Me-Made-May '17 (3/4 Length Sleeve Top)

One garment barely qualifies for Me-Made-May and while I didn't take the pledge, I thought I would share with you the first garment I've made in probably 15+ years.  It's a 3/4 length sleeve knit tee shirt that I totally hacked.  I cut apart a knit tee shirt that fit pretty well but was worn out.

I actually made this knit tee back in February and wore it for the first time at QuiltCon 2017 in Savannah, GA.

First thing that morning, I met Monika Huelsebusch on the boardwalk while waiting for the ferry to take us over to the convention center.  Monica and I 'met' while participating in Modern Quilts Unlimited year long challenge when I made Navigating to Pluto.

And then, while on the ferry ride across the Savannah River I sat right down by Sophie who blogs at Luna Loves Quilts.  Check out Sophie's posts about QuiltCon 2017 Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Notice my bag sitting on the floor...I could have a thing for limey chartreuse green.

After I cut out the bodice, I realized the neck looked too wide.  So what was I to do?  I decided to add at pleat or tuck to the neck line and hopefully it would end up being be a design element.

This is what it looks like with the tee wrong side out.  To reduce the bulk in the neck line seam, I snipped the tuck or pleat just a bit.

It had been so long since I had sewn garments, I found this neck band tutorial, How to Bind Knit Edges, by Colette.  I followed the directions for the Self Fabric Band and on my first attempt I made the divot in the band to deep, and rejected this one.  The purpose is to reduce the bulk in the back of the neckline so it will lie flatter. The second attempt turned out great.

Self band reject

I was even pleased with the top stitching around the neckline.

I should mention that the fabric is Alison Glass Jersey Knit in Lime.  I love the weight of fabric. Although it too thick for the heat of summer, it's great for three of the four seasons.

Although my eyes are closed, here's a fan girl moment taken with Alison at her demo at QuiltCon.

This bright lime green needed just the right thread and I found the closest match in a Gutermann 100% poly used for garment construction and top stitching.  Although I used a ball point needle, I still had a few skipped stitches.

I made vents in the sides and top stitched around the vents and the 1 1/8" hem.  For surging the raw edges, I used Aurifil 50 wt. 1147 (Light Leaf Green).

As if you haven't seen enough green, here's a picture of my varigated canna lilies just coming up.

Linking to Let's Bee Social with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts.

Pretty Posy Mini Goes To Market

I recently had the opportunity to play with some of the new Cotton and Steel thread when Kelly Nagel from Sulky sent me the Flower Shop thread box so I made a mini quilt, Pretty Posy.

I wanted to do some machine applique and used the Thistle Indigo print from Alexia Abegg's collection by the same name, Flower shop as inspiration.  Cipher in Natural was used for the background.

I pulled fabrics from other Cotton and Steel fabric collections to match the thread colors in the Flower Shop thread box.  Aren't the spools cute?

My favorite color in the collection is No. 1815 Japanese Fern, the one I used to applique the leaves.

 The applique is all done, now how to quilt it?

I decided to free motion and echo around all the elements.

Here's a couple of close-ups.  Bow Ties in Grass was used for the bias binding.

And another look at all the colors in the collection.



I used the Indigo Thistle print and incorporated the label into the backing.

Here's a close-up of the label I created using the handwritten quilt labels tutorial I posted last month.

If you are going to Spring Quilt Market in St. Louis, look for Pretty Posy in the Sulky of America booth No. 2829 and Kelly will have Pretty Posy at Sulky's Schoolhouse session.

Linking to...

Needle and Thread Thursday with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation

Finish It Up Friday with Amanda at Crazy Mom Quilts

Finished or Not Friday with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts

Whoop Whoop Friday with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Show Off Saturday with Caroline at Sew Can She

Teaching Machine Applique

Next week I will be teaching a machine applique class for the Asheville Quilt Guild in Asheville, NC.

In this class, students will learn the technique of machine applique using the satin stitch (zig zag) practicing inside and outside corners and smooth rounded edges.  The shapes from Blue Christmas will provide plenty of practice.

Students can make either the pillow cover, table runner or just plain practice! There's still room in the class, so if you are in the area, you are welcome to join us.  The class will take place on Wednesday, May 17th.  Details and registration information can be found here.

2017 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop - Challenge Quilts

Welcome to the 4th and final week of the 2017 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop.  I am participating again this year since I had so much fun last year meeting new bloggers and learning so much from my fellow newbie bloggers and experienced ones like Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl, Beth at Cooking Up Quilts and Leanne at She Can Quilt who are our hive leaders this year.

I am part of the Better Bloggers Hive with Beth as our leader.

In last year's introductory post I shared how my grandmother was influential in my sewing and quilting, how I choose the name Quilted Blooms and the inspiration for the my blog graphics.  You can read all about that in my 2016 New Quilt Bloggers post.  

I thought it would be fun to share challenge quilts I've made over the years and document them here in one place.  Some I've already shared and will link to those, and others are new here.

Challenge Quilts

1. Verging on Ugly - Sept. 2004 (29" x 29")

This an early quilt was made for the Quilters of South Carolina Ugly Fabric Challenge.  At the very first Spring Meeting I attended, my name was drawn from over a 100 quilters. 

The challenge was to make a quilt using ugly fabric which was stuffed in a tote bag.  I chose two fat quarters which I really didn't think were THAT ugly (the colorful marbled looking fabric), added two more fabrics and used Original Harmonic Convergence pattern from his book, Ricky Tims' Convergence Quilts (affiliate link).

Don't laugh, but this was the first quilt I free motion quilted.  I drew the watery looking design on Golden Threads paper, quilted it and then picked out all that paper.  When I pulled this quilt out to photograph it, I still found bits of paper.

2.  While I Dream, My Garden Grows - Sept. 2005 (15" x 21")

Another early quilt made for a fabric challenge (Flowering Herbs by Hoffman Fabrics) in conjunction with our quilt show, Carolina Dreaming. There was a lot of fussy cutting in this one and machine applique which I love.  I still wasn't confident in FMQ and just stitched in the ditch so quilting was minimal.   

The pattern was from Scrap Miniature Magic (affiliate link) by Christine Carlson. The fabric was definitely a challenge as the six herbs represented were set on point and evenly spaced on a black background which I cut out and appliqued on the quilt backing.  Now do you see why this was a challenge?

3.  Bird's Eye View - Sept. 2007 (21" x 21")

I was the chairman for this challenge and chose the fabric, Birds on a Wire, by Kim Schaefer for Andover Fabrics.  The quilt had to depict the theme of the guild's show, Wonders of Nature, and contain a bird (fabric or not) somewhere in or on the quilt.

This is really 4 mini quilts bound and stitched onto the quilted challenge fabric.  The dimensional applique technique is from Fabulous Flowers (affiliate link) by Sharon K. Baker.  And the idea for this quilt was from a mini quilt, Sunflower Snapshot, I saw in American Patchwork & Quilting, August 2007.

4.  Celestial Swirl - Sept. 2009 (20" x 20")

This miniature was made from a pattern, 4-Patch Swirl by Lynn Buske.  It was fun to see the possibilities by rearranging the squares within each block.  It was even juried into the AQS Paducah show in 2011. (It's on bottom left.)

2011 was the year there was historical flooding along the Ohio, Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. The convention center is beyond the flood gates, so the entire show was moved in town.

Paducah 2011 (flood gate on the right)

5.  Grandmama's Legacy of Flowers - Sept. 2009

6.  Game Day - Sept. 2011

7.  Clementine Daisy - July 2014

8.  After Dinner Mints - Nov. 2014

9.  Barcelona - Nov. 2015

10.  Witco's Daisies - Nov. 2015

11.  Five Times Five - Jan. 2016

12. Peak of Perfection - March 2016

13.  Well Rounded Single Girl - June 2016

14.  Cursive is a Fading Art - Aug. 2016

This quilt won 1st place in the Greenville MQG Black and White challenge, 2nd Place in the Gray Matters category at the Asheville Quilt Show, 2nd place in the Small Quilts at QuiltCon 2017 and was chosen for the Best of QuiltCon 2017 Traveling Exhibit, so I guess you could say I'm getting a lot of 'mileage' out of this one.

15.  Navigating to Pluto - Nov 2016

16.  Mustard Stain - Nov. 2016

17.  Recycle Block Challenge - April 2017

You believe me now, right?  I love a good challenge!

Quilting Advice

Sometimes quilting and life in general are full of challenges...but my advice to you is just do the best you can where you are in your quilting journey.  Do you remember that first challenge of mine where I was so scared to free motion quilt, I drew almost the entire quilting design out on paper first?  Just keep doing the best you can and don't compare yourself to others!

My Sewing Room

I'll close with a couple of photos of where I sew.  I've got plenty of light coming in from the windows. (And, remember, it looked like this for a brief shining moment!)

My design wall is behind iron on the wall left of the window and the large metal cabinet on the right holds fabric and supplies.  

I hope you enjoyed the challenge show and tell!  

Fellow Better Bloggers 

Be sure to visit my fellow Better Bloggers this week!

Sue at Sevenoaks Street Quilts
Jennifer at Dizzy Quilter
Tara at Quiltersstash

More new bloggers are being introduced by Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl and Leanne at shecanquilt. I hope you’ll visit them as well.

Giveaway

And don't forget the sponsors! This wouldn't be possible without their support!  So visit one of the hosts and enter!  Thank you sponsors!

And thank you Yvonne, Beth and Leanne for your leadership and advice!

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Vol. 15 Blog Tour + Giveaway - Diamond Twist

Welcome to my stop on the 100 Blocks Blog Tour and I am so glad you found your way here!  I am thrilled to have my third block published in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks.

If you are new to Quilted Blooms, I'm Paige and you can find out more about me here see some of my finished quilts in the gallery.

Quiltmaker assigns each 12" block to one of four categories - Applique, Foundation-Pieced, Mixed Technique and Pieced.  Diamond Twist Block #1411 is included in the Foundation-Pieced section 100 Blocks Vol. 15.

My previous blocks, It All Adds Up was included in Pieced section of 100 Blocks Vol. 13 and Hexie Flower Basket was included in the Mixed Technique section of 100 Blocks Vol. 14.

Here's the EQ version of the Diamond Twist rendered in Kona Cottons, Marine and Astral.

Diamond Twist Block

And here's the original signed block submitted to Quiltmaker.

Diamond Twist block by Paige Alexander

I don't paper piece often, but when I do, I like to use Carol Doak's Foundation Paper (affiliate link).  I even see that there is a legal size (8 1/2" x 14"), Carol Doak's Legal-Size Foundation Paper (affiliate link) which will be needed to print the Diamond Twist templates from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks.

Using the Diamond Twist block, I made a few quilts designed in EQ to show how versatile the block is to incorporate into different settings.

This first quilt is made from just 5 blocks surrounded by negative space creating a modern design.

This next quilt contains 4 columns of Diamond Twist blocks separated by sashing.

And another quilt without sashing and I changed up the color a bit.

This quilt was made from the same Diamond Twist block with variations in color placement creating an interesting design.

And the same basic design with a little variation using a couple prints from Imprint by Katarina Roccella for Art Gallery.

I had fun with this design and created one more color way using the same Imprint collection.

And one last quilt I'm calling Ribbons of Hope made from 5 full Diamond Twist blocks and 5 half blocks which would be nice for breast cancer awareness.

Ribbons of Hope using Diamond Twist block

I hope you enjoyed seeing how one block can create so many possibilities by changing the block and/or color placement.

And now on to the Giveaways!

Giveaway #1.  The editors at Quiltmaker are sponsoring a giveaway for one copy of 100 Blocks Vol.15 and will mail the magazine directly to you anywhere worldwide.

Giveaway #2.  I will mail a copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Vol. 15 to one lucky commenter to anywhere worldwide.

How to enter:

1. Leave a comment letting me know if you you like to foundation or paper piece.

2. Followers, old and new alike, get a bonus entry.  Leave a second comment and let me know how you follow - such as Bloglovin, Instagram or Email.

The giveaway will run through Saturday, May 8, 2017 and close at 8pm EST. (Giveaway is now closed) I normally respond to every comment received, but during the giveaway the volume may be to large for me to do so. Please leave your e-mail address so I have a way of contacting you if you are a no-reply blogger.

Visit Quiltmaker's blog, Quilty Pleasures, each day this week for links to participating blogs and enter for some great giveaways!  To see all of the creative and original blocks in this issue, 100 Blocks Vol. 15 is available on the newsstands now or you can order 100 blocks from Quiltmaker.

Linking to Let's Bee Social with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts.

The winners have been notifice!  Thank you all for stopping by on the Road Rally blog tour! I can't believe the low numbers choosen out of 215 comments!