BQF - hand quilted

Here is my second entry for the Blogger's quilt festival. I decided to go for hand quilted category. As some of you know this quilt was in progress for a long time. I finally finished it and there is some hand quilting included.

I quilted around each ballerina, house and pinwheel. You can read about the quilting here. The original post can be found here and some progress shots here.

There are 8 houses and 8 pinwheels as it was Bday gift for my 8 year old.

It is modified version of pattern by Elizabeth Hartman called Neighborhood.

Enjoy the festival!

Q3 - Ballerinas done

 

Finally! Here is finished Ballerinas quilt. It was #1 on my Q3 FAL list. I had to improvise for the photo shoot but isn't that tractor fun too? :-)

I would also like to tell you about Craft Book Month @ Craft Buds. It'll be my third time participating. The idea is to use those craft books you already have and show others what you have created.

My quilt is modified version of Neighborhood by Elizabeth Hartman. The book is called Modern Patchwork and I first came across this book during Craft book month two years ago.

I started this quilt last year as Bday gift for my girl. I made 7 houses out of Summersville charm pack and this year I added one more since my girl will be 8 years old. You can see that my quilt holder came back when the field was all ploughed under. You can also spot I have added chimneys and 3D pinwheels.

The quilt is mostly hand quilted as the batting is really thick and it was PITA to quilt it. Backing is polar fleece so it is just snuggly and warm.

Plus you can levitate in this quilt if you almost 8 years old :)

I usually name quilts after songs so I go with Don't you worry child for this one.

Linking up with TGIFF and Crazy mom quilts.

 

August goal achieved

Here we go again. This time I'm catching up with deadline for August ALYoF. My goal was to finish this Ballerinas quilt and I made it!

You could see me hand quilting it. Machine quilting is fairly simple since the thick batting is PITA. Just a few straight lines across the quilt to keep the layers together.

Once again I used polar fleece for the back. As you can see I sewed the binding on prior trimming. It prevents the polar fleece edges from stretching and you end up with no puckers. Yay!

I wanted some pink binding but I didn't have enough so there were few other alternatives in game but my girl picked this green with pink dots. Honestly I just wanted to finish it so if it works for her, works for me too.

The binding is machine stitched. Do you also count the corners while sewing?

It is like one, we just began.
Two, you half way through.
Three, keep going and breath! At that point I'm getting really excited about being almost done.
Four, here we go! Almost there, few more stitches and DONE! Yippee!

That is obviously good news. The bad weather helped since it kept us inside but on the other hand I'm not able to take proper outdoor pics. So that's it for today. I'll talk more about the quilt within few days so stay tuned if you interested. It'll be my project for Craft Book Month.

WiP - hand quilting

There is not much sewing happening at my place. I'm in hand quilting mode.

It was raining in the afternoon so I hand quilted while watching .... have a guess! Yeah, Barbie!

I read many times how people hand quilt in the car. I wanted to try it out. We were only going to my parents' house. There is nothing like highway so there were some turnings and I don't think is worth it since it is only 15 minutes away, lol. Ridiculous is the word to describe my car sewing experience.

I had all the houses quilted around and it was time for pinwheels. I marked circles around and managed to quilt around all of them. I left the quilt on couch to have it cat approved.

I only hand quilted the top and batting together. Now it is time to add polar fleece for backing and move on to sewing machine.

On a way home I snapped this perfect spot for picture taking. I'm afraid these will be gone by the time I finish this quilt.

Linking up with

 

Ballerinas + Q2 round up

Progress was made! Ballerinas quilt top is done! Yipee!

One of the reasons I have been putting off this project is that I was worried I have not enough of background fabric. I bought 2m without any exact plan. It is local no brand and the width is 140cm. Once I pieced the houses and pinwheels together I had to do some math. Eeek. I had about 50cm of WOF plus approx 80cm which I could use for all the rows.

I pieced all the rows. They finished 132cm wide (nearly 52") which is just right. I added some WOF strips in between. Simply everything I could and my measuring tape said 185cm (nearly 73"). Pretty good considering I had no real plan or sketch. Honestly I don't know how you calculate how much of background you are going to need.

How many scraps do you usually end up with? I have one charm square left and tiny bit of green. Call me Lucky!

If you want to see how it is pieced, have a look. It is modified, charm square friendly version of Neighborhood by Elizabeth Hartman.

This quilt was also on my Q2 FAL list. I don't think I'll rush the quilting and finish within 3days but it is No.1 project for Q3! You can check out what others have made during Q2 at the finish party.

I finished 3/6. How do you call that? Tie? Let's check them out before I start feeling like a looser.

At the end of April I finished Color wheel quilt. It has become part of my sewing space and it feels like I have it there for ages.

I was on roll back in April since I finished Triangle quilt as well. I haven't finished any in May or June!

I always wanted bag made out Echino. I finally have one and I love it. It's my current favorite bag.
That's it! I don't know about you but I have mixed feeling about Q2.

Linking up with finish it up Friday @ Crazy mom quilts.

WiP - Ballerinas

It is happening again. I'm working on Ballerinas. This is kind of UFO. It is the first project I shared here on this blog, ehmm more than a year ago. It was meant to be quilt for 7th Birthday but as time goes by I adjusted it into 8th. The backing is going to be pink so I wanted to incorporate more pink into front as well that is how I ended up with 8th house. I don't have any Summersville charm squares left so pink it is.

I rearranged the layout many number of times. I need to stare at it a bit longer to decide if that is the final. The original pattern is by Elizabeth Hartman called Neighborhood. I'm not really in love with this thing anymore that is why is taking me so long to finish it but I know there are some fans out there. Hello Sandra, I'm looking at you! :-)

Have you ever made any 3D pinwheels? They are quite fun and easy just a little bulky in the center. Pinwheels were the theme for Across the Pond last year. You can check some cool ideas in Amy's post or Amanda's.

To celebrate my progress I of course started something new, lol. I owe you some comment replies and 1 year Blogiversary whatever. It's coming. Hang it there! XOXO

Linking up with WiP Wednesday and Let's Bee Social!