Michael Miller Challange Quilt

So, I don't really like this quilt.  It was fun to put together, but the vision I had didn't come out the way I wanted.  I made this for the Michael Miller Challange for QuiltCon 2017 in Savannah, GA.  The challenge is to take the gray printed fabric and the gray solid and add only Michael Miller fabrics and create something that uses the fabric well.  I will admit to this being a true challenge.  I was uninspired by the fabric and it took me a while to come up with something that I wanted to do.    As the deadline loomed, I decided to just wanted to do something improv and add in some more color. 

For the back I just pieced a bunch of the leftover strips and got a bar graph look.  I loved the way the quilting from the front showed up on the back.

Anyways, because I finished, I paid the entry fee and entered it.  It is a quiltcon reject, as I knew it would be, but I entered two other quilts because you can enter up to three on each entry fee and I got my Marsala Quilt into QuiltCon!  I am beyond excited!  So in the end, even though I don't love this quilt, I have good feelings towards it because it helped me try new things and it was the reason that I entered my other quilt and got accepted to QuiltCon and get to go to Savannah and see my quilt hanging in the show!  I am really excited about it!!!! 

Swirly and Girly

My sweet friend Tami had her fifth child yesterday.  Her oldest is a girl, then three boys, and now another lovely girl named Ella Rose.  After all those boys, it was time for something feminine and most importantly, pink.

I backed it with a pink minky to make it nice and cuddly.  I quilted it with swirly hearts in two rings, a smaller one in the middle and an outer ring for stability. 

I love the way these colors came together.

A front view of the quilting.

Finished size is 40"x40".

Trucks and Triangles

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Terrence and Becca,  had a sweet baby boy back at the end of May.  I hate to confess that this quilt has been done for over a month, I just didn't get around to taking pictures of it until now.  I have good excuses, I promise.

At the beginning of June, we had to temporarily relocate our family to Camden, Arkansas for the summer.  Jared's job had a project that needed done in an area where there was no one and they asked him to go work on it.  It has been quite the adventure.  The major bonus is that I have had more free time than usual and I have been getting a lot of sewing done.  I made this quilt and I have worked on several more UFOs (some of which have been sitting neglected for more than 7 years!).

This is a photo of a cute little train station in town that has been turned into a visitor's center.

Terrence and Becca love the color green, but I couldn't bring myself to not include any blue.

I made it out of solids so it would be bold and graphic.  I quilted it with just one row around the middle of free motion quilting on my new Janome 6600 (love that thing).

 The quilting is hard to see, but it is cars and trucks and little semis. 

 I love the boy aspect that it adds to the quilt. 

It is backed in a green dot minky to make it nice and soft for the sweet baby.

Finished size is 48" x 48" square.

Marsala Quilt

Here is my quilt for the Marsala Quilt Challenge!  I must admit that I like this color better after using it.  Not sure I will be using it again.... but I like it better.   I was not a fan at first.  I like Marsala in home decor (it's almost the exact color of my kitchen) but I was not sure how I was going to get it into a quilt.

Anyways, this came about because I saw some lovely embroidery and wondered what it would look like translated into a quilt.  I came up with this design and after  a lot of changes, I really like the way it came together.

Another thing about this quilt is that it was made on two different machines.  I inherited my grandmother's sewing machine about 8 years ago when she moved in with my parents.  It was a White brand machine.  I am not positive what year it is from, but ebay lists it as "vintage".  I don't think it's that old, but after 8 years, and tons of time put in, I decided that it was time for an upgrade.  So, in the middle of making this quilt, I got a new Janome Memory Craft 6600p.  It's AMAZING.  I did all of the applique on the White machine and I did all of the quilting and binding on my Janome.  What a change.  I can't believe how the Janome sews.  It is smooth.

The finished product is 22.5" x 22.5"

The back is pieced together using strips of the same colors.

Thanks for another fun challenge!

Elephant Quilt

I saw this adorable elephant graphic while scrolling through pinterest one day and I fell in love.

This quilt is a lot of firsts for me.

The first time I designed a quilt on the computer.

The first time I have appliqued.

The first time I have used a long arm quilting machine.

(On a side note, I am addicted to that machine and must own my own someday.)

I love the way it turned out.  The little elephants just make me smile.

It measures 41x57.

I am linking up to Blogger's Quilt Festival in the small quilts category.

Radiant Orchid

So...I love to quilt.  Perhaps more on that later.

Let's just cut to the chase.

Pantone's color of the year.  Not sure it is my style exactly, but after using it and seeing so many other people use it, I am sold on the possibilities.

I wasn't sure I even had time to make a mini quilt for this challenge, but once I saw all of the purples in my stash, I got to thinking about it and I got a bug in my brain and once it was there I just kept thinking about it until I had a pile of fabric that was just begging to be put together into something worthy of entering into this challenge.

All of the fabric came from my stash, which is to say, the stash that I inherited from my grandma.  It is so fun to look through the treasures of fabric that she collected in her life and find ways to use them to make something beautiful.

It measures 20" x 22" and has 161 little 1.5" squares.

This second shot shows the concentric circle quilting a bit better from the front.

Love the look of the circles on the backing.