Winter Moon

Winter Moon

I have finished any Christmas sewing that I was going to do and have moved onto "regular" sewing. I have a swap I am in with the Modern Quilt Guild that is due the end of next month. If you have never done a swap you should consider one. They are a bit like a challenge in that there are rules, deadlines and you get a surprise quilt in the mail at the end of the swap. Don't worry about getting skunked. They have swap angels that make quilts for those that did not receive one but participated. You never want to do that though because your name goes on a list and you will not be allowed to be in any more swaps! As much as that may sound over the top, I have been in swaps and never received the blocks, or fabrics I was promised though they received mine,

The tree blocks were a smaller version of my free pieced tree tutorial that has had many hits! I put them on my design wall and it looked pretty boring. The drunkard's path blocks happened to be on the wall too. A happy accident? I think not! I think it was meant to be!!!!
As you can see I randomly put these blocks together without making them be side by side. Next I put in the drunkard's path blocks. This is where a design wall can be invaluable!
The trees were going to be a part of my swap but now I am totally changing my idea and it no longer fits the criteria.

Next I filled in the holes with some of the same solids in the blocks. I love working this way, it is exciting to see what happens. It is much easier than it looks you just need to give it a try. Usually I cut these fill in pieces larger than needed and trim as necessary.

Next comes the quilting which I knew I wanted it to be simple and more modern. I used Auriful 2061 to quilt it which worked with all the colors pretty well.

I use my applique trick which is to pull some thread from the spool and lay it across the quilt. Depending on what you are looking for it will give you a good idea what it will look like when it is quilted. I wanted it to be more blending on all the colors and not stand out too much.
I lengthened the stitch to a 3 on my Bernina. The lines are random yet straight a look that I think works with this quilt.

Do you have this tool in your sewing room? It's a carpenter's square that works great to square up your quilts. It works on large and small quilts. You can even run your rotary cutter along the edge because it is made of some kind of metal, maybe aluminum? I bought it for $6.90! My husband actually suggested this when we were at the tool store.

So there you go. It is not bound yet but I think I will be using the facing method because I like the clean look.

To give you an idea of size I made the drunkard's path blocks ( I really don't like that name) using the mini quick curve ruler. They came out perfect and are cute.

So if you have time, go find all those old blocks you don't know what to do with and sew them together!

Kelly