Welcome September!

Fall, I love this time of year!  I love the cooler days, the foggy mornings, the harvest in the fields and most of all the brilliant changing color of the leaves as the trees prepare for winter.So even if Mother Nature seems to have her dates mixed up today as the forecast calls for 88 degrees, humid and thundershowers, we know those days are limited as we are already seeing the leaves begin to change colors. In honor of that I present "Fall Forever," my Modern Maples quilt!

 

I began this quilt last fall...er... a-hem....my how time fly's....when I joined Debbie at A Quilters Table Falling for Modern Maples group QAL. Now I was a bit late to start but loved everyones so much I couldn't resist. I was inspired by Lorelie (Mermaid Sews) version here and I just love Di's (ylmommyx4) version here. So I finished the quilt top early this year and it sat in my WIP pile for a bit. I finally decided I wanted to send it off to a long arm quilter and not risk my more organic
FMQ'ing ;)

I used fat quarters from my stash and mixed up designers such as Anna Marie Horner, Denyse Schmidt, Violet Craft and even Kaffe Fassett. Then I sprinkled in some smaller blocks using Kona Solids and finally I used many, many 5in charm squares that I had from participating in several Low Volume charm swaps on Flickr. I love the results! It is a riot of saturated, fun color! I laid the blocks out in a somewhat chronological pattern for the life of a leaf, from the green of summer to the brown of late fall......and the purple, well the purple was a creative design decision!  I love it in this quilt!

As for the quilting,  I asked for swirls, reminiscent of leaves as they fall from the tree or as they swirl on the gusts of wind. She did a great job! You can feel the movement when looking at the quilt!


Forever Fall is backed with the beautiful yellow Key Tree by Tula Pink - a treasure that I found at a local quilt shop earlier this year which was just too perfect for these leaves! The binding is from DS Quilts at JoAnn's - I love the orange plaid with just a bit of blue and turquoise as the binding - it complements the colors of the quilt while adding just the right pop of color to frame it. I am very happy to have this quilt back home and finished just in time for snuggles in front of the fire on those chilly fall evenings!

 

So sorry for the poor photo quality, my camera had died - and my phone obviously does not take pics that can be resized without distortion. Please leave any suggestions for a new camera if you have one you love!

Stats:
Name: Forever Fall
Block: Modern Maples
Fabrics: FQ's from Stash and LV Charms from Swaps
Size: 60 in x 60 in
Thread: Pieced with Aurifill 2600 50wt (my fave)
Quilted by Cathy H. of Quilting Memories Ft Wayne Indiana

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday and TGIFF






 

Triple Zip Along!

 Or should it be Clash of the Titans?

 

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Measure twice, cut once; sound familiar.... I am sure most of you, ok none of you have been busy cutting away on a beautiful piece of fabric and Bam!
It hits you.....you don't have enough....or you cut it wrong....and you don't have enough.... or the repeat is off....and you don't have enough to finish the fussy cutting....

I hate that feeling!  Don't you? And if you are on a timeline and running behing (Moi?never) That is the worst! I don't know about you but most of my fabric comes from online shops as there are few LQS's here that carry anything but traditional lines. The closest is about an hour away, not like you can just run down to the corner and snatch up a 1/2 yd of that Tula Pink and run home. This is where you just have to deep breathe and put the rotary cutter down.....put it down, do not shred the remaining pieces into fabric confetti like a fabric ninja......remember scraps, we love scraps, not all is wasted.

Ok a little humor for your day....did you get the Ninja with a rotary blade cutter visual? LOL

So lately I have been in alot of fabric swaps, 10in and 5in charms, 1 spot or 2 spots, 40 in a group or 32 in a group.....I might have cut a few charms lately... 56 charms, 120 charms, 240 charms, just saying....might have cut one or two wrong... and had to hurry over to the computer and order that extra bit of fabric to correct it...

Like here: I was fussy cutting these pretty little Tula Pink squirrels, even ordered 1/2 yard extra just for that purpose....well for 5 in squares the repeat doesn't allow for keeping the squirrel centered,,,,,,,,,
(squirrel tracks) at least not with my math.

One is skinny, one is fat, and one even lost his head, Oh my!

So an extra yard of Squirrels in the Mist was ordered and the remaining charms were cut and sent off to the Swap Hostess who was very gracious about my mistaken measurements and now I have some squirrels living in my scrap bag -- it could be worse.

Swaps I am currently in:

I Spy Swap hosted by Knotted Thread (closed)

Modern Designer Swap hosted by Snowgoose (closed)

Japanese Fabric Swap hosted by Happy Than A Bird Quilting (closed)

Low Volume Swap hosted by Making Rebecca Lynne  (closed)

What Was I Thinking! Swap hosted by Lilbunnymama-- This is a great way to move some of that stash you are no longer in love with or never were. 120 five inch charms from 5 different fabrics - 24 charms from each or even 120 totally different charms. In need of 1-2 Angels due to members not being able to complete their spot, at least one spot open in each group. Check out this link:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1995059@N22/discuss/72157631552594241/


Send Me A Text Swap hosted by Buttoncounter  ---there is discussion of a 3rd group, check out all the fabulous fabrics on Flicker and this link: http://www.flickr.com/groups/big-ten-inch-swap/discuss/72157631546107473/

Almost Neutrals Swap Hosted by kejreeves. There are still openings, check it out here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/big-ten-inch-swap/discuss/72157631282573188/


So if you would like to add some great new prints to your stash or latest project, while measuring twice and hopefully cut just cutting once, check out the above links!

Have a great week! See you soon!

Ginny