Rhododendron Trail Part 1

Are you joining in on this year’s Quiltville Mystery?  Bonnie Hunter is our Quilty Santa each holiday season, generously offering a free sew along to all of her followers.  This year’s colors are super fun:

Rhododendron Trail Intro

The first clue came out yesterday and it’s amazing how many people finished their units within the first few hours of it being posted.  Here’s mine:

Rhododendron Trail Part 1

So far, so fun!

Q2 2019 FAL Goals

Q2 (April - June 2019) Finish Along Goals: 

1. Game On! Bench Pillow  - just fabrics, supplies, a pattern & a dream...
2. Spoolin' Around - blocks are finished, lots more to be done...

3. Crazy Quilt Pillow - only 4 out of 6 blocks are started; none are finished...

4. QAYG Reversible Quilt - a few rows are sewn together (last Q's progress); then onto borders...

5. Asian Sidelights - just fabrics & a pattern, but it will be a quick finish once the fabrics are cut...

6. Farmer's Wife - blocks are finished & ready to be set...

7. Cozy Christmas - blocks are prepped and ready for hand applique...
   
8. Christmas Quilt (for Nancy) - quilt needs to be mended or completely redone; maybe starting over...

9. A Merry Christmas to You - blocks are finished; ready to be sewn together...
   
10. Raise the Roof - fabric is all cut, blocks are beginning to come together...
    
11. Generations - top (made by Kayla is finished) &  backing pieced; ready to be quilted...
    

Last quarter, I only completed 4/11 of the quilty projects I had listed on my Q1 2019 lists.

  As usual, I'm hoping to make more progress this quarter.  Wish me luck!

Linking up to the 2019 Finish-A-Long hosted by Julie at her blog That's Sew Julie.

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

Get Charmed with Sew Steady - March

Sew Steady has a new program happening that involves sharing photos to collect charms!  How fun!

 To participate in Get Charmed with Sew Steady each month, just make a purchase or post a photo (via email, Facebook or Instagram) pertaining to the theme of the month!

Show off your favorite heart themed quilting

This log cabin style heart is hand quilted 1/4" away from all of the seams and then small heart designs are quilted in the blank spaces.

Show us your Sew Steady quilting set ups

This is my most recent Sew Steady table with my rose gold Bernina 765!

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

~ Heather

Selvage Spools

Back in January, I was happy to be able to blog hop Diane D. Knott's most recent book, Strip Quilt Secrets.  This was the beginning of my Selvage Spools quilt.  If you missed that post, click here.

Now, my Selvage Spools are a good sized cuddly lap quilt!  Diane's directions were easy to follow and even though I really dreaded that Y-Seam at the spool corners, it went off without a hitch!  I did end up deviating just a bit from Diane's original design by swapping the spool and background fabric colors and adding a border with the background color to make the spools float a bit.

Just look at all of that quilty texture!  Patricia Ritter's Crosshatch pantograph was just the thing for this quilt.  Surprisingly, my husband picked it out of a box of new pantos I had just gotten in and said, "you should use that on that selvage quilt."  Well, when he actually takes an interest in the making of a quilt, I guess I had better take advantage of that!

If you decide to make a selvage quilt, I have a couple of suggestions:  Stitch really close to the edge of the selvages (I was about 1/8" away from the edge and probably could have gotten closer - I tucked a few edges while quilting).  Also pay close attention when quilting to keep the selvage edges flat (again, I ended up with a few tiny tucks, not noticeable unless you're looking for them).  Next time I would quilt a selvage quilt from the front of the machine.

All in all, such a fun project!  Thanks Diane!  I'm now ready to make the Selvage Baskets quilt!

Selvage Spools 

Designer:  Diane D. Knott (Strip Quilt Secrets)

Size: 61x79"

Featured Fabrics:  Assorted Selvages

Quilting:  Crosshatch (Patricia Ritter)

Quilting Thread:  Fil-Tec Glide (Warm Grey)

Batting:  Hobbs 80/20

Linking up to the 2019 Finish-A-Long hosted by Julie at her blog That's Sew Julie.
To see my Q1 2019 FAL post click here.

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

~ Heather

Good Fortune

Once again, I, too, followed along creating Good Fortune with so many quilters out in blogland and around the world.  We look forward to Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt every year...the suspense of the theme, the color-scheme, and the pattern itself!

Once Bonnie posted all of her inspiration photos from China and the array of fabric colors she designed with, I immediately thought - now I need to FINALLY use all of those Asian print fabrics that I collected while living in Japan and traveling to China and Korea!  They were perfect for this project!  I supplemented my stash with lots of silver and gold on white metallic prints (neutrals) and even more gold on gold metallic prints (a substitution for Bonnie's orange in the original design).  My friend Kevin (you may know him as Kevin the Quilter) even offered up any Asian prints he could find in his collection - I don't think he's a fan of them (but I am!)!?!?!?

It must have been serendipity, because years ago, my daughter made this beautiful "good fortune" cross stitch for me.  It's been hanging in my sewing studio for years.  I asked the opinion of a few fellow quilters (and my daughter's permission) and then decided that it just needed to be the label for my finished quilt.  It's perfect and I love it! 

What better quilting design for an Asian themed quilt than Haiku, an Asian-inspired edge-to-edge fan design?  It really looks great on there and I'm very please with the finished result - and happy to finally use some of my hoarded fabrics!  Just look at that beautiful crane and chrysanthemum print (those are the designs that promote good luck and happiness in marriage)! 

Good Fortune 

Designer:  Bonnie Hunter (Quiltville)

Size: 72x72"

Featured Fabrics:  Assorted Asian prints

Quilting:  Haiku (Patricia Ritter)

Quilting Thread:  Fil-Tec Glide (Military Gold)

Batting:  Hobbs 80/20

Linking up to the 2019 Finish-A-Long hosted by Julie at her blog That's Sew Julie.
To see my Q1 2019 FAL post click here.

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

~ Heather