Yearly Archives: 2016

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I participated in quilt bees for the first time in 2015. For Stash Bee last July I chose the Simply Woven pattern from the Moda Bake Shop website, written by Jessica Kelly. I asked that blocks be made in a rainbow of color, using red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple each once, in any placement within the block.

I ended up with 13 blocks (12 shown above), and knew I'd need to make a bunch more (23!) to get to a 60" x 60" finish, my preferred minimum size for a lap quilt. So this project got set aside.

Fast forward to last month. When the initial call from the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild came to help make quilts for the victims and families of victims of the shooting at Pulse (all details about the quilts here), I thought of the Woven Rainbow project. As details about the quilt plans unfolded, they asked for heart blocks. My local guild is combining efforts to finish a couple quilts to send, so I opted to make some blocks for our group to use.

And my Woven Rainbow blocks stayed in their container.

Just a day or two after that came the devastating news of the death of 2-year-old Lane Graves in the alligator attack at Walt Disney World. I thought a lot about the family and when I read that Lane had a 4-year-old sister, my heart broke for her especially. I have a 4-year-old daughter and I can't imagine her world being rocked by the loss of her sibling. I knew immediately that I wanted to make a quilt for Ella.

As you know, quilts take time, so I thought about what I had in progress that I could finish up especially for her. My Woven Rainbow project seemed like just the choice. I could use 12 blocks to make a 36" x 48" quilt, a great size for a 4-year old. And the rainbow palette seemed just right as well.

I chose a blue floral backing fabric and did some simple straight line quilting to echo the right and bottom edges of the colored strips. I bound the quilt using leftover binding from other projects. I love how much color there is. It's such a happy quilt!

The label reads:

Woven Rainbow
for Ella
made by Sarah Goer
with blocks made by
2015 Stash Bee Hive 1 members
June 2016
San Jose, California
wash cold. tumble dry low.

The quilt is on it's way to Nebraska. I hope Ella likes her Woven Rainbow and it helps her family wrap her in love during this difficult time.

Thank you for visiting. I'm linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday, Finish it Up Friday, TGIFF and the Q2 FAL Finishes Linkup. See all my Q2 goals here.

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Somehow I decided that my daughter's ocean bedroom needed a Preppy the Whale mini for her wall. She chose purple and I went with a green ocean background to match her wall. The two-color binding was born out of not having enough of the green for the entire binding.

Inspired by Angela Walters and Christa Watson's book The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting, I quilted the mini with some free motion overlapping wavy lines, using Aurifil #4093 to match the background fabric. The finished quilt measures 15" x 33 1/2".

Along with her cuddle quilt, I gave my daughter this quilt for her 4th birthday in May. Here it is on her ocean wall, with the giant squids. :-)

Thanks for visiting! I'm linking up to the Q2 FAL Finishes Linkup. See all my Q2 goals here.

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I love the Very Hungry Caterpillar and was so excited, many years ago, when the fabric came out. I used it to make my son's first quilt and to decorate his room. I have a twin-sized VHC quilt in progress for him (quilt top is done) and made a couple others with the same blocks I used for his. Then I had a few bits leftover. With them I made this little 24" x 24" quilt. I have no idea where the quilt is going, but I think I've decided this is the last thing I'm piecing with the fabric. It's cute, but I'm over it. ;-)

I've recently been admiring spiral quilting and decided this project was the right size for trying it out. Not a lot of bulk to get through the machine as I spin it around a million times. I marked the center circle by tracing a large Aurifil spool and used my walking foot from beginning to end. I am loving the Aurifil Marrakesh variegated thread (#3817, 50wt) that I bought to use on my son's quilt. I think the variegated thread helps to forgive the imperfections of my spiral quilting. (So will a good wash!) I used my walking foot guide and aimed for a 1/2" to 5/8" gap between stitching lines. Overall I am really happy with the look. My son and I agree that it's very fun to trace the spiral with our fingers. I'd love to try it on a larger project, perhaps with multiple spirals, but I think I'd shoot for spacing the stitching out more to speed things along.

Once again a lying "label"... I finished this one Yesterday, June 30, 2016. That's the trouble with labeling before quilting and binding. (It's small, but it reads "May 2016")

Have you spiral quilted? If so, walking foot or free motion? Are there any quilting motifs that you're itching to try?

Thanks for visiting! I'm linking up to Finish it Up Friday, TGIFF and the Q2 FAL Finishes Linkup. See all my Q2 goals here.

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