lyon bear {on marsala mountain}

As some of you may recall, last fall I set to work on the lyon bear.  It was supposed to be a big girl bed quilt for our three-year old's transition to her new room before the arrival of her new sibling.  Now that baby sister is almost three months old, I'd say it's high time for a finish ;o)

And who knew that marsala would be so hot right now?

(...I mean really, aside from Pantone, who?  Anyone?)  Truth be told, I had my heart set on indigo.  But this new furry friend has me all heart eyes over marsala.  Marsala marsala marsala!  I suppose I can get used to having you around.

The geese, like the bear, are all pieced from oakshott cottons ::  elements and lyon.

May our little firecracker sleep soundly as the moon rises over marsala mountain...

This mini 5.25" block is called "Moon Over the Mountain," BB #948.

And greet each morning with joy as "the sun wakes up."

The "crown" over the bear's head is a traditional block named "The Sunrise," BB #4098. 

The top is twin-sized (~60" x 80", give or take).  The bear block ("big bear") was designed by my talented friend Juliet of Tartan Kiwi.  (I blew up her already blown-up block, so my extra big bear is about 40" square.)  The two mini blocks (Moon Over the Mountain and The Sunrise) will be available as free downloads in my craftsy shop (as part of the INDEX) sometime soon, in case anyone's interested in those ;o)

Linking up with finish it up friday and Anne and Adrianne's 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge!

Be sure to hop on over to Anne's or Adrianne's to see what the rest of this community has been brewing up with this luscious new reddish-brown hue :o)

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"lyon(s)" and (tiger) stripes and BEAR, oh my!

I'm sure most of you have seen at least one version of Juliet of Tartan Kiwi's 30-inch "Big Bear" pattern. (I know I was blown away when I saw Adrianne's polar bear, Michelle's umbrella prints friend, and Juliet's eclectic grizzly pop up in my IG feed over the past few weeks.)  

Though the eyes look like two different blues head on, they're cut from one and the same oakshott swatch.  Whoops!

So much so, that I jumped at the opportunity to pick up the pattern as soon as it was released.  Straight away I printed it on ledger-sized paper (mine finishes at 40"), but I was pretty ambivalent when it came to fabric choice.  Until, of course, the Oakshott summer clearance rolled out, soon after which this stack of fabric showed up on my doorstep.

Okay, technically not *my doorstep* because FedEx takes that signature-required policy quite seriously.
The failed delivery attempt slip, on the other hand, was on our front door.  ;o)

Within no time, their calling became clear:  one big (big) lyon bear for our toddler's bed.  To be honest, I initially thought that my big-paper strategy would yield a 60" bear (evidently my printing math is not quite up to par), so I'm going to add some neutral borders on the sides to match the background before elongating the design with some aztec-inspired rows on each end as originally planned.

By the time all is said and done, someone's going to have a very fun, still-pretty-big new furry friend for her big girl bedroom.  ...Which will hopefully make up for the fact that we will not—in spite of multiple requests—be painting said room pink.  ;o)

lots of L-O-V-E

As some of you may've picked up on IG, I have a (sort of almost) finish to share... 

LO

VE

Times twenty.  (Well, twenty-one to be precise; there's an extra bit for the back.)

I have to admit I was a tad frantic when it came to making a design choice for our do.Good circle's June quilt.  May was a little (read: insanely) hectic for me at work, so the block and color scheme were both a bit of a last-minute decision—thanks in large part to the AMB blog tour post and block I'd just finished working on (6" LOVE template and 12" LOVE template).

In spite of that frenzy—to borrow the words of my circle (bee?) mate, Nicole—I'm in lurve.  And of course now that I finally have a top stitched together, it's time to think about quilting! I'm thinking linear—either vertical lines (per usual) or a grid à la Rita of RPQ (though I'm not sure I'm neat enough to pull off the latter).  

Any advice on that front?

In the meantime, it's safe to say I've got plenty of other things to catch up on since my unexpected hiatus from sewing this summer—#opgivewarmth, steampunk, gypsy wife, selvage play (and 16-patches!), ...and that's barely skimming the surface.  Not to mention a fair share of planning to do, including the forest abstractions class, which starts next week(!) at Crimson Tate. (How is it already almost Labor Day?!)

Linking up this overdue finish with crazy mom quilts!

gradient fill :: layer cake (along) sampler

The SMS liberty+oakshott+aurifil giveaway is open one more day :o)

It's hard to believe that almost three months have gone by since Amanda @ Material Girl Quilts wandered into my office (yep, we're irl coworkers!) and asked what I thought about a Layer Cake Sampler she'd just designed.   Within no time, she had whipped up not only the original, but a second version of that beauty, and then drafted something like a dozen posts for the QAL.  I—on the other hand—worked at, um, a snail's slightly different pace.

When I got Malka Dubrawsky's "From Outside In" in hand, I have to say I was a bit overwhelmed by all the color.  Totally infatuated, don't get me wrong, just a little a bit intimidated by the fact that this lovely line involved contrasting (!) color ways.  (Resident analogous designer here.)  So I did the first thing I thought to do:  color sorted a gradient from red to yellow to green to blue.  And then pulled my all-time favorite oakshotts (the tan/brown earth element series), cut them into 10" squares, and sorted them by value.  You know, to ground all those vibrant colors :o)

Starting off with the lightest oakshotts—natural/beige—in the red corner, I paired up those earthy tones with the colorful layer cake squares until the darkest browns reached the blue corner.  After that, I sewed and cut each pair into eight HSTs.  (Evidently I was operating with at least some sense of urgency back then.)

Fast forward to mid-May... and after one (sweatshop) weekend those 320 HSTs were pressed, trimmed, and ready for a whole 'nother round of sorting (my favorite pastime?).

And just like that, I had a spiffy new quilt top.

...That is really quite large.

...and has somewhat astonishingly matchy points.

Now... how to quilt it?

Linking up with Amanda, who has some pretty sweet prizes for the QAL link up this weekend, and crazy mom quilts for my first May finish!

star light, star bright, which thread to use tonight?

Okay, so by "a few more days" clearly I meant one night :)  Which is fitting considering what I've been working on...

What can I say, the garbage cans really bring out the blues, no? ;)

Enter another Encyclopedia find ;)  If anyone's interested in the block pattern, I'll be updating the INDEX with it (and a few other items) as soon as I've finished (1) fancying it up and (2) writing tutorial instructions for Lynne of Lily's Quilts.

But in the meantime, my dearest thread aficionado-consultants... the quilting question remains:  match twinkle twinkle with "iron grey" Gutermann, or stick with an off-white Aurifil?

I suppose now's as good a time as any to mention I'm thinking parallel straight lines on a diagonal (you know, in a tasteful sort of way).  So once again, any and all thoughts are welcome (and much appreciated!)

Linking up with Lee of Freshly Pieced.  For real this time. :)

blah blah forest blah blah

Evidently it's "Forest Week" here at the house of {no} hats ;)  After picking up the Forest QAL project in April and setting it aside until August, I'm elated to have something to show after hours (...upon hours) of sewing these twelve impossibly "intermediately" difficult blocks:

Ta da!

P.S. The colors are slightly more saturated than they appear in the photo, I just didn't want to mess with color correction at the moment (...Now if only there were a magical FMQ fairy in this "ethereal" forest to quilt this for me!)

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday ;)

string {scrap}tacular

Okay, so this one is a little less scrappy...  It's a three-tone grayscale tartan (not unlike the sketch that started it all):

Fortunately the wind stopped for a split second, so I was able to get a semi-decent full shot ;)

The final quilt will measure ~42" (x = 1.5" for those of you who've seen the pattern).  Sadly I wasn't able to make much progress on my selvage 16 patch this month, though I did manage to finish cutting all my strips last night:

These might be teeny 6.5" finished blocks, but it looks like I'll have plenty of strings to keep the first fifteen blocks company ;)

The only question is whether I should continue with the super-scrappy, pseudo-unplanned match-ups, or if I should switch to pairing like-colors together (e.g. the two on the left in the bottom row above) to preserve the option of doing a final layout where the colors shift from one side of the quilt to the other (like this).  Thoughts?!

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out all the other string festival entries here.  And in case you didn't know, my plaid pattern* is on the {house} (i.e. fo' free!) through tomorrow.

* Note:  I did find a mistake (AH! SORRY!) and will be posting an updated version by the weekend, but if you download it via craftsy beforehand you should get a notice when the corrected pattern is available ;)

{bloom}ing right along

*** If paper-pieced bling sounds like your thing, my birthstone pattern giveaway is still open! ***

I've been working through this quilt at a relatively quick clip.  And not just because Lee's offering a linky soon (though that is a nice incentive!)  The main reason is that I needed a finished top stat to test how my {new} new machine handles large quilts.  (Sidenote:  if you have any strong feelings one way or the other about Elna or Pfaff, please please share! I was having issues with my 6-month old Pfaff so my dealer has given me the choice between upgrading to a newly released model or switching to an Elna... and I need help!)  But you didn't come here to read about sewing machines, now did you?  ;)

I've been toying with my BBP layout and I think this is my favorite...

But here were the other contenders:

Trying to steer my helper clear of the family room floor while I think about it ;)  I generally wanted the pinks/reds starting in one corner, and the oranges/yellows in the other.  Otherwise I didn't really have an agenda aside from spreading the various values (and insufficiently bleached "blobs"!) across the quilt.  Did I pick the right one?!  Can you even tell a difference? :)

Update:  Top is finished!  Stuck with layout #1:

And oh how pretty are those open seams? ;)

I've also been doing a little sewing for my birthplace of Boston.  Being the BB Encyclopedia junkie that I am, I found a block titled, "Boston Pavement" (#2726) (perfection!) and fell in love.

Very steam punk-y (aka Air Ship Propeller, BB #3499), minus the curved piecing and appliqued center.  (And the blades here are the skinny sections vs. the chubbier steam punk ones).  This is the first of several I plan to incorporate into some "To Boston With Love" flags.  They'll finish around 5" square when set in the flags.

Now, off to rescue my quilt layout from a toddler tornado! Linking up with Lee at freshly pieced ;)

chicago star: {coloring book} style

So it's time to set my April goal.  Fortunately, I have no shortage of WIPs to choose from ;)  This month, I'm committing to complete a belated gift for my brother and his girlfriend up in the Windy city.  In light of the place they call home (also, the place they met), it seemed appropriate to sew up a nice, comfy "Chicago Star" quilt (BB #1777).

So I selected some shades of blue (frère's favorite color), stitched it all together, and was not impressed.  What made it worse, was that this was one of those times where I knew I wasn't loving the result as I was sewing.  Read:  I could and should have stopped myself before this point:

...But instead I kept going, sewing every last section of the 90" nine-patch until I had a completed top.  Blast!  I tried to set it aside, but even as I worked on other projects I kept kicking myself for ignoring my gut instinct on this one (oh, just another day in the life of my over-analytical self).

At the end of the day, I brushed off the {trusty} ol' seam ripper and started tearing through any section with blue fabric.  And as loose threads fluttered about, inspiration struck(!)  You see, my brother and his girlfriend have a sort of modern loft in the city.  Originally I was going for sentimental-yet-minimalist but ended up a little too old-fashioned for that aesthetic.  So I grabbed a deep navy solid and redid each blue section "coloring book" style (I actually am not quite sure what to call it, all I know is that top no. 2 looks like a giant coloring book page).  

Here's a sneak peak at the new-and-improved {bold} Chicago Star:

Within four weeks' time, I'll be revealing the completed quilt (and finally getting this gift to its recipients!)  One can only hope the finish goes more smoothly than the start ;)

   

HSTs + horses

Well, technically just one horse.  This guy:

A sweet, "peeping" horse, thanks (again) to the creative Sonja for the fabulously fun pattern.  (Note:  I poster-printed the file at ~180% so he'll be closer to 16" x 20" than the original 8" x 10").

He's in the mix with these HSTs (soon-to-be paper hats):

And this barn-sized carpenter's star in shades of burgundy and brown:

Side bar:  I thought about trying to get a better picture this afternoon, but melted snow doesn't make for the greatest backdrop, so this will have to do!

The top measures 90" x 90", yikes.  Still finalizing a quilting design, so any advice is much appreciated!  Right now I'm thinking of echoing the outer edges of the star on the background, then doing continuous line quilting along the spikes of the outer ring and center star... Hm, who knows!  Totally open to suggestions if any come to mind ;)

Also, non sequitur, but does anyone know how to tell the difference between the front/back of solid fabric? Is there even a true front and back? Sometimes the sheen looks a little different on one side, but even then I'm not quite sure what to make of it... just wondering if anyone had any tips to share!

Linking up with Lee at freshly pieced.  I wish I had time to write more (this post feels like a WIP!) but sadly non-sewing deadlines have kept me on my toes (and pretty much off my machine) the past week and a half.

Here's to getting back into the s{e}wing of things ;)

sam's {scrappy} quilt

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This quilt top was inspired in a last-minute burst of creativity as I was flipping through the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns* and daydreaming of emeralds the other week.

The block itself (#3725) is titled "Sam's Quilt," which seemed appropriate seeing as it's a family name and my husband has hinted that we need a larger-than-lapsized quilt for the family room (finished top is 72" x 77").  So I set to work selecting prints from my stash, cutting plastic templates (and lots of fabric!), and chain piecing like a crazy person.  Now, typically I infuse order into everything I sew (e.g., this quilt), but lately I've been envious of several quilty peers' innate ability to whip up brilliantly scrappy designs that seem so effortlessly carefree and cheerful.  In fact, after seeing this particular beauty, I told myself the next block-based quilt I made would be off-limits to any attempts at order.

Seeing as this approach goes against every designer grain in my being, it's been an interesting experience, to say the least.  Ironically, my little helper's eagerness to participate—namely by tossing triangles all over the floor at random—was actually quite useful in keeping me on my scrappy task.

Indeed, it's safe to say that from piecing to photography, she had a hand (or foot) in it all.

It's certainly not the "scrappy riot of colour" I one day aspire to achieve, but it's a start!  Entering this in the quilt tops category of a²(w)'s Pantone Challenge:  in addition to green, I used off-white fabrics (beige + eggshell + snow) for my neutral and various blue prints for my secondary color.

Much thanks to Ali for hosting and to the amazing sponsors and judges for your generosity and time!  You can check out the (steep!) competition here.

*Note:  Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns has been out of print for some time, and eBay/Amazon sellers have raised their prices in light of its relative rarity.  I happened to snatch up an old library copy at a fair price last fall, but I just stumbled up this newly released eBook for less than $30 in case spending upwards of $80 on a used book just isn't your thing ;)

    

Edited to add:  A few of you have commented about the stained glass effect of this quilt.  And I must say, after walking out to this in my family room the past few days...

Yes, it's still up.  Don't judge!

...I'm inclined to add quilted curtains to my {lengthy} sewing/dream home wishlist!