Blogger's Quilt Festival: Entry 1

Did you know about the Blogger's Quilt Festival!!? It's like a quilt show, but on the internet. There are many categories of quilts you can enter by creating a post on your blog about the quilt you are entering and linking up. I've decided to enter my Pixelated Heart Wall Hanging into the... yup you guessed it.... Wall Hanging Category. Many of you have already seen it (in fact, you might be tired of seeing it!), but here it is in one last post. I'll take you on a picture journey of how it was made!

Inspiration from Blue Elephant Stitches. My mom and I fell in love with it, and I set forth to making her one for Mother's Day, only I decided to make a wall hanging.

I created a sketch and figured out all my "quilter's" math!

Fabric was chosen... sorry for bad quality. Picture was taken at night, and shared via Instagram. Since it was for my mom, I chose a lot of purple and feminine prints. She loves purple!

Fabric was all cut out! 70 colored and 140 low volume neutrals all cut into 2" squares. Shared via Instagram.

Heart layout figured out.

Background layout figured out. Shown via Instagram.

Nine blocks sewn up.

Very last stitches being sewn into the top! I was so excited!

Top completed and backing and binding was chosen.

Basting my quilt sandwich with safety pins.

Grid created using washi tape, and hand quilting began! This really is my favorite part. I love hand quilting! I just quilted in random squares and embroidered what ever came to me.

Bound it using my fold over binding technique.

And completed! I was, and still am, quite proud of how nicely this turned out. I wish I would have gotten better pictures of it, but maybe I'll do that later.

Here it is all wrapped up in a ribbon I had, and tagged with a handmade card. I was crying when I gave it to her... yes, I'm emotional. I had kept it a secret from her for a while (I tell my mom EVERYTHING) and worked so hard on it, I just couldn't keep it in. She loves it and is displaying it in her classroom right now :D












I hope you enjoyed this photo journey on how my pixelated heart wall hanging was created for my mom. If you want to read more about it, click here. Now go write up about a quilt you finished this year and enter it in the Blogger's Quilt Festival! Leave me a comment with a link to your post so I can see your entry!

Finished Friday: Pixelated Heart

IT'S FINISHED!! and before Mother's Day, might I add. I'm so happy! I really enjoyed working on this little quilt. Well, I guess it's a wall hanging and not a quilt. Whatever! I'm considering making another one, but  a throw size. Here are the specifics:

Wall Hanging Size: 22 1/4 inch square
Patch Size - Finished: 1 1/2 inch square
Patch Size - Cut: 2 inch square
Quilted: Hand quilted random squares with random patterns
Work Schedule: Randomly for a month, but most work done in the last week and a half. (I'm a pressure worker!)
Fabrics: Random scraps for the heart, and low-volume and tone-on-tone prints for the background. These were mostly found at Joann's, but some were scraps.
Binding and Back: Fabric from Joann's. The back is my binding. I just used my quick fold over method, which will be featured for Tutorial Tuesday next week.

Some up close shots of the quilting I did. I'm a fan of big stitch and chaining. Actually, I just love hand quilting! It's my favorite part! I will post about my process next week sometime.

And last, but not least, a picture of my sketch... you can also see some butterflies I was playing around with.

Did you make anything special for your mom for Mother's Day?

Lovely Saturday... For Sewing

Sneak peak at the fabric I'm planning on using for my dad's quilt! He loves color and flowers.
More to come of that in a later post.

It is absolutely gorgeous outside today! I ended up at Joann's with my 15% off coupon and bought some fabric... Oops! One cut was for the back of my mom's pixilated mini/wall hanging, and the others for my stash (which I'll show you pics of in anther post). I also got some embroidery thread to start hand quilting my mom's gift for Mother's Day... the before mentioned mini. Here's a look at two different fabrics for the binding of it... which do you prefer?

My sister's favorite is this binding fabric.

or...

Please don't look at my toes!

What have you been up to this Saturday?

Pixelated Heart: Nine Blocks

Once upon a time, a nerdy girl came across a picture of a pixelated heart quilt on Flickr. She fell in love with it, and decided to take on the challenge of making one herself. She battled the Seams of Exactness and the Sea of Hand-Quilting to finally be at peace with her very own pixelated heart mini-quilt. Though she was nerdy, she was not selfish, for she made this quilt for her mother to cherish. And cherish it, her mother did for ever and ever.

Lame. I know, but it's cute, right!? The picture I saw was on Flickr was made by Jolene of Blue Elephant Stitches. Her's is just breathtaking! I was so inspired by it. I also showed my mom who loved it too. This whole time I've been making it, she thought it was for me. Hah! Little did she know it's all for her! Just in time for Mother's Day. She hasn't seen it, but I've talked to her about it. For example: Me- "I'm making that pixelated heart quilt we saw. Should I make it into a throw or like a wall hanging size?" Mom- "Definitely wall hanging size."  Sneaky, sneaky! I can't wait to finish and give it to her.

Jolene's gorgeous pixelated heart divided into 9 blocks.

While I pretty much just looked at the picture, counted squares, and drew it up, I also looked at Jolene's post about it. Boy, am I glad I did!! She mentioned dividing it into nine different blocks. If I hadn't read that, I would have been sewing row after row. Here are my nine blocks completed!

I haven't had time to completely finish it quite yet, but hopefully you see the direction I'm headed in. I plan on finishing the top and starting the quilting this week. Have to work on a project and study for a final that's tomorrow night, or I'd sew now! I have to say though, during these stressful school times, sewing certainly calms my nerves...

Any tops you're planning on finishing soon?