My Wicked Quilt: Bona Lisa

I am participating in the Something Wicked blog hop and now it's time for my blog hop day.  

I've been seeing a lot of beautiful Halloween patterns lately, and since Joan and Carol have been so accommodating and kind in hosting this blog hop, I decided to use one of their patterns. They both have provided so many Halloween patterns that it is difficult to choose, but a lot of them are on another hard drive, so it was pretty easy to choose.

I chose the center panel of the block of the month, Bona Lisa. The pattern is by Joan Kawano and the pattern is called Bona Lisa's Sweater Emporium 2024 BOM.  This is the pattern for the center of the quilt, and the remaining blocks are supposed to surround the center panel, but I decided to keep it simple and make this one block. 

I had thought about adding a house in the background, to go with my last Halloween quilt, but my fabric wasn't wide enough.  

I put together the headstone first, securing the fusible applique with some stitches. I chose a different fabric for the yarn at first, but I kept seeing this scrap of fabric from the Tropical Fish quilt and it looks more like yarn to me, so I switched it out.

The green is the backing fabric and will be trimmed away before I bind it.

Then I put together the skeleton and decided to combine the stitching to secure the applique with the quilting. I didn't use the layout in the pattern and didn't overlap the bones nearly as much as the pattern does.  I used the rejected yarn fabric for the mouth, though I realize my Lisa is going to have peach lipstick all over her teeth!  

I thought about adding more blocks around this panel, but I decided to stop here.  I have so many quilts that I need to finish that I wanted to get this one finished, which means the panel is enough by itself.  

The size of it is perfect for a door banner, and if I put it on the coat closet which is right by the front door, I think it makes a nice welcome for the season.

I need to do some more quilting on it, to secure the background with dark thread, to add the teeth, but since it gets dark early, I decided I could finish it tomorrow instead of rushing to get it done. I like to enjoy the process, and I am really enjoying making this quilt.

I also thought about adding extras like a bat or pumpkins or spider, but for some reason, this quilt is really satisfying the way it is, and I don't feel the need to add anything else.  See, I can stop when I want. I'm not addicted to quilting.

I'll show you the finished quilt soon.  

Be sure to check out the other participants in the blog hop this week. I gave you the list in my last post.

Something Wicked Blog Hop Starts on Monday!

 The "Something Wicked" blog hop is starting next week! This time, I will be posting my quilt at a wickedly early hour on Monday. 

Be sure to join us for the wicked fun!

Look who will be creating their magic:

OCTOBER 21

Just Let Me Quilt - hostess

Just Sew Quilter

Sew Many Yarns

Patchouli Moon Studio

High Road Quilter - that's me!

OCTOBER 22

Quilt Schmilt

Selina Quilts

Quilted Snail

Karrin’s Crazy World

Scrapdash

OCTOBER 23

A Quiltery

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Beaquilter

Homespun Hannah's Blog

OCTOBER 24

MooseStashQuilting

Ms P Designs USA

Quilted Delights

Quilting Between the Rails

Elephant Parade Resumes

Last year, or at least it feels like it, in 2015, I made some Elephant Parade blocks. Then other quilts pushed to the front of the line. So when Joan and Carol announced that the theme for the August blog hop was It's a Jungle, I was eager to join so that I can make more progress on my Elephant Parade quilt. Hopefully if you squint and bend the rules,  you might be able to fit it into a jungle theme. 

It is a fun quilt and I really would like to turn this into a finished quilt.

 

Welcome to my Blog Hop post, and let me show you my Elephant Parade quilt. When last we left this quilt, in 2015 (yikes!) it was a bunch of stray blocks. I had made too many and asked my blog friends which one I should eliminate or put in the back, and they said I should fit them all in. 

 So I am leaving them all in the front of the quilt. They will just have to squeeze in somehow. The blocks are various sizes so I do have to add coping strips to make them fit properly in a quilt.

Because of all the other projects I am working on, mostly because I was trying to finish my June and July blog hop quilts, I got behind on this one too. The June quilt is finished if you want to scroll back. It's called Beach Picnic.

The July quilt is quilted and just needs to be bound. It's called Tropical Fish. I had to drop it so I could make progress on the Elephant Parade quilt. 

 

Because of my tardiness, my hope for this August quilt was that I could at least get one or two rows sewn together. I needed to do measuring and fudging to put them together and I didn't want to rush it and make frustrating mistakes. I am focusing on the height of the blocks and making sure they will fit into a row.  Later I will worry about the width. I will just add sashing to the outside to make them fit, though I may make a sashing/coping strip wider if I would prefer it that way when I get to that point.

 

I wound up getting into a good rhythm, and managed to complete three and a half rows.  I am happy with the progress, and am stopping only so I can get the blog post out. 

Hopefully like the June and July quilts I can keep working on them until I get them finished. As usual, since I am taking the photos at near midnight, the lighting is bad, which will make the reveal glamour shots look that much better.

Thank you for providing the motivation for me to make progress on this quilt, and be sure to check out the other participants in the blog hop. They are listed in my previous post.

Linked with:

Wednesday Wait Loss

It's a Jungle Blog Hop

It's time again for the monthly blog hop.

 

Here is the schedule of the participants for the August blog hop: 

You might notice that I am posting on Monday so come right back to see my post.

Monday August 19

MooseStashQuilting (our hostess)

Ms P Designs USA

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Quilting Between the Rails

High Road Quilter (that's me!)

Tuesday August 20

Patchouli Moon Studio

Karrins Crazy World

Quilting Gail

Quilted Delights 

Wednesday August 21

A Quiltery

Quilted Snail

Selina Quilts

Hazel’s Daughter

Thursday August 22

Just Let Me Quilt

Scrapdash

BeaQuilter

That Fabric Feeling

Something Smells Fishy Blog Hop

 Since my YouTube channel is called Quilt and Color, I decided to work on better branding and use the same name for my blog. Changing the name on the banner would work, but it would be better if the name of the blog is called Quilt and Color. So I started this channel. It is a continuation of my channel High Road Quilter. You can view my older posts there. While that name was fine, it requires explaining and really isn't relevant to my current situation.

I am going to start posting on that channel from now on.  Please be sure to bookmark it and add it to your blog reader.

This means that my blog hop post will be posted on this channel tomorrow. I've made a colorful tropical fish quilt for this blog challenge and it is a wildly exuberant quilt. I hope you will join me over here tomorrow.

Our next blog hop is hosted by Carol Swift from Just Let Me Quilt.

The July blog hop, "Something Smells Fishy", started Monday!

This challenge had me swimming through my stash for fish fabrics.

I had more aquatic fabric than I thought!

Here are the people who are participating. Be sure to see their fishy creations, and come back tomorrow to see my project!

JULY 22

Just Let Me Quilt

Karrin’s Crazy World

Scrapdash

Quilted Delights

JULY 23

Patchouli Moon Studio

Words & Stitches

Quilted Snail

Quilting Between The Rails

Sew Many Yarns

Hazel’s Daughter

 

JULY 24

A Quiltery

Beaquilter

Quilting Gail

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

That Fabric Feeling

 

JULY 25

MooseStashQuilting

Ms P Designs USA

Quilt and Color  (that's me!)

Selina Quilts

I hope to see you here in the new channel tomorrow!

Something Smells Fishy Blog Hop

Since my YouTube channel is called Quilt and Color, I decided to work on better branding and use the same name for my blog. Changing the name on the banner would work, but it would be better if the name of the blog is called Quilt and Color,

I am going to start posting on that channel from now on. This means that my blog hop post will be posted on that channel tomorrow. I hope you will join me over there tomorrow.

Our next blog hop is hosted by Carol Swift from Just Let Me Quilt.

The July blog hop, "Something Smells Fishy", started Monday!

This challenge had me swimming through my stash for fish fabrics.

I had more aquatic fabric than I thought!

Here are the people who are participating. Be sure to see their fishy creations, and come back tomorrow to see my project!

JULY 22

Just Let Me Quilt

Karrin’s Crazy World

Scrapdash

Quilted Delights

JULY 23

Patchouli Moon Studio

Words & Stitches

Quilted Snail

Quilting Between The Rails

Sew Many Yarns

Hazel’s Daughter

 

JULY 24

A Quiltery

Beaquilter

Quilting Gail

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

That Fabric Feeling

 

JULY 25

MooseStashQuilting

Ms P Designs USA

Quilt and Color  (that's me!)

Selina Quilts

I hope to see you in the new channel tomorrow!

Beach Picnic

 

I was in the mood for a nice summer quilt and when I was looking at inspiration for my bird quilt, I saw a quilt that had a little bird near water, so I decided to make a beach scene.

 

I pieced the background, added a strip for the waves. Then I added the birds and the picnic. 

 

 

I used my usual method of sandwiching first and then securing the applique with quilting stitches. 

 

 

I quilted some waves in the water.

As per my usual M.O. , I finished this quilt late at night so these photos are taken with artificial lighting.

And as usual, I did not quite finish the quilt. I still need to add the binding. I might add some other things too to finish up.

 

 

I will post better reveal photos when the quilt is actually finished.

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing the quilt. I enjoyed making it.

I posted the links to all of the other participants yesterday. Please visit them and comment to let us know what you stopped by.

For the Bird's Blog Hop

 It is time for the monthly blog hop. The theme for this blog hop is For the Birds. The project is simple, and just needs a bird on it. My day is tomorrow, so be sure to come back tomorrow to see my quilt.

June 17

MooseStashQuilting

Karrin’s Crazy World

Quilting Between the Rails (Facebook)

Selina Quilts

Quilt Doodle Designs 

June 18

Homespun Hannah's Blog

BeaQuilter

Words & Stitches

High Road Quilter (that's me)

Quilted Delights

The Quilted Snail

June 19

Patchouli Moon Studio

A Quiltery

Ms P Designs USA

Stitching Farm Girl

Scrapdash

June 20

Just Let Me Quilt

Isabella’s Whimsy (facebook)

Quilting Gail

Hazel's Daughter

Songbird Designs

Quilt Reveal: Transportation Postcard

 

When Carol announced that the theme for this month's blog hop is transportation, I was really excited because I have a trip around the world quilt that is waiting for applique. My plan is to add a train, a plane, a car, a covered wagon, and other applique around the border of the quilt. But I had to decide which direction all these motifs should go. 

This picture does no show the wide border.

Should I add them all up in the same direction so that it would look good in a wall hanging? 

Or maybe I should have all the wheels be close to the quilt top so it would look good on a table.

How about putting them close to the binding so that it would look good when draped off a table.

 Plus I have to find motifs that look like they belong together.

Since I am working right now, I didn't find time to make all of these decisions. But I recently came across this postcard I had made a while ago. So I made a decision to make a small postcard. This will be a good warm up for the border. I think I am going to use a different, slightly more complicated plane.

I added batting between the front and the back, but to give it some structure, I added a piece of cardboard.

Here is the finished postcard.

This is the back just to prove it is a postcard.

I am hoping to continue with the UFO so that I can make more progress on it this year, but for now the postcard will have to do.

Thank you for visiting. Please be sure to check my last post for the list of all of the other participants in the blog hop.

April Showers Blog Hop

 I made a quilt for the April Showers blog hop. A list of all of the participants are in my last blog hop. Be sure to look at them after you are done admiring my quilt.

After making a few bigger quilts, I am back yet again making a smaller quilt. It is a fun applique pattern that adds to my collection of elephant quilts. Doesn't everyone have one?

I ran out of time making this quilt so I didn't finish it, but it wasn't from lack of effort. I even made it during my lunch and breaks from my job. But it is a great quilt and all I have left to do is to bind it. I want to take the time to make it right, so I added all the spokes on the umbrella, the eye and head piece of the elephant as well as the blanket.

I echo quilted around the shapes with some big stitch free motion quilting.

These pictures were taken at night so they may be dark, but I will take better photos when it is bound.

April Showers Blog Hop

 

Here's the schedule for the April Showers blog hop. Be sure to check everyone out to see what wonderful projects they have made for you! Come back tomorrow for my quilt!

Monday April 22

MooseStashQuilting - our wonderful hostess

Words&Stitches

Quilting Gail
Quilt Doodle Designs

Kathy's Kwilts and More

 

Tuesday April 23

Karrins Crazy World

BeaQuilter

Selena Quilts

Songbird Designs

Just Sew Quilter

 

Wednesday April 24

Quilted Snail

Ms P Designs USA

 Days Filled With Joy

Quilting Between the Rails (Facebook)

Bumbleberry Stitches

 

Thursday April 25

Just Let Me Quilt

Inflorescence    

Quilted Delights

Vroomans Quilts

Scrapdash

High Road Quilter - hey, that's me!

Pinwheel Quilt Blog Hop

 Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog, High Road Quilter. It is my day to post my progress on my Pinwheel Quilt as a part of a blog hop hosted by Carol Swift.

Like the last quilt I made for a blog hop, I decided that since I have limited time to finish a quilt with my job and YouTube channel, I would rather make a big quilt top that I can quilt later rather than a small finished quilt. I have been making a lot of small projects for the Project Quilting challenges so I was due for a bigger quilt.

Dreaming about which quilt to make for this Give It a Whirl challenge was a lot of fun for me since there were so many wonderful choices.

I settled on a pattern called Warm Breeze on allpeoplequilt.com which is run by the people who make American Patchwork & Quilting. This website has a lot of free patterns that you can download and all you have to give them is your email address.

I have a neighbor who has pinwheels in their garden, and when the sun is shining, the light makes the pinwheels sparkle and with the breeze it makes it seem like the pinwheels are spreading their sparkle throughout the neighborhood. The little squares around the pinwheel makes me think of those sparkles.

This pattern is inspired by a quilt called Cartwheels from Gudrun Erla of GE Designs. In her quilt, the little squares in the outer border didn't go all the way around and I really like that because it looks like you can go through the spaces in the centers and go to the  next gardening space. Since this is my neighbor, the space could lead to my garden. 

I wanted a nice spring look for my pinwheels and have a couple of fat quarter packs I wanted to use so the decision making was pretty easy. I did add some more purple. Last year, I made quilts following the rainbow colors, red, orange, yellow, and teal, so I thought purple would help round that out.

I made this quilt as a four patch. This means that besides making four pinwheels, I also added the inner border and the outer border in sections so in the end, I only had one long seam to sew.

This quilt was a lot of fun to make. It is too big for my design wall which is in the corner of my sewing room between a door and a window, so I can't give you a complete view, but I will definitely give it a better glamor shot when it is done quilted.

As a bonus for sticking through this post, I am showing you a pinwheel quilt that I have finished.

There are a lot of people who are participating in the blog hop. They are listed in my last post, so be sure to check them out as well to see their Give It a Whirl submissions. Thank you Carol, for hosting this blog hop.

Linked with 

Quilting Patch

Quilt Reveal: Web of Life

 

It's time for the annual Dust Off An Old Quilt Book Blog Hop! I have been participating the last few years and have always enjoyed it.

I have been participating the last few years and have always enjoyed it.

For this hop, I dusted off my Red & White  Quilts Infinite Variety book.  The book features all the red and white quilts that had been in an exhibit at a museum. I had seen the quilt on the cover before the exhibit and the book and had already been fascinated by it. 

My friends and I had done some calculations on how to make this quilt. I had done some research and had even found some instructions about how to make the quilt. I bought a 9 degree ruler. The quilt can be strip cut, but you have to cut the triangles in one direction. The smaller triangles are in the center and the larger triangles are on the outside.  This means you waste half of the triangles. I wondered what the other half would look like if sewn together.

My first worry was whether I am capable of making a checkerboard like that neatly, the regular "squares" much less the tiny points in the center. I decided to make a sample block. In this one, I decided to make it so that I can use all the triangles. I made a strip set with a light on one side and a dark on the other side. I then cut triangles, moving the ruler up or down depending on what color I wanted to be the smallest.

This won't help me reduce waste on the optical illusion quilt, but it does give me a good idea about how difficult this quilt might be if I make it on a bigger scale.

This block may look familiar to you. I started it a long time ago, in 2010. I then added a backing to hide the raw edges. I added it to a gray background, but I didn't like the way it looked, so I abandoned it. I hadn't put it on my list of quilts because I was just playing and hadn't started the Optical Illusion quilt.

During the 15 Minutes to Quilt Challenge in December, I took off the gray background and made a quilt sandwich with a white background. I then had to leave the quilt alone and move on to my next UFO for the next day's video. 

But since it was so close to completion, I didn't put it away, and worked on it in the spare bits of time I could find.

I decided that instead of centering the spiderweb to the rectangular quilt, I wanted to have the spiderweb be a little bit higher and add something else to the bottom.

I traced out a design from another book of quilting patterns. I appliqued the spiderweb and the designs to the quilt sandwich, and decided to add a word. 

What word? Web of Intrigue? Web of Lies? Web of Deception? I looked it up, and the first word I found was Web of Life. Sounded good to me. It was late at night by that time and Life is a nice short word and therefore easy to applique, so I decided to choose that. I found a font I liked and traced out the letters.

Man did not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we also do to ourselves. Adapted from Chief Seattle

 

Then I fused the letters on and quilted them down.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this quilt finished. You've waited a long time for it! The video for this quilt should be out on Sunday on my YouTube channel, Quilt and Color.

Here are the people who are participating in the blog hop this time. 

Karrin's Crazy World

Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

High Road Quilter (that's me!)

Beaquilter (our wonderful hostess!)