A Year of Finishes....Part One

As my first full year of blogging is coming to an end...I thought I would recap the finishes and some beginnings of 2011....

In the Quilt Category.....

We have one of my favorite quilts of all time and certainly my favorite quilt design. 

Gypsy Kisses is a pickledish design from Kathy Doughty of Material Obsession fame.

This is a multiple techniques quilt....paper foundation piecing, patchwork piecing, hand applique, and hand quilted.

A popular theme this year was the Union Jack....

 

 

And Molly helped with the label.



Another Material Obsession quilt started and finished....although not completely quilted yet....

Strawberry Fields - which I call Tea Party

I love the sweet feminine nature of this quilt, but for some reason quilting it seems like such a chore for me....does this ever happen to you?  Here is the best thing about this quilt....it was while making this quilt that I emailed Susan {I didn't know her at all but I knew she had made this quilt}.  My copy of the book had errors and I wasn't sure why things weren't working out properly.  Enter....Susan to the rescue!!!  What a lucky girl I am :)  Good reason to finish this one, right????  

  

I was so fortunate to be able to do a couple of quilt samples for the shoppe using Suzy Ultman's fabric lines.....Appleville and Critter Community...

  

In May I was in a New York state of mind....a New York Beauty that is....

A whole cloth quilt...

made from flannel on the front and linen on the back....

  

A baby version of my Coin Quilt made from Birch organic....

I love this quilt....with the straight line quilting and then pick stitching...

   

Molly {my oldest daughter} decided to try her hand at quilting.  She does fabulous embroidery and loves crazy quilts.  So I thought she would enjoy a little hand applique and then to quilt in crazy quilt style!!!  Well, she did a marvelous job....

   

Then Lark {from Amy Butler} arrived in the shoppe....

  

Most recently, I have finished the Wonky Little Houses Quilt...again a sample for the shoppe...

It has been a fun year of quilting and making good friends!  I have a few more finishes to share later in the week....

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend :)

mary

New York Beauty-licious!!!!

Whew!!!  I can't tell you how happy I am that this top is finished!

When I looked at this all pieced together....my first thought was Willy Wonka....or Carnival!!!

So maybe this will be my Willy Wonka Quilt....hee hee!

On each corner I added 3 quadrants...

And for the center of the corner blocks....I used a smaller black and white polka dot...the centers are hand appliqued....

Between the corner blocks, I paper foundation pieced {freezer paper} 10 inch spikes...

The center of the quilt is just 4 New York Beauty blocks, measuring 20 inches each....the borders and corner quadrants measure 10 inches...

The entire quilt measures 60 inches square....

This is one I can check off my list of quilts 'to do'.....Yay!!!!

Now to decide how to quilt it...by hand, by machine, both?  What design for the quilting?  Any suggestions? 

mary

In The Zone.....

I am on the home stretch....

All four corners of the quilt will be flanked by 3 NYB quadrants....

Then the borders will have the large spikes...

oh - how I would love a design wall rather than a design floor!

I am loving this black/white dot I picked up last week....Habitat....there is just something about it I am really liking...

I thought I would share with you the plates we hung on the wall in our family room...they are all {but one} from Anthropologie....the bottom middle one is an old small oval platter....from my husband's family....

Have a great Monday!

mary

Another Dresden Pillow...

No doubt I love the Dresden....I have made a couple of Dresden Quilts and now my third Dresden Pillow....

 

I used Hokkoh tiny blue polka dot for the background and Alexander Henry's tiny check for the center....

And sometimes you fall in love with the back as much as the front....

Molly and I are working on a special gift for a friend....Molly, of course, is supplying the embroidery.... 

And finally, I finished the second block of the NYB....

And this is about as close as we got to sunshine today!

mary

I Have Decided on a New York Beauty!!!

I have been looking for the next project I want to work on...long term.  And I think I have decided to do a New York Beauty quilt.  Like the Pickle-dish, this is one I have always loved....so I found a few designs I like and did some paper piecing using freezer paper....

I also thought I would do a little mini-tutorial on the freezer paper technique....at least how I do it :)

Begin with your design and trace it onto the non-shiny side of the freezer paper.

Each quadrant of my design is separated into 5 parts and 3 of those will be paper pieced....the center circle I have decided to applique so I don't have a pieced center.

slide your design under the freezer paper and trace

Score the lines of your design with the back of your seam ripper....don't cut all the way through the paper...just score it to make it easier to fold the paper back.

Next cut your fabric so it is at least 1/4 inch larger than your design lines....I am using two fabrics and I will work on the first segment of my design {first triangle working from left to right}  Place a piece of fabric under the freezer paper template...the shiny side will be placed next to the wrong side of your fabric.

my fabric is placed under and extending beyond the lines of the first segment of my design

Using a dry hot iron press the freezer paper so it adheres to the first piece of fabric....then carefully peel back the paper so it is folded on the line of the first triangle.... 

Take your acrylic ruler and place it so the fold of the paper is lined up with the quarter inch mark on the ruler.  Slice the excess fabric so that a quarter inch seam allowance is left extending beyond the paper fold....

Now take your second fabric and place it so the right sides are facing and the raw edges along this quarter inch seam are lined up....

Stitch just along the side of the folded paper....be careful not to sew on the paper....just use the fold as a guide and stitch right next to it {I shorten my stitch length to 1.8}

Then unfold the second fabric...finger press along the seam....and then press the freezer paper again over the second fabric.  Now you will be working on the second segment.  Once the freezer paper is pressed onto the second segment...gently peel back the paper and fold along the next line.....again slice off the excess to leave the quarter inch seam allowance.

second fabric is unfolded...press the freezer paper again to cover the second segment and the second fabric

slice off the excess fabric leaving the quarter inch seam allowance

Continue in the same manner until you have filled in every segment of your design...

then trim around the outside of your design.  My pattern has the quarter inch seam allowance all the way around the outside so I did not need to leave a quarter inch seam allowance.  I trimmed along the outside edge of the paper pattern.  Carefully peel the freezer paper off of your pieced arc.

trimmed pieced arc

I have not sewn my quadrants together or my center circle....I think I will use a dotted fabric for the background....so I will be looking for the right background fabric....

I am not sure I will use this background....I need to audition other dots....

I very much enjoy this type of piecing...even though it can be a bit tedious.

Hope you are having a great Friday!

mary