You Put a Spell On Me

So it's a bit of a stretch to call this a finish since it's really just a flimsy but it's just so perfectly Ghastly I had to share it for Halloween.  As usual my timing is a bit off...  I'm still hoping to get it quilted and finished this year so I can just pull it out of the closet (with all my other Ghastlies creations) and decorate.  

It's amazing how perfectly the new Cotton + Steel Spellbound collection coordinates with the Ghastlies!!!  I just love these metallic skull dots which perfectly coordinate with the Cloud Metallic Netorious print.  It's just the right amount of sparkle.

And I think I used up enough Ghastlies to justify buying more when the new collection comes out in April;-)

Linking up to the fabulous Finish it Up Friday by Crazy Mom Quilts.

W.i.P. Wednesday: Camp Stitchuate

A few of my quilty friends and I have started a biannual tradition of sneaking away for a weekend of sewing.  Halloween is rapidly approaching so I packed my stack of Cotton + Steel Spellbound fabrics to work with.  I'd been stuck for ideas on how to use these until Aimee came to my rescue again  and suggested I mix in some other collections.  Once I pulled out the great big bin of Ghastlies it all came together.

My plan was to make fussy cut snowball blocks.  The center squares are 9 1/2" for no other reason than I had a 9 1/2" square ruler.  I cut triangles to the finished size for my snowballs to cover the corners so I could see how to center the motif before cutting.

Once I had all my squares cut it was a great mindless chain piecing project to sew all the corner triangles.

With all the blocks sewn I settled on the layout with some help from the peanut gallery

And from there it was more mindless piecing and excellent conversation to add sashing to the sides and bottoms.  Now all I have to do is sew all my rows together.  It'll be a stretch but we'll see if I can get it done by Saturday.

Did you hear the exciting news that Alexander Henry is releasing another Ghastlies collection this April?  Get a sneak peek at what's coming on Instagram...  I'm dying to get my hands on some;-)

Making ghastly things for this week's W.i.P. Wednesday:-)

Out to Sea

I had extra incentive to get this one finished up this week...  not only is it time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival but it was time for another Quilt Camp weekend in Scituate, the perfect backdrop for this nautical quilt.  

Last fall I fell in love with Stitched in Color's Penny Patch and decided it would be a great scrap buster.  I started with an Out to Sea fat quarter bundle and pulled all the rest from stash.  My original plan was just to make another lap quilt but then I decided to make it big enough for Audrey's bed so it grew...  and grew some more.

I went back and forth on quilting designs but in the end decided to keep it simple and just did straight-line quilting along the seam lines.   

 I scored enough of the sailing ship border print for the backing this summer at Marden's.  My genius friend Aimee had the brilliant suggestion to orient the top  border so that it will be right side up when turned down on a bed.

Thanks to my quilty peeps for all the quilt wrangling.  It's so awesome to have friends who will hazard gale force winds and trespassing for a photo shoot:-)

And a huge thank you to Amy for once again organizing the Blogger's Quilt Festival!!! I've entered this in the Large Quilts category.  Be sure to check out all of the amazing entries.

And I get to cross this one off my list for the 2015 Finish Along hosted by On the Windy Side.  Check out the rest of Q4 finishes. 

Quilt Stats:

Finished quilt is 78" x 84"

Pattern: Adapted from the Penny Patch QAL hosted by Stitched in Color

Fabrics:  Out to Sea by Sarah Jane, Stash

Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient Bamboo

Thread: Aurifil 50wt. in Natural White (2021)

 

2015 Finish Along: The Final Countdown

I still can't quite believe it's already October.  This year has flown by!!!  I'm actually doing pretty well with 2015 Finish Along ...  so far I've listed 14 different projects and actually finished 6 of them.  Given that some of these were really old UFOs I count that as a win.  So here's the plan to wrap up the year...

1.  Out to Sea Penny Patch - I'm sad I didn't get this one finished before we closed our camp again but I did get started on the quilting during this month's Midnight Madness at Quilter's Way.  After being draped in it for the evening I think it was a wise decision not to try quilting it during the summer but it will be perfect for a few quilting marathon days now that things are turning chilly.

2.  Spellbound - I need another Halloween quilt like I need a hole in the head but I couldn't resist this fabulous Cotton + Steel collection.  I've been pinning Halloween quilt ideas for months so I just have to settle on a design and get stitching...

3.  Tree Farm - I totally missed the boat for the Quilt Along but I love these Modern Trees by Christa's Quilts.  I've pretty much maxed out all my available space for Christmas decorations but I think these will be fabulous as picture frame covers like my Halloween Ghastly Portraits.  I've got everything I need, here's hoping they make it up this year:-)

4.  Keeping It Together - This has been just sitting around waiting to be quilted and showing up on to do lists for an embarrassingly long time.  I finally pulled the trigger and scheduled time at Laurena's Longarm to finish this one up so it might finally happen.

5.  Toes In the Sand - Another one that's been done for a long time.  I had big plans for piecing the back but finally just broke down and bought the last 5 yards of pb&j chevron.  Another day at  Laurena's and I can put this one to rest also.

6.  Sloops - I am loving this one and really want to get it quilted and on Dex's bed.  I actually managed to use this Boat House layer cake before it went out of print so it wasn't too hard to track down yardage for the back (Thank you Loopy Ewe!).  It's too big to quilt at home so it'll require yet another trip to Laurena's, possibly for some custom FMQ.

7.  Houndstooth - This one is basted and ready to quilt.  It's a long shot with the holidays but there may be enough cold days where I don't want to leave the house to get this one done also.

How are you planning to finish out the year?

Join the fun at On the Windy Side!!!

W.i.P. Wednesday: Gone Overboard

I seem to have to have gone totally overboard for these Sweetwater Boat House fabrics.  After finishing up my Sloops flimsy I still had a pretty good sized pile of scraps and I couldn't cast away.

One downside of layer cakes is none of the pieces are bigger than 10" so I've had to get creative with the designs.

This pillow is a sized down version of Camille Roskelley's Cheerio pattern.  I added some sashing between the blocks to give it a bit of breathing room.  I love the way the circles look like life rings.

I've been playing with nautical flags for awhile and have been meaning to make monogram pillow.  For this one I swapped the yellows for aqua and spelled out Dex's initals, DSG.  Since the middle S was white on the outside I added the thin red border to define each flag.

And I had an extra sailboat block that is working it's way in to a wall hanging...  who know what else I'll come up with:-)

Sailing along with this week's W.i.P. Wednesday:-)

Fleet Week

The fleet has landed!  I had some very minor surgery this week and while the actual procedure was a total peel me off the ceiling horror show the recovery has actually been a breeze.  And so, my carefully blocked out convalescence turned into a sewing marathon.  For two blissful days (I did get some really awesome happy pills!) I had nothing to do but sew up sailboat blocks and binge watch Gilmore Girls.

Once I figured out the cutting plan putting these blocks together was a breeze...  And ripping out all that paper was very therapeutic:-)

The setting was what originally drew me to this design.  I love the way the boats nest together and create a wavy look.  Words can't describe how much I love this one, and that's not just the happy pills talking;-)

Now that I've added the borders it's huge but I wanted it to fit on Dex's bed.  That's what I get for giving my kids queen sized beds:-)  This one is definitely too big to quilt on my Bernina so I really need to get some longarm time scheduled.  My TBQ pile is running over!

Linking up to the fabulous Finish it Up Friday by Crazy Mom Quilts.

W.i.P. Wednesday: Setting Sail

One of my goals for this year was to use up all the precut collections I've got hanging around in my studio.  While I like them in concept I find them really hard to work with.  Still I couldn't resist this Boat House collection by Sweetwater and when I stumbled across this Sloops pattern on Pinterest I knew it was meant to be.

While this pattern is layer cake friendly the instructions are not.  There are also no cutting instructions included for the blocks.  I'm really glad I took the time to make a test block to verify my cutting plan before I started chopping up my layer cake.  Here are my suggestions if you decide to make this quilt for yourself.

From your background fabric cut 39 of the following:

   Piece 3 - 6 1/2" x 5 1/2"
   Piece 5 - 1 1/2" x 4 1/2"
   Piece 8 - 8 1/4" x 5 1/4"
   Pieces 10 & 11 - 4" x 2 1/2" (for a total of 78)

From you layer cake cut 39 of the following: (I did these in stacks of 5)
   Piece 9 - 2 3/4" x 10"
   Piece 6 - 7 1/4" x 1"
   Piece 7 - 7 1/4" x 4 1/2"

For your first block you will also need to cut 1:
   Piece 1 - 3" x 2" from print
   Piece 4 - 5 1/2" x 3" from a different print
   Piece 2- 2 1/2" x 4" from background

You don't need to cut all 39 of these pieces because you will be able to use trimmings from your blocks for these pieces.

When you trim after adding piece 5 you will be left with a triangle that is perfect for future flags.

Also, the piece remaining after you trim piece 8 is exactly the right size for another smaller flag 4.

Finally, when you trim your final block you will be left with background triangles that will fit in piece 2.  I do find pieces 2 and 3 to be the most awkward to sew.  Once you get past those the block is a breeze.

I have to admit I'm not usually a fan of the revolving rotary mat but for squaring up these blocks it's a life saver!

I'm making progress but the depressing thing about paper piecing is once you've done a few you have a pretty good idea how long it takes to make each block.  These average about 30 minutes a piece so I'm looking at 15 more hours of sailboat construction.  I see a movie marathon in my future:-)

Better late than never, linking up with this week's W.i.P. Wednesday:-)

Over the Rainbow

My Walk in the Park quilt definitely has a yellow brick road vibe so when I started playing with the leftover scraps for a pillow my mind immediately jumped somewhere over the rainbow:-)

I was determined to use up every last scrap of this layer cake and the rectangles were perfectly sized to try out my new Mini 60° Triangle ruler from the Quiltcon 2016 Triangle Quilt Challenge.

I wanted to keep it simple so for the quilting I just did a stitch in the ditch along the white stripes.

If you can believe it I didn't have a matching zipper big enough for the cover so I went with an overlapping edge on the back.  Please pretend not to notice that I sewed the top panel on upside down:-)

Now if I just had a matching mini quilt my foyer would be complete.

Linking up to the fabulous Finish it Up Friday by Crazy Mom Quilts.

Pillow Stats:
Finished pillow cover is 18" x 18"
Fabrics:  Central Park by Kate Spain for Moda,  Kona Snow.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient Bamboo
Thread: Aurifil 50wt. in Natural White (2021)