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.

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.

It's finished! Christmas in New Jersey (part 3)

Don't forget to enter my giveaway from my last post. I was also thinking of having another on Monday since it is Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

Anyway, here's the finish:

 The top

 The back

This is the first quilt I finished on the new long arm :)

I learned a few things too. Make sure you have plenty of extra batting and backing fabric on the sides. If you don't, then you get too close to the clips and it makes it difficult. Also, if you have extra, it makes it so you can have an area to test on. 

Also, I used the King Tut beige colored cotton thread that came with the machine. I don't usually use cotton thread, except hand quilting thread which I use to sew hexagons together. I'm also faithful to Gutermann brand thread. 

Does anyone have any experiences with long arm quilting and cotton vs. polyester, or what are good brands (and value)? I did notice that the bobbin and needle area get loaded with lint buildup. That is definitely a downside to cotton.

Well, I have to get back to finishing the twin sister quilt to this one.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway. I will probably have another one Monday. I am thinking of giving away some leftover Christmas fabrics, including the fabulous Robert Kaufman boot fabric that everyone keeps asking about!

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

Until next time,

Mike.

Christmas in New Jersey

Well, I have time for a quick post. I've been working on two Christmas quilts lately. This week I finished the top for one of them (sans borders).

Several people have asked about the boot fabric. It's Robert Kaufman's Holly Jolly. My Aunt saw it and she knows I like cowboy stuff. She sent me two yards in the mail by surprise! :) It also comes with a natural cream background as opposed to black. I bought some of the cream fabric with the boots for the second quilt. It was only about $7.50 a yard on fabric.com. They were also out of the black last I looked.

I made the design myself using EQ5. I'm going to link up at Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts.

Happy Friday everyone!

Until next time,

Mike.

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.