What Shade Are You? Blog Hop

My name is Amanda and I go by Mandy Andy Designs on instagram (but don’t call me Mandy).  I’ve been quilting for 11 years, inspired to start quilting by an antique quilt my mom had bought when I was ten.  I homeschool my two kids when I am not sewing. I love making quilts but on occasion will make other things, which tend to inspire my quilts.  Here is my quilt, called XOXO, which includes fabric weaving and paper piecing and hand quilting galore.

I was thrilled to be contacted by Rachael at RJR Fabrics and it was the same week I posted my Best Nine for 2016 on instagram, eight of which were weavings I had done so I knew I wanted to make something with fabric weaving.  I also was working on a new pattern that I really wanted to finish so I went back and forth between the two ideas for a couple days and then it hit me; I’ll combine them.  I’m not much of a planner when it comes to quilting, mostly just starting with an idea and letting it evolve as I work.  I decided on the idea to make an XO pattern with the fabric weavings as the X’s and the Pyramid Wheel paper piecing pattern as the O’s. I chose the colors based on a weaving I had made for a different project.  Most of those fabrics were Cotton & Steel so I was able to easily match the colors of the Cotton Supreme Solids to the fabrics I liked and the ones I couldn’t match were actually C&S Basics anyway. 

Cutting Strips

Ironing Strips

My colors are:

Bubblegum 244

Hot Pink 217

Pink Saphhire 218

Sunset Ruby 357

Moulin Rouge 356

Red Wagon 416

Silver Lining 433

Silver screen 380

Greyhound 321

Shadow 431

Raven 396

Gift Box 291

Royal Blue 126

Mermaid 393

Banana Cream Pie 336

Peridot 342

Black 34

Basics XOXO Lightning, Sprinkle Jelly Bracelet and Sprinkle Corduroy

Backing and binding are Raindrops Geo drops in Charcoal

I specifically chose a range of colors in pinks and reds and grays and black for the Pyramid Wheel pattern but just chose my favorites for the rest. 

Trying to weave but my dog thinks it's her seat #rebeldoxie

When I was making the weavings, I just sat down with all the ironed strips and made each block as I felt.  My only goal was to make them look like X’s.  The weavings take twice as much fabric as regular piecing does so I cut and ironed a ton of fabric.  I cut the selvages off of the solids first before cutting all of my strips and included them within the weavings.  They give this wonderful soft and furry texture which I love.  

Texture with selvages

I originally thought that I would make the entire quilt in the weaving and Pyramid Wheel alternating blocks but soon it started looking super busy (and felt so heavy) so I took some time to think about it and decided to add the black on both sides, creating the negative space and putting all the focus on just the off center strip of blocks.

I machine quilted each block individually as a quilt-as-you-go quilt block and then combined the blocks with sashing and the large black panels, machine stitching the sashing and edges of the panels to the backing.  I added the binding and then hand quilted each block differently. It is much more enjoyable to hand quilt a finished quilt with no fraying edges or safety pins poking.

This was actually a weird time because I was fixing my house up, selling it, moving, all while trying to work on and finish this quilt.  But it was so worth it and I really did enjoy it all.  I think it gave me something to focus on during all the craziness.

My parents had a surprise snowfall the day I was going to their house for our monthly family dinner so I decided to take some photos there.

I had an extra woven block which I felt didn’t really fit with the others. It wasn’t looking like an X the way I had hoped so I turned it into a pillow. I think I was channeling @misterdomestic when I made the misfit block.

Thank you to Rachael and RJR Fabrics for allowing me to participate in this fun blog hop, my first! Come see me @mandyandydesigns and @rjrfabrics on instagram for a giveaway of these amazing fabrics and then see what I did with all of those strips I cut but didn’t end up using!