Small Gems is finished!

 In November, I finished Bright Gems. 

Small Gems is the same pattern but with smaller blocks and pastels. When I pulled scraps for Bright Gems, the pastels didn't work with the bright colors so I set them aside. Since there were so many pastels, I decided to make a second quilt with them. I also wanted to see the quilt with smaller blocks so Small Gems was created with 3 1/2" blocks instead of 4 1/2" blocks.

This donation quilt is 60 inches square.

The back is a purple/blue/green fabric from my stash. I free-motioned quilted this on the long arm using 40-wt Glide thread - #17443 Bone for the top and #10877 Sterling for the back.

I quilted this with a motif that I'm not sure has a name. I made two elongated loops similar to feathers and then echoed them before making two more loops. Sometimes I used only one loop and sometimes I echoed more than once. It is very typical with FMQ to use parts of a design as an area is filled. I haven't used this design for quite a while and it was fun, especially now that I can make everything larger on the long arm.

This week is a little exciting around here. Now remember it doesn't take much for us to be excited. Our new refrigerator and dishwasher will arrive shortly. All of our appliances will be the same color again! It's been a while - we never thought the fridge and dishwasher would last this long but we are not complaining. Tomorrow our Teppanyaki Griddle is supposed to arrive. It is custom made to fit our gas stove. I am more excited about the griddle than the appliances - both of us are excited to cook on it!

Interwoven Batiks

A while back, I saw a picture of a quilt like this on Facebook and in a couple of blogs. One version was called Intulawoven (that person had used Tula Pink fabrics) and she had done some beautiful custom quilting emphasizing the 'interwoveness'. I'm calling mine Interwoven Batiks. I made it months (years?) ago and then left it sit in the to-be-quilted pile. I fully intended to do some custom quilting on it using my domestic machine. But... the longarm arrived a year ago and I'm not sure how to do the quilting that I wanted to do on it and I have no desire to quilt on the domestic.

The quilt is made with batiks from my scrap basket and white. For the last few years, I've only used Bella Solid White #98 (bleached white) for solid white so all solid white scraps match. It sounds lazy on my part but saves a lot of time trying to figure out which white is which. It took a little work to get the colors where I wanted them so I used this diagram. There is one block (16 finished squares). I made my squares 3.5" finished but any size works. My blocks are 14" finished.

I wanted to use two colors of thread and am happy that my machine tension is fine to do that with Glide thread. I've tried it with both Finesse and Aurifil without success. I used Glide 40-wt thread - #17443 Bone on the top and #70187 Ruby on the back. I free motion quilted a large loop de loop motif. 

This 56" square quilt is a donation quilt. The back is red and black; it's Sedona Wave by Blank Quilting.

You can see by my design wall, that I am back to working on the tiny house quilt. I have added a few trees and I think I'll finish the top within a week. 

I don't think I have a good backing for this quilt so I think shopping will be in the near future!

Joy's Block and more

I get inspiration from a lot of places but sometimes it comes from blog friends. I try not to copy things but once in a while, I really want to. On November 5, Joy from The Joyful Quilter posted this little block - I'm guessing it's about 8-9" square. It intrigued me and I decided I had to make it...but I wanted to make it a much larger quilt.

This is the picture that inspired my quilt - I think Joy's hand is holding the block. Later she put a cute orange binding on the quilt. You'll find the finished quilt in Joy's post.

From Joy's blog 

I went to my stash and just pulled fabric that I thought would work. I made 5.5" HSTs. I did add 5.5" borders to the quilt and I finished the dark diamond in the border. The border and binding are Modern Muse by Stephanie Brandenburg for Frond Design Studios. I do love her fabrics!

This donation quilt is about 61" square. I free-motion quilted this with loops and double loops using 40-wt Glide thread, #10877 Sterling. 

The back is a blue and green swirl from my stash

Some other things I've been working include a couple more Chunky Race quilts. (Jasmine at Quilt Kisses inspired these quilts).When the quilts are finished, I'll get much better pictures.

Yesterday I finished Joy's Block. I finished piecing this quilt top, a disappearing HST that I saw on a Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial.

And I finished quilting this quilt. It was a productive day!

I enjoy this "quiet time" of year because some days, I have lots of time to quilt! I still can't sew for hours at a time but I'm doing more than I was and I'm optomistic that will just keep improving.