Silent Cinema New Wave Quilt

I made another new wave quilt! :) I love this pattern and wanted a bit smaller one for the couch.  (My other new wave quilt is here.)  I love the yellow and grays in this fabric line.

I used 10 Silent Cinema fat quarters, Kona Snow for the sashing, and Kona Coal for the top and bottom gray.

The back is Front Row in gray with a strip of Zoetrope in blue outlined by Kona Coal.  I love pieced backs and this is my favorite yet.

Here's a shot at my quilt label made on my embroidery machine.  I completed it in September 2011.  It was my I'm-in-the-middle-of-5-other-projects-so-let-me-pause-everything-and-make-this-for-myself quilt.

I quilted it with an all over meandering pattern... which was quite fun this time since it wasn't as large of a quilt to shove through my machine.

I machine stitch all of my binding on because I suck at hand sewing and it saves me like 52,342 hours.  I use Red Pepper Quilts method which I'm also getting better at with each try.  I'm slowly perfecting my corners, and my sides are already looking great since I bought the stitch-in-the-ditch foot plate for my walking foot. :D

You can find the New Wave quilt pattern on Oh! Fransson's website, designed by the super awesome Elizabeth Hartman.

City Lights Quilt

I really love fall.  This park almost makes me feel like I'm in the middle of it.  Although I'm far from it and you have to really search here to find trees that are changing. :)

This is the City Lights Quilt from the Book City Quilts by Cheri House.  As I was making this and it was spread all over the floor even my husband passed by and commented how much he really liked this one.  (I still need an idea for what to make for him someday!)

The front resembles a sky scraper.  I was inspired to make it for a friend that works downtown Chicago.  When I found the backing fabric I was beyond excited.  It's Timeless Treasure's Airport and it's filled with airplanes, terminals, and casinos!  The recipient designs airports so I couldn't have found a better print!

I finished it up with quilting 1/4" around each 'window' and added black binding.  The entire thing is Kona in more colors than I can remember.

I've been using my embroidery machine for each quilt label. I really love adding this detail:

so very cute!

It really was a wonderful day out when we took these pictures.

Although we had to pick off 100 threads and pieces of grass before we could get some of these:

And here it is in it's new home.... which it appears it has already been claimed:  :)

Pillow Swap Fabric Selection

This is how much progress I've made on the pillow: I've yanked out stuff to match FQ fabric (Joel Dewberry's Heirloom Tile Flourish in Amber).

Any progress is good! :)  I've been focusing my attention on a lot of other sewing things.... lots of fabric retail therapy, I picked up a copy of Modern Blocks for some inspiration, I finished a quilt (finally), and I stayed up super late the day I got my fabric and made a bunch of pillows until like 3am!  I'll take pictures soon :)

LVMGQ Block Swap - Love Quilt

Today is Nevada Day! (We have our own state holiday!) With my free time, I finished three Love Blocks for Zany Quilter.   This was my first block swap ever passed to me.  I unfortunately didn't participate and make my own blocks because A. I missed a few meetings this summer due to vacations, B. I couldn't decide on a block, and C. I was scared.  But I will figure out something and participate in the next one coming up in January.

(I didn't realize until I was halfway through the O's that I screwed up the sew order of two of them. I hope you don't mind?!  It's still an O!)

Here's the package that I got.  Super organized!

Here's my final mess I made:

I love these piles

Check one project off of my list!

I need a new camera.  My iphone takes better quality pictures than my regular camera does now.

Pillow Swap Fabric

Woo Hoo! This is my fat quarter for the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild's not-so-secret Secret Santa Pillow Swap.  It's Joel Dewberry's Heirloom Tile Flourish in Amber.  Since I pretty much love everything Joel Dewberry, I so totally got this.

I have a lot of projects I'm in the middle of.. some of which I cannot share yet.  And last night I just added two more (one being this pillow).  I'm off to go get started!

Aviary 2 Pendant Quilt

Sadly, this is not my quilt.  This quilt was a gift for my best friend's anniversary from her mother who is amazingly crafty and can do anything and everything!   No joke, she crochets blankets from yarn that she wove herself!  If she sits down for a minute, out pops knitted mittens and socks and probably a scarf too... all while making homemade pies and pasties.  :)

She made this amazing Aviary 2 Pendant Quilt and it's too pretty to not share!  With her permission, here are her photos of her quilt in action!

I also have to mention that her bedroom is amazing and I will probably borrow her to decorate my room... or my whole house.   (In case your wondering, the paint is Dolphin Fin by Behr)

even her cat matches:

just kidding... but she is adorable:

More and More Pillowcases

Made these for friends at a "sleepover girls weekend".  I really do love making pillowcases just because they're so happy.  I mean just look at them.  Who wouldn't want to fall asleep on them?

One requested a duplicate of the bottom right Meadowsweet pillowcase because she decided to model her whole bedroom after it. :D

In Progress Quilts

I wanted another new wave quilt that was a bit smaller than my turquoise one AND I had a fabric coupon (not that I needed more fabric) which made me buy 10 prints from the Silent Cinema line.

I used the Fat Cats ruler on this one too, but this time I made it the lap quilt size as on Oh, Fransson!'s site.

I actually finished piecing the whole top and have the back ready to go, but this is the only picture of it I have so far!

And here's my progress on a Sparkling Gemstones quilt using the Alphabet Soup fabric for my friend who is due very very soon.

Chain piecing the jelly roll  (did I mention how much I love my new machine!?)

I also have this top finished, but I cannot show it as she's probably reading this text right now.  (Sorry this is all you get!)

Everything But Sewing...

We've been out and about all summer... so here's some cute turtle pictures instead of sewing pictures!

We walked along this beach in Florida which was amazingly hot:

Visited the Loggerhead Marinelife Center where they rehabilitate sea turtles:

His name is Tyrion... and here's his story:

There's more details on his progress on their website.

We were lucky and they had piles of little ones that day!  The water looks disgusting here, but that's only because they were cleaning out their tank.

This was the most adorable thing to watch.

This little one was in the "Turtle ICU"...

he just needed some help swimming until he got stronger.

We also went to an outdoor market somewhere in south Florida.

I was so excited for the watermelons.  Living in Nevada it is very rare that I come across any decent watermelons.  Therefore I picked the biggest one, and I made my husband haul all 30lbs of it back to the car. :)  (I would have totally carried it - as there was zero chance of me leaving the market without it - but he insisted.  Who am I to say no?)

BTW it was amazing!

Then we did a little more camping before it starts getting to cold.  I go crazy-shopping before each camping trip for some reason, so this time we ended up with a 12'x12' Coleman Instant Canopy Tent.

Best purchase ever!  Along with the tent.... and these cute little Coleman LED String Lights that are miniature lanterns:

More sewing stuff to come.

United States Map Quilt

I was able to get this done just before my Kona Quilt as a surprise birthday gift for my 2 year old cousin. For the quilting I decided on a 2" wide crosshatch and tried to not have the quilting overlap with my label on the back (and was successful!).

I just love this United States map panel - I hope someday it can help him learn all of the states and capitals!

The color order of the outside Kona border was also put to a vote just like my Kona Rainbow Flower Quilt.  (As you can tell I Photoshop EVERYTHING first - right down to the measurements)  Photo 3 was the winner.

From the inside out its: Kona Ocean, Corn Yellow, Papaya, Orange, and a border of Ocean.

Robert Kaufman No Prints Allowed Challenge

The Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild participated in the Robert Kaufman Kona "No Prints Allowed" Challenge.  We each received a charm pack of the Kona Classic Palette and we were allowed to add 1-2 solid prints.  I don't have an official name for my quilt, but I've been calling it my Rainbow Flower Quilt.  I really had so much fun making this.  It's bright and cheerful and a big rainbow.  Who doesn't love rainbows?

This is the Classic Kona Charm Square pack I started with. I was a bit terrified to cut into it.  I was hoping I didn't get half way through it and realized I made a mistake or hated it or wanted to change my idea.

After making the petals, I rearranged them about a 1,000 times on my floor and had my friends vote for the favorite.  (fyi - image A below won)

Then I played with the sashing width for another day and another 1,000 arrangements on the floor.  Even though I ended up adding sashing to make the flowers, the below no-sashing layout had me paused for a few hours because I fell in love with it:

The rest of the colors ended up on the back with my label... and the fly-away petal on the top left.  I spent a good hour getting the flower on the bottom right to line up with the one on the top so my quilt lines would match up.

The dark gray is Kona Coal and the binding is Kona Medium Grey.  I intended on binding it in more Kona Coal, but as I was throwing fabric around (I'm messy) the Medium Grey happened to land on my quilt top.  I saw the combo from across the room in passing and knew it was even better!

All of the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild Kona Challenge Quilts have been posted on Flickr.   (I wish I could have been there to see them all in person!) They are all so amazing and I'm so lucky to be part of this guild!