed to be the most "tree-ish" looking fabric that I could decide on, so I used Tan for the front and Natural for the back.

It's hard to see in those pictures, but I did wood grain quilting.  And remember how I said I had never quilted with black thread before?  Well, this one is totally quilted with black thread.  But I thought that's what it really needed.  Here's a little better perspective on that...

And here's a glimpse of the label and the binding (Moda Crossweave in Blue).

Since I've got two finishes to show for, I'm linking up to Amanda Jean's Finish It Up Friday.  Check out what other people have finished up this week!

WIP Wednesday - Solids Challenge Quilt

The ECMQG is participating (a little late to the game) in the Kona Solids Challenge.  We're presenting our finished quilts at our March meeting later this month.  All I have left to do is the binding on mine!  This is a big accomplishment for me, since I just had a baby, and I'm still adjusting to life with 3 kids, figuring out how to squeeze in time to sew.

Anyways, I don't want to give the whole thing away, so here's just a sneak peak of the quilting I did on it...

The day after that Guild meeting, I'm going to a bridal shower, so I'm trying to finish another quilt for the bride and groom in time for the shower, I just have to quilt and bind it.  Here's just a little glimpse of that...

Inspiration totally and completely from this tree carving quilt I saw on Pinterest.

As far as other WIPs go, it seems like I have a never-ending list of quilts that are in the process of being completed, or need to get started, thanks to just about every.single.friend of mine having a baby within the past year, or having one this year.  Ridiculous.  But that's okay, these babies will get their quilts sometime...maybe not until their 5th birthday, but better late than never, right?  I won't list all of those here and now, though.

I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.  Check out what others are working on!

WiP Wednesday: Solids Challenge Blocks

The ECMQG is participating in the Kona Solids Challenge, hosted by Robert Kaufman (better late than never, right?), and we received the Brights charm pack.  This will be my second Solids Challenge, because I was a part of the LAMQG earlier this year when they participated.  I made this quilt for the LA challenge, and I still don't love it.  So I'm looking at this second challenge as a way to redeem myself and make something that I actually love!

I had one quilt totally sketched out.  It was going to be a Tetris quilt.  I even had a cute name picked out for it - the Game Over quilt.  But alas, I decided not to go with that.

I realized that on Pinterest, I had been pinning quite a few blocks that involved HSTs, and I've not worked at ton with HSTs before, so I took that as a cue that maybe I should do something with HSTs!  I came across this block, and decided try to make this work for the challenge.  After I did the math, I realized that I could make 3 blocks out of one charm pack.

At first I was going to go with Kona Ash as the additional solid, but when I thought about really loving this quilt (because it's going to stay with us), I wanted to use something that I really love.  And I really love linen!  So I decided to go with Essex Linen in Natural.  I had just enough of the right sized scraps to make up the neutral part of the blocks. 
So over the course of four days (one day was spent cutting all the fabric, then I did one block a day for the next three days), I finished the three blocks!  Here they are...

Now, I am not a student of art or color or even design.  Which means I didn't spend the time laying out the colors in any particular order.  That would've made my brain hurt.  So I just did the colors randomly.  Jessica's tutorial was great - very easy to follow.  And I really liked putting these together, although I'm glad I stopped at three.  Because they were way more time consuming than I'm used to.

I'm glad I went with the linen.  I do love Kona Ash, but I just wanted something a little more "me," and I think the linen is me.

Anyways, I don't know when I'll put the whole top together.  This doesn't need to be done until the end of March, but I wanted to get a jumpstart on it, since this baby could come anytime now!  I am excited to finish it, though, and I don't think I'll have the same dislike for it as I do for my other Solids Challenge quilt.

Linking up to WiP Wednesday!

Robert Kaufman Solids Challenge - Over!

Edit:  You guys, I'm such a dummy!  I typed out this post over a couple of hours, and alot of interruptions, and so my train of thought was kind of broken.  But I completely failed to mention that we had the great Jacquie from Tallgrass Prairie Studio as a guest speaker last night!  She was amazing, and she brought in several of her quilts to show.  Her passion and love for quilting showed in her work and her words.  She was truly inspirational, and I'm so glad she visited us!

Back in January, I posted about the Robert Kaufman Solids Challenge that the LAMQG (and other guilds) was participating in.  When I posted about it, I said I had a designed all sketched out.  That was true. 

However, I totally did not go with that sketch.  I wasn't feelin' it.

I decided to do something circle-y.  I told my husband (who is a very good listener, even though I know he probably really doesn't care) that I was thinking of doing circles.  Then I told him how I could just applique them, but that wasn't much of a challenge since I've done that several times before, and that there was this method to piecing the circles that would be more challenging for me.  He said I should definitely do the more challenging one.  This was called a "challenge" after all, right?

So that's what I decided to do.  My very first LAMQG meeting back in May, when I knew absoulely NOTHING about quilting (Stippling?  What's that?  Is that a dirty word?), Latifah gave a demonstration on Dale Fleming's 6 Minute Circle technique.  It took me a while and a lot of watching the video to help me wrap my head around the concept, but once I got it, it really was pretty easy.

I wanted to give the circles more flair, so I decided to wonkily piece together some of the insides of the circles.  Here's my test block (excuse the wrinkles!).

It's not so great, but I practiced some more before I started the real thing.

So I picked out a white cotton fabric from Ikea as my background, picked out the colors I wanted to highlight from the charm pack, and went to town!

But when I got it all pieced, I just really didn't like it.  It was very boring to me.  This is what it looked like before it was sandwiched - I happened to have this Valori Wells print that I thought matched the colors I picked out for the top, and it was the exact same size as the top, so I went with that for the back.

At some point, I just wanted to throw in the towel, because I just didn't like this.  But then I thought about all of those reality competition shows I watch, and how annoying it is when someone just drops out because they just don't want to be there anymore, or because whatever competition they're doing is too hard.  Do you know what I'm talking about?  I took one of those charm packs at the January meeting, and I needed to finish this, because some people didn't get a charm pack, and didn't get to participate.  Cheesy, I know, but that was my thought process.

So I decided I needed to step up this quilt, big time.  I really, really wanted to try pebbling, and I figured since this was a pretty small quilt, it would be perfect for it!  (I heard that you don't want to do pebbling on a big project - little did I realize that this was a big project for pebbling)  I also decided to use thread in a similar color as whatever circle I was quilting around, and use white thread within the circles.  I think that's one of the main things I would change, because it turns out that you can't really see the piecing I did in some of those circles with it quilted over.

About 10 spools of thread later, here's the finished product -

I chose yellow for the binding, because I happened to have some yellow that I don't know if I'll ever use, and it matched the back.  Here's a close up of the quilting...see what I mean about how it masks the piecing inside the circle?

Anyways, the quilting took several hours over several days.  I was.not.happy with it.  At all.  But our meeting was on Thursday, and I finished, so I was happy about that. 

Finally, our meeting came, and we all revealed our finished quilts.  There were some AMAZING quilts shown.  And I couldn't believe how many of us actually took on the challenge!  Then we were all given ballots to vote for our favorites in different categories - best overall, best use of color, most unique, etc.  At the end of the meeting, they announced the winners.  I was not surprised that I didn't win anything.

THEN...

They said there was one additional prize - the officers choice, which was for the quilt who came close a few times, but just missed it.

And then they said my name. 

And THEN my jaw dropped.

"I am Jack's complete lack of surprise."

So I won something, and I never win anything!  And for me, this was a pretty big thing to win!

Also, doorprizes are handed out at every meeting, but I've never won before, in my 10 months of going to meetings.  Last night, I won one of those, too!  I had a lucky day.  (I won a giveaway a few days ago, that I haven't blogged about yet, because I'm waiting to get my loot, but I think that may have turned my losing streak around for me!)  To say I was a happy camper last night is a HUGE understatement.

I still don't really like the quilt, but maybe I need a time-out from it.  Maybe I spent too many hours with it, and I'm just sick of it.  I don't know...But it will be put to good use, as it's a perfect size to use for the girls in their double stroller.

Robert Kaufman Solids Challenge!

The LA Modern Quilt Guild had our first meeting of the new year on Monday, and during the meeting, we were all given a charm pack of Kona solids, which were graciously donated by Robert Kaufman! Can you believe they donated charm packs for any MQG that was interested? How awesome is that?!




Anyways, we're doing a "Solids Challenge" with the charm packs. Basically, we have to make a quilt made entirely out of solids, using as little or as much of the charm pack as we like. We can add only one fabric to it, which has to be a solid, and then another solid for the binding. The back can be whatever we want. We'll present our creations at the March meeting.

I'm pretty excited about this, and already have my design sketched out!