August 2016 Book of the Month

Well, I still haven't made a firm decision on what I want to do with the Book of the Month feature. For August, I'm going to continue featuring the book Black and White, Bright and Bold. (affiliate link)

I'm in need of some baby boy quilts, so I'll look to see what fabric I have that will fit another quilt from this book. Still need to quilt the first one, 

Licorice Medley.

Such a great pattern to use up 2 1/2" squares!

And the scrap Christmas quilt is almost a top. Hoping to get the last two seams sewn today. Hubby and I worked like crazy this weekend, painting the living room, including the ceiling. Now it's left to me to finish the hallway over the next couple days. All of this house stuff doesn't leave much time for quilting!

Trust me, I'm jealous if you get to quilt all day. Enjoy it!

Blended Quilting

Last week, while quilting the Holiday Forest runner, I was very conscious of making the background quilting blend in with the trees. And by that I mean making the background quilting in the small areas relate to each other, creating unity between all the small spaces.

Notice the landscape lines in between the trunks. See how they hit the trunks, follow the trunk for a small distance, and come back out again?

This is what I mean by 'blending'. It creates unified quilting between all parts instead of a bunch of separately quilted areas. It also makes the background quilting stay in the background, as the lines in the picture below appear to go behind the tree.

The drawn example below is what not to do. It creates a quilted area that doesn't relate to the other piecing - it just bounces back and forth. The background doesn't flow from one area to the next.

The correct way to quilt around pieced shapes is to have the quilting bump into the object, then stitch following the seam line, then resume quilting in the background. Yes, that means stitch-in-the-ditch.

The quilting moves to the element, stitches along side it, then moves away from the pieced element, ultimately creating a joining of all the elements.

Here's a closeup around one of the snowballs. 

The outline stitching around it blends in with the background stitching.

This concept applies to any background fill, not just the lines I've shown you. All it takes is a bit of planning, and the willingness to stitch-in-the-ditch. But the results are worth it!

Happy Quilting!

Christmas in July Wrap Up

Yesterday was the last day of the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop, sponsored by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Many thanks to Sarah for organizing this hop, keeping everyone updated, and creating a Christmas quilt-along too! I had so much fun seeing all of the great projects that I'd love to do it again next year! How about it Sarah?

So in the excitement for my day, Day 12, I totally forgot to feature the two wonderful bloggers from the day before. Carolyn at ...by CJ gave this tutorial for a really neat tree wall hanging,

                                  

while Tisha at Quilty Therapy showed how to make this adorable wreath.

                          

And of course, here's the three featured bloggers from Day 12. Let's start with Beth at Cooking Up Quilts with this lovely table topper, Double Diamonds, 

                          

and Linda at One Quilting Circle with this aptly named flying geese runner, Recalculating.

                                               

And lastly, my Holiday Forest runner and mats.

Thanks again for joining me on this Christmas blog hop, and have a wonderful time creating your own Christmas goodies!