modern quilt

June UFO Challenge

Does everyone else feel like they’re playing one very long game of catch-up, or is that just me?! The Corona-craziness starting in March and April coupled with a massive arthritis flare-up in May and June have done a good job of keeping me always just slightly behind schedule on my UFO challenge. Add my lack of keeping up this blog, and I’m realizing that unless you are an instagram follower, you would think I’ve given up this challenge completely!

Well, I definitely have not given up! And in the next couple of days, I will be posting about the last couple of months of the challenge and where I’m at.

#11 was the project picked for June. Here is what I had to say in January about this project:

11- 16-patch scrappy quilt: I have several 16-patch scrappy blocks that I’ve made over the years and would like to make some more and assemble a quilt. Not sure what size I’ll end up with, but it’ll probably depend on how busy that month is!

I didn’t really have much of a plan for these blocks or even an idea of how large the finished project would be. I decided on two options: I could simply assemble the blocks and make a very busy baby quilt with zero negative space, or I could assemble them on a grid with a ‘background’ color for some space to rest the eyes.

Well, in spite of being behind schedule, I decided I much preferred the idea of the larger quilt. And since my eldest son helped me make that decision and he was just about to leave for a picnic with his girlfriend, I figured it should be a picnic quilt for her.

We decided on a dark grey or black solid background, but as many of you probably know, it’s kinda of tough to find neutral solids right now. As I shopped online, I did find this black and grey blender that I thought would work well. It was a little scary buying that much fabric without seeing and touching it first! But when it arrived, it was as beautiful as I had hoped. I ordered extra, so there was enough to add a 3″ border and even some to save for my son’s next quilt (which, unbeknownst to me, would be my July UFO project!)

Leah’s Picnic Quilt is now in my pile of finished tops awaiting the perfect backing and quilting plan. I like the idea of an all-over swirl design in a bright color. The finished top is 62 x 70.

Tomorrow I’ll share with you about my July UFO project: Isaac’s Downstream quilt.

Happy Sewing! ~L

May UFO Challenge

How can time simultaneously seem to be dragging and flying by? How is it possible that 2020 is half over? And will I ever catch up on my UFO challenge?

My arthritis was really flaring up in May/June, so I reduced my sewing time quite a bit and got WAAAAYYYYY behind on my sewing projects.

My May UFO challenge project was one that had been sitting around my studio for much too long. In fact, when I got it out and up on my design wall, my daughter reminded me that we worked on it together at our old house. That means this project has been sitting in limbo for almost THREE YEARS. Not the oldest of my UFO projects, but this one did sit untouched the longest. Time to get it done!

Here is what I had to say in January about this project:

“12- Low-Volume Blue log cabin- This is a charity quilt that has been lingering for much too long. The blocks are mostly done and it just needs to get finished and get out into the world. I would like to have it completely finished by the end of its month.”

Because I hadn’t touched it in so long, I had to look at what I had in the project bag and make a guess at the layout I had planned. There were 20 unfinished blocks; some of them measured up to 12.5″ on one side. Knowing that, and remembering the charity quilt size requirements for my guild at the time, my assumption was that I was making 12.5″ blocks in a 4 x 5 layout. This would make a 50″ x 62.5″ quilt top.

I had some remaining fabric set aside to finish this, but I also wanted to add some newer things from my stash for variety.

After finishing the top, it sat for a while longer before I started quilting it. I decided on Aurifil 2890. It was in my stash and coordinated great with the Kona Basil I had used for the majority of the backing and for the binding. My husband really like the density of the quilting on this, so I think our next bed quilt will be similar. It looks full, but there are plenty of open spaces where the quilt can pouf up and move around.

I’ve been doing a lot of machine binding this year. Hand sewing has gotten harder, and I feel like machine binding gives a really strong finish. This is especially important for baby/toddler quilts that get a lot of washings!

Happy Sewing! ~Lorinda

Finished Quilt Orange HST Sampler

Last week, I shared some of the quilts I gifted for Christmas. And I have another fun one to show you today!

This quilt uses some of the blocks I made for the Modern HST Sampler QAL hosted by Blossom Heart Quilts waaaaayyyy back in 2016.

   

Yep, this one was a LONG time in the making. The blocks were easy enough, but then they kept getting continually set aside so I could work on other things.

Finally, I pulled the blocks out and created a rectangular, non-gridded layout on my design wall. But something wasn’t sitting right. And it lingered there for another couple of months!

I decided I needed to simplify and put a selection of the blocks in a square grid layout with a simple, straightforward white background. And boy was a pleased with the result! It has such a nice, clean look to it.

Once the top was done, it was only a matter of time before I got it onto the long arm. I did a simple stipple to let the design of the fabrics and quilt blocks shine.

I chose a wide binding for this. It’s a fun technique to really (literally) bring the design of that gorgeous backing fabric (from Mister Domestic) to the front of the quilt.

Thankfully, in the years that it took me to finish this quilt, my recipient has not changed her favorite color! I honestly was a little worried about that. I’m happy to have it out in the world being loved by a special young lady.

You an read past posts about this quilt here, here, here, and here.

That was the last of the ‘secret sewing’ Christmas quilts I’ve been waiting to show! Later this week, I’ll start sharing a bit of the quilts I have planned for 2020.

Happy Sewing, ~L

Finished Quilt: The Quilter’s Planner 2019 BOM Pyramid

How in the world are we already halfway through the month of January?! The last month has been a whirlwind of activity with some big changes for me. Besides the usual holiday stuff, at the end of the year I left my job to more fully focus on teaching. It was a hard choice, but my passion truly is in guiding people to the joy of handmade, so this was a good move for me! I am developing some fun classes and now have time to bring on more one-on-one sewing students.

Now that Christmas gift-giving is done and I’ve finally settled into the new year and my new routine, I can share about some of my recent finishes and move onto talking about my 2020 projects. Over the next week or so, I will be showing off some of the things that I sent off as Christmas gifts. After that, I’ll share my ‘to-sew’ list for 2020. In short, you’re going to see a lot of posts from me in the next few weeks!

So, to get started, I’d like to share one of my quilts from The Quilter’s Planner 2019 BOM Sampler!

I started working for The Quilter’s Planner in early 2019 writing blog posts each month sharing tips and tricks for the 2019 Sampler blocks. Helping BOM participants work through their blocks each month has been so much fun. As I said before, teaching sewing is my passion… this was a perfect fit for me! And the bonus was that it kept me on track with finishing not one but TWO sampler quilt tops.

About halfway through the year, I decided that my pyramid layout quilt needed to go to my sister-in-law. The colors are perfect for her, and since she was planning to move across the entire country to Maine, she was going to need some love from home at Christmas!

The fabric collection for the 2019 Sampler was Smitten by Bonnie and Camille. I backed it in Kona Poppy and quilted a free motion swirl design using Aurifil 2250. Right before it was time for me to quilt it, we got the new Bonnie and Camille collection (Early Bird) into the shop I worked at. There was a perfect little red and white polka dot in the collection that I chose for the binding. One thing I absolutely love about their fabric collections is how well they all work together!

Lately I’ve been working on perfecting my machine binding skills. There are a few reasons for that. First, I have arthritis. This is a new development (about a year), and honestly it really sucks. I was dealing with a lot of pain through fall and winter and hand binding was just not a good option. Second, I was pressed for time on several of my more recent quilts to get them out before Christmas. That being said, my machine bindings in the past have always looked pretty messy. So, I’ve learned to take my time and use my quarter inch foot to make a machine binding that looks really top notch! As a bonus- machine binding is very sturdy! I’ll still hand bind when I can, but for baby quilts and things that need finished quickly, this is my new go-to method!

As a bonus to this post, I thought I’d share a couple of pictures of my BOM Snowflake layout quilt top. The second picture is one of my favorite quilty photos I’ve ever taken. My husband was being so sweet trying to hold this top for me, but the wind kept making it billow. We were both laughing and yelling at the quilt to behave. The way the sun was hitting the quilt top creating the stained glass effect was so beautiful, I had to grab a photo! I love that it captures such a wonderful moment in time.

I’m in love with this top too, but it’s going to hide in the cabinet until it’s number gets called on my All People Quilt UFO challenge (more on that later!).

Happy sewing, ~L