Pfeffernüsse is Pfinished!

I've made several Bonnie Hunter quilts this year: Allietare, Jamestown Landing, Carolina Chain (haven't shown that one yet; it's a secret!), Old Tobacco Road, and I've just finished Pfeffernüsse. Can you tell I'm clearing the decks for this year's mystery En Provence?

My first post about Pfeffernüsse is HERE.

This was a fun quilt to make--I love string blocks; I love pinwheels; I love multi-pattern neutrals; I love red. (Okay, I don't love making QSTs so much, but they were worth it in this case!)  This pattern can be found in Bonnie Hunter's book, String Fling.

The quilt is nearly 90" x 90"--and backed with flannel, so it was a bit of a bear to quilt on my DSM, but perseverance pays off! 

The photos aren't great--it was a VERY sunny day!

Pfeffernüsse

Pfeffernüsse (border and binding detail)

Pfeffernüsse (detail)

Pfeffernüsse (backing detail)

Pfeffernüsse (fun bread print in the bottom corner of the brown triangle!)

I'm looking forward to this year's mystery quilt to begin the day after Thanksgiving. Will I work on it exclusively? Actually, I've already started HSTs for Twirl Around from Bonnie's new book, Addicted to Scraps. *grin*  Yes, I am a quilt addict (and PROUD of it!).

I'm linking with Jo's Country Junction UFO Progress and Fiber Tuesday 87 at The Quilting Room with Mel.

 

Mystery Completed!

I've been a bit slow the past month getting things finished, but I finally am done with this mystery quilt.


I followed a mystery on the Quilting Board forum (thanks, Judy!) to make this. Instead of putting the extra blocks on the back as I usually do, I made throw pillows with them. This will be a gift for our departmental adopted holiday family at Christmas.

It feels good to get a finish! I hope there will soon be more to come.

I'm linking with Fiber Tuesday 86 at The Quilting Room with Mel.

Quiltmaking Withdrawal!

I've been under the weather for a couple of weeks, so I haven't done a lot of sewing.

I have been working around the edges of things, though. I have my mystery quilt top finished--now to quilt it!

 I have a couple of extra blocks which I'm going to use to make throw pillows. I plan to donate the quilt and pillows to our adopted departmental holiday family in December.



I also participated in a mystery block group. Here is my block:

I'm not sure if I will make more now, but I like the block and will use it in the future.


I've also started Bonnie Hunter's Twirl Around quilt from her new book. It will take a while--I need over 700 2" HSTs! Slow and steady...


Now that I'm feeling better, I hope to get moving on my projects--I've missed my fabric and machine!

I'm linking with Jo's Country Junction UFO Progress and Busy Hands Quilts:Finished or Not Friday.

Tiddlywinks in Purples and Pinks

I've been working on gift quilts for my youngest nephew and nieces. The quilts are now in their hands, so I can now share my work without spoiling the surprise.


Her mom told me that my youngest niece likes pinks and purples, and I know she likes cats, so this is what I came up with.

It is made with the Tiddlywinks pattern by Roxanne Carter available free HERE. I made this one scrappy with many different fabrics.

The backing is a cat print. It love the print, but I must admit that after working with it, I am less enamoured with the sparkles! They add a nice touch, but my goodness, they are everywhere in my house now!

This is a fairly quick and easy pattern (if you aren't as challenged as I am about layout!), and I've seen it done several ways--different fabrics or different layouts. Jenny Doan did a Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial with an attractive layout HERE.


This quilt is in the dryer as I write--with the sparkles that I'm sure will be left in the machine, my husband and I may be looking pretty festive for a while.


I'm linking with Jo's Country Junction UFO Progress Update and Fiber Tuesday 81 at The Quilting Room with Mel.

Bright Stars

I've been working on gift quilts for my youngest nephew and nieces. The quilts are now in their hands, so I can now share my work without spoiling the surprise.  


I didn't have a pattern for this one--I just made it up as I went along.

Her mom told me my niece likes bright, bold colors. I think the colors stand out well against the black and white background.

I created the stars based on 4.5" squares with an 8.5" square in the center. The background squares in black and white scrappy fabrics are also 4.5" squares. (These are all unfinished measurements--in the quilt they finish .5" smaller.)

I assembled this quilt in columns (vertical) rather than rows (horizontal). This way, I could work with complete star blocks; this made it easier for me to keep things in order.



Because I wanted to draw the colors of the stars out toward the edge, I made a border of four-patches with 2.5" squares.

I went with a simple black and white backing fabric and a black binding to tie the colors in the quilt together. The quilt finished at approximately 66" x 85".

I like the way this one turned out. Sometimes, you just have to experiment!

I'm linking to Busy Hands Quilts: Finished or Not Friday and Fiber Tuesday 80 at The Quilting Room with Mel.

Anvil for my Nephew

I've been working on gift quilts for my youngest nephew and nieces. The quilts are now in their hands, so I can now share my work without spoiling the surprise. 


My nephew enjoys metalworking on his forge. When I decided to make him a quilt, the traditional Anvil block seemed appropriate.

I wanted to make a bold, geometric quilt--not a fussy one. For this reason, I chose to go with only two fabrics on the top--a struggle for a scrappy quilter like me!


The basic units are 3.5" and 6.5"--this creates a 12.5" block.

The block is easy to assemble:

Sew a 3.5" HST to a 3.5" solid light square

Sew a 3.5" HST to a dark solid square

Sew the two units together. You will need 2 of these four-patch units per block.

Sew the unit to a 6.5" HST to form a half-block.

Join the half-blocks to make a complete Anvil block.

In this quilt, I used 36 blocks to create a square quilt approximately 74" x 74" when finished and bound. Even numbers of blocks for each row and column made the overall pattern seem more complete to me. Experiment with your blocks to determine if you wish to make it differently.

Other layouts are possible with this block:

This layout turns all the scrappy anvils in one direction and adds sashing between the blocks. (Click the photo to find the original site of the image.)

Again, here the anvils all run in one direction this time without sashing between the blocks. (Click the photo to find the original site of the image.)

I chose the layout I did because I like the secondary pattern that is created by the light-colored fabric.

I backed this quilt with a fabric featuring American flags.

The binding is the same blue fabric as I used on the front.

My nephew is interested in the Navy, so I thought of using backing fabric printed with semaphore flags. The problem is, I don't read semaphore, so I wouldn't know what those flags were saying.I didn't want to give him a quilt where the flags spelled out "You are a scurvy rat" or "Your granny sucks eggs"!  :)



Thanks for visiting and happy sewing.


I'm linking to Myra's Busy Hands Quilts Finished or Not Friday and Fiber Tuesday 79 at The Quilting Room with Mel.

Original Design Quilt Entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival

I'm excited to enter Amy Ellis's 2016 Blogger's Quilt Festival at AmysCreativeSide.com again this year. Amy puts on a great Festival--so many beautiful things to look at--thanks so much, Amy, for organizing it.

My entry in the Original Design Quilt category is a quilt I call String Crossroads. It is an original design combining traditional elements.

String Crossroads

String Crossroads (detail)

String Crossroads (detail)

String Crossroads (backing and binding detail)

I used a huge variety of fabrics in this one--traditional, modern, and novelty. The crossroads blocks were made with a constant cream-colored fabric. The quilt measures 82' x 98", and I quilted it on my domestic sewing machine.

I have written instructions (not a formal pattern) for this quilt. They are available on my blog at http://theeclecticabuela.blogspot.com/p/string-crossing-pattern.html . If you should make one--I'd love to see it!


Thanks for looking at my entry.