"Flow Zone" Block of the Month: Photos of the Finished Quilt

January of 2014 has been wonderful! After coming back from my trip to Lincoln, Nebraska for the New Year, I felt refreshed and inspired to finish quilting my "Flow Zone" Quilt. I've been meaning to post photos of the finished product, but just haven't found the time to look through the images and pick my favorites. Today I am grateful for Texas Snow Days! ;-) Thank you, LISD, for canceling classes so I could check this post off my to-do list!

Here are a few of my favorite photos:

I created a pillow to match using Elizabeth Hartman's Cat Quilt Along. The cat blocks were quick and easy to make!

This Crate and Barrel Lounge Sofa was one of my Christmas presents! I think it looks a bit lonely with only one pillow, but don't worry...I've decided that this couch is going to puke spring this year! To be continued with better photos...

Well, this concludes the "Flow Zone" Block of the month! Thank you all for playing along with me! Stay warm and cozy out there! XOXOXO

Rhombi in the Sky Quilt

Remember the equilateral triangle quilt progress I posted about last month? Well, although this quilt has been finished for a few weeks, I did not want to post any other photos until it was given to its owner which was Henry's dad, Henry! I'm pretty sure he liked it! I decided to name it Rhombi in the Sky. In my opinion, there are two fronts to the quilt...it just depends on what you are in the mood to look at!

How many rhombi do you see? How did you see them? A little subitizing (the ability to see a group of objects without counting) practice for you! Here we have 3 large and 6 small rhombi. I placed each rhombus on my design wall to match one of my sketches and voila! Rhombi in the sky was born. 

This is the second front of the quilt and it has 12 rows of equilateral triangles with 17 triangles in each row. Can you mentally do the math to find out how many triangles are on this quilt top? Try it now and then see if you did it similar to me. I thought of 12 x 12 and that is 144, and 12 x 5 = 60 (that 5 was left from the 17) So, 144 and 60 is 204 triangles! The finished dimensions were about 54" x 78". I'm estimating because I don't remember and the quilt is gone. If each side of the triangles are 6 1/2 inches, does that seem reasonable? (Last math question, I promise.)

Close up of the quilting. I tried my best to make some sharp angles but they ended up looking like STARS! I think it matched quite well with the rhombus side of the quilt.

Besides my Bettina DANGER tag, I don't have any custom quilt labels but I do like to quilt a few words and numbers. I smile every single time I hear those words above.

Thank you for reading!
Peace, Love and Happiness to YOU!

Equilateral Triangle Quilt Progress

Summer break has gotten the best of me! Sleeping in too late and staying up too late with no schedule in between. This is my last week of that before I head back to work so I've decided that I need to get some sewing projects finished!

I'll be thrilled if I can complete this equilateral triangle quilt. I've been fascinated with triangles lately and after creating this mini quilt, I really wanted to do another project with this figure.

After many different arrangements on my design wall, I decided on 3 fabrics for the triangles to face up and 3 fabrics for the triangles to face down. This photo is close to the final layout. In the last few rows I changed some triangles around.

Since two equilateral triangles create a rhombus...I wanted to use that figure on the back. (This quilt is for a friend, so I have more reasoning to this design that I'll share later!) The rest of the background is blue. There was probably an easier way to piece this together, but I didn't know what that was! Better pictures of the quilt back to come.

Thank you, Annie Kitty, for lounging in the sun and not on the quilt sandwich while I was pinning.

Now I'm trying to decide on quilting. I'm thinking I want to do a free-motion design vs. straight lines. I sketched this idea out, but I'm thinking that the actual quilting will not be quite this dense. Any suggestions out there?

Hopefully I can make my mind up and get this baby finished! :)

Linking up at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Free-Motion Quilting at QuiltCon

A few weeks ago, I attended QuiltCon, presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, at the Austin Convention Center. I could only attend on Saturday but that's better than nothing, right?! On another note, I wish I had more photos to share of the QuiltCon event, but I washed my cell phone yesterday with my jeans. Opps! That's what happens when you procrastinate on getting a blog post up. 

Regardless, I attended Elizabeth Hartman's 'Free-Motion Quilting on a Home Machine' class and here are some photos of the sample swatches that I quilted as I transferred my learning:

I still can't stop reflecting on what a wonderful learning experience I had that day. Elizabeth is amazing. She gave several mini-lessons throughout the workshop, gave the students time to practice and apply new learning after the mini-lessons, walked around giving individual descriptive feedback, and recognized that everyone was at varying levels of understanding in regards to the topic. Differentiation was addressed by her simply giving permission to spend more time on designs that we felt we needed to practice on more. All of that, and she didn't even have a handout! See, who needs a worksheet! ;-) In all seriousness, learning how to sew has become an incredible model of learning in my eyes. Even at this workshop, my intrinsic motivation was high as I left the class with my performance of understanding...

Eventually, I'm going to have to do something fun with this practice piece!

Lastly, I was unable to attend the lectures at QuiltCon, but then I discovered that you can watch some of them on Craftsy for FREE! Now you can enjoy these amazing lectures snuggling next to your kitty and eating popcorn! *Purespringbreakawesomeness* Seriously, check 'em out!

Now, I am off to put one of these free-motion designs to use! Happy SXSW and Spring Break everyone! If you are downtown on Saturday, Henry (Henry + The Invisibles) is playing at the Tiniest Bar in Texas and Wuwufest on 7th and Onion. Hope to see you out and about! :)

Come on Ride the Train!

Or at least hang out with Thomas the Train and his friends! This beautiful, gorgeous quilt is specially made for my dear cousin's little girl, Kendall. She absolutely adores Thomas the Train, but if you know Thomas the Train, he is blue and red! Big problem here...Kendall loves pink! 

The front of the quilt has a variety of Thomas the Train fabrics mixed in with a neutral gray to make the pink and red fabrics stand out. At least that's a tip I just learned in my Craftsy class by Elizabeth Hartman. The binding is mainly a bright pink with a few pieces of the coordinating red fabrics from the front.

The quilt back is made of a bright pink minky fabric. When making the quilt sandwich, I used batting so this quilt is extra snuggly for the winter!

Process photo! Keeping my rows organized for sewing each row.

Of course, I quilted squiggly train tracks throughout the entire quilt with bright pink thread. Notice the Thomas the Train fabric as well...it's so cute! 

Here is a better picture of how it looks with the super soft-snuggly-let me cuddle with Thomas-minky back fabric. I thought that using the minky fabric would be extra hard to quilt, but it was not a problem...it just took time. I also love the train tracks. If I was a kid again, I would get out my toy trains and play all over the back of this quilt! Overall, I hope that sweet Kendall loves it! :)

Mama's New Wave Quilt

Happy New Year! I thought I would start this year off with a blog post about the quilt I made for my mother. The quilt top is the New Wave Quilt Pattern by Elizabeth Hartman. I followed it mostly, but had to work with the fabric selection I purchased with my mom the last time I traveled to Illinois. So, I couldn't use 12 different fabrics for the quilt top. All in all, I think it turned out beautiful!

This quilt was made for my mother's bedroom and currently lives on her bed. It coordinates with her other bedding quite nicely. A little tricky to see, but the fabric is full of little insects...including my mother's favorite: the dragonfly! 

Designing the quilt back turned out to be a perfect math challenge for my time off! This collection of fabric had some panels that I cut apart and sewed back together and combined with some other pieces from the front. With my other leftover fabric, I'm going to make Mom a few pillowcases!

Here's my blueprint for the quilt back...lots of math and no calculator just to stay on my toes! 

My first time to free-motion quilt an entire quilt! 

 I sewed Mama a little message at the bottom. This photo shows my name, year and a little heart I stitched in there for good luck!

Here is my mother opening the quilt and she adored it! We had a wonderful time visiting...only wish she could have stayed longer!

I took one last photo before the quilt left my house. Luckily, it's in excellent hands! :)