Sew Sunshine

"Clowning Around"  Zen Medallion pattern by Latifah Saafir 50" x50"  So much bias tape on this quilt. I enjoyed making it and sewing it on but when I went to sew the wedges together I had a hard time getting the bias tape to match in width. Because I made the bias with various fabrics some pressed better than others. I do recommend the AGF's because their hand is so smooth and presses beautifully but if you use the light prints you might get see through seams. The pressing really needs to go whichever way is the flattest.  I wanted to quilt this by hand but I soon realized that with bias tape the thickness adds up. Bias is already 2 layers on the edges sewn onto background makes 3, batting 4, backing 5. Now add putting bias tape over another fabric as in the domed pieces above...6 and finally what about over another piece of bias? 7,8! So not for my whimpy sewing fingers!!! I ended up using my walking foot and doing what I call 'radiant' lines around mak...

One of my nieces got married recently. It was supposed to be in 2020 and the dates got changed a few times but finally in 2021 it happened but not on date planned.  I finally got to see her since attempting to help her with her wedding dress alterations last year.  I wanted to make something to commemorate the event so I made a wedding ring wall hanging. I love this pattern and to prove it, this is my third one I made using the Liz Harvantine block pattern.  HERE I luvvvv this block.  My quilty friend, Jen from  jenniferunderthejunipertree  have a small show together!! Cheese I know! We just spent two hours hanging our show and I should have known there would be photos...oh well ha We paired our quilts together to mark some of the journey our friendship through quilts has taken us.  We started with our Super Nova friendship quilt block exchange 7 years ago.  This was us after we won the challenge and our picture was included in an article in an Am...

Gung Fu or the Study of F 37"x 24" Flexible Patterning Score by Sherri Lynn Wood My Bee mates and I had a slow year last year. We decided to start this year off with a bit of a prompt for ourselves and totally optional. I got out SLW's book of scores and chose 'flexible patterning'. I picked a shape to work with that I thought would be fun to build on. The letter F. I chose a teal blue on blue color palette added in a fun Marcia Derse print and black and started the process.  What I love about this process is that you can really let everything go. No measuring, no cutting precisely, no following directions. Any time I has a minute I just sliced off some fabric and made some kind of an F. Mixed up colors sizes whatever happened.  Building with the building blocks. Rearranging and playing, letting the shapes sort of morph.  Finally I had all the space filled in with the letter shape however it turned out. This took a long time...several months of playing but I am pr...

67 x 72 pattern by Tony Jacobson Quilted by my friend Steph Jacobson I really wanted to give a quilt to a 'Hometown Hero' as part of Sarah's quilt drive for  Hands to Help 2021  (@ confessions of a fabric addict) I made a baby quilt for Little Lambs which you can see  HERE . My mission now was to figure out how to find a hero for this quilt.  Before Covid in my lqg I was assigned a quilt partner, sort of a mentor/mentee kind of thing. I knew my partner worked at a local hospital and so I reached out to her to see if she knew someone on staff that needed a little love and comfort, not to mention a pat on the back for tireless work well done! Well she thought of someone right away.    My lovely quilt partner Jean on the L and our honoree on the right, Nina Redl the hospital chaplain.  Nina worked throughout covid last year going from patient to patient attending to their families and coordinating resources for communication on ipads or whatever was neede...

I continued my scrap usage when making this little baby quilt for the H2H quilt drive. Mine is going to Little Lambs. I know so many quilt makers that are sending several but I was only able to get this one done in time. Truthfully I support a local Quilt for Kids group and have already delivered several to them this year.    I used a free pattern over at Sew kind of wonderful for this tree. It was great because I already had sorted a bunch of 2.5" strips into scrap piles and that is just what this quilt needed. I had a big stack of low volume strips too.  This is all washed and crinkly goodness.  linking up with Sarah the organizer of this group over at  Confessions of a quilt addict

Spring time suddenly seemed to creep up on me. I found out that my niece was going to be having a baby this summer but a baby shower in May. I decided this would be a perfect quilt to make using the group of AGF pine lullaby fabrics I already had. I have not been out to the stores shopping so I wanted to use what I had and open this nice FQ bundle. It came with a panel of bears hugging and I knew I wanted to use it somehow. My only question was could I make a quilt that was gender neutral?  I hope I succeeded! Too cute not to use.  On the front I used the pine trees which had pinks and alpine greens added some mint and peach. Then I heard my niece painted the baby room a sand color so I added some grunge that had taupe and mint and beige and peach. I tried to cover all bases.  The pattern is a free download from AGF and I believe it is called Wilderness.  It is a pretty easy pattern if you are using the number a fabrics and color changes they are but if you are makin...

So Project Quilting 12.6 challenge is Ab Intra -Latin for 'from within'.  Once again I wanted to combine scraps for #nationalquiltingmonth #sewthescrapoutofmarch all month long. I thought of a couple things I could do but came back to starting with my favorite color combo black and white...and use prints I had in my scrap pile. The center sort of represents me and then building bits around is kind of like building on experiences. Using scraps was perfect for that because you never know what you will run into.  I got out some cardboard and did some measurements to see what I could come up with. My diamond fits on a strip of about 5.25 so I was able to cut quite a few out of strips left over from bits of FQ's etc.  The background pieces I fine tuned after I started doing the blocks.  I grabbed a stack of scrap strips and just started sewing. Once on I trimmed them down to about an 1". Some of my scraps were wonky but for this did didn't matter since I was trimming...

This is "Through Love" a pattern by Allie Perry for Taren Studio. When  I saw the pattern I thought this would be a fun quilt to have. I just love how it came together. I really needed a treat and decided to buy the pattern and make it back in the winter.  I seem to always have emotional ties or meanings to many of the pieces I make. This quilt "Through Love" had me dwelling on the world and the people in our nation especially.  64" x 78" Organic plaidish quilting in 3 colors back (Love is the Answer) Finally used some of the Ikea yardage my sister gave me a few years ago. I love it and saved it and now it is perfect for the back of this Love quilt. I think it has a mesh or knitted vibe to it and you see how it is closer woven in places and not so close in others....kinda like Love? Notice though that it doesn't come apart.  Could LOVE be the answer to our nations problems? Love of God, of country, love of people, love of self? When you love those thin...