Totally Groovy Crib Quilt - done!

I'm on another quilt finish high! 

I LOVE how this quilt turned out. The texture of the quilting is fantastic even if the actual quilting isn't. 

I love the the contrasting thread on the back, it looks really cool. 

boo, bird nests on the back...gotta figure out how to prevent that, it's annoying.  

Quilt Stats: 

Pattern: Carolina Patchworks - Groove; Crib Quilt - Finished Size 43" x 52" 

Fabric: Kona solids - Coal, Deep Rose & Curry

Batting: Quilter's Dream- Dream Puff 

Thread: Superior So Fine #50 ; 409 Smoke, 416 Rose Petal; 422 Mustard

Groovy crib quilt almost done!

I finished up the quilting on this last week and I AM LOVING IT! My camera decided to go squirrelly on me as I was trying to photograph it and this was the best shot I could get. 

The quilting in the yellow & pink areas came straight out of Angela Walter's Free-Motion Quilting book. The gray area was a little bit less successful since I meant to do a different orientation of quilting but loaded it on the long-arm in a way not conducive to that. No worries...overall I'm really please with how it turned out. I'll be back with more photos (once that camera starts behaving) after I've put on the binding. 

Groovy Crib quilt top done!

or maybe the title of this post should be attack of the photo bomber.

So apparently the floor is not the ideal place for photo taking. So I just put it up on my 'design wall' (batting thumbtacked to the wall).

I really liked working on this. The curves were a little tricky and I ended up using my Retro Flowers templates instead of the cardstock templates I cut out from the pattern. I also did a log cabin approach to the piecing instead of how the pattern was written. I really loved putting it together, so much fun. This is the first quilt I've made using all solids and it's so satisfying piecing cause it's so crisp and clean. 

I'm looking forward to quilting it...I think I'm actually going to try and do it myself on my itty bitty sewing machine *gasp* We shall see. 

Now on to the king size. ;)...first I have to get my 3x6 Quilt Bee blocks completed though. 

A little QAL progress

I finished up all 20 of the HST & four patch blocks for the Sew Intertwined quilt and am really pleased with how they look all laid out. 

I made a couple of test blocks for the intertwining blocks. The lovely ladies hosting the QAL provided two different ways of putting the blocks together. Paper piecing or traditional. 

Test blocks
Traditional on left, paper piecing on right

Initially I was planning on doing the paper piecing method since I really like the precision you can get with paper piecing. However after doing one test block I felt that it was going to be too time consuming. 

I made up a second block using the traditional method and really liked how quickly it came together. So that'll be the route I go. 

I also sewed up one of the curves for the Totally Groovy quilt. It's a liiiittle bit wonky. 

Not terrible for first try but not terrific,  definitely worth a little more practice.

Groooovy

I really hadn't planned on joining the Totally Groovy QAL when I first learned about it. I'd already joined the SewIntertwined QAL and figured I didn't really need to join another but I just couldn't get this one out of my head.

Until recently I was a Stampin Up demonstrator and I use their color coach quite frequently. One of their color combos combined primrose petal, summer starfruit & basic grey. I really really liked it but I couldn't think of who I would gift it to or even where I would use it in my house since it's so different than anything I've chosen before. I decided to go with another color palette that I've used extensively of teal, smokey blue, olive green & gray to make a king size quilt for our bed. I really couldn't get that deep pink, yellow & charcoal color scheme out of my head though so I decided to make two quilts. One king size and one crib quilt. 

Crib quilt colors
Kona Curry, Deep Rose, & Coal

King quilt colors
Kona Coal, Teal Blue, Dusty Blue, Olive & Snow

Really looking forward to cutting into this and seeing how they both turn out. 

Here a QAL, There a QAL

Apparently I have no self control. I've joined two Quilt-a-longs. Not one, but two. Occurring at the same time. I just REALLY wanted to do both. 

The Sew Intertwined QAL started first and I had just ordered fabric from Tula Pink's new Bird's & the Bees collection which is going to look SO awesome with the design of the quilt. This quilt has a little bit of everything. A Dresden plate, which I've been wanting to try since March when I received a Dresden ruler for my birthday. Some easy half-square triangles & four patches to easily breeze through (famous last words) and these REALLY cool intertwining lattice like blocks that we're going to learn how to do traditional piecing or paper piecing...I'm pretty sure I'll be going the paper piecing route since I'm not that fabulous of a piecer and I'd prefer not to have to take a million attempts (slight exaggeration) to end up with a block I'm pleased with.  

When I first learned about the Totally Groovy QAL I wasn't really going to join in since I'd just started the Sew Intertwined one, but then the hostess posted a coloring sheet to help in choosing colors. I am such a sucker for planning things. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE planning things (my follow through needs some work). Then there was a discount for the pattern and then a discount for Kona solids at FatQuarterShop and before I knew it I joined the group, ordered fabric and am now really excited to get started. I even spent half a Saturday coming up with a slightly different way of piecing it to eliminate a lot of the seams. See? Planning. It's a sickness really.