Reindeer!

It was Reindeer wednesday at my studio this week!
The pattern is called "Fair Isle Christmas Quilt" by Lee of Freshly Pieced -- a gorgeous, Nordic-inspired quilt pattern.  Love it!

For now, though, these Reindeer are destined to become pillows.  I've been experimenting with quilting them, and finished one up this morning.  I've been using this 60 degree diagonal straight line quilting a lot lately -- what do you think?

I used 2 different colors of Kona red, alternating, to enhance the "pixelated" quality of the pattern.  I cheated a little though -- on some of the longer stretches of red, I didn't use 1.5 inch strips, I did a little quilty math and used wider strips so that I'd have fewer seams to match.  It definitely sped up the  process!

 For the back I added a concealed zipper, red binding, and one of my labels.
The print is a Pottery Barn sheet -- a few years ago I cut one up to make curtains, and had a little leftover.  So now the pillow looks at home in our reading loft, and the back matches the curtains.  Hurray!

The other 3 reindeer (& maybe even some brown deer with red noses!) will be available at my booth at the No Coast Holiday Craft-o-Rama on Dec 5th & 6th.

Linking up with:
The Fair Isle Quilt Along
& Finished on Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

Snuggly Quilt

With the snow and cold weather that has suddenly hit Minnesota, my outdoor photo shoots need to be short and sweet.  So this post is going to be short and sweet, too!

I love this quilt!
The pattern is called "Refreshingly Retro" from Elizabeth Dackson's book Becoming a Confident Quilter.   It measures 54 x 70.  It's hard to see it from these photos, but I free motion quilted it in a meandering loopy design, in gray thread.  I'm planning to have this quilt for sale at my booth at the upcoming No Coast Holiday Craftorama in Minneapolis next month.  If you're local, please come and say "hi!"

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory.

Finished on Friday

 I managed to snap a few pictures of this quilt right after we raked the yard, but before the snow fell.  My front yard now looks completely different!

 The pattern is called "Refreshingly Retro" from Elizabeth Dackson's book Becoming a Confident Quilter.  It's a large 9-patch block set on the diagonal.  Easy to make, and looks more complicated than it is.  It came together quickly!  I'm planning to free motion quilt it in gray thread, but am not sure yet what design.  I often work out the quilting in my head while I'm basting the quilt.

Happy Friday, everyone!

(Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts)

Christmas Projects

I've gotten quite a few emails lately wondering about my "ornaments table runner" -- and it took me awhile to figure out that these quilters meant the Vintage Holiday Quilt pattern by Camille.  I looked at the pattern again recently, and remembered how fun and easy it was to make.  Here's the quilt I made in 2012:

And here are some blocks that I made yesterday:

This is such a quick Christmas Project!  I think I'm going to make a few of these in the next few weeks.  I have a booth at the No Coast Holiday Craft-o-rama this year (so excited!) -- and I'd like to have a few Christmas quilts completed by then to sell.

For this quilt, I used a Kate Spain 12 Days of Christmas jelly roll that I've had for a few years.  I had to modify a few of the blocks, since I only had 2 1/2 inch strips to work with.  And unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to find this fabric anymore -- so I can't make the sashing in coordinating fabric.  What a dilemma!  Lesson learned -- don't hoard fabric for too long! 

Linking up to: