Outlined Plus Quilt Along with a pattern giveaway

How about a new project to start off 2016?

About a month ago, I was chatting with a friend from St Louis and she was telling me about a Plus quilt that she saw on Instagram. When she texted me the photo, I immediately knew I had to make it. After some investigation searching for the pattern - come to find out, it was designed by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs. For me, that was pretty exciting! I know Cheryl! She is the president of our Modern Quilt Guild and my first quilty friend in Greenville!

So I've decided my first project for 2016 is the Outlined Plus Quilt! It's such a great but simple design and I'd like you to join me! Be sure to scroll down for the giveaway!

For my quilt, I've decided to use Fleet and Flourish.

When the fabric arrived last week, I had to give it a try...

And one block became four...

The Quilt Along will start January 4th! We'll share our quilts on Instagram using the #outlinedplusquilt. I'll be posting some tips here on the blog. Things like choosing fabrics, working with stripes and directional fabrics, matching seams and staying organized. You can make your quilt at your own pace, but those who finish the top will be eligible for a fun little prize!

It's a busy week - and all you have to do now is get your pattern. The pattern comes with directions for multiple sizes and options for single fabric or multi fabric choices. Cheryl is offering it on sale for $6 until January 1st. You can find it here or here!

And the good news! Cheryl has offered one pattern as a giveaway! Leave a comment below and I will pick a winner on Thursday morning. That way, on the slim chance that you don't win, you can still pick up the pattern before the 1st. What fabrics would you use?

Three more finishes...

Stitch, stitch, stitch...

Continuing my goal of finishing the tops of 2015...

My 2014 Redbird Bee quilt.
These blocks were made by the talented ladies in my Redbird Bee from the St Louis Modern Quilt Guild. I used primarily Allison Glass fabrics and asked them to make a block using a 5x5  grid pattern with a white square in each corner and half square triangles adjacent.

I had this idea for assembling the quilt, but wasn't sure about it. So I waited and waited for a new idea and when it didn't come, I decided to take my chances and go for it. So glad I did! I love how it turned out!

It's a small quilt and I used a diagonal grid to quilt it. I love the backing - found on sale one day and saved for this quilt!

Vintage Spin

I'm glad to have this quilt done! It went through several color variations, none of which I was happy with. Eventually I went the safe route, alternating my blades with white. Pretty but safe.

The pattern is Vintage Spin from Adding Layers by Kathy Doughty and all of the fabric is Heather Bailey.

I quilted this one on the longarm at my local Bernina dealer. My third attempt at longarm quilting, I went for a custom design and while it's far from perfect, I think it works.

Panache
 I also finished my Panache quilt using Tucker Prairie by 1Canoe2 for Moda Fabrics. I love this quilt and I know many of you do also! You can find the link to the free pattern in this post.

Custom quilting on my home machine for this one...

I used a gray and white Buffalo check for the back. It's a nice soft woven fabric and the quilt has a wonderful drape. All of a sudden I can't get enough Buffalo Check??

So where am I in my quilting goal? I have 2 more quilts done, both needing binding completed. I'm falling short on one quilt. I think it will be a good one to finish up on the longarm - so that will have to wait until January. All in all, I had 10 tops on November 1st - 9 are quilted. Not too shabby! But I'll be ready to start a new project in January. I made one block - and offered a sneak peek on IG - you may want to make this one too!

Be back next week with the final two for 2015!

Skipper and Lollies

Sounds like a strange blog title? I'm still on track and getting them quilted!

First up is "Lollies" another Thimbleblossoms pattern {how I love Camille's patterns!}

I went with kind of a Christmas color theme and included some Christmas fabrics from Cotton + Steel's line Tinsel.

 The fabrics were all in my stash and it was fun to pull out some oldies and mix them with some newbies in a red, green, aqua, teal and gold scheme.

I custom quilted this one with ditch-stitching around the stars and a swirl in the snowball shape around each star, changing thread color as needed. I stippled the background which I haven't done in quite a while and it reminded me how pretty and effective stippling is for the background. Super easy too!

For the backing I used Cotton + Steel's Christmas Tree print and I love how nicely it coordinates with the binding I had chosen. Even my husband commented on that one when he was holding the quilt up for me in the first photo.

My second finish today is "Skipper" from the book Vintage Vibe by Amber Johnson. It was a quick one that I whipped up this Summer when Amber was hosting a QAL on Instagram. I used a lot of Amy Butler scraps. I'm happy to see it's a finished quilt!

That's it for today! I have a couple more that need binding and a couple more that I hope to quilt before 2016! Think I can do it? It's getting close!

Finishing!

So how did it get to be December already? And I noticed it's been 2 weeks since my last blog post! So today you're in for a couple of quilt finishes! Let me explain.

A couple of years ago I made a vow to finish all my existing quilt tops before the end of the year. I made a mad dash, did it - and it felt really good to start the new year with a clean slate. The next year or two, I was really good about getting tops quilted as I finished them. That also felt really good. Well, I've been a slacker this year. Or maybe I can blame it on a move halfway across the country and a big change in lifestyle. Whatever the reason at the beginning of November I realized I had quite a pile of tops accumulated.

Being the Upholder that I am, I'm determined to not let the year slip away with tops waiting to be finished and loved. In November, I quilted 4 tops and have 2 more started. One of my enablers has been the rental of a longarm at a local Bernina dealer.

It's been really fun and a great learning experience. I've done two and will do one more next week.

The first was this scrappy quilt I made over the Summer. It was a great way to use a lot of leftover fabrics from other quilts.

The pattern is from the book Sunday Morning Quilts.

I chose a super easy quilting design - wavy lines. Every once in a while I threw a leaf motif in just because.

The inspiration fabric was Wild and Free and the navy with the gold stars made the perfect binding.

The second finish I have to share is this quilt that I made for my grandson and his big boy bed. I just love how it turned out!

The pattern is from the book Handmade Style and is so simple and graphic. It was a quick and easy one to piece.

Straight line quilting seemed to be the best choice for this one and I think that the lines help the kids with making their beds.

It's got a warm cozy flannel on the back and is bound in a navy graphic plaid that I had just barely enough of in my stash.

So there you go! More finishes to come because I'm determined not to start anything new yet (and that's not easy! :-)

Modern Triangle Quilt

I've got a few more quilt finishes coming! It's not that I am wonder woman - it's simply due to the pile of tops that moved with me and have been accumulating in the WIP pile! I'm determined to get some done, reorganize my fabric and find some new inspiration for 2016.

I've been wanting to try a design that seemed minimalist. I admire them so much in modern quilting. And while I find them often beautiful to look at, I've felt most may be not as exciting to make. Then I saw a version of this idea (sorry, I can't remember where) and I loved that although it had a minimalist look I could still use a nice variety of fabrics.

The design is pretty simple - rows of 60 degree triangles. Each triangle a bit more than half cream with the top portion a print. 

The quilting is an all-over design that is very popular, but I had never tried it - squared off meandering. It was super easy and I love how it turned out. I'll definitely be using that one again!

The backing is a Joel Dewberry print that i had stashed for a future back. I think it's perfect. And the binding is a DS plaid from her line at Joann's. Again, I had that in stash and thought it brought a bit of traditionalism to this quilt.

And one more note - once my quilt was bound, I wish I had added a background strip to the top and bottom to "float" the first and last rows.

Ikat Quilt Finish

I've talked enough about this quilt, so today I'm sharing the final pictures. The pattern is from Rachel at Stitched In Color and can be found here.

We've been exploring our new hometown and have been fascinated by the old mills that are peppered throughout the area. Greenville, SC has a rich textile history and finding the old mills that have been converted into living spaces has been a treasure. This one found in the Simpsonville area provided a nice backdrop for the quilt on a beautiful day.

I used a voile to back this one. It's the second time I've done that and again I'm finding that the quilt has a wonderful softness and drape unique to the voile.

We photographed a second finish the same day. I'll share that soon, along with a mini tutorial. Have a great weekend!

Choosing My Quilting Design...

About 3 or 4 weeks ago, I pin-basted two quilt tops in the hopes of getting them quilted up. Then they sat. They sat because I didn't know what to quilt.

A few weeks went by and I decided to start with the easier of the two. A very minimalist triangle quilt that just needed some texture and was asking for a simple all-over design. That one's done, bound and ready for some less cloudy weather to be photographed. Soon!

The second one sat a little longer. Remember my Ikat quilt? I just love it and it will go at the foot of my bed. I wanted to be happy with the quilting.

I often get stumped on these quilts that have very high contrast. The stark white against the dark navy is what really creates the strong design. I considered all-over quilting and straight-line, diagonal and grid quilting. All of those options would require one color thread. Navy thread was out of the question. I seldom like seeing dark thread on white fabric. White or light gray was a possibility, although it would stand out and detract the eye a bit on the solid navy fabric.

What I really wanted to do was use navy thread on the navy, white thread on the white, and blue/gray thread on the medium blues. I also really wanted straight lines in the navy and the white areas. So then it sat some more. The idea of turning the quilt under the machine to do straight lines seemed daunting even though I've done it many times.

And you know what I did on Monday? I put my walking foot on the machine and did all those straight lines in navy and white thread. And you know what? It was much more difficult in my head than it was in actuality. And I'm super pleased with how it's turning out...

Using a walking foot to do straight lines and turning the quilt isn't impossible. It helps to have a machine with a larger throat opening, but with that it's totally doable. It takes some time, but not as much as you would think. And if you're sewing on a newer Bernina, be sure to use stitch 1324 which has a securing stitch at the beginning and end of the stitching.

I went on to do some free motion designs and texture fill on the rest of the quilt. That portion is about half done - so the final reveal will be soon!

Do you agonize over your quilting designs?