Hello, Patchwork Posse Friends!

This month I am a guest designer for the Patchwork Posse. It is an online quilt group with a great online forum, monthly guest designers and quilt alongs. Tons of fun! As part of being a guest designer, I designed a child sized quilt that I call "The One Yard Wonder". One yard of fabric with lots of cute variations. Only members can download the pattern (click here to learn more about membership perks), but anyone is able to listen to the podcast, where Becky and I chat about quilting. I like talking about quilting. :) I also wax eloquent on various quilting subjects in a written interview.

I have rounded up some pictures and links of things that Becky and I talked about in our chat for easy access for everyone stopping over from the Patchwork Posse. 

We talked extensively about my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. For a whole post with tons of pictures, including the back of the quilt, visit this post. We also talked about my new English paper piecing project, but I haven't posted anything about that since last December. I will post more pictures here soon. I have come a long way! I have been posting pictures on Instagram, however, if you want to check them out. I'm @sewnbyleila.

We also discussed my most recent finish: Go Big or Go Home. Lots of fun improvisational quilting. For more info and pictures, visit this post.

        

      

 
Over the years I have been blogging, I have written a few tutorials that I thought you might be interested in. Clockwise from the upper left hand corner: The Easy-Peasy two fabric blanket is the post that gets the most traffic on my blog. So simple, so cute! Emily's Pinwheel Star tutorial gives instructions for a 12" star block with a pinwheel inside. I love using flanges in my quilts and show how to make a flanged binding in this post. That Quirky Scrap Quilt is one of my favorite quilts ever. Bright and fun, the quilt is a great way to use up all those scraps.

Thanks for stopping by!
Leila

Got Solids? A Solid Improv. Quilt Finish

Another finish! I really, really like this quilt. It started with a bundle of solid fabric I was given for a guild challenge. I added tons of other solids and it turned into this. 

I wanted it to be twin sized, so I added a gray border to get it up to size. By the end, I was running out of solids (and steam!) and a border seemed like the way to go. One of my big problems was squaring it up. Because of the improvisational piecing none of the sides or corners were square. I tried my, but I still don't think it is completely even.

I decided to mimic the improvisational squares and rectangles in the quilting. It is free motion quilted (vs with a walking foot) so the corners were easier to turn (because there was no turning) but it sometimes maked for some less than square lines and corners.

I decided to use a scrappy binding. It was a great way to use up some solid strips I had hanging around and fits in with the overall feel of the quilt. The binding is stitched down by machine and I decided to add to the "industrial" feel by accentuating the stitching instead of trying to hide it. I used a wide zig-zag with contrasting orange thread. It is super sturdy and pretty darn cute, in my opinion.

This quilt was going to be donated to the International Institute of St. Louis, but as they won't need it for awhile, I am going to donate it to a local women's shelter and the institute will get my next quilt. Its a super cute, super crazy quilt with lots of Denyse Schmidt fabric and color. Stay tuned and have a great weekend!