Finished Quilt!

Posted on June 9, 2012 by oliver's fancy

I am so excited to show you a quilt that has been about 3 years in the making! After I made my very first quilt from a class I took in town, I was hooked on quilting. When a friend alerted me to the fact that a website was selling vintage reproduction prints for a clearance price of about 80 cents a fat quarter, I snatched some up with the goal of making another quilt. I researched all the ideas out there (pre-pinterest days made things more difficult 🙂 ) and found a pinwheel quilt that I liked. This quilt did not have instructions, just a finished pictured so I had to figure it out on my own. I combined my vintage prints with some polka dot charm squares and made a ton of half-square triangles. I then began sewing the HST together to make the pinwheels, got about halfway through, and stopped. Fast forward a few years up to a few months ago when I decided that it was high time for me to finally finish this quilt.

It has been so fun to finish this project. The original idea ended with the bricks stacked all around the border of the pinwheels, but I wanted this to be a nice lap size quilt so I added some Kona coal and Lizzy House Jewels to make it wider. I picked up the Jewel print a few months back out of the Whipstitch remnant bin and couldn’t be happier with how it blends into the quilt. Purple is my favorite color, and I think this quilt is a good representation of me. I hand quilted it with various Perle cottons and bound it in a Kona cotton purple (can’t remember exact shade). This is my second experience with hand-quilting and although I wouldn’t want to spend that much time with all my quilts, I did enjoy the process. For the backing, I used up the remained of the fat quarters and Kona cotton. I like the scrappy look of it.

Yay for finishing up another long-term project! Now back to making quilt squares for my current quilt class. I’m in the middle of several blocks and will post progress when finished with them.

Let’s Quilt! part 1

Posted on June 6, 2012 by oliver's fancy

I thought I would try to update regularly on the progress of my quilting class. I will link all the posts together so they are easy to find and will be a fun way to look back and see the whole quilting process. Today we learned a lot about color schemes and fabric selection for our quilts, and I really enjoyed learning more about how to think through this process and not just randomly select colors you like. I bought some of the DS Quilts collection a while back intending to make a quilt with it and haven’t done anything with it since so I have decided to use this for my quilt. Choosing to use a designer’s collection makes fabric selection a bit easier, but I will also pick up some solids to coordinate with my prints. I’m thinking Kona cottons in white, pink and green to bring some balance to the busyness of the prints I have. In my quilts, I like to have enough solids to provide visual rest so that I don’t go cross-eyed when looking at it. 🙂

Essential Quilting E-Course

Posted on June 2, 2012 by oliver's fancy

I am so excited to announce that I have FINALLY won a giveaway!! Excuse my enthusiasm, but it seems I have entered so many giveaways with no luck that I couldn’t believe my eyes when I got the email telling me I’d won. I had seen a retweet about a Whipstitch giveaway last week so I clicked on through the link and entered myself into the race. The post was a guest posting from Deborah giving some helpful advice for newbie bloggers and giving away a chance to win a spot in her essential quilting e-course. Of course, you know I won the giveaway and am so pumped to begin the class today. The class continues throughout the month of June, and she has lots of fun things planned for this month. I will be sure to keep you updated on my progress and hope to show you some fun finished projects! I am very excited for this chance to improve my quite basic quilting skills. An interest in quilting is what sparked my desire to pick up sewing again a few years back so I think quilting will always have a special spot in my crafty soul :).

Thanks to PlumandJune and Whipstitch for this great opportunity.

How to Make a Guest Book Quilt: Part 1

Posted on May 20, 2012 by oliver's fancy

Updated: As this is a very popular post on my blog, I am updated it to offer a mini-tutorial on how to make your own guest book quilt. Here’s the succinct version of the instructions for a patchwork guestbook quilt part 1:

Cut out about 100 9″ (or whatever your preferred size is) squares of varying fabrics. You want to have extra in case people mess up on one and then need to redo it.
Bring your stack of fabrics plus markers to the guest book table at the wedding. I used both sharpies and fabric markers and found sharpies to be easier to write with.
Make sure to have a sign reminding people to leave you plenty of room at the edges for seam allowances. I discovered I had to continually remind people about this because they would write on the very end of the fabric square.
Go here for part 2 of the tutorial

As I am the resident quilter in the family, my sister in law called me a few months ago to discuss an idea she had for her wedding. She wanted to know about the possibility of creating a guest book out of quilt squares. I had never heard of the idea, but immediately loved it- where was this idea when I got married?! I told her that I would research it and send her the ideas I found.

After spending some time on Pinterest, I compiled several different ideas and options on a Pinterest board and sent it to her for review. We decided on a simple patchwork style. She told me her favorite colors and patterns, and I went to the fabric store to find the right fabric. I found a mix of prints and solids. At the wedding, people will sign the lighter colored squares with fabric markers, and later I will mix and match those signed squares with the coordinating prints. She has also asked for a big monogrammed square in the middle of the quilt. The final quilt will have 9 inch squares and be queen sized so they can put it on their bed if they wish. I am so excited to see how the final product will turn out! What a great way to preserve your wedding memories!