Monday, April 22, 2013

A Rose Garden

I LOVE roses!  The scent, the colors, the shape of the bud and how the many petals are hidden in that tight bud, then when it opens, it's huge!  I tried growing roses here in my garden in PA, but they didn't work.  The deer seemed to like them too much.  I do have two successful rose bushes at my mother's house.  She loves them, too. 

So, when I saw this fabric on sale, I HAD to buy it.  It's stunning!  The roses are about 4 to 6 inches across.  Huge!  Then I didn't want to cut it.  I needed to find a great pattern that allowed this fabric to shine!  Eleanor Burn's Pattern Party for March was a great choice!  It uses 10" squares, and is called Piece of Cake.  It's almost the same idea as her Tossed 9 Patch, only that uses 5" squares.  I pulled the large and smaller rose prints, and looked for other prints that would work in the design, and coordinate with the roses.  I had two prints of carnations in similar hues, plus a green blender, some tossed rose petals on cream, a cream with green print, and some Monet's Garden fabric that had all the same colors, but looked like a far-off view of the same garden.  Reds, pinks, greens, cream and black.  I cut the squares, pieced the top and found a wonderful black tone on tone for the sashing.  The directions were so well written, as are all of Quilt In A Day patterns, and it was so quick to make!  I needed to sew just 4 9-patch blocks!  Then I cut them, layed them out on the design wall at Enrights, then sewed the sashing and rows.  In just a few hours, I had a top! 


I used the same sashing fabric for the back, and used stencils in the largest blocks, as well as the small cream blocks, and quilted feathers in the rectangles and borders.  I used 3 different colors of Aurifil Mako 50wt cotton thread on the top: deep red, green and cream, as well as 6 bobbins of Aurifil black.  It's pieced with Aurifil, too.  I love that it doesn't break while quilting, and the colors blend so well.  It accents the fabrics. 


I'm pretty sure the rose prints are from Kona Bay, and the carnations and rose petals are from Northcott.  The black is Timeless Treasures.   This is just so much prettier in person.  It's a great lap size, or toss it on a twin bed.  And have your own rose garden without thorns!  I promise, I made sure I got all the pins out, lol. 

Here are some more pictures!
 
Thanks for visiting!
 

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Works In Progress

Hi.  I'm linking to the Quiltsy Team blog again. 

This week I worked on contest or mystery quilt blocks.  I love Aurifil thread, and they have a Block of the Month contest.  If you make the block and post it on Flickr, you have a chance to win thread.  Here's March's entry.

 
I'm also doing a Quilt Along with Jo's Country Junction.  This is called Pieceful Nights.  I had to buy the pattern, but again, there are good prizes.  I won this FQ bundle, and wanted a really pretty quilt to show it off.  I think this design will work nicely.  I'll need to find border fabrics, which will be a challenge.   This collection seems to be sold out.  I'm sure I'll figure out something when it's time to finish it. 
 
And I am doing the Plenty of Fish mystery quilt from Prairie Quilt Merchantile on Facebook.  This is Step 1.  I have to catch up on the next two.  A mystery quilt gives a variety of steps, but you don't know what the quilt will actually look like until the end.  It's a challenge because you can't picture it and don't know exactlyhow the fabrics will work in the design.  you just have to trust that your lights, mediums and darks will be a good selection.  This one will have a very large variety of fabrics, almost 30.  Although I use strip packs (Jelly rolls) and FQ bundles, and charm packs, and some of my quilts look scrappy because of that, I seldom pick my own array.  For this one, I picked from my supply of fat quarters and some yardage.  It was a challenge to make the choices.  I do love coordinating fabrics, but usually I choose based on the finished quilt.  Since I don't know what this will look like, it was a different challenge.  Pushing the envelope, and being creative is always a good thing.  But the first step was very easy, so that helped. 
Those are my fabric choices, and below is Step 1. 
 
So, that's what I'm doing!  I also picked up flannel backed tablecloth fabric yesterday.  I got the blue plaid one.  I need to make a better design wall.  The tablecloth I have thumbtacked to the wall is falling, so I want to put this new piece up with a simple frame.  I think the blue "grid" from the right side will show through, and help me if I need lines to help lay out a quilt.  I needed something fast and easy, and cheap.  40% off coupons and some scrap trim pieces from the garage should do it.  I'll let you know!  Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day!