Marcelle Medallion Cotton + Steel Quilt Top

In my desperate and most likely futile attempt to clean up and lean out my quilt room, I have been trying to finish up old projects. This of course is in lieu of starting new projects. And buying more fabric. Keep me in your prayers folks. 

So far, plan is going well. I busted out my Marcelle Medallion quilt. I started it a year or so ago and stopped with only the center block and the triangle border done:

I worked on this one every night during a week and was able to finish it up by the end of Sunday...with a bit of light left to spare to sneak in a few less-than-perfect pictures. It kept growing...

and growing...

Until it was all grown up - poor evening lighting photos...

This quilt may very well the be the beginning of a beautiful obsession with medallion quilts. 

Some Good Info
Pattern: Marcelle Medallion from Alexia Marcelle Abegg's Liberty Love book
Fabrics: Mostly Cotton and Steel prints with a large variety of low-volume prints from my stash

Footnote: Medallion quilts are not ideal for the indecisive Libra quilters like myself - too many options. I'm fairly certain I spent more time picking out and choosing fabrics than actual sewing and pressing time.

I Spelled it with Cotton & Steel.....or The Continuing Saga of the Quilting Rebel

First, I didn't Tone it Down, now I'm not spelling it with Moda. This quilting rebel thing is really sticking as of late.

The pattern is called Spell it with Moda - it is a pattern that was originally part of a blog hop leading up to Schoolhouse at Market a couple of years ago. You can find a free pattern of each letter on a variety of Moda designers blogs, but I just went ahead and bought the printed pattern from Fat Quarter Shop.

My 4-year-old daughter is learning the alphabet, so I figured now was as good as any time to make an ABC quilt. I busted out my bin of Cotton and Steel fabrics and went to town.

Above is a close-up of the quilting. This is a digital pattern called Retro Tile #2 from the talented Karlee Porter (check her out at www.karleeporter.com - she's amazing). This quilted out quickly and perfectly on my Handi Quilter Fusion Pro-Stitcher.

I know this isn't a big deal to most quilters, but this quilt is bound! I have a bit of binding backup going on - I have 17 quilts that have been quilted and are just awaiting binding sitting around my house. Even bigger confession - I just go ahead and use some of them without binding. I know, I know. Sad state of affairs. Luckily for me, my mom was in town and did the binding for me! Moms are the best. Of course, at the current rate, if left alone this might have been finished by the time my daughter hit college, let along Kindergarten.

I just love Cotton and Steel's selvages...don't you? I leave them in whenever I can - quilt tops and backings.

Here is the quilt in my daughter's room. I just finished painting her walls in the last couple of months - now on to decorating her walls.

My Not-So-Toned-Down Quilt

It seems I'm always at least a year late to every great party! This quilt pattern is called Tone It Down and is found in the February 2014 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting and was also featured as the 2014 APQalong. When the pattern/magazine came out, I was enamored with the Perfect Union quilt a few pages away (click here). The Tone It Down quilt seemed like a lot of work, so it just never hit my let's do it pile.

It wasn't until I got some bundles of Cotton and Steel's new lines and began contemplating what I would do with them when I decided to tackle this pattern. I just had to make this completely scrappy - which I absolutely love but boy was it a lot of work! I never wanted to strip more in my entire life.

Now contemplating quilting.

Delight, Big Girl Panties, Shape by Shape, Cotton and Steel, and Sweaty Palms.

As soon as I saw Jaybird's Delight pattern, I knew I had to do it. I ordered it immediately, and began contemplating fabric choices. Once I received my first Cotton and Steel bundles from Westwood Acres, I knew what I wanted to do.

Here's how it started:

Definitely got some sweaty palms and heart palpitations when making the first cuts into my newly acquired and highly coveted Mustang and Basics bundles. I waited what felt like forever for these babies find their way home to me.

Some in process pictures, including some "helpers":

This quilt pattern was literally a delight to put together - no pesky y-seams and Julie's pattern instructions were easy to follow and flawless. Eventually, I ended up with this top:

Then I had to wait...and wait...and WAIT for a LQS to get some Cotton and Steel yardage in. I really do try to support my LQS whenever possible, but this tested by patience and faith. Eventually, the Cotton and Steel bolts arrived, and I was able to get a backing piece.

Meanwhile, I performed my typical stalking-like behaviors and researched thoroughly how Angela Walters had quilted Jaybird's samples. I really liked how she quilted the sample quilts, but thought I'd engage Kathleen Riggins from kathleenquilts.com. Have you heard of this quilting genius? If not, stop wasting your time reading this and go check her out.

Every Friday she does this thing called Free Motion Fridays. If you send her a picture of a quilt top, she will step by step show you how she would go about quilting it. So not only do you get her excellent quilting ideas, but she also breaks it down for you step by step! Click here for her suggestions on my quilt top.

I put on my big girl panties and went for it! Here are some not-so-great pictures while it was on my longarm, which lives in the dreariest, darkest of all dungeons known as my basement.

You may notice that Kathleen suggested I quilt each of the non-main-star blocks in one similar pattern - which I will dub as the ribbon candy and lines block pattern. I thought instead I would use this opportunity to spread my wings and try out some new and different patterns.

So I busted out my signed copy of Angela Walters' Shape by Shape book and went for it. There are repeats, but I definitely challenged myself and tried lots of new designs - some with more success than others. Regardless! I'm proud of this baby. Here are more eye candy shots:

I think the back turned out pretty awesome and really shows off the totality of the quilting design best:

I'm thinking of doing the binding in the navy arrows....good contrast for the back with pops of all the fun colors.

Happy Quilting!

Cotton and Steel

Cotton and Steel made quite the splash at Spring 2014 Quilt Market in Pittsburgh this year. I couldn't be more excited for these fabulous five ladies - Melody Miller, Rashida Coleman-Hale, Alexia Abegg, Kim Kight, and Sarah Watts. Here's a link to their website (which I stalk daily waiting impatiently for project sheets and more photos to be added!) www.cottonandsteelfabrics.com

I am particularly in love with Melody Miller's Mustang line:

To be clear, my credit card was waiting for the minute I could pre-order this line....which I did through Amanda's Westwood Acres shop - www.westwoodacresfabric.com

I also couldn't resist ordering a couple of the Cotton + Steel Basics bundles - magical.

Expected shipping date for these bundles I believe to be in July...which suddenly seems like a lifetime away!