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Heart Full of HSTs

As a part of Lindsay’s studio makeover, I decided that I would make her a small lap quilt/wall hanging. I had seen the “i heart you” pattern over on V and Co. and really wanted to try it out. I picked up a fat quarter pack from Hawthorne Threads because I thought that they would work well with the pink paint colour I had picked for the walls.

So I went to work getting the 231 half square triangles (HSTs) ready for assembly.

I used this tutorial for making 8 HSTs at once, but it meant I needed to trim each one to exactly the right size. I actually like this method for that reason – it gives you very precisely sized HSTs, which makes final assembly so much easier. It does make a giant pile of trimmings though.

Once the top was together, I picked a little heart quilting pattern out for the long arm and got to work.

By the way, how lucky am I that I have access to two long arm machines that I can use? I mean, really? So lucky.

Once it was quilted, I hand stitched the binding on, and then decided that I would applique the Eileen Quilts logo over the top of the quilt. I used the starch and raw edge method, and I did it after the quilt had been quilted so that if Lindsay ever decides that she would like to use it just as a quilt rather than a wall hanging, she just has to pick out a couple of threads and the EQ will come right off.

Once it was all done and washed up on the wall it went! Yay for those Command Hook thingies!

I am pleased with the outcome and I know Lindsay was too. Thanks V and Co. for a great pattern (super well written). I might even make one of these for myself some day.

Mug Rug Swap

On Tuesday we had our monthly Roanoke MQG meeting. We had decided last month that it would be fun to do a little mug rug swap.

I had seen a few different quilts/mini quilts that used black quilting thread almost as if they had “drawn” the shapes on the quilt. Like an outline, I guess. So I decided to try it out!

Hedgie!! And bunting!! I used raw edge applique and then stitched over top with the black. I used a little button for the nose too, just because. I should have taken a picture of the back, because it was grey plaid. I thought it worked well with the dots.

When we pulled names Whitney and I ended up exchanging! Look at the super cute rug I got from her:

She used a couple of different Denyse Schmidt lines and then tried out her free motion quilting with her new Bernina. I love it! It is a perfect match both to my Herdy mug and my studio. It’s sitting right beside my machine for my constant cup of tea. Thanks Whit!

I love how doing small projects like this is really allowing us to try out new things and develop us as quilters (and as a guild). We have a small but wonderful group and I have learned so much from them already. I can’t wait to see what we do going forward.

More Quilts of Valor

A few months back my friend Melinda brought some quilt tops and backings to the Roanoke MQG, looking for someone to quilt them and finish them off to be sent as Quilts of Valor. I decided to take them, and then the craziness that was this holiday season took over. But I am finally finished!

This first quilt Melinda called “Autumn in Virginia. I quilted it with “Signature” which is a loopy free form pattern. I thought it sort of looked like the way leaves would swirl around. Plus it’s my favourite pattern, so I use it a lot. I bound it along with Nicole and Lindsay one night at Lindsay’s studio (thanks ladies!)

The second quilt Melinda called “Blue Ridge Fog”. Again I used Signature quilting on this one. I bound this one myself using a green blender fabric.

I got word the other day from the folks that coordinate the shipping of the quilts that I was to send them to a rehab facility in GA, for service personnel that have trouble adjusting to life back home after a deployment and are struggling with substance abuse issues. I am proud that these quilts will be helping someone at a dark moment in their life and I hope that they bring comfort and a feeling of love. Thanks for all those that helped put these together!

Better Late Than Never?

At the beginning of December good friends of ours welcomed their second baby girl to the family. With the total insanity that was my “4th Quarter” (look at me using the business lingo….) my personal work and gifts really suffered. (As a side note, I plan on doing all of my Christmas stuff in August this year and not committing to getting anything other than work done from Oct-Dec. That should work, right?) So sadly I didn’t get their gift finished until the middle of January. Luckily they are lovely people and were very understanding.

I love baby sweaters, but I always worry that babies grow so quickly and thus don’t get much wear out of them. So I decided to make a little baby shrug instead, figuring that would fit for at least a year or so.

Sorry, no modeled shot. There are some really cute ones on the Ravelry link though!
Pattern: Victorian Lace Baby Shrug
Yarn: Skacel HiKoo in 009
Needles: US 5

I really liked the little lace pattern on this one.

It was challenging enough to be interesting but easy enough to memorize after a repeat or two.

The yarn is amazing to work with, and perfect for baby stuff. Really soft, but not pilly at all.

I also wanted to make baby N a quilt, as I had made one for her sister and it got tons of use (thanks J and M for that by the way – I love seeing things I have made get USED!)

I roughly used this tutorial, but I added a large border as I just didn’t feel like it was large enough.

I used two small charm packs for this one (of course I have already managed to forget what line of fabric they were from, duh) and kona ash for the sashing. The border and backing are both from Hope Valley, and the binding is a DS for Joanns. I used my new favourite quilting pattern on this one, called Signature.

I hope that baby N enjoys both the quilt and the shrug! Although realistically, she is not likely to remember the shrug. Congrats again J and M!

Austin Children’s Shelter Donation Quilt

Way back, months and months ago, the Modern Quilt Guild put out a challenge to create blocks that represented the MQG and the upcoming Quiltcon in Austin at the end of this month. Blocks that were selected from the group have been added to a quilt that they are going to raffle off at Quiltcon. (You can see some details about that here, and you can see that my quilt block was chosen – it’s the one that says “MQG” on the bottom left).

Those blocks that were not chosen were sent out to different branches the MQG that had offered to put them together as donation quilts for the Austin Children’s Shelter. We agreed as a guild this would be a fun thing to work on and sent off for our blocks.

This is the set of blocks that we got, randomly stuck up on the design wall at Lindsay’s quilting studio. To be honest, I think we were all a little worried about how it was going to come together! Whitney and Nicole made some additional blocks to fill up the space, and we decided to meet up at Lindsay’s house to put everything together.

You can see we enjoyed ourselves with a wee bit of wine and some good company. We decided to lay out the blocks in rows, and then add random widths of sashing between the blocks to make the rows the same length.

Once we did that, we added horizontal sashing in between the rows. I took the quilt top home from there, and added some wide grey borders to bring the quilt up to size.

Lindsay was kind enough to quilt it for us on her longarm, which is a huge time saver. Check out the cute little stars pattern we chose!

We figured that was “kid” enough, and it also tied to Roanoke quite well.

Once it was quilted, I took it home again and trimmed the edges, added the orange binding, washed it up and tada!

I am really pleased with how it turned out in the end, as was our group!

The top blocks include some lovely log cabin blocks that Whitney made,

and the bottom includes Nicole’s pezzie star (second from the bottom on the right). We added a little label in the bottom corner too, with the info about the quilt.