Hand Drawn Giant Dresden

So happy to finally be able to share this quilt!  I loved every minute I spent making this one.  Watching the magic that happens when Anna Maria Horner's fabrics play together is just so much fun.  All prints used were from her Hand Drawn Garden Collection.  I wavered back and forth about buying the entire collection for a while.   Something about it kept calling me back to my etsy favorite page, where I'd just look at the pictures of it until I finally hit the button.  This gorgeous room redo over at Olivia Jane Handcrafted totally sealed the deal as soon as I saw all of the beautiful photos.
Once the fabric arrived I stared at it not sure how to use all of the prints.  The giant Dresden idea hit me and I knew  this collection and that pattern would be a great combination.
I used Rita's tutorial over at Red Pepper Quilts for all of the cutting measurements.  For my ruler I used this OmniAngle Wedge Ruler I scored from Joanne's for 50% off. 



Spray basted, straight line appliqued.

A Juliana Horner print from Joanne's was totally perfect as the backing.



Concentric circles for the center flower and loopy quilting for the outer white area.

 Scrappy binding, machine sewn.

I also made this lovely lady to go along with the baby quilt which was a gift. 
Recently I've been obsessed with crocheting around around embroidery hoops thanks to these two awesome tutorials by Heart Made Life and Sew Chatty.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the hoops until I saw this gorgeous pillow by Ale and then I knew I had to make some beautiful hair silhouette girl.  Unfortunately the pattern she used had been retired and so I had to get creative.  I used some clip art I found and traced the lines I wanted to stand out.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

And last but not least, here is my entry for the Low Volume round of the X-Factor Pillow swap. So fun to make this one, just really relaxing and easy so I named it Easy Breezy.

Thank you for stopping by to visit!  Happy sewing!
Melissa

Summer Sewing with Les Amis

I've been sewing like crazy and I am pretty happy with the things I've made lately.  I was able to complete 2 different baby quilts using the same collection.  The fabric is Les Amis by Patty Sloniger with Kona Medium Gray.

Pattern is Swirling Medallion from the Book Quilting Modern by Jaquie Gering and Katie Pederson. 

I quilted it with a serpentine stitch which gives it such a great effect.

The back

Here is the second quilt from the same line.  Lately I've been rounding the corners on some of my baby quilts.  I love how it softens the frame.

 

Simple crosshatch quilting.

 

I also finished another pillow for the X factor Pillow Swap round 6.  I named it Double Hexy Delight.  The theme was hexies.  I used Kerri's tutorial.  As I was making it, I wasn't sure about the direction it was going in.  The hand stitching totally made the difference for me, and I really enjoyed doing it.

 

Here is a peek at what I'm working on now.  It's my swap piece for the Sewing Summit Secret Swap.  Sewing Summit is less than a month away and I'm so excited and a bit nervous about going.  I'm also working on my Amy Butler Weekender Bag, which I hope to share with you soon.  If you're on instagram you can see some pics of it there.  I'm cutsewpresslove on instagram.

I hope you all have had a productive and fun summer.  I cannot believe its almost time to start thinking about Christmas projects.  EEEK!  Crazy talk!  Happy sewing and thanks for reading!

Melissa

Modern Mini Quilt Challenge

Jennifer of Ellison Lane is hosting the Modern Mini Quilt Challenge.  Today is the day to link up and submit only one entry.  In the past 6 months I've made nothing but minis and I love all of them.  It was so hard to decide which one to submit (like choosing a favorite child).  After a little help from my Instagram friends I've decided to go with the Circle Celebration pillow I made for the X-Factor Pillow swap.  This little pillow had a rough start (you can read about the process here) but in the end I'm pleased with the result.  Its funny that every single one of my favorite works live somewhere else now.  All of them were made for swaps.  This one traveled across the ocean and now lives with Tiina in the U.K. 

This foundation pieced pillow finishes at 15 inches square and is straight line quilted.  The free block pattern can be found at Quilting On the Square along with lots more blocks.  There are already lots of gorgeous minis linked up at Ellison Lane.  I highly recommend visiting and checking out all the lovely eye candy.

 

 

As always, thank you so very much for reading!

 

Melissa

 





Circle Celebration Pillow

This little pillow was made for my second time participating in the X-Factor Pillow swap.  The theme was circles.  I wanted to do something different but wasn't sure in what direction I wanted to go until I saw this photo full of amazing paper pieced blocks made by Wombat Quilts.  Those blocks are seriously stunning!  Something about the Celebration block stood out to me and so I decided to go with that one.  I've foundation pieced before and I enjoy the process but man oh man did this block kick my butt!  I screwed it up so many times.  This was almost the pillow that didn't happen.
Here is the 1st block I made.

I was so excited because I used a color wheel to choose my colors.  I wanted to get away from my rainbow comfort zone.  When I was done I just didn't love it so I decided to go back to a rainbow design. 

A word of advice, although it may be relaxing, don't drink and paper piece.  I had to unpick seams more than a few times.  Even when I hadn't been drinking I still messed up despite being super careful.  Can you spot the mistake?

 

Frustrating for sure.  I almost gave up at the thought of having to cut more fabric to redo the segments, and although my instagram friends said it wasn't that noticeable I couldn't send it out in the world knowing it was off.  So I cut the pieces again.  For the quilting I decided to go with straight lines to highlight the design of the block.

And then came the binding issue.  I love piping on a pillow and so I tried it on this one, with this result.

Terrible, hated it, bring on the seam ripper once again!  In the end it was better without anything.

For the back I used Roses in Celebration from the Valentina collection.  I also used Svetlana's awesome tutorial for a hidden zipper closure.

For all it's trouble, in the end I'm glad I stuck it out and finished this little pillow. 
It finishes at 15 inches square.  I used Kona Ash for the background.  The free block pattern can be found at Quilting On the Square along with lots more blocks.

Thanks for reading!

Melissa

Swappy Awesomeness

Hi everyone!  First off, thanks to those of you who followed me over on Bloglovin', and welcome to my new readers.  I have been busy sewing, hence the lack of blogging.  I will try to aim for at least one post a month.

I want to share with you the awesome stuff I've received from my recent swaps.  My first ever swap was with Jessie of Inside The Paper Box.  There is so much I love about this mini, the tiny little squares, the different shades of color and how they flow into each other, but most of all the quilting.  My picture doesn't do it justice.  Over to the right hand side are the loveliest flowers.  It's so perfect and I'm honored to have it hanging in my sewing room.  Thanks again Jessie for being such a great swap buddy!  You can see what I made for her here.

After getting my feet wet with the private swap, I was lucky enough to join the X-Factor Pillow swap on Flickr.  This beauty was voted number one and I got it!  There are no words to express how happy I was to get this one.  It came all the way from Germany and was made by Johanna.  Her work on flickr is amazing!  Even though its a pillow, I have it hanging in my sewing room so my 2 boys can't destroy it.  This one truly brings me joy every time I see it.

The back is pretty too!

I'm in 2 more swaps going on right now and then I think I will take a break for a bit.  I'm participating in round 5 of the X Factor swap and also the Fab Little Quilt Swap on Flickr.  I can't reveal the pillow I made for XFactor yet but here is a mockup of my plan for the FliQS.



I need to get cutting for this one.  I think it's gonna be pretty cool.  Thank you for reading!

Happy sewing,
Melissa