Men Quilt Too!!! and LAFF (Link a Finish Friday)!!!

Well, I was saving this for the Men Quilt Too competition, but it was cancelled this year :( Although, they are having a linky party for the guys who still want to participate (also a button on the right at the top). The rules were that it had to be new and "unshared." So, I had been holding it in all this time!!!

I won the fabric from Cotton Blossom Farm on the Quilt Story Blog (Heather & Megan). It was a Bungle Jungle 12 fat quarter pack. I decided to make a baby quilt out of it. I know of a few babies coming up in the family :) I just fired up my EQ5 (I know the un-user-friendly version), and put a basic block together then just randomly placed the fabrics where I thought they should go ;)

There were so many medium to large prints, that I thought it would be a shame to cut them up into small pieces. I also wanted to make the Elephants look like they were travelling across :) I did a little fussy cut on those.

 Working on the back (on the right).

Spray basting.

I used some Timeless Treasures bumble bee fabric that I had in my stash. There were not enough leftovers to make the entire back.

I also had to add a border for which I used a Kona Cotton Solid (Avocado???). I can never remember what the color names are after I wash the fabric and put away the receipt :(

The finished back. (Dresdens on the left for Craftsy BOM. Marbled Fabric that I won on the right.)

The grey fabric had loopy lines in it, so I used a loopy FMQ all over with a Gutermann light yellow polyester thread.

It finished out at 36" x 48". I finished it a couple of weeks ago, all in a weekend. I still have to put a name and a date for the baby on there, but I don't know that yet!

So I just want to say thank you to Cotton Blossom Farm for the bundle, Quilt Story for hosting and Thearica at Pigtales and Quilts for hosting Men Quilt Too!!!

I will be linking up at LAFF (Link a Finish Friday) and Richard and Tanya Quilts (this week) and, on October 15, 2012 when the linky party starts for Men Quilt Too!!!



Until next time,

Mike.

BOMs Away!!! & Link a Finish Friday!

Well, it's been a couple a weeks but I finished a few more of the Block of the Months. Maybe eventually I will be making the blocks during the month in which they were intended to be made :)

The theme for the Craftsy Block of the Month in July was Dresdens, so here you go:

 First time I've ever made a Dresden plate. Left is traditional, right is modern version.

 Me appliqueing with a zigzag stitch for the first time. Good thing you can't see the closeup. It's pretty bad.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for zigzag stitch on applique.

Chain piecing the Dresdens and thought it looked cool! I won the EZ Dresden tool from Barbie and the Quilting Mill awhile back. It really saves you time and is EZ to use :) especially with my rotating cutting mat!

And now on to the Quilt Story Block of the Month for which the theme was simply "rounded."

So I said, let's just make another Dresden plate!!! It's round, why not? Then on the right, you can see I got little play happy with the EZ Drezden ruler and just started randomly sewing them together. For the applique on that one, I did a really tight zigzag so it looks shiny (and uses lots of thread). It was a raw edge, so I wanted it covered. No one ever really taught me the best way to applique, so I will take tips or tricks. I have been using my 505 spray to stabilize. I noticed though that the tighter the stitch it seems to kind of "shrink" your block, like it is slightly puckering up the background fabric as you stitch. Is there a way to avoid that? I suppose I would have made the purple background a bit bigger had I known, then squared off the block to 12.5" Now I will have to remember on that block to do less than 1/4 inch on the seam when I sew the blocks together. Oh well.

I also wanted to mention that the purple thread on the applique I won from Craft Nurse Quilt as part of Kelie's giveaway package.

I am linking up at Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts.

Happy Friday everyone!

Until next time,

Mike.

I dropped a few more BOMs this week & Quilt Show

Well, I've been working on a super secret project this past couple of weeks, but I have also finished a couple of more BOMs of which I can share with you.

Lower left is the Octagon from Craftsy (June 2 of 2). Upper left is the one I posted about last time, the Greek Cross (June 1 of 2). Upper right and lower right are Quilt Story (June 2 versions). They were supposed to be anything with Flying Geese. I made one more traditional and the other a little crazy. I realized once I finished that I could not get them to come out to a 12.5 inch block, so I added borders and then squared off the blocks :)

Next month (July!!!...I know. Don't say anything!) it will be Dresden blocks and Rounded blocks. I think rounded doesn't necessarily mean it will have curves, as long as it appears rounded, sort of like the Octagon block above.

Hope you enjoy! I am linking up at Richard and Tanya's Link a Finish Friday.

I also wanted to mention that I will be in Philadelphia, PA next Saturday to visit the Quilt Show!!! Anyone else going? Would love to meet up and say Hi :)

Until next time,

Mike.