Author Archives: sarah

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This week's Project QUILTING challenge is Common Blocks, requiring us to use a minimum of three common quilt blocks in our finished project. Initially I planned to make a NICU quilt with 10" quilt blocks, but after 6 days went by with no progress on the challenge, I downsized and got started today, then I downsized again to the finished project I have to share with you.

My tiny quilt finished at just under 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", featuring a log cabin block, a courthouse steps block, and flying geese.

I used Mini Series paper piecing patterns by Alison Glass & Giucy Guice.

Log Cabin
Courthouse Steps
Flying Geese

Thanks for visiting! I'm linking up on Kim's blog for the Project QUILTING Common Blocks challenge. Congratulations to everyone else who participated in the challenge this week. Next challenge drops on February 16th.

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What is Ombré? Mirriam-Webster says "having colors or tones that shade into each other."

I love a color challenge and this one could be implemented two ways (or maybe more!?). We could use ombré fabric in our design or we could build a palette that was an ombre of color. Somehow we had to include an ombré or a gradient. I chose to build two ombre palettes in pinks and oranges and work them together into a quilt.

Pinks: Kona Bourdeaux, Cerise, Bright Pink*, Dragon Fruit*, Sassy Pink*, and Carnation.

Oranges/Yellows: Kona Flame, Torch, Clementine, Goldfish, Cheddar, and what I'm calling "Not Cheddar" but I have no idea what it actually is. (It was labeled Cheddar, but it clearly isn't.)

*these weren't marked, so I did my best to map them to the Kona color card for identification.

I created a mockup in Adobe Indesign to audition the color placement and make sure I liked my two gradients together. (Thanks to Ellyn for the idea to use Courthouse steps as my design inspiration.)

I quilted with walking foot quilting in two colors, Aurifil 50wt Baby Pink (#2423) and Light Lemon (#2110). It's bound in Kona Burgundy and finished at 19" x 21".

Thanks for visiting! I'm linking up on Kim's blog for the Project QUILTING Ombré challenge. Congratulations to everyone else who participated in the challenge this week. Next challenge drops on February 2nd.

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Thanks for joining me for TGIFF (Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday). I am happy to be hosting and chose to finish a little pile of quilts for this post.

My friend Isabelle pieced an AMAZING quilt for the 2024 QuiltCon Fabric Challenge using all 1/8" finished strips. When I was teaching an improv workshop in the middle of 2024 using slice and insert with strip sets (photo below left) I asked Isabelle if I could have a piece of her leftover quilt top (photo below right). (She had mentioned that she trimmed it down, so I knew she had a remnant piece.) I used her amazing quilt top to make tiny little strips to insert into squares of five of the challenge fabrics.

My original quilt with 1" wide strips.
Isabelle's 1/8" wide strips.

I love the fabric challenge category of QuiltCon to see what folks all do with the same palette. This palette of Windham Artisan Cottons was chosen by Jacquie Gering: White/Aqua, Grape/Dark Pink, Red/Royal, Turquoise/Copper, Aqua/Blue, and Apple Green/Chartreuse.

I chose thread to coordinate with each solid fabric, 50 wt Aurifil in Medium Purple (#2545), Wedgewood (#4140), Light Leaf Green (#1147), Magenta (#2535), and Medium Teal (#1125). And I cut up remnants of my strip sets for the back of the coasters. Once I quilted the quilt top to the batting I trimmed the quilted top and backing to 5" squares, sewed around, turned right side out, and finished. (Check back soon for a tutorial of my full process for finishing my coasters.)

Here's the finished set of five 4 1/2" coasters.

And my strips on the back!

What have you finished lately? I look forward to seeing what you link up below. Thanks for visiting.

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