Angela Quilting Along Challenge Quilt

- Ann Petersen 1 Comment

Angela Walters recently hosted a ‘Quilting a-long’ – not a Quilt a-long, a Quilting a-long, because this was all about the machine quilting.  She published a simple quilt pattern for the top and posted weekly YouTube videos that taught new techniques.

I got going late with the challenge because I didn’t want to have the quilt on my long arm for 9 weeks.  I whipped together the top during my quilt retreat in March and loaded the quilt on my frame a few weeks ago, just after Angela’s last instructions were published.

I enjoyed following along with the videos and with people in the Facebook group.  I wound up not following the instructions for each of the blocks exactly, but rather tried to challenge myself to do new things and things that I’m not very comfortable with.

This is the finished quilt:

I had a big fat quarter bundle of Grunge Hits the Spot, and I bought some grey Grunge for the background.  The backing is a Grunge Hits the Spot fabric in bright blue – so indeed it is a total Grunge Fest!

I think the spotty grunge turned out to not be a great choice for the blocks as the designs were really hard to see – both when quilting them as well as now that they are done.  But I had the fabric in my stash and didn’t really want to buy more to do the challenge.

Here are some more close ups of the quilting:

The top:

the middle:

and the bottom:

some more close ups of a few blocks:

I swear these are the best swirls I’ve ever done!

with Maggie the model:

and all rolled up:

We took photos on a Saturday and it was a really pretty day outside:

I had a lot of fun trying out different designs on this quilt and pushing myself to try new things.  I’ve never done that big of a feather across the whole quilt, and I think it came out great.

Thanks to Angela for hosting the Quilting a-long!  The next one starts on Monday!

Sewing Machine Bag

- Ann Petersen 4 Comments

I had a great time at my first quilt retreat in early March, but dragging around all the gear was not the most fun. I have few events coming up – guild sew days and a few classes – so I decided buying an inexpensive lightweight machine would be a good thing to do.  After considering a few, I bought an Ever Sewn Charlotte, and have been enjoying it quite a bit.  It’s always fun to get a new machine!

But to be useful, my portable machine needed a bag to tote it around.  I thought about buying one, but then remembered that I won a few patterns for bags from the FAL link up last year and thought this would be a good opportunity to try one out.  I also had some Alison Glass prints that I wasn’t sure how to use in a quilt, and this seemed like a great opportunity to use them.

I bought A BUNCH of interfacing – yikes!  I had no idea there were so many kinds of interfacing! – and prepped the side panels.  This is a panel with a photo of the pattern – the Aeroplane Bag from Sew Sweetness.

I finished the bag in time for my guild’s sew day last weekend – here it is:

The other side:

and a side view:

Yes, with the mix of Alison Glass fabrics it is a bit busy!

I don’t make a lot of bags so this guy took me a bit of time to get together.  I just tried to take it one step at a time and went really slow.  I’d probably do the zipper differently if I did it again, but it worked out well enough.  I modified the inside – the pattern has you make zippered pockets, but I really wanted a bigger open pocket to hold the power cord and foot pedal.  This is the modification I made for that pocket:

this is the finished inside of the bag with the lining in place:

I put my machine and all the accessories inside and they fit really nicely!

 

I am SO HAPPY with my bag and so glad I took the time to make it rather than buy one.  I don’t know that I have a lot more bag making in my future, but I am really happy with how it came out.

I took her on her first excursion last weekend, and she worked like a dream at our guild sew day.  I’ll have to sign up for more sewing excursions!

This was on my Q2’18 FAL list, so I will link up at the end of the quarter.

 

 

A Busy Sewing Weekend

- Ann Petersen 5 Comments

I had some time to myself this past weekend so I spent it getting caught up on a few projects.

First up, the Bee Blocks for my group.  We had 2 Bee Queens in March in order to avoid doing blocks during busier months later in the year.  I got one Queen’s blocks completed and sent off in March, but wound up with it being mid-April and both the 2nd March and the April blocks to do.

First order of business – pull some fabrics.  I had help.  This is Sarafina – we call her Saffy.

I made Paige’s I-spy blocks for March first.  She wanted blocks for a quilt for a teen-aged girl, so Saffy helped me dig.

My first block used math fabric – all teen aged girls need math (says the female engineer):

My second block has aliens, because – you know, New Mexico!

The last one used polka dots because I was really feeling the polka dots this weekend.  Here all three of them are together.  I hope Paige likes them.

For April, Emily asked for a star made with blue and red fabrics.  It was a paper pieced block, and I like to paper piece, but for some reason this one block took me an entire morning to do.  I then promptly forgot to take a photo of it before sending it off to Emily, so here is the photo from her blog post introducing us to the block.  My block was blue with little white polka dots with white edges.  Again…feeling the polka dots…

 

Next up was a quilt for a baby due in June.  I bought this cute Dr. Seuss One Fish/Two Fish Fat Quarter bundle a few months ago and designed a quilt around the panels.  I cut it out Friday night and pieced a lot of the background squares at my Quilt Guild Sew Day on Saturday.  I finished putting together the rows Sunday and Monday.  It is kind of busy, but I think it is cute:

 

Last up, and the one I’m the most exited about, is finally getting my Dog Blocks together into a top.  These blocks were sent to me by my Bee-mates when I was Queen last year.  The patterns for these blocks are from the Dog Gone Cute quilt along from Sew Fresh Quilts.  I made a few extra blocks to fill in the top and designed a sashing plan to connect them all together.  Many of the quilts I’ve seen made from these blocks didn’t have sashing, but when you have blocks from many different people it is difficult to get the whites to match, so the blocks didn’t look quite right directly next to each other.  I did the X’s in the sashing in white to help tie the whites together, then added a lot of color to pull out all the different dog fabric color.  This required a lot of piecing of 2.5″ squares (after doing ~150 improv X blocks):

I finished the X blocks on Saturday, then pieced the sashing and sewed the rows together Sunday and Monday.  I think it came out really cool!

All Bee blocks have been mailed off, and I’m really excited to start quilting both my finished quilt tops.

it was a fun and productive weekend!

 

 

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