Forget Me Not Quilt

 

 

I present to you: My version of the Forget Me Not Quilt top designed by Erin and Sarah of Quilts For Good. 

 

 

The Forget Me Not has been my favorite flower for as long as I can remember. When spring and summer comes these beautiful blue flowers grow like weeds in my garden. The flowers may be tiny, but if you look closely they are lovely works of art.

 

 I long to see flowers like these in my garden, soon!

 

The quilt is constructed as a pixel quilt. The above picture shows the construction process of one of the blocks. The smallest pieces are cut 2" square for the quilt size I chose to make. Finished size for the block is 12" square.

The different blues I used are high quality batiks from Island Batik, these are remnants from my two year period as an ambassador for the company.

 

The finished quilt top is 48.5" x 66.5". It was a joy to piece the top together. The pattern is very well written, and it is to be released March 19th. 

Keep on quilting!

Proud Caribou

 My first quilt top finish for 2021 is here, the proud Caribou!

 I have always loved the winter sky in the Northern Hemisphere with its beautiful colors of purples and pinks. When the chance of testing the Legit Caribou pattern popped up, I jumped at it. A foundation paper pieced pattern of 60"x 80" didn't scare me at all!

 

The patterns from LegitKits are very neat and well explained. 64 individual blocks of A4 size are put together to create the final result. Here's a shot from early in the process.

 

I love puzzles, so this was a perfect project for me! The blocks came together slowly but surely, a couple or three each day, depending on the complexity of the block. The eye block was the most complex one.

There's a lot of fabrics and colors in this quilt. Originally the pattern is designed with 72 different colors of Kona solids, but I made my version with fabrics completely from my stash and scraps. Most of it is batiks from my two years as an Island Batik ambassador. A giveaway prize from Sandra Johnson Designs with batiks in greys and purples also came in handy.

In addition, I didn't realize I had that many shades of brown cotton fabrics in my stash for the antlers!

Laying out the completed blocks on the floor wasn't easy with a quilt this size, but I managed to get a pretty decent photo before starting the assembly process of the 64 blocks.

The blocks were assembled in sections, and the points came together very well. I had a few sessions with the seam ripper to get the connections right, but all in all it was a smooth process. I can totally recommend making a FPP quilt from LegitKits, I had lots of fun in the approximately two months it took me from start to finish of this quilt top. 

 

 

This selvedge on one of my antler fabrics reminded me of taking it slow in the FPP process, you can't rush if you want a good result. I loved every minute of it!

 

The photo shoot in the snow was a success, this is where the proud caribou belongs!

I am very happy I was able to make this large quilt entirely from my stash and scraps. No new fabrics were bought, and the thread was also from my stash, A win-win situation in my mind!

 

 

 

 

MEGA Paper Piecing Panel

For a long time now, I have been a regular pattern tester for Berene of HappySewLucky. The adventure started two years ago. I have had the pleasure of working with her evolving Tattoo Quilt Pattern, and have enjoyed every minute of it. Now it was the last center panel to be worked on.

This is a HUGE block, the pattern is a thick bundle of pages! I pieced as much as I could before taking the project with me on vacation. It travels better in smaller pieces. The above picture shows how far I got before packing started.

Assembling the heart was easy and quick with all the preparations done in advance. The above picture shows the heart without the text banners, rotary cutter for scale. Here the panel is 28" wide and 20" high.

The text banners are wide, and I almost didn't have enough Wonder Clips with me, I barely managed. My holiday sewing machine did a great job with the foundation paper piecing.

Here is the upper text banner assembled.

I took a picture of the lower banner before assembling. Keep in mind this is 28" wide!

The complete Open Heart Open Mind center panel is finished. The completed block is 28" x 32". Sashing will be added , and then it is time to assemble all my tattoo blocks into the complete quilt designed by Berene.

Now what remains is to pick out all the tiny and not so tiny paper pieces from the back. Actually, I kind of enjoy that mindless job after the stamina that was needed to finish this MEGA block.

Wisdom Testing

This is the wise eye, the eye that sees and understands everything! But, it still got that little twinkle that shows it got a sense of humor!

I have been pattern testing for Berene of Happy Sew Lucky, and this is a piece of her latest pattern that will be available later in June.

I am very pleased with the colors and layout of this piece. The grey background enhances the colors of the eye, and the complementary colors of the banner and letters is a great visual effect. I am also pleased with how the directional green fabric of the banner worked out in the paper piecing process.

This is the ninth Tattoo pattern by Berene that I have tested. The next one in line is Respect, looking forward to it!

The Latest Tattoo Testing

During the last few months I have tested three more tattoo patterns for Happy Sew Lucky. The patterns are all foundation paper piecing, and I have improved my skills enormously since I started working with them.

The first one is GRACE. I wanted to have a white swan, so I chose a light green background. I altered the pattern a little bit by letting the swan swim in a pond.

TRUTH is strong and make you stop and follow your heart.

MOXIE shows force of character, determination or nerve.

I am looking forward to the next pattern from Berene of Happy Sew Lucky!

Keep on quilting!

Tulips are Lovely!

 I was very excited when I got the chance to test this New Spring pattern for Briar Hill Designs. I really need this colorful table runner to brighten up my house (and yard), because spring is very late this year. Last night we had frost, and yesterday morning I woke up to a snow covered yard.

 Julia of Briar Hill Designs has designed lovely patchwork tulips, finished off with a curved bottom. The pattern comes in lap and crib size, also. I chose to make the table runner since I had the perfect mini charm pack in my stash, Little Miss Sunshine by Vanessa Goertzen for Moda.

 The table runner needs three tulips, and in order to get one red/pink, one yellow/orange and one aqua I needed to complement the fabrics with a few pieces of Shuffle by Riley Blake Designs.

It is May, but still no tulips blooming here, so my wooden tulips will have to accompany the patchwork ones.

The pattern is provided with templates to cut out the curves. I have never cut out curves using a paper template together with a straight acrylic ruler before, but with Julia's instructions it became a piece of cake. 
 

I chose to quilt the runner with wavy lines using my walking foot, and with thread matching the background fabric.

 I just had to get a stained glass window picture of the runner. The backing is a fun low volume fabric from my stash

Making this New Spring table runner was a nice experience. Julia's pattern is very well written, and anybody could tackle these curves.

More Pattern Testing

Back in February this year I started pattern testing for Berene of Happy Sew Lucky. This lady is productive, and already in April I have completed testing of my third pattern for her.

This is her third pattern of the Tattoo Series, the first one is LOVE (which I haven't tested,  yet). COURAGE is tested by me here .

I am definitely not an expert in foundation paper piecing, actually the first time I paper pieced a block was during the Splendid Sampler quilt along last year. Since then paper piecing has become one of my favorites.

Berene's patterns are easy to follow, the instructions are very clear, even Y-seams are no problem anymore.

I love this shot of my blue swallows on my deck with my purple  Little Birdy pincushion keeping it in place in the wind.

The latest pattern is FURY, and above are my fabric choices. I had the perfect orange and yellow fabric, Marblehead by Ro Gregg for Paintbrush studios, the two leftmost fabrics. There's a lot of life in this fabric, especially the orange one.

The first item I did was the text banner. Here is an in-progress shot of the heart with the banner. The heart fabric is also perfect, the golden lines and the darker red patches give a lot of life to the heart.

Here all the flame pieces are done and ready to be assembled. The ruler I received as a gift from Berene has come in very handy working with paper piecing.

The flames are slowly coming together. You can almost feel the heat!

...and the flames are done! There's so much life in this picture!

And here the quilt top is all assembled. The burning heart on the cold, almost snowy background.

This is how the backside looks before the paper is removed, lots of tiny pieces!

The FURY is burning in the sunlight!

Thanks to Berene of Happy Sew Lucky for letting me test her patterns, this is a real skill builder for me!

Keep on sewing and paper piecing!

Testing, Testing...

Earlier this month I was lucky to be accepted as a pattern tester for Happy Sew Lucky for a paper-pieced pattern. She was looking for intermediate level paper-piecers, and I had the courage to jump in with both feet...

Pattern Testing

Earlier this month I was  lucky to be chosen to be a pattern tester for this quilt block. The designer is Krystal from @sewshaped on Instagram.

The block was fast and easy to make, and Krystal provided excellent instructions. The pattern will soon be available at her shop as the Square One Quilt.

The pattern is perfect for strips of leftover fabric. I whipped up three more blocks when I was at it, and you can see they work well together. I will probably make more blocks at least to make a baby quilt, maybe a lap one. I have more than enough fabric...

Keep on quilting!