Bloggers Quilt Festival–Bed Quilt for a Teenager - Crossroads

 

Hi there ! If you are visiting my blog for the first time while touring the

Blogger's Quilt Festival,

welcome!

 

 

This is my second entry for the Quilt Festival.  I am entering my sons Crossroads quilt into the Bed Sized Quilt Category. The pattern for this quilt is called Power of 4 designed by Tony Jacobson for Fons and Porter for the Love of Quilting Magazine, May/June 2013 issue.

 

 

I changed the pattern slightly by adding extra rows and 2 borders, the  inner border is Kona snow and the outer is Parson Gray., the original quilt size is 64 x 76 and I needed it to be big enough to fit a Queen Bed.

The month before our dog was sick and the month before our lives got a little crazy house hunting and moving etc., I started a quilt, and I did get it finished just before we moved.  So I can now say that while we lived there I made a quilt for every member of our household!

I made this quilt for my youngest son,

Every time I have asked him if he wants a quilt he has always said he didn’t want one, he has his favorite worn out thread bear quilt!  But like I said I wanted to have made a quilt for each of us in our little family while living in that particular home.  So he didn’t have a choice, he was getting one!  Teenagers can be difficult at the best of times! but he absolutely loves this quilt,

As he was not interested in the planning stage of it , I just went ahead and made decisions on colour and pattern without his input! I think it can be difficult making a quilt for teenagers, especially boys, there does not seem to be too many fabrics geared to young men that are modern and the right colours.  But this line seemed to be perfect.

 

 

I named this quilt Crossroads, I think it’s the perfect name for it!

 

The quilt top all pieced at our home before we moved

 

 

(oh no look at the deck! in need of some TLC it has now been power washed and stained since this photo was taken, only 3 weeks after moving in!)

 

 

 

 

To see more beautiful quilts visit  Amy's Creative Side to enjoy the festival. Pictures of the quilts will be posted between now and October 31, its certainly worth a visit to look at all the beautiful quilts.

 

Quilt Details

I gave my LAQ free reign when it came to quilting this quilt, and I love the pattern she chose, it really does give it a modern look and some movement to the quilt. Thank you Sue! If you need a quilt quilting then I recommend Sue, she does a fantastic job and I do know that she received quilt by mail all the time to be quilted.
This magazine classed this quilt as being intermediate, but I found it extremely quick and easy to make, the most difficult part was making sure all the rows lined up, but that just required some patience on my part.

• Fabrics used – Parson Gray for FreeSpirit by David Butler, Dear Stella, (will add more details when I find the selvedge edges!)
• Border –  Robert Kaufmann Kona Snow (inner) Parson Gray (outer)
• Binding – Kona Delph Blue
• Backing – Gasp! A sheet from Target!
• Quilting – by Sue Tuma 
• Pantograph – Modern Curves by Anita Shackelford
• Thread -  Signature Cotton in Oyster Shell

• Batting – Legacy 80/20

 

Angel Apron

I recently co hosted an Apron Swap with Fiona who blogs over at Celtic Thistle. 
Everything ran pretty smoothly and I received a gorgeous apron and so did everyone else in the swap, apart from one person. 
Which is pretty good going for a swap, sometimes it really can be a little hit and miss with some participants.  Sadly one of the participants in this Apron Swap just disappeared off the face of the planet!  I really do find this annoying.  We do know that this particular participant was sent an apron but never replied to say she received it or thanked her partner.  Her receiving partner in the swap did not receive an apron from her.  I hate to think something bad happened that stopped her from sending but at the same time if all is well and good her end, but life got in the way, then a short/quick email is all it would have taken to let people know that she could not reciprocate. This swap was not just a small swap with maybe a block or a pouch, but an apron, which required more than just a couple of fat quarters worth of fabric! (OK rant over)
Seeing as this swap was cohosted by Fiona in England who blogs over at Celtic Thistle Stitches and me here in the US, it was decided that it made sense for me to be the Angel to make an apron for this Swapper.
Well I made a few enquiries about what sort of apron this person would like and found out that she liked a particular apron in the swap! one that was a little bit out of my comfort zone! I can’t say what that was just yet! So I fired off an email to someone, who shall remain nameless at the moment to see if she could help me and let me just say she has!!!
In the meantime I went to work making another apron and here it is. 

I made the pocket with 1 inch squares and lined it, and also I added a little bit of Englishness to the pocket with an English Vintage button!

I had so much fun deciding on what fabrics to use for the patchwork of this apron.  Usually I just use one piece of fabric for the front and one piece of fabric for the back.I also made a patchwork waistband

And seeing as this person is a messy cook (her words not mine) I knew that a reversible apron would be just perfect. I used Kona Cotton in Turquoise.

I went to the post office this afternoon and mailed the apron, so hopefully by the weekend she will have received it.I hope she enjoys this apron just as much as I enjoyed making it for her.

Christmas Garland on a Budget

This year it will be the 5th Christmas we have lived in this house and I have never decorated my staircase. Can you believe it, one of the things that sold me on this house was the flowing staircase! yet I have never decorated it. This is probably due to the fact that since living here, Christmas has been a time where there have been a number of not so good events going on in our lives and I just did not have the time to do it, or even think about it!

Well, I decided this year, especially seeing as this will probably be our last Christmas in this house that I would decorate it. Now, I am a bit of a tight wad when it comes to decorating, I am one of those people who waits until the sales, I love Hobby Lobbys 90% off sale! and last year I scored a very large wreath that was originally $79.99 for only $7.99 and some stocking hangers for only $6.99, originally $69.99. However, I did not think to get some Christmas garland for the stairs, so I had to resort to doing it on the cheap. Off I went to Michaels, where the garlands were on sale at 60% off their original price but even then they would be about $15 a garland and I have 3 bannisters I needed to decorate. So looking around the shop I found the ideal basic garland and this is what I came up with:

• 3 X basic garlands $2.49 Michaels = $7.47
• Daily special Poinsettia flowers @ $0.99 x 5 (3 colours, white, red and a plum colour)Michaels these are normally $2.99, and have about 5-6 flowers on them = $5
• A bag of pinecones $2.49 Michaels, which I strung on wire
  Bird Picks 2 for $1 Dollar Store I bought 3 of these =$3
• Gold Baubles $1 from Dollar store I bought one tube that contains 15 balls and I already had a few left over from my ball wreath. I strung these together in sets of 3.

TOTAL SPENT $18.96, so each garland cost just over $6.00 to make.

I am feeling pleased with myself, can you tell?

Here are some photos of the finished garland, I can definitely see myself adding to this garland over the years, especially when I hit those sales, I already found a few berry picks and added them, but for now it will do.

Please excuse the photos, they were taken at night and for one reason or another I had a difficult time trying to get decent photos.

Father Christmas

The artsy girl connection

Monday The DIY Show Off @ Ninth Street Notions Craftomaniac Monday @ Craftomaniac Made by You Mondays @ Skip to My Lou Tutorials and Tips @ Home Stories A 2 Z Craft and Tell @ Cherished Bliss

Stamped Candles

Believe it or not it won't be long until it's Christmas and there really isn't as much time left as you think! So I thought I would repost about one idea you could do for Christmas gifts. Stamped Candles Using permanent ink I stamped my image onto tissue paper, cut out the image leaving about a 1/4 inch gap and then coloured it in with pencils. I then positioned the image onto the candle and then wrapped waxed paper around the candle and started heating it up with my heat gun. The wax from the wax paper slowly melts into the tissue paper adhering it to the candle. You can tell if it working or not as the image changes colour as it melts into the candle. I then took off the waxed paper.

Monday:

Tuesday: 

Wednesday:

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