Family Tree Quilt - A Finish!

I am so excited to have finally completed the Family Tree Quilt for my mother in law.  I must admit this was a very challenging quilt to do.  My sister in law and I pieced the top together, but it was my job to quilt and bind it.  I really did struggle with how to quilt it.  I just didn't want to "screw it up".  This quilt was a very big deal to our family.  My father in law passed away a year ago last May (2012) now making this family tree quilt even more precious.

For a lot of the quilting designs, I used Natalia Bonner's book, "Beginner's Guide to Free Motion Quilting", which can be purchased here.  I quilted swirls in the blue areas only because I don't have a lot of confidence with feathers just yet.  I did buy Angela Walter's Craftsy Class called "Free Motion Quilting with Feathers", but I just haven't had time to take it yet.  I was pretty happy with how the swirls turned out, but I would really like to have them build off of each other a little more like I have seen on some of the other blogs.

My favorite quilting were the tree branch parts.  I used Natalia's "flame" technique and then added "knots" to make it look more "tree-y" for lack of a better word.  My sister in law kept saying that our "tree" looked more like a bush, but how many bushes do you know have "knots" in the stems?  None I hope.  So I must admit that I really really like how this quilting made our tree more like a tree and not a bush!

In the area that represented the leaves, I quilted a meandering loops and leaves.  This was a lot of fun to do and I also really like how this turned out.  I must say I quilt much better than I draw because I did practice drawing out the designs a couple of times before I quilted them, so thank goodness for that because I was getting a little worried while I was "drawing".

All in all I am very happy with how it turned out and am so glad that it is finally finished.  I am linking up with "Sew Cute Tuesday" hosted by Janice.

Quilts Stats:

• Fabric was just some batiks that we found our our local quilt shop.  The brown we used was a Kona solid, but I don't know the exact name of it.  
• The pattern was something my sister in law and I made up.  
• Quilting was done by me on my long arm.  
• We started it towards the end of January 2013 and I finished it mid-May 2013.  
• The size is approximately 36 inches by 52 inches.  

Happy Quilting!

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2013 - A Lovely Year of Finishes - May Goal

I am excited because this month I am actually getting caught up and can start my adorable little nephew's quilt.  Now granted, he will be 6 months old this month, but better late than never right?  For this baby quilt, I will be mixing it up with some embroidery that my sister in law picked out.  She picked out this adorable collection from Bunnycup Embroidery called "Daring Dragons", which can be purchased here.

Aren't they just adorable.  I can't wait to use these cute little guys in the quilt.

The fabric collection that I will be using is Urban Down Under for Northcott Fabrics, which can be purchased here.

So back to my May goal, my goal is to complete the quilt top, so it is ready to quilt and bind for next month!  

Linking up to 2013 - A Lovely Year of Finishes hosted by Fiber of All Sorts.

Happy Quilting!

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April Goal - Not a Finish

Well I was bummed that I wasn't able to finish my April Goal, which was quilt the family tree quilt and bind it.  However, to my defense I was having machine problems that I couldn't quite figure out.  I would have the tension all set to where things should be (yea) and then periodically it would create a loose stitch and I wasn't even going over a seem or anything.  Then underneath the machine would periodically create these loopy things and it was driving me nuts!  I just couldn't figure it out and was getting extremely frustrated with it.

Just so you know it is definitely not suppose to do this.  So I had the person who sold me the machine over and she tweaked the bobbin and completely took apart my tension knob and put it back together.  She also fixed my frame, which I guess was extremely loose and showed me how to adjust that as well.  All in all after about an hour of tweaks and adjustments, my machine started to do this...

Now that is what I am talking about.  I hate to be a perfectionist, but I like "perfect stitches".  This may be the death of me one day, but this is how I want my quilting to look.  

So now I am finally quilting my mother in law's quilt.  I am switching between two top threads Superior King Tut 983 (brown) and 903 (blue), and they are both variegated.  I like the look it is giving the quilting.    

Here are my swirls, which are going in the "blue portion" of the quilt, only because I really can't do feathers that well yet.  I am doing a more bouncing around swirl, which I want to practice making a little denser.  I am currently taking one of Angela Walter's Craftsy classes, which can be purchased here.  She does a couple different versions of the swirl and I am doing the bouncy one at this point, but definitely want to move up to the denser one because I kind of like that better.  I am on lesson #7 out of 10, so I consider my swirls a work in progress.  

In the branches, I am doing the "flame" technique that you can find in Natalia Bonner's book called "Beginner's Guide to Free Motion Quilting", which can be purchased here.  I think this is my favorite part of the quilt so far.  

In the leaf area, I am quilting loops and leaves, which is also from Natalia Bonner's book that I mentioned above.  

My plan is to get this quilt finished up this week!  

Linking up to WIP Wednesday link party hosted by Lee at Freshly Pieced.

Happy Quilting!

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Another School Auction Pocket Pillow

One of my really good friends asked me to do a pocket pillow for her school auction that she works at every year, so of course I said yes.  Since I only had time to make one, I decided to make this one very gender neutral, so it would be perfect for either a boy or a girl.

I made the pillow out of  the "Welcome to Bear Country" fabric collection by Moda.  I really like this fabric collection.  The Berenstain Bears were my favorite when I was growing up!  The pattern I used was from the book Growing up Modern by Allison Harrison.  The only thing I changed was I made my pocket out of hourglass blocks and added a binding strip across the top of the pocket.  It is a really easy pattern and goes together rather quickly.  I needed that because I must confess that I started it and finished it last night!  The thread I used was #971 Superior King Tut Quilting Thread.  It seems to work the best with my machine for the most part.  The quilting pattern is just a basic allover swirl.  Here are some up close pictures of the quilting.  

Now hopefully it does well at the school auction!

Linking up to Finish it up Friday link party hosted by Amanda at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Happy Quilting!

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Auebre's Pocket Pillow

One of my niece's birthday is coming up at the end of the month and she loves to read.  I used to also love to read when I was a little girl.  My mom couldn't buy books fast enough!  Since I have wanted to make another pocket pillow to tweak my pattern a bit, I decided this would be the perfect gift for her.

My sister bought her "new bedding" over Christmas that was white with all different colors of bright polka dots.  I decided to use the Ombre Dots collection by Riley Blake, which can be purchased here.

As you can see it is a really pretty collection!  I am hoping that it will be close enough to my niece's new bedding that it will be a nice compliment.  

I decided that I was going to make the pillow smaller because the pillows I made before were 18 inches and they just seemed really large and bulky.  I have decided that I am going to try this one at 14 inches square.  Another change is going to come from the piece behind the pocket.  I have decided to make that all one piece instead of piecing it together, so the only piecing will be the pocket.  Of course the pocket will be made out of hour glass blocks (my favorite), which are shown below.  

The pocket will consist of 2 rows of 4 blocks, which are 4 inches unfinished.  I have one row completely sewn together and need to finish the second row, and then I will sew these two rows together.  

Now this is where you come in, I need to pick one of the fat quarters below to be the piece behind the pocket, and then another one to be the "binding" of the pillow.

This will be my first time using binding on a pillow, so hopefully it turns out as well as some of the other ones that I have seen out in blogland.  Well leave me some comments and let me know what colors you think.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday link party hosted by Lee at Freshly Pieced.

Happy Quilting!

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2013 - A Lovely Year of Finishes - April Goal

I have decided that my "finish" for April will be my mother in law's family tree quilt.  I got the quilt top done with my sister in law in February just in time for my mother in law's birthday.  It turned out really cute and we were pretty happy with it and so was she!

I am finding that it is much better for me to break larger projects like this one down into two parts: 

1. Complete the quilt top.
2. Quilt and bind the quilt.  

Maybe it just seems less overwhelming breaking it down into two parts, or prevents me from getting bored or frustrated with a larger project.  So my plan for this month is to quilt this quilt and bind it.  Wish me luck!

Linking up to 2013 - A Lovely Year of Finishes hosted by Fiber of All Sorts.

Happy Quilting!

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Master Bedroom Quilt

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon this quilt along that occurred in 2012 that I completely missed.

I wished that I would have found this last year, but to my defense I didn't even start blogging until May of last year, so I already would have been behind.  

Anyways since I have started blogging, I have tried A LOT of new things and half square triangles is one of the "new things" that I have tried.  I had spent a long time and I do mean a LONG time terrified of triangles.  Until one day I bit the bullet and just gave them a try.  Well needless to say, it turns out that half square triangle blocks are now my "favorite" block to make.  Go figure right?  I wish getting over "every fear" was that easy!   Well this quilt is a sampler of 12 different blocks using the half square triangle block construction.  Jenni, from the blog "In Color Order", created the tutorial for this block a month.  You can find a picture of the quilt and the tutorial for it here.  

I have decided that over the next several months, I am going to make my husband and I this quilt for our master bedroom.  Pretty much all of my quilts have been gifts, so I haven't kept any for myself.  Our master bedroom has been in need of a very serious re-do.  Do all of your husbands have a crazy 5 year painting rule?  My husband will only allow us to paint a room once every 5 years.  Seriously!  Talking about cramping my decorating style!  Needless to say, he will be very happy to know that he doesn't even have to paint for this master bedroom redo because I actually found a fabric pallet that has the exact green color that I painted the walls.  Talk about win win!  The fabric pallet I chose was Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille.  

You can purchase fat quarter bundles of it here at the Fat Quarter Shop.  They are one of my favorite online fabric stores.  They don't have a lot of yardage left of this collection because they used it in their most recent block of the month program, but they still do have some.  I am pretty excited though because it also has red in it, which is my favorite color, and will bring some other colors to our bedroom to brighten it up because it is a "little" room.  And I do mean a little room!  I also think it will look great against my black furniture.  Here is my very first block, the January block.  

Isn't it just perfect!  I think I will try and find a "gray" comforter that matches to go under it and just put this quilt as more of a "throw" at the end of the bed, so if anyone has any good ideas of where I can get one, please let me know.  Something I can wash though because we do sleep with a little dog as well, which is why we won't be sleeping with the quilt directly!  

Linking up to "Let's Get Aquainted Link Up" linky party hosted by Plum and June and Simply Miss Luella.

Happy Quilting!

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