Ariana's Summer Snowballs Quilt and my newly established Etsy Shop!

     I took a break from blogging during August, but of course, didn't stop sewing or quilting.  My latest finish to share is a snowball quilt, make with 30's prints for my nephew's new baby girl, Ariana.       I had purchased a wide assortment of 30s reproduction fabrics earlier this year, and pulled some blues, yellows and reds for Pippa's Union Jack Quilt.  You can see that quilt here  I knew this baby was a girl before I started the quilt, so went very pinky - with orange and violet..  

    

     I was winging the pattern; I looked at some examples and tried to figure out my own sizes.  I started with 5 inch blocks of the 30s fabric, and then cut 2 inch blocks for the corners (in Kona Candy Pink and white).  After testing a piece, I decided I needed smaller corner squares, so trimmed those squares to 1 3/4 inches.   

The blocks with the 2 inch corners.  I didn't think they would make the squares look round, which is the point of the snowball blocks! 

The trimmings!   Note to self - test one block before cutting for 99 blocks! 

Once I got the sizing right, I marked the sewing lines and began sewing lots of little corner pieces accompanied by many Doc Martin episodes! 

    I alternated pink and white for the corners, which created a little hourglass design in the middle.  I spent some time laying out the blocks to keep it looking pretty random, albeit with the pink and whites in the right spots.     

     I wasn't sure if I had achieved the "snowball" effect, but once I had the blocks sewn together, I was happy with the result.  

The finished top

     I found a Kona printed wide backing fabric that I thought was perfect for this quilt, and had spent some time watching Angela Walters' tutorial on how to quilt a free motion flower pattern.    This is the first quilt I was working on with my Tiara II up on blocks to create a standing machine, so I did a sample block which turned out well, so I got started on the quilt. I was very excited about this design. That excitement soon turned to dismay.

Sample piece on the back

Actual back - disaster! 

     After quilting perhaps 1/8 of the quilt, I turned it over, and to my horror, realized that the tension was all off!  Eeeeekkkk!!!  For the first time ever, I had to undo all of the quilting.  I considered just reverting to a stipple or a meandering stitch, (let's face it, I also considered just ditching this quilt!) but eventually came to my senses, and decided to try again, with a bigger pattern.   Although I had some problems at the end, I eventually was happy with how it turned out.  

More problems to undo! 

     The backing fabric is just so cheery.  I am glad I stuck with the flower quilting pattern after all.  The binding is more Kona Candy Pink.   

     Here is a picture in the sunlight of the finished quilt.     The quilt finished at about 40 x 49 inches.

Finished quilt, trust quilt holder!

     I hope little baby Ariana enjoys her quilt as much as her big brother, Levi, enjoys his!  You can see his quilt here.

     In other news, I have finally gotten my Etsy shop up and running.   The link is on the side of the blog!   I started out with a few of my little novelty bibs, and have sold a few of the science baby bibs.     I have some more of those to offer, and will also be listing some baby quilts for sale, as well as offering custom designed baby quilts.    A guild quilt show is right around the corner, so I am busy getting ready for that.      Stay tuned! 

     Enjoy the end of summer and beginning of fall.
Take care,
Gretchen

Uphill Climb - a traditional nine-patch with a modern twist

     I recently took a detour from my current white and bright quilts to get back to basics, with a nine-patch lap quilt made from a beautiful assortment of rich colored traditional fabrics for my friend Priscilla.  The colors didn't show up correctly in pictures taken in the shade.  The pictures in the sun show the depth of the colors.

     Sometime back in the early 2000s, I received a very generous gift of a bundle of  36 Moda Patchwork Garden fat quarters.    The fabrics were beautiful, and so richly colored.  I put them in a basket on my shelf, as I didn't have a project immediately in mind,  and then somehow over 10 years went by.  

     My friend Priscilla and I power walk a few miles every morning, and I started thinking about a quilt for her. During one of our conversations she mentioned her love of sage green.   I pulled out my stash of greens to see what I had.

       I was not inspired by my green bin.  The old (but beautiful) Moda bundle caught my eye.   I thought this might be the perfect bundle for her quilt.    I wanted to use up as much of the bundle as I could, and decided to go back to a favorite traditional block, a simple nine patch.
      I started cutting 2 1/2 inch wide strips from the fat quarters, and cut those into 8 inch long strips.

The leftovers from cutting the 8 inch pieces.

      I grabbed three strips each of two colors to make two three strip blocks.

I  made many blocks that alternated light and darks, but some used two darker fabrics since the bundle contained more dark than light fabrics overall.

These pieces then got cut into three 2 1/2" wide pieces.

Not much waste in making those pieces. 

     I really concentrated on keeping the seams a very accurate 1/4" (not easy for me for some reason), and carefully pressed the seams towards the dark side of each piece.  As a result, piecing together the nine patch block was painless!

I started laying out the blocks, and loved the checkerboard look.  (The photo really washes out the gold tones in the light fabrics.)

Plenty of the sage green that inspired the quilt!

     I was torn with what to do with the darker squares.  I didn't care for just tossing them in, and decided to stack them on the bottom.  When we do our daily walk, we end with a climb up a hill, thus the name of the quilt!  I fiddled around with a few variations, before settling on the finished layout.

The final lay out.  

  I backed the quilt with a dotted tan wide backing (Blank Textiles Chromodot 108 inch) and quilted a stipple design in a beige Aurifil.   I thought the fabrics and checkerboard pattern provided plenty of visual interest - a simple quilting suited me.

     I used some of the leftover fabric for the binding, and fussycut pieces to make sure that the dark section had darker binding and the lighter sections had lighter binding.  I had never planned the binding colors before, but it turned out nicely.  To me, despite the traditional pattern and traditional fabrics, I think it has a bit of a modern feel.

Close up of a portion of the quilt.

     It was a joy to surprise Priscilla with this quilt!  I was delighted to find the perfect project and perfect recipient for the fabric bundle!  The quilt finished at 60 x 72 inches, and washed up nice and crinkly and soft. I did not wash the fabrics before completing the quilt.  Despite being at least a decade old, the fabric was in beautiful condition. 

     I have kept the leftover pieces (some big and some pretty small) and will try to create something using up those scraps in the near future.  I was surprised that I didn't have more left over from 36 fat quarters!  There is plenty for another project, so stay tuned!  

Thanks for stopping by the blog, and enjoy the rest of July!

Take care,
Gretchen