The Luna Quilt with Canyon Birds

My last Jaftex Ambassador project for 2022 was made using the Canyon Birds Collection by Jennifer Brinley for Studio e Fabrics. The collection had a gorgeous color palette and was nature themed.

I bought the Luna Quilt pattern by Kitchen Table Quilting when it was released. I loved that it looked perfect for a scrappy quilt or for sewing a whole collection.

I really love how the finished quilt top looks. I tried to mix up the prints as much as possible and not have two of the same touching, but I have a few touching that match. Getting a good random distribution of the darker prints was extremely hard and I gave up  trying to achieve perfection.

This was the first quilt that I quilted on my new to me long arm. I used a free pantograph from Urban Elementz named Pansies. The design stitch out perfectly and I loved how it complemented the fabric  design.  

The Canyon Birds Collection is a tribute to the birds found in the cayon parks of North America. According to the designer, Canyon Parks are home to an incredible diversity of birds with nearly 450 known species. The fabric features Canyon Wrens and Jays along with floral and leaf motifs.  

The collection also includes a panel with smaller cameo designs featuring the Canyon Birds. I used the panel in my backing. 

I pieced my quilt back using the panel as the center and filling in the rest with the remainder of the fabric I had from the collection. I used the darker prints from the collection as the quilt binding. 

The background of my Luna Quilt is a Free Spirit Fabrics jelly roll in Cream. Using a jelly roll for the background really cut down on the time it took me to cut out all my pieces. It was such a great time saver and I will definitely make another Luna Quilt using a jelly roll for the background again. 

This photo shows off some of the prints and the quilting really well. 

Here's an even closer look. I used an off white thread for my quilting as I wanted it to blend into the background completely. I do tend to make some mistakes with my longarming as I learn, and I didn't want a contrasting thread highlighting all my mistakes. 

I absolutely loved making this quilt and was thrilled when I took it with all my other quilts at Christmas to give out as gifts. This quilt went home with one of my aunts. She immediately grabbed it when she saw it. She said she didn't need to see them all, this was the one she wanted. 

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Week ending December 25, 2022

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays - no matter what you celebrate! 

The blogger app on my phone is giving me  problems and making it much harder for  me to make posts. I was enjoying posting from my phone, but now I can only add the photos, then have to go to my computer to add text. I spent last week working on finishing 6 quilts that I was going to have available as gifts and I got them all done thanks to my new longarm! Photo below is of all 6 quilted and all my binding made.

All finished and packed into a laundry basket - this was one of 2 laundry baskets full of quilts that went with me to my hometown for Christmas. 

I let each family member pick out which one they wanted. My mom took most of the photos below. I didn't get a photo of everyone with their quilt but here are most of them...

I really enjoyed seeing everyone picking their favorite. Some decided right away, others really took their time. Some of the selections surprised me, and others were predictable as I had a little voice in my head sometimes telling me who would probably like certain quilts as I made them.

When  we came home my husband finished a little project I had - to make a second singer treadle base table for my sewing room. The second one now resides next to the first one. I use one for cutting and ine for pressing. This will make my life so much easier as I do these two tasks in conjunction with one another often and doing them side by side will be a time saver. 

This final week of the year I am hoping to use to finish at least one WIP (work in progress). That WIP is my temperature quilt for 2021. Then, I might try to finish one more. I also have my next ambassador shipment from Jaftex arriving soon and will get started on it as soon as it arrives. 

Have a wonderful New Year!

2 weeks ending December 19, 2022

I'm updating this post as I currently hate the Blogger app on my phone. The app will not show both my text and images. 

I have been working  on my locker hooking rug. Here it is so far.

I've decided to try some applique.

Just playing with pieces here and not sure if I should go for it or not. 

I attended a Bernina Serger event at Stitchhouse. That serger is AMAZING! I also used the one a level above this one that also does coverstitch - it's unbelievable. It was so easy to use - I was blown away. But, it cost Eight Grand! Holy Cow! Terrance Williams was also  at this event, and he is hoping  to sell 540 headbands so he can buy one of these sergers. He is an amazing individual, and I'm rooting for him that he hits his goal soon. You can  help him out by buying a headband at https://terrancewilliamsdesigns.com. 

At the event everyone made a bolster pillow. It's cute and was made using a variety of stitches on the serger. 

I finished my Luna Quilt and Nia wanted to cuddle under it.

I got photos outside before the coldest weather hit us. 

I added binding to my practice whole cloth quilt that I quilted on my Tin Lizzie. I used an old flannel sheet and some fabric that was given to me. The cats were loving the quilt and I thought I better put a binding on  it so I can wash it. I sewed together leftover bits of  binding for a scrappy binding. This is probably the ugliest thing I've made, but the kitties love it.

Smaug love my Longarm frame and thinks it is a kitty jungle gym. 

2 weeks - Ending December 11, 2022

First off - I did not intend to go another 2 weeks without a post, but I had a good reason for it. I got a longarm (also - I cannot get the app to work right now on my phone for Blogger)! It was gifted to me by a kind member of the local sewing group (DFW Sewing on Facebook) and it's taken some time to get it set up and going. I think I'm finally ready to actually use it now! 

Before we brought the longarm home, I knew I needed to rearrange a few things. I decided to move all my spare/extra machines to this shelf in the corner. Some didn't have dust covers and I'd just been covering them  with random pieces of fabric. I took an evening to make covers for the two that didn't have one. I used this cute Sewing Notions print by B0rwear that I got from My Fabric Designs (he also sells on Spoonflower). 

I received my December fabrics from Jaftex and received the Canyon Birds collection by Jennifer Brinley for Studio e Fabrics. I love the color palette of this collection and decided to make the Kitchen Table Quilting Luna Quilt.  

The longarm I was given is a Tin Lizzie 18 ESP Limited with Quilt Magician Software and Butler Robotics on a Phoenix Frame. The frame can be set up as 6' or 12'. We first set up just the base at 12' and realized there was not quite enough room, so we set it up at 6'. 

While figuring out the new Longarm, I began sewing together my Luna Quilt. It's going together really fast. 

On December 9th, I took off from work and met up with my dear sewing friend Sharon. She brought me fabric that she picked up for me  on Black Friday. I told her I needed some Anna Maria Horner fabrics with big flowers as I had an idea to do some appliques. 

My husband was also off that Friday. During my week to play with my new to me longarm, I realized I wasn't going to be happy with a 6' frame. I make big throws and rarely do I make a quilt that would fit this frame. If I was going to have something big in the room, it really needed to be extremely useful. On Friday we moved out  my desk where my computer is and replaced it with a folding table I used previously in my sewing room at my former house. I had been using a dining room table as a desk. That table is now in our dining room and our old dining room table will be going to my mother in law. So now I had room for the 12' frame!

That did mean that I lost my cutting table, but that will soon be resolved. My mom has an old Singer Sewing Machine treadle base that I can have and I will be adding a top to it like this one that I made in 2020. Hers doesn't have the drawers, but I am pretty sure I have an extra set of them in the garage. My cutting table will sit right next to my pressing table and I'll be back to normal. I will be on the lookout for a new desk, but my folding table will do for now. 

Hopefully I can share some photos of some items I completed on my new to be longarm soon. 

2 weeks -Ending November 27, 2022

A lot has been happening and I missed posting a recap last Sunday,  so this one is for two weeks! I worked on and completed the Origins Quilt Pattern test for Lifting Limits Quilting.  Below is a sneak peek at some of my blocks. 

I received more quilty wishes - these epp diamonds will come in handy. 

I got another quilty wish of orphan blocks and nature prints. They also sent me this cute little needle minder book that I've already put to use. 

I worked on a secret project project for a quilty friend. 

I finally got photos of the Carlsbad Cardigan i made with recycled content french terry from Minerva. 

Another package of quilty wishes. 

I had to take a break from fun sewing to make pillowcases.  I used an old flat sheet. The fitted sheet from this set became discolored over time and looked awful.  The top sheet was still great, so it became new pillowcases. 

These blocks were my secret sewing project. I used all tula pink fabrics. These were so fun to make. I mailed them off to a quilty friend who will be putting them with some other blocks made by other quilters. I can't wait to see the finish

I had a quilting mishap! I washed a quilt like I normally do before gifting, but something went wrong. The dye bleed a whole lot. It was really bad. I had used color catchers, but apparently not enough. I tried rewashing the quilt multiple times with oxiclean and other color safe bleaches to no avail.   

I tried Carbona color run remover and while it got most of the blue out, it changed the color of most of the fabrics. 

Here's the quilt after the mishap. It's still beautiful,  just different than it was before. This is the Chantli Quilt- Pattern by Jessica Poemape. 

I finally bound my Bug Quilt. Pattern by Rope & Anchor Trading Co.  

I bound my Linking Lives Quilt- Pattern by Andrea Haverinen.  This one needed to be finished as I was gifting it on Thanksgiving. 

I bound my Blue Grotto Quilt- Pattern by Lifting Limits Quilting. This was one I did longarm quilting on.  

I bound my Diagonal Dazzle Quilt. This one was too big to hang on my arbor.  I did the longarming on this one. 

I bound by Crystallized Quilt- Pattern by the Crafty Capuchin. 

I bound my Hurrication Quilt- Pattern by Running Stitch Quilts. I did the longarming on this one too. 

Here's the back. We didn't get it perfectly centered,  but it's close enough. 

My recycled stuffing bucket was full which meant it was a great time to start a stuffed project.  I've been cutting all mu strips of scraps into chunks and putting them in this bucket. There's batting bits and all kinds of fabric. 

I made a tree! Now I need to make at least 2 more and pack away the pumpkins. 

A friend delivered 16 boxes of sewing "stuff" to my house. I need to take a day off to go through these boxes and see what I can use and pay forward what I can't. 

I traveled for Thanksgiving, so along came my EPP Lucy Boston blocks. 

The Utter Chaos Quilt pattern by Kelly Renay released on Black Friday! 

I was in Lancaster, PA and visited some of the cutest shops. I saw these wooden spool trees and had to take a photo.  I have so many spools! I coukd make a bunch of these. 

I came across these Amish made pressing sticks. I thought it was so cool that the maker had signed their name on each. I had to get one as a souvenir. 

I visited a few fabric stores and found some fabric to bring home.  Are you surprised? 

I came home to another quilty wish - this one all the way from Germany! These orphan blocks are just beautiful! 

I also had a package from Thistle Creative Reuse.  

I finished this hectic 2 weeks taking photos of my finished quilt tops. These are both the Origins Quilt Pattern from Lifting Limits Quilting. Yes. I made 2. It's a long story that I'll save for another post. 

This coming week I plan to make more trees for my fireplace and maybe try to quilt another wip.  I have 3 that I was hoping to finish before Christmas. I may send them to my local longarmer to get them done.