Cross My Paws

A few weeks ago my daughter and I finished piecing a quilt together called Cross My Paws. The pattern is from Amy Gibson's Craftsy class, The Twisted Irish Chain.

My daughter loves puppies and has since I can remember. I've made 3 quilts specifically for her so far, and all of them featured puppies. The first one is my second quilt ever, and it was a tied quilt. The second one was a paper pieced quilt that took forever and ever.

And this is the 3rd one which I just finished. What's special about this quilt is that not only did she decide the fabric placement, she even helped to sew it!

I kept the quilting fairly simple, with continuous curves in 9-patches. I love quilting continuous curves but if I don't pay attention, I can accidentally close myself off. It's a teeny bit of a brain puzzle, and I love it!

I quilted some straight lines in all the gray areas to really emphasize the X of the chains. But in the white areas, I quilted swirls ... and embedded some words into it. I've always wanted to try this technique, and I thought this is a good opportunity. But as it turns out, it was hard! I found it challenging to break out of the rhythm of the swirls to quilt a word, and I also had trouble remembering how to write in cursive. It's been years! But I hope she will have a fun time looking for her name and other words I quilted into this quilt.

I hope she enjoys this one as much as the others!

#100Days100Blocks2018 Blocks 43 - 49

We're into week 7 of the #100Days100Blocks2018 quilt along. Although this week we're still in triangles, it is easier than last week because to me HSTs are much easier than flying geese or flippy corners.

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Dot Dot Dash ~ A Quilt Along

The Dot Dot Dash quilt along started Friday, and I must admit, I started ahead of time. I had joined several quilt alongs this summer, and between vacation and family, I wanted to make sure I'd be able to keep up. So when I can work ahead of time, I did!

Dot Dot Dash is my favorite quilt from Christa Watson's book Piece and Cut with Precuts. For the fabric, I decided on a jelly roll of Color Dash by Heather Jones. I made a quilt using Color Dash about a year ago and I really wanted to make another quilt with this collection. I like Robert Kaufman jelly rolls best out of all the major manufacturers because they're not pinked. I hate working with pinked edges (especially on jelly rolls), as not only are they inaccurate but they also cause a fuzz fest.

Cutting for this quilt used almost all of the jelly roll, which is great because I don't like having leftovers. I did end up with just a few leftover strips which I will probably incorporate into the binding, assuming I don't lose them.

The individual blocks were super easy to put together.

This is the layout I'm considering. I really, really like this fabric collection with this pattern!

#100Days100Blocks2018 Blocks 36 - 42

We're at week 6 of the #100Days100Blocks2018 quilt along. I'm happy to say that I'm still going, but I'm definitely having second thoughts about doing two quilts instead of one ...

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Cross My Paws ~ Ready to Quilt

My 6-year-old is constantly telling me she wanted to learn to quilt. Of course, I knew the attention span of a 6-year-old, but I thought it might be fun to teach her a little bit about the process, and maybe even have her sew some of it.

So, one sunny Saturday we got to work. I pulled out a bunch of fat quarters from Riley Blake with a puppy theme on them since she's obsessed with puppies, and we chose the pattern Cross My Heart by Amy Gibson which features a combination of 9-patches and giant half-square triangles. I cut the pieces and she arranged them to her liking on the design wall. After that, it was sewing time!

I put a piece of washi tape down the quarter-inch line, turned the speed down on the sewing machine, and then showed her how to gently guide the edge of the fabric along the tape while using the foot pedal. I helped her a bit with the guiding part, but I was pretty impressed with the seams she sewed, it actually looked pretty good!

We came back the week after and worked on the half-square triangles, which I cut and drew the line down in advance. She again helped sew those. They were actually easier than the 9-patches because I have to trim the HSTs down anyway so it's very forgiving.

She helped me lay it out on the design wall and although she started to assemble it, she quickly got bored and asked me to finish it. I don't blame her ... assembly is no fun, even for me!

I hope to get this quilted soon. I had debated having her quilt it on my longarm, but she's just not tall enough nor strong enough to maneuver the machine. A few more years and she'll be ready, though!

#100Days100Blocks2018 Blocks 29 - 35

Week 5 of the #100Days100Blocks2018 challenge means that I've hit about midpoint. I plan to make 64 blocks with the Pacific colorway and 70 blocks with the black and white colorway. This week is the last of the rectangles section.

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