from Pixels to Patchwork

Friday, May 18, 2012

Charming Stars Finish

I managed to finish this quilt just in time for Bloggers Quilt Festival (Spring 2012) at Amy's Creative Side. This quilt has a special place in my heart, because it is the first quilt I didn't follow the pattern to the letter and it kind of took on a life of its own! It is also my husband's favorite so far. He says it is the most "quilty" one I've made (lol).

When I went outside for the official photo shoot, I was confronted by a real-life angry bird! You can't really see the glaring expression from the photo, but you could have cut the tension with the knife. Needless to say, the bird won and I moved to the front yard. We counted four bird eggs out there...I am going to use this as an excuse not to mow the backyard for a while!

Charming Stars (based off of Charming Flowers in Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts by Pam Lintott) is 66x84inches. I got a great deal on the Etchings Slate backing fabric from Patchworks Plus on Etsy. I quilted the colored parts in a dark gray and the white parts in a light gray. I just followed the seams on each side of the squares and outlined the stars. I was orginally going to be thrifty and use the gray backing as a binding, but I decided to go with red in the end. Luckily my local quilt shop had just enough in stock. I was worried about the red against the white (I know, a little late to worry when the quilt is already made!), so I used Shout Color Catchers. There was no issue at all with bleeding.

Funny story about the backing: I was so excited about the wide backing and not having to piece it. I was boring my husband for months about how *~REVOLUTIONARY~* this fabric was. I ended up cutting it too short and having to piece it anyway :D I measured twice, just with the wrong number in my head!

This quilt lives on my couch now. I needed a good quilt for reading and this fits the bill! I usually am drawn to more bright colors, but I love the romantic feel of Etchings! More quilty goodness below:

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Related Posts:
Caffeine Overload (Quilt-Top Post)

Linking up at:

(Where I will probably spend the rest of the day looking at everyone's amazing work!)

Manic Monday Linky Party at Sew Happy Geek Plum and June Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story

Monday, May 14, 2012

Mother's Day Table Runner

I made my mom a 44"x13" table runner for Mother's Day, because I didn't think I could finish a quilt in time. Well...this took me about as long as making a quilt and thanks to the tiny 1" HST border, had almost as many pieces!

My mom's favorite flower is the tulip, so that is my theme! In my search for tulip patterns, I found this gorgeous potted tulip paper-piecing pattern at Charise Creates. I left off the pot because I wanted them in grass, but I just loved her design. For the layout: I own EQ7 (Thank you Amazon.com credit card points!), but I was experiencing designing-in-Microsoft-Word levels of frustration, so I ended up using Adobe Photoshop to lay this table runner out, figure out measurements and test out fabrics. I will save my EQ7 learning for another day, when I am not so pressed for time!

The big flower is secured with some very amateur needleturn applique! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, but I would definitely love to get more practice with this technique, especially on points.

I attempted FMQ loops on this one and I was doing OK on my practice quilt sandwich, but the moment I started quilting the actual project I had trouble with jerky movements and therefore, jerky loops. Maybe a glass of wine would have helped with that! I ended up unpicking all that and went with diagonals.

This project went pretty smoothly, but I always come down with a Mid-Project Crisis, where the I suddenly become convinced that "I have created the ugliest thing in the history of mankind!!!" I wish I could find some way to keep that mini-breakdown from happening each time! I ended up loving it and all the bright colors especially the Ta Dot apple border!

Changes I would make if I did this again:

The yellow tulips fade in to the background a bit, so I would substitute either a darker yellow (like the Juicy Blossoms print) or yellow-orange.
I would have pre-washed my fabrics!

Fabric Used:
Sky: Lizzy House / Hello Pilgrim / Dusty Blue Stripe
Red Tulips: Karen Tusinski / Gallery Fiori / Tonel Poppies in Red & Minick & Simpson / Prairie Paisley II / Red Textured Solid
Yellow Tulips: Riley Blake / Farm Fresh / Haybale in Yellow & Kona Cotton Buttercup
Leaves & Grass: My Google-Fu has failed me on this one!
HST Border: Simon and Kabuki / Juicy Blossoms / Dots Yellow & Kate Spain / Terrain / Lichen Bloom
Outer Border: Michael Miller / Ta Dot / Ta Dot in Apple
Binding: Karen Tusinski / Gallery Fiori / Dots in Orange
Backing: Ellen Luckett Baker / Quilt Blocks / Shade Grey Hexagon Dots

Some things I am excited about:

I'm participating in Beth @ Plum and June's Let's Get Acquainted Blog hop! More details at the link! | Handstitched Class at Stitched in Color. Let's hope this works miracles with my hand stitches, or at least makes them more even! | I have won so much great supplies over the last few months, I am excited to participate in Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day this time around!

Something I am not excited about:
Wisdom Tooth Surgery! I am getting all four of my wisdom tooth removed soon and will be on soft foods for a week. I am slightly terrified, because I have never been put under sedation before!

Linking Up With

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Zakka Pen Case and Fresh Sewing Day

I love this Erin Condren life planner that I won from Danny@Mommy For Reals!

I wasn't participating in the Zakka Sew Along, but I was thinking about making a pen case to stick in my purse and this week just happened to be Pencil Case week. Organizational containers in my purse usually end up empty within the week, but I like this case so hopefully my pens will make a permanent home in it. Sticking everything in the main compartment is just so convenient, except for the whole taking thirty minutes to find anything aspect! Instead of the strips, I used some random Stitch in Color scraps I had. I knew those pieces I messed up on would come in handy someday! I left them a bit wonky, because Stitch in Color lends itself to that look. It took me a little bit to wrap my head around the step before turning, but thankfully the A-HA moment came! Sometimes you just have to stare at the directions until it comes to you. This would be an awesome gift and it took way less than an hour to put together!

Fresh Sewing Day: Buried at the bottom of the post, because I am embarrassed at my lack of progress: