Coney Island or Fresh Vintage Pattern by Fig Tree

 

I so love this Coney Island quilt! It's one of my favs.

I made it with the Daydream fabric line by Riley Blake! It turned out so pretty.

 

 

I threw in some red gingham and red polka dots for good measure....

and then added a rather surprisingly successful pine green. It doesn't look like the sort of green that would go with this, but it really sets off the cones.

This was so easy to make with the adjustments Joanna Figueroa made. Easier than the original nosegay block. I also made the 2nd and 4th blocks a little smaller than she did so they'd be closer to the same size as 1,3, &5. Mine are 1 1/4 rather than 1 3/4.

cute little berries in the border.

and of course - polka dots!

The border is also a surprise I think. It's not in the color scheme anywhere, but the muted color really sets of the cones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free Motion Machine Quilting Tip

I enjoyed teaching a free motion quilt class yesterday for the Woodturners Association craft room.

It seems like every time you teach a class, you find there's one thing you forgot.

Here's what I forgot! haha.. a little instruction on which way to quilt once you're in the center of your quilt.

 

Quilt from the center out in 8 to 10" "columns", pulling the quilt toward you as you go . (You can see better when you pull the quilt toward you .) Turn and quilt the next quadrant so you’re quilting the upper right corner each time .

 

 

Elmer's Glue Method of Lining up Patterned Fabrics for Quilt Backing.

 

Ever sew together two pieces of patterned fabric and get something like this?

It just doesn't look right...why can't those dots line up?

 

My friend Cathy and I came up with a great way to line that fabric up as we were trying to get it just right for the backing for a quilt.

 

First, fold over and finger press one of the layers of fabric so it will line up nicely with the other.

Place it lined up where you want it.

 

here's another view:

 

Squeeze a very thin line of Elmer's glue on the folded fabric.

 

Line it up and press it down where you want it.

 

Press it with a hot iron. It will stick firmly in place. (and will, of course, wash out later; but you won't notice it's there in the mean time)

 

Open it up and sew exactly on the pressed crease.

 

Press it open!

Ta-da!! Your backing is perfectly lined up - or close to perfect anyway... ;o)

(and maybe later I'll clip that thread that's hanging out there. it's driving me nuts....)

 

Lulu's Yoyo's

I'm starting my Lulu's Yoyo's quilt!  

I adore this quilt. I love the Whimsy fabrics it was made from in this pic., BUT unfortunately, I don't have access to that anymore!

 

I decided to try it with some of these random fabrics I got at a discount.

Not sure if it goes this way up....

Or this way up.....

 

Some of the fabrics come from this line....the Tawny Scrawny Lion fabrics made for Quilting Treasures. I thought some of them were pretty ugly until I realized they went together and what they were for! Now, I can't wait to make a quilt out of these cute cute fabrics!!

 

2 or 3 weeks later..........

have to place flowers and ric rac and applique those leaves on before I can quilt....

 

ric rac green fabric and stems

a close up of the fabrics.

 

cute machine quilting pattern!

oops, I forgot the buttons..

the best way to applique yoyos on to a quilt for me is to machine tac them down in 5 or 6 places around the edges. that way they still have some puffiness. the edges aren't squashed down, but they're held in place.

 

 

Lexie's Quilt

 

                                     

In 2008, I did this quilt for my daughter. Late in NovEmber of 2007, she finally decided what she wanted for Christmas -- a quilt! Uh, there's no time to make a quilt before Christmas! so I just gave her the middle of it. haha... and built the rest around it later. 

The center picture is from a clip art book from provo craft by Kathy Griffiths so it has lots details

so cute. I love the little bouquets of flowers - each fabric is just so cute, her pretty little dress, the lamb and the even the potted plant... the background was perfect too, it reminds me of spring....and a touch of mary engelbreit with the black and white checkerboard...

a hanging plant! I love the details in the blanket stitching and buttons...the pot out of plaid

 

the green vine wrapped around this is a fuzzy yarn and you can see some of the bows and squiggly lines I did with thread on my machine instead of pencil...

 

flowers, bushes and grass are even cute...

these little mary engelbreity flowers are even charming...

it needed a saying so I chose "you are my sunshine"...and she is....

I machine stitched the words with dk thread and then went back over and did the squiggly line like in the clip art!

let's not forget the cute checkerboard boarder around that center block. it was a struggle to figure out what colors would be just right!

 

 

next - the fence!

 

 I had some fun with my fancy stitches on my machine. I did these flowers by manipulating the machine stitches.

totally cute kitty and bush...even the pot and bird....

oh, these are just to die for! didn't know if I could pull it off, the pieces are so tiny....

 

must have a piggy

 

duckies going up!

(look at the bee !)

 

and duckies going down...

one of my favorite parts...these just tug at my heart..

 

charming flowers...and butterfly...

 

this row is one of the reasons I wanted to do this quilt. I had done it for a friendship quilt (so it was gone) and lexie helped with the tracing and cutting so I wanted some of these flowers to remind us both of that.

cute house...

 

even cuter house!

 

like the star a lot...

 

the row of pinwheels just kills me, I adore every fabric in it!  Poetry Collection by April Cornell was one of the great lines ever made!

more pinwheels and the tulips I attempted. the Y seams were not SO bad...

Ta-da! the whole thing. it's pretty busy, but so much to look at and so so fun!