Cascade Quilt and Pattern Give Away!

Not too long ago one of the quilters I follow on Instagram asked for pattern testers for a new quilt pattern she had made.  This is the beautiful and talented Susannah Kate and the quilt is The Cascade Quilt.  

I volunteered to be a pattern tester with the intention of getting a quilt finished for a nursery.  I had made all the other items (here) and the baby is now 5 months old, and I think he has waited long enough for his quilt.  The rest of the nursery was done with the Sarah Watts line Timber and Leaf.  I had plenty of fabric to make a good size quilt.

I will be the first to admit that I am not that good at following a pattern.  I get lost, I skip steps, I don't read - just look at the photos.  Well, guess what?  Susannah made a pattern just for me!  This one was laid out perfectly.  I very easily followed and stuck to the directions.  Thanks, Susannah!

This is a fat quarter friendly pattern.  First thing she tells you is to cut your pieces and put them into baggies labeled with numbers 1 - 10.  Done.  

I did have some quarter yard cut pieces vs fat quarters that I used in this pattern, and they worked just as well.  

After getting everything up on the design wall, and Susannah has each row measured out for you in her diagram (she's done all the math y'all!) I decided on some minor changes.  One, there were animals in some of the prints and I wanted them all right side up if possible.  I didn't have enough of one of the fabrics to do this, but several of the others I did, so I made a few extra cuts to get my animals going in the right direction. 

Two, before sewing my rows together, (and I just pulled pieces down from the design wall and started going), I moved a few of my fabrics around to get a better balance of colors.  I felt there were several of the darker shades bunched together, and I switched two of the fabrics around.  Right now, I can't even tell you which two they were, so it must have worked!  And lastly, I traded out one of the solids I had included for another print in the Timber and Leaf line, I felt the solid was too close to the background color and was lost.  So you can make these minor changes before you start sewing because everything is laid out for you in the diagram. 

 Trying to get a good photo on a very windy day was not working out.

Had to use two holders

I took a few more on a much less windy day - as this is still just a top in the line to be quilted.  

I used Kona Natural for the background color.  There is another Kona solid thrown into the mix and a Riley Blake print, which will also be used for the binding.  

Guess what?  You can enter to win a free pattern! Just leave a comment below, that's all you have to do!  (Make sure I can email you for your winnings if you do enter, please) I will be drawing the random winner at the end of the blog hop.

You can also visit Susannah Kate's Etsy shop if you would like to purchase the pattern.  

Please visit some of the the other pattern testers on the blog hop listed below to see their version of the Cascade quilt:

Cascade  Quilt  Blog  Hop  Schedule  

Oct  26  ␣  Trina  @  www.trinapeterson.com  

Oct  27  ␣  Alex  @  www.sewcutebyalex.blogspot.com  

Oct  28  ␣  Diane  @  www.randomthoughtsdoordi.com  

Oct  29  ␣  Jenny  Mae  @  www.ohjennymae.com  

Oct  30  ␣  Courtney  @  www.monpetitlyons.blogspot.com  

Oct  31  ␣  Heather  @  www.quiltsinthequeue.com  

Nov  1  ␣  Mary  @  www.fairlymerry.blogspot.com  

Nov  2  -­‐  Summer  @  www.artfulife.blogspot.com  

Nov  3  ␣  Susannah  Kate  @  www.susannahkate.com  

Also,  please  visit  Amber  @  www.olivegypsy.wordpress.com She  has written a  great post about the Cascade quilt  pattern  and  has such cute  pictures!  

We  are  all Instagrammers and  have a wonderful feed under the hashtag  #cascadequilt. You will find more  wonderful examples  of  the  Cascade quilt  including  a  beautiful  one made with all solids!  Include your own Cascade  quilt  We'd  all  love  to  see  it!     

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Bee Quilt Entry

I'm entering a quilt in the Blogger's Festival - Bee Quilts category.  Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side has set up different categories to enter and has great prizes from sponsors.  Go check out all the quilts!  And everyone has a chance to vote from Nov 1-7

This was one of my favorite quilts to finish this year.  One it incorporated one of my favorite lines of fabric Joel Dewberry's Aviary 2, two the blocks were already done for me with a group of ladies from an older bee on Flickr, and three while putting together the top it occurred to me that I had a friend that this quilt would be perfect for.   

The block I had selected for the bee is from the book, Block Party, The Modern Quilting Bee.  

So these blocks sat for awhile, or for a year.  Maybe more. I played with the blocks some, trying to figure out how to incorporate the bird fabric. And then I would put them away, having to think on it some more.

And then one day there was some serious sewing mojo happened and I came up with a plan.

The mojo involved sewing and math and placement play but it came together

And then I had a very nice quilt for a very dear friend 

I love the way the Aviary fabric is highlighted in the borders - I had just enough.  I used a mixture of Kona solids and Kaffe Fassett shot cottons for the solids.  

Many thanks to the ladies in my bee that helped put together some of my blocks.  Thank you for stopping by to see the photos for my entry in the Blogger's Quilt Festival bee group.    I appreciate all your comments.  Be sure to visit the other fabulous quilts on Amy's Blog and place your vote in the different categories from Nov 1-7

Keep Calm and Quilt On!

Mary

An entry for Bloggers Quilt Festival

I promise I have been sewing some other things - but for now I am going to show a quilt from earlier this year.  

First here is a link to the wonderful Amy's Creative Side who has set up the Blogger's Quilt Festival with some amazing prizes.  I hope you will visit some of the other entries in each category and most important VOTE between Nov 1 -7 for your favorite in each category.  There are some amazing quilts!

My first entry is in the Baby Quilt Category.  I made this quilt for one of my cousins.  Well, for his baby.  

This quilt started with the making of a different quilt - one where I cut a whole butt load of squares in the wrong size.

 I put the squares aside, as I knew I had enough for some other project, but didn't know what it would be yet.  The correct set of squares went into a baby quilt for my grandson.  Later I decided the 'wrong' set would make another great baby quilt.

Colorful, simple, animals for talking about in the large squares, and flannel for the back.  

I love using flannel for the backs of baby quilts.  Makes them soft and cuddly  

I kept the quilting simple, a double grid pattern highlighting each block

My quilt zombie photo shoot

I like the pops of orange in this quilt, some of the fabrics are low volume, and the orange leads your eye around the quilt.  

This baby quilt was well received and a nice photo with note came back to me.  Always appreciated!

Thank you so much for visiting - it's nice to have comments if you feel like leaving one, and I will respond to each of you.  You can find me on Flickr and also on Instagram as Fairlymerry.  I post photos on both of those places as well as here.  

Keep Calm and Quilt On!

Mary

Superman for Liam

The baby quilt I started here I was able to finish and deliver to the Momma at the hospital.  My dear dear DEAR hubby kept asking me 'What's the rush?' Well, the baby is coming and then he was HERE and I wanted the quilt to be given to him right after he was born.  "Because you didn't know he was coming?"  I do love this man - I need him to remind me of my time management issues - daily.  

 This was where I left off in the last post - randomized HST in the teal, orange, and gray.

The first border

The second border - the camera doesn't like the orange too well

I decided to use Minky or Shannon Cuddle for the back, I'm not sure of the brand I had.  I had almost enough in a aqua color for the back.

Pinned

I quilted diagonally on each row and then I followed the vertical rows.  This was my first time quilting on Minky, and I didn't want any surprises with bunching up or thread breaking so I kept it simple.

I used King Tut quilting thread by Superior.  I have quite a bit of this on hand, before discovering Aurifil, King Tut was my go-to thread for quilting.  There are a lot of variegated colors in the King Tut line.  

Bound and ready for the wash.  I used a decorative machine stitch for the binding.

I did not have quite enough of the aqua Minky for the back.  I improvised with a left over piece from another project - stores just aren't open at midnight.  

After the wash, I had the Gran give the quilt his seal of approval, he says 'Yes'!

The quilt was delivered at the hospital as planned and I am sure will receive much love and cuddling in the next few months.  

On to the next!

Keep Calm and Quilt On!

Superman

Time for a baby quilt - as the momma will be induced, um, this evening.  

Teal, orange, grey and Superman.  Perfect for a boy, right?

Squares cut 4 1/2" ready to pair up for HST blocks.

120 HST blocks ready for trimming.

Trimmings

Trimmed

Sufficiently randomized 12 rows of 10

Let the assembly commence.

Linking up with the fabulous Shanna of Fiber of All Sorts for 

the Lovely Year of Finishes October

You all

Keep Calm and Quilt On!

Mary

Flipping Twisted

This one comes from my LIST of deadlines.

New group alert Crazy & Twisted Quilters - I love that name.  

The idea is to design a quilt in sections, make your section, and send everything to the next person in your group, and she adds a section to your quilt.  

Oh, it is quilt-as-you-go.  

Have I ever done QAYG before? No.

Do I know how to do QAYG? No.

Did I read everything before jumping into the group and realize I would have to do this on other people's quilts that I care how it turns out? No.

I love quilt groups!

Here are my colors (from a night time phone photo)

Lime, Blue, Grey and Kona White background.

I took my inspiration from a quilt and technique in the book Quilting Modern - Swirling Medallion using the Stitch and Flip Triangle technique.  First you need a lot of HST.  

Then you play around with the design.

I went with the first design, but the others were fun too, and I see more playing with this technique in my future.  This is my beginner section for the Crazy & Twisted group.  I have a design for the others to make sections and they will choose how to compliment this piece.  

And then I went to the QAYG part.  I looked at several on line posts about QAYG and also looked at many many many photos.  

I had thread breakage with the perfect thread color for the lime.   Eventually I had to abandon this color and go with something less perfect that wouldn't break every two minutes.

I used Quilters Dream cotton batting, and I am leaving the back off until I get all the sections back.  I will join the sections and quilt the back onto the sandwich.

My section is 29" square.  My quilting turned the top lumpy.  Something that normally wouldn't bother me, but this time it did.  I have to send this on to someone, it isn't a finished project that can go in the magical washing machine to shrink up and lumps and bumps no longer matter.  Other people will SEE this in it's unwashed lumpy state.  

I put up a photo on Instagram, and texted another member - who all reassured me the lumps didn't matter.  I was ready to unpick the quilting and start over, but now I'm not.  It will go on in it's lumpy state for better or worse.

I will practice my QAYG skills before subjecting other members quilts to my beginner technique.  

Linking up to Freshly Pieced

Keep Calm and Quilt On!

Mary