Pageant Highlight Reel / Beauties Pageant 95

I am officially back at it, sewing and quilting up a storm at my house over the past week. I finished binding one project—photos are forthcoming—and designed and started a second. In my happy place, I’ll finish that this weekend and move on to basting and quilting next week. People, there’s no stopping me! I feel focused and motivated, and I’m hoping it lasts. (The fact that in-person school starts for my boys in 19 days helps. Ha!)

Something I’ve been good at during this time of hunkering down at home has been starting few new projects and tackling those that were already on my to-do list. It hasn’t been easy. Recent Beauties Pageants have been a source of temptation ...

Nancy of Grace and Peace Quilting quilted the project at the top of the post for Quilter Bonnie, and I really wanted to replicate it at my own machine. I mean, it features my favorite fabric designer (Denyse Schmidt) and my favorite complementary color palette (blue and orange). I even found a bundle of the same fabric collection on sale online, and I resisted.

And then Afton of Quilting Mod posted a tutorial for this sweet crab block. I have been wanting to make another beach-themed quilt since making Ahoy Sailor last year, and Mr. Crab was too cute. But I resisted (for now)!

I think we can agree, however, that my true Achille’s heal when starting projects is Christmas quilts. I’ve finished three this year alone and have two others that are in process. So when Susan of QuiltFabrication unveiled her Reindeer Wreath and I determined that I had fabric on hand to make my own, I came close to adding it to my to-do list. So. Very. Close. But I resisted. ; )

OK, now it’s your turn. What have you been working on in the past week?

 

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The Starry Night / Beauties Pageant 94

Many thanks for all the words of advice and encouragement over the past week. Some days I feel like a pandemic master—full of energy and drive and ready to finish all the things. Other days I have to talk myself into tackling the dirty dishes. I know that I’m not the only one who’s struggling with motivation right now. : /

One of the projects I completed during the intentional reset I talked about last week is my version of Van Gogh’s Starry Night rendered in over seven thousand “diamonds.” (The diamonds are really tiny faceted plastic gems, but they sparkle nonetheless.)

I bought this diamond-painting project as a kit from Joann that I could do with my older son this summer. The canvas came preprinted and covered in an adhesive. All he and I needed to do is dip the stylus in wax (both implements are pictured below), pick up a gem with it, and place the gem on the appropriate spot on the canvas. In that way, diamond painting is reminiscent of cross-stitch or paint by number.

Diamond painting proved to be an easy craft—although my son abandoned me a third of the way through Starry Night!—and a nice way to Zen out during all this time at home.

The plan is to frame the canvas and hang it in my son’s room.

In sewing-related news, I am getting closer to returning to my machine. If all goes well, I’ll have a quilty finish next week! 

If you’ve been able to push a project across the finish line, we want to hear about it. Post your finish in the linky below!

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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A Case of the Quarantine Blues (and Reds) / Beauties Pageant 93

All photos courtesy of @patch_the_giraffe

Buy the pattern here!

Friends, you’ve found me in another quarantine funk. Last week’s project brought my pandemic-time total to nine finished quilts, and I haven’t touched my machine since. Alas, the hobby that has kept me afloat the past five months is losing its luster.

So I’m in the middle of a deliberate reset. I’ve been reading a lot of good books—reading as if it were my job. When I’m done bingeing on books, I’ll probably give my house a thorough scrub. Perhaps then I’ll get back to sewing.

So today’s featured finish is not from me but from my friend Chelsea (@patch_the_giraffe). She tested my Warm and Cool Coin Quilt pattern and sewed a lap-size version in purple-y reds and the coolest of blues and grays. I love it something fierce!

Chels is known for making her quilt backs something special. She often builds backs around leftover blocks or fabric, so it was no surprise to me to see two towers of coins on the reverse of this project, too.

Other versions of the Warm and Cool Coin Quilt can be viewed in these posts.

 

The Warm and Cool Coin Quilt pattern is available in my Etsy shop.

And for those of you looking to re-create the cuteness of Gingiber’s Merrily pattern (which I sewed up and posted here), Lark Cottons still has nine critter panels in stock. : )

Has sewing and quilting proved to be your lifeline in this time of social distancing and staying at home? Where else have you been focusing your energies?

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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More Christmas Chalets / Beauties Pageant 92

No designer does Christmas fabrics like Brigitte Heitland of Basic Grey. In the past I’ve sewn multiple projects with the design house’s her Evergreen and 25th and Pine collections, so it’s little wonder that I busted through my ample supply of Juniper Berry to create yet another Basic Grey Christmas project.

At the top of the post is Chalet #2, the foil to a quilt I finished back in May, pictured below. Whereas my original version was built around a darker background, this latest one uses my more typical light background and—wow!—does it make the fabrics pop.

I adjusted my approach to Chalet #2 in ways other than the palette. I added a thin border around the perimeter to protect all of my points, I sewed the trees to look less scrappy, and I used a bold, contrasting binding. That’s not to say I don’t love the original; these projects are just two quilts made with the same fabrics and the same pattern that are, in the end, rather different. (By the way, the Chalet quilt pattern is by Kate Spain and available here, on her website.)

The easy-to-overlook hero in both quilts is the tone-on-tone gray polka dot that serves as background and binding to Chalet #1 and rooftops and tree trunks to Chalet #2. It’s from Riley Blake, and I finished the bolt my local quilt shop had in stock. : )

This project was quilted by Seventh Heaven Quilting in a panto I have had my eye on for years. It’s Ginger Snap by Urban Elementz, and its soft swirls make the perfect complement to this pattern’s sharp lines and angles. 

You know that if I encounter that Riley Blake polka dot in a quilt shop, I will have to buy some for my stash. That was my approach to another great basic—Zen Chic’s own take on polka dots, which I used here and here and which will be rereleased this fall as part of the Quotations collection. Yahoo! 

It seems silly to get excited about simple prints, but I suspect you can relate. Is there a basic you have invested in again and again?

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter