Cutie Quilt: Vintage

Have you ever had fabric so pretty that you couldn't cut into it?  And then it sat on your shelf for years until you found the perfect quilt for it?

I bought a fat quarter pack of Ella Blue's Terra Australis 2 fabric the last time I was in Australia and petted it for a few years before I decided to make this 90"x90" quilt:

The pattern is Vintage, one of my Cutie Patterns.

I quilted the entire quilt using my In The Pinks FabuLux thread:

(My winter photography has improved, but is still not great).

Since I only had a fat quarter pack, I had to piece the border and binding:

I just need to make some pillowcases and then this pretty quilt will spend a month or so on my bed!

I have at least 16 fat eighths left over in this fabric line.  Which Cutie Quilt should I make from the oh-so-pretty leftovers?

Happy Place: Welcoming Me Home

I am traveling home from Quilt Con in Savannah, GA today and wondered what I could post about improving my sewing room when I'm not even there.

For the first time in forever (sing along if you must), I cleaned my sewing room and cleared all surfaces before I left.

My cutting table is free of projects and debris from projects:

It is ready and waiting for me to dive into whatever caught my attention at the show this weekend.

My sewing machines and longarms are empty and clean and awaiting their next projects.

Even though my sewing room isn't magazine-photoshoot-ready, it is cleaner and tidier than it has been in years and I can't wait to get back in there and create something happy!

Living With Quilts

I've never considered my decorating style to be overly "quilty," but as I look for quilts in my home to post every Sunday I realize just how many quilts grace my home.

I have a space in my living room that hosts a rotating group of quilts -- Thimbleberries Club quilts from 2003 (I had to look that up).

Here's Winter Scape:

My challenge is remembering to change this quilt before the middle of summer!

Weekly Summary: BOM

I'm making progress on my local quilt shop's batik BOM from 2013 or so.

Bear Paw:

Snowy Owl:

Snail Trail:

Puss in the Corner:

Goose Tracks (please be impressed with the paper-piecing.  It's not my #1 skill):

Apparently my quilt shop offered this same BOM quilt in two colorways this year and I signed up for both.

Monkey Wrench:

Turtle:

I'm still at Quilt Con in Savannah and hope to make more progress on these BOM quilts when I get home.

Quilt Finish: Allietare

Big quilt alert!

I finished my Bonnie Hunter Allietare mystery quilt a while ago and am tickled to report that it is happily living in its forever home (with one of my bridesmaids!):

I love Love LOVE this quilt and wanted to see it in the perfect home.  It is

I typically quilt my Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts with an allover swirl pattern and did so again on this one.  I chose my Mellow Yellows FabuLux thread:

If you want to learn to free-hand quilt this swirl pattern, here's a 50% off link to my Craftsy class that teaches this pattern.

This makes FOUR Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts that I've finished.   Sadly, I still have at four more here waiting for me to finish them.  Hopefully I'll have them all done by Thanksgiving when Bonnie (hopefully) posts a new mystery for us all to enjoy

Tempted: Smile at the Rain

I'm trying to be good, really I am.  I'm trying to finish the projects clogging up my sewing room instead of starting New! Pretty! projects that are just begging me to adopt them.

While trying to be good, I was stumbled upon This Pattern and I need to make it.  I really, really need to make it.

Would it be less like cheating if I made it from scrap fabric?

I was thinking patriotic fabrics as a Quilt of Valor.

Or maybe this happy-scrappy collection?

What fabrics will you use for your Smile at the Rain?

Lament

Pat Sloan releases her 182 Day Solstice Challenge free quilt block today and every Wednesday until the summer solstice.  This is the first Wednesday I won't be home to stitch up the block and stay current.  I'm a little stressed about that.

Today I am on my way to Quilt Con, the Modern Quilt Convention, in Savannah.  Being there will make me forget all about my stress!

These are the Solstice blocks I've made so far:

I promise to catch up as soon as I get home next week.

Are you quilting along with this challenge?

Cutie Quilt: Irresistible

I am tickled to announce a new Cutie Pattern -- Irresistible!

This quilt was inspired by a spool of thread.  This spool of thread:

It is a simple four-patch quilt that can be made with a Cutie Pack (16 fat 1/8th cuts of fabric).  The pattern includes four sizes and I made the queen sized one.

The quilting on this four-patch quilt really changes the look of the quilt:

Close-up:

Even closer:

Since folks are going to ask, I kept track of how much thread it took to quilt this queen-sized quilt.  Here's the result:

I used about 1 2/3 spools (700m) of FabuLux and 7 DecoBob bobbins.  So now we know!

So many people chimed in with a "This quilt is MINE!" when I was making the sample.  My daughter saw this quilt on my binding chair while she was cat-sitting during my Harry Potter trip.  She sent me a trip that said "For future reference, this quilt is mine."  I had to send her a "Too late!" answer because the quilt already has an owner waiting for it when it finishes its time traveling as a sample.  I will make my daughter a copy of this quilt and she'll get it even sooner!

I can't wait to make this quilt in other fabrics and sizes.  It is so fun to machine quilt and watch the quilt transform from "meh" to "WOW!" before my eyes!

Happy Place: The Waiting Room

Last week I wrote about how I've been cleaning out my sewing room and donating unneeded craft supplies.

As I'm digging through, I'm finding scores of projects in various stages of incompleteness.  I can't work on 100 projects at a time (trust me: I've tried it), so what do I do with all of these found projects while they patiently wait their turn?

They go into large ziploc bags and then into holding bins:

Isn't that just a delightful mess?

For scale, here's a side view:

I really wish I could say that I only had one of these overflowing bins in my sewing room.  I have never finished counting the number of in-process projects I have;  I usually give up hope as I approach 200.

In a perfect world. all of these bins would be empty and I would only have a few projects in process at any time.  This sewing room isn't in that perfect world, so the projects just sit and wait for now.

Sigh.

Living With Quilts: Chunky Churn Dash Pillow

I love living with quilts.  One of the quilts that lives in my home is a mini-quilt-turned pillow:

The fabulous Joanna Figueroa designed the mini quilt and I turned it into a pillow.  Read about that journey HERE.

Weekly Update

This was my last week at home before my quilt travel season starts and boy was it a full week!

I had a few sewing room mishaps like extensive sewing after the bobbin ran out:

I also misjudged my binding by (((this))) much:

I managed to do something right, though, when I pieced a quilt backing:

If you don't know how to invisibly seam a backing, I wrote a quick tutorial HERE.

I had some kitchen mishaps, like sugary bubble tea coating every surface of my kitchen:

In between the comedy of errors, I managed to make progress on my Block of the Month quilts:

This was the final week for the free Splendid Sampler blocks.  The book will be available in April.

Family Affair:

Pieces of Friendship:

I made a pillow using this block pattern and filmed a machine quilting video about it. Check it out HERE

Family Stars:

Lina's Gift:

I'll pick up the Splendid sampler again once the book is released.

This is the last week I'll be current on Pat Sloan's 182 Day Solstice Challenge -- Among the Stars:

I pulled out another old block of the month quilt.  This one is an original design from my local quilt shop from 2013 or so.  I'm not a huge batik lover, but I want to finish this one up and send it along to its forever home.

Block 1:

Block 2:

I had a full last week at home.  Next week, my adventures begin with Quilt Con.  I hope to be able to keep up with my "block a day" habit while I'm on the road.  Stay tuned.

Quilt Finish: Yellow Brick Road

Hurray!  I finished another old quilting project.  This isn't my oldest UFO, but it is far past the "decade" mark.  

I pieced this Yellow Brick Road top at a retreat at Sturbridge Quilting and Sewing Center last month:

I quilted it with FabuLux Midas Touch thread:

And this is when my projects typically come to screeching halt because... Binding.

I am practicing machine binding using Pat Sloan's method.  I used the same threads for the binding that I did for the quilting.

I like how the Midas Touch looked on the black binding!  How did quilters ever live without these binding clips?

In a little over an hour, the entire quilt was bound:

The back of the quilt shows the blanket stitch and I still prefer the look of hand binding, but I will keep working on my machine bindings to get these UFOs finished and to their forever homes!

Tempted: Thorn Quilt

I need to make This Quilt.  Need.  This Quilt.  Now.

It is for sale until February 18, so I'm going to buy the pattern now and make it later.

No really, I will wait until I finish more projects before I start this quilt.  (famous last words)

Maybe I'll use these fabrics?

So Close

And yet so far.

Why I hate binding: Reason #4971.

I have more fabric, but still...

A Splendid Anniversary

A year ago today Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson launched The Splendid Sampler, a year-long quilt along with 100 blocks from 80+ designers.

Have you been quilting along?

I have, but I have am quite behind with only 18 of 100 blocks completed:

The Splendid Sampler designers are celebrating this anniversary with some fun giveaways.  Go HERE to enter to win some fun prizes.

I've pre-ordered the book and can't wait for my copy to arrive.

My quilt won't remain a UFO forever!  Follow me on Instagram @debbybrownquilts to see my daily progress on my backlog of Block of the Month quilts!

Cleaning By Attrition

I think it will be easier to clean and organize my sewing room if I have less stuff in here.

I have been hard at work for the last six weeks finishing quilts to move them out of my sewing room.  I've also moved other things out of my sewing room to make room for the all of the Happy that I want to live in there.

I had a huge roll of high-loft batting.  Why?  I have no idea.  It now lives with my local library's quilt group.  They make bedrolls for the homeless and the batting will be put to good use:

I realized that I am a quilter, so I got rid of everything that isn't related to quilting.

I am no longer a:

• knitter (I did keep 4 projects)
• crocheter
• rug maker
• rubber stamper
• scrap booker
• candle maker
• a few other hobbies that I've likely forgotten about

All of the supplies that support these hobbies have been given to charity groups or individual crafters, or have been recycled.  

Have you re-evaluated any hobbies and decided they were no longer for you?  Did you regret it or did it make you feel a little less burdened?

Living With Quilts: Future Perfect Tense

Even though I give away most of my quilts, many still grace my home.

One of my favorite quilts hangs in my kitchen.  I can see it from where I stand to cook and also every time I walk through my kitchen to my sewing room.  It just makes me happy:

This quilt tells the story of a very difficult time in my life and quilting my story helped me through it. I tell the story of the creation of this quilt HERE.  

For the observant among you, yes this quilt is held to the wall with tacks.  I did this because I am lazy.  I felt less guilty about doing so when I discovered this was how they hang the quilts at the Tokyo Quilt Festival!  Seen with my own eyes:

This tack is at the bottom right corner of this quilt:

Have you every quilted a deeply personal quilt?  Do you treasure the result, or did you need to make the quilt and leave it behind (I can see both sides of that one)?

Block of the Month Weekly Summary

I have over 20 block of the month quilts in process.  That is overwhelming, to say the least.  It is my goal to finish one block a day.  It's a big goal (BIG!) and I don't know that I'll succeed, but drastic times call for drastic measures.  I have finished all of the blocks for one BOM so far this year, but haven't yet finished that quilt.

I'm working on my Splendid Sampler blocks.

Crocheted Thoughts:

Checkerboard:

Scrap Stars:

Flying High:

I also worked on my 182 Day Solstice Challenge.

Never Ending Love:

Oh how I love this block!  I've never done much machine applique, and now I wonder why!

I have videos showing how I quilted Venice from Pat Sloan's Globetrotting quilt:

I am making this quilt in two colorways.  The second version is softer:

I wonder which BOMs I'll work on next week?