Pocketful of Sunshine Pattern Release

Let me just say it's long overdue.  But I'm still doing a happy dance at the release of my first quilt pattern!  You've seen this quilt before:

Midnight Mystery Flimsy

So glad I took a couple of photos yesterday as it has poured all day today.

I haven't been exactly in love with the way my colours fell into place in this quilt as it's been coming together, think I'd have preferred switching the darks and lights, but that is part of the fun of doing a mystery, right?  However, seeing it full frontal, wink, I think it's kinda purty!

Sunday Stash on a Monday

Yum!  This is Fleet and Flourish by Maureen Cracknell, (check out that link for the quilt she just made using these fabrics--wow!) a 20-piece fat quarter bundle.  I will confess that in my quilting life of 20 years, I have only ever bought two fat quarter bundles of one fabric line, both of which were on sale.  Yes, there have been a couple others which were bundles put together by Craftsy, not of one line, and at an unbelievable deal.  When I first heard of fabric clubs, it was from Bernie, at Needle and Foot.  She got an Art Gallery 3-month Pink Castle Fabrics fabric club present for her birthday.  Aha! Christmas was around the corner...so I put it on my list.  My sweet daughter Dayna researched the idea, and made my husband buy it for me for Christmas.  We do not exchange gifts, much to my chagrin, but he says if you want something, go buy it.  You don't need Christmas or a birthday in order to get it.  Pragmatic is his middle name.  Still, I love a thoughtful surprise.

Tidal Lace

Wiithin days of writing out my Q1 FAL 2016 List, I have one checked off!  Sit back and enjoy, or zip down through all the photos (there will be a lot) and leave, doesn't bother me, because I am so happy these are done!  And yet... (yep, there is an "and yet...")

It started with the Tidal Lace fabric which I bought last winter to make pillowcases. I wanted the panel to be the vertical edge of each pillowcase.  The first surprise was that this fabric is an aqua to coral ombré, and coral is not really in my wheelhouse. Still I love loved the fabric, so I bought it.  The second surprise was that 2 yards would not make pillowcases the way I had envisioned.

They say to keep your brain young and vibrant, you must use it much like keeping your body in shape, exercise.  Well I did a marathon.  My brain thanks me.

First I googled pillowcase images.  Millions of hits.  Hit "Custom" (who knew you could do that?) and voilà! I saw really interesting pillowcases, the first few of which had either a monogramme, or an image of some kind, centred on the case, not on the band! Lightbulb. What if I centred the panel area on the main part of the pillowcase?

It took a bit of courage to make these cuts!

Yes!  I would have enough to make two pillowcases with a band AND I had 21" left with which I could make a cushion cover!!  Doesn't take much to keep this girl happy.
I trimmed 2 1/4" off the selvage side of the panel, and left 6" on the opposite side.

From here I just needed to cut 6.5" strip off the remaining fishnet part of the fabric and sew it to the other side of the sea creatures panel.

Success! I now had a 26.5 X 41" panel

The reason I had to trim off a 6.5" strip is that had I not, the other side of my pillowcase would have ended above the lacy pink edging you see above, and I wanted to keep that as part of the case.

Laid down a Kona Snow strip for the band. Yep!  I'm liking it...kinda...

Quilts "talk" to me, as I know they do to many of you.  This pillowcase went, "meh."  My brain was running on a runner's high right about now, and I suddenly thought, "What if I FMQ-ed some of the tidal creatures on the band?!!"  I got SO excited!  That bubble-in-your-gut (not from eating dairy products) that makes one feel a sort of caffeine-jittery excitement got me vibrating with creative energy, and I started stitching this:

Traced one of the starfish from the panel, put a piece of batting under the fabric, loaded Isacord, and went to town.

This was the result!

Eeeep!

Those of you who have read my blog for a bit know how much I love All People Quilt's Roll It Up pillowcase pattern.  No exposed seams.  I used it to make this pillowcase.  I did have to zigzag (left my serger in Kingsville) the seams where I pieced the panel parts.  No biggie.

Sunday afternoon:

Guest room.  The more I see this in there, the more I think we should have painted the master this colour and not the pale green and grey we did...

This is the reverse side of the pillowcases:

See the horizontal lacy edge?  :-)

Monday this happened:

To some oncoming walkers, two pibbles and a rottie can cause a reaction like the parting of the Red Sea...

Not much sewing, in other words.  However, we had a great walk after my yoga class along the Sarasota Harbour, out to the little island, and up to Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, a little over 3 km/2 miles.  The cushion was still simmering in my brain, rest assured.  I wanted to incorporate leftover waves fabric from my Cloud 9 quilt along with leftover Tidal Lace.  It took me longer than I anticipated to come up with a pleasing design.  I decided to make 4-patches alternate with 4.5" squares of the waves fabric.  Here comes the first "and yet..."  Where is the Tidal Lace?  Um yeah...  There are oh, six 2.5" by varying widths patches in the outer border, and a couple 2.5" squares in the centre.

Somehow I got the waves fabric going as the main fabric, not the Tidal Lace.  By the time that dawned on me (what happened to your marathon-running brain? you wonder...me too) I was committed to this cushion cover.  No problem.  This one is going in the guest room and those Tidal Lace pillowcases are going on MY bed in the master bedroom, so I will create TWO cushion covers to cover the boring chocolate brown cushions on our bed, and I should have enough to make two, right?  Went to the panel, thought a bit more, and cut out two 8.5" squares as the starting point for the two new cushion covers for my bed.  Realized, um yeah, guess I now am making three cushion covers...

Thinking maybe offset with log cabin strips surrounding them...or hourglass blocks beside these with strips above and below...hmm

Okay, back to the cushion cover at hand!  However, don't you agree that the 2 yards I had that were not enough for two easy pillowcases, but now have somehow provided enough for 2 pillowcases, patches for a cushion cover and the starting point for two more cushion covers with still lots of fabric left to play with, is just SO COOL?!!  Quilters get this. Quilters live this.  "Make do" becomes "made do and have enough for more!"

So the 4-patches and 4.5" squares were okay, but only measured 12" and I needed 18" for my cover.  I did not take pictures for this building process, and I should have.  I decided to do a white lattice between the units. It brought me to 14".  No problem; I created a 2.5" by varying widths striped final border: 18.5".  Yes.  No.  Houston, we had a problem.  It was like my stomach feels, not bubbles of excitement, but the feeling I get on twirling rides like merry-go-rounds, blechh, when I looked at the 4.5", 4-patches, and 2.5" borders all smooshed together.  The quilt said, nooo.  So I added a narrow 1/2" white border. A bit better.  It now said it needed a frame of sorts, darker.  Enter the teal.  Yessss.  Now the problem is that it measures 20.5".  I like my cushions stuffed, firm, not floppy, kind of like a pair of jeans.  They must fit, not sag, especially on the rear end, right?  I did not know how to solve this dilemma, other than trimming off an inch of the 2.5" border, and that did not look right, nor did I want to lose any.  When faced with a problem, quilt: (notice one L separates the word "quit" from "quilt"?!!) Ditch-stitched and then put on the free-motion foot:

Following the waves; too much fun!

Still contemplating that damn too-wide, but not too-wide because I like it just fine as is, border.  Got two opinions (how I love this QBL), one from Judy who agreed don't trim 1", maybe just 1/2".  The other opinion from MacGyver, who said, yep trim it.  My gut and this quilt said, noooo.

Kept quilting.

Time to make the call.  To trim or not to trim. Laid it down, stepped back, and this happened.  But of course!

Bella said, "It's lovely! Can I have it? Purrr-ease? You forgot to bring my cat cushion you do know."  Well, she is right, I forgot her little pouffe, but no way was I giving this baby to her, although I guess I should make her a little princess-type cushion...  Bottom line, I couldn't trim it.  Lightbulb.  We have some more brown cushions that came with our couch that are brown and red and ivory.  Not a fan anymore, want lighter brighter colours here.  Would this cushion cover fit those??

Oh yes.
Just.

I had too much fun FMQ-ing the starfish on the pillowcases, so I had to freehand one on one of the white squares, and then had to do a shell on another.  Some water-evoking back and forth around these babies, and some dot-to-dot for the 4-patches on the diagonal, waves in the untrimmed(!) borders, and finally straight-lines at 1/4" in the white lattice and she is done!

Perfect.
Like I was making them (hey, what do I mean, 'them'; I was making ONE cushion cover for the taupe ugly cushion in the guest room! ONE!  I signed up for ONE on the Q1 list!  Now I'm making...let's see...freaking FIVE?!! or is it six? SIX!!!! I guess, if you count one for Bella)...sigh, anyhow, it fit like I was making them for the two couch cushions all along.

The back.

The waves are lined up pretty awesome, no?!  And yep the back is pieced too.  Didn't have a wide enough leftover of the waves fabric for a good 5-6" overlap, so I used leftovers from the backing of Parisville Weave.

Sidenote: I said to MacGyver last night, I am SO glad I brought down all my scraps this year.  Well, almost all.  I brought down all the Ziploc bags of small scraps (which are sorted by colour) and stuffed the two plastic Rubbermaid bins of blues and of greens into one large tote along with the Ziploc bags, also brought down all my strips that I have been keeping in a separate Rubbermaid bin, which is where I pulled these lovelies from.  I brought some (sniff, not a lot) of my larger rolled scrap pieces and smallish stash, like fat quarter-size.  It's like I get twitchy knowing I can't bring it all, and more twitchy trying to decide exactly what to bring.  I'm so glad I had this.  The reason I had the wave leftovers is because I knew I wanted to back "Finished is better than perfect" with it.  Love it when things just work out.

Sidenote #2: I do my backs much like Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts does, with the exception of not using a double-layer for each side of the back.  Must try that.  This works just fine, and I have cushion covers that are 15 years old or more that have stood up very well.

Covering the boring brown and red cushion:

Do not point out the earth-tones striped bottom cushion, nor the similar reddish-brown lanai cushions for these chairs.  Don't.

Here is a side by side comparison as to how much of a change can be created by just redoing cushion covers!

I know which chair I like best!

Here is a close-up of the quilting I did:

I haven't washed it yet, and I won't be until I need to.  It is a tight fit and I know this will shrink a little.

This starfish is quite a bit smaller than those on the pillowcases, so I didn't do as much detail.  I love it.  I loved doing all the FMQ on here.  Am I falling in love with mini-sized quilts?

Tish is doing her best to encourage this burgeoning love.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: original design
Size: 20.5" square
Fabric: scraps
Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% cotton
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads: pieced with Gütermann, quilted with Isacord 100% polyester #4230 in 40 wt, and Essential from Connecting Threads (really love this thread, new to me, no affiliation) 100% cotton 50 wt in white.


Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and TGIFF, and Quilting is More Fun Than Housework on Sunday for Oh Scrap!

AND with She Can Quilt for the Q1 FAL party!

'What are you going to make for the second brown and red cushion cover?' you are wondering, I know.  I already have one started.  Similar, but not too matchy-matchy.  Serendipity: there just happens to be one in Camille Roskelley's book Simplify, that I got out of the library again yesterday!

Always wanted to do a Plus Quilt.  May as well do a mini!

Thoughts for the Year Ahead

And a review for the year past.

First of all, I need to confess that I missed the deadline for the 2015 Finish Along. Poop!  I was so mad at myself.  I had 5 of 8 finishes off my Q4 FAL List.  Last year was my first time linking up with this Finish Along, and it is definitely a good way to shame motivate me into some sort of focus.  Without further ado here are the links, as I know you all want to check them out:

1.  Shift.  Callum's Bento Box quilt

2016 - Q1 FAL List

I am IN!  By the skin of my teeth, but I am in.  When I went to link up yesterday's little wallhanging finish with Scraptastic Tuesday, I saw that the year-long, four quarters finish-along is not dead, but alive and well, and as I am a goal-oriented, and checkmark-lovin' kind of gal, I was SO happy.

Here's my list for the first quarter:
1.   This is where it sits, here in Florida, off Avril, the Avanté, and needing to be finished on my Bernina. This is all you will see right now as Dayna wants to be surprised, and she reads the blog.  Hoping I can marry the quilting from two totally different machines.

Dayna's Quilt

2.  I've wanted to do a Valentine-themed project since last year.  I had a brainwave on my morning walk today with Rocco about some minis.  All I brought with me for scraps were my Ziploc bags of smallish ones (oh for my nine 3-drawer sets of Sterilite drawers scraps!!!) but I think I can make these work.  I'm thinking X and O patterns.  Coasters for starters.  Maybe a wallhanging or table topper as well.

Valentine project(s)

3. I hope to get this into a flimsy and then quilted and bound in order to qualify as a finish. 

Cheryl's Mystery  (Meadow Mist Designs)

4. This got a healthy start on the quilting down here on my Bernina last winter, and then sat in its bag all summer.  I seriously need to finish this.

Brrrr! Park quilt

5. Bought this gorgeous Windham fabrics "Tidal Lace" to make pillowcases for here.  I am stumped by the ombré, as I did not realize it went from the gorgeous aquas to the pinks/corals, and I love the lacy edges, so want to incorporate them... I don't have enough to make two pillowcases as just a sack for each pillow.  I spent some time last night sketching, and then looking through APQ pillowcase patterns. I also want to use the leftovers (how can there be leftovers, you ask, if you don't even have enough to make sack-style pillowcases?) to make a pretty cushion cover for the ugly brown cushion you see...HEY!  Rocco photobombed this (again)...ha, didn't even see that until I inserted the photo and was writing about the cushion. 

What in the world?

Bella decided it works as is and sees no reason to work myself into a tizzy trying to come up with a solution.

6.  I need to do some dot to dot on these as I did on the other four, and put them to use!

Placemats I designed for Angela Walters' Dot to Dot class I took with her in person last April

7.  I made this last spring when I was making the pattern for Dayna's grad quilt.  I want to turn it into a cushion cover to go with her quilt.

Shadowed Star test block

8.   This is fabric I've bought (mainly on the left and the three on the top right) and fabric I pulled from my scraps and stash to make Sea Glass, the first pattern I bought off Craftsy.  It involves appliqué...and, as Lara knows, I am not a huge fan.  So it has sat for over a year, in a stack.  Looking so forward to April when her book comes out and she promises I will say "aaack-pliqué" no more!

Sea Glass

Eight projects, much like Q4 of 2015.  Of course, there are always squirrels who distract me.  And then there are another dozen (uh huh) flimsies or possible finished quilts I have brought down that I'm hoping to get done as well...not to mention other projects that are just in the "maybe" stage, like a mini swap with Anja or Judy, or a Swoon quilt with Tish...

First Finish of 2016

And it just happens to fall on a Friday!  And I did not buy a thing to make it!  Not even the book! (read on, as I did not steal!) I started this back in October, when I'd bought two books as the librarian at that time for my guild.  I'd planned to make a project from each book I bought to help promote the book to the members.  You may recall Rosewater, a smaller version of Pearl Gray in Christa Watson's book, Machine Quilting With Style.  This one is from Christina Cameli's book, First Steps to Free-Motion Quilting.

Christina's says "done is better than perfect" but I modified it to what Angela Walters always says which is on a bracelet of hers that I own.  There are a ton of small useable (I like useable) projects in her book where you can improve your FMQ skills.

People and Places: Inspiration and Motivation

Took these on Thursday, January 7, because the sun was kind of out, it was 41F/ 5C and I'd just taken the Buggy Barn Christmassy quilt off our bed and unrolled People And Places, my January on-our-bed quilt.  So, excuse the crumpled look as that is what happened literally moments before I flung this quilt onto the patio, lol.

I wasn't going to link up this month, as I'm a tad preoccupied with Dayna's quilt and heading to Florida shortly.  However, the day was balmy, the sun out a bit, so it had to happen.

Mystery Quilt Progress

I was behind, and technically, I guess I still am, but I wanted to post my progress on Cheryl's Meadow Mist Designs mystery quilt.  I am in love with these blocks!!  I haven't peeked at anyone's posts about theirs, as I love a mystery and I especially love a surprise!
Here is November's step:

Units 1, 2 and 3

At this point I did not have a clue, just knew the massive 19" squares (not shown) were going to be cut down somehow...did not even see that the two bottom strips sets formed the two halves of the unit you see on its side until I inserted this photo into my post! Duh.

December's step:

SO purty!! And the centres are STARS!!! My favourite block.

I had figured the 19" squares would be cut on the diagonal and the quilt would be on point.  Cheryl still has me mystified to some degree as to how this thing is all going to fit together, because the other part of December's instructions had us make two half block units:

In full disclosure, I do only have two of the eight blocks sewn together.  This is because A) I have a bad head cold and the other night couldn't face, make that didn't want to risk, quilting on Dayna's quilt so I made up a couple of these, and B) almost all day today I have been quilting on Dayna's quilt, which is why I don't have the other 6 done.  I started off today in a bit of a "nose taps on full blast", snot-gobbling way, so I thought I'd ease into my day after last night where I maybe had 3 hours of solid sleep, by making the half blocks. 

Remember I did not have enough of the taupe-ish background, so I added in the ivory cats, since it matched the theme of the red cats fabric...it looks worse on these photos than in person, at least to my bleary eyes, lol.  Once it is quilted, hopefully it will all read okay.

I apologize for being behind in responding to comments and in visiting your blogs.  As you know, I had 8 lovely days with the best grandson on the planet, bar none, and now I have a graduation quilt that needs to be finished asap.  Here's a sneak peek, (Dayna stop reading!!) of the early progress:

I haven't put anything much on lately about her quilt because she wants to be surprised, but oh, it has been causing me serious angst.  Kind of similar to the angst daughters can cause... never mind; the angst dissolves when you think of the deep boundless love you have as a mother for your daughters...

Angela Walters, my heroine, always says you have to love the person very much if you're adding in a ton of fine detail...well I think you get the idea of how very very much I love Dayna (I know she's going "meh, yeah, yeah, Mum, stop")

This quilt, which is for my darling daughter, of whom I am so very proud (I know you're still reading, Dayna ;-) who has accomplished so very much in the past 5 years especially, is my main crush of late.  Well, no Brady is. Ha.  Anyhow, I can't wait to show you more once this is done. I'm linking up with Beth at Cooking Up Quilts for the first time for her Main Crush Monday linky.

And also with Judy at Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday!

Over Too Soon

As always.  Brady and Brianne are winging their way back home as I type.  It was a wonderful 8 days, as every visit is.  Magical.  Yes, I'm his nana, but this child is something else.  Everyone who meets him comments on his poise, his character, his intelligence, his engagement in the moment at hand.  He told his mum he wanted Nana to give him sewing lessons.  This was what we created one of the mornings.

A Quilt for Caramel, his stuffed (but breathing!) sleeping puppy
I had a little bit of Olaf fabric scraps still left, so I said we could cut out some squares.  He wanted to put red with it.  (but of course)

I told him he needed to draw a design.

He went right to work.

So pleased with his plan

I gave him my Ziploc bag of smaller red scraps and showed him the plastic drawer of larger (quarter yard-ish) red pieces.  It didn't take long. He picked that rich red you see under the Olaf fabric.  Then he picked two more reds out of the smaller scraps Ziploc.

I pressed them, and at that point we came upstairs, away from Bella.  He is very allergic to cats.  I drew the lines with a Micron pen and he cut them out.  Boy, did he do a great job for only 7!

Planning the design

I showed him the checkerboard pattern with the Olaf squares, all of which he'd cut. I cut the red ones.  He made the pattern: two reds in each column.  I'd showed him to spread them out, and had the first two reds randomly placed, but he rearranged them to be in columns!  "This is how I want it, Nana."  We stitched them together, me "steering", he on the gas.  This is my old Elna I brought upstairs for him.  She still sews like a dream, although she doesn't want to zigzag anymore, despite 3 weeks at the "spa".

We did the pillowcase turn method.  For the backing I sewed together some scraps from the pajama bottoms he's wearing that I made him along with some scraps of the Cat in the Hat fabric from his I Spy quilt.  Scraps of Warm 'n Natural was the batting.  I "steered" while he pushed the gas to sew the three layers together, leaving an opening for turning...

Excited to turn it right side out

We poked out the corners, I stitched the opening closed, but not before I picked it apart so that I could sew on a label!!  Then we started on the quilting.  I started steering while he did the gas, 1/4" from the seams, and then he wanted to steer.  And he took to sewing like a pro.

Here he's doing the wavy, aka "craggly" (his term) lines down the centre of each square

I was so impressed with how well he managed to keep the 1/4" seam!  I tried to teach both of my daughters to sew...with limited success... Dayna actually did fairly well, but Brianne, Brady's mummy, did not enjoy it.  I took a video of him, too, for the DVD I always make of his trips.  Such coordination he has:  operating the foot control, guiding, whether it's following the seam line with the edge of the walking foot, or trying to remain centred, doing the wavy lines.

"When I grow up, I want to work in a sewing shop, Nana."

Along with playing football in the NFL.

All done!  It fits Caramel perfectly.

Once that was done, he got back to being a boy-boy, lol:

One of his favourite presents, a plastic hockey stick and puck he bought with a gift card to Dollarama from Santa!  The J.J. Watt jersey from Auntie Dayna is of course, #1.

The back

It washed up so lovely!  I just love the red with the Olaf fabric!  I would not have thought to put the two together, much as I love aqua and red...

So simple, but so effective.  Hours that I will treasure forever.  Linking up with Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework.

Quilt Stats:
Size:  11 X 14.5"
Fabric:  cotton scraps
Batting:  Warm 'n Natural scraps
Quilted: on my Elna, with a walking foot
Threads:  Pieced with Mettler cotton; quilted with Isacord in deep turquoise