Reindeer Dash

A quick catch-up share today with a mini quilt I made for a Christmas gift. Momm has been eyeing up this geometric reindeer pattern for awhile. Bought the pattern from Quiet Play and started collecting up red scraps on the sly.  ;)

Momm wondered what I was doing with those scraps, but I managed to stay elusive and not give anything away!  Phew. Originally, this was intended to be a birthday gift, but I got behind and it turned into a Christmas gift instead. I know I'm not the only one this happens too!

Quilting this up in ripple circles was a fun choice and really makes the reindeer soar. Momm hung it up on the wall right away so that counts as a gifting-win. Enjoy it Momm!
Linking up with CrazyMomQuilts for another Finish It Up Friday - check out all the great links!

Bean

My last finish of 2017 was a fun project! I made this quilt for J as a thank you for big computer help. She has a cat, named Bean, who was the perfect inspiration to use for a quilt. I found the Hipster Cat pattern by Shwin & Shwin exactly right for the plan.

To make a more lap sized version, I modified the pattern a little so it would be more proportional. Bean has a stubby tail and bright green-yellow eyes and a little white patch of fur on his chest so it was easy to personalize. The pieces went together quickly with machine applique. I ordered the Maryland flag fabric from Spoonflower to use for the bow tie & put the extra into the backing. 

This went home with me for Christmas where I got to play with Momm's new longarm. :D Quite fun to use and boy - quilts up fast! I did some spiky quilting inside the cat to look like fur, and then some swirls in the background.

This went to J a few weeks ago and she loved it! Isn't that the greatest feeling when gifting a quilt? She was shocked and happily surprised to see it was Bean, and it seems pretty obvious Bean loves it too.  :) 

Linking up with Finish it Up Friday at CrazyMomQuilts this week.

Starting Up 2018

Hello hello - seems my break over the holidays turned into an extended silence.  
                 But I'm back baby! 
And ready to share some updates on all the buzz around here.   :)

 Last month kept me pretty busy at work getting our annual School Block Challenge exhibit up in the galleries. It takes a lot of organizing but is always worth the effort - seeing the kids' blocks is inspiring.  

School Block Challenge exhibit prep

This year was the 25th annual Challenge and we had 209 entries & 262 participating students from 20 states! Check out our website for details.

We also had a snow day here in KY - always exciting.  An extra day off meant I started a new quilty project, but can't share it here yet.  It's for the International Mini Quilt Exchange through The Quilt Show. My partner & I decided to make something indicative of where we live so I'm having fun playing with design and quilting. 

This weekend Momm & I hosted our annual #winterquiltretreat at the beach. Views of ever changing Lake Michigan, trips to the hot tub and quilting All Day! We bring whatever we want to work on and have a grand time chatting, laughing, cutting & sewing.

I help Momm make favors for the retreat which we give out at each meal. Here's this year's set: snazzy biscornu pincushion, a clear zip bag, journal, fabric bag & I already ate most of the chocolates.  :) 

We watched a group use fat bikes to ride along the beach - looked like fun, minus the single digit temps and those waves crashing into the beach!



This year I assembled my Quilt Camp Sampler blocks into a quilt top finally - so happy to see this one come together. 


It includes blocks from all 21 projects over the last 7 years I've run Quilt camp. So yes, it's supposed to look a bit chaotic Ha!

Worked on some paper pieced blocks for my Junior Quilters block swap project and can't wait to give them out to my kids. Using the Tall Tales pattern which is fairly quick to piece.  It's got me wanting to make a whole library of these blocks!

Looking forward to sharing more of this as it comes together, but it's a slow process so be patient.