Monthly Archives: July 2018

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I'm excited to share that I was recently selected to be an Aurifil Artisan. If you've been reading my blog you know that I love and use Aurifil thread in all my projects. 50 wt Aurifil is my go to for piecing and quilting. I'm excited to have the opportunity to try out some of their other products that I haven't had a chance to use. In the coming months you'll see me quilt in thicker threads. I'd also like to do some embroidery on a small project and to try out their monofilament thread.

I arrived home from a trip on Wednesday to my Aurifil Artisan welcome package. Here's a peek at my new goodies. You can view the handy Aurifil brochure online, containing information about their entire line of thread.

Look for upcoming posts by the Artisans on Aurifil's Blog, Auribuzz, and look for Artisan projects on Instagram @aurifilthread.

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Folks... I didn't get it done. I worked on it. And I'm resolved to celebrate the small amount of progress. But my July One Monthly Goal is a repeat of my June Goal. Except I know this month a quilt finish just isn't gonna happen. So my little goal for July will be to make progress quilting the Twin Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt. In July I'd like to add 20 spirals of quilting. The spirals measure about 5" x 6" to 7" x 8" so this would be a considerable amount of progress... especially taking into account the Summer vacation schedule and other quilt related deadlines.

I'm free motion quilting these large rounded corner rectangular spirals that turn into oval spirals in the middle with Aurifil 50wt Marrakesh Variegated #3817. I like the combination of precision in the spacing and the freedom of the organic spirals in the middle. I first used this motif on a smaller version of this Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt, inspired by Cynthia's quilting. I love it on the smaller version, but I have to say, as I'm chipping away at quilting this twin sized quilt, I really wish I'd picked a less dense motif. My lines are about a half inch apart.

Wish me luck!

I'm linking up to July OMG on Elm Street Quilts.

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The products featured in this post were given to me by Island Batik, including batting from Hobbs.

In March I tried a technique that was new to me. I actually tried a few new (or newish) techniques and tools. I used an Accuquilt Go! for the first time. I did fusible appliqué (which I had tried, but not many times). I used a "grab bag" system for pairing fabrics. And my overall composition was a color wash. The variety of values in the Island Batik Mountain's Majesty Stack of 10" squares was perfect for this look. I shared my finished quilt top and a bit about my inspiration and process. In May I finished the quilt, and dropped it off to the San Mateo County Fair where it hung for the June fair with nearly 400 other beautiful quilts. I shared a peek of my finish in my Quilts in the San Mateo County Fair post where I also shared my kids' quilts and my judges' evaluation forms.

So, back to my quilt. Since my 1" squares were fused in place, I wanted my quilting to hold them down. (For those of you more experienced appliqué quilters, is there a fusible that will withstand washing without being stitched down?) I opted for a diagonal path to my free motion quilting. Starting at the corner I curved in to the center of the block, stitched around the perimeter of the circle, and curved down to the right to the corner of the block. I like the overall look and it achieved my goal of holding those little circles in place.

The quilt was finished with a faced binding. I really like the look of the facing on the finished quilt so the binding doesn't compete with the design of the quilt. I recently used faced binding on on i Mini and my Modern Batik Scrappy Squares.

 

I've linked up to 2018 Q2 Finish Along linkup. See my whole Q2 list.