Sunny's quilt

And now a flashback to November 2015 to show you a secret project...

You may remember that in 2014 I made a quilt for each of my five sisters-in-law on my husband's side of the family.  In 2015 I was on easy street because I only have one sister-in-law on my side!

Sunny (Allysun) is my youngest brother's wife, and her personality is just like her name - happy, smiling, cheerful, sunny.  Their living room is decorated in greys, black, and pops of gold and yellow, so of course her quilt had to be primarily yellow :)

Her Twisted Blossoms quilt was made using the Quick Curve ruler and Metro Twist pattern (both from Sew Kind of Wonderful) and their quilt along found here.  That ruler requires a firm "measure twice, measure again, then cut" mentality; I wasted a good chunk of fabric when I first started cutting.  But once I realized my error and re-read the directions it was all smooth sailing from then on.  The curves are so slight that sewing the convex and concave units together was quite easy - no pins! - and the blocks are trimmed to size after sewing so it's nearly foolproof.  IF you carefully measure before cutting ;-)

I made 12 blocks using different yellow and grey prints combined with Kona Cotton in Snow.  Petals of each blossom block are formed by four sections cut and trimmed with the Quick Curve ruler and four modified half square triangle blocks.  The center squares are all unique grey prints combined with the Kona Snow to form a square-within-a-square.

Then it's a basic nine-patch construction for each block finishing at 16" square.

I switched up the final assembly of the quilt adding 2" finished sashing and grey cornerstones between each block and around the outer edge - it just needed a little something more than the blocks right next to each other could provide.  So with the added sashing the quilt finished at 56" x 74" - a generous lap size.

The quilting was done by Carol Linder in Hampshire, IL using the pattern "Random Clams" by Jessica Schick in a silver grey thread.  The binding is a white dot on charcoal grey from Jen Kingwell's recent Moda line "Gardenvale".

Sunny seemed thrilled with her new quilt when I presented it to her at Thanksgiving, and she later sent me a photo if it in their living room.  Great color matching if I do say so myself!

I have so many works-in-progress right now that it's a bit embarrassing.  But I still managed to start two new projects last week!  One of them is being quilted right now, and I hope to bring you photos of it completely finished next week.  Maybe one day soon I'll count all the UFOs again and publicly confess the number...

batik Dresden table runner - free pattern review

Yes, more Dresden's!! This time a batik table runner for a Quilt in Joy sample. The free pattern came from Princess Mirah Design at Bali Fabrics, Inc.

** Updated July 27, 2015 - the pattern I used was a free download available in 2011.  At this time I am unable to locate the pattern online.  So sorry :(

It measures about 15" x 42". I used a "Bright Jewels" batik sushi roll (2.5" strips), 1/3 yard each of two different cream/tan background fabrics, and 1/4 yard of a multi-colored batik for the setting triangles.

The pattern calls for you to make a template to cut the Dresden blades, but I just put some blue painters tape on my Easy Dresden ruler to mark the template size and used the ruler to cut. So much easier than cutting a flimsy plastic template and tracing it 100 times!

I did use the provided template for the quarter-circles in the center of the dresdens, and it worked just fine.  Each quarter-circle is fused to the Dresden segments and background squares, then finished with a machine blanket stitch.

The template provided in the pattern for setting triangles is incorrect (learned this the hard way). Instead of using their template, just cut (4) 5 7/8" squares. Cut those squares in half diagonally to make your eight setting triangles.

You will need an extra 1/4 yard for binding than what is stated in the pattern. I backed and bound mine with the same fabric as the setting triangles. I attached my binding completely by machine using the "Bugglet Quilts Quick & Clean Machine Binding" method developed by my friend Vicki at Accio Fabric. You can find a tutorial for it here. So fast and easy :)

The pattern seemed suitable for a confident beginner. There are quite a few different techniques used in making this small project: piecing Dresden's, fusible applique, cutting with templates, and decorative machine stitching.  Other than the previously mentioned corrections, I found the pattern easy to follow and the finished project just beautiful!

Be sure to let me know if you make one, too!

A garden of pinwheels

My L'il Twister pinwheels quilt is now finished!

I did lots of straight line quilting in the center, some free-motion loop-de-loops on the inner border, and lots of free-motion spinning daisies on the outer border. The quilting is still my least favorite part of the entire process, but I am becoming more comfortable with it. I guess it's like anything else in life - the more you do it, the easier it gets :)

This is the first time I have done the binding entirely by machine for a quilt. I've done some small potholders, but never an entire quilt! I have to say that it was easy-peasy. I cut the binding at 2 1/2" (I usually cut 2 1/4") and stitched it to the front as usual. Then on the back I used some 1/4" Steam a Seam to fuse the binding down before stitching it. Binding time from start to finish = 1.5 hours. I'll take that! I don't think I would use the machine method for something fancy-schmancy, but for a baby quilt that will hopefully get lots of use and see lots of washing time, I think it works.

Here is a better view of all the different quilting (you can really see the cute daisies better on the backing) and the binding back...


I forgot to take a photo of the whole thing after completion, so here's a previously posted photo of the top...

We are having a most spectacular weather week here in Northern Illinois! I'm trying to just enjoy it and not think about what will be following it in the not-so-distant future :)

Happy Columbus Day weekend!