Quilt Quest 2013 - The Build Up

Last year I participated in my very first shop hop.  I was so excited to go to all the shops, buy all the fun fabrics, pick up the free patterns and get my passport stamped.  I spent hundreds of dollars.  That shop hop was the Quilters' Quest 2013 Shop Hop.  Ten days to get to ten shops.  I managed it in three days.  It was a long weekend.  I loved every bit of it.

Ultimately, I picked the great quilt from Capital Quilts as my favorite.  I bought the setting kit and started working on the over 300 half-square triangle blocks needed to make this quilt.  I will admit, I played with layout a little.

Step one in any project:  Make a mess.  Since this one started with stacks of 5" charms I had to make all those HST blocks and then square them up.  Not my best squaring as this was long before I got my Tucker Trimmer.

Layout was back-breaking work.  Some day I will stop crawling around on my floor and get a design wall.

I did the layout and sewing in sections.  It took days.  I let the finished top sit and sit until I was ready to quilt it.  I'm still not sure how I feel about my choice for backing fabric, but there's no changing it now.

I couldn't decide on a single color for quilting, so I just grabbed a bunch that I thought would work.  I didn't get all of these into the quilting, but I did give it a good try.  I'll get an official count of the number of thread colors I used at some point.

I tried to use different motifs throughout the quilt.

I'm not going to say I didn't repeat any, because I totally did.

I'm just saying that I quilted it differently as much as I could.

The number of thread changes was another thing I didn't keep track of.

The different areas challenged me to keep things different and maintain some continuity.  I worked on the quilting for this quilt over the course of two weeks.  I didn't quilt every day, but if I did quilt it was for two or more hours.  I'll keep better track, next time.  For now, I'm going to guess that I put in something like 10-15 hours quilting it.  It may not be perfect, but it looks great and I did it.

Thread Thursday - Another Thread Club Shipment

Look!  More thread!

I know, no one is surprised.

Another awesome 3-pack of my Magnifico Thread of the Month Club membership.  I love this thread.  I added the Frosted Donut to the shipment because I've been meaning to try out this wonderful selection of pre-wound bobbins.  I should go sew before more thread shows up!

For the record, I post these because I actually use and love this thread. I am not compensated for these posts in any way.  I'm just not all that famous.

Row by Row Experience: Bear's Paw Fabrics

On Saturday I convinced my Darling Husband that we should go adventuring to IKEA and the fabric store north of Baltimore.  This is my haul from Bear's Paw Fabrics in Towson, MD.

I knew mostly what I wanted when I went.  This is the only really close shop that carries Quilter's Dream Green in all the sizes and I wanted some more to finish up a scrappy quilt (queen size).  I also wanted a coordinating print to bind a mini quilt I'm working on (that's it in the foreground).  Oh, yeah, and the license plate (forgot it) and the pattern and kit for the Row-by-Row Experience.  I also picked up a couple patterns from the discount bin and several yards of that blue fabric at the bottom of the pile.  It says "VROOM, VROOM!"  I couldn't leave it behind, not at $3/yard.

In The Mail Monday: Zipit Zippers

This one is a little late, but I wanted to make sure you saw this one.

When I decided to use my Modern Quilt Guild challenge fabric to make another Sew Together Bag, I wanted a coordinating zipper.  While online shopping challenges me when it comes to color-matching, I knew that I would be able to get a zipper that would coordinate with my fabrics.  I just might have to cast the net a little wider.

I went back to ZipIt Zippers and picked out some of the most likely candidates for the 18" zipper.  I kept it down to some likely yellows, light blues and gray.  To make sure I could make it work, I also asked for coordinating zips in the 7" size.  As always, the service was great.

The best part was the zipper pull that she included.  It was the perfect finish to my challenge fabric project.