Month: December 2019

I just got this quilt back from my long arm quilter and I’m really happy with it. It’s not as exciting as the red and yellow version. It’s more calm and sedate, but it’s still pretty.

It’s all Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics except for the white strips, which are a white on white batik.

This was the algorithm quilt that started it all. I had seen it posted on the Kaffe Fassett Collective Facebook group and wanted to make it from the moment I saw it. I had most of the fabrics in my stash, but added a couple to make it a little bigger.

Here’s my original blog post on this quilt.

The backing is the citrus color way of Kaffe’s lotus leaf fabric. This is one of my favorite Kaffe fabrics and I’ve wanted to use this color way for a backing since it came out a couple years ago. I just love it with this quilt… it’s bright and vibrant and ads a nice pop of color to the monochromatic front. It also appears in the front of the quilt.

The quilting design is Urban Elements Bohemian Beaded Shade. I love the way the curved lines and circles break up the angular attitude of the blocks. It’s quilted with a light turquoise thread.

It’s very similar to the design I used on the red and yellow algorithm quilt, but it’s oriented vertically rather than horizontally and it’s more dense and has more circles.

Here’s the back of the quilt. I used the turquoise ferns to make the backing fit the front and to avoid having to match the print. I like the way the strip adds interest and it makes a great place for the label.

This quilt will be a house warming gift for my sister and her husband. It’s only the second quilt I’ve made where I included a label. My friend Carol embroidered the label for me on her machine.

I’m going to wait until after the holidays to ship it. I hate the idea of it getting lost in the rush of the holidays.

I got my Kaffe Fassett Collective hexagon quilt back from my long arm quilter a couple of months ago and I’m really happy with it.

I based this off of a quilt I saw on the KFC page on Facebook. It’s basically the My Fair Lady quilt pattern in one of Kaffe’s books. Can’t remember off hand which one.

I wish it photographed better. it’s much softer looking in person. These photos look pretty harsh.

I made this out of strip sets. It was a lot of fun to make. I love the gray background fabrics.

The backing is made from Kaffe’s Paisley Jungle in tangerine. I added the strips of guinea flower because I knew matching the fabric would be a huge job and completely out of my skill set!  I just LOVE that backing!

Here’s an earlier post on this quilt.

It’s quilted with a pattern called Bubbles Everywhere. It it even better than I imagined it would be.

I think I’m going to keep this one for myself.

 

 

What a fun quilt to make! And it went together really quickly. Here’s the original post on this quilt.

That’s Bender in the photo. He thinks quilting is really boring. So many things he’d rather be doing!

A friend of mine just made this quilt and even gave me her scraps to use in my quilt. So our quilts are almost the same quilt! I did add a bunch of batik scraps I had left over from making pouches.

I really love this little quilt. I just love the wonderful variety of batiks. There are some fabrics that only appear in one piece! It really is scrappy. I should count them, but I’m pretty sure there are more than 40 different fabrics in this quilt.

My friend struggled with her blocks on the design wall. She had sewn the 15 inch blocks together, and then moved the entire block to arrange the colors.

I decided to go about it differently to see if it was easier to arrange all the colors. I sewed all the stars first and tossed them up on the design wall and moved them around until they were arranged the way I wanted them.  I left enough space to add the larger strips to the design wall.

Then I added the larger strips to two ends of each block, on the top and bottom of one block, then on the sides of the next block, which is how they would be arranged in the final lay out. Once I had the colors arranged the way I wanted, I sewed the strips to either end of the stars, and put them back on my design wall in the same place.

A friend commented that at this stage, they look like a collection of flags from around the world.

The next step was to sew all the smaller strips together in sets of two. Then I added these pieces to the design wall.

And I was right… this method made the layout much easier. Rather than having to move an entire block and try to get the colors to work, I could simply take one of the two-strip pieces and move it to another location.

Once I had all the strips placed on the design wall, I shared a photo with my friends and even sent it to my long arm quilter. She immediately noticed something that needed to be moved. This is the photo she texted back to me.

She said that those two vertical yellow strips really stood out to her.

So to fix them, all I had to do was rotate the center portion of that block and it took care of the issue… and it didn’t create any additional issues.

I will definitely put additional quilts on this pattern together the same way. And I already have another one in the planning stage.

Here’s the backing I’m going to use on this quilt. I saw it in a really fun little store in Bountiful, Utah, that has a really amazing selection of batiks. Every time I go there I buy way too many pieces of fabric. And when I saw this fabric, I immediately wanted it for the back of this quilt.

Boy… that’s a terrible photo!

Now I need to decide what I’ll use for the binding. I’m thinking something that plays with the oranges and reds in the quilt backing. Pretty sure there isn’t anything in my stash so I’m just going to have to go shopping!

I had been thinking about making these fabric greeting cards for a while now and a couple of weeks ago found some of these cards in my local craft store. The cards are made for 4×6 photos. You just slip the photos in. The image shows through the die cut opening on the front of the card,  and the inside of the card is nicely finished and the back of the photo is covered with the quality card stock.

So I bought some 4×6 index cards, cut some scraps of Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics to 4×6 inches and used a glue stick to affix the fabric to the cards. Then I trimmed the cards about 1/8 inch all the way around in an effort to make them slip more easily into the cards.

And in just a few minutes, I had some really gorgeous blank greeting cards that will be perfect for gifts during the holidays.

The first cards I bought were around $15 for 10 cards. I found some on Amazon for about $20 for 40 cards. I made 40 cards in a matter of minutes!  The cards and envelopes are really nice quality. I’ve already bought another box of 20 to make some more cards for gifts.

These are all so pretty! Click on each photo for a more detailed view.

Once they were done, I sorted them into sets of four cards and packaged them with envelopes in a cellophane packet. They look really high-end and they’re really pretty and cheerful. These large print KFC fabrics really work well for this project.