The Patriot, Mystery Quilt

 This is my version of Alycia's Mystery Quilt

I didn't even realize until I was done...that I had turned the bottom 2 quarters of the quilt.  But. It's quilted, bound and hanging up.  I'm really diggin' that border.  I enjoyed being taken out of my comfort zone with more scrappy quilting. 

I used the panto, "Allegiance" by Kristen Hoftyzer and white binding.

I had a whole bolt of this light blue patriotic fabric.

I like it. 

Thanks  Alycia Quilts for creating such a great Mystery Quilt!

The Patriot, Mystery Quilt

Whoot!  I got my taxes done so I could finally finish up this Mystery Quilt!

I put it on the frame tonight.

Using the panto "Allegiance" by Kristin Hoftyzer.  I have had this pattern forever, and I like it on busy scrappy fabrics in a Quilt of Valor.

Ha, ha....wonky stars upon wonky stars.

Here is a link back to Alycia's site for her Mystery Quilt

The Patriot Mystery Quilt

Today was clue #5 in Alycia's Mystery Quilt

I eagerly finished up Clue #4 last week.

Can't wait to get started assembling all my blocks!

Denim Graduation Quilt

I am quilting ahead so when graduation time rolls around, I won't be stitching at the last minute.

In May, it's high school graduation for an Idaho ranch kid that has grown into a wonderful young man.

I asked a family member what his favorite color was and she told me it was maroon.  When I looked through all my flannel backings, I remembered I had the perfect color!  

I had this large 62x90 piece of maroon flannel.

All I had to do is make the top to fit with enough room to pin on the frame.

I have about 14-15 more quilts left in this pile of denim.

Years ago, I started "deboning" every pair of jeans that came into my studio.  I know there are lots of super cute quilts with pockets, zippers, etc. But I only use the main part of the legs because that's what I can quilt over with my longarm.

This is all I keep because it is all I use.  I trim the leg with my 6.5" ruler, making sure to keep the denim on grain.

You will end up with strips up to 40" depending on the size of the jeans.  Then you can sub cut these into any size you want.  Easy.

I use a standard 1/4" seam and steam press as I sew each row.

 I press all seams open.

I sewed several whole strips end to end and then started cutting them into 58" pieces. (remember, I only had a 62" backing.)  As you go, you get uneven ends and this makes it good if you want a random color pattern. 

You can see where you want to move the strips to spread out the color.  If you sew them all together by twos, then the twos together to make sets of 4 and then the fours together to make a set of 8 strips.  Then you only have to wrangle the biggest bulk of the quilt through your Bernina only once.

This is where I like to use up a lot of my random spools of thread.  I 

I sewed garments for 40 years before I started quilting.  I sewed all through my teen years, made all my hubby's shirts, sewed for my kids, you name it, I had a thread color for it.  So, I am working my way through a ton of spools for my domestic.  I might add that I always do the snap test to make sure each spool of thread is still strong.  One of my blues didn't make the cut and I had to toss it.

I don't buy spools anymore, I really love using cones of thread on my  Bernina.  My hubby made me a thread holder that will work with spools or cones...so I am gradually using up all my collection of spools,  you can see a lot of empty space, right? 

I just happened to have some yellow flannel for the binding.

 Quilt pattern is Square Spiral by Karen Emmerson. 

How fun is that?

Mystery Quilt, The Patriot

I am finally all caught up with Alycia Quilts Mystery Quilt, The Patriot

  Here are Clues 1,2 & 3.

If you want to join along, here are her links to the first 3 clues.

Clue #1

Clue #2

Clue #3

It's all gotta be down hill from now...

...now that I managed to get all 16 of these wonky stars completed.

Can't wait for Clue #4!

So, This Just Happened....

It's my granddaughter's birthday....

 I made a cover for a 24 inch pillow.

It matches the quilt I made for her a year ago.

You can read about it here.

I love this Slushee fabric by Benartex. 

I had hardly a scrap of this fabric left and I bought it in 2015...so I started searching and was able to find some on eBay!  Paid double, but hey....I only needed a yard.

Happy Birthday Miss J.

I'm Gettin' Into this Scrappy Thing!

I'm following Alycia Quilts with her Mystery Quilt of Valor, The Patriot.  I'm only a couple months late, but I got half through Clue #1 today!

What a challenge for me....another scrappy quilt.....but I'm rockin' these wonky stars!

Here are the other 9 blues to make into blocks.  I played it safe with the cream so all the stars will be the same in different backgrounds.

I swear, this drawer of blue scraps has grown even though I have taken fabric out for this quilt and for last months scrappy quilt-- Arkansas Crossroads.

It must be getting fluffed up each time I rummage through it.....

I had a hard time getting the hang of placing the triangles just right to get nice inner points that were not truncated when I assembled the block.

THIS

IS 

HARD

....for me.

This was my first assembled block, I didn't like how the bottom 2 points came together at the center, but I thought, well, it's supposed to be wonky.  I kept looking at it and finally, after I successfully made 7 other blocks, I had to take this apart and add a new square to the bottom.  That flat space was totally annoying.

Much better....

I will be back with another update when I get to Clue #2!

Another Quilt to Love

Most of you know I don't take customer quilts anymore.  However, I make an exception once in awhile.

I heard through the family grapevine that this lady's denim quilt top needed rescued after being stored for many years.  She made it while her kiddos were little and something told me this was one of my exceptions.

We sent a few messages back and forth and she chose this piece of flannel backing from my shelf yardage. I had just barely enough yardage to make the backing and the binding (less than a fat quarter is left!)

Since I prefer the backing seam horizontal, I also mounted the top horizontally, only 3/4" from the edge on the top leader....

When I got to the bottom, I had a whopping 1.25 inch left....

There was a plan for this madness!

I needed all the extra on the sides to make the cute crosswise binding!

A topographical meander works well for denim quilts because you can stitch around any heavy seams.

Tomorrow, it will go back to it's forever-home to be loved and used.

  

I'm Not Afraid of Scrappy Quilts!

My very first, genuine scrappy quilt.

My rule for this quilt was that all the fabric had to come from my stash and all 18 blocks had to be different.

1) All the block pieces came from my scrap drawers.

 2) The cream background was the last bit from a bolt in the corner.

3) The backing and binding came from my folded stash on the shelves.

4) The batting was pieced from leftovers from other quilts.

Simple quilted lines make an interesting secondary pattern without distracting from the colored blocks. 

I have a lot of different backings but it was hard to find one I really liked for this. I needed 4 yards and I had 4.25 yards of this light green batik...and it's a different color than any green on the front.

 I think these little suns mirror the star shaped blocks on the front.

The hardest part was deciding on the binding, everything I tried just jumped out and screamed, "look at me!" I finally found the perfect addition with this black and white tiny checked print. 

You can see that it's there, but it doesn't over power the quilt.  Now, I love a fun, contrasting, scrappy binding and put them on many quilts.  But it was just not working here for me.  I love this. 

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Sharing a few miscellaneous housekeeping tips.

I always float my quilts and the blue tape is just holding the rolled up canvas (that I never use) on my bottom take-up roller.

However, there are a couple of tape markers I use to keep my quilt tops nice and square all the way down to the bottom of the quilt.  Doesn't get much more high tech than this, right?  Once I square the quilt at the top all  have to do is align the edge with my tape after each forward roll.  (note the pieced batting...click here to see how I do mine.)

Piecers, please stay-stitch your quilts with pieced edges. I stay-stitch mine as I complete every 2-3 rows.  By the time you wrangle several rows through your machine and then handle it back to the iron, etc, and the quilter handles it to get it on the frame.....well, I can guarantee no mater how careful we are, these pieced edges are coming un-sewn all over the top. Your quilter with thank you!

When I quilt a design that starts and stops at the same place, like around this diamond, I always like to start about an inch from a corner.  That way you get nicely sewn corners and you can turn that last corner, line up your ruler and make a perfect landing on top of your previous stitches, I always back stitch 2 or 3 stitches to secure both ending and beginning after I have completed the diamond.

It hardly shows.

I always stitch my binding to the back, flip to the front and top stitch, it's fast and easy with perfect corners every time.  Here's how I do machine bindings.

I love these little satin name tags.  I ordered them at ikaprint.  You can get them any size, color or font.  I had mine printed like this so I could fold them in the middle and stitch them into the binding.  

How fun is that!