Saturday, June 25, 2016

Using the Mod Squad fabric panel to make a modern baby quilt

52 Week UFO Challenge - Project #30

Nellie and I used Northcott's Mod Squad panel from the ColorWorks Concepts line to make our Modern Vibe quilt pattern. It is a super fun, fast and easy quilt to make for someone youg (or young at heart)!


Since they usually give us extra fabric to work with, I had a second panel left over and just HAD to do something with it.

Instead of just quilting and binding it, I wanted to make it a bit bigger, so I cut rectangles and squares from the chevron fabric and sewed them together in a row with some of the white triangle print.


I then added a white strip to the right hand side and sewed this to the panel. Another white outside border finished it off and set off the colours in the panel SO nicely!!



I used my overlapping box quilting design to quilt the entire top and put a funky orange fabric on the back of the quilt.


Yellow binding looked good from the front AND the back!!


This was a fun and super quick project to make using a panel! Project #30 in my 52 Week UFO Challenge is done and this quilt is now for sale in my Etsy store.


Thursday, June 23, 2016

Flying geese table runners two different ways


52 Week UFO Challenge - Projects #28 & #29

Back in January I was the guest blogger on QUILTsocial and I used the ColorWorks Concepts fabrics from Northcott to make this fun Flying Geese Quilt. 



Due to my trials and errors working out the quilt pattern I had LOTS of flying geese blocks left over. So....I made table runners!! 


The first runner was made by sewing together ten of the blocks with no border. 



I quilted it from end to end using black thread and a wavy line - I LOVE it!!



I had three blocks left over (all with lime green as the accent colour) so I sewed them together and added a couple borders.
This cute little table runner was custom quilted with different designs in the different sections. The loop-de-loop in the inner border is one of my favourites and the parallel lines in the blocks are outer border were quite fun to do!


Projects #28 and #29 are finished and the littler table runner is now on the table in our upstairs hall! I am almost half way through my 52 week challenge and so far I am right on track!!

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

QUILTsocial and Quilt Canada 2016

Wow!! It's been a busy few weeks around here!

Two weeks ago I was the guest blogger on QUILTsocial and during the week we made a beautiful Sunflower art quilt using Northcott's "Artisan Spirit Shimmer", "Sandscapes" and "Toscana" lines of fabric - SO MUCH FUN!!!




And last week Nellie and I headed to Toronto for three days to participate in Quilt Canada put on by the Canadian Quilter's Association (CQA). What a great show and what a HUGE vendor market!! I couldn't believe how many booths were there.

It was so fun to run into some old friends that we haven't seen for years AND to make some purchases!!
Nellie, Patti Carey (Northcott) and myself showing off our "Celebrate Canada" book

Visiting Carla Canonico in the QUILTsocial booth

Visiting with Karen Magee and signing copies of our book in the Quilt Thyme booth
I can't wait to try out some of my new goodies!!


New fabrics and templates!!
Next year Quilt Canada is in Toronto again!! I think next year I'll go for a longer time and take a class while I'm there - you can never stop learning!!!

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Making a pillow cover using tumbler blocks

52 Week UFO Challenge #27 - Tumbling Waters Pillow

Here is another project that was made using leftovers from a quilt that I designed for A Needle Pulling Thread Magazine.
My Tumbling Waters quilt pattern appeared in the Fall 2014 issue - the same issue in which they did a feature article about my quilting studio!!




For this project I used a Stone Roll of fat quarters from Northcott's Stonehenge line of fabrics. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Stonehenge fabrics and was so excited to be able to design this quilt using them.  Once again, I used my Accuquilt Studio Cutter to cut the 6 1/2" tumbler blocks, and since I was using fat quarters, there was enough fabric left at the edges to cut a bunch of smaller 3 1/2" tumbler blocks. Since I didn't need them for my quilt project, I put them all in a small baggie and tucked them into a safe place.

When I was cleaning my studio, I found the baggie and added it to my 52 Week UFO Challenge list. One of the projects I made with these tumbler blocks was this pillow cover. All I did was alternate the blue and white tumblers to make an 18" square piece. I quilted the piece on my Gammill using a water ripple design.

First step was to trim this quilt sandwich into a 17" square.


Next, I made two backing sections that were 17" x 21" and then I turned over and topstitched one long edge on each of these pieces.


I pinned the first piece down on the quilt sandwich, right sides together and aligning all of the raw edges.

The second backing section was pinned on top of the first with the finished edges over lapping.


I sewed around the entire piece 1/2" in from the edges.


Turned the piece right side out and topstitched 1/2" in from the edges.


Inserted my 16" pillow form and project #27 was complete!!


I put this pillow cover up for same in my Etsy store and I just sold it this week!! Check out my Fairfield Road Designs Etsy store to see more of my finished products and kits!!

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Using up leftovers to make a baby quilt

52 Week UFO Challenge - Project #26 - Leftover braid baby quilt

Last year I made this Braided Lap Quilt which was featured in the Fall 2015 issue of A Needle Pulling Thread Magazine. This quilt was super easy to make because I used my Accuquilt Chisel Die  to cut all of the pieces for the braids. 




The ONLY problem I have when I'm using my Accuquilt Studio Cutter is that it's really easy to cut too many pieces!! As a result, I often have shapes left over and I HATE to throw them out. 

So, once I had finished this quilt, I had one section of braid left over. I set it aside and once I started my 52 Week UFO Challenge, it was added to the list.

I worked on this quilt top while I was at Quilt Retreat in February. The first thing I did was to sew two borders down the sides of the braid. Then I sewed a large piece of butterfly fabric to the right side and a narrower strip of the same fabric to the left side.


Then I cut this long piece into two sections about 1/3 of the way from one end and sewed five strips of fabric in between the two sections.


I then machine quilted it using large modern flowers all over the top.



The quilt turned out quite pretty AND one of my coworkers has bought it to give as a baby shower gift. I'm sure the baby girl who gets it, will enjoy it for years to come.

Project #26  in my 52 Week UFO Challenge is finished!!