Harmony Last Call for Grand Prize Link-up

(Click here for the One Monthly Goal June Finish link-up)

Just a few days left to join the Grand Prize link-up for the Harmony hand pieced QAL!  You can add your quilt photo (flimsy or finished quilt) to the link-up on this post or email it to handpiecedqal@gmail.com.  

I've been really enjoying seeing the finished quilt tops - and some finished quilts! - in our grand prize link-up and our Facebook group.  You can read more about the amazing prizes and our sponsors on this post.  The link-up is open until the end of June which is just TWO days away so don't forget to link-up!

During our Harmony hand pieced QAL, I sewed along with everyone else to make this sweet wall hanging.  I just love the soft pink with the gray and navy!  I decided to go for a spiral quilting design with my walking foot - same as I did for my throw sized quilt. 

I've got my label on the back just ready to be personalized!  (Get your label here.) 

It was fun to look at my throw quilt and my wall hanging together. The fabric all came from the same FQ bundle so the colors look quilt nice together.  I used the same gray as the backing for both and it also shows up here on the wall hanging.

Time to get those final stitches in place and share a photo of your quilt!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Summer Slow Stitch - Adding the Edges!

(Click here for the June One Monthly Goal Finish Link-up)

Back in April, I dug out my hand piecing project from a pile of WIPs and decided to finish the top this summer.  (Remember, this was last year's hand piecing project!)

After about 3 weeks of sewing just a little bit each day (plus one marathon session), I've now got a quilt top roughly 45'' x 45''.

The process of both making the blocks and assembling them together involves lots of partial seams so it keeps my interest as I sew.  I am trying to decide how big to make the actual quilt top - I've got a few spare blocks already made so can add a row or two to make it slightly bigger.

While I am thinking about that, I'm adding in that squares (to be cut down to triangles) of color along the quilt edges.  If I connect more blocks, the connecting square will be in place.  If I decide  the quilt top is big enough, I will trim the edges - carefully!  All those edges are along the bias so I would need to proceed with caution!

My goal is to get the quilt top completed in July and hopefully get started on the quilting.

Read previous updates about the project here and here.

I have joined the 100 Day Summer Sew-Along which is all about hand sewing to give me some extra encouragement.  The sew along is hosted by Jenn from Sew Fine thread gloss and began on June 1.  Kristin and I are sponsoring the event and will be offering our hand piecing patterns as one of the prizes.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

One Monthly Goal June Finish-up Link-up

Ready to link up your June finishes?

Don't panic - this link-up is open until June 30 at 11:55 pm ET.

(Click here for the Hand Pieced QAL grand prize link-up)

My goal for June was to quilt my Koala heart quilt - a gift for a friend's new grandbaby.  You can read more about the quilt here.

Now it's your turn to link-up!  There will be 2 winners - Fat Quarter Shop is offering a $25 gift certificate and Oliso is offering a mini iron!  Congratulations to Sheila and Melva - our lucky winners for June! (updated 7/5)

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. (June 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 - June Finish Link-up

Thanks for linking up!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Cute Koala

I am quite smitten with the koalas from Elizabeth Hartman's Koala pattern.  I've made 2 baby quilts from her pattern - the first was a commission quilt and then a second (almost identical) was a gift for my new grand-nephew.  (See photo here.)

As a gift for my friend's new grandbaby, I decided to make a single koala and add some hearts.  Do you remember those clip on koalas you may have had as a kid?  That was the inspiration for this baby quilt.

The quilt finishes 36'' x 36''.  Both the green and the red floral were large scraps and the size of the scraps dictated the size of the quilt.   It took a bit of graph paper time to figure the best dimensions for the big heart and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

(The photo above shows the colors more true to real life.)

I choose an all over stipple for the quilting.  I went with a black for the binding - still second guessing myself on that choice.  The backing was a print I had in my stash for years - it was nice to start to put it to use.

There are definitely more koalas in my future - I'm thinking perhaps a pillow for my sewing space!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Polygons

Every few months, Curated Quilts issues a mini quilt challenge with a prompt and a set palettte of colors.  For the June deadline, the prompt was polygons which was defined as ''shapes without curves, and not square."

The definition of the challenge gave me the perfect inspiration for the name of my first mini - No Squares Here.  (The mini finishes at 14" x 14".)  The block was paper pieced and the quilting was done with straight lines at random angles.   I enjoy the tiny scraps of color added to the binding.

My second mini is called There's a Trapezoid There Somewhere and finished at 10" x 10".  I used the same block concept for this mini as the first except made the block larger and the quilt smaller!  The quilting is  parallel lines in a gold thread.

I find the mini quilt challenges from Curated Quilts to be fun.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

May Temperatures

The 80 degree days have arrived!

My design documents both the high and low temperature in a block which finishes 1 1/2 '' x 2''.  The improv strip is 1/4'' wide and records the low temperatures.  

Here is a comparison of the first five months of 2020 (left) and 2021 (right).  While the first 3 months of 2021 were definitely colder than 2020, the month of May was warmer - 2021 had many more days in the 80s (orange) and 70s (yellow).  These were low humidity (for North Carolina) days so reasonably pleasant.

Every month takes 2 columns - the 1 through 15 in first column and then 16 through end of month in the second column.  Filler blocks are added to square off the quilt.  The thin strips - 1/4'' wide - are randomly inserted and run 'vertically' for odd days and 'horizontally' for even days.

I'm using the exact same fabric that I did for my 2020 Temperature quilt.  The time I spent organizing is paying off - it takes no time at all to get the prep work done for sewing each block.

I made myself a mini-quilt to show off my temperature grid.  Oranges are 80s, yellows are 70s and sew on....

I've written up my basic temperature quilt process in my tutorial including where I source the high and low information.

I'm looking forward to sharing the progress!  You can see my temperature quilts for 2018, 2019, and 2020!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Harmony Wall Hanging and Grand Prize Link-up

(click here for the One Monthly Goal June link-up)

During our Harmony hand pieced QAL, I sewed along with everyone else to make this sweet wall hanging.  I just love the soft pink with the gray and navy!  My quilt top is ready to go and I hope to get it basted soon.  The big decision is to machine quilt or hand quilt?  My prior Harmony quilts were both machine quilted so I'm thinking about changing things up!

I've been really enjoying seeing the finished quilt tops - and some finished quilts! - in our grand prize link-up and our Facebook group.  You can read more about the amazing prizes and our sponsors on this post.  The link-up is open until the end of June so don't forget to add your quilt!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

To be eligible for a Grand Prize, you must: 

• Share a photo of a completed quilt top (i.e. the flimsy) or a completed quilt in the link-up below or via email.  All entries must be submitted by midnight June 30.

• The quilt top must be entirely hand pieced.

• Quilt tops must contain at least one Harmony block which visually matches the Harmony pattern

This link-up will be open until midnight PST, Wednesday, June 30, 2021.  There will be 4 grand prizes available - and these are great prizes!  Winners will be chosen randomly and notified via email.  Winners have 72 hours to claim their prize - if we don't hear back, we will draw another name.  Once winners have claimed their prize, this post will be updated with the winner's names.

Photos can be shared from a blog, Flickr, or Pinterest and must include a  link to Elm Street Quilts or Simple Handmade Everyday.  Photos can also be shared via a public Instagram and must contain the tag #handpiecedqal and/or #harmonyhpqal   Photos can also be unloaded directly into the link-up from your computer.

Don't have a way to share?  You can also email them to handpiecedqal at gmail dot com.  Need instructions on how to link-up?  See the tutorial!

We hope you take a few minutes to visit others and make new friends!

Please note - sharing a photo in the link-up gives Elm Street Quilts and Simple Handmade Everyday permission to feature a photo of your block on their sites.  Full attribution will be given.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Table Topper Layout

(Click here for the One Monthly Goal June link-up)

I really enjoyed the opportunity to participate with Fat Quarter Shop in the Jolly Bar 3 Tablerunner QAL. The blocks were fun and easy to put together and I loved the bright color and graphics in the fabric I was using.

The pattern for each individual block can be found on the Jolly Jabber QAL page as well as in the  Jolly Bar book volume 3  pattern book.

The table runner as designed would finish 20.5'' x 80.5''.  Since that size isn't useful for anything in my home, I chose my layout and modified the block sizes to get something that would be of use to me.

Resizing and creating my own layout is something I do often so I though I would share a few tips on how to generally approach resizing a block and then what I did for my quilt. 

Generally to resize -

• Work with the finished size measurements and add seam allowances later.  For example:
• Block 3 - Springtime Bliss block - (photo above bottom row center) has a finished block size of 9'' x 9''.  It is constructed from flying geese blocks with a finish size of 4.5'' x 9'' . 
• To resize this block to be half the size - 4.5'' x 4.5'' - you will need to construct from flying geese blocks with a finish size of 2.25" x 4.5''.  (Since this pattern uses the stitch and flip method for constructing geese, it means you would need (1) 2.75'' x 5'' (unfinished) rectangle and (2) 2.75"x 2.75" unfinished squares.)
• To resize smaller - 2.25'' x 2.25'' - I typically redraw the block in EQ7 software and use a paper pieced version.

For this specific pattern, the majority of the blocks were 9" except for the Treasure Trove block - (photo above, top row right) with a finished block size of 18" x 18" and the Westward block - (photo above, bottom row right) with a finished block size of 8'' x 8''.

I decided to resize the 9" square blocks to 6" and the 18" square blocks to 12".  For the original table runner layout, I would have resized the 8" square Westward block to be 5".

Since I wanted my runner to be square, I resized the Westward block to be 6".   The center of the quilt top was then created with sashing at 2" wide (finished size) or 3" wide.  My quilt also has an outer border.

I had really enjoyed working with this fun colorful fabric and love my new happy table topper.

Kimberly from Fat Quarter Shop shared a bunch of the table runners on the livestream on May 27.  You can view it here - fast forward to about the 1 hour 17 minute mark to catch my quilts YouTube reveal.  I mailed my quilt off to Fat Quarter Shop and forgot to take a photo of the back where I used up some scraps and put the Friendship Bracelet block.  You can catch the back in the video!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

One Monthly Goal June Link-up

Did you read about the sponsor list for One Monthly Goal 2021!  Check it out!

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project, some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post, an Instagram post or a post on Flickr and add that photo to the link-up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  You can read about the event and the rules on the main event page.

We have wonderful sponsors this month - two (2) winners will be randomly chosen from those who join both the goal and the finish link-up!

Fat Quarter Shop offers a tremendous selection of fabric, notions, books and just about anything you will need for your project.  Fat Quarter Shop is offering a $25 gift certificate to one lucky participant.

Oliso reinvents products that surprise, delight and simplify life including the Oliso Mini Project Iron™ which brings you the power of a full size iron in a compact design for home and away.   Oliso is offering a Mini Project Iron™ to one lucky participant.  

Aren't these just terrific sponsors?  (Remember to check out the full sponsor list for 2021!)

My goal for June is to quilt my baby quilt.  I used a koala from Elizabeth Hartman's Koala pattern and added some big hearts.  This is a gift for my friends new baby grandchild.

Now it is your turn to link up - what is your goal for this month?  (A goal could be to finish a quilt but it could also be to attach a binding.  Whatever it takes to help you move forward and make progress on your projects!  And as long as the project involves making something with a needle and/or fabric, you can link up!)

Make sure you visit the One Monthly Goal event page for the specific requirements for links and social tags.  Your blog post (or Flickr post) must contain a photo of your project, a clearly stated goal and a link back to Elm Street Quilts.  Your Instagram post must include a photo of your project, a clearly stated goal and the tag #onemonthlygoal.  (Entries which don't contain the required information may be disqualified.)

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.   (The One Monthly Goal accomplishment linkup will be available on June 24)

Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link-up from your blog.  Let's make that easy -  just paste this into your post:  

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal June Link-up

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks for linking up!

Have a wonderful day! Patty