Blogger's Quilt Festival - ROYGBIV - Celtic Sunrise

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If you are new here WELCOME to my blog!

If you are returning visitor SORRY I keep changing the look and pages of my blog :)
I am in the process of "beautifying" it loosely following the "Beautify your blog" @ Sew at Home Mummy so things will keep changing until I am happy with it (or tired of making changes... whichever comes first ;) )
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This is the first of two posts (the one for the category "Original Design").
You can find the second post (for the Original Design Quilt category) here.

But for the ROYGBIV category, this is my entry!

(Front 2)

(Front 1)

Yes, you read it correctly... this quilt does NOT have a back... it has 2 fronts ;)
The front I choose to enter for the Quilt festival is actually "front 2" what most people would call "the back" :)

Front 2 is my reinterpretation of Weave, by Kathreen Ricketson... I wanted to represent a sunrise on a Irish hill... and the reason why the sunrise is specifically in Ireland is because the Front 1 is the result of my participation in Bonnie Hunter's mystery QAL: "Celtic Solstice"... 
I love the way the spirals complements the straight look of the piecing on Front 2... and the imperfections in the quilting perfectly match the scrappy look of both sides ;) 

Here few more pictures of this colorful and cheerful baby quilt!

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If you are new to my blog, look around and feel free to leave me comments ;)
I am a paper piecing addicted and I share all my patterns (mostly Disney or cartoon related) here on my blog!
I have patterns to be tested (Simpsons, Alice in Wonderland, Mickey Mouse & Friends, Donald Duck & friends) and many pattern tested and ready to be enjoyed by other great quilters!!
For any question about my patterns (or if you would like to have a block of a specific character) don't hesitate to contact me (all my contact information are available in my About page)

And now drop by Amy's blog to check all those great projects!!!
On May 23rd voting will open... Mine do not stand a chance against the wonderful ones that I already spotted there... but still, it's fun to share my love for quilting with so many talented people!!!

MOP Monday - TWO baby quilts done!

I kind of lost my "paper piecing blocks" mojo recently... I do not seem to be motivated in testing my own blocks :( I hope my mojo will come back... but in the meantime I completed (as finished-finished-done!) not one but TWO baby quilts!! 

-- MOP: The list --

1. As You Wish - no progress
2. Celtic Solstice - DOOOOOOONE (see below)
3. Tea Towel challenge and PPV BOM - one of April's block done (see below)
4. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
5. Happy Halloween wall hanging - no progress (progress last week)
6. Topolino quilt - no progress
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7. B&W pillow - quilted the top, need to make the back with the zipper
8. Grocery bag - done last week (off the list!)
9. Triangle QAL - DOOOOOONE (see below)
10. Emerald wall hanging  done last week  (off the list!)

-- MOP: This week new blocks --
One of the two blocks from April PPV BOM is done!

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And I received my block from Dagmar for the Block Swap Adventure: Storm at sea, loooove it!!

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Celtic Solstice / Celtic Sunrise.

This is the baby quilt with two fronts ;)

Left - Celtic Solstice by Bonnie Hunter, Right - My reinterpretation of Weave, by Kathreen Ricketson.

Liked up at A Lovely Year of Finishes.

The quilting is very very imperfect... because I tried to trace the spirals but my pencil was not very easy to see on all those colors and I decided that I didn't care about precision or consistency... as long as it looked nice, it is ok even if it is imperfect.
And this is the first time I wash my quilt in the washing machine and then dry it in the dryer... I hand-washed my previous ones and dried them outside... but noooooo more... this turned perfectly wrinkly soft and it took no time or effort!!
I was thinking to bind it in a different way, or actually about not binding it at all and trying the "pillow case" method... unfortunately I just made my quilt sandwich as usual and after quilting the first spiral I remembered that I wanted to try the pillow case method... oh, well, too late for this quilt... but not too late for the other ongoing quilt... the one with triangles :)
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And here is my finished Triangle baby quilt!!! I just looooove it.

I will share more pictures and more stories about it next week when I will make a post for it for the final linky of the QAL... but for now, you can see it in its full and softy beauty!!
I liked the pillowcase method... it was challenging at the beginning because I didn't realized that it could create huge puckers... and I initially panicked... but then I drank my coffee and then told myself: "if I just cover it with pins (to distribute the excess fabric uniformly) and I use my regular foot (instead of the walking foot), things may work out better". And actually they did!! no excessive puckering, just a soft fleece back with uniform quilting lines!!
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And come back on Wed, because I have a very special post to thank all the wonderful people that used my patterns and shared they work with me... and there will be a new Alice in Wonderland pattern tested, fixed and officially released...
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And now, link YOUR own progresses below!!

Rules for the linky party:
1. You can link finished projects or WIP at any stage! Every step is worth sharing
   (A journey of thousand miles is made of single steps)!
2. Link to your specific post to make it easier for others to read about your progress!
3. Spread the word and post my button or a text link (code for the button on the side bar)
4. Comment on other links!! It's always good to support each other every step of the way!! :)

An InLinkz Link-up

MOP Monday - few progress, but pretty big ones!!

I don't have much progress to share with you in terms of number... but they are pretty big so let's get down 

to...

-- MOP: The list --

1. As You Wish - no progress (progress last week)
2. Celtic Solstice - "back" done!!! see below!!
3. Tea Towel challenge and PPV BOM - printed April block
4. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
5. Happy Halloween wall hanging - no progress (progress last week)
6. Topolino quilt - no progress
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7. B&W pillow - no progress
8. Grocery bag - done TWO grocery bags!!! see below!!!
9. Triangle QAL - pieced 2 rows (see below)
10. Emerald wall hanging - no progress

-- MOP: This week new blocks --
I never worked with home decor fabric and I made one bag before in my life... this is why I decided to make not one but two grocery bags for my mom's birthday!! I like to challenge myself ;)

The first one

The tutorial for this great bag is available at sew4home.com.
I changed a little bit the pattern... I added a lining for two reasons: first I wanted to add some fun pockets inside and it's easier to add them on the lining... second I never worked with heavy fabric... and some of the seams where turned many times and pretty bulky... so the lining hides everything ;)
The other thing I added are some snap fastener at the top because I don't like bags that do not close... even if I use them for grocery, when they are not too full or before the trip I like them to close, so this was an easy addition.

The second one is a lighter and more "foldable" bag... I didn't follow a pattern for this... actually I deconstructed my favorite grocery bag (scaaaaaaring process ;) ) and I used it to cut the fabric and reconstruct this other bag

(side note: I was able to reconstruct my original bag too... that was my biggest worry ;) )
I don't know how sturdy these two bags are... I guess I will know when my mom will start using them!!

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Finally I finished the back other front of my Celtic Solstice baby quilt: here they are next to each other!

Left - Celtic Solstice by Bonnie Hunter, Right - My reinterpretation of Weave, by Kathreen Ricketson

The "other front" of the quilt was inspired by the Weave, the quilt on the cover of "Brave New Quilts" by Kathreen Ricketson. I won that book in a giveaway and I absolutely love that quilt... however the way she construct it is a little bit too "matchy-matchy" for my tastes and for my skills ;) so I did it a little bit more scrappy and less calculated... and I went for a single diagonal line: what I wanted to represent is the sun rising on a Celtic hill (this why the greens and the browns in the lower part, and the orange/red/blue of the sky). I absolutely love the way it turned out... so bright and so scrappy... it perfectly matches the scrappyness of the Celtic Solstice front.

Now my goal for April is to quilt it and finish it!!

Liked up at A Lovely Year of Finishes

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The next step in the Triangle QAL @ sassyquilter has been published few days ago and I started piecing together my triangles. The first few were frustrating because I was trying to align the wrong points... once I understood how it should be done, it became easier... now I won't say again that I hate triangles... I just don't like them too much ;)

This is my progress.

I need to cut more triangles because I just cut a few to get a feeling about the process... and as I said, I don't hate it, so I think I will finish it!!

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And as a last note, I received my block from my Block Swap Adventure partner (Melissa @sewgreenm.blogspot.com/)... an amazing Snail Trail block, thanks Melissa!!

I printed the pattern for my next pattern... it's going to be fun and colorful... I hope she will like it!!
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And now, link YOUR own progresses below!!

Rules for the linky party:
1. You can link finished projects or WIP at any stage! Every step is worth sharing
   (A journey of thousand miles is made of single steps)!
2. Link to your specific post to make it easier for others to read about your progress!
3. Spread the word and post my button or a text link (code for the button on the side bar)
4. Comment on other links!! It's always good to support each other every step of the way!! :)

An InLinkz Link-up

MOP Monday - one top done and much more!!

DISCLAIMER: This is a post with a lot of text and a lot of pictures... but I think it's worthy: 1 quilt-top done, 1 new pattern tested and released and other 3 blocks done...

But first... let me THANK every person that reached out to me after my last "sad" post, where I was wondering if it's worth my time to share my patterns here on my blog (the summary of the post is that I did have a lot of download but very few people used my pattern and some of them didn't contact me to show me their work or they didn't give credit (at least on the picture that I saw) to me or my blog).

After that post, many of you wrote me kind emails telling me that they appreciate my work and they collect my patterns even if they didn't have the time to sew them yet (I am in the same situation, LOL :) ).

So you cheered me up and now I am back with my linky party and my patterns...

But I hope that in the future I will get some personal connections (email, facebook messages, something) if you try my patterns because I share my blocks just for this!! To find friend with the same interest!! :) 

Ok, enough bla bla bla, let's get down to the progresses of the last 2 weeks!! 

-- MOP: The list --

1. As You Wish - Count Rugen embroidery block done (see below)
2. Celtic Solstice - QUILT TOP DONE!!! (see below)
3. Tea Towel challenge and PPV BOM - PPV block (Ice Cream Bowl), 1 done (see below)
4. Alice in Wonderland quilt - Caterpillar block done (see below)
5. Happy Halloween wall hanging - "Do Bats Eat Cats?" block 2 done (see below)
6. Topolino quilt - next block printed

-- MOP: This week new blocks --

The pattern has been tested and fixed and is now available in the Quilt&Stitch-TestAlong page.

I used this amazing text fabric that I won in a giveaway some time ago... I really like text prints but I didn't know in what project I could use them... and then (since I have a resolution not to buy fabric for a while) I had to go through my stash to find a suitable background for the caterpillar... and I started reading the fabric :) there are words like "1 inch, 3 inch, 6 inch, ..." "queen" "painted" "roses" "joyful"... I mean how can a printed text be more perfect for an Alice in Wonderland block??? and for the Caterpillar in particular??? :)
Thanks Tiffany@sewinsomethin.blogspot.com!!!

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"Do Bats Eat Cats?" is my second block for the modified version of Melissa's "Star Light, Star Bright" block

Do Bats Eat Cats? (block 2)

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I also made one of my two blocks for the PPV BOM...
This block looked pretty complicated (and it 6'') so I was tempted to make the modified version which is simpler... but then I told myself "If I don't try, how do I know if I am able to do it?" And I am glad that I choose this version!! It's not hard at all!! just the few rounds from the center are kind of slow because aligning those small pieces is not super-easy, but once you get past those, it's super-easy and super-fast!! It's one single block, no points to match... I am really happy about the final result! Now I need to do another one with the aqua/blue switched... but that's for another week! :)

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And another reason why I didn't post on the blog last week is that on Thu I got pretty sick (bad cold) that knocked me out until late Monday :( so no energy to do any sewing on the sewing machine... but a lot of time on the couch to do some embroidery ;) so I completed the last embroidery block for The Princess Bride QAL :) I really like this block! It was my first time in doing that small cursive writing... and I think it turned out pretty readable, so I am happy about it! :)

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And finally... a FINISH (quilt top at least)
This is the wonderful Celtic Solstice by Bonnie Hunter! I did a smaller and modified version... I love how it came together... the colors are so bright (I am not able to capture that in a picture) :)

Celtic Solstice (quilt top) on my design wall

Celtic Solstice (quilt top) on my couch... 

just to prove that the previous image is not a computer generated image ;)

I now have big plans for the "back"... I put back between quotes because I don't do quilt backs... I do quilts with two fronts ;) I started designing the back but is not ready yet, it's just a draft on my computer... once the first block is "done" I will share the design and put it up in my MOP list so I can keep track of the progresses... the back will be scrappy & modern, that's the only thing I can tell you for now :)

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And now, ling YOUR own progresses below!!

Rules for the linky party:
1. You can link finished projects or WIP at any stage! Every step is worth sharing
   (A journey of thousand miles is made of single steps)!
2. Link to your specific post to make it easier for others to read about your progress!
3. Spread the word and post my button or a text link (code for the button on the side bar)
4. Comment on other links!! It's always good to support each other every step of the way!! :)

MOP Monday - A Prince and a Pirate

And here we are for another week of progress reports!

I did quite a few things this week considering that three days I couldn't touch the sewing machine because one day I was sick and for other two days I couldn't feel my arms and shoulder due to excessive snow-shoveling (we had about 20 inches of snow in 24 hours... never seen so much snow in so little time... and it took two days to free our driveway!! O_o)

Anyway, here is what I was able to do despite the snow!

-- MOP: The list --

1. As You Wish - the prince and the pirate are done! (see below)
2. Celtic Solstice - missing chevron blocks done
3. Tea Towel challenge and PPV BOM - paused until march when next PPV block will be released
4. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress (progress last week)
5. Happy Halloween wall hanging - no progress (progress last week)
6. Topolino quilt - started Scrooge McDuck block, done about 10 pieces

-- MOP: This week new blocks --

Pirate Roberts and Prince Humperdinck are done done!

You can find all the pattern as part of the As You Wish, Quilt and Stitch along @ Fandom in Stitches.

You can also see the "chevron" sashing that I plan to use. My idea is to quilt those blocks with the quilt-as-you-go technique but I am not in a quilting mood so I will just accumulate the blocks for now and wait for a quilting inspiration to start that adventure :)

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I also completed the February block for the Block Swap Adventure (for Marina in Netherlands).
She wanted a log cabin block with batiks... since she knows already the block, I want to keep the color a surprise so here a greyscale picture of the block (I will share the actual block when she receives it)

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And now, ling YOUR own progresses below!!

Rules for the linky party:
1. You can link finished projects or WIP at any stage! Every step is worth sharing
   (A journey of thousand miles is made of single steps)!
2. Link to your specific post to make it easier for others to read about your progress!
3. Spread the word and post my button or a text link (code for the button on the side bar)
4. Comment on other links!! It's always good to support each other every step of the way!! :)

An InLinkz Link-up

MOP Monday: please come and link your progress!!

Despite the fact that last week I had only one person adding a link... and despite the fact that I didn't have big progress on all my projects... here I am for the second week!!!

Because every step count... and I hope that eventually you will share your progress here with me!! :)

-- MOP: The list --

1. As You Wish - finished Roberts block and quote (see below)
2. Celtic Solstice - assembled missing pinwheel, white triangle and orange triangle
3. Tea Towel challenge and PPV BOM - done third block (The King's Crows) and printed the chevron patterns
4. Alice in Wonderland quilt - printed next block (The Red Queen)
5. Happy Halloween wall hanging - no progress
6. Topolino quilt - printed next bloc (Scrooge McDuck)

-- MOP: This week new blocks --
Westley (pirate Robers) block, from the As You Wish, Quilt and Stitch along @ Fandom in Stitches.

The pattern is available for free on Fandom In Stitches.

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And now, what are YOUR own progresses? Link them below!!

Rules for the linky party:
1. You can link finished projects or WIP at any stage! Every step is worth sharing
   (A journey of thousand miles is made of single steps)!
2. Link to your specific post to make it easier for others to read about your progress!
3. Spread the word and post my button or a text link (code for the button on the side bar)
4. Comment on other links!! It's always good to support each other every step of the way!! :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Tea Towel Challenge, PPV and Celtic Solstice updates!!

It has been a quite productive holiday time for me! At least from the point of view of crafty things :)
I delivered all the Christmas presents (all handmade item) and I will share them with you later on this month... because now I have to update you on 3 QAL that I joined: Tea Towel Challenge, Paper Piecing Vintage BOM and Celtic Solstice Mystery!

** Tea Towel Challenge update**
As mentioned before, my tea towel will be the center piece for a wall hanging and it will be surrounded by blocks from the PPV (see later). January would have been the "fabric selection" time for this challenge but I actually already finished my center piece and it looks like this:

The fabric that I will use is going to be scrappy... in dark blue, white and aqua (see later for the whole design). I cut out the main design on the tea towel and I reproduced (in paper piecing) the little geometric motif in the lower band. I increased that in size and I put them on the side of the tea towel. I added some blue and white strips to reach the right size (12'' x 18'') to be coupled with the 6'' blocks of the PPV.
I am pretty happy about this center block, even if I doubled the white fabric (because it was too much "seeing through" for my taste)... this made the little pieces a little bulky and not "perfectly matching" but I like them anyway! :)


** Paper Piecing Vintage update **
The first pattern was released few days ago!! And this is my block:

And I needed three of them, because of my Tea Towel Challenge design :) so this is how the PPV and Tea Towel Challenge looks right now:

I am pretty sure that I will change the greek top/bottom border... and I will probably replace it with a bigger version of the motif I already put on the sides of the tea towel... I think that will be a more cohesive choice... but we will see... I have one year of blocks to make before adding that border... I may change my mind a thousand times more :)


** Celtic Solstice Mystery update **
And the Celtic Solstice was revealed on Jan 1st!! :) I still didn't complete step 5 at that time, but now I not only completed that but I also put together my blocks!!!
Step 5 picture (again I created the paper piecing pattern for the split triangle unit) :)

And these are the finished block on my design wall:

I have just few blocks because for each part of the mystery I just did one fourth of the small quilt blocks... I will add the missing one later on, since I want to make this as a baby quilt... but let me tell you: I really like this design!!! I love patterns that made circles appear without any curved seam!! :) I love the color I choose, they are very bright even if I cannot take a good picture of them now because it's cloudy :( I will when the top will be done! And I love the scrappyness!!

As a final note: the official name of this quilt will be "The perfectly unmatching points"... so if you are a member of the quilt-police, let me tell you that every unmatching point is a design choice against the search of perfection that causes nothing but stress :) during the assembly process I decided to put pins here and there to force some points to match, but not everywhere because I prefer to admire a finished block than stressing about points and using my seam-ripper all the time :)
And Pumpkin (who has been recently being spayed :( this is the reason for the cone) checked them and she gave me her approval, as you can see below:

So if SHE approved them, who can tell me that they are not ok???
And if you want to check everybody else's progress, you can find the link-up party here!!

And that's it for now...
I wish you all a crafty 2014!!! :)

P.S. Actually I also made some progress in the As You Wish QSAL because I am one of the designers so I have access to some patterns before the official release ;) I did one PP block and two embroidery blocks!! I am very proud how the embroidery blocks turned out because I never did "serious" embroidery work (i.e., with stitches different from back stitch) before... but I think my blocks are pretty good for being my first experiment using stem stitch, satin stitch, brick stitch, french knots and lazy daisy stitches ;)
I am sorry but I cannot share pictures of the blocks because they are still secret :) but I will do it as soon as they are officially released on Fandom In Stitches!! ;)

Celtic Solstice, part 2 & 4 and past Block Swap

I was able to catch up with the part 2 (chevron) and finish also part 4 (four patches) before Christmas!!
Here they are...

I obviously didn't follow the instructions for the chevron :) I made my paper piecing patterns and use them to assemble the block... much much simpler!!

For the four patch I had to be pretty precise in the quarter inch seam... but I think that I pulled it off for most of them!!

If you want to check everyone progress in the challenge, click HERE.


And in the past months I forgot to share with you the blocks that I sent to my partners for the Block Swap.
Agnes asked some traditional block (not stars) and I made here the Beggar's Blocks and the Storm at Sea

And Linda asked for a log cabin with greens or purples. These are the blocks I sent her: