FINALLY, FINALLY we are here today with a finish.  It took a bit of digging on the blog, but I found out that I started this project mid-June 2013, you can see that first post HERE. Four years and nine months to be exact.  That is a long time to work on a project, but I'm happy to report it is finished and on my bed!

A brief history - This quilt is from the book, Tula Pink's City Sampler, 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.  It was started in 2013 as part of a Sew Sweetness quilt along, if I remember correctly, I finished all the blocks in time to link up at the end of the quilt along.  I used Lizzy House's fabric line Constellations and matching solids to construct the blocks.   I believe the blocks sat for quite some time while I decided on layout and ordered fabric.  I chose one of the finishes from the book and the two gray solids are Hawthorne Threads solids line, Hawthorne Hues.  I constructed the quilt top and ordered backing (a Riley Blake wide back) as I didn't want to have to piece it.  My mom helped me baste this monster on my kitchen floor and then the quilt sat for quite some time.  In 2016 Gnome Angel hosted an Instagram event, #100days100blocks and instead of making the blocks I decided to quilt the blocks in the same manner in which they were quilted in the book in the 100 day time frame.  I met that deadline and quilted each of the individual blocks.  Then the quilt sat again until the beginning of this year when I decided it was time to get this monster finished (and my husband said he was tired of seeing it folded and full of safety pins.)

The quilting story - All 100 blocks were quilted using free motion quilting and based on how they were quilted in the book.  The blocks in the book were quilted by Angela Walters and I thought it would be a great learning experience to duplicate how she had quilted each block.  Boy was it a great learning experience and I highly recommend it!  By the time I had finished quilting all 100 blocks I really felt that I had a great grasp on free motion quilting.  This was the easy part, the hard part was deciding on how I was going to quilt the stripes or background and why the project sat for so long. I was so hung up on the idea that it had to be free motion quilted and I kept circling around some kind of "star or celestial" theme.  In the end I just couldn't figure out a way to make it work and I just picked up the quilt.  Fast forward to January of this year, Debbie at A Quilter's Table was working on a table runner for her mom and talked about the book Walk by Jacquie Gering, which I already owned but had yet to read.  I started reading the book and it just hit me!  Why not straight line quilt it using the techniques/designs from this book?  I was overthinking it as usual.  I pulled out the quilt and using the blocks and stripes as a connect the dots of sorts was able to use the Point-To-Point Lines technique in the book and created this really cool diamond pattern seen below.

I started with the dark stripes and marked the centers between each block and the centers of each block that extend into the stripe.  Then using my hera marker I "connected" the dots creating large and small diamonds.  I quilted all the dark stripes in this manner.  When that was complete I went back and added in the smaller diamonds that are in the center, once again, marking centers and using my hera marker.  Once all the dark gray lines were complete (half of the quilt finished) I switched to the light stripes.  I had to mark considerably less since I was matching up to the dark stripes.  You can see this below where the diamond points meet from the dark to the light stripes.  I used matching 40 weight Aurifil 100% cotton thread and had no issues from the start.  No breaking, no tension issues, it worked perfectly.  The quilting took me roughly 3 weeks to finish, working a few lines every day until it was done.  I quilted it on my Juki 2010, using a size 14 stretch needle, and I wrestled the hell out of it as it is really heavy.

The binding is a Lizzy House asterisk print that I bought specifically to use for this and thank goodness I bought a yard as I used almost all of it.  I decided to machine stitch every bit of the binding as everything else on this quilt was done by machine, so why not.  I did try a new to me technique when binding this quilt and from now on I'll do nothing else as it worked so wonderfully.  I stitched the binding to the front as I normally would and then i took the time to iron the binding to the back and iron the mitered corners.  Then using Elmer's washable school glue, I ran a small bead underneath the binding and ironed it again (to dry the glue almost instantly) thus holding it exactly where I needed it and I used no pins or binding clips.  From the front of the quilt I stitched in the ditch right beside the binding and you can see below exactly how it turned out.  Using this method I didn't have any mess-ups or spots where the binding didn't get stitched, it worked perfectly! Ta-da!  I was finished.

I finished the quilt mid-March and on Easter Sunday with the help of my husband and brother-in-law was able to get photos.  The finished quilt measures 102" x 104" and they are both standing on ladders in order to hold it high enough to get the whole thing off the ground.  You have no idea how thrilled I was to get these photos and this quilt finished.  It really and truly made my Easter day.

This quilt has been on my Finish-A-Long list, on and off for years so I am delighted to say that in the first quarter of 2018 it is officially linked up and off of my list!  The quilt is now on my queen sized bed in our new master bedroom in the addition that we have been working on for the past year.  This quilt is really a king-sized quilt so it hangs generously off the sides and gives us plenty to cover our pillows which is fantastic.

I had to include this outtake of my husband cutting up after we finished taking photos.  It really is like pulling teeth to get help for 5 minutes to take these photos, but he was a big help and without him I wouldn't have been able to get it done.

I'm linking this finish up with the 2018 Finish-A-Long, even though I'm not eligible for prizes since I'm a host, but that is ok as the ultimate prize is this finish!  My Q1 list can be found HERE.

Though the link-up is closing in a few hours, you do still have time to link-up so go and do it, you can find the Q1 Finishes link-up HERE.  If you didn't join us for Q1, feel free to join Q2, anyone with sewing/quilting/stitching/yarn work projects are welcome to join us and we would love to have you!

Finally, I have my triangle quilt photographed and ready to show off!  I finished this one over a month ago, but couldn't bribe anyone to help me take the pictures and finally my husband agreed.  You would think I was asking for a kidney.  Good grief.  This quilt was started as part of The Triangle Quilt along hosted by The Sassy Quilter.  i joined in around mid-March, and followed along pretty well, except when it came time for the final link up.  I didn't have my binding finished, I missed the deadline by one day.  Thankfully, Paula held a special late-finishers link up, and that is what I will be linking up to today.

This quilt was made with the fabric line, Indian Summer by Sarah Watson for Art Gallery fabrics.  I love this line, it is just "so me!"  I added in various solids and the peach that I used for the "background" was one of the cross-hatching prints from Carolyn Friedlander's Architextures line of fabrics.  I designed a very distinct pattern for my triangles, the smaller measuring around 5" and the large triangles measuring around 10".  You can read more about the process HERE.  The finished quilt measures 40" x 48" a wall hanging that I will hang in my living room.

I decided early on that I wanted to straight line quilt this one, but I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted the lines to go.  In the end I decided on a "large arrow" quilt pattern and then radiating the lines from there.  I used my Juki TL-2010 with the walking foot and a 40 weight white Aurifil (and a 100% cotton Pellon batting.)  The lines are quilted in a pattern, 2 at 3/4" apart, then a 1/2" space.  The 1/2" space falls in the center of the "arrow" triangles.  I am happy with the simple quilting, it highlights the triangles but doesn't distract.

I decided to do a matched angled binding per the tutorial found at A Quilter's Table, HERE.  Even though this technique really isn't hard (and creates a fantastic look) I struggled so much with this technique.  I swear I worked on the binding longer than I did the whole quilt process.  In the end I had messed up so much, I only had enough fabric to match the top and bottoms, and just bound the sides with the Architextures print.  I did carry around the matched binding on the bottom corners, which you can see above, and I am really happy that I did, I love that little detail.

Once again, I used my trusty Heather Ross Crafty Chloe from Hancock Fabrics print as the backing.  I love that print and wished I had bought more, as now I'm running low.  I also am thrilled with quilts that can use a single cut of fabric for the backing, so simple and makes the whole process so much easier.

This quilt is so soft and has such a nice hand to it, thanks to the Art Gallery prints.  Honestly my kids have been playing with it for the last month, so it might be time to wash it before I hang it up, which I am really eager to do, being that the "Indian Summer" is almost upon us!  Thanks to Paula for hosting such a fun quilt along!

A month and a half ago, I had the pleasure to share my Lotus quilt over at Sew Sweetness as part of the Jaybird Quilts Sew Along, it was such a fun quilt to make and after it was finished I was just itching to make another one of Julie's patterns.  They really are great y'all.  Well I quickly figured out the next pattern I wanted to make after seeing Debbie's version of Northern Lights.  Oh so pretty!  So I ordered the Northern Lights pattern (I already had the Hex N More ruler) and I ordered this gorgeous fabric (Shimmer) by Jennifer Sampou.  I quickly got to work!

I decided to make the Baby sized quilt, I ordered seven different fabrics, so I only had to figure out which one to eliminate.  Well as you can see, in the end I was unable to eliminate one and instead decided to use them all!  So in order to use them all, I added another row to the width, and two extra rows to the length.  Thus my quilt ended up being right in between the Baby size and Lap size, measuring 44" x 56."  The great thing about this pattern is how easy it is to customize to get just the right size. 

I intend for this quilt to be a wall hanging in my house and honestly this is probably the most elegant thing I have ever sewn.  Very subdued for me, usually I am all bright and crazy, so this is really a step out of my comfort zone.  Now you can't really tell in these photos, but the fabric is named "Shimmer" for a reason, it has just a slight touch of metallic accents or shimmer to them.  They are gorgeous!  Really stunning. and I hate the fact that you just can't appreciate it unless you see these in person.  The print in the very center, the lightest one, is my absolute favorite, in a way it reminds me of a snake skin, but it is just so darn perfect!  I chose to arrange the fabrics from dark to light back to dark and also to separate the two different colorways.  I was hoping for a smooth transition, and I am really pleased with the result.

This quilt top was cut out and sewn in about a day, which is also one of the things I love about Jaybird Quilts patterns, so fast and it packs such a visual punch.  I had hoped to have it quilted by now (I already have my thread) but am struggling to find the perfect backing and honestly don't want to just settle to have it finished.  So that being said, I took it outside this morning for a quick photo shoot and for now we will have to enjoy it as just a quilt top.  I plan to matchstick quilt this one via She Can Quilt inspiration, but not all over, rather in a very deliberate pattern, I think it will be awesome, or at least I hope it will be!  It looks great in my head!

I am linking up this quilt with the Jaybird Quilts Sew Along.  It was really fun to be part of the Blog Hop, and then turn around, sew another quilt and be able to link it up!  If you get a chance, head over to the link up and check out the other entries, there are some fabulous projects over there!  Thank you to both Sara at Sew Sweetness for holding such a fun Sew Along and for Julie at Jaybird Quilts for designing such awesome patterns and rulers!

Welcome to Marci Girl Designs!  If you are here for the first time from Blogger's Quilt Festival, I would love for you to have a look around.  I am a stay at home mom to two precious boys and I fill all my free time with all forms of sewing, and in the last few years, mostly quilting.  I'm pretty obsessed, but anyways, enough about me, let's talk about this quilt!

This is my Cosmic Burst quilt that was part of two sew alongs that took place a few years ago.  It started with the Cosmic Burst Quilt Along hosted by Distant Pickles and then I chose to use "my precious" fabrics and incorporated the My Precious Quilt Along hosted by Kelby Sews.  Way back in the day when this quilt was started, I worked pretty diligently on it and had the quilt top finished in a semi-timely manner (good for me anyway.)  In typical fashion, once the quilt top was finished, it sat for a long time, probably a year.  Well at the beginning of last year (think last March) I finally basted, quilted and bound it.  I even took pictures back then, but NEVER blogged about it.  I have no idea why I never blogged about it, I ADORE this quilt, it is currently hanging in my living room and I love it, I guess I just never sat down to share this beauty.  Well today is the day and I decided to share it today by participating in the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

I said before that this quilt started with the Cosmic Burst Quilt Along, so the pattern was chosen from the very beginning, I knew what the overall quilt design was based on this awesome pattern that Julie designed.  I still love it today as much as I did when I started this project.  Such a pretty design.  I then had to choose what fabrics I wanted to use to compliment the pattern.  Well I knew I wanted something pretty special, so i chose to cut up my hoarded, precious Heather Ross, Macaroni Love Story that was printed exclusively for Spoonflower.  I created 3 digital mock-ups of fabric placement (I didn't want to mess this thing up) and after debating for a while, chose the one I liked best.  In the end I added in Patty Young, Lush, Running Stitch (the pink and orange dotted stripes) and then framed the whole thing with a background fabric of Alexander Henry Heath (the gray crosshatch,) still one of my all time favorites.

I had to do quite a bit of figuring to get all of the directional prints to fall perfectly, especially those blue and yellow sail boats, that was a mental challenge!  But once the cutting was done, the sewing was fast and before I knew it I had a finished quilt top.  And there it sat forever.  Well in the meantime Heather Ross designed fabric for Hancock Fabric stores, one of the prints was a matching clothespin doll print in gray (which worked out PERFECTLY) and I was able to buy enough yardage for the back of this precious quilt that featured all of these much loved and hoarded fabrics.  So I basted it, and then had to decide on quilting.

I pretty much knew that I would straight line quilt this one, and I wanted to feature the radiance of that center star from which the whole quilt pattern was based.  I started quilting on the diagonal in 1/2" lines from corner to corner and then the opposite direction, this creating the wonderful grid right in the dead center of this quilt, seen below.  I just loved how that turned out.  Oh and I used a nice matching gray quilting thread, to hopefully blend in, but yet be seen just the right amount.

Once the center sections were quilted, I just echoed the quilting in diagonal "triangles" in the top, bottom and sides.  I chose to do this stitching 3/4" apart, hoping it would make the center section stand out, and I think it did exactly what I was intending!  Once the quilting was complete I decided to bind it in the same Alexander Henry Heath, so that the binding would just blend into the background.  The finished quilt measures 40" x 40", I used a cotton batting (don't remember the details) and it is a perfect wall hanging.

I am so happy to have shared this finished quilt today and thanks so much for reading along!  I also wanted to mention that I am fairly new to Instagram, and I would love it if you would follow along with my daily antics, you can find my Instagram account here, marci_girl.

We have reached the point where we sew all the rows together and trim it up.  So here I am with a finished quilt top!  It measures 41" x 48" and will be a wall hanging in my house.  I plan to do some simple straight line quilting, and I just ordered some more basting pins (I ran out and actually they were delivered yesterday) so I plan to baste it up soon and get to quilting. The fabrics in this quilt are Indian Summer by Sarah Watson, the peach is Carolyn Friedlander's Architextures and some solids, both Art Gallery and Kona.

I included the photo below because of the little guy in red all the way to the right.  He cracks me up back there, down the trail.  Anyways, quite a few have linked up their finished quilt tops, so hop on over and have a look at the diverse selection of quilts, because I promise, they are all really different!

I'm actually keeping up with my Triangle Quilt as part of the Triangle Quilt Along hosted by The Sassy Quilter.  Cutting was last week, (and designing my quilt) and this week is sewing together the rows!  Excuse my back hallway photos, but I don't have a design wall, so I layout everything on the floor and hope my kids don't stomp all over it too much.  Since I designed a non-traditional triangle layout, I really had to lay things out to get it all figured out properly, so I started with my triangle "arrows" I will call them.  Then filled in the outside border, which is the light peach fabric from the line Architextures by Carolyn Friedlander.  I can't really sew in direct lines for this quilt plan, so if you look above you can see how this thing was constructed.  The first row is sewed completely straight across (the only one I can actually do this for.)  Then starting with the second row, I sewed together 3 triangles (the middle of the arrow)  Then with the third row, I sewed together five of the triangles (the bottom of the arrow plus the top of the next arrow.)  I sewed like this all the way down the quilt until the last row, three times for a total of 15 arrows.

Now that my arrows are sewn in short rows, I laid them out and added in the large 10" triangles and played with the layout for a while until I had them exactly how I wanted.  I then pieced the arrows into almost complete arrows, by sewing the row of 3 triangles to the row of 5 triangles directly below it, sewing 2 rows together, making them the right size to sew onto the 10" triangles. The photo above is everything just laying on the floor, the top row, semi-complete arrows, edges and 10" triangles.

The last step for this week was to sew the semi-complete arrows to the large 10" triangles.  Once that was done, I now have the top row, which is a single row of triangles measuring roughly 5" and then five rows (2 - 5" rows sewn together) that measure roughly 10."  So in total I have 6 rows that are ready to sew together, thus giving me a completed quilt top next week!

On a completely different side note, this week is Kids Clothes Week, I haven't participated in quite a while, thus my kids have very little handmade clothes.  Insert sad face here.  So I wanted to give this a go this week and sew for one hour a day all this week, hoping to make at least a pair of pajamas for my oldest, be it that he is at the age that cute boys pajamas are nearly impossible to find.  I have the fabric washed, pattern picked out and plan to use my hour today to get it cut out.  Wish me luck, I'll need it this week!

Week two of the Triangle Quilt Along hosted by The Sassy Quilter.  I've said it before, but apparently I can not follow directions.  I'm changing up the design (big surprise!)  Be it that I am using fat eighths, the tutorial called for 6" triangles, I had to reduce that to 5" triangles in order to cut enough from my fabric, so my quilt will be a tad bit smaller.  No big deal.  Then I decided on a very distinct plan of how I will layout these said triangles, thus I have the larger 10" ones as well that will be worked into the design.  Wish me luck!  I'm flying by the seat of my pants here!

This is the project I have been working on this week, so I'm also linking up to Sewjo Saturday hosted byMy Go-Go Life!

I decided to jump into a quilt along today!  Yep, just dove right on in there!  It is the triangle quilt along hosted by The Sassy Quilter.  You see if you really think about the majority of quilts that I have made and actually finished, at least three of them have been triangle quilts.  I kinda love making them, actually I think it is my favorite type of quilt to make!  This one will be a 60 degree (equilateral) triangle quilt made using the fabric line Indian Summer by Sarah Watson.  I am going to add in some solids to break up the prints (probably) but am not certain yet.  I guess once I dig through my solids, then I will decide if anything I have matches or not!

The quilt along has just started, week one in fact, so if you want to dive in too, go ahead, all you need to do the first week is pick out your fabrics and officially sign up!  Click on the button below to get all of the details!

Happy Monday!  I thought I would pop in quickly to share a few things going on in my world.

My husband took the kids to my Sister-in-law's house this weekend, thus freeing me up for a few hours.  My mom was also visiting and helped me to tackle basting my KING SIZED City Sampler quilt.  Yeah, I was majorly dreading this project, as it measures a whopping 104" x 104" but with the help of my mom, it really wasn't so bad.  Actually it went really smoothly and her help was very much appreciated!  I am estimating that over 500 safety pins went into this one, roughly every 6" or so.  Whew, so glad to have that task over with and very excited to start quilting this one!

I received some super exciting news on Saturday, that I was chosen as the Second Place winner in the Mosaic Tiles Quilt Along hosted by Craft Buds!  I couldn't be more thrilled and excited, I'm still so pumped up!  I wanted to thank Craft Buds, all of the awesome judges and lastly all of the amazing sponsors of the quilt along.  Hop over to Craft Buds and show all of the other participants some love, because there was some amazing entries in this contest, they all deserve praise.

Lastly, after doing some figuring and traveling confusion from my husband (don't ask.)  Austin, Texas is only a 6 hour drive from my house, making QuiltCon totally doable!  I actually plan to travel via Amtrak (kinda excited about that alone!)  So yes, I'll be there, QuiltCon 2015!  Hope to meet you there!

The Two in One Tote, two challenges, one tote!  It all started last year when I joined the Modern Quilt Guild as an individual member.  How exciting to be able to have that opportunity, I was and am thrilled.  The first thing that I loved about being a member was that now I could participate in the fabric challenges that I had seen so many groups participating in.  So here is the very first, The Riley Blake Challenge.  The guild sent all those who signed up 6 fat eighths of Riley Blake fabric and we could make whatever we wanted, just so long as it was quilted.  We could add any solids, or any Riley Blake fabrics.

Right from the start I new I wanted to make a beach bag.  We need a new one desperately.  The old one was skin chaffing and just all around terrible.  Even though I knew I wanted to make a tote, I really had no idea on what to do with the fabric, or how far the fat eighths would really go on a large tote.  So there the fabric sat for quite some time, and then the Guild extended the competition and therefore my fabric sat even longer.  At the beginning of the year, while blog surfing I came across a blog post from Craft Buds announcing theMosaic Tiles Quilt Along.  Oh, now there is an idea.  So I ordered the book, Modern Bee by Lindsay Conner, and once it arrived, a plan was formed.

The Mosaic Tiles block is a 11.5" x 11.5" block, and I roughly figured that if I made four blocks, that would be right around the right size for my tote (or one side of it at least.)  The Riley Blake Challenge included the dark gray solid, so I added in two coordinating shades of gray and set to making the blocks.  I purposely arranged the layout, the grays in diagonal lines, and then the prints just random.  Once I had the four blocks completed and sewn together, I attached the panel to fusible fleece and quilted with a medium gray 1/4" away from the seams with my walking foot.

I loved it, the only problem was that I didn't have enough fabric, solid or print to have a matching second side.  So now what?  I started with taking the prints that I had left and cutting out 18 - 4.5" x 4.5" squares, leaving only a 3" x 9" piece of fabric left.  I randomly sewed these together, creating a small panel the same width as the front, but quite a bit shy of being tall enough.  I pondered for a while and thought of my intended purpose of the bag, a beach bag and decided to try a modern applique beach wave.  Any why not add in a little ombre too?  I dug through my stash found 3 coordinating blues, and drew up a wave template.  I didn't want to use raw edge applique, so I put two layers of the dark blue together, traced my template and sewed on the line in a short 1.5 stitch.  I then cut with my pinking shears close to the seam, cut a few notches, then turned the fabric.  After fidgeting with it a bit, I then Ironed the HECK out of it and created a smooth-ish wave that contained no raw edges on the exterior.  I then machine stitched this wave on top of the patchwork panel about 1/8" away from the edge.  Now that the hard part was done, I added the two blue solids and now I had a second finished panel.  I also fused this side to fusible fleece and then was faced with how to quilt it.

I knew that I didn't want to repeat the straight line quilting, and wanted a totally different look for this side.  I decided that the patchwork colorful part reminded me of the umbrellas and people on the beach, so I free motion quilted the circle "umbrellas" on the "beach."  Then I knew I had to echo the waves onto the beach a bit and of course in the water.  I used my walking foot to quilt the waves, which I guess? was the most accurate way to do it?  Maybe if I was super skilled I could have free motion quilted it, but I don't that at this point my skills are quite that good.  The only problem I ran into during this whole process was when I had to free motion quilt the circles.  The first and second round went fine, but when I made the third and fourth loop of stitching the fabric really pulled in and distorted, creating a "bubble" of sorts in the center of the circle.  I know that the problem was probably caused because I didn't have enough layers and was only quilting through cotton and fleece.  I ironed the HECK out of that section, but in the end, it definitely has texture.

Now that my quilting was complete, I found a matching gray solid for the lining, and started to assemble the bag.  I stitched the sides and bottom.  Created a gusset, and was overall pleased with the size and shape.  it really was just right.  Just big enough to hold several beach towels, a few toys and such, but not too big.  When it came time to sew the lining and the bag together, at the last moment I decided to add piping to the top edge, just to add a little extra touch.  I am really glad that I did, it really separates the exterior from the interior.  This bag is pretty floppy, does not stand on its own, but that is exactly what I wanted, because when it is time to travel and store it, I can just roll it up and tuck it out of the way!

The plan all along was to have rope handles, I mean you can't have a beach bag without rope handles, right?  So once the bag was all sewn, I installed 4 silver grommets that had a 1/2" hole opening.  Now I just needed to go to the local hardware store for some rope.  I ended up buying a 3/8" natural sisal.  It slipped perfectly through the grommets, I tied knots on each end and it was just the right size.  Now I complained earlier about my old beach bag chaffing our skin, so of course I couldn't have the rope raw against our bare shoulders.  I looked at the scraps I had left, took the 3" x 9" pieces, cut it down to 2.5" x 9" and created lined tubes that slipped onto the rope, nice and slim little handle covers.  My bag was now complete!  It measures 20.5" wide, 18" tall and an 8" gusset, and a 12" handle drop.  It is LARGE!

I really enjoyed the process, the finished tote and being able to participate in two challenges, simultaneously.  Thank you Riley Blake for providing the fabric, and for the Modern Quilt Guild to host this challenge.  Also, thank you toCraft Buds for hosting the Mosaic Tiles Quilt Along, because honestly, that side of the tote is my favorite, and in my opinion the most modern!

I almost forgot, but this is also my first finish in the first quarter of the 2014 Finish Along hosted by Katy at The Littlest Thistle!