musical mashup - crabfeed quilt 2020

here it finally is, my first finish of 2020!
sure, sure... you saw the good place cross stitch first, but that got posted because of the show finale... THIS is the real first finish of 2020!
i started working on this for my annual new years eve sewfest, but then ended up hanging out with friends.  the crabfeed was fast approaching, and i needed a reason to sew through more of my music fabric stash!  i used the same pattern as ben's star wars quilt you saw last week with a few tweaks.  i changed the rotation of the blocks (not that you can really tell much with the scrappy quilt) and i made an alteration to the border.
yep.
another godzilla sized lap quilt.
why i didn't do the smaller size after doing the star wars one, i don't know.
for the border, i had this great piano key fabric my mom purchased a lot of, but i wanted the keys to run in the correct direction... AND line up on the top and bottom borders.  so what i did was line them up once the strips were cut, sew them together and then trim the overhang to get it even again.  this did make the border smaller by about an inch, but that was not a problem with this beast of a quilt.  with the fabrics running from all directions, i didn't want the chaos of the side borders touching the bottom borders of piano keys, so i added in the corner stones which helps balance it out perfectly (and also allows the forever used black treble clef fabric in to the mix a little more.
once it was done, i quilted it up with the good ol' loop the loop pantograph and bound it with black treble clefs.  as much as i love doing bold colors, the subtle softness of black, white and tan just makes this feel so cozy.  and the backing was a perfect find at joanns... AND a wide back!  plus, i've got the chunk of it leftover that will now be able to be cut up and pieced in to future music quilts.
now that this is complete, i can now check off 2 of my 50 finishes for 2020.  oh yeah, that's a thing i joined to get stuff sewn/crafted thanks to lettuce craft and american patchwork & quilting's ufo challenge that i fell behind on for january's finish...  oops!
pattern: quick as a wink - scottie dog quilts
quilt count: 129

musical themed himalayan pink quilt

i bought this pattern back in october when i showed up in colorado to hang out with lisa for a few days and was anxiously awaiting the time to use it.  when i saw what my collection of music fabric was looking like, i decided that i needed to clear out everything i currently had so that i could start fresh for what will come next year.  i sorted things through in to various piles and then came up with this!
unlike previous triangle quilts i have done, this one was a lot more scrappy and that worked perfect for the fabric supply that i had on hand.  also, instead of the triangles pointing upwards, these ones lay sideways which added another fun element to the quilt.
more black, white, gold and cream fabrics as usual, but it was nice to see the supply of these fabrics reaching an end!  some of these have been hanging around since the very start of the music themed quilts for the raffle.  now that they are dwindling down, it was fun to put them together in a sort of collage quilt.
the backing and binding were a leaf print that i found, which seemed very appropriate for a music camp out in the woods.  i kept the quilting simple, following the lines of the triangles to put a frame on the "blocks" in a sense.
time for a photobombing cat break!
as usual, there are those treble clefs! it should just be an i-spy game for them to appear at this point.
i think my favorite ones are the super scrappy triangles like these in this bottom corner.
it was so much fun to see this music fabric "sampler" come together and be complete for this year's music camps.  since this was a first time quilt, that means it will very likely get repeated for next year, and i've already started shopping for fabric in a completely different color scheme!

musical charm (and 10!) squares quilt - version 2.0

it's that time of year again!
i was actually pretty ahead of the game this year making these quilts.  blogging everything seemed to end up a different story... like, i have 4 quilts photographed to blog, 2 more to follow after that.  oops!
anyways, another year with donner mine music camp means another year of music quilts!  since they flipped the weeks this year, high school week happened first so this pattern was the repeat from last year week one.
i love the opportunity to repeat patterns on occasion, because it allows me to recreate them in a completely different way.  this quilt was originally done in all black and white prints.  not a single shade in between.  this year, it was done with some of my left over prints that were in the more ivory, gold and black range.  same pattern, same music theme, different result!
not only did i use different fabrics, but i also was able to quilt it using the long arm at meissner.  i quilted this one and another one in the same day and originally had a different plan for it.  when the woman working in the long arm center that day suggested this pantograph that looked like treble clefs, i knew i had to give it a go.  and you know what?  the curves were not as scary as i had expected!
the binding was a solid black, same as the majority of the backing fabric. i didn't calculate correctly for the extra 8" for longarming and had to piece a chunk in to the backing to make it wide enough. it sure helped get rid of some of my left over pieces!
now that this quilt has been done twice, it is now "retired" from being used for donation quilts. well, at least until i run out of ideas i'm sure!
one thing that is clear is that black on black treble clef print is a LIFESAVER. if joann fabrics ever stops carrying it, i don't know what i'll do!  okay, i'll probably survive... but this has just been so perfect to tie in to the music quilts.
i just gotta end this post with one more up close of that swirly quilting.
love it!

musical amy butler daisy chain 2.0

as mentioned last week, this quilt has "graduated" to week 2 of donner mine music camp this year after being last year's week 1 quilt(see it here).  lisa found this quilt initially years ago, and this will be the 4th time that i've made some variety of this quilt using this style of block.  once as a queen size wedding quilt, once as a baby quilt, and now twice as the size the pattern actually describes.  i hadn't actually looked back at last year's quilt before putting this post together, and wow, what a difference between the two!  just the differences in the border alone make all the difference to show while they are the same quilt, they look totally unique in their own.
i really love doing this quilt pattern, despite how LONG it takes to put the blocks together. pin 48 blocks, sew, iron, repeat a bajillion times. then trimming the blocks all before they can be sewn together. bah!  the fact that the strips are sewn to a foundation piece of fabric is awesome, since it really helps keep things in place.
the last few times i have done this quilt i left out the 5" strips, but for some reason this time i felt obligated to leave a few of them in.  kind of shook things up a little bit, that's for sure.  i also noticed i had a lot of one direction fabrics this time (in particular one with words all over it) so i had to keep more of an eye on which way the fabrics were going when i put the blocks together as a whole.
see? there are those treble clefs again!  i used them a bit within the blocks, but when i forgot to keep one of the fabrics in a big 2 yard chunk for the borders, i had to find whatever joann's had to offer.  and of course, there they were waiting for me at the store :)  i did use one of the music prints for the binding, which really popped.  i had originally planned that the treble clefs would be there, but hey, plans change it seems!
 i am also quite fond of the backing fabric i used.  you can hardly tell the seam runs straight down the middle to make the pieces large enough!  i was pretty proud of myself for getting this done within a week as well, as i spent the sunday of week 1 doing some of the binding in the car on the way to take the camp photo.  multitasking for the win!  (not multitasking by hand sewing and driving though... that sounds all bad)
this one was a little larger than week one's quilt this year, but definitely still a good size.
it seems this idea of doing a quilt raffle each week has been a successful fundraiser for the camp, and i'm excited that i get to keep being part of it.  now maybe next year i'll FINALLY get ahead of the game and not spend the last week of june and beginning of july in crunch time to get these done!  and as fun as it always is to do these, i am excited to take a break from staring at music fabrics for days on end :)

donner mine music camp week 2's quilt raffle prize - musical pinwheels

let the influx of new posts begin!
you saw the triangle musical quilt a little bit ago, and now it's time for week 2's quilt!  i had done this same quilt for last year's donation raffle, and since we still had bits and pieces left over, pulled another one together for week 2 this year.  it was fairly easy to pull together, and since i only had to make 3 more pinwheels, it happened like magic.
i switched up the quilting a bit this time around. last year my grandma just did a basic cross hatch all over, and so i broke it down to being different for the two different blocks. if it was a pinwheel block, i did a stitch in the ditch. for the printed blocks, i did a cross hatch within that block. both blocks were outlines around to frame the quilting. the border was also stitched in the ditch, and then once that was complete it was on to the binding.
as you can see, i didn't even bother removing cat fur...  but there you have it.
two musical quilts off to new homes, and a music camp who benefited from these generous, supportive individuals who send their kids off to camp.  until next year, donner mine!

two music themed donation quilts

finally at the end of catching up, and now i should hopefully convince myself to start sewing the next project that has been cut out for days!  this year, my mom came up with the idea for the music camp my siblings have attended forever to have a quilt raffle in order to help raise money for the camp.  i did a music themed quilt for the high school a few years ago (quilt here) and this time had to bust out some quilts in a matter of days before the final day of camp each week.
these two quilts fall under the stash bust category since we had the fabric laying around, but did also have to purchase some filler fabric as well as the backing pieces in order to complete the quilts.  the first quilt (on the left) is based off of "pinwheel play" (link below) and pieced together easily.  the pinwheels are 10" finished, with a stashing in between.  i really like the colors on this quilt a whole lot.  a little more punch to them than the others i have done for music donations.  and we still have fabric left over to do another one for next year!
quilt 2 on the right is using the same "just can't cut it" pattern as the donation quilt done a few years back.  we had a LOT of black & white fat quarters that were managed to work in with this pattern.  this quilt pattern is a great one for a new quilter.  the blocks are easy to piece together, no tiny pieces, and everything goes together super quick.  i was able to put both of these quilt tops together in one afternoon, and send off to quilt within a few days after that.
due to the quick finish time and need for them to get sent off to camp, i didn't get a chance to photograph these quite like i usually do. so alas, this isn't a very picture filled post.  but there you have it, two more quilts done and out of here!
quilt 1: based off of pinwheel play by julie weaver in quilts for babies & kids
quilt 2: "just can't cut it" by all washed up
total stash busting quilts/quilt tops combined: 12

dohs marching band spectacular donation quilt

each year at the del oro band spectacular, they hold a quilt raffle in order to help raise money for the program. this year i was asked to do the quilt (my parents are pretty involved in the band supporters... go figure) and after finally deciding on a pattern was able to get it put together and everything in a matter of days. my grandma made the coordinating pillow to go along with the music theme. actually, it ended up being total coincidence that the fabric was the same, but hey, it makes it THAT much better. she also did the quilting for me... something i recently attempted on something of my own, but i'm SO glad she did it for me...
even though it was a pretty basic quilt pattern, i really like how it turned out. squares and rectangles totally make things a whole heck of a lot easier to deal with, that is for sure.
and check that binding out! SO much better than the pirate mouse binding. a whole heck of a lot of blind hem stitching though. nothing that a few friends dvds couldn't make easier to deal with.
so that's that! at least for this season's spectacular. i'm sure something will come up for next semester when we have the winter spectacular. at least i have a heads up and can get looking for some fun music fabric now. so now, go to del oro on saturday, buy some raffle tickets so you can take this matched set home with you :)