Sunshine In A Box Challenge Finish!!

     

     The month of July has has gone by so fast.   This has been a month of moving, vacation, working and packing.  And this month has been an entire month of no sewing, until last night.  I just had to finish the "Focus Through The Prism Challenge".  I am not going to miss a month! 

    This month the idea block was log cabin.  And of course I decided to stay inside my box and do a traditional mini quilt.  I wanted to use as many yellows as I could and make it all yellow.  To be untraditional I thought I would Free Motion Quilt each piece different. 

     I dug threw my scraps and put as many yellows as I could into a pile.  I had the main hand dyed yellow fabric and two more out of a grab bag I bought.  I chose yellow because I am following the order of ROYGBIV and it's the third month! 

     I drew up a plan.  I decided to make the center little block be the main dyed fabric and then border the outside in the same. 

     I then commenced to cutting the strips into 2 1/2 inch pieces.  Then built the log cabin block in no particular fabric order.  There are a total of 19 strips in the mini quilt. 

     I quilted the quilt in a random pattern, literally whatever came to my mind.  It all started with my favorite swirl and went off of that.  Each strip is totally different.  Most are off the Leah Day series I went threw a while back.  I left the outside border plain with just a line sewn about a quarter inch out.

    After Quilting it i squared it up to 20 inches. I bound it in another contrasting yellow fabric. I hand sewed the binding down to give it a crisp look. 

     The backing is in a light yellow. Very plain but was a large enough scrap out of my stash. 

     I am calling this Sunshine in a box(even though I had to wait on the rain to finish to photograph it)!!  I finished it in less then 24 hours.  Thanks  for all those that encouraged me.  Can't wait to see the challenge for tomorrow! 

June's Focus Through the Prism Friendship Star

     The June Project Quily Focus Through the Prism Challenge left me struggling.  I had an idea of what I wanted to do,  but couldn't figure out how I wanted to do it. The 20 inch size requirement is not an easy dimension to divide by 3.  So on to the thinking process. 

     In the process I emailed my friend Bea Lee.  She is really good at working with the EQ7 software.  I am thinking hard about buying it.  She emailed me back and made this blog post. 

http://www.beaquilter.com/2015/06/eq7-tutorial-tuesday-friendship-star.html?m=1

     She had the same issues with the dividing by three without making the block size odd.  So we decide to add the outer boarder.  But after watching how easy it was to design the quilt on EQ7,  I was sold.  Once we move in the new house,  it's my first me purchase!!

     I followed what Bea did in the blog but added two extra blocks at the corners. 

     I decided at the beginning of this challenge that I would only use the challenge color hand dyed fabric and a and a neutral in each mini quilt.  I would also do the colors in the line of ROYGBIV, which makes this month, Orange.   I am trying to only my use my fabric stash. So I thought I had enough of the fabric but was a few inches short.   So with improvisation in mind,  I changed up one fabric on the small blocks.

    I added a chevron to the smalln blocks in the corner. It really made those small friendships to pop more!  Even though I wish I could have seen it done all in the other fabric! 

     The blocks are 6 1/2 inches each then a 1 inch border.  I bordered it in the hand dyed fabric.  For the binding I used the chevron.  I actually hand sewed it.  Not my usual stitch on by machine!

     I finished the top early in the month and just did not know what I wanted to do to quilt it.  I finally decided to stop outside of my comfort zone and go simple.  I only outlined the star inside of the large block 3 times and the small blocks once. 

     Two months down and here are my 2 together.  The first after a boo boo washing.  So sad to see it bleed but this month I prewashed my fabric. 

Row by Row SC Day 9 A Finish!!!

     And it's a finish!!!  My first ever row by row completion!  After traveling over 600 miles to collect rows and sewing every moment while I had a chance working four 12 hour shifts and moving I see this as an exciting finish!  

     I decided to construct my quilt with 6 rows going down and then one on either side. 

Row #1-  Is from Quulting At The Beach in Myrtle Beach, SC.  It has sooooo many little pieces, 45 to be exact.  This row is my first real attemp at Freemotion Appliqué.  Not the best but helped with the learning curve! 

Row #2- Is from Emmie's in Camden, SC.  I was not sure if I liked the plan of this row at first but it grew with me.  If you don't buy the kit you will need a fish fabric or pattern to finish this project. 

Row #3- Is from Sew Many Common Threads in Conway, SC.  I love this row and think it would look good alternated with Sailboats for a little boy quilt. 

Row #4-  Is from Accent Sewing in Murrells Inlet.  Not my style but it fits the ocean theme.  I loved the precut Crab they provided.

Row #5- Is probably my favorite row and just by chance from my favorite store, People, Places and Quilts!!   I love batiks and how it's themed with our local nature in mind.  This pattern was also very well written.  If you go, buy the kit, the fabrics work well together!  And of course that's where I am going to collect my prize!

Row #6- Is from Treadle Pushers in Sumter, SC.   I loved this little quilt shop/bar and all the ladies there.  I think I will be going there again soon just to sit and sew.  For thier first pattern, it was well written and the fabric kit was awesome! 

Left Upper Row- Is from Stitch n' Sew in Mt Pleasant.   I love the mixture of traditional and appliqué in this row.

Right Lower Row- Is from Five Eighths Seams in West Ashley, SC.  This row was the most Challenging with the most pieces.  Curved seams were new to me and I think I mastered them. 

     I decided to outline my rows with a fabric to allow each row to stand out.  Most of my stash is packed up so I had only a few pieces to work with. I chose the dots because all of the colors where found in the rows.  I put a 2 inch sashing around all the center rows.  

     On the outside I decided to put an aqua Chevron fabric to finish the outer rows.  It seemed to go with the H2O them@? S. I was going to use it as the backing and an outer border, but changed my mind.  

     I decided when I quilted it that I needed to do something fast to finish it.  My decision was just to do a meandering stippling just like the waves of the ocean. I used a verigated Aqua, Aurifil thread to Freemotion Quilt it. 

    For the binding, I used the same dot fabric as the sashing.  

     I made a basic label using the scrap Aqua.  I used the letter stitches off my Janome sewing machine. 

     Not perfect but I am satisfied with it.  I have to remind myself that nothing turns out perfect if you rush.  Because of moving I did not have a good area and I could not stretch the backing well.  Somehow an area got bunched.  But at this point I am just dealing with it.

     I can't wait to collect and get started with another set of rows.  Maybe this time from upstate SC! 

     Photos taken at Russellville Beach.