The Blue Peacock (and the one that got away...)

Hi Everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful 2013 and finished lots of quilts. I took a look back while I was updating my "finishes" page: I counted 8 lap size or larger quilts (2 oversized twin/full), 2 baby quilts and several other small projects that I finished in 2013. It seemed like it was a lot more!

Anyway, here is another finish that I have not officially blogged about yet. You may have seen a picture here and there, especially on my instagram account, but here goes.

A friend/neighbor commissioned me to make this quilt. He picked out the fabrics. I designed it on EQ7 then whipped it up :)

It measures about 72 x 84 inches. I spent a total of 33 hours working on it.

 I was planning on doing some fancy quilting on it but after I showed the client some options he insisted on a stippling. I was fine with that as it's the easiest and I think the most quilty looking design :)

 Here it is about halfway quilted on the long arm.

 Some nice outside pictures before all the snow arrived.

 The border had very large printed blue peacocks on it. I could not make them fit without making the border over sized. Sew, we decided that one of them should come off the border and onto the quilt blocks. I got the idea at my Quilting Club meeting from one of the members.

 This was the first time I had ever done any "in depth" applique. I used wonder under, then cut one of the shapes out and appliqued him on top of the one peacock head in the lower right hand corner. I added some extra batting for added texture then stitched around all the feathers and such, not just the edge of the shape. 

 This is the under side of the quilt top.

Overall he and I were very pleased with the outcome.

I have a few more finishes to share, but I will save them for another post. They are already on my finishes page.

I'm going to link up at Link a Finish Friday. They are having their 100th Friday finish post this coming Friday! You should stop by!

Happy 2014!

Until next time,

Mike.

I have Google+ comments activated, so you can only comment if you have a Google account. If you do not have a Google account (and don't really want one) you can comment on my Facebook page, Twitter feed, Flickr, Instagram, or Pinterest pages! ...On any of my photos or posts!!! I love getting comments! You can also email me at amateurquilter at gmail dot com! I will always respond! Thanks for stopping by! .... Mike.

Did you miss me?

I have not posted in over a month! I did not blog at all in June! Sew, housekeeping time! I hope I can keep your interest. I have to say though, I look at one hand and say "I really need to do a blog post." Then I look at the other hand and realize it's not sewing anything, so I go for the latter :)

 Let's do this with pictures.

First things first. Melinda C. won the thread from Above and Beyond Creative Sewing in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day (back in May!!!). She already has the 11,000 yards of thread :)

Here we go:

"Lana in Pink" is finished. My Aunt has it now and she loves it!

Go here to see the photo album.

"Green & Hexy" is finished. Go here to see the entire album. 

This is what I have been working on during my train commute. SSSSSuper Hexy!!!

This is one block from a quilt I've been commissioned to create. I've been spending most of my time on this one lately.

The following pictures are not my finishes. They are from a show I went to:

I went to the New Jersey Quilters Guild show in Morristown (Garden State Quilters' Guild). These are all pictures from the show. The last one is very Hexy. It was my viewer's choice vote. English paper pieced and quilted by hand!!! The fabrics were fussy cut to make cool designs! And, it was her first time! She won a ribbon! Love the guild show too, because these people quilt my style!...like an amateur who is lookin professional!!! :)

Lastly, I was on an Alaskan cruise while I was out. Here you go:

 On the boat...

On a train on the side of a mountain in Skagway, AK. I stopped at a quilt shop in every port!!!!

Thanks for sticking with me during my hiatus!

I will link this post to WIP Wednesdays at Freshly Pieced and Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya's Quilts.

Until next time,

Mike.

Green and Hexy & Link a Finish Friday!

I finished a couple of things recently so I decided to write a quick post and participate in the Link a Finish Friday and Richard & Tanya Quilts. I posted about this finish last Saturday but did not link up anywhere:

Tonight is the belated holiday party at work. This is my Secret Santa gift.
This week I also finished the quilt top for the Green and Hexy quilt:

 The border fabric has inspired me to maybe quilt it with a loopy flower design. This fabric was also part of the bundle I won.

 Backing fabric. I did not win the backing fabric. That would have been a huge win :) I picked most of it up on sale.

 Leftover border fabric that will go on the back.

 Owl fabric for the back.

Monkey fabric for the back.

I back piece large chunks of fabric usually, so these are a few that I had in my stash saving for the day I finished the Green and Hexy quilt. 320 hexagons later and many hours on NJ Transit and PATH trains, I finally have the top finished! Yay!

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

Until next time,

Mike.

Scrappy Days Are Here Again... and a Ton of Stuff!!!

Hi Everyone! Just wanted to let you know what I have been up to over the last couple of weeks. I also still haven't announced the winners of my last two giveaways (here and here). They were contacted the next day and both have already received their respective prizes.

Barbara from Cat Patches won the fat quarter bundles:

Gabriele from Gabriele's Boutique won the Holly Jolly Christmas fabric assortment:

This also brings me to an important point. Gabriele was NOT a no reply blogger, but her email on her profile was out of date and kept bouncing back to me. I was able still to click through to her blog and find her Facebook page where I left a message on her wall. Sometimes it's really easy to find the person even if you do not have their email. I wanted her to get her prize and I wanted her to know that her email was bad! She did not realize it and was probably missing out on giveaways that she had previously won.

As a segue, I also wanted to point out that if you link Google+ to your blogger profile, it will make you automatically a no reply blogger!!!!! But... and most people don't realize this, your name in your profile and in the comment (if the blogger receives the no reply email) is linked to your Google+ page where the person having a giveaway can obviously contact you. It's just not by email.

Anyway, on with the show. First off, happy holidays to everyone!

I just wanted to let you know what I have been up to. Here we go:

Work in progress: I have been sewing these 320 hexagons on the train while I commute back and forth to work everyday. It's finally coming together, but I have quite a bit of whip stitching left to do. I did it in blocks and now I am just sewing the blocks together. Oh my, the people I get asking questions all the time!

90% of the fabric comes from my very first giveaway win from about a year ago. I haven't decided what to do with the charms yet. I have been working on it since about June of 2011, and I sew on it some everyday pretty much (every work day). And, if you can believe this, I have not blogged about these hexies at all. I know you all got tired of hearing about hexies the last time!!!

Work in Progress: I have started my first rag quilt. It is all owls mostly. They had a great sale on flannels at Joann's. I still have tons left over too. I am going to alternate the prints so they form diagonals (matching) across the quilt. I am coordinating the solids as shown in the picture. The solids will be on the back. 

Finished: This table runner is finished. I made a nice simple nine patch block with HSTs. I used scraps and leftover fabrics from my stash. This was the first one I had ever made :)

This is the back.

Here it is loaded an ready on the machine. I haven't decided yet if it was worth the trouble to load it on the long arm since I know I could have done it FMQ on my home machine. I did enjoy using the machine for the third time though.

Work in progress: This one is my first truly scrappy quilt. I literally hit the bucket to find anything that would make a 5.5 inch square. It's mostly random, but I still tried to make sure there were no similar squares too close to each other. It is really going together fast!!!

Well, if you made it this far, I wanted to let you all know that I have a new sponsor. I'm not doing a giveaway yet, but if you would like to stop by and see Nicole at 1 Choice 4 Quilting her button is at the end of this post and at the top of the right side bar. The store has an awesome selection and I am pleased with their shipping rates. $2.95 for orders under $10. $4.95 for orders $10-50 and anything over $50 ships free!!!

Also, my Facebook page has been really hopping since the last two giveaways. If you haven't liked The Amateur Quilter yet you should. I always try to share any useful or interesting blog posts I read as well as any giveaways I come across.

This week I am going to link up at Richard and Tanya Quilts Link a Finish Friday and Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesdays!

Enjoy your holidays!

Until next time!

Mike.