Just My Type Winner & Tuesday Archives

Kim is the lucky winner of the Just My Type charm pack drawing! I do love a little giveaway now and then - it is such a great way to share fabric with fellow quilter's!
Lately, I have been adding favorite fabric bits to a pile that will (someday soon!) be my next giveaway. Some vintage, some modern, some oop.. it is growing into quite a mixture - approx. 40 pieces so far.

My goal is 50+ pieces and over one pound. Ten more or so to go!

Today's theme over at Val's Tuesday Archives is Panels. I am linking a two-year old post with the only quilt that I recall having made with a panel. It did make for a quick quilt! The photo was taken in a window and you can see the back print through. I am not the best with photography, but it is good to know I have improved a bit since I began blogging!

 

Click to see original VROOM! VROOM! post!

 

Thank you for reading today! No quilting for me for a couple days while I concentrate on taxes, and preparing the house for the incoming snowbirds. *GRIN*

Did I mention my Giveaway ends today?

Leave a comment on my recent KitchAid Cozy post, before midnight tonight, and you will be included in the drawing to win a 5" charm pack of Just My Type!

This weekend, I have been working on the Aurifil Monthly Mini by Designer of the Month, Kimberly Jolly. I cut into my wool batting so I could sample it, but I still haven't decided how I will quilt it.

And it will have to wait while the machine is tied up with another quilty finish..

Quick collage for end-of-the-month reflection today, before I consider what my priority projects will be for April.
March brought small, fun finishes.
Only one UFO finish though.
And one WIP: Sew Sweetness is progressing with setting blocks now..
The other four are NewFO's, evidence that I am still too easily distracted..

Charming my KitchenAid with a Cozy

Project Quilting 2015 wraps up this week with Challenge # Six:


This cute little button arrived with the package I won in Challenge Five, a cute charm pack kit from Village Creek!

My Charm Square finish is a quilted cozy for my KitchenAid mixer. It stands 17" high x 15" deep and 11" wide. Here is the side view.

Can you see the little Tupperware bowls?

The 'front' view:

(Yes, my kitchen counters are pink)

 

After looking a bit online, I determined to just make a big rectangular quilt, then worry about shaping it later. I measured my mixer, then pieced two panels approx. 19.5" x 21". These were joined to make one rectangle, 21" x 38" before making the sandwich.
For the patchwork, I began by breaking into a short stack pack (25pcs) of Just My Type, then I snagged a lot of Road 15 from another stash-pack, as well as some additional faves here and there. Initially, I pieced wonky rows that came out 4" to 4.5" wide. I ended up cutting those in half lengthwise though - scrappier is just better...
My project is intended for my own kitchen and I was drawn to some vintage ticking. I cut 5" squares, thinking this fabric would alternate between the scrappiness, however they didn't fit the image and I ended up piecing the stripes, wrong side out, near the bottom of each row to help separate my pieced 'border'. Bit odd, but I love it!
Here are those cute Tupperwares on the other side. This fabric was from Mary Engelbreit..

I kept the quilting fairly wonky too.

Final construction was much easier than anticipated. Online, the cozies I found had front panels, piping and all other frivolities. As it turned out, I like the looks of the simpler approach and just finished it like the bottom of a shopping bag. Since I had not planned for this method, I feared my panel may not be large enough so I blocked / preshrank it before making final assembly. Once dry, it measured 19.5 x 36". Whew, barely big enough! Only 15 minutes to sew the ends together, box the corners and zigzag those inside seams. Fits like a glove and no need to line it since I used this pretty fabric from my stash ;-)

Had I made the panel a bit bigger, I would have probably rolled a fat hem at the bottom, but the length came out perfectly so I added a machine-binding.

Project Quilting Challenge is a hoot, and I look forward to participating again next year! I want to shout out, "Thank You" to Kim Lapacek, and her helpers, for hosting! Voting for this last challenge starts today at her site, Persimmon Dreams.

For my quilty-blogger-friends, and fellow 'competitors' (haha), thank you for reading! It has been awhile since I last shared, so I have a GIVEAWAY today! A charm pack of 25, 5" squares from the 'What's my Type" line. To enter, please comment this week, by March 29th at midnight, PST. If a topic helps, let me know what you made the last time you used your mixer, or whether you had to wash the mixer before you used it! I love to use mine for kneading pizza dough, and for cinnamon rolls - YUM!


THANK YOU!

A Friday Finish - Kinder Baby Christmas Quilt

This warm and cuddly quilt is my first finish from the Add-a-Border Robin-style swap I participate with (via Flickr). The original quilt (block) was named Thimbleberries II.


Kinder Baby Christmas, 49" Square

After several people added borders, I added several more. I used some primary-school whimsy while keeping with the Country-Christmas vibe. 

Each border has different, simple FMQ patterns. I tried to avoid planning them, other than I wanted to be fairly consistent in density so that it will shrink evenly, and I wanted somewhat loose so the quilt will be soft with a bit of drape.

I was a bit nervous about this backing - It is an inexpensive quilting flannel from Connecting Threads. There was no pill or fuzz when I pre-washed it though, and I was completely impressed with the quilt-a-bility as well. It did not make a mess of my machine at all!

The label is blank thus far, but at least it is there!
And cute;-)

This completes my March goal with A Year of Lovely Finishes, giving me 2 outta 3 goals met, which really jumps my percentage up for goals achieved this year ;-)

Time to share a Whoop Whoop!

 TGIFF is being hosted from beautiful Berlin this week, by the ever-inspiring Aylin!

And I am joining in with the 'Ho, ho ho and on we Sew' Link Party, hosted this month at Wonky Patchwork. Sally made the sweetest Clara & her Nutcracker Dolls -- Do have a look-see!

Le Challenge - Passion!

I joined a local group this month, called ART QUILTS, Etc...

It seems a lovely and diverse group - I joined to feed my passion for ART - to kick-start and inspire myself. The nametag is my way of commitment to joining, and creating art.

Because even though I am immersed in patchwork quilts, I still want to be a Fiber Artist when I grow up..

I have been wearing this proudly around town, in anticipation of the next meeting.

Now that's passion ;)

 

Linking up with all the other peeps proudly sharing their Passionate Projects at Le Challenge!

The new Challenge theme will be announced tomorrow!

Favorite Fabric - Challenge 5 - Project Quilting!

I recently began following Persimon Dreams and have enjoyed watching Kim's Challenges this past few weeks. This week I decided to participate, and, in the nick of time, I have a finish to enter!

"Swimming Through Life"

The theme fabric I selected is definitely a favorite fabric of mine! It is actually a Men's nightshirt from Nordstrom that I have been hoarding for years now.

Since I favor scrappy quilts, I threw in many more favorites. Several fabrics are from Return to Atlantis by Jason Yenter, & I love the new line with 'geese' fabric from the Reclaimed West Collection by Judy Niemeyer. The teals are oldies from my stash; Blooming Glory is an awesome print & also a Benartex print that I believe is by Paula Nadlestern.
I chose the pattern when I saw the Chubby Churn Dash Mini Quilt Kim Lapacek made this week, and I fell in love with her version.  If ya'll missed it, you can check it out here! Chubby Churn Dash is a free pattern from Aurifil's Designer of the Month (February): Joanna Figueroa from Fig Tree Quilts.

As a bonus, I get to post it at the Aurifil Flickr Board:-)

With a few moments to spare before the linkup closes, I will share this photo I snapped this morning while on the photo shoot. I am still learning the Southwest flora since moving to Nevada, but I think this is Texas Mountain Laurel. I have noticed the odd pea-pods it has in the fall, and this is the first time I have noticed it's blooms. Spring is here!

Fresh Sewing Day - Pulling some goals together!

Although I did get a some of the quilting done on my Christmas quilt, KinderBaby, the flimsy was a bit bigger than I remembered (50"sq), and the quilting is slower going than I anticipated. So this...

Is now

this..

MARCH ALYoF GOAL!

I have been participating in the Add-a-Border robin on Flickr for a couple years now, but KinderBaby will be the first 'keeper', a finish resulting from the group. I will have a finish soon if all goes well!

Quilting progress was also held up by Donna's Stars, which has hogged a lot of time under Mr. Juki. I was determined to finish the stars before folding her back up. This does need to be finished SOON though and I plan to tackle the negative space in April, before Donna, my Snowbird' MIL, flies through town!

My current distraction however, is this week's Project Challenge over at Persimmon Dreams. As soon as I read her challenge, I thought of this fabric in my stash:

One of my all-time favorite fabrics, this is actually a cotton (imported broadcloth) men's nightshirt from Nordstrom's that I have hoarded for at least 15 years!

So, although 2015 is my 'No NewFO' diet, I am breaking away for this challenge, and I want to finish a small something with 'Passion' in mind for March Le Challenge as well. I have only 11 days to accomplish that. Oiy...

Following that, I hope to cut & sew the setting I sketched up for my Sew Simplicity blocks.

No big finishes in February, but it was a great month anyway. I celebrated my 49th Birthday! I intended to do a customized giveaway with 49 pieces of favorite fabrics from my stash - I really dropped the ball and only collected a dozen or so pieces before getting sidetracked. I will just keep adding to the stack and it will happen when it happens! Seems I am huffing and puffing a bit as I climb this peak of life. Yes, I am still on the uphill ;-)

Today at Val's Archives, the theme is 'Original Designs'. I linked up the finish post of Ty's ZQuilt. Recently, I added a photo to that post of a quilt made by a blog reader who was inspired by Ty's Quilt. Romana, from Prague(!) shared her version, made with our pattern. Another one of those very cool things that happen as a result of the online quilting community!

Hope yours is a Fresh Sewing Day, today and every day!