Simply create

Exciting times! My Instagram friend Katy is opening a fabric shop this month!! She's living the dream of all quilters and I couldn't be more happy for her. What's it called, you ask? Beetle and Fred. How clever is that?!

I wanted to make her something to mark the great occasion, and Quiet Play's Create pattern seemed perfect. Especially in an Alison Glass rainbow!

I knew right away I wanted to do rainbow quilting, but dithered a bit on how to do it. I didn't want to detract from the letters and thought my usual straight-line quilting might be a bit much with the crosshatch background. So I went wavy! I love how it turned out.

I can never resist a picture with pretty matching threads ...

And a just-finished quilting shot with a thread beard in all its glory ...

The quilting went pretty fast despite having to change the spool for each line. Thankfully it wasn't too big since I did it pretty densely. I hope soon I can visit the shop in person, and meet Katy for the first time in person! Maybe I'll spot this mini decorating the wall.

Little bit of everything weekend

What a glorious fall weekend! And I was pretty busy with a bunch of things. Saturday started with a quilt shop hop with my mom, who I have to thank/blame for getting me into this costly hobby of sewing. I picked up a few things along the way, but mostly I'm proud to say it was fabric for other people! No lie.

My sewjo was a bit off and it seemed I made one bonehead mistake after another. But I forged ahead and finished this pillow featuring 32 different Tula prints, which look lovely next to the Kona silver background.

I kept the quilting pretty simple, echoing the lines of the stars.

All that I needed to do this weekend was put on the envelope back and binding, but I managed to stuff those simple tasks up in a variety of ways. But in the end it turned out just lovely. I adore the cheery bunny fabric on the back.

I also finished paper piecing these letters. So little, so frustrating. I got through a 12-piece section, only to realize I forgot the third piece. Sigh. I don't imagine I will ever enjoy the process of paper piecing, but I keep doing it because the results are always cool. You can find the free pattern by Quiet Play here.

The weather was also quite sunny and mild, so I was able to enjoy a bike ride both Saturday and Sunday - and the fading glory of the fall colours along the way.

This wasn't from the weekend, but I'll throw it in here. I made this Magic 8 Ball block for my friend Amy, who requested it for her turn as queen bee. I'm not in her group, but I wanted to make one as part of a thank you package for the amazing quilt she sent me out of the blue. Gotta love those burly beavers!