Stepping Stones Quilt

     I started this quilt back in September. The center is made from sixteen Ahhhh's from Hillbilly Quilt Shop.  Not only does she create individual Ahhhh's, but she creates secondary settings for an interesting appliqué,  quilt or table runner.  What appears to be a Hexie with internal images becomes an amazing item to EPP.  

     The basic Ahhhh in this is called "Stepping Stones," it's Ahhhh #13.  Here is what it looks like by itself. 

     Here is a layout of the kit that I bought from Hillbilly Quilt shop.  It came with all the little papers precut.  All I had to do was pick out the fabric.

     I chose to use Jason Yenter Shangri La.  Here is a photo of a Boarder fabric I used for a lot of the Hexies and diamonds!! 

     I fussy cut all the Hexies and a few diamonds.  Tonya's (Hillbilly) plan was for you to use 3 fabrics for the Hexies and 3 fabrics for the diamonds.  That way as you went sewed them together they would match at the center points like this. 

     After I started I did not have enough of the same objects in the white so I started to use different pieces of the fabric.  The whites have Fish and hearts that were hidden in the fabric.  The Blues are a mixture of flowers and butterflies. I was still able to make all the items come together in two's and there's as the design laid out.  There are a total of 16 Ahhhh's in the design that have 3 inch sides. 

     After I hand sewed all of the Ahhhh's together, I quilted a piece of yellow blender to a matching Yenter Legendary Basic fabric as the backing.  I did it in swirls.  The entire time my machine kept catching something on the back.  My only regret that I didn't hand quilt it.  But that was done and too late to go back.  I pinned the piece on and the long boring appliqué stitching started.  

     I bound the quilt with one of the Yenter fabrics I fussy cut and hand sewed the binding down. 

     I then decided to hand quilt the Ahhhh's down.  I decided to mark them at just over 1/4 inch from the outer seams.  The Frixion Highlighter worked really well for this.  I then Quilted it with Valdani 3 string floss.  I wrote a previous blog about this experience since it was my first time hand quilting.  

     After I finished doing the inside I decided to also quilt the outside and the boarder of the quilt.  I did the same 1/4 inch and marked this time with a pink Frixion pen.  I love how they iron off!!! (I buy the pens at Hillbilly Quilt Shop too!). I love that I decided to do these 2 extra touches because they became one of my  favorite things about the quilt! 

     This quilt is going to my cousin Samantha who is now a few months old in Seattle.  I hope she enjoys it!!! 

     I am now stitching another Ahhhh project!!  I think I have found my 2 favorite things quilting!! Ahhhh's and the creativity they allow!!! Thank you Tonya for the inventions!!! 

    

Hand quilting Challenge

     

   Tonya from Hillbilly Quilt Shop started a new Facebook group called "Quilt by Hand".  Her goal for this group is a platform for quilters old and new to learn and share the joy of quilting!!!  For the first month she started with a challenge. 

     Challenge one consisted of quilting 2 items, using 2 different marking tools and 2 different types of thread.  

     I have never quilted by hand.  I have been English paper piecing for about 2 years now.  So I thought that this would be a good challenge to start me in this adventure!  

     My first item is a large hot pad.  It is made of a string quilt square that I cut the wrong size.  I added a piece of yellow material to the outside and bound it in Aqua.  I chose both colors to match fabric in the original square.  

     To hand quilt it I decided to use a flower stencil I had.  I used a Frixion Pen to mark it.  I then used American Quilting Thread that I bought at Joann's to quilt it.  I bought this thread about a year ago by accident.  I later learned from people on another quilting page that is is a good quality lower cost thread.  It is wax coated to prevent knotting and to allow for smooth stitching.  This was a small project that came together pretty quickly. 

     My second project is a baby quilt that I have been working on for months.  It is a collection of Ahhhh's from Hillbilly quilt Shop.   I hand appliquéd the Ahhhh's to a background that I machine quilted.  I then used a Valdani 3 strand floss to quilt it.  For the marking I used a quilting ruler and marked the quilt with a Frixion Marker as the Ahhhh's were on dark material and the pen did not show up well.  The process of quilting this took a while,  I think mostly due to the thickness of the material and floss.  

     In reviewing the Frixion Pen Vs Highlighter.  On dark material the Frixion pen does not show up well.  On lighter colored material the pen shows up really well.   The highlighter I used was yellow.  It showed up really well on the dark blue, white and black.  It did not show up well on the yellow.  So I think the highlighters work well on darks or fabric that is not similar to its color.  Both the pen and the highlighter were easily removed by a hot iron.  

     Reviewing the threads.  The cheaper Joann's American Quilting Thread did really well.  It did not tangle and held up well.  The downside is that it was very thin.  I believe it would do well for suttle quilting that you really did not want noticed.  The Valdani 3 strand thread that I bought from Hillbilly Quilt Shop, was very noticeable and stood out.  I really liked that.  If I am going to spend that much time quilting something I want it noticed.  You did have to make a bigger knot in to to prevent it from coming threw the fabric.  It also popped a little easier then the quilting thread.  In the end though I like both and now know the different use of each thread. 

    I look forward to the next challenge and especially the challenge to try new things!!  Didn't have enough room for all the photos so they keep going...