Goodbye 2019

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone had a magical Christmas and is ready for 2020.

I hadn't planned on posting until after the new year but at the last minute (today) I decided to do one last 2019 post to catch everyone up on what happened in November and December and to have a quick look back before we get into 2020.

In November I finished the four-patch quilt where all the fabric used was thrift store sheets. It didn't come out exactly as I had planned in my head but I'm happy with it. It's called Flower Garden.

                               The quilt finished at 64" x 72" and is quilted with a simple diagonal grid.

 

                  

               

Then in December,  I wanted to do something for Christmas and found a really cute pattern in the December/January 2010 issue of McCall's Quick Quilts. It's called Nordic Flake and it finished really quickly, which I needed.  The fabrics that I used was another white thrift store sheet and a blue tonal fabric from JoAnns Keepsake Calico line. It finished at 47½" x 47½". It's hanging on the wall over my Christmas display in the loft, which is where we put up our Christmas tree and why I take 2-3 weeks off from quilting during the holidays.

 






So now that you're all caught up let's see what I did this year...

Of my 2019 goals, I completed 4 ½ out of 10:
Learn how to use the Electric Quilt 8 software that I got for Christmas (still working on this)
Make a quilt using paper piecing and/or foundation piecing ✔ 
Post on my blog every week ✔ (until I decided that was too much for me)
Participate in a quilt along ✔
Move my quilt "studio" out of the loft and into the spare room (still working on).

I also made 11 quilts this year, which included 3 Plus quilts (still my favorite pattern.)

So all in all 2019 wasn't bad.

And we have lots to look forward to in 2020. This year my only goals are to try different quilt patterns, use up more of my thrift store sheets, get my quilt studio done and try completing my 2019 goals.

I already have my first two quilts of 2020 planned out. The first quilt will be a Christmas quilt (why wait until December) and the 2nd quilt will be a present for good friends of ours who are having their 2nd child in Febuary. I also made them a quilt for their 1st child, Rainbow Blocks. They didn't know the sex of the baby so I made a gender-neutral quilt.

This quilt will be for a boy so I'll be using blues and greens. I already have an old Pottery Barn quilt that I found at the thrift store that I plan on taking apart and using to make something new. Can't wait to get into that.




Well, that's it for now.  I need to get ready for our annual New Year's Eve party at our friends' house and I still need to make our contribution...Crab Poppers. Hope they come out okay.

Until next time...Thanks for stopping by...

Happy New Year!!! and I'll see you in 2020.

Camille

I'll be back after the new year. Until then I hope you all have a Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Quilting Loft Update

Hey there!

As usual, life got in the way of my posting last week like I said I would. I don't see how bloggers do this. I guess that's why I decided not to try doing this on a weekly basis. Oh well, I'm here now and I have a couple of things to talk about.

I'm almost finished with the 4 patch quilt I mentioned in my last post. Here's a couple of pictures...

Quilt top on the design wall

I actually was able to get it all quilted yesterday.WooHoo!!! I went super easy (and quick) with a diagonal grid. And the next step is to get the binding on. Super excited to get this quilt done so I can get on to a Christmas quilt and making a couple of Christmas presents.

As I mentioned before I'm taking part in the Little Miss Sawtooth Quilt Along and I wanted to show you guys my first 9 blocks. There will be a total of 18 blocks so we're halfway through.

I went super scrappy on my blocks and I love how they are turning out. What do you think?

And finally...

Have you seen those wool pressing mats? I've been reading different blogs where they are mentioned but the prices have always dissuaded me. Until I found a set of two on Amazon for a really good price and bit the bullet. 

And I love them. It really makes pressing blocks super easy. My blocks are coming out flat and they don't move around. Now I just need to find something for my ironing board.

Well, that's it for now. Won't promise I'll be back next week but it will be soon.
Until then...

Thanks for stopping by!
Camille 

It's Another Plus Quilt

Hey everyone! 
I have another quilt to show off today and yes it's another Plus quilt. This one is called "Autumn Calling" and I made it to replace the fall plus quilt I made last year that my son asked for. So now I have my own.

So here you go...

Quilt pieces on the design wall...too big to fit so I had to use the floor.

The quilt finished at 68.5" x 76". Each block finishes at 4" and there are 360 squares cut from 23 fat quarters and some stash yardage. Fabrics are from Walmart and JoAnn's. The backing is a green sheet I purchased at a thrift store.  The layout is 17 across and 19 down. And the quilting is my go-to straight lines 1/4" on both sides of the seams going both vertically and horizontally. I started this quilt on September 23rd and finished it on October 22nd.

Today I started a new quilt using 4 thrift store sheets. I wanted to do something easy so I picked a simple 4 patch based on this quilt from Diary of a Quilter.

If all goes well I should have that finished within the next 2 weeks (🤞) so that I can start on my Christmas presents that I'm making this year for a few of my girlfriends.

Well, that's about it for now. I'm going to try to do a post later this week about a couple of things that are going on but I won't make any promises.

Oh and a shout out to my new followers. 🙋

Thanks for stopping by...

Camille 💖

A New Quilt Reveal

Hi there!

Guess what I did today? I posted on Instagram for the first time...woohoo! I told you I was taking part in the Little Miss Sawtooth Quilt Along and posting on Instagram is part of the fun. So I did. Who knows I might even win prizes. We'll see. If you're interested in taking a look at what I posted you can find me on Instagram at cjaxquilted.

Anyway...today I have a new quilt to share with you. 

The quilt is called Menswear and has been in the making for a few years now. 
It started with a lot of 6" homespun and plaid squares that I brought at a Junk in the Trunk sale at the LQS near me a few years ago. Some of the squares were used in the quilt "Cabin Fever" 

Cabin Fever

which I made 2 years ago. The leftover squares sat in my fabric bins waiting for inspiration. Which finally came when I saw a Pinterest post of a quilt using plaids in a Diamond in a Square design but there was no pattern. But I loved it. 

So I added to my plaid collection with a few men's shirts and some denim and Menswear was born.

The next challenge was figuring out how to make it without a pattern. There are a lot of tutorials online for making a Diamond in a Square block so I started there, then decided to try my hand at paper piecing...which I've decided I don't like. (too many steps).

The quilt has 72 blocks with an 8x9 layout and is approximately 62.5" x 70". The quilting design is pretty basic diagonal straight line quilting 4" apart as well as a few horizontal quilting in the ditch lines. And the backing is a thrift store sheet.

The best part of this whole quilt is that I didn't buy any new fabric except for the binding.

Oh by the way....the paintings on the side table...I did those myself. The sunflower is made up of scrap fabric.

So that's it for now...I've started on a new quilt this week and will be working on the QAL so I'll be busy for the next few weeks. But I will keep you posted.

Until next time...

Thanks for stopping by.
Camille

Pinwheeling - A Completed Quilt

Hi everyone!

Can you believe that summer is almost over? Where did it go? I think I say those words every year. How about you?

This past week I completed my pinwheel quilt and signed up to participate in a quilt along. Have you done a QAL before? This is my first one and I'm very excited about it.

The Little Miss Sawtooth Quilt Along starts September 9th and runs to January 10, 2020. As the name suggests the pattern is a sawtooth star block. The QAL is free (unless you buy a paper pattern.)
If you would like to join in the fun you can find the details here.

I also started working on my first paper pieced block quilt. Since this is my first time doing a paper pieced pattern I decided on a simple Diamond In a Square block. There will be more details on this on the next post.

So anyway...here are some pictures of Pinwheeling.

The quilt has 36 pinwheels that started with 144 6 1/2-inch squares. The fabrics that I picked were based on the black and flower fabric. Altogether I used 14 different fabrics. The finished pinwheel measures 10-inches. The layout is 6 x 6 and the quilt measures 62" x 62". The binding is a beautiful garnet that was cut from a thrift store sheet. I even found a Gütermann thread that was a perfect match (Col 443). The backing is an Ikea sheet/duvet. I quilted it by doing stitch in the ditch in all the seams (both vertical and horizontal). 

Overall I really like this quilt. The color scheme isn't exactly something I've done before but I think the colors all work.

Well, I guess that's it for now. 

Thanks for stopping by...

Camille

What I've Been Working On...

Hi there!

Just thought I would stop by and let you know that I've not forgotten you all.  In the past few weeks, I've managed to spend some time working on a new quilt as well as doing some other fun things.

One of those things is stepping out of my comfort zone. I'm extremely uncomfortable with heights and when one of my friends invited me to join her and a few other ladies in doing a rope course I was at first very hesitant to say yes. But I am so glad that I did. I faced my fear and though I only spent about 30 minutes on the rope course I am so proud of myself and glad that I can now cross that off my To-Do list.

The other thing that's happened is my youngest son came home for a visit. We spent a lot of quality time together and had a lot of fun. I'm happy to say he's decided to come home and go to school. So he'll be home in November and I couldn't be happier.

So anyway...onto quilting.

I'm working on a pinwheel quilt. So far I've got the quilt top done and the backing ready to be pin basted.

This is the fabric that I picked out. It all started with the center fabric (the gray with orange flowers) and the two fabrics on either side of it. The other fabrics were pulled from my fabric stash.

Cutting HST's using the June Taylor Perfect Half-Square & Quarter Square Ruler. This is a great ruler to use when making HST's.














And here is the quilt top on my design wall. (the blue squares are my numbering system so when I chain stitch everything the blocks they end up where they're supposed to.)

I plan on pin basting this tomorrow and should start quilting it this weekend. I think I'm going to just stitch-in-the-ditch for this quilt. So if all goes well I should have this completely finished in the next couple of weeks. At which time I will take a lot of pictures and share them with you.

Until then...

Camille

A Quilt Named Blue

Hey everyone!! 

I'm so excited to share with you my latest finish - Blue. This quilt is based on the pattern, Simple Stripes. As I mentioned in a previous post, the pattern goes together super easy and super fast. When I was looking for a pattern I wanted a one that was not to intricate as far as the design and also something that would allow the fabrics to shine and this pattern fit the bill perfectly. 

So without further ado...

The quilt finished at 65.5" x 74.5". 
The pattern calls for using either FQ's or yardage. I adjusted the pattern a little because my FQ's were cut on the smaller size, by cutting the strips smaller and the blocks were squared up at 10" instead of 11". It all worked out okay.

There are a total of 56 blocks with an 8 x 7 layout. I used 24 FQ's plus some yardage. The fabrics are from JoAnn's, Walmart and thrift store sheets for the backing and the flange.

I used my usual cross-hatch/diagonal line machine quilting.

When I was deciding on the binding I wanted something to separate the colorful/busy quilt top from the colorful/busy binding so I tried something new. I found a tutorial for a Secured Flange/Flat-piping which you can find here. This secured flange separates the business of the binding against the quilt top and does it without having to constantly iron the flange down. LOVE IT!!

I hope you enjoyed the photos and if you're looking for an easy pattern I would definitely recommend this one.

Before I go, I wanted to let you all know that there will be a few changes going forward. For the past few years, I've spent a lot of time on my quilting hobby, to the point that it was no longer a hobby. So I've decided to expand my creativity and not focus just on quilting. I've already started an acrylic painting class and am looking forward to taking a watercolor class as well as a calligraphy class. (Just to name a few.) All through Bluprint.

So, what does that mean...basically I won't be posting to this blog as frequently as I did. I will still post my quilt finishes and whatever else I feel like talking about but it won't be on a schedule.

So until I see you again (which will probably be in a couple of weeks)...

Thanks for stopping by.

Camille