Saturday, June 29, 2013

Week 4 Flower Patch Quilt Along - giveaway for participants too!

Flower patch quilt along 
Okay, I am loving the red, grey and turquoise blocks.  So cute!  It is so fun putting these flower blocks together. I have a total of 7 flower blocks done and will probably get 3 done next week.  If you've just started, that's okay - this is a no pressure quilt along.  

Block 5
If you have been following my Flickr group, you will see the cute flower blocks popping up everyday.  The colors and the variations of the fabrics used are so fun!  You can join the Flickr group here.
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Block 6
Thanks to everyone who is playing along, if you have already joined, and I can verify that you have - please leave me a comment to be entered to win a $15 gift code to our website. Just let me know what stage you are at in the quilt along ;-)

Block 7
 Good luck everyone!  Thanks so much for your participation.  I cannot wait to sew more of these blocks together, the quilt top is going to be so cute!  Then onto the quilting!  Should be fun! For those who want to still join in, the PDF pattern can be found here.

We also have our huge summer sale going on right now in the shop. Visit one of our precut pages, like our Jelly Rolls to see the savings!!

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Pam's Science Fair quilt finished!!

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Alright!  This quilt was so fun to quilt!  I loved every minute of this quilting job. Pam did a beautiful job piecing this quilt top - it was so straight, and the points were perfect! The pattern is Science Fair by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts - a very clever pattern and one that I would like to make for myself someday. The fabric used is called Flea Market Fancy by Denise Schmidt - so darling! I used two layers of batting, one layer is 100% cotton and one is 80/20 blend.  I like this combo of batting, makes for great dimension.
 
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So, originally I was going to quilt with a gold thread in the colored fabric areas, but I decided against that because of how much white is in the fabric.  I ended up using the same Glide thread  (Pearl 20005) for the whole quilt top, for the bobbin I used #401 So Fine.  This thread combo works great for me, I had no problems with tension at all.

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The pattern speaks for itself and the hexagon shape is so great, and so "in" right now.  I wanted to showcase the shape without taking away from it in any way.  So, you will notice that the majority of the blocks have been outlined.

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I quilted a free-motion circle swirl in the hexagons that were just a solid fabric, seen here in the orange fabric.

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The white was a different story.  I wanted to run with the wavy shape the hexagons make.  Once the quilt was on the racks, I drew out this idea on my first attempt (it usually takes a couple attempts) so I know this design was meant to be.

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Just for fun, I wanted to add a hexagon flower in the mix. I quilted this section differently than the rest of the quilt.  I think it gives character and I absolutely love the effect of the star in the middle.  So fun!

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I did mark the straight lines, then I used my straight edge ruler to quilt them up.  The rest of the quilting is free motion quilting.

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I love this picture and how it shows off the dimension of the quilting. Alternating the squiggle lines and the circles gives the design a great look.  I think I am ready to quilt this again - it seriously was that much fun!

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 The back is just as fun as the front.

Thanks for letting me share!  Okay, so a couple of things - my blog name has changed to www.greenfairyquiltsblog.com, make sure to update that.  I have a new "Events" category at the top of my blog and will be adding my class info as I get them - so watch for that.  My book release is getting closer - I am not sure of the exact date, but we are almost a month away - I can't wait!  And, we are playing with the look of our website - so don't be scared if it doesn't look the same.  

One more thing, I still do not have a camera. I apologize again for the phone camera pictures. One day, I will get this camera- I just have to convince the hubby I need it bad!

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Yellowstone!

First things first, please be aware that I have changed my blog address to www.greenfairyquiltsblog.com, if you can update your links from the previous www.greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com that would be great! You can also follow my blog via bloglovin' by clicking on the link on the right sidebar.  Thanks!
 
Clint and I took our oldest 3 kids, leaving our 2 year old home with Aunt Jessie, to Yellowstone National Park.  It was a wonderful time spent with family and it made it better for me, knowing that I didn't have to worry about my 2 year old escaping from me and landing in a boiling hot water hole.  I am crazy spastic about the safety of our kids (who isn't) but I am a little extreme when it comes to worrying, just ask my family. Anyway, it was beautiful - it was our first trip to Yellowstone and it was worth the drive.  Thankfully we broke it up and had time to visit family in Salt Lake and Idaho. 

There were so many different things to see and explore.  I could share all of it with you, but really - you should go yourself.  It is worth it! This tree root was incredible - I am assuming that roots grow wide because it is too hot underground, then when they are too big they fall over.  There were a ton of trees like this. 

The colors were amazing, the toxic water made for incredible pictures. The blue steam coming up from the water is so cool and I love the orange bacteria.  So pretty!

I had to take this picture of my bag, it was the perfect lighting to show off the quilting texture.  

Old Faithful - something I have heard about but didn't get to see until this trip.  The geyser was so fun to watch.  See the clouds?  I was in heaven with how blue the sky was and how white the clouds were.  I have over 50 pictures just of clouds on my phone camera - I have a slight obsession.  

Anyway - I hope you all are having a wonderful summer.  I know I am, it is a little crazy right now - but it keeps life interesting. Right now I am finalizing classes for AQS Quilt Week in Phoenix.  This will be my first teaching experience at a big show, I am a little nervous - but I hope to see a lot of you there to help ease my nerves.  I will be teaching 6 longarm quilting classes.  I have a few other teaching opportunities coming up as well and will be traveling to Edmonton, Canada in April of next year.  Once I have all the details I will add that event to my list. If you will notice at the top of my blog, I have "Events" as a new category and you can find information for where I am teaching there.

So, here is where you come in.  I need to come up with some classes and I would like your input.  If you were to take a class from me, what would you want it to be on?  Thanks everyone!  

Monday, June 24, 2013

Back at it...

 I left this quilt alone a little over week ago.  Clint and I took the kids on a family reunion to Yellowstone National Park - our first time going, I will blog about that later - and we got home today after a fabulous time with both sides of our family.  I have a lot of catching up to do, and I hope to get this quilt finished in the next couple of days.  I also have more blocks to work on for my quilt along.   So, it's going to be crazy around here for the next little while - but I will keep you posted!  I hope you are having a fabulous summer!

Monday, June 17, 2013

Flower Patch Quilt Along Show and Tell

Block pictures are starting to show up  for my Flower Patch Quilt Along. I am so excited to see the use of so many great fabrics and how each person brings their own style to my flower block. It has been so fun. I am currently still at 4 blocks, so don't feel bad if you haven't started yet - there is still time to catch up. The pdf pattern is available here and you can join the Flickr Group here.

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Timberlands1



Flower Patch Quilt Along 
Pleasant Home
My first 2 blocks by Yvonne
newbietoapplique
image
Panquilting
Flower Patch Blocks
clhw2
Flower Patch QAL blocks 1 & 2
m cameron juno
Flower #2 & #3
vroomansquilts
IMAG0437
leftsox
QAL 5
katecoleman1
IMG_7746
quiltinchen
I hope you enjoy these blocks as much as I do.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Father's Day...


I just wanted to share a video that means a lot to me. I have been blessed with an amazing dad who always taught me the importance of having faith in God. He has been the best dad any girl could ask for. I also have been blessed to have married my best friend and amazing father to our children. I just want to take this time to honor the men in my life that mean the world to me.

Friday, June 14, 2013

It's my turn..


The super talented Amy of Diary of a Quilter is hosting this awesome quilting bee.  I was asked to contribute a block design for this virtual quilting bee and I am so happy to be a part of this.  She has had several other contributors before me - you can see all of the blocks here. It was fun drawing up an 8 inch block design and I really loved how mine turned out.  If wishes were fishes right now, I would have made a whole quilt out of this block.  I will show you at the end of this post just what it would look like.  But, don't get distracted by my block - go and join the quilting bee's Flickr group here and start on your blocks now.  It is going to be an awesome quilt with all the different blocks. 

Here is my block in Camille and Bonnie's Happy Go Lucky fabric.  I love the yellow, white and red together - pretty sure I am going to make a quilt out of this color combo, I just love it! 

Here is my block in yellows, Kona solids are awesome to work with.  Fun, fun! Since I still don't have my camera, and since all the pictures I took of the step-by-step instructions with the first block were on the memory card of my missing camera - I worked out the design in illustrator for you.  So, here is my tutorial for the block starting with what you will need:









Hopefully that all made sense!


So this is what my block would look like in a quilt - I think it is pretty awesome. Oh, the quilting I could do on this!  Anyway - go and check out Amy's blog, I happen to be giving away a beautiful stack of fabric over there as well. 

I hope you enjoy my block, happy quilting bee! 

Side note, we have eleven, yes 11 new lines of fabric in the shop.  Check them out here

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Helen's Quilt finished

Okay, first I have to apologize for not getting a picture of this whole quilt.  It was huge - really big.  And, by the time I was ready to take pictures I realized that it is possible that a certain 2 year old threw away my camera - ugh!  Anyway, you have to suffer through phone pictures on this one, sorry.
 
helen1 
Helen put together this fabulous quilt.  It really feels like it was made for me with all the sweet fairies and the pink and green - my all time favorite color combo.  The quilt is just beautiful.  She used a damask fabric (I think that is what the fabric is) for the the sash, border and the embroidery blocks.  It was perfect for this quilt.  Every time I looked at the quilt I loved how "elegant" it looked.  I was sad to send it back, but happy that Helen will now be able to enjoy her quilt all finished.

helen2
I used Magnifico thread for the top and So Fine thread for the bobbin, it was a great combo. 

helen3
Helen said her taste for quilting is more simple, so I did my best to tone down my need to be extra detailed. 
I think it worked out great.

 helen4
These cute fairies are downloadable patterns by Sue Box, you can order this group called "Enchanted Fairy Treasures" here.

helen5
Working on this quilt made me want to get an embroidery machine, seems like it would be fun.  I know it is a lot of work too - but the combo of machine embroidery and machine quilting is really fun.  At least I think so.

 helen6
The lettering used in the embroidery is from the Pfaff/Viking 5D Software.

helen7
The best part about this quilt is that I really had a chance to work on my free motion quilting.  There is a little ruler work in this quilt, but a lot of free motion.  That is what I love most about quilting, free motion.

helen8
I tried to keep all the blocks different and change up the quilting as much as I could.

helen9
The straight lines in the diamond blocks turned out great and I love the way the blocks on the left of the above picture turned out.

helen10
Feathers are always fun to quilt, so the big rectangles in this quilt were the right area to quilt them in. I haven't quilted traditional feathers for a while, so it was fun.

helen11

helen12

helen13

helen14

helen15
The border was a lot of fun to do.  I am surprised I left it like this, I could have done more in the small squares, but sometimes less is more and I think it worked out for this quilt.

 helen16

helen17
Love the back.

 helen18
Thank you Helen for letting me quilt on your beautiful quilt.  It really was a pleasure!