A Friday Finish --Cathedral Windows Pillow

I have always admired the Cathedral Window Quilts. They are just so beautiful, delicate, and classic. I never imagined I could make one myself--it seemed too difficult.  Even with my fear of the difficulty level, it quickly found a place on my Quilty Bucket List. I'm so glad I faced my fear and tackled this project.  

At QuiltFest, I took a class on making Cathedral Window quilt by machine. I made a small sample....and there it sat in my WIP pile for months. 

Not anymore! I made a pillow!

 

Instead of sewing these blocks by hand, I used a blind hem stitch to stitch down the "flaps." So much faster than hand sewing. 

 

I'm so happy with how it turned out. It finished at 17" square....and I put in an 18" square pillow so it is EXTRA poofy.

One more project to cross off on my WIP list. It is such a good feeling to finish up these UFOs! (UnFinished Objects.)

Linked up with Show Off Saturday here.
Linked up with A Lovely Year of Finishes here.

Goals for June

I feel like I'm on a roll. I managed to complete two UFO (UnFinished Object) projects last month. It is so satisfying--and I want to keep the good feelings going.

This month, I want to finish my Cathedral Window. I just love this classic design--especially all the modern cathedral window quilts popping up. 

I plan on making a pillow with this, so I don't need it to be humongous. Most the prep work is done. I have several background pieces sewn as well as many scrap pieces pre-cut. I just need to sit and sew.

This is actually on my Quilty Bucket List, too. (Have you made a Quilty Bucket List?)

Linked up with A Lovely Year of Finishes here.

Getting Ready for Quilt Fest

I'm making up for months of no sewing by going away for 4 days to the Utah Quilt Fest. I don't feel ready at all, and still have a few things I need to pick up before I leave on Tuesday. However, I did spend a few hours on Saturday trying to get everything I needed for my classes packed. 

Packing for Quilt Fest

I'm excited for the classes I've signed up for.

• Dresden Plate
• Invisible Appliqué
• Hand Quilting
• Slippers
• Cathedral Windows by Machine (it's on my Quilty Bucket List)
• All Machine Binding

I'll have lots of pictures next week.

My Quilty Bucket List

I love this idea!  I spend so much energy managing my ever growing Work In Progress (WIP), I forget to make a list of the things I really want to make someday, somehow. I do have a list in my head of things I really want to make, but this way I have a solid record of some of my quilty goals.

Here is my Quilty Bucket List. I will make my own version of each of these quilts someday. 

• WINDING WAYS

(photo found here.)

I tracked down a copy of the Feb 2013 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting for this pattern. That's as far as I've gotten with this beauty. I just love the continuing circles. I haven't a clue what colors I'll choose, but I do want to keep it simple like this picture. I might add one contrasting block just because I can--like I'd do it in blues like this then do one block in orange. 

• CHESS QUILT

(pattern and photo found here.)

Ok, this is more for my son, S. He wants a chess quilt. Recently, I've started to volunteer at the elementary school teaching chess as part of their after school 4h program. I've also been teaching S' third grade class.

• STORM AT SEA

Storm at Sea Quilt

(quilt made by Pleasant Home. Picture found on Pinterest here.)

I just LOVE all the possibilities with this pattern. This could be a 2 color quilt, it could be scrappy, it could be colorful with rainbows flowing through it. I've seen this design done with log cabin blocks. I just love it all. 

• CATHEDRAL WINDOW QUILT

Cathedral Window Quilt

(photo found here.)

I just love the modern cathedral window quilts popping up. And I love scrap quilts, so I think this would be an amazingly fun quilt to make. I am a little bit intimidated by this pattern. I have seen and read loads of tutorials on how do construct this classic block, so I do think I could do it. My silly fear about doing this quilt would be running out of the background fabric! Isn't that absolutely ridiculous?

• STAR QUILT

Quilt Ruler

My son, S, gave me this ruler for Christmas. Now I need to use it. There are SO many things I can make with this ruler. I'm really excited to use it! 

I could do something traditional like this:

(photo found here.)

Or modern like this:

(photo and pattern found here.)

• MY OWN PATTERN, MY OWN INVENTION 

I want to make a quilt that is 100% completely my own design.  It is very daunting to look at all these amazing quilters out there and their beautiful quilts. Sometimes it seems like ALL the quilt designs have been made already, so why try. But that's not true--I know it isn't true.

While driving around the other day, I saw something I thought would make a fun quilt. And you know what? I'm going to give it a try. See what happens.

Linked up to the Tilted Quilt here.

State Chess Tournament - A New Quilt Project

My kids are into chess.  Recently, S asked me to make him a chess quilt. After doing some online searching, I found this pattern on craftsy here. 

I already know how I'm going to arrange the pieces. And I've already got ideas on how to quilt it. 

Now, I need to figure out colors. I want to use something from my stash, but I don't think I have anything that will really work. And if I do, I might not have enough. I told S I can't (i.e. won't) start this project until I finish piecing my Wheel of Fortune quilt and quilting my Honey Honey quilt. 

I finally committed to this because I spent another day at a chess tournament this past weekend. Saturday was the Utah State Elementary Chess Tournament. It was a VERY long day, but since they had fun it was well worth it.

C before his first game

S before his first game

 

C received a medal of participation.

 

S received an Outstanding Trophy. He placed somewhere between 20-25th place.

He was very excited as this is the first trophy he's won at the State level. 

 

(Yes, I made them wear bright colors so I could always find them)

Now I'm on the look out for the perfect fabric for this project. I might just do simple solid colors, but I still haven't decided yet.