Over the Rainbow, Baby! Class Sample

   

          While I wait to see how my little modern mini quilt fared (link here) in the Quilt Expo challenge (to be announced on May 30),  I thought I would share a recent finish.   As I had shouted from the rooftops last year, I had an offset rainbow throw size quilt published in McCall's Quick Quilts in February 2016.  My blog post about that quilt is here, and a picture of the larger quilt is in my blog heading!  I recently completed a baby size version of that quilt, and will be teaching a class this summer at the Aurora Sewing Center.   It was great fun to put this together using 5" squares!

          To simplify the quilt making, I quilted it using my walking foot with a serpentine stitch, and I think the quilting nicely complements the pieced pattern. 

          Here is a close up of the quilting. You can still see my markings in this photograph.  Luckily, the marks disappear nicely when washed!

          For anyone in the Buffalo, New York, area - the class schedule can be found in the class booklet on the Aurora Sewing Center web site - here.  The three day sessions will be in East Aurora on Friday afternoons (2-5) on 6/30, 7/7 and 7/14; and in Williamsville on Wednesday evenings  (6-9) on 8/2, 8/9 and 8/16.   My goal is to have a finished quilt at the end of those sessions!   Please consider taking this class - it should be lots of fun! 

          I finished the quilt with the adorable Windham Fabric Newspaper wide quilt backing.   I have used most of my stash of this up!  I rarely regret buying too little fabric (usually I get way too much!)  - but, in this case, I do! 

          Have a wonderful, safe and thankful Memorial Day Weekend.  

Take care,

Gretchen 

Modern Mini Quilt Challenge 2017 - Stepping Stones

 
          Update - I've been out of town, so didn't have the chance to post the results.  Sad to say, this little quilt, which I love very much and which I thought compared well to the others submitted, didn't make the cut for any of the awards in this challenge.  A list of the beautiful mini quilts made by the winners can by found on Nancy Zieman's website (link here).  I did get my name randomly picked to win a book, so I am looking forward to that.   I am already planning where to hang this little gem, and will play around with making a larger quilt from the pattern.

      I just submitted this mini quilt to the Quilt Expo Modern Mini Quilt Challenge 2017.  (link here)  After finishing the Eye Candy Quilt, I wanted to play with bright colors against black, and decided to see how the smallest little pieces would look on a black background.  The piece is 20 x 20 inches, and is made of Kona solids and Kona black.  The little strips of colored scraps are only 1/4 inch wide.  I love how they popped in this simple grid design.  I used a matte black thread to do some dense pebble quilting inside the boxes and on the outer border.  I left an inch frame around the boxes and the grid unquilted. I am very happy with how this turned out!
     I will post the process and details later, but in the meantime, enjoy your weekend!

Take care,
Gretchen