Kona Solids Quilt

This quilt is for my niece. I made it with four Kona charms packs in bright and white and charcoal yardage. The charcoal reads as black, but it isn’t so severe. Each block is 6″ finished, which is crazy small for a twin-sized quilt. The picture below only shows part of the quilt. (It is hanging over a curtain rod.) The finished size is 66″ x 90″ (11 rows x 15 rows).

Argyle Quilt

Ever since I made the diamond case for my nook, I’ve wanted to make a quilt with diamonds. It took me all year to finally get to it. Just as I was doing the math to figure out how much fabric I needed, Kati posted her argyle quilt-a-long. My nephew received this quilt.

I made a few small changes from Kati’s quilt. First, I added a column of black. I wanted the quilt to end with black on the outside. For length, I added two or three rows of diamonds. I can’t remember exactly how I changed it. The extra length makes it  a long twin, which is perfect for a college-bound kid. I think the final size is around 66″ x 88″. I forgot to get a final measurement before I gave it away.

The fabric is Art Gallery Solids: Caviar, Dark Citron, and Parisian Blue. I love this fabric. It’s soft, washes well, and keeps is vibrant color after washing.

The only thing that bothers me about this quilt is the not-quite-square finish. All the bias cuts make it near impossible to keep it square. I should have blocked it before quilting it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time for this step. So if you decide to make a diamond quilts, keep this in mind.

Photo Gallery Quilt

The last quilt is for my sister. Again I got my idea from Kati. (I promise my next quilt will have a different inspiration source.) In November, I saw her quilt. I immediately knew this would be a perfect pattern for my sister. Quite frankly, I was starting to think that I wouldn’t have time to make her quilt. This is the perfect pattern. It doesn’t require a ton of piecing. It was fun to figure out how to piece a quilt with Y seams.

The fabric is Sandi Henderson’s Secret Garden in the Tea Time color way. If the quilt would have been for myself, I would have bought the Midnight color way. However, I knew the Tea Time color way would suit my sister. After working the fabric, the colors grew on me. I have several leftover scraps. I look forward to using these for other small projects.

I’m following Kati’s directions for an argyle quilt. I hope to finish piecing it tonight and quilt it tomorrow.

On Friday night, I carved out a bit of time to spray baste a quilt, not just any quilt. It’s my Kona challenge quilt. The challenge actually ended a few months ago, but I only had a portion of the top done. The quilt has grown to a twin size quilt. It has taken me a couple of weeks to get to this point.

Spray basting is so much easier than pin basting . I don’t think I’m ever going back. I can’t wait to see it after I wash it.

The second block is the Supernova block designed by Freshly Pieced. When the pattern first hit the Internet, I thought it was nice, but I wasn’t motivated to make it. I’m so glad Brooke selected this block. I had fun making it. I’d definitely consider making a whole quilt with this pattern. Word for the wise, some of the pieces take a bit of patience to line up just so. If you decide to take on this block, give yourself time to work with it.

I couldn’t be happier with the end product. I believe the pillow will live in our living room, allowing me to enjoy it on a regular basis. I have been thinking about making a tutorial for this project. Is anybody interested? I have a few smaller projects to tackle before I could make it happen. If there’s interest, I’m willing to invest the time.

I want to mention that instead of an envelope back, I used an invisible zipper. I followed the recently published instructions by Cynthia from Meringue Designs. I’ve installed invisible zippers using a variety of methods. By far, Cynthia’s instructions produced the best results, and they were easy to follow. Yea!

And Calypso likes it too…

1. union jack 2, 2. ringo pie union jack, 3. Union Jack, 4. union jack quilt…victory garden, 5. Mug Rug Top #1, 6. UJ top completed Jan2011, 7. UJ top completed Jan2011, 8. It’s the Royal Wedding Tomorrow!, 9. Union Jack Block

Well, I’ve noticed them. For reasons I can’t explain, I’m really  drawn to the design. Perhaps, I’m influenced by our recent trip to Victoria, BC and one royal wedding.

To get the concept out of my system, I’m making a Union Jack pillow out of Central Park fabric. Since I want to use an IKEA pillow, I used this perfect graphic from Wikipedia to draft a design for a 24″ x 16″ pillow form.

On Tuesday night, I start St. George’s cross and went to bed please with my progress.

On Wednesday morning, I was comparing my design with the image from Wikipedia. Ouch! I’ve made a mistake. See the white middle?

It shouldn’t be there. I need to make St. Andrew and St. Patrick’s (diagonal stripe) crosses first. Then add the St. George cross to the corner section. Ugh. This means I need more fabric. In the past 24 hours, I’ve made too many cutting errors with the “white” fabric. Pine Needles, please have what I need. This time I’m buying half a yard. Just in case.

Until I get to the fabric store, I’ll work on the diagonal crosses. This time, I’m going to practice with less important fabric before I cut into Central Park fabric. Lesson learned!