Natalie's Quilt

I made this quilt for my step daughter Natalie.  The blocks are a traditional jacob's ladder, laid out in a not so traditional pattern. To make things easy I used mini charm squares for the four patches, saving me tons of cutting time. I made this quilt with Moda's Cannon fabric by Kate Spain.

I bought 10 packs of mini charm squares plus(8) 2 1/2 inch squares from my sash.

 I quilted it with flowers and leaves in the purple/orange areas, and flowers in the green/yellow fabrics. In the white I quilted lines back and forth.

This was one of those quilts that went together so smooth and so fast. I had a blast making it for so many reason. It was great to see what I could make with mini charm squares, I loved the fabrics, and colors. The quilting turned out beautiful, I hope Natalie loves it as much as I do!

I will be posting the free pattern.

Bella's Block Party!

The first class I taught at Sew Special Quilts was Bella's Block Party. I love this Quilt!  I used a Moda Jelly Roll, Block Party by Sandy Gervais for the blocks.  It amazed me I made all 24 blocks from one Jelly Roll. I think this quilt looks harder to make than it was, you sew your strips together then cut out triangles from your strips.  Why a Jelly Roll works so good for this pattern is, most Jelly Rolls have two different color directions making it hard to use all of one Jelly Roll in a quilt.  This pattern works because you separate the two colors, I used the oranges for half of the block and the greens and blues for the other half.  I believe what really makes this quilt pop is having high contrast between the two halfs of the block.

I like the way the borders are done, it looks like the quilt is framed, I could not be happier with how this quilt turned out!

The pattern was out of the book Smash Your Precut Stash, This is really a great book, the directions are well written and easy to follow.

I have been able to see a couple of the quilts made in the class, I love seeing finished projects!  Bring on the show and tell!

My favorite thing is seeing my beautiful niece, who the quilt was made for, sitting under it!

February UFO Challenge

 I made it!  My February challenge is finished, and I gave it to my brother-in-law Dan last night. He was thrilled to get it.  The funniest thing happened when I was basting this quilt, Dan stopped by and saw what I was working on.  He loved the quilt, could not say enough about the colors and the pattern, the blocks, how it went together, on and on.  I just stood there smiling and finally said, "I am sure happy you like it, because this is your quilt".  He said "great I love it, when will it be done".

Moda Fabrics was coming out with some super cute panels in the late 90's early 2000, and I would rather have a quilt you can use verses something to hang on the wall, so I started cutting them up and making them into full size quilts.  One thing led to another and I began teaching panel classes. Some of the ladies that took my classes and some of my friends started giving me panels.  This quilt was made from one of those panels.

I can't be sure when I finished this quilt top, but I think it was 10+ years ago. Thank goodness for this challenge, I am finally finishing some of those tops I have been "aging"!

I wanted to try something a little different with the center panel piece.  I did a stitch around the diamonds to give them a look of being applique.

 In the small boarder I quilted loops, but in the bigger green boarder I quilted leaves. Over all I am very happy with how the quilt turned out. #allpeoplequilt