#ProjectQuilting Week 3 - Thread

  I'm loving doing #ProjectQuilting. Having a theme is really helping push me to do some designing and just let my mind play with an idea, and even after I've done my design I keep thinking about different ways it could be represented. I really just am feeling energized with it. So a big thank you Kim for doing this!

 This week's challenge is thread.
 I was inspired by this picture of spools of Aurifil from Alyce of Blossom Heart Quilts, where she was doing a mini whole clothe quilt.

With that as my starting point I just dove in making little Aurifil spools. I made them all orange spools because I really do love my 50wt.

28 blocks later...

The quilt is 24"x24". Everything about this quilt is a scrap or leftovers. 

I used up left over Grunge charms from this quilt, and the very last of my white fabric from one I did in December and even the backing is pieced from left overs of another backing. It's quilted with Aurifil 2311 50wt thread, which is my go to for piecing and quilting. I love how how much my machine loves it. I get less breakage, less lint, and fit more on a bobbin.

Do you have a favorite thread colour?  

Be sure to follow me on Instagram and Twitter!

A new plan for all the Fig Tree Quilts fabrics and blocks

 I have a teeny tiny, overflowing but totally necessary stash of Fig Tree Quilts fabrics. You can read about it here.
 I had decided to do a Farmer's Wife quilt, and restarted it in September, but the thing is I hate templates and I'm not the biggest paper piecing fan. So about half the blocks I just plain ol' don't want to do.

 But I'm still in love with the idea of an all Fig Tree sampler quilt. It still represents my quilting journey to me. And I have a LOT of Fig Tree fabrics.
 This is just the yardage.

As this seems to be the year of the sampler online I've decided to join a few, make the blocks I like or look to teach me something new or I just love enough to make with pp or templates.

 First up is the Moda Sampler Shuffle. I've been getting the blocks from Fat Quarter Shop's blog but they're around on several shops sites and I assume the Moda blog.

I've got 17 done between a small sewing frenzy and a few that are the same as the Farmer's Wife Quilt.

Next is the Splendid Sampler from Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson. It starts Feb 14th and has over 100 blocks so I know there will be plenty to make from that!


I decided to throw in a few 12" blocks, all the others are 6" finished, Just so I don't need the like 200+ blocks I would have had to make for a king size sampler. I want it about 100" and haven't decided if I want to add borders or not. I figure that's a decision for another day.

I've added Aurifil's block of the month quilt along and I really liked Fat Quarter Shop's Single Ring blocks so made one of them up for a few of the 12". I figure I can hide 10-12 of the large blocks without them taking over.

Total 6" block total so far = 49

What are you up? Do you have a certain style you have a lot of? Or that represents something to you?

Don't forget to follow me on Instagram or Twitter to see what I'm up to. I post there much more frequently then I do here.

Diamond Hexie Quilt

I'm going teach a class at Cornerstone Quilts on epp using this as my example! Just need to knife edge bind it and it will go hang up in the shop to get some people interested!
When I know the exact details on the class I will let you all know. I'm also going to be teaching Twilight, and how to make my quilted wraps, which are back in my etsy shop!

I hand sewed the hexies together using Aurifil 50 wt thread, it worked beautifully. I also hand quilted all but the white areas. I used a combination of Aurifil 50 wt, 40 wt, and Lana wool 12 wt,  and each one worked wonderfully. I had very little twisting and knotting, almost not breakage and I didn't even have to use thread wax!
The white areas I machine quilted with the Aurifil 50wt on my frame.

I'm really happy I was able to hand quilt most of this one, but I can definitely say I will never be a hand quilter. I really do enjoy machine quilting, especially on the frame, much more. Hand sewing I can enjoy but the hand quilting itself wasn't relaxing for me.

Eye Candy, thread, fabric & Talkin Tuesdays

  I am very lucky in the quilting world. I have my chat Talkin Tuesdays (on twitter, 1-3pmET #talknt2, and 9-11pmET #talknt) and through that I have met some incredibly wonderful and talented people. Many have become good friends, many others have been great contacts for furthering my involvement in the quilt industry, and I've managed to get some different quilt related goodies I wouldn't be able to afford otherwise. And I get to giveaway all sorts of goodies! Like this week, during #talknt2 I will be giving away THREE of the thread collections from Aurifil.
I HIGHLY recommend you join in if you can! Each one of the collections retails for at least $99.


These are 2 of the 3 thread collections Aurifil has put together with Pat Bravo of Art Gallery Fabrics. And just and FYI they work perfectly with both Indie and her newest line Rock 'n Romance.
I have some Indie and I have to say again how amazing the feel of these fabrics is, very tight weave, they feel almost like batiks because of it. From what I hear they are the highest quality cotton in the quilt industry.

 These colours are so deep and gorgeous and they actually go with an immense amount of things. I was playing with them against all different fabric lines and at least one went with every line I tried. Also Shane wanted to steal some to tie flies. That obviously did not happen and I threatened him with a rotary cutter if he tried it.

They are in the 50 and 40 weight, which is my preference for both piecing and quilting. The 28 weight really stands out when used for quilting, and is nice for handwork. The 28 & 12 can both be used for embroidery, well any of them can if you use enough strands, and with all the colours available it's actually lots of fun.

 Something else I've been lucky enough to do is buy a quilt frame and machine. I'm LOVING it. LOVE. Quilting has become so much more fun. And I'm actually pretty good at it which is nice. It'd be fun no matter what but being good at it makes me feel accomplished.
 I'm taking in quilts for other people now. I'm really excited to offer machine quilting to see more of those tops and UFO's get finished! And since so many of you have been so supportive of me if you're a follower anywhere online- twitter, here, facebook- you get 5% off quilting, anytime, all the time. Just let  me know when you contact me about it so I can make a note.


Remember the "Talknt" 20% off code for Fat Quarter Shop, it expires Sept 30th at 11:59pm.

Just for Fun! Hexie bag!

 Lately I've not had a lot of time to sew just for fun. But one of the things I decided I did want to do was Katy's MF Hexie quilt in the fabulous Bari J's Lilly Belle. (check out her blog to see 14 days of Lilly Belle, where she's doing a new project EACH day!)

I've been plugging away at basting and sewing hexies, in the end we need 666 (no I'm not making that up) petals and 74 centers. That's a whole lotta hexies. To keep myself a tiny bit organized I've been using a big ziploc bag to keep all my stuff together.

 But ziplocs while handy, aren't very pretty. And they don't have a handle.
So I decided to make a bag for my hexies.
And then decided it should be made out of hexies. I think I was insane at the time. Maybe from the crazy heat or the super bad sunburn I got last week.

Well whatever the reason I decided to make the hexie bag. I use the AccuQuilt 1.5" die, the 2.5" I thought was too big and the 1" way to small. I really wish there was a 2" on the die, I think it would have been better but whatever.


I had some left over Fandango by Kate Spain from when I made the filing cabinet cover for Moda Bake Shop and I found it when cleaning my sewing room to get it ready for painting so I decided to use it.


So here is my hexie bag for hexies!

 You can see how I've even tried to organize the inside! A pocket for my thread, of course using some Aurifil!, scissors, needle jar, and a pocket for the hexies waiting to be basted. I use a dab of glue to hold the papers to the hexies so they're in the pocket to keep the papers from being torn off. I use the bright pink thread to baste, so much easier to see when it's time to pull it out, and the grey and taupe to stitch the hexagons together.

 

 I even put a zipper on it! Just for you Bari! I hadn't originally planned on the zipper so I made the strap go through to make the bag draw up when hung. I'll fix that later when I find something to put on the ends of the strap because I used 1" grommets.

Have you ever made a bag just to hold a project? What do you think? Smart or crazy?