Arrow Quilt and 100 Blocks 100 Days Challenge

 I finished the quilt to to my arrow quilt! That was my goal for my summer break. During winter break I'll quilt and bind it. I haven't decided yet if I want to quilt it on my machine or rent time on a long-arm...

I started a project that I will use these fabrics in. I just think they are so perfect together! It's Carolyn Friedlander's Doe and Carkai collections. The challenge is to make and post one quilt block a day for 100 days out of Tula Pink's City Sampler book. Here's the details.

Arrow Quilt - Green, Orange, and Gray Arrows

I've been working slow but steady these last few days and have completed my last sets of arrows! They seem to go faster and faster each time a make a new set.  The gray ones especially since there are only 4 of those!

I'm excited to start piecing the top together soon. Then I have to decide if I'm going to quilt it at home or rent time on a long-arm machine...

Arrow Quilt - Red Arrows

I made a little progress on my Arrow Quilt today. I completed all of the red arrows. I didn't make any modifications to the provided colors for these arrows. It went quicker today than yesterday!

Bucket Bag Challenge

Last week while on my Honeymoon I saw an Instagram post about this Bucket Bag Challenge. I was intrigued by the bag and saved the tutorial as something I wanted to sew someday. I didn't think I would participate in the challenge because I was gone and didn't have an idea for what I wanted it to look like. BUT last night I had a dream about putting on arrow on the front of it, similar to what I made yesterday for the Arrow Quilt I'm sewing. I had to modify the arrow pattern from the quilt a little bit to make it smaller and had to modify the directions from the bucket bag tutorial quite a bit to make it the right size with the arrow instead of what he put on the from. It wasn't too difficult to figure out though. I made the outside of the bag out of extra fabric from other projects. For the inside fabric, rope, and grommets I had to make a run to JoAnns. Oh darn! ;-) I decided on this amazing bright lime green canvas for the inside because I LOVE bright colors and black rope to not distract from the arrow design. I've sewn a few circle bottomed bags in the past, so once I had the pieces cut out, the bag went together pretty quickly.

Wish me luck on getting picked as a winner. The prizes look pretty amazing!

Starting my Arrow Quit - Blue Arrows

I started a kit that I got a few months ago; Elizabeth Hartman Pointy Pattern Quilt Kit. I'm making a few modifications to the colors. I wanted the green/yellow one to be more similar in colors; more about that section later. I also replaced the pink arrows with true orange that I will place opposite the red arrows in the finished quilt.

About a month ago, I cut up all the background pieces so that when I returned from my Honeymoon I could just start sewing. It took a few days to start though because I came home sick! Ugh!

Today I completed the 5 blue arrows.

Geese in a Monkey Wrench - Challenge 6 of Project Quilting

Happy National Quilting Day!!

I have participated in most of the project quilting challenges from Persimon Dreams. This is my first year participating. It was a blast! I can wait for next year and new challenges.

I started this challenge with the thought that I wanted to combine the monkey wrench and flying geese in a sneaky way. I started with just the center monkey wrench with the geese hidden in the center. Then I remembered seeing a picture captioned "how many flying geese?" and added the outer corners. Then I colored my drawing using my favorite colors (which I have a TON of fabric of).

I believe that your first solution to a problem isn't always the best, soil draw it again but colored it different.

 I also wanted to try doing a positive/negative block and flipped some of the outer geese. I thought that I was satisfied with the design, so started to figure out the sizes of pieces I needed to cut. I figured too different sizes; one with a 2" center and one with a 4" center.

 I left the drawings alone for half a day. When I looked at the drawings again, I decided with a little help, that I like how the border geese on the last drawing give a pointed frame and liked the colors from my first drawing. So, I drew it one more time.

Next, I picked out fabrics from my stash that matched the colors I planned in my drawing.

 I found an awesome tutorial on how to make flying geese 4 at a time! It was super easy that way, and perfect because I had 4 or 8 to make of each kind.
I have made lots of half square triangles before, and decided to use the 4 at a time method since I needed four.

 Here are all the sections - flying geese, half square triangles (for the monkey wrench), and solid pieces.

 I chain piece as much as possible. I feel like it makes everything go quickly and I like how it keeps the pieces in order. I wanted the fabrics to speak for themselves, so a stitched in the ditch to quilt it. I also like how then the front is ghosted on the back.
I really enjoy how it turned out! The finished piece is 16" x 16". I plan on using it as a table topper or possibly a wall hanging.

I create near Madison, WI.