quilting Archives - Hopeful Homemaker

Anchor Mini Quilts

March 31, 2015 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

I think I’ve finally made peace with being home from Quilt Bliss . What a fun weekend it was! When Pamela asked me to help with some sewing in preparation for the retreat, I jumped at the opportunity. Soon thereafter, a pile of DaySail by Bonnie & Camille was on my sewing table for cutting.

These anchor mini quilts were used as gifts for the teachers (Pamela’s awesome idea!), and were a lot of fun to make. I used my Anchor Quilt block and made four separate blocks.

Instead of leaving them at 14.5 inches square, I trimmed the two sides so the block was 12.5 inches wide and 14.5 inches tall. I then sewed 1.5 inch squares together to make strips which were used as borders. A white border followed the scrappy squares.

I love how they turned out! In fact, I keep thinking I should make another one to hang with my other mini quilts, but I’m not sure which color/print is my favorite:

The red floral print above was one that surprised me. I didn’t anticipate it being in my top 3 favorites in the Daysail collection, but I really love it! Which one is your favorite?

There are so many great blender prints in the Daysail collection, as well as several that make awesome bindings. I really enjoyed putting these together and experimenting with different combinations.

The stippling was done by Ella Lung , who did a beautiful job!

Much as I loved having them all hanging together, it was even better to see what Pamela did with them. She had the fantastic idea of inviting all the Quilt Bliss attendees sign each quilt in the outer white border as a thank you for teaching. I loved watching people sign their names. I was also just brave (or dorky) enough to ask Camille Roskelley for a picture with her and the quilt she ended up with:

I really enjoyed making anchor blocks again. I love my original anchor quilt , but it might be fun to make another version in some colorful nautical themed fabrics.

While finishing these mini quilts, a friend suggested one more use for them that I hadn’t thought of. I’m working on it now and am excited to share it soon!

Jennifer

One comment anchor, anchor quilt, mini quilts, Quilt Bliss, quilting

Prairie Sweets Quilt Blocks

March 25, 2015 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

Back in 2007, when my 6th baby was not yet crawling and I’d made my very first quilt, I somehow saw a picture of the Prairie Sweets quilt pattern by Fig Tree Quilts . Not yet knowing enough about quilting to have any clue how little I knew, words like applique and circles meant little to me. I just knew I liked the pattern, so I bought it.

And it sat for 7 years. Lots of things happened in those seven years. I kept quilting but I never made that quilt, as the words applique and circles came to mean “more work than I have time for” while other patterns grabbed my attention instead. Last year I took an honest look at the pattern, wondering if it was time to get rid of it. I was a little surprised to discover I still wanted to make one.

I decided to try having an “on the go” project this year, as I knew I’d spend lots of time in the car and wouldn’t be able to do as much sewing as I would like. I made all the pinwheel blocks and tried glue basting for the first time to secure the rings. So far it’s been an effective way to hold them in place as I’ve been carrying this project around in my car for nine months! I chose Anna Maria Horner’s Pretty Potent fabrics for the project and the more I sew the more I love it.

I’ve got 22 blocks finished, which is about half of them. It was fun to lay them out and see how pretty they all look together! I used a variety of swiss dot fabrics for the backgrounds, and I really love that element as well.

It’s been great to have something to keep me busy when I’m sitting in carpool lines at schools or waiting for practices and lessons to end. It will be fun to finish the remaining blocks and decide what my next hand sewing project will be!

Jennifer Linking here

6 comments quilting, sewing

Spools Mini Quilt

March 24, 2015 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

I participated in the Secret Sister Swap at Quilt Bliss, and was happy to have Lori assigned to me. When I read her list of preferences, the first thing I noticed was that she loves blue fabric. A girl after my own heart! After some back and forth and stressing about what to make, I settled on the Spools Mini quilt from the Liberty Love book.

I pulled some favorite blue fabrics and settled on a scrappy low volume background.

The block was fun to make and came together quickly and precisely. I think this one was my favorite:

The final product:

I would quilt it differently if I made it again. I chose straight line quilting in a diagonal grid, but wish I’d done some free motion quilting on each spool. I was nervous, however, because I’m out of practice and even when I’ve been practicing my fmq leaves much to be desired. So I went with something I knew I could do, but I’m not sure it was the best choice for this mini. Still, I do like it and I was out of time so it had to work!

A couple of things I re-learned in making this mini:
1. When I sew for myself, it’s generally relaxing. When I make a gift, I generally enjoy it. When it’s a swap, I’m a total stress case.
2. I really, really love low-volume fabrics, backgrounds, everything. The trend hasn’t bothered me a bit and I’m not at all tired of it. I love the visual interest it gives a quilt. Low-volume makes me happy.

And there you have the story of this mini quilt.

I hope Lori enjoys it!

Leave a comment mini quilts, quilting, sewing, swaps

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