Festive Forest: A Finished Quilt

I am not one for seasonal quilts (I think they should be able to be used year round) and I am not one for traditional Christmas colours (our colours are dark blue, turquoise and silver) but when I saw that Violet Craft was releasing a green, red, white and gold version of Brambleberry Ridge it just spoke to me. I used a tutorial that was free (see my previous blog entry on the process). I ended up being quite delighted with the end result and my daughters were using it before I even finished the binding. Maybe it can spend the non-Christmas season in the basement?

I didn't finish until after Christmas (because who has time to sew down some binding in the middle of the chaos that is multiple Christmas events?) but it was still within the time my Christmas tree was up so I consider that a win!

Here is Festive Forest:

It sure looks pretty against the white snow! There are two blocks that are actually made up of four mini trees. I love the variation it adds.

My husband hates the wonky nature of the improv trees, but what does he know? ;)

I didn't have quite enough of this pretty red print from Brambleberry Ridge (I guessed on the yardage when I bought it which is typical me) so I put in a pit of this Laurie Wisbrun red fabric that I had in my stash.

I used this loopy pattern to quilt it because it was quite fast and because my initial plan did NOT work out. I just went with it. I quite like it!

And there is my first finish of 2018! Hopefully many more to go!

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday with Crazy Mom Quilts!

16 in 2016

As 2016 winds down- which many people are happy about- I wanted to complete my annual wrap up of the quilts I completed. In 2016, marked mostly for me by me starting an awesome new job in September which resulted in less sewing time- I completed 16 quilts. Of those 16 I kept two.

Starting at top left and rotating clockwise, finishing in centre: Sweet Pepper Jelly, Quilt of Belonging, Thank You Stephanie, Little Eye, Tumbi, Canadian Wilderness, Welcome to Canada, AeroPlus

Starting in top left and rotating clockwise, finishing in centre: Midnight at the Museum, Force Field, Bearss, Diamond in the Sky, Bunnies, Glisten, In the Garden, Fishy Friends

I've definitely upped by paper piecing game this year and had lots of fun mixing and matching from my stash. I went on a six month fast from buying fabric (along with my friend C) and really didn't suffer too badly from it. I made enough flying geese between In the Garden and Force Field to last me at least until 2018. And I now have Sweet Pepper Jelly as my go-to quilt for the car and my youngest daughter has her Little Eye quilt to drag around and have picnics on almost daily. Definitely a successful year!

I think Little Eye ended up being my overall favourite from this year because I drooled over the inspiration quilt for so long and then finally made one! I love how it turned out.

I made other things, too, in 2016. Pillows and pillowcases and Halloween bags and Sew Together bags. But the quilts are where my heart truly lies.

What was your favourite finish of 2016?

Sweet Pepper Jelly: A Finished Quilt

Way back in 2013 I subscribed to the Sugar Block Club with Amy Gibson of Stitchery Dickory Dock. I was still relatively new to quilting and thought it would be a good skill builder. And it was! I used a blogger bundle of fabric from Rita of Red Pepper Quilts (at the time she was one of my favourite bloggers; as of late my taste has diverged significantly though I still admire her skill!) as well as a few prints from my own stash (that I might not even buy today!).

It was my first attempt at paper piecing (I believe four of twelve blocks require paper piecing) and I was not so great at it. And all my blocks ended up slightly different sizes ranging from 10.5" to 12". I saw no way out, at the time, to putting it together into a quilt top. And so it languished.

I would say it was my first ever true WIP, and I am not someone to let things go unfinished. It has been nagging at me for years to finish it. This was the summer!

I put away my reservations, embraced "Finished is better than perfect" and got to work.

And here is Sweet Pepper Jelly, a quilt with many imperfections (and that includes the quilting) but which is DONE and will now be our "out and about" quilt that stays in the car for picnics, chilly mornings or general quilt needs.

A sampler quilt, in an odd mix of fabrics, but DONE!

I did loopy swirls in all the borders and tried something different with each block, to varying degrees of success.

The back is this infamous IKEA print, picked up and stored for the last three years with this exact quilt in mind. It is much lighter weight than quilt shop quilting cotton but it sure packs some visual punch! This was my first scrappy binding, made in 2013 and not attached until mid-2016. I love how it works for this quilt.

You get a bit of a sense of the different quilting looking at the back like this.

It feels so good to have this quilt DONE. Only one more WIP sits languishing in my closet now...my Aviatrix Medallion which I am not prepared to tackle again right now!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

#100daysofFMQ

Oh dear. More than a month has passed without a blog post, thanks in part to the busy time of year and also because I am both wrapping up my current job and getting ready for my next one coming this September. I am so excited to be opening a new high school!

One of my work colleagues/friends encouraged me to join the #100daychallenge. I did some research and decided to jump right in with #100daysofFMQ. I had that Angela Walters Craftsy class that was just sitting there and I really do need to expand my free motion quilting repertoire. I made a stack of quilt sandwiches and tried each day to experiment with a different design.

I didn't make it all 100 days. Life got in the way. But I think I made it 47 days which is pretty darn great! Check me out on Instagram if you want to see all the successes and failures @lynnfilliter.

Below are some hits and misses from the challenge! (Have mercy on me, especially since I purposely used dark thread on light fabric to highlight the quilting!)

Loops.

Circle are hard!

I liked the varied size of circles (thanks Angela Walters!)

Not so much.

Free hand free motion stars on an actual quilt. Um. Cute?

More Angela Walters. This is a variation on Ribbon Candy.

Feathers are harder than circles! Yikes!

This was my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE from all the ones I tried. I followed a free tutorial AND IT TOTALLY WORKED.

Angela again.

More Angela.

I'm not sure what I think of this one.

Another free tutorial. I count this one as a success!

Kind of cool, right?

Not so much.

I think my quilting skills have improved a bit and if nothing else I feel braver to tackle different quilting on my next project. The problem is that straight line quilting and wandering meander stipple FMQ is just so darn easy to resort to when it is what you know best!

Which of my above experiments do you like?

Quilt of Belonging: A Finished Quilt

It is finished! After collaborating with a lovely group of grade 2 students (mostly 7-year-olds), we have a finished Quilt of Belonging. Each block was created by an individual student to represent who he or she is. Then I added the colourful frames and black sashing to mimic the original quilt.

Finished!

 The kids were beyond thrilled to see it, wanting to touch their blocks and oooo and awwww over others' blocks. One kid said to me "My favourite colour is green and you put mine in green!" with a grin from ear to ear.

The teaching assistant used her embroidery machine to do this block.

 The back shows how I did each block with a different free motion quilting style. Some were more successful than others but the overall effect is pretty cool.

This is half navy and half black with that rainbow stripe made of scraps from the front. Then I had to piece in that other navy print because I wanted to use what I had and not spend any more money. The rainbow idea came from quilty friend C- thanks!

The quilt will hand permanently in the school. I am just working on the QR code that will accompany it, taking people on a journey through our journey!

I'm happy I finished it...and on time for the school opening!

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Little Eye: A Finished Quilt

Be warned: this is a very picture-heavy post!

For years I have wanted to make a modern I-Spy quilt, influenced mostly by this quilt by From the Blue Chair.

I finally made that wish come true with this quilt, Little Eye (as in, I spy with my little eye...) for my youngest daughter. It was meant to be a second birthday present (she has a January birthday) but it was not meant to be.

None the less, here is Little Eye, all finished (and already in very heavy rotation):

I really liked the mix of colours and totally random sizing and placement of the fussy cut pieces in the inspiration quilt. I think I was able to capture that pretty well.

The sashing is Kona White (obviously) but the other Konas (I am listing these especially for Jenn at A Quarter Inch from the Edge) are: Pomegranate, Cypress, Kumquat, Celestial, Punch, Black, Wasabi, Jade Green, Kale, Salmon, School Bus, Capri, Magenta, Tulip, Ash, Shale, Ultra Marine, Willow, Prussian, Berry, Windsor and Glacier. There is also an Art Gallery solid in there (Yarrow?) and two colours I'm not sure about but could check now that I have a brand new 303 colour card!

The back is a Heather Ross print from her Tiger Lily line that I adore and pre-ordered as soon as I saw it. My daughter loves cats (her first word was kitty) and these are kitten and a Mama cat playing and walking around.

Here's where the post is going to get a bit nuts...I wanted to take a picture of each block so I have a record of each fussy cut fabric. Feel free to stop reading now. :)

Castle Peeps by Lizzy House

Penguins by Kokka

Far Far Away by Heather Ross

The Lovely Hunt by Lizzy House

Hedgehogs from the OOP Outfoxed line by Lizzy House

Natural History by Lizzy House

Kitten fabric from Tiger Lily by Heather Ross

 Not only is my daughter loving it (we play actual I-Spy with it...she calls it "Play quilt") by my cats are on it whenever it is out.

Thanks, Marlowe.

Honeymoon from Cotton+Steel

Whale fabric- anyone know what line or designer this is? Also, you can see my daughter's name in FMQ in this block. I did this in three different blocks, in different directions, to add some personalization to the quilting.

Wee Wander

This pig fabric is from Andover, but not sure of the line.

This handsome llama is from Laurie Wisbrun's etsy shop Scarlet Fig.

Photo bomb: Marlowe. Fabric: Brambleberry Ridge by Violet Craft

I know this is Sarah Jane as the designer, for Michael Miller, but I'm not sure which line.

Matryoshkas by Riley Blake

Nursery Versery by Heather Ross

Zephr I think? Cotton+Steel

More Wee Wander

One wee Cotton+Steel tiger

These delightful clouds are from the Zephr line for C+S

This is a Spoonflower print I bought in the first few months I started sewing.

This block is special. It is not a fabric; this is embroidery from a pillowcase that was made by my grandmother, whom I never met. The pillowcase was aged and no longer usable but the embroidery held up beautifully so I rescued it to put it in this quilt.

Ballerina from Tiger Lily by Heather Ross. Paw is by Marlowe.

Fox and the Houndstooth

Rare OOP Heather Ross fish fabric. I special ordered a little scrap bag of Heather Ross prints particularly because I love this one print so much.

Lizzy House Natural History

A charming sloth from the Honeymoon line of fabric by Sarah Watts for Cotton+Steel

Another rare OOP Heather Ross

Wee Wander

This is from the Tokyo Train Ride line by C+S

I think that is all of them!

I did a meandering stipple throughout using white Aurafil. The binding is Kona Steel with a strip of Ultra Marine for fun.

I'm so glad I made a quilt that is actually staying at our house and that my youngest already adores!

Which is your favourite block?

Linking Up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday!