pinwheel parade finished

As I told my good friend, Katrin, the other day, I think August is going to be be the month of me finishing up a few projects. Since I signed up for six or more SAL/BOM this year, I haven't had a lot of time to finish my other projects that were started earlier. I have put most of those projects aside to work on the ones that I am emotionally connected to.

One very dear project is a quilt that I am making for my niece, Nina. She picked out the fabric in a fabric store when I was visiting last fall. She is a very well-raised young lady with a great sense of color.

I had three fabrics to begin with and from those I think only about a 1/4 to 1/2 yard each. If this was going to be a bed quilt, I was going to have to bring in more fabric. I added the fresher green and black dotty fabric found around the outer edges and in the prairie (pinwheel) flower. Nina and her mom both like dots, so I think they will like the additions. Now it's finished! I really hope she likes the pattern I came up with.

There are lots of pinwheels in this quilt. I think there are 96 green sashing blocks and 24 pinwheels. I don't like sewing curved edges anymore after sewing OHO for Brigitte Heitland, so I came up with an easier way to make the flowers. I appliqued circles onto the white fabric and cut them twice. After all were cut, I regrouped them into four blocks and sewed them back together. It was a lot of work, but I think it saved some time. It also gives the quilt added thickness from the applique stabilizer underneath the flowers.

I used 80/20 cotton/poly batting and 100% cotton thread for the quilting with my Pfaff home sewing machine. I started with an echo quilting around the flowers and realized after 20 sections, the thread was all wrong on the back. I wanted to rip just the ones out that were really bad, but ended up ripping everything out. You should have seen me on the floor doing this. I think my husband thought I was crazy.

I rethought the quilting through. It was hard going around the curves and struggling with the size of this large quilt (with pillow tuck) for a single bed. I really liked it, but knew I had to get the quilting done. I decided to change the strategy and quilt through the sashing. It allowed me to continuously quilt without having to back stitch or pull thread through at start and stop. This definitely saved me time!! The quilting on the back was great...my tension was just right this time. The quilting might seem minimal, but this quilt is heavy without the safety pins.

For the binding, I decided to go with something a little different. I made 1/2 wide double fabric - single fold binding and frayed it in the back. I thought it was a little more interesting for a pre-teen and not so traditional. (It also saved a little time of not having to sew by hand to the back.) I hope it holds, because I did NOT sew around the edge twice as recommended.

And to make sure the back binding frayed nicely, I washed the quilt. I was so nervous, but the color catcher washing sheets worked! I put three in and they were full of black and green die when the cycle finished. I let the quilt air dry and threw it in the dryer for the last five minutes of drying. It worked!! I would definitely use this technique again for a youth or baby quilt.

Oh, another thing I forgot to mention. I just love the fabric I picked to match the front. It is from a German fabric company called Tante Ema. Take a look at their fresh fabric lines. It is 30 cm wider than standard American quilting fabrics too.

If you are interested in how I made the prairie (pinwheel) flowers, stayed tuned. There will be a tutorial coming out but probably on another one of my blogs. And if you want to see even more pictures of the quilt (that I almost hate to part with) check out my flickr gallery.

Thanks for dropping by!
Karen

destiny's trail pattern

First and most importantly, the winner for the Project Sewing Room: essential wanna haves drawing is...lucky visitor No. 3 - Janarama! Congratulations! Yeah! I will be contacting via email for your address of where to send your surprise package!

Now on to today's post:
I started working on a really cute baby quilt pattern last fall and sent it in to a magazine to see if I could get it published. I never heard back from them, so I thought enough time has gone by; it's time to publish on my own. This pattern is for those of you who like a challenge. Although it is just a baby quilt, you might struggle a bit, because there are lots of points to match up. It uses three basic blocks and has several different patterns that jump out at you.

You might remember that I posted a picture of this at the beginning of the year? I barely gave any details away other than a dotty nine patch block. Here is the finished top:

And this is my work in progress. Looking back at the quilt on the wall, I think it would have been better to quilt this in circles rather than in straight lines. I am a little more confident I could do it too! :-)

BUT, I wanted the mod pods to come out more. Can you see one? Maybe it would have been better if I had used a turquoise colored thread for the quilting?

 Or do you see the star? You can also highlight the star with echo quilting.

I changed the name to Mod Pod Nine Patch while making this quilt, thinking about the pod chains that I wanted to stand out. I had to change the name back though. I think Destiny's Trail Nine Patch is more suited. What do you think? Which name is better?

You can find more pictures here on flickr.

Thanks for dropping by. And if you are interested in this pattern, check it out on Craftsy.

Karen

it's a mod/mod world

Good morning everyone. I am so happy today; the sun is shining AGAIN! This has been a really incredible year. Although most of you in the United States have had a really hard winter with lots of snow, we in Germany have had one of the most mild winters ever. It was great. And now, spring has come early contrary to last year; spring arrived in late May. Every day last week the sun shined! And we have been blessed with several days this week. It can't get any better than this!

It's a Mod/Mod World is my quilt sampler I am making with the MOD/MOD QAL at Block Lotto. I have yet to show any of my blocks and have been working diligently. I now have my first three months completed and here it is.

My daughter helped with the first chevron block. I thought we were going to make the whole sampler together, but it got a little more challenging. We do not know what blocks Sophie has lined up for us in advance, but we are given a layout. (Sophie is a really great host and blogger. She writes all of the block instructions that are easy to follow and simpler to sew together.) You can choose from several different sizes, and I have chosen the smallest - measuring about 40" square. This way, I can learn new blocks and get away with just making the minimum number. I also am enjoying making the different sizes that join up in the end. I think my chevron is a little small, and I may have to rip it apart and resew to get the right dimensions.

I was supposed to make three bead blocks, but just made two the get the technique. I might make an additional one, and I might not. We'll see later.

I sewed the last block together this week - the Star Chain Block at the BlockLotto. The white areas are given as green, but since I have an abundance of Kona Snow, I thought it best to save the prints and use this yummy turquoise gradient as my chain. Can you tell it is lighter in the middle and gets darker on the corners? It is very subtle.

I recognize that I am getting a little powered out by the seven different QALs and exchange programs I have entered this year. BUT, I like my progress. It gives me incentive to keep going. What are your thoughts on this? Do you enjoy participating in a QAL? What are your blockades or hurdles? I would like to hear from YOU! Remember, you can write in English or German - I understand both, but am just too lazy to write in German. It gives me more time to sew. ;-)

And, don't forget, if you have made something in preparation for Christmas, don't forget to join in the Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Linky Party on the previous post for your chance to win a prize. We are looking forward to seeing your creations!

Sewingly yours,
Karen