Carolina Christmas Quilt and More

So much to write about since I last posted that it will take several posts to cover everything ;0)

But first, I must show you the 2 UFOs I finished in July (yes I know it's almost the end of August and I should be posting the August UFOs I am working on but they will come soon...first need to take care of July).

 Remember the king size Carolina Christmas Quilt I was working on? Well it's done!!! Here are a few pics I took along the way...

 

Here are the stacks of blocks.

 

These are the poinsettia blocks sewn in groups of 4s.

  

This is the Christmas Star blocks sewn in groups of 4s.

  

This is the center of the quilt top pieced together.

  

Here is the finished quilt top on my long arm machine. I am quilting "Holly Berries" on it.

  

Here is as much of the quilt that I can fit into the pic...The center is exactly as Bonnie Hunter's pattern but I wanted it to fit my king size bed so I needed to change the border a bit to increase it to the size I needed without changing the integrity of the original pattern. I first added a 4" wide piano key border then an 8" poinsettia block border but instead of using gold in the block I replaced it with greens. Then finally another 4" piano key border. It finishes at 112" square.

 

 Close up of the center-

  Close up of part of the borders, and quilting. This was July UFO #1.  

 This is my July UFO #2. Some of you who have come by my studio over the past year and a half knew I wanted to make a "Design Wall" quilt and get rid of the flannel backed vinyl table cloths I was using as my design wall. Well here it is! The border is a paper pieced 7" block and the quilt finishes at 77 1/2" sq.  

I used the left over fabrics from my pink Bali Sea Star quilt which is currently hanging in my quilt studio for my border blocks and I used white flannel for the center of the quilt. I quilted "Deb's Swirls" on it using a pale pink thread. Hopefully I will get the bindings on these soon. 

Carolina Christmas Mystery Part 4

Here is my progress for the mystery quilt, had this done for a week now just haven't had much time to post...hmmm, what would you do if you only had a few minutes here and there. Would you post to your blog, or would you use that time to sew? I decided to use that time to sew, lol hence why there is fewer posts from me these days ;0) anyways here is progress for part 4.

First I had to make red 1/2 sq triangle units, then pair them up to light 2 1/2" sqs.

Then sew the pairs into these cool 4 patch units.

Won't be long now before the blocks of this mystery quilt will be revealed and I am  finally beyond the 1/2 way mark for the steps. Only 3 more steps until my finished Carolina Christmas quilt top. :0)

  

Carolina Christmas Part 3

Here is what I had to do for part Part 3.

I had to make "Petal" units, alot of them. These are my least favorite type of units because they are so hard to keep square. Need to find an easier way of doing these for the future, because even though they are hard to do they do look pretty in quilts (you will understand once the blocks come together later in when the mystery starts to reveal itself). 

Carolina Christmas Part 2

Part 2 was actually a 2 step process...

 First I had to take the 1/2 sq triangle units from part 1 and add "wing" triangles to them to get these.

Then I had to add larger green triangles to them to get these cool 1/2 sq triangle units. That's it! It didn't take too long either, I have been sqeezing them in a little here and a little there. So hopefully things will keep progressing nicely and before long I will have a flimsy! Stay tuned for part 3 :0)  



Carolina Christmas Part 1

For the past week I have been enjoying my last  days of vacation, doing what? you might be asking...Well sewing of course! I have alot of my own quilt tops in need of quilting that I pieced over the past year but didn't feel like quilting them on vacation, because it wouldn't have felt like a vacation if you know what I mean, lol. 

I last posted that I was starting a new quilt, it was a mystery quilt that Bonnie Hunter hosted 2years ago so if you want the pattern you will have to purchase her book "Scraps & Shirttails II" since the mystery is no longer available on her blog. Trust me when I say you will be very happy with this book, it has ALOT of great quilts in it that would help bust the stash of most quilters.

This is all I had to do for part 1. 120- 1/2sq triangles and 240- 2patch units (the amounts are more than the mystery called for originally because I am making it for my king size bed). Didn't take too long to sew but boy did I have alot of prep work to do before I was able to start. If you are familiar with Bonnie's way of storing her stash and how she uses it for her quilts than you will know that her quilts have alot of pieces to them, they are usualy large and she starts alot of her quilts with strips, bricks or squares. However since my stash is in a state of transforming into a more manageable working stash like Bonnie's I did not have what I needed or wanted to use in the 2 1/2" strips that this quilt uses. Also I wanted to use  Benartex fabrics designed by Nancy Halvorsen. I just love her fabric lines and she is well known for her Christmas ones. So I had to prep my fabric before I was able to start in on this project (good thing I have an Accuquilt Go cutter). I am also staying true to the original fabric colors that Bonnie used in her own Carolina Christmas quilt, which was Reds, Greens, Neutrals and a Gold fabric. Stay tuned for Part 2.    

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! I can't believe that it's almost time for me to get back to work. Last Thursday I got all of the Christmas decor packed up and put away, and the house back to as normal as it's gonna get. So yesterday I finally had a few hours to spend in my quilt studio. I finished piecing a quilt top that will eventually go on my living room wall, but I am not going to show pics of it until I quilt it...your just gonna have to wait ;0) but while I was sitting there finishing up the quilt (which I started after Thanskgiving and before all of the baking started) my eyes started wondering over to all the bins of projects that I wanted to do (not quite UFO's since they weren't started yet. But projects that had all the fabric bought for that special quilt I wanted to make someday). Well since we just finished up the holidays and I am still feeling the spirit of Christmas I decided to start an old mystery quilt that Bonnie Hunter hosted 2 years ago called "Carolina Christmas" I was too late to do the mystery with everyone why it was being revealed but saw the finished quilt a year later that someone did and fell in love with it. So went to hunt down the pattern...couldn't find it cause Bonnie already pulled it from her site because it was going to be in her book "Scraps & Shirttails 2" so I bought the book and some fabric to make the quilt but packed it up and put off to the side to do at a later time...that time is now. Like I said I was finishing up one quilt and I kept glancing over to where this one was stored and it kept calling me to pull it out and start it. So what's a girl to do? I know I have ALOT of UFO's in various stages waiting to be finished...but all you quilters know that when something is pulling you in a direction of whether to buy a certain fabric or go with your gut instincts on a color combination you bet not ignore it or you will regret it later. So I decided to start yet another project :0) In the spirit of how the mystery unfolded is how I am planning on putting it together. So stay tuned and you will see it unfold over the next few weeks. I won't be givng out any measurements/yardages or instructions for this quilt out of respect to Bonnie, so if you want to make your own quilt you will have to buy her book for the details. 

It will be broken into 6 parts (this includes the borders) which will get me to the finished quilt top. I am also adding a few more blocks so it will fit on my king size bed, the original pattern is for a 92" sq quilt.

The colors I am using are the same that Bonnie used in her quilt...Reds, Greens, Creams, and a Gold. I am also using Christmas fabrics as well.

Now back to cutting and starting step 1.