Pink and Navy Nautical

My A Lovely Year of Finishes Goal this month was simply to quilt this Nautical quilt. I managed to do better than that and get the whole thing finished! I had been contacted by a lovely woman who wanted me to make a hot pink and navy quilt for her daughter. The baby's father is in the merchant marines! This is what I came up with:

Philly MQG had a sewing day last Sunday at Sew Smart Fabrics and I spent the afternoon getting the binding sewn down. (I might have done a little shopping too! I'll show that later.)

This quilt was inspired by the "What does the fox say" Quilt from Fresh Quilts Magazine. However, she did hers quilt as you go. That method still scares me. I pieced my top, put it all together and then
squared it up. I did wavy line quilting to go with the whole nautical theme.

My anchor is pretty large at about 16" tall. I wanted that to pop. And I machine stitched it together with a tight satin stitch. After all, this will be used by a little girl! I want it to be durable.

Overall, I'm happy with how this came out! I hope the new mom to be is happy too. Just call me the nautical quilt lady! :)  Here's the back where I pieced together some large pieces of the leftover fabric. My friend Denise was kind enough to be my quilt holder.

And my label....

I'm linking this finish to A Lovely Year of Finishes.

Quilt stats:

Quilt name: Girly Anchor

Pattern: Inspired by What does the Fox Say

Fabrics: Mostly In The Navy Fabric Collection By Camelot Designer Jackie Mcfee

Finished size: Forgot to measure! approx 45"x 60"??

Finished: 3/21/14

Exploding Lonestar Finished

It's been a while since I've had a quilt finish on here. Believe me, there are lots in the works! I just have to get quilting. That seems to be my sticking point! But, here we go, I have a finish.

So you've seen bits of this quilt on my blog before but it's finally finished! This quilt is the result of a class I took at Round Bobbin Quilts in December. I haven't taken a class in a while and it was fun to have the camaraderie and collaboration in a class. And most of all it was fun to see the fabrics others selected. Unfortunately I can't find the photos I took of the different fabrics everyone chose. But there was a good mix of modern and traditional. We didn't finish the quilt in class so I never got to see end results.

All the fabrics were picked out at the Round Bobbin. And I've decided this quilt is going to my grandmother. She's 93 and was the one to teach me to sew. She taught me to cross stitch when I was six. And she was a hand quilter (not a piecer though) herself!

You can see the quilting better on the back. It's "v" shaped around the four quadrants of the quilt.

Quilt stats:

Quilt name: Exploding Lonestar

Pattern: None - class taught

Fabrics: scrappy

Finished size: 60"x60"

Finished: 3/12/14

How I board baste

I had been spray basting for quite a while, but was having a hard time with some of my larger quilts. I was getting puckers on the back and was just not happy with how things were turning out.  I discovered board basting (I think it was here) and thought I'd put together a little tutorial on how I do it.

I had my husband buy me some long boards and cut them down to 6' long. I clear out my kitchen island (I love the height). Start with the backing and roll it up with the right side down.

 

Smooth out the quilt as you go and wrap fairly tightly. Then wrap your top with the right side up. forgot to get a picture of that).  Start the basting process by laying the bottom out and smoothing it nicely.

Lay the batting on top of it lining up the bottom and sides, smoothing a you go.

Lay the top on top of that and unroll it towards the back, smoothing as you go.

Pin baste the exposed area. When you run out of room, pull the excess batting over the top and slide to the front of your surface.

 

Unroll the backing, flip the batting back on top and then unroll the top over it all. Make sure all layers are smooth of course. 

Pin and repeat as needed! How do you baste?

blocks and fabric

Last weekend I was lucky enough to get together with a couple of quilting friends for a sewing day. It was great to chat and catch up with them!

Our main objective was to work on our charity blocks for PMQG. As a group, we put together a quilt that we donate to the school that hosts our meeting. They then raffle or auction it off to raise funds.  This year we decided to do HST Blocks. Here are mine:

The parameters were that we needed to use 4 hst's per block with the print fabric and then the celery green. We could add whatever prints/solids we wanted. Cathy's blocks:

And Denise's blocks:

And I to confess, I've done a little bit of fabric buying. This is why I fail at diets and just eliminating things from my life. Once I open that door a tiny crack, the waves of weakness come crashing in and I just gorge myself!  You know what I mean? You say no sweets, then you have cake at a party, then why not some ice cream. Next thing you know, you've bought some sweets for the house and you're late night snacking. No? Just me? 

Well, I was trying to behave with the fabric buying and had to buy some solids for a background.  Guess what jumped in my cart?

That's a FQ Bundle of Sphere by Zen Chic...  I was just going to order a couple prints. REALLY!  But I couldn't decide. I don't think there is a print in this line that I don't like.  Sigh...  I've never bought an FQ bundle before so I have to say it was very exciting to get this. I won't be unwrapping it for a while.

And then a couple days later I got notice that this was coming.

I forgot that I signed up for the Kawaii Fabric Club at Pink Chalk Fabrics. OMG! How cute are those penguins and hedgehogs!? Every piece in this stack is adorable. I've provided the link in case you want to sign up too.  Yup, I'm enabling in order to drag you in to my spiral! LOL

March Goal - Lovely Year of Finishes

Just a quicky post. My goal for March A Lovely Year of Finishes. I got another commission for a nautical quilt, this one navy with hot pink. I've pulled my pattern and fabrics. My goal for this month is to get the top finished!