June OMG Postcard from Sweden Finish

 I am so excited that I finished my Postcard from Sweden as my OMG (One Monthly Goal) for June. 

http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2018/06/one-monthly-goal-june-finish-link-up.html

I quilted it a couple of weeks ago and then worked on the binding and it has been washed and awaiting its reveal here on the blog! mmm! quilts and a couple of other quilters hosted this as a quilt along from February to April, but with my machine dying in April I did not get mine quilted in April.

 This is a free pattern with really fabulous directions. It is available on Craftsy, so you must have an account, but there is no fee to download the pattern:

https://www.craftsy.com/quilting/patterns/-postcard-from-sweden-quilt-pattern/204345

I have never made an all solid quilt before, but I am already working on another quilt made from solids and see more in my future.

 I made the larger size so it is 60"x75". I liked the organic straight line quilting shown in the quilt designer's, Kelly Liddle's, picture, so I did the same. The texture is really good and was so easy to do just with eyeballing and my walking foot on my new Pfaff. I did stitch along the blocks first and then went back and added the lines on the blocks.

For the binding, I selected the Kona cotton color Pool because it is not one of the 36 colors actually used in the quilt and aqua is my favorite.

For my backing, I used this busy black and white I picked up for $5 a yard at Joann's. It is an old Alexander Henry fabric even though it looks like a Bonnie and Camille print. I embroidered my label and bordered it in the Pool color. This modern beauty is going to live here in my house for many years to come!

I am almost done binding my Kona Kaleidoscope Stars Quilt thanks to all of the morning World Cup games. It has been very hot here this month with most days reaching 90 degrees, so hand binding is a challenge except in the mornings.

To reward myself for three finishes this month (and all of them quilted by me) and a top completed, I decided to start a new project. Most of you know I love Bonnie and Camille's happy floral fabrics and I have quite a stash of them including seven untouched fat quarter bundles. I dug into my cherished B&C stash and pulled these gorgeous pieces to make a special quilt.

My daughter will be in London this fall for her semester abroad and I cannot afford to actually go to visit her, so I am going to make a Union Jack Quilt in my favorite fabrics to mark this momentous life experience--I am not sure if I will give it to her or keep it! 

There are many many Union Jack patterns available, but most are paper pieced. Ugh! I detest paper piecing because I feel like it is so wasteful with fabric and I suck at it, so I bought the Fig Tree Jumping Jacks pattern because it is not paper pieced and it is gorgeous. You can find it here:

http://store.figtreeandcompany.com/Jumping_Jacks_p/977e.htm

So far, I have made five blocks. I am using a variety of solids for the stripes pink, green, orange, red, and aqua. I will not be posting any pictures on Instagram because she actually follows me there, but she does not bother with my blog, so I will share my progress here.

I have fixed the issue on my blog with receiving an email notification when someone comments, so I should be able to respond to your comments again!

I am leaving for Denver tomorrow morning for a work meeting. I am not looking forward to the meeting so much, but I actually get to have my own hotel room for three nights at a Sheraton and meal money plus we don't have to drive back on Friday night and can actually leave on Saturday to avoid all the Friday night traffic! I am looking forward to the hotel AC since it is supposed to be nearly a hundred degrees in Denver and as always I will do some shopping in the big city--can you say Trader Joe's, Home Goods, World Market, DSW, etc.?

Clementine Month 6

 I have had the privilege to participate in the Fat Quarter Shop's Clementine Quilt Along. These are the blocks for month six.

We are almost done with all the blocks for this quilt along and I am looking forward to getting the top all together.

Check out the other quilters that are participating:

April of April Rosenthal (@amrosenthal)

Bonnie of Sunset Family Living (@sunsetfamilyliving)

Cara of That Crafty Cara (@thatcraftycara)
Carrie of Moda Cutting Table (@modafabrics)

Denise of Pieced Brain (@piecedbrain)

Elise of Elise and Emelie (@eliseandemelie)

Gina of Carpe Quiltin (@gina_tell_carpequiltin)

Heather of A Creative Pursuit (@acreativemama)

Hilary of By Hilary Jordan (@byhilaryjordan)

Jan of Cocoa Quilts (@cocoaquilts)

Jen of Heritage Threads (@heritage.threads)

Joanne of Quilts by Joanne (@turtlequilterjo)

Kairle of Kairle Oaks Handcrafted Goodness (@kairleoaks)

Kendra of Good Starter (@good_starter)

Kristen of 3 in the Nest (@threeinthenestraleigh)

Kristina of Center Street Quilts (@centerstreetquilts)

Leah of Ponderings from My Heart (@ponderingsfrommyheart)

Melanie of A Bit of Scrap Stuff (@mellierc)

Melissa of Happy Quilting (@happyquiltingmc)

Pat of Pat Sloan (@quilterpatsloan)

Pat B. of Life in the Scrapatch (@scrapatches)

Patty of Elm Street Quilts (@elmstreetquilts)

Rebecca of One Wee Bird (@oneweebird)

Sarah of 123 Quilt (@123quilt)

Seema of SSK Craft Shop (@sskcraftshop)

Sherri of A Quilting Life (@aquiltinglife)

Sondra of Out of the Blue Quilts (@sondradavison)

Stephanie of Quilt 'n Party (@quiltnparty)

Tanya of Tanya Quilts in CO (@tanyaquiltsinco)

Teresa of Aurea's Kitchen (@aureaskitchen)

Vickie of Crocheting Vixen (@crochetingvixen)

Fat Quarter Snowballs Quilt

 Welcome! Every now and then I get an email from the Fat Quarter Shop seeking volunteers for their sew alongs--the spots fill quickly, so I usually miss out, but I was able to snag a spot for their Fat Quarters Snowballs Quilt--it is part of their Shortcut Quilt Series. You can find the free pattern here:

https://blog.fatquartershop.com/2018/06/shortcut-quilt-fat-quarter-snowballs.html

The snowball blocks are cut at six inches and the blocks on point are a little smaller, so the blocks really lend themselves to larger prints. I selected a fat quarter bundle called Puppy Love by Riley Blake. It has adorable puppies, bones, tennis balls, and other dog related prints and I picked a blue solid for my background. You can purchase the Puppy Love bundle here:

https://www.fatquartershop.com/puppy-love-fat-quarter-bundle

I added in some greens from my stash and a couple of white background prints for a scrappier look. I followed the pattern exactly and the quilt measures 50" x 55.5"--it would be really easy to enlarge this quilt or make it smaller. I think it will be a lovely baby quilt.

Since I plan on gifting it as a baby quilt, I used a luscious red tufted minky backing. I used my built in wavy stitch which is 9 millimeters wide and 32 millimeters long and quilted in the middle of the blocks and in the ditch. I recommend using your walking foot and if you are using minky you must over pin!

I usually hand sew my binding down, but I thought if I used my wavy stitch to sew it down it would finish off the quilting nicely. I cut this binding a little wider at 2.75" and I love how it came out!

Thank you Fat Quarter Shop for the opportunity to make this awesome quilt!

Spelling Bee Top

It is my summer vacation and despite the fact that I am still coughing and sniffling, I spent some quality time in my sewing room since my daughter went back to college on Wednesday. I have been diligently sewing along with the Spelling Bee Sew Along. I realized the only two blocks I was missing were the telephone and the typewriter, so I made them up. I had already worked ahead on the punctuation blocks.

 I went retro mint green with the telephone.

The typewriter has so many tiny pieces!

Here is another picture I snapped of all the blocks together this morning. It is windy and hot here, so my pictures did not come out great. I used a teal polka dot from my stash for the borders. I bought 10 yards of it from Connecting Threads for $2 a yard years ago. I may end up using it for the backing as well. I need to add all of my embroidery details--I prefer to embroider in the larger quilt instead of the individual blocks. I think I will have this one quilted with a simple overall design, so the focus stays on the blocks.

Since it is Sunday, I woke up and watched the French Open final and worked on binding this quilt for my friend and my Slow Sunday Stitching:

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2018/06/slow-sunday-stitching_10.html

Her long arm quilting machine has arrived and is scheduled to be assembled this week! I anticipate some more bindings coming my way and some of my quilts going her way for quilting. I need to prep some backings, so I am ready!

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Kona Kaleidoscope Stars Top

 My summer vacation began a week ago, but I was sick in bed for the entire week! This always happens to me--I can never get deathly ill during the school year--it is always during my vacations. I have loads of sick days banked--like half a school year's worth, but instead my body burns up my summer vacation literally. I had a cough, fever, aches, and chills--paid $60 to go to urgent care to be told I have a "virus" and keep doing what I was doing already staying in bed, guzzling water, and popping ibuprofen like candy. Of course this happens when my daughter is home from college and we could be doing fun stuff--walking our dogs, cooking together, going to the hot springs, etc. She has less than a week left and we need to make up for lost time!

I sewed all of my Kona Kaleidoscope Star blocks together before I got sick. I added an outer white border yesterday and snapped a couple of pictures. Right now, it is 60 inches square and I am not sure if I will add another border or call it good...This is a free pattern you can find here:

https://www.aquiltingsheep.com/2014/01/wake-up-to-kona-solids.html

I have some secret sewing I have worked on the last couple of days--I got everything cut and the blocks sewn--it is a Shortcut Quilt. I have lots of left over fabrics and will probably make another quilt out them. This sewing is for the Fat Quarter Shop and will be revealed on June 15th.

My June OMG (One Monthly Goal) is to finish up my Postcard from Sweden top--it needs to be quilted and bound. I already have my label embroidered and the backing and binding purchased.

https://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2018/06/one-monthly-goal-june-goal-link-up.html

I know Blogger is no longer notifying people via email about the comments, so it is harder to respond to them. This is a total pain and I hope they figure out the privacy issues/laws soon.