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The MQG Michael Miller fabric challenge for QuiltCon 2018 featured the Our Yard collection by Sarah Campbell. I love peacocks and knew from the beginning that I wanted to feature the peacock from the animal print.

I’ve been playing with Planned Improv and chose my All About Angles technique for this project, adding in fussy cutting to feature the animals. I visited Golden State Quilting, my LQS, to choose solids to coordinate with the line. I settled on Stone, Charcoal, Seafoam, Girl, and Watermelon, in addition to the Gold included in the challenge pack. Here's a peek at my design wall in the middle of my process.

I settled on a long, narrow layout for my quilt. It solved the problem I was having with the distribution of the animals and I liked how my eye traveled over the quilt.

For the quilting, I chose three motifs that each had horizontal movement and switched between the three for each row. On the animal prints I combined that row's motif with outline quilting around the feature animals and other elements. I enjoyed the challenge of free motion quilting around the animals as well as working with a palette outside of my norm. It's quilted with Aurifil Beige (#5010) in 50 wt. I liked that the beige had a nice contrast without being too dramatic. I think I need to invest in more neutral colored thread.

I love a striped binding and was happy use the stripe from the challenge pack for my binding. I got some help from my friend Mel for how to baste my binding with Elmer's glue. It was a hot mess last time I tried, but this time it worked out so well! Then no binding clips needed to hand stitch it.

 

All About Angles and Animals finished at 16" x 40.5". It was one of my two submissions for consideration to hang at QuiltCon 2018 in Pasadena, CA. Notifications are due out by the end of the month.

 

Coming in 2018!!

I will begin teaching my All About Angles workshop in 2018. This 6-hour workshop includes cutting techniques to build sections featuring complementary angles with no measuring and no math. Students bring a selection of solids, batiks or hand-dyed fabrics and leave with a  completed slab (larger than you see below) suitable for finishing as a mini quilt or building upon for a larger project.

 

I've linked up to the 2017 Q4 Finish Along link up. See my whole Q4 list here.

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For those of you who follow along with my quarterly WIP posts, you already know that my twin-sized Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt for my son has been languishing in the finished quilt top state for... let's just say quite some time. He does have a cuddle quilt I made for him, but it's about time I finish his bed quilt. After all, he did make a twin-sized bed quilt for his sister.

December is the month. I'm gonna get this one quilted and bound so G can have it on his bed.

The quilt is basted. It has been for a while. And I've got a quilting plan. I'll be using the rounded square spirals I used on this smaller version, also in the Marrakesh Variegated Aurifil 50wt. The size of the project is just daunting to me. I know it's possible. (Leah Day says so.) But, this will be the largest quilt I've quilted on my domestic machine, which has a 7" throat area.

Do you quilt large quilts on your home machine? You might enjoy Jessica Skultety's Top 10 Tips! The one I'll really be focusing on for this project is to work in short chunks of time.

Check out my progress so far.

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

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‘Tis the season for holiday gift giving. As makers, many of us like to give handmade. Here are a few of my favorites and a couple I haven’t tried yet.

 

Open Wide Zippered Pouch by Noodlehead.

Over the years I've made these in a variety of sizes and colors. Rainbow. Leftover pants fabric. Using my scraps. Finding Dory. And a variety of colors. Visit the tutorial for the Open Wide Zippered Pouch.

 

Lined Drawstring Bag by Jeni Baker.

I've also made a bunch of these. From a fat quarter set. A bunch for teacher gifts. And a large one. Visit the tutorial for the Lined Drawstring Bag.

 

Key fobs.

I designed my own, but here's a tutorial for a slightly different style.

 

Village Ornament Kit from Modern Textiles.

I haven't made them, but I love the detail on these lovely little houses. Purchase the kit from Modern Textiles.

 

Adorable Tubby Wubby kits.

Everything you need (except scissors to cut the thread) is included in these adorable kits. They would be a great gift for a kid with hand sewing experience. My daughter just finished her first one. Get your own Tubby Wubby.

 

Christmas Tree ornaments by Elizabeth.

Her tutorial shows how to make these cute, scrap friendly ornaments.

 

Need more ideas for a handmade holiday? Tons more ideas!

What are you making to give this year?