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

may the quilt force be with you - a gradu-mas gift

so far, in the spirit of trying new patterns, i've made quilts for my aunt, my mom and my cousin the last few christmases.
it was only a matter of time before i made one of the brothers something, and it just so happened to be that my sister's husband ben was also graduating with his bachelor's degree and teaching credential at christmas time as well.  i had this pattern i wanted to try out before using it as a music quilt (so yes, you'll see version 2 real soon!) and had the idea to do it in a variety of fandoms that ben likes, thinking i could use fabric from my stash.  well, it turned out that ben only likes star wars these days...
on a whim, i wandered joanns and was instantly inspired by the various blue, black and gray star wars prints i found that also appeared to be relatively new.  i snagged a piece of each of them, as well as some coordinating quilting cottons to offset all of the novelty licenced prints.
one section of the quilt requires 4 1/2" squares, which i managed to get 60 out of... which i thought was just enough.  nope... i needed 90.  so since ben was graduating to be a math teacher, i ran out to a local quilt shop to get a chunk of blue math themed fabric to mix in to the front as well as add a piece to the backing to tie it all together.
when i start to layout these overly scrappy quilts, i have to remind myself that no matter how hard i try, one print on two different blocks is bound to touch.  i managed to do rather well with balancing out the star wars prints, which was the main goal of having them look more scattered away from their similar prints and everything.  usually i do everything one piece at a time for each block, but with this one i had to do each block one at a time to make sure i didn't mix anything up and accidentally have some sideways droids or something.
i almost went for a solid/tonal print for the borders, but these droids were too cute to pass up.  yeah, i just called the droids cute, ben.  sorry not sorry.  i pulled this black from my stash to use as the binding, which really helped tie it all together.  the quilting is a pantograph called "malachite" which i used on my garden snails 2.0, and it really helped bring that all over texture to the quilt without being too boxy or loopy.
pew pew
they struggled a bit with folding up the quilt, but to be fair... it said it was a lap quilt, but it definitely fit on both of our queen sized beds.
so now that ben has gotten his own "lap quilt," who will be next?  will markham get something sandwich shop ninja themed?  or will joshua get something... black?  gray?  i don't know about him yet... ha!  brothers can be so difficult.
pattern:  quick as a wink - scottie dog quilts
quilt count: 128

emily's rad 100 days 100 blocks - tula pink city sampler

so in 2018, you got a regular update of my 100 day 100 block every 10 blocks, and then it just sat.
don't get me wrong, i super enjoyed this project and really wanted to get it done, but it just fell to the back burner as all projects for me personally do.
well, last summer i knocked it out at maker monday, quilted it up and got it bound and it has lived on my bed ever since.  now, here it is for your viewing (and ispy-ing) enjoyment!
as a reminder, i focused on three main fabric lines for my colors: foundations by sassafrass lane designs, grunge by basicgray and dimples by andover fabrics.  it all pretty much started from the foundations line of fabric that i got a fat quarter bundle of and then trickled down to balance it all out. i fussy cut the wazoo out of some fabrics, and there are some pretty hilarious instagram swiss cheese photos to prove it!
i had a hard time narrowing down photos, so you're about to get blasted with some detail shots of some very random themed blocks!
i did tweak the borders of this quilt, since i couldn't just let all the bright rainbow-ness of the inside just end with solid gray.  i measured out a bit more of the gray (which i believe is silver grunge) to be the same width as the sashing, and then measured out some chunks of the same main color fabrics to make a scrappy border around the outside.  since the border was so scrappy, i wanted to keep the binding solid, and went with my favorite blue print from the foundations line of fabric.  the back, not that you can see it, is a fantastic gray on gray polka dot fabric that i found as a wide back at meissner's
while this project was a lot of work, it was really fun to do as a sew along with a ton of people, including lisa.  it was funny to see how we used the same fabric in a few of our blocks, and how different they turned out from each other.  we both ended up with a rainbow-ish collection of blocks, and i cannot wait to see hers put together.  once hers is done, she intends it to be for her future guest room... aka what i get to use when i stay over!
it has been so great to have such a fun and cheerful quilt on my bed to snuggle up under each night.  i am quite pleased with my success with this quilt and already have plans to use a few of the blocks from this book for another project :)
pattern: tula pink's city sampler: 100 modern quilt blocks
quilt count: 126

teal, burgundy & orange boardwalk wedding quilt

jacob & sarah got engaged in january, at initially planned a summer wedding for 2018.  as their time engaged passed on and then may rolled around, they decided to change their date from june 2018 to september 2017.  oy!  being jacob's cousin, i of course planned to make them a wedding quilt, but now went from an entire year to make one to just a few short months.  ack!  they picked their wedding colors of teal, burgundy & orange and i began to think on how to make them a quilt using just these colors.  at the end of the preschool year, i received a pair of leggings in these colors, plus purples, greens & yellows and knew instantly how to work the colors in.  i found a great pattern by cluck cluck sew and started gathering dozens of fat quarters to complete this quilt.  a little gray helped balance everything out instead of a stark white, and their fall wedding quilt came in to completion.  i bought a few pantographs including "macrame" from urban elementz and after an instagram survey, felt like it would be the perfect way to finish off this quilt.  a few days renting the long arm (had a mishap that involved tension issues & seam ripping) it got all quilted & bound just days before their wedding.  i am so happy with the final result of this beast, i kept telling myself "i want a queen size quilt for my bed!"
someday, emily...
someday soon, i hope.
here's some pictures of this colorful fall wedding quilt!
quilt number: 101
pattern: boardwalk by cluck cluck sew

fandom filled amy butler's daisy chain quilt

another major project that was a long time planned was this beast!
melissa & jared got engaged on october 1st of 2015 and then after much debate set their wedding date for a year later.  i instantly knew i wanted to make them something that would blend a variety of their fandoms together and give them the perfect quilt to kick off their marriage.  much like andrew's disney i-spy quilt, the fabrics for this one were hunted far and wide to get the perfect combo without being too in your face and chaotic.
the fabrics used combine their enthusiasm for star wars, star trek, dr. who, marvel (avengers), zelda (particularly jared on that one), disney, music and harry potter.  i picked a color scheme that was subtle, mostly black & white with blue and red touches in there to keep it all together.  each fandom has anywhere from 2-6 prints (star wars had a lot with the force awakens coming out recently) which made for a nice variety on the blocks.  i chose the amy butler pattern again, since i was familiar with it and knew it would be the perfect way to blend all these fabrics together without them looking too uniformed. one of my perfect little mishaps, where thor fit perfectly inside the triangle point. there is one of harry potter playing quidditch as well, but i couldn't find him when i was photographing the details. it's seriously like an unintentional i-spy game!
when i was putting this quilt together, i texted my cousin often, feeling like this quilt could either turn out cool, or a big hot mess.  thankfully, it turned out pretty cool in my opinion.
i chose the blue sparkle to keep one color consistent, and since this looked rather spacey it tied right in to all the fandom-ness. i think if i had gone to the red side, it would have looked WAY different and potentially even an eyesore. ha!
the solid backing worked perfectly, and allowed the quilting to pop out just enough.
i actually got to deliver this to them a few weeks ago and see them open it (and then immediately spread it out on their bed) which was so much fun to see their reaction.  seriously, that's the best part... see?
pardon the crummy cell phone photo, but clearly all worth it.
happy one month and 9 day anniversary, melissa & jared!