Texas Hill Country Quilt

One jelly roll of Cotton and Steel Basics, a bit of yardage, some time, a lot of deliberation, and a "few" stitches later...

You get a quilt that belongs in the Texas Hill Country! 

This one is being gifted to a wonderful family we have been friends with for a long time. And they just bought a "ranchette" a few minutes west of Austin. We just spent the weekend out there with them and seriously, "Ahhh, beautiful." is all that I can say.

The shadows highlighting the quilting from the back.  

Rattlesnake print backing. Appropriate, no? Stitches, and more stitches.

I opted for a medallion like quilt again on this one. 

One more picture.

"Figuring" it out as I went.

I'm convinced I'm not the only quilter that purchases precuts without a plan. 

Case in point: I picked up a charm pack of "Figures" by Zen Chic for Moda at Quilt Festival.

And I would love to know how many start the quilt without an end game. 

I did this time. 

I made nine-patch blocks with white centers.

Then I stared at them on the floor all lined up in a grid (I like to create obstacle courses for people trying to get in and out of the room... ha.).

And I stared. It just didn't do anything for me. 

I kept staring for weeks. 

And weeks.

And I found something else to work on. (Lots of other things.)

And then after a while it just smacked me. 

Set it around a hexagon in a squares and equilateral triangles layout.

Easier said than done. 

I'd never calculated anything like this. 

And I've not done much with Y-seams in general. 

They are a bit time consuming and little more tedious than lining up the usual points in a quilt, but it was exciting to try something that stretched me a bit. 

 And the centered "medallion" aspect makes it particularly pleasant to me. 

I didn't want the middle to be a "boring piece" with too large a gap in the design and no focal point so I re-engineered a star into it. 

The center star actually required me to rip apart two of the nine-patch blocks, but the whole thing required 40 charm squares and some background yardage. 

And to further accent the medallion aspect, I did irregularly spaced concentric circles for the quilting. 

Pretty sure I traced every circular object in my house... to get it started in the right direction. All of the lines past the first circle of blocks had to be echoed around the inner circle using the markings on the walking foot because I couldn't find any larger circles to trace. 

And of course I chose a large scale print for the back like I always do... well, almost always. 

No absolutes here. 

It finished at about 39" x 39". 

Partly Cloudy

...with Sunnyside by Kate Spain for Moda.

Sunnyside is set to hit stores next month. 
I can't wait to get more of it... 
Especially the yardage.

(I got this fabric for doing something that I still need to share about. It seems like there just aren't any spare minutes these days to get to what I want to do... meh. Twins will do that to you.)

So nice.

Sharing that is. 

I love getting pictures from people of what they have made with my patterns. 

This one was particularly gorgeous and different in a non-Christmas finish so I thought I should share it with you.

The pattern is "Dash Away All" found here.

Feel free to go leave Brea, a new-to-quilting artist, some love in her Etsy shop. 

Hexagram Quilt Pattern

Another pattern here and here.

Happy Stitching!

Countdown to Christmas

So, a little bit of a funny story which may or may not make you think I'm nuts.

I am, by the way.

I've had this quilt done since Friday.

I had the pillow done.

Well, almost.

I just needed a little more binding fabric.

The quilt shop that carries it was (of course) an hour away.

With two kids and people in town over the weekend that was impossible to accomplish.

Plus, my hubs works across the street from it 3 days/week so I couldn't justify the drive.

Well, I was nagging, nagging, whining, and nagging some more at my hubs.

It was driving me up the wall!

Finally (miraculously), he said he'd pick it up on his way home from work yesterday.

He didn't work there yesterday, so he actually drove 45 minutes out of his way to make his commute almost 2 hours just to get me ONE EIGHTH yard of the red dots fabric I needed one day sooner.

MAJOR brownie points.

In the world of quilting husbands - that makes him the BEST!

I really do love him. :)

It's 53" x 53" and the pillow is 18" x 18" - the quilt, pillow, and PATTERN (I know, seriously on top of this one) are in the shop!

I adore these fabrics. I am going to have to get some more and redo my stockings this year.

So, you'll probably see the ones I made last year and hung for a couple days listed in the shop too. :)

The matching pillow.

The whole stack.

Flurry in July in Texas.

The impossible?

Yes.

But this was a great way to celebrate my 4th of July weekend.

Only one color off of appropriate for the holiday too!

Flurry.

Measures in at 38" x 47" and features some fun quilting and applique borders.
More pics in the shop.

Happy 4th of July!!