Shine

This is Shine. It is a mini quilt which is about 15.5" square. It is made of assorted yellow, orange and red cottons with a Kona Charcoal background, binding and back. By the way, this picture is the best depiction of the actual charcoal colour.

Most of the quilting is done with darker grey thread by machine. There is a bit of red thread which circles the inner red pieced centre.



The center was made from 49 pieced squares finishing at 1/2" squares. I cut the pieced squares into a 3.5" circle and appliqued it into the paper pieced ring so the centre finishes at about 3" in diameter.

For the paper pieced ring of pointy points, I used the paper pieced template from a pattern called Bubble Gum Burst by Barbara Barber from a book I have called The Expert's Guide to Foundation Piecing.



Once the inner part was flattened (which proved to be a challenge, check out my progress post here) I cut the background in one continuous piece and cut out the inner circle. The inner ring was pieced into the background as one continuous piece.



The quilting was fun. I tried a few different quilting ideas for the centre, but in the end, decided to circle the centre piece twice and leave the patchwork to stand alone.



It took me longer than I expected to decide on the name. My inspiration for this little quilt was not connected to a word like Shattered was. This one came from a desire to evoke energy with the points.



See, here it is in the sun. I hope I have captured a small bit of that in the quilt.

This quilt is for my partner in the Fab Little Quilt Swap.

It seems I might be working in a bit of a series now - who knew.

Monday: I'm adding a link to Megan at Canoe Ridge Creations' {Sew} Modern Monday. You might want to head over to see the other wonderful finishes.

Tuesday: I am adding a link to Heather and Megan over at Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday. There are lovely projects on the go there too. (And I promise to write something new for tomorrow, honest.)


Best,

Leanne

Shattered - again - it gets around.

Thank you to Megan and the rest of the crew over at Generation Q Magazine for featuring Shattered as  the Quilt of the Week in their Saturday Special feature. She said the nicest things about this little quilt, it is so cool that other people like this one as much as I do.

 

I'm hoping to take some photos later today while the sun is up so I can show you the finished Kaleidoscope quilt, stay tuned.

Best,

Leanne

January, the long dark month is done

If one has past lives, in my last one I was a bear. I bulk up in the fall and want to sleep all through January - which works very well if you are a bear, but not so much for a human.

This January, I had some encouragement to stay awake after dark, and it is dark here by 4:30pm - ish, so a lot of the day is lost if you go to sleep once the sun is down.

First, Rhonda at Quilter in the Gap's Finish-a-long has been spurring me to finish last years  favourite projects. I have finished the quilt for my bed, I am making great progress on the Mystery QAL quilt and I have another finish to show off later this week.

Next, the Tangerine Tango Challenge and inspiration led to Shattered. And then there are quilting bees and swaps which have all been keeping me busy. Finally, I have been finishing some knitting off.

As we move into February, there will be more sunlight, which is good as there is lots more quilting planned for me. And it is time for some exercise too, my exercise buddy is soon going to disown me.

Please have a look at everyone's January projects over at Lily's Quilts where Lynne is hosting Fresh Sewing Day.

Featured - how cool is that!

Today, two of my quilts are featured on the internet - I am both thrilled and a little overwhelmed. The ROYGBIV Log Cabin Quilt is featured at Quilt Story.

And Shattered is being featured at Modern Day Quilts.

Pretty cool! Thanks to Heather and Megan at Quilt Story, and to Heather at Modern Day Quilts - they made my day, twice!

Best, 

Leanne

Creating

This is my latest creation, so far. It is made from an assortment of yellow, orange and red cotton prints and Kona Charcoal.



I started by making some pointy points. I had been making paper pieced points, and was not done with them yet. I am in the the Fab Little Quilt Swap and I am hopeful that my secret partner will like this.



I made the pointy points into a circle. I used the paper pieced template for this circle of points from a pattern called Bubble Gum Burst by Barbara Barber from a book I have called The Expert's Guide to Foundation Piecing.



Then my friend Linda from Linda Rotz Miller Quilts and Quilt Tops mentioned that she wondered what would go in the centre of such pointy points. Well, that got me thinking that I should put something pretty interesting in the centre.

My secret partner likes tiny patchwork and you will recall my Modern Christmas Tree Ornaments - tiny patchwork is my friend. So I cut up 49 one inch squares, each one from a different fabric.



I sewed them together, they finish at 1/2" so this little piece is about 3.5"square. Then I cut them in a circle.

Oh, in the interests of being real, I have to mention that the first time I cut the circle too small. Yup, I hauled out all 49 fabrics again (only a few came from my scrap box), cut another set of 1" squares and did it again.

I had thought I would just inset that circle with my sewing machine, no problem. Ha, that was not to be - I was brought back to the real world pretty quickly on that.

So this is my very first ever hand appliqued piece. I used the tiniest stitches I could manage.



Although it fit nicely, it puffed up like a fried egg. Or worse, a flower. I was going for edgy, artsy, modern and cool. Not cute.



See, fried egg. Not edgy, artsy or modern. Not cool.



But remember, it was paper pieced. I had left the paper in place so that all those bias seams would not stretch while I sewed in the middle. When you take the paper off, there is just the tiniest bit of ease as the seams relax.



The pointy points have 40 seams. Just enough ease to flatten it out, with just the steam from my iron (I am not a starcher, I don't even have any).



So here it is again, so far. It will be set into a square of the same Kona Charcoal and then I will quilt it, likely in grey like my Shattered quilt. I expect this mini quilt to finish somewhere near to a 15" square. I am having so much fun, inspiration has struck again.

I will update you soon.

PS. I am linking this to Fabric Tuesday over at Quilt Story, where you will find many other lovely projects too.

Best,

Leanne