EQ7 Block Challenge

Hi! I found out earlier in the month that Electric Quilt was having a block design contest using the new Fresh Cut fabrics from BasicGrey, and decided to enter this block:

Here's what it would look like in quilt format with the blues, greys, and pinks from the line:

Or you could go all multicolor like this:

I had fun working with EQ7 and this fabric line. Guess I should make up one of these blocks in real life, next.

QDAD and miniquilt swap

Over the last couple months, I participated in the latest Schnitzel & Boo miniquilt swap on Instagram. My favorite thing about doing these swaps (I don't do them very often) is the challenge to make something the recipient will really enjoy. Also, I've been participating in the Quilt Design A Day group on facebook for a few months. I do not do a design every day, but I've posted over 50 designs to the group since last August. I ended up making one of my QDAD designs into an actual quilt for this swap.

Here's the design I posted to the QDAD group on 9/3/14:

 

I started with the cross and crown quilt block and changed it up, adding flying geese rows down the vertical and horizontal centers, and changing the corner units to a sort of bear paw shape. The QDAD group has a suggested palette each day and that's where these colors came from.

I wanted to make my mini with just one of these complex blocks, so here's what I posted to IG when I was considering this for my mini quilt design.

 

And then I changed the colors (I actually used another QDAD palette) and added a sawtooth border as seen below:

 

I figured out the cutting and triangle math and sewed it up! Here is the finished quilt, 18" square:

Here's a closeup of the quilting:

I've started another one just like it for me to keep.

A couple other things--I made some mug rug Valentines and sent one along as an extra with my mini:

I turned and topstitched the edges instead of binding such small quilts.

And, last week I made a 12th man quilt;go Seahawks!

 

Hope you have a great week!

Scrappy Stockings (again)

I finished up 2 new Christmas stockings for my husband and myself about 2 days after we put away all our Christmas decorations. So I don't have photos of all five of our family's stockings together and the beginning middle of January is a weird time to share Christmas stocking pics but hey, I got them done and wanted to share.

I used a charm pack of BasicGrey Christmas fabric from a few years ago to make these stockings, with the charm squares cut into 2.5" squares for the stocking fronts. For the backs of the stockings, I sewed together more of the 5" charm squares. The backs of the stockings aren't quilted.

I originally made this pattern up about 12 years ago when I made a stocking my for oldest son. In 2010 I had finished my daughter's stocking and I shared the pattern and tutorial on the Sew We Quilt blog. Last month I tried to retrieve the pattern from scribd, a process which was free and easy in 2010, and in 2014 it was not so easy. So I've uploaded it to Craftsy (for free) for your stocking making pleasure. The instructions are still available here on the Sew We Quilt blog. 

Here's the link to the stocking pattern. When you print the pattern, make sure page scaling is set to "none."

I'd love to see your stockings made from this pattern!

Happy New Year!!

Here's my 2014 mosaic of completed projects:

 

My main sewing goals for 2015 are to blog about my work in the Quilt Design a Day group, continue to create and post designs to the group, make a few of my QDAD designs come to life in fabric and thread, and make and sell some quilt patterns. 

Oh, and finish all my UFOs! j/k. Or maybe not.

Here's to a happy and peaceful 2015.