Aviatrix Medallion QAL - Progress is Amazing!

Aviatrix Medallion is a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.

I loved this pattern from the moment I laid eyes on it.  The rainbow color spoke to the 80"s child in me and said "you NEED to make this rainbow quilt".  When I saw that they had a kit and Quilt-a-long at my local quilt shop (Sew Inspired in Simsbury, CT) I went and bought one right away.  It's just piecing I told myself...yeah, a LOT of piecing, but I can do that.  Maybe. Not so much.

UGH.  Thank GOD for the first class...The instructor went over the cutting for the center piece in great detail, noting that although you got a fat quarter for each color, which is what the pattern called for, you needed a FULL, EXACT fat quarter.  If it was a hair short or crooked, you had to get clever with your cutting.

I tried to take a lot of pictures as I went along.  The diamonds were much harder to line up than I thought...and every single one of the eight had to be ripped out at least once.  I used the templates in the pattern.  My cutting techniques and precision need improvement.

My not so exact diamonds for the center medallion

Much pulling and creative pressing ensued.

The first set of grey offsets helped a ton in "making" things straight

 This project has been a lesson in patience.  And also, in taming my perfectionist shrew.  I only tore the center out once, and I am honestly really happy with how the points came together in the very center.

Look at my points in the center!

I absolutely love the grey fabric that was included in my kit. It's got this amazing texture, it's not a quilting cotton.  I'll have to ask exactly what it is next time I'm at the shop.

Center and border #1

It was so much fun to put the first colored border on.  It really started to feel like the rainbow explosion I was looking for.

Border #2

Although the fourth border was a great deal of piecing, it was also sort of addictive.  I wanted to actually see the blocks finished, and I was chain piecing a lot of it, so I didn't get to see what they looked like until the end of the month.

With Border #3, which was a TON of piecing

As my Aunt Pat says, "the pattern is beginning to emerge".    It's so big now, I have to take it outside to get good pictures.  It was very grey the day I took these.

With the squares for border #5

This is a close up of the grey ("neutral") squares for Border #5.  When you sew them on, they're rectangles, and I was sort of surprised they actually came out like the pattern said they would.

Close up of Border #5

I went to the class today as a drop in.  They went over the next two borders.  The final border set is the butterflies, which will challenge my ability to do angles again.  They are also TONS of piecing, wish me luck in keeping up!

At the end, I'll try to include some pictures of the other color/fabric options people in class chose.  They are all spectacular.

Final Finish for 2014 - Heather Ross Briar Rose Quilt

This is my final finish for 2014.  My second "big" quilt.  It's 80" x 80".  I made it for my daughter's bed.  Up until Christmas Day, she was sleeping in a full sized bed, but it took me so long to finish this one, that she changed her mind and got twin bunk beds!

I bought a fat quarter set of Heather Ross' Briar Rose line as soon as it came out and I was looking for just the right pattern.  This is "Darling" by Freckled Whimsy.  I got everything at Fat Quarter Shop.

One of the things I love about the pattern is that is shows off the prints.  The blocks are big, so you can really see all of the cute detail. (Some close ups below)  My daughter chose some multi-colored Michael Miller Candy Dots for the binding.

My Aunt Tala did the quilting on this one too, as usual, it's spectacular.  It looks like there's hearts all over the quilt.

Close up the adorable strawberries and Aunt Tala's perfect quilting

 This yellow is one of the bolts I got for backings when our local Joann closed.  I got a bunch of DS Quilts bolts for $4/yard.

I just love the honeycomb print and the Candy Dot polka dot binding.

One of my goals for 2015 is to learn to take better pictures.  The prints are so adorable, and these pictures don't do them justice.

Four left clovers

I also finished a T-shirt quilt for my husband, and a lap quilt for my mother-in-law.  Do you think I have good pictures of either of those?

For 2015, my goals are a quilt a month, to use at least 75% of the fabric for every quilt from my stash (which is VERY doable) and to finish at least 2 more long standing UFOs.  Oh, and of course to blog about them all, with really good pictures.

Wish me luck!

T-Shirt Quilt number 2, back from the dead

Wow is that scary.  Months and months go by and I barely pick my head up to look around and see what I’m missing.  But we had an awesome summer, with some really fun vacations, and I have been sewing, just not taking pictures of my work or taking any time to reflect on it.

This t-shirt quilt that I made for my son was the second one I made.  I made one for a customer earlier this year, and my son loved it so much he immediately made a pile of his old shirts for me to make him one.  Like with SO many other projects, I had it all cut out and the top sewn in less than a week.  I did it all while we were at the Cape in June.  

20 of his old favorites

Flash forward to last week and I was just putting the binding on.  But look, he loves it, and I’m already working on one for my husband.

(photo approved by new quilt owner)

I use Pellon 101 woven fusible interfacing to firm up the t-shirts.  It’s time consuming, but the body of the quilt is nicer, and it’s thin enough that it doesn’t take away from the awesomely soft t-shirt feel of the finished product.

This shows the back - one of the first fabrics I ever bought

I’ll probably make one for myself out of my race t-shirts.  I never wear them, and I won’t feel so lazy resting under a quilt made of shirts I had to RUN to earn!

Loft queen size quilt - finally finished, and I LOVE it

I bought the fabric for this quilt a year ago in February.  It was my first attempt at picking out all solids for a quilt.  Even with that, you can see a bit, that the grey is a marble and the light blue does have a tiny pattern on it.  The pattern is called "Loft" from Quilts Made Modern by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr.    I chose the book because it had a lot of description about colors, and choosing colors, and how your choices effect the final overall look of the pattern.

Here it is, mid-July a year later.  I absolutely LOVE how it came out. It will be for our guest room and I am looking forward to someone using it!

"Loft" - my first "modern" quilt

My Aunt Tala did the quilting.  It came out AMAZING.  One of the goals for the quilt was for it not to look too "girly".  I love that the quilting matches the more modern style piecing.  Of course, if you look closely, you can see that my rows are not perfectly aligned, but overall, I'm very happy with how the alignment worked.  The rows were LONG and a few of them were hard to make line up well.

Quilting by Tala

The back I made from two of the bolts that I got when our local JoAnn moved to a new location and had super clearance prices if you took the whole bolt.  I only bought six, which I think showed tremendous restraint.

Here is a close-up of the two backing fabrics...both dots.  I love polka dots.

This quilt, although it took me well over a year to finish, has really inspired me to work more with solids.  Which do you prefer?  Solids or prints?

Custom T-Shirt Memory Quilt

It's been a long time...I have all kinds of pictures of the projects I've been working on, but this is the best, and most fun.

Through the magic of Facebook and a grad school friend (huge thanks to Stacie S.) I was connected with a woman who wanted to make a memory quilt for her son.  He's an adult now, but she had saved a ton of his t-shirts, from camps, places, events, you name it.  He's also moved away from CT, so she included shirts from all the Boston teams (thank GOD I didn't have to sew NY themed stuff, it would have hurt my Massachusetts soul).

It ended up being a little more than a twin sized quilt.  It's on a queen sized bed below, so you could see the sides and the full length.  

I loved making this quilt.  I was so happy with the result, and I think my customer was too.  Of course, Ben has already set aside shirts so I can make him one.  But I told him, he has to get in line.

Finished size 60" x 90"

2014 Finish #2. Scrappy Trip Along - This one's only a year old!

All quilted and finally bound, this is my second finish for 2014 (it was actually done last weekend, so I'm counting this as two for January).

This is my scrappy trip along from last spring.  It was THE hot thing then, and I climbed right on the band wagon.  This year it's the economy block along...which I'm sure I'll be starting soon.  Red Pepper Quilts has a tutorial that I just love.  I just can't help myself.

Kate Spain "Central Park" fabric for the top

The binding is bright and cheerful, which is my go-go for 2014.  Go loud or go home.  It's called Beatnik Blur and it's an older Michael Miller fabric.  Lord knows where I got it.

I HEART this binding

And the backing is lime moon dots by Amy Butler.  This was the first fabric that I ever bought 5 yards of.  

MMMMM polka dots

My favorite part of this pattern is that by arranging the blocks differently you can get a diamond like I did, zig zags, chevrons...it's so versatile.  And if you look on either Pinterest or Flickr there's whole groups of Scrappy Trip Along examples.  

First Finish for 2014 - 2 year old Tula Pink Field Study Quilt (Heather Ross Mendocino Included)

So I finished this quilt top on January 2, 2012.  That's over 2 years ago.  Is it just me or is it frightening how quickly the time passes?

This was the first quilt that I used some of my very precious stash of Heather Ross Mendocino fabric for.  Orange is my favorite color, so it was a big deal for me to cut into it.  I am thrilled to finally be able to use this to keep me warm on the couch and see those seahorses every day!  You can barely see them in the lighter orange arrows at the bottom and top.

I am also on a striped binding kick.  So what better choice than some Heather Ross stripes to finish this off?

Close up of the AWESOME striped binding

Now I'm back to the quilt that I'm making for our guest room.  I started it last spring, and got sidetracked.  What else is new?  The big deal about this quilt is that it's full/queen size, which is the biggest top I've made to date.