Birds in Paradise 2.0

Hey everyone, don't have much time, just wanted to post a quick update.
I didn't like the center block of the Birds In Paradise by Nancy Bell (found in one of Carol Doak's books) so I drew the basic blocks in EQ7 and redesigned it slightly. I like it much better and this is the design I am planning on completing.

I'll be making each block 6 inches square. I especially love the secondary looping pattern made by the leaves.

Hodge Podge of Projects

I continued quilting the bargello quilt but my machine was acting up. I got through about 3/4 of the quilting but the thread kept breaking. I'm finally getting the hang of the sunflower pattern (thanks much to everyone who left encouraging comments on my previous post!) I replaced my needle, cleaned and oiled my machine and fiddled with the tension. And after a few hours gave up in frustration and move on to less irritating projects. Oh the things we love the most can be the most frustrating can't they? I'll try to finish it in a couple days. I've been working on a hodge podge of different projects today instead.

So I started working on a quilt for my Nana, from Carol Doak's Easy Machine Paper Piecing Book. It has three different paper-pieced flower blocks and can be found on page 85 of the book (Birds of Paradise by Nancy Bell).

And continued working on my Kool Kats Kwilt.

Somehow one of my setting squares is 3/4 of an inch too short on one side, so I'll be tearing it out and replacing it. Not sure how that happened! Good news is I can fix it easily. The border will be about two inches wide when stitched on. However, next time, I hope to be able to do this braided border pattern that I found:

It was actually on TLC's website (go figure), here's the link: Braided Quilt Border Pattern
I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Free Motion Bargello - Win Some, Lose Some!

Remember this?

Well, I started quilting it today.
I choose the Sunflower pattern from the Free Motion Quilting Project.

And I had mixed results. Also, FMQ seems to be tough on my hands (I occasionally have carpel tunnel issues) so the going is slow. But I am getting a little better at it. The hardest thing is regulating stitch length.

And also, making the needle go where I want it to go. :)
I have chosen to space the sunflowers out and using a traveling vine to go between. I'm also using a variegated thread which doesn't show up very well on the front of the quilt.

Ah well, live and learn.

Kool Kats Kwilt

I'm up to 3 unfinished quilts (tops are mostly complete, need borders) but I couldn't resist starting another one. I found this pattern, Kool Kats Kwilt by Patti Carey (click to download the pdf) and thought I'd give it a try. Its an innovative combination between a pieced cat and a snail trail block that makes it look as if the cats tails are curled together. I created the cat block in EQ7 and played around with coloring until I found something I liked.

I've actually changed this a bit based on available fabrics and how large I want the quilt to be. I will be making a total of four sets of cats, two sets in pinks and purples and two sets in blue/yellows/greens. I'm not sure how it will turn out. The plan is also to rotate the units slightly so that I can have four "wonky" units.

 There are a lot of units and the directions aren't as clear as I would like so I found it helpful to cut out one set of everything and label them using sticky notes, then stack and whack the remaining pieces.

Here is my finished collection of pieces, conveniently placed next to my sewing machine for chain piecing.

It took almost the whole weekend, but I finally mostly finished the blocks. I didn't like the way the two color sets looked together so I'm going to make two separate quilts. I'll just have to pop into the fabric store to pick up a couple more yards of background fabric.

The quilts will probably be close to 3 ft by 4 ft when completed, so crib or lap quilt size-ish. I'm debating the merits of a pieced border (flying geese maybe?).

Linking Up to MarciasCraftySewingLinkyParty
and:

Table Runner + 2(Placemat) = Baby Quilt

Remember that bargello table runner and place mat set I started a month ago or so? Well I decided I didn't like it and I pushed it aside. It was very pretty, but all wrong for my decor. I picked the colors for the gray-greens and the mauve pinks but once I combined them with blenders, I got a very nice rainbow pastel combination. That looks completely silly on my table. Oh what to do.

Turns out what makes a terrible table runner can make a great small lap quilt.

Here it is, all pieced together and waiting for borders, quilting and binding. I like this much better!