Journey2Nebula part 2 Rock Candy, Candy Dish, Gazebo, Jawbreaker, and a few others

 Back in November I posted the first part of my Journey2Nebula, hosted by Julie Herman of JayBird Quilts

 The Journey Continued.  First up, Rock Candy, which I finished as a table topper, as the pattern suggests. 

Candy Dish

and Gazebo.  Gazebo is supposed to be a hexagonal table topper, but I squared it off and made a pillow cover.   It was my least favorite, I think because of my fabric choices.   I was getting to the very bottom of my fabrics by this point.   And then I quilted it!  Now its my FAVORITE!! 

I haven't done the final two patterns in the Journey yet, I probably will some day.

I enjoyed these little projects very much--I think having some thing small and FINISHED on a regular basis was great.   I loved it so much I made multiples.

More Jawbreakers

These projects all used remnants (they were too big to be called scraps) from prior quilts, smaller chunks of batting, and remnants from backings....the only yardage harmed in the making of all of these was a length of IKEA muslin used as backing to quilt the tops.

and some more Candy Dish, this time with bigger pieces to make a 26" pillow.  I love having a big pillow like this for reading in bed--now that I have progressive lenses lying down to read just doesn't work well.  My sister reports that her new pillow has vastly improved reading in bed for her too :) 

 and then I was on a roll and made a few more pillows, just squares

I bet you can guess what everyone got for Christmas??  

And here's a "class photo" of most of the projects together....like any class photo, some were missing that day :P

 

Puddle Jumping 2

 

This is the 2nd Puddle Jumping quilt I made--pattern by Camille Roskelley  

And the fabric is Violet Craft's Betty's Luncheonette--except for the green sashing and borders. 

This quilt is my nieces grad quilt, and matches my daughters Puddle Jumping which you can see here.

These cousins are very close, despite living far apart, and so I wanted them to have "same but different" quilts.  I mixed and matched the prints, so they have fabrics from each others quilts.  

I have long wanted to try freehand clamshells as a quilting design, and, once again, Christina Cameli had a  design in her book to try.  I LOVE the texture I got on this quilt.   I will use this again. 

Horse Abstractions

 When I first saw Violet Craft's Horse/Unicorn Abstractions pattern I knew I had to make it. 

I bought the fabrics in the summer of 2019 at Nuts for Bolts near Sylvan Lake Alberta.   There's a delightful mix of solids and textures, with a grunge background.  

This photo is a little funny--the perspective is off and the legs look really short.  But it shows the quilting really well.  I just had fun with the background--freehand straight(ish) lines, and some ribbon candy and s-curved lines thrown in here and there.  

Here's a better shot of the whole thing, once I had a quilt holder.   I added to the width and length of the quilt with extra background--now it's big enough to be considered a twin, or as a topper on a double bed.    I wish you could touch it--the some of the fabrics are textured, and then all the texture the quilting adds....

And for extra tactile pleasure, a minkee backing from Maple Leaf Quilting.  I'm a big fan of the 90" minkee backings.  

Merry Christmas

 

Lisa made this quilt and asked me to quilt it.  It was fun to do.  She had started putting some beads and embellishments on it, so there were some areas I had go around, but she had lots more embellishments to add after I quilted it. 

No two blocks were the same, all 3 R's were different. 

I did minimal stitching on the wool appliques--only where they were quite large did I stitch into them.  The candy cane is lined with beads, so you can see the stitching is spaced away from it. 

two S blocks

Ribbon candy in the interior border and meander ribbons in the exterior border.   I do hope Lisa sends a photo when she's done adding all the beading and embellishments. 

Norman, the Enormous Elephant

 

 

 

I'd like to introduce you to Norman (click here to see where tobuy a kit/pattern)   Isn't he magnificent?   He belongs to Vicki and she wasn't going to let me keep him.  

 

 

I'm pretty sure Vicki said there are 181 pieces in Norman's trunk.  The entire quilt is 30x30, so those are tiny pieces. 

 

Look how she fussy cut his eye!   Vicki doesn't often have suggestions for the quilting, but this time she mentioned wanting swirls behind Norman, so the wind is swirling behind him. 

And some hills in the background.

and the ground is dry and cracked--with some dust swirling under his feet.

Kathleen's Moda Love Quilt

 

Kathleen also sent me this Moda Love Star quilt.   It's a quilt she intends to use a lot, so she wanted and edge to edge quilting and something reminiscent of the beach.   

 

I chose Time Warp pantograph because I thought it was like the ripples you see on the water--when the light is shining and the water just looks dappled....oh I wish I could go to the ocean.  

 

 

 

 

Kathleen always has fun with her quilt backs too--almost as good as the front.

Kathleen's Missouri Stars

Kathleen sent me this quilt and although I cannot find my notes on it just now,  I'm pretty sure she said it was a Missouri Star pattern. 

Kathleen sent some photos of what she had in mind--some cross hatching (which I only "hatched" 2 corners of each square), some curly fill....and I always like the movement that feathers add.

I could see this secondary block design forming too-- and so that helped me choose some of the quilting designs, as I wanted seeing that design to be an option still, and not have the quilting mask it.  

 

I forgot to get a photo of the back, so here's a very poor photo of the flimsy--you can see how much life the quilting adds. 

Ruth's Floral

Ruth brought me this quilt too, and the always elegant E&3 came out to play on this one.  A perfect compliment to the lovely floral fabrics.   

I'm looking at the photo above and thinking if I'd turned it 180 degrees before taking the photo, it might look more dimensional.  I think I laid the quilt out upside down.  

 

Ruth's Magic Tiles

 

 

Ruth made this gorgeous magic tiles quilt.  

 

There were leaves in some of the fabrics, so I quilted it with a freehand viney-large leaf design.

 

 

                        So many great fabrics in this quilt. 

Enoki take 2

Annette brought this darling baby quilt to be quilted, and I decided to use Enoki again

 Enoki is a free motion quilting design from Christina Cameli's book Step by Step Guide to Free Motion Quiltng. 

 

 

Annette used a lot of fun fabrics in this quilt.

 

Dinosaurs- Elizabeth Hartman

I made these dinosaur pillows for my 3 year old nephew, who just got his "big boy bed".   Coincidentally, the bedding his Mom got him was also dinosaur themed, so I was definitely on the right track.  I think these big pillows are just the thing for leaning against while reading in bed. 

The pattern has directions for a couple of different sized pillows, I'm pretty sure I modified these a bit from the pattern.   I made a 20" and a 26"     One of the things I really like about how Elizabeth Hartman writes her patterns is she gives the directions to  make the quilt or to make one block at a time.  She often even gives multiple options for quilt size.   And there are usually instructions to make a pillow.

  My absolute favorite are the stubby little T-rex forelegs.

This was the third October in a row that I found myself making Elizabeth Hartman pillow(s).   I usually do them at my quilting retreat.  This year I got to work at home.  What is really neat is I can tell that my accuracy has improved.  I think two things really contributed to the improved accuracy. 

  First, using a wool pressing pad.   I have a friend who does amazing precision piecing, and she says the wool pad has improved her precision--something to do with the fibers not allowing the fabric to shift and distort when pressing. 

And second, using the  corner pop ruler --traditional piecing would have you drawing a line across the diagonal, sewing on the line, and then trimming the excess fabric.  The problem is I am challenged at drawing straight lines, even using a ruler!     So, with the Corner Pop ruler I cut first, then sew.   And I'm more accurate, so that's a win.

When the offcut is too small for the corner pop, or if you want to try this method with a regular ruler--line up the 1/4" on the diagonal and then trim.