Mount Tsuru

My cousin Gretchen got married last weekend, and in true form, I made her and her new hubby a quilt. I used Janice's (Better Off Thread) Moda bake shop tutorial called Sunnyside diamond zig-zag. The tutorial is really easy to follow. I highly recommend it.

I christened my version: Mount Tsuru

It is made with a Tsuru fat quarter bundle and some shot cottons for the zigs. The background fabric is sketch. The zig-zags conjure up images of mount Fuji, don't you agree?

It was fun mixing and matching the prints:

The construction starts out the same as a lonestar block and wouldn't these be lovely as a lonestar! I especially love how the footprints make a spiral in the center.

Here is a photo of the basting with one of my favorite basting helpers. This photo caught him mid stretch...

The quilting is an allover meander in the prints with zig-zagging straight line quilting in the background. I love the texture the quilting created.

You can really appreciate the design on the back. Appreciate it!

The back is an Ikea print of what I thought was clouds but after I purchased it, I think it is actually men, which is kinda weird. Still, turned on its side they still look like clouds. I know you can't un-see the men now.

I added a label to the bottom corner with the happy couple's wedding date.

I bound the quilt with the dark blue shot cotton which I think frames the quilt beautifully. I hand stitched down the binding because a special quilt deserves the hand stitching touch.

Deets:

NAME: Mount Tsuru

SIZE: 58" x 65"

FABRIC: Tsuru by Rashida Coleman Hale, shot cottons, sketch in black

QUILTING: FMQ and straight line by me on my home machine. Aurifil #2000 (the perfect cream color!)

I'm linking up with TGIFF and Crazy Mom Quilts. TGIFF is sponsoring a giveaway for linkups of completely finished projects in October so definitely link up if you finished something this week!

ALYoF - August Goal

Ok August. Game on. I am going to make a kaleidoscope quilt out of oranges and blue. I've been wanting to make a Kaleidoscope quilt for a while now. I am not going to use templates - that sounds akin to torture. Should I paper piece? I also found this nifty way to piece them without paper piecing or templates but I am concerned I wont get the accuracy I am striving for plus it generates a lot of weird scraps of fabric. Any suggestions?

The blue is a Kaffe Fasset shot cotton (I seriously wrote Kotton first). The oranges are assorted prints from my stash:

Any suggestions on how to construct it would be much appreciated! Linking up with ALYoF :)

ALYoF July Finish - A tale of two mini quilts

July is wrapping up and I am 7 for 7 in finishing my ALYoF goals. I set my July goal here to finish two mini quilts. When I finished, I realized these two minis couldn't be more different except that they each made the recipient very happy. tears shed = success!

I do Science Periodically 

Another coworker saw a periodic quilt I made and requested one of her own. I used a variety of solids to make up the table. Each element is 1" square. The background is a Kona brown. Maybe espresso?

Here is a close-up of the embroidery.

And a close-up of the amazing atomic dots fabric for the binding.

I used a dotty print for the backing.

I even had the chance to take some action shots in lab. Proving that I too, do science periodically.



Quote mini
A coworker and friend of mine recently lost her mother suddenly. I wanted to do something for her to show I was thinking about her so I slyly asked her to write down her favorite quotes.

I designed some paper pieced letters for the quote (thankfully it was a short quote!)

I kept the quilting simple - free motion flowers and leaves in the borders.

It's difficult to read in the bright light but the back is another one of her favorite quotes from Colossians 4:6

Thanks for stopping by! Check out the other finishes here. I'm also liking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF. So happy it's almost the weekend.

AYoLF July Goal Setting

Happy Independent Day for all you US peoples! Unlike some of you I do not have a 4 day weekend but, I am taking a few minutes during my lunch break to write up my post for my July goal. I am going to finish two mini quilts for two coworkers.

One of my coworkers saw my periodic table mini quilt (I think I still need to blog about the finished mini) and wanted one too. So it will be another one just like this:

I am also making a mini for another coworker who lost her mom unexpectedly early this year. 

I know this is technically two projects but they are small. So here we go! Linking up with the other goal setters.

Summertime Squares ~ AYoLF June Finish

Chirp Chirp. Hear the crickets? Sorry things have been quiet around here. Let's blame a summer blogging funk. I have still been sewing and I completed my June goal. My plan was to turn these 361 charm squares into a quilt.

Ta da! Introducing Summertime Squares:

size: 95" x 95" square.

The pattern is my own but heavily inspired by this pinterest post. I played with color pencils and graph paper.

The quilt was pieced and quilted by me on my home machine. I chose to do a cross-hatch design. It's not too much quilting so it drapes perfectly (over rocks).

The binding is scrappy AMH good folks voile scraps. I just love a voile binding, don't you.

The backing is this Ikea print. It's a seriously awesome print. And I got it for $2.99/yard. That is practically stealing it. My favorite doodles are the llama(?) or maybe the monster or the cheese grater/building. The pup and fugly fish are pretty great too. Actually I can't pick a favorite.

I love quilt burritos. They are yummy but don't get me fat.

Here it is on my guest bed. You can get a better idea of the scale. Ignore mismatched pillows or don't if you are into that kind of thing.

In 6 months I have finished 6 quilts! 

I hope I can keep it up for the remainder of the year. Now what to pick for July... For now, linking up with AYoLF oh and TGIFFFFFFF and Crazy Mom Quilts (So happy it is Friday!).

ALYoF - June Goal Setting

Time to set my June goal. Hmm. This time around I don't have a deadline (how nice!) On a whim, I started cutting lots of charm squares out of over 50 different fabrics. Appa supervised me while I worked.

Tall stack! My June goal is to convert these into a fun quilt inspired by this pin.

Linking up with LYoF. Go check out the other projects.

Blogger's Quilt Festival {Mellifera Quilt}

I am submitting my most recent finish as my second entry in the BQF. I also entered my Happy Pills quilt in the throw quilt category.

I present to you the Mellifera quilt:
Category: Favorite Scrap Quilt

mellifera is the species name of the European Honey Bee Apis mellifera 

Stats-

Size: 56" x 70"

Pattern: Honey Honey by Kate Spain

Fabrics:  Various yellow, orange and neutral scraps. Some vintage prints

Piecing: pieced with 50 wt Aurifil thread

Quilting: FMQ stipple by me on my home machine using a 50 wt yellow Aurifil thread.

I wanted to make a crazy improv pieced back that incorporated orphan blocks, bee fabrics and any leftover yellow prints I had. 

Here are some close ups of the back:

 

1. Orphan churn dashes finally found a home. 2. Orphan star blocks from someone at the Stash Bash, maybe Ali asquredw? 3. Bee fabric with hexagon borders. 4. Birds and the bees fabric.

 Zoooom in on the quilting and the binding. I stipple quilted with a yellow thread. Binding is Spot On by Robert Kaufman.

While making the blocks I created some HSTs from the scraps. A little bit of trimming later (just keep trimming, just keep trimming) and I had a tidy pile of 3.5" HSTs.

I arranged them in a 9 x 6 grid and sewed them up into a pillow sham using the same final dimensions from my tutorial.

These two cheery, scrappy, happys are headed to my sister for a birthday/housewarming gift. Check out the entries here.