EZ Quilting Tool Mini Quilt Challenge & Kate Spain Canyon Fabric

This is my entry for our the Southern CT Modern Quilt Guild's EZ Quilting Kate Spain mini-quilt Challenge.  We were each allowed to choose a tool when Michele Muska came to do the trunk show at our meeting this spring.

My chosen tool

I chose the mini Fat Cat.  Then we got samples of Kate Spain's new fabric line with Moda "Canyon" to use to make a 16" square mini quilt.  So.Much.Fun.  The quilts will be hung somewhere at Quilt Market (the Simplicity Creative Group's booth?), so if you go to market and can take a picture I would be THRILLED.

Mini Fat Cat Tool Kate Spain Challenge

I am wildly embarrassed to say that this is the first quilt I've ever made that I put a written label on.  I feel quilt shame.  Michelle Muska told our quilt guild about the importance of labels and how meaningful they are.

I realized after I handed my quilt in that I didn't put a name on it.  It's actually called Musical Chairs.  The two floating fat cats are supposed to look like they are going into the open background color spots.  It made sense when I drew it on paper, but I'm not sure how well it translated in my actual design.

Back of my Mini Quilt Challenge

My guild's president snapped this pic of Kate Spain herself at a LQS shop hop stop when she saw all of the challenge quilts made with her newest line...I think she looks pretty excited, don't you?

Photo credit M. Lieberson

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.  

Swimming in my own ScrappyTripAlong Lane

It was only seven weeks ago...but it feels like so much longer than that.  I started my Scrappy Trip Along quilt  and did my first post in mid-January.  I started it on a whim on Sunday...when for whatever reason, I thought "what the heck, I've only got 4 million other things I'm supposed to be doing". 

But here it is, early March, and my top is done.  I did a nice, manageable 16 block version.  Not the amazing, giant 32 block ones I see in the Flickr group.  With this project, as with the rest of my life these days, I am working VERY hard at swimming in my own lane.  Competing with no one.  Comparing myself to no one.  Setting my own goals, and then going after them.

It's worked well for me so far.  I've finished tons of sewing already this year.  Stuff that I wanted to sew.  Stuff that makes me happy when I look at it.  The other huge benefit from moving through life this way, is that I tend to get much less stressed out, and actually enjoy what I'm doing.

Of course, even after all of my crazy moving and re-arranging of squares, now that I see it put together there are spots I would change.  I love it, though.  In all of it's scrappy imperfection.  Just like me.

Scrappy Trip Along #2 - still not done

Two whole weeks have gone by and all I have to show for it is 6 more Scrappy Trip Along blocks.  Now, to be entirely fair, I cut and laid out all of my strips and realized I didn't have enough to even make the small 16 block quilt, so I ordered a scrap bag.

This was my first scrap bag purchase, and there a positive and a negative to that.  It's positive that I chose a recent line of fabric to use, and I could FIND the scrap bag I needed on Ebay.  The negative is that many of the strips inside were JUST barely 2", and not wide enough to use for this project.  Had I spent a lot of money (I spent $11),  I would have been very unhappy.  Thank god there was enough for what I needed.

Here are my twelve blocks laid out so far.  Of course, I'm sure I'll be rearranging them a 100 times before I sew them together.  This is the layout that was on the original tutorial, with the smaller diamond patterns.

This is the version with a large center diamond that grows wider towards the outside.  This version looks more like an optical illusion to me.  I've liked some others I've seen with this layout, but I think I'll stick to the original multi-diamond version.

Four blocks left...at this rate, one more week.  I'm going to know when to say when and do the lapsize 16 block size.  I can't wait to see it all together.


Which layout do you like better?

Scrappy Trip Along 1-6

I couldn't help myself.  When I started to see all of the pictures surfacing on Twitter, and blogs, and Flickr and Pinterest...I had to start myself a Scrappy Trip Along (pattern from Quiltville Custom Quilting's Blog) quilt.  The best part is, I'm using left over Kate Spain Central Park pieces from two jelly rolls that I used to make another baby quilt with!

These are my first six blocks, the picture is kind of hot at the bottom, but it shows how the lighter colored blocks overall look against the darker ones.

I have to say, that I LOVE the layout of these four blocks...it will be so much fun to lay them out when I finish all sixteen!

Fat Quarter Shop Mystery BOM #6 - 1st Half Recap

It arrived on Thursday.  The Fat Quarter Shop Designer Mystery BOM, block number 6.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  There is something about these blocks that makes me HAVE to cut it out and sew it up within a few days.  I actually finished the block yesterday but didn't have time to take my bad photo and post it.

This block is called "Town Square" and is designed by Kate Spain.  It's the third block where you have to cut one of the fabrics two different ways to make the block come out correctly.  I'm seeing blocks quite differently now that I know about this.

Because this is block 6 of 12, I thought I would put them together so far to get an idea of what the variety of blocks looks like.  

I think my favorite so far is block three.  Which one is your favorite?