Peppermint Burst Quilt is Finished!

My Peppermint Burst Quilt

Tiny on the Peppermint Burst Quilt

I just finished tucking in the last of the thread ends, so Peppermint Burst is now officially a finished quilt.  I love the feel of a brand new quilt and I'm clearly not the only one.

Peppermint Burst Shows off its backing

Everyone always wants to tell you how to take a picture of a quilt, and I was worried taking these pictures in the evening but as I spread the quilt out on the couch I knew it would be okay.  Just look how well my quilting pops in the pictures.  When I said densely quilted I really meant it.

I also flipped up the corner so you could see the way all that quilting looks on the back.  As well as a detail pick below.  That with the heart square with the heart quilted into it is 1".  Yes, lots of people have quilted more densely, and that's okay.  This is a cosy quilt, just right for those chill winter nights.

Peppermint Burst Heart Detail

I'd like to offer up a special thanks to my friend Sue who wrote and published Pick Four.  This is my version of her quilt Starburst.  Her directions for making flying geese were easy even for this hardened anti flying geese fanatic.

Christmas Quilt-Along November: Lunch Break

I haven't made it back to my quilting.  Walking into the living to load my Peppermint Burst Quilt on the frame for the sounds time took me instead to something that looked a lot like this so I just went back to the sewing room and made binding instead.  It's one less thing I'll need to make later.  What are you having for lunch?  I'm thinking a salad, which is surely the opposite of Christmas but something light and fresh sounds good after my donuts earlier.

Christmas Quilt-Along Year 2: November Morning

Good Morning,

It was cold here early this morning, which always seems to come as a surprise here in Sunny Florida.  So I stayed curled up under my covers until 9 am, when I discovered the chocolate covered donuts my DH had bought as a morning surprise for DD and I. By the time I unloaded a reloaded the dishwasher I didn't want coffee anymore so I made a cup of hot coco.  I'm sure by now everyone is happily quilting away at their sewing machines and I'm the late gal, but that's okay.

Peppermint Burst Quilt

Gingerbread House Detail

Today I'm going to be continuing to quilt on my Peppermint Burst Quilt.  If you haven't been following along this quilt is modified from Sue's Starburst Quilt in her new Pick Four Book.  Today marks the 4th day of quilting on this quilt and you can follow the above Peppermint Burst link if you wanted to see some additional pictures.  Currently I have quilted the entire quilt from top to bottom.  Skipping only the side borders, so this morning I will be putting the quilt back on my mid arm quilting frame turned 90 degrees to quilt the sides in one long line of quilting.  I have four plain blocks which I quilted Gingerbread Houses into, unlike the candycanes and the gingerbread men in the border I did not stipple behind those and I was considering adding some scrolls or hearts above and below the Gingerbread houses as well.  I wont get to close because I want the details to continue to stand out.

Hidden Christmas Tree

As you can see I haven't tucked in my threads but I will get to that.  Have you wondered where Sunny and Tiny are?  All these pictures and no cats?  Well they're right here.  Sunny is so glad I'm awake he's been enjoying a nap on my lap sleeping on his back just like a baby.

My Furry Darlings:  Sunny and Tiny

After more quilting, hopefully I'll be able to get started on binding this quilt, but I don't know if that will happen today.  Sew Happy!

Peppermint Burst Quilt: It's in the Details

Hi there!  I feel like I'm peaking out from underneath a rock to say hello.  I've been working on the quilting for my Peppermint Burst Quilt for two days now and I'm about half way done.  The quilting is rather dense on this quilt so the going is slow.  Now instead of looking at the blocks as a whole, I took a tip from Sew'n Wild Oaks.  I've been looking at each piece of the block and how it comes together to create the sort of movement I want to see in the block.  Doing this is proving to be very midarm quilt frame friendly, as I can do part or all of a single pieced bit of fabric and still maintain a movement throughout the block that conforms to my vision instead of fighting with a pattern that is to big for the frame.  Can you see how I have quilted the segments differently?  Of course you can always click on the image to see it more closely.

Now look again?  Do you see that velum paper you see at the top two corners?  That is my attempt to try a technique my friend Vicki uses on her Felines and Fibre Arts Blog.  I found a coloring book page of a gingerbread house that was just divine and I set about quilting on top of the velum to create the quilted image within the quilt.  You will see more of that after I'm finished if all turns out as I hope.

I am also adding my own theory on this quilt.  It involves the borders and came to me while I was quilting another quilt.  You see when you have a midarm quilt frame like I do, your work space is only as big as that area you see in the above picture.  Yes it's as long as the quilt is wide, but what about the side borders?  When I quilt the top and bottom borders everything is one long continuous line of quilting.  Beautiful, but when I work on the side borders I can only work as wide as the bars and quilt allow.  Which is somewhere between 9" and 5" depending on where I am in the quilt and how big it is.  Think about that, would you like to start quilt and then stop and cut the threads, while quilting a border every 5"?  Not to mention what I've been going through to tuck strings ACK!  So it came to me that what if I quilted the top border, then the body of the quilt, and lastly the bottom border simply skipping the side borders for the time being?  What if I finish the quilting and then turn the quilt, putting it back on the frame only this time rotated 90 degrees?  I can then work on the borders right to left just like when I quilted the top and bottom.  I think this idea will work and work well.  DH tells me it will be easier to load the quilt as a nearly finished piece as there will be much less pinning and very little aligning that needs done.  I hope he's right.

Now before I go back under my quilt rock for the rest of the day, tell me what have you been up to?  Something good I hope.

Quilting Peppermint Burst Quilt

The Peppermint Burst Quilt and I didn't see eye to eye when I was piecing the border.  I had plenty of seam ripping to do.  So much so that when I was done I simply loaded it onto the quilt frame without taking a picture.    I have started quilting the border.  The pink has a swirled candy cane and the cream colored fabric has a little gingerbread man in each segment of the peppermint twist.  Yes I meandered behind them I couldn't see myself.  The inner border is again swirls which remind me of chocolate carmel drops.

Peppermint Burst Quilt 1st border on

I've been steadily working on the Peppermint Burst Quilt.  Today I finished sewing the blocks together and sewed on the first border.  It seems like this quilt is one of those challenges. Thanks to Sue's directions the blocks were easy and all assembly line pieced.  But that sashing?  Goodness Gracious!  First when I thought I was done with the center I discovered I left the sashing off the upper left and lower right blocks of  one row, and then I found a pink square at the edge of the quilt sewn in where it didn't belong.  Thankfully I discovered these when I was taking pictures and was able to fix each thing before moving on, that way I only had a some seam ripping to do and we all know it could have been worse!  The 6" Peppermint border is the next and final border and I think I'll start that tomorrow.

Earth Turtles Flimsy Finished!

Now lookie here.  My Brown turtles in the green grass.  Also known as my Art for Your Bed quilt top is finished.  I finished up the applique and sewed the center strip yesterday.  What a difference from the quilts I normally work on wouldn't you say?  

This quilt is destined to be for a twin / twin extra long bed.  It measures 57" x 99.5".

For the Serendipitous Leaf in the very center of the quilt I hand stitched that and then looped a connecting stitch back through all of my stitches to link them.  

I took this picture of Tiny as she looked so cute and ready to help with my next project, Peppermint Burst.  I'd say if you ask her it's sure to be a good one!  Does anyone want to come cut the fabric for me?

Peppermint Burst Quilt Fabric Arrival

The fabric for my Peppermint Quilt is here.  Yippie!    My postman delivered it today, and goodness that was a heavy box!  All four fabrics to the left of the Peppermint Twist will be on the front as shown in the EQ file shown below.  The blue on the far right will be the backing.  I went with the 66" lap quilt because I love the way I envision it looking on the couch at Christmas Time.

I'll be starting this quilt after I finish my Turtles in the Grass top.

Peppermint Quilt Mock Ups 2

Oh my dear detail oriented followers!  I sure put you all in a tizzy over those last mockups I posted didn't I?  I'm sorry about that.  Last night I was reading Sue's book and I saw that the quilt block I'd selected in EQ5 because it looked like Sue's block (sort of) really didn't show the true block well at all, not to mention that block did not allow me to fully explore my fabric options the way I wanted to.  So let's try this again shall we?  This is the real Starstruck Block and I have amended both quilts to show the candy cane border everyone liked.  The first quilt showcases a change in the block and the addition of green.  I have also used a different blue in order to create a flow in the fabric print scale variation.

Queen Full Peppermint Quilt With Green

The second quilt sticks to Sue's three color block and keeps the original blue, but this time I have used a different pink print.  It is the same tones of pink, but it has big polka dots on it.  This was the pink I'd selected first but I thought the scale might be a bit big.  In retrospect it sure does look nice in the candy cane border doesn't it?  So tell me what do you like, what do you not like?  Note there is something going on with the scale of the blue snowflakes and the focus Peppermint fabric so those two details aren't showing as well as they should.

Peppermint Lap Quilt in Blue

No worries as any aspect can be matched to whatever my final quilt size decision is.  So after writing this post, I started to wonder what the green would look like with the large polka dot, so here is that for you to see as well.

Peppermint Lap Quilt with Green

Peppermint Quilt Mockups

Lap Quilt - 66" Square

Now as I mentioned the other day I already had the fabric in mind for my first quilt out of Sue's book.  That is to use a delightful peppermint fabric, which is complete with a candy house, little silhouettes, and candy flowers.  At this point I think I'll be using Sue's Starstruck pinwheel blocks, though I gulp over seeing how many flying geese she is calling for.  Flying Geese and I have never been good friends, so maybe Sue's method will beat out those "you have to have a plastic template flying geese madness".

Queen/Full - 88"Square

Here are my two favorites out of what I've started so far.  The first one is a lap quilt which would clearly cost less to make, and then just to see is a full/queen for my bed.  I have these Pine Cone flannel sheets that would match perfectly...  I didn't take the time to draft Sue's star blocks, that seemed like way to much work so I selected these paper pieced monstrosities as they convey a similar movement as Sue's blocks.  Also note I would not go to all of that effort over my candy cane borders, instead I would use 2.5" strips at 45 degree angles or something around there, but this was the easiest way to depict diagonal stripes with EQ5.

What do you think?  Any thoughts and or suggestions?

There's a Surprise on the Table...

Today I had a leisurely chat with a neighbor and when I came home my DH said "There's a Surprise for you on the table".  We chatted for a bit more and as I started to head inside, I asked if it was a package from my friend Vicki because she's sending me some fabrics for me to use with DD's class for the Great American Teach-In, though I hadn't started looking for that yet.  To which DH replies "you'll see".  As my eyes land on the package on the table I catch Sue's Blog Header on the outside of the package and then it all came rushing back.  When I didn't win of the the autographed copies I knew I'd be beating an online path to amazon before to long, but low and behold Sue had extra copies and was willing to sell them so I bought one of hers.  And now it's here!!   Yippee and Hooray!

Now I've been waiting on this book, of course but right after offering up the books for sale Sue hurt her back, so my "patience is a virtue" kicked in and I was sailing on that.  I have already selected the fabric I think will be my main headliner, and from the quilt previews on the publishers website I thought I'd picked the quilt too.  But of course now the book is here and just simply flipping through it tells me there are many others so we'll just have to see.  Okay you're right, I'll have to hurry up and figure it out because many of my compliment fabrics are on clearance right now so I need to get my butt in gear.

I have to say Sue's quilting and quilts are even prettier in this book than in the blog pictures I've seen. Sheesh, it's lovely!

Also on my plate is the knowledge that Jessica will need a Halloween costume, her school allows all of the children to dress up - within reason and nothing scary.  She told me she would like to be a fairy princess, which means a beautiful dress and wings, so we shall see what I can dig up in the way of patterns.