Quilting

Holiday Swap Gifts • 4 Comments

sarah • December 2, 2018

Yesterday was our Bay Area Modern (BAM) holiday party. It's a sew day, potluck, gift swap, and meeting with show and tell all wrapped into one. It was such a lovely day after a stressful week.

Our theme for this year's holiday swap was B is for BAM. The signup form had a variety of B items you could make (box, bag, bucket, bin, baby blanket, bowl, bookmark, etc.) in a variety of B colors (blue, beige, black, berry, blue-green, blueberry, brown, etc... including an option for "BAM-Maker's Choice"). Joelle chose blue or bright for her color and didn't indicate any item preferences. The gift I made for Joelle was a pair of boxy trays. I've seen these around a ton and don't know who the original designer is, but I used the "just wing it" technique for making mine.

Sometimes having too many options can be paralyzing. Once I decided what item I would make I pondered what fabric to use. Then I noticed my leftover pile of fabric from my Fandangle Scrappy Squares quilt. I love the bold blue and green colors in this line. And if it didn't seem perfect enough, I had leftover squares of fabric already cut. And I had the perfect thread color (Aurifil Turquoise) for top stitching.

The project I brought to work on at the meeting/party was actually my Fandangle quilt which I was sewing a quilt sleeve onto. Joelle stopped by the table I was working at and admired the fabric while I was working. :-) When she opened her gift she noticed that I had used the same fabric for her trays. Oh, and I like wrapping gifts for quilters in fabric.

I received a lovely gift from Cyndi for the holiday swap. She was so generous to make not one, but four items for me! My daughter is attempting to claim two of them, but I'm trying to stand firm. ;-) However, the little fish bin would be lovely in my daughter's room. Hm.

First is this beautiful, bright drawstring bag. I really love hot pink and love the bold print on the fabric.

Inside that bag was the adorable quilted bin. Look at the lovely buttons she used to adorn it! And I love the spiral quilting.

Inside the bin was a little pouch and a bunch of delicious chocolate caramels!

And lastly, the bag also contained this microwavable fabric bowl. I've never had one of these, but think it will be a great addition to the kitchen.

Yesterday, I also received a swap gift for the Mini + Metal swap. Back in September I shared the extra small open wide zippered pouch that I made to give in that swap. I didn't receive my gift that month, and then I missed the October and November meetings. Sue delivered my adorable, aqua pouch. And she stuffed it full with a spool of Aurifil, chapstick, and a bag of tea. I think this little bag is destined for my purse. It will make me smile every time I see it.

Quilty friends are the best!

December Blog Writing Challenge • 4 Comments

sarah • December 1, 2018

Last year I participated for the first time in Cheryl's 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge in December. I had a great time participating, and I've decided to join in again this year. Like last year, there will be a mixture of projects, tips, tutorials, and general musings. If there's anything specific you'd like to see from me this month, please leave a comment below! If you're new to my blog, I just updated my 2018 Gallery with my 31st finish of the year.

Check out the other participants in this year's challenge over on Cheryl's blog.

Thanks for visiting! Today was brought to you by the number 31. ;-)

Jungle Cabin: Finished Quilt • 8 Comments

sarah • November 30, 2018

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

Our November Island Batik Ambassador challenge was to use log cabins. Log cabin blocks are so versatile. Many of us decided to utilize our 2 1/2" strip precuts. I thought this would be a great opportunity to do just that and brought out my Jungle Cruise strips. This collection is full of color in a variety of prints: tortoise shell, giraffe, snake skin, cheetah, reptile, and fern/leaf. My accompanying yardage was snake skin in hay and giraffe in citrine.

I chose to feature some of the brighter colored 2 1/2" strips with Snake Skin in Hay as my light neutral to contrast. I considered starting with a rectangle in the center of my single large log cabin, but eventually chose to start with an 8 1/2" center square (unfinished). It was once I had added my fourth side to the log cabin that I decided I really did want a rectangular center section. So I chopped off the side to trim down my center piece to (what would have started at) 6 1/2" x 8 1/2". There wasn't anything magical about this size except that the finished dimensions were both multiples of 2, since the 2 1/2" strips would finish at 2" wide.

From this point I worked improvisationally, auditioning colors for the next strips as I went. I had a slightly different vision in mind (which I'll consider for a future project), but I'm pleased with the final composition. It finished at approximately 38" x 40".

I opted to try out Hobbs Tuscany 100% wool batting for the first time with this project. I was a bit concerned that the higher loft than I'm used to would create a problem quilting on my domestic machine, but it was very easy to work with. My quilting all had the same density, but I think I'll be using some of the batting scraps to play around with mixing in some more dense quilting to really make the less quilted areas pop. Compared to my default cotton batting, this quilt is puffier and lighter weight. The wool batting seemed to cause less drag as I pushed the quilt around to do the quilting.

Jungle Cabin was quilted with Aurifil 50wt #2310 Light Beige thread. I opted for ribbon candy in the colored strips and I created a 1-inch grid of wavy lines in the background.

Giraffes are one of my favorite animals. I just love this giraffe print I chose for the back. Sometimes the favorite print going on the back of a quilt is a great way to enjoy a large piece of it.