Sew Sunshine

"My Stars" 67 x 72 Pieced during class by lqg taught by Tony Jacobson His pattern for Fons and Porter Quilting by Steph Jacobson long-arm I won free long-arming at a local modern quilt guild a couple months ago UFO from a couple years ago done! I thought it would be fun to do stars in stripes in non-traditional colors.  Back is just large leftover pieces.   Just playing around with angles because the quilt is actually a blue green color and it looks really green here. Most of the fabrics were from Hobby Lobby from a while ago. When I took the class I vowed to use only fabrics I already had and I think it turned out pretty interesting looking.  I am so happy to have another UFO done. I am doing the All People Quilt UFO 2017 challenge (but not necessarily in order)  HERE Linking up with Kelly @  My Quilt Infatuation   and  Lorna @  Sew Fresh Quilts Let's Bee social and Can I get a W...

  "Like a box of chocolates"  Exhibit Quilt pattern by  Eye Candy Quilts approx 48 x 62 This quilt was started back in October of 2015 at a lqs hosting a block swap. You purchased bundles made up the blocks and then turned them all in and you got what you got. These are a couple I made as I love those colors together. Well I made a few sets of my favorites and then had to give them away...   The blocks were made from FQ's and I saved and scrimped to cute each out hoping there was enough left for me to make myself a block out of the same fabrics.  I finally got them out the other day mainly because they turned up at the top of the pile when I crammed  moved all my sewing stuff out of my under construction dining room.  I only had about 7 blocks done but I had saved fabrics I thought might work plus the precious scraps from the blocks I made to give away.  I ended up with 20 sort of mismatched blocks. Fabrics fr...

"That's You"   RB Creative Rock star Fabric Challenge 32"x 32"  pieced and raw edge appliqued Freemotion text quilting It kind of glares but I thought it would be fun to take a photo of this quilt in the mirror.  It sums up the creative spirit that is in all of us if we just look for it. I love the sort of reflective quality the triangles in the glass area formed when putting all those prints together.  The text quilting was super fun and it is all words and phrases that are positive affirmations. I used "That's You and you should know it" text from the theme song "Love is all Around" from the tv show Mary Tyler Moore. The song has a great message and I have enjoyed the person that MTM was over the years. With her passing recently this was sort of inspired by her.  I used some of all the pieces sent out by the MQG  for Riley Blake for this challenge and then picked up a couple solids to use. I submitted it t...

    Cheese and other Dreams......... approx 32" x 32" I decided to do the Quilts my Way Sew all Around Quilt Along with  Gosia . I am sure you have seen some of her work and so you know she is very talented. She is calling this wall hanging Lemon Juice. I was thinking of that when I was picking out my fabrics but the periwinkle grunge and my hand dyed yellows made me think of cheese and the moon.  Really a fun quick project. I love the graphic frames created with the two shades of gray. I did not pin...I admit it. I got out my glue pen and glued the pieces together in about 25 minutes and they were ready to sew and press. So quick and fun.  I used the walking foot on my BabyLock Jane but realized it does not have a seam bar so I had to mark all my 1" quilting rows. I love my Hera marker and my neighbor gave me a super long acrylic ruler. All worked like a charm.  In other progress, I dug out 2 quilts I had started back in ...

"Steppin' in Time"  42" x 42" Project Quilting Season 8 final challenge is Time is Up .  I chose to do a project off of my bucket list and make a large hour glass by way of court house steps. A while ago I bought the Denyse Schmidt book and in there is a lovely courthouse step quilt.  While the concept for this is traditional and pretty simple just sewing strips around the center block it is also difficult to keep from stretching and waffling the longer strips.  The original quilt in her book is finished at about 60" and I had to stop at 42".  I took liberty with the color placements also.  I used simple grid quilting.  I wanted to do simple quilting because it was very hard to keep this quilt flat. In the end I had to spray baste once I squared up the steps. Tricky! In the book that Denyse wrote, she used a small slab of print in one of her outer borders. I loved this idea and decided to use a bit of the I am a Maker fabric...

"I built this city - Lincoln" Project Quilting season 8:4 theme=brighter the better Made in Ne. 34.5" x 20.5 Lincoln Ne skyline pattern designed by Shannon Brinkley I built this city from the tiny bit scraps triangles leftover from making binding. I knew I wanted to make something scrappy for this bright/bold challenge. I already committed my smallish scraps to another random improv piece. I knew for this piece I would have to 'very' small. I decided to make my own fabric.  I randomly laid my tiny bits onto a sheet of heat and bond. I tried to not overlap too much but butt them up against each other.  As you can see there are no straight lines to this just cut and butt. Once I had an area full I pressed them down with a hot iron using a craft sheet over top and below just in case of sticky bits.  Once the fabric was made I cut it into 1" strips and then down to 1" squares. I took the pattern and traced it onto a sheer in...

"Hygge " 12.5 x 37.5 freemotion quilting random designs Hygge - Danish word roughly translates to coziness. I came across a news show one night about a year or so ago that was talking about searching for Hygge. I fell in love with how this little word can be and mean so much.  Hygge pronounced hoo ga, can mean an atmosphere of relaxation and gratitude.  A feeling of contentment or well being, a sanctuary.  Hygge can be the smell of cinnamon buns baking or the warm toasty feel of a fire place on a cold night.  Hygge can be a smile in passing or a tip of the hat in greeting. Hygge can be taking pleasures in the presence of gentle soothing things. That is why I made this word banner to hang in my sewing room.   Linking up with  crazymom quilts and  can I get a whoop whoop

"Woven"  24"x 24" A Nebraska 150 Wall Quilt Challenge entry Theme: "Inspired by Nebraska's Diversity" **warning very wordy ahead This year my state of Nebraska will commemorate its Sesquicentennial (150 years) of statehood.  A challenge went out to make a 24" wall quit with the theme Inspired by Nebraska's Diversity.  Our local modern quilt guild was already working on a project to tie in a charity fund raiser quilt and while I was participating in that I thought it would be fun to try my hand at a personal wall quilt.  My thought process was to present a sort of history woven in fabric.  I started improv piecing scraps, in the lightest fabrics I had, creating a grid of the farm land I grew up with.  The textures of the warp and weft are created by tiny inserts of fabric, some less than 1/2" wide.  Part of the aerial landscape is a bit of my journey. Born near the South Dakota/Nebraska border and slowly making my way sou...

Lily PQ.2 =carolina lily 12"x 12"  made in NE. This weeks challenge was a Carolina Lily. I researched the flower, the quilt block and set out on EQ7 to make my own design.    Not sure what I think of it. If I would finish coloring it in, I think I might like it. I have been wanting to play with my EQ7 program for a long time and I am trying to find ways to do it.  My lqg has group starting the end of the month and I want to play a bit before the class.   So I decided against this quilt as you see from the pic above.  Next on my mental list of things to do this year ...finish watching some of my Craftsy classes that I signed up for.  Is it just me?  I get a class and get all excited about it and then never get around watching it.  Well.......... I now have one under my belt. Carol Ann Waugh's "Slash and stitch" class.  I watched, I found 4 fabrics, ironed, layered, and stitched.  Found a seam ripper and .....le...