TGIFF! Winner & A Wee Sewing Machine

It's Friday again! They do come quick, thank the quilting gods. This week I wanted to share this mini sewing machine I finished up.

I joined my first Instagram swap last month, a swap focusing on the paper pieced patterns by Kristy at Quiet play. I have made quite a few Quiet play patterns and they are so great. I have even made this sewing machine before, only a bit bigger :)

My partner wanted a rainbow sewing machine with a dark grey background and a bit of shine.
I hit the stash and made a rainbow. Seems like this should be easy, but it takes me forever to figure it out.

Anywho, what about that shine? I found a great Robert Kaufman that was the perfect shade of grey and had a silver sparkle. And then when I started to quilt, that Aurifil has such a nice sheen it was perfect!

On the backside I carried through with a blue from the machine on front and added some triangle corners for hanging. I turned one corner inside out to have a place to write a wee message to my swap partner.

My partner is not expecting this gem until the end of October. Cannot wait to send it off.

AND now for what you've really been waiting for, the winner of this awesome improv book from last week's post.

THE WINNER IS...

Jennifer from Little Black Cat Quilting

Thanks to everyone who dropped in last week, it was so much fun reading your comments and improv vs. patterns and seeing all of your finishes. 

Now, what should I work on for next week? So many projects...
I'm linking up with TGIFF! this week, you should too!

You know I have to...Charlie just loves quilty photo shoots

Improv Like a Boss - TGIFF! & A GIVEAWAY

Welcome! So glad you could drop by for a little TGIFF! action... I have a special finish to share today (and...just maybe a prize...)


This year my Guild hosted their very first Executive Challenge. We picked three paint chips out of a brown paper bag and then we tried to make a quilt out of those colors. I'm here to tell you, I got lucky on my choices. Green, yellow, blue. No challenge there since they are my go to colors. I decided I needed to make this a wee bit more challenging and set some personal goals.

First, use only fabric and supplies from my stash. Success! I started with a Kona to match each color and then pulled some prints and low volumes.

Then I challenged myself to Improv. That's right people. I did not use a ruler for this entire project until it came time to bind. I know right. Take a deep breath. Its all over now and I did great!

If you are new to my bog here is a secret - I don't do improv. I worship the pattern. Oh sweet patterns. BUT I was determined. Armed with a sparkly new copy of  The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Wood I read every detail and then started cutting squares. With no Ruler!  I have to tell you I am in love with this book. If you are a pattern girl but want to branch out? Start here!

Even though my focus was imporv, I still wanted the star to be the colors, since that was the challenge. So I kept it simple with the color grading from blue to yellow. I joined squares to make small units, joined those units together, then again into bigger units (you get the point) until I ran out of fabric.

I did really random straight lines for the quilting. I admit I am not thrilled with the quilting on this. I was in a time crunch and quilted it on an older machine that just does not have the quilting chops of the Janome. So there is a lot of distortion going on. But, overall I am super happy with how this challenge turned out. I even hung it in my living room!

I revealed this quilt last week at the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild meeting along with 19 other members who made some amazing pieces.

I know some of you like a good backside, so here it is...

The guild is running an on-line viewers Choice Contest over on their blog. You can hop on over and see the other fabulous quilts! So much talent in our group. Have fun trying to pick just one to vote for!

So this was fun! Thanks for stopping by TGIFF! If you are new to Chezzetcook, please stay and take a look around. If you are a regular visitor...hey! Thanks for coming back :)

Now it's your turn!  Link up your finishes and link back to the TGIFF! party so your readers can find us and link up too! I can't wait to see what you've finished this week!

AND

If you have made it to the end of this post you deserve a chance to win your very own copy of  The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters.  Simply leave a comment and tell me if you are partial to improv or patterns. I'll announce the winner next Friday!

Finish on!
Adrienne

An InLinkz Link-up

Fun With Fishing

This weekend we loaded up the Webers and headed to our friend's 40th Birthday party. My hubby was in charge of cooking, you have never had BBQ chicken like his, and I was in charge of a gift.

A gift for a guy who loves the fishes.

At first my hubby, who has a hand for drawing, started to design a fly that I could then paper piece. But I have to tell you, I was not quite sure how to translate the design into something that when you looked at it it would look like... something. So I did the smart thing. A Google search. I found this pattern from Paper Panache .

The pattern was really great. But I have to confess that I did print it at 120% so that the small pieces were not quite that small... Did you notice that rolly thing? A wallpaper roller that is great for "pressing" as you paper piece. This is a new tool for me but I am loving it, as it means no iron heating things up.

A bunch of Konas, some amazing Leah Duncan print and bang! I got a fish!  I loved seeing this guy come together. Printing larger, I ended up with a 12" block and then added a linen border to fit it to a 20" pillow.

Of course I wavy line quilted this boy. It's a fish. He gets watery lines.

Tomorrow I am back to my day job after two weeks of vacation. I'm glad I got the time to make this fishy bit before I get back to my desk, that has a computer instead of a sewing machine. I think I need to find a way to sew every day. It just makes everything a little bit better.

Did you get time to sew this weekend? How often do you sew? Would love to hear your strategies.
Adrienne