One Monthly Goal - July Finish Link-Up

Ready to link-up your July finishes?  And don't panic, link-up is open until 11:55 pm EDT on July 31!

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  You can read about the event and the rules on the main event page.

Sign up to receive email notifications when the One Monthly Goal linkup is open.  Think of it as a helpful reminder!

My goal for July was to get ahead of schedule on my #100Blocks100Days2017 QAL.  I'm pleased to say I accomplished that goal!  (More pictures coming.  I'll reveal the blocks daily on Instagram as part of the QAL.)

Now it is your turn to link up - share your goal finish for July.

Please only link up if you finished your goal and if you also participated in the July Goal Setting Link-up.

There will be three winners this month - Fat Quarter Shop is offering a $25 gift certificate, 

Clothworks is offering a FQ bundle of Organic Sprinkles fabric. and Melissa Corey from Happy Quilting is offering the lucky winner three (3) PDF patterns of their choice.

Congratulations to Elisabeth, Liz & Sharon  - the lucky winners for July. 

Winners have been notified by email and all have claimed their prizes! (updated 8/3)

Visit the One Monthly Goal event page for the specific requirements for links and social tags. 

And remember, to be eligible for the prize(s) by random drawing you must linkup at both the goal setting and the accomplishment linkup in a given month. (July Goal Setting Link-up)

Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can follow where you are linking.   Let's make that easy -  just paste this into your post:  

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - July Finish Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for linking up!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

State Map Applique (A Tutorial)

I made a thank you gift for my sister celebrating a state they love to visit.

The pillow is 18'' square.  The states and lakes are raw edge appliqued and outlined in black several times using my FMQ foot.  The edges of the lakes that meet up to the state are appliqued in blue.

I wrote the names of a bordering state, the lakes and of Canada in a matching thread.

I used a fusible fleece for this front piece - the back shows off the quilting.  I think this looks cool.

To create the applique outline for state and the great lakes, I used EQ7.  I thought I'd share a brief tutorial on how I did this.

First, I screened grabbed from google maps using a snipping tool.   Choosing New Block then Easydraw+Patchwork Draw, I then imported the image into EQ7 (see red circle upper left in diagram below). 

Then, using the applique tab and the Freehand tool (see red circle upper left in diagram), I traced the state outline.

Over to the color tab to check it out and confirm I have a nice closed image.  (If you color it in and the color bleeds out of the shape just start over.)

To print, I choose print block and go to the OPTIONS tab in the print dialog.  There I make sure MIRROR is checked so it prints a reverse image.

Back to the BLOCK SIZE tab, I choose 15 x 15 '' for my applique, sized for my 18 x 18 '' pillow.

Choose PREVIEW to make sure you are getting what you expect.  My applique will print over four pages - easy to tape together to make my patterns.  You can see how the image is nicely reversed.

I choose new block and repeated the steps for the Great Lakes.  It could have been done in one big block but it was helpful (to me) put the lakes in a second block.  Less to start over again with when things went wrong as they are known to do.

Does that all make sense?  Drop me a question in the comments and I'll be happy to help.

For a tutorial on putting a zipper in a pillow back, please see this post.

I'll be linking up my pillow with  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

An otter and a bird

How can I resist such a cute face on this otter?  Or this sweet Kingfisher?

I am having fun with Juliet from The Tartankiwi's latest QAL called Woodland Creature 2.  The sweet hedgehog is next (although I'm not sure about all that sharp points!)

I'll be linking up my blocks with  Freemotion by the River,   WIP Wednesday's,  Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers.  Needle and Thread Thursdays, Finish it Up Friday and Finished or Not Friday.

Have a wonderful day! Patty