Winners and More Winter Bliss Details

Many thanks to all that participated in the first ever Redbird Quilt Co Buy 2 Get 1 Free Sale and Thank You for your continued support and encouragement.    

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I'm excited to announce 3 winners (Blog, Instagram and Facebook) of the Really Mini Redbird and Berries Wool Quilt Kits

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....Before I share the quilt kit winners I thought I'd share a few "process" pics and information about my recent "Winter Bliss" finish.   

My Version of Winter Bliss -- Original Design by Pat Sloan

Winter Bliss is a pattern by Pat Sloan and can be found in Pat's latest book
"Teach Me To Machine Quilt"

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a comprehensive and wonderfully detailed book focused on making new quilters comfortable with the process of quilting through 3 layers of fabric.

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You can read my
Book Tour Review in this post.
and 40 other Book Tour posts using this index page.

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Winter Bliss finishes appx 25" x 28" and is a wonderful addition to any winter decor.

Created with Blackbird Designs Autumn Lily cotton fabric (for Moda) on the borders and

Primitive Gatherings Muslin Flannel for the background.

I used wool from my stash including Primitive Gatherings wool and a variety of others I've collected over the years.

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I followed Pat's pattern to prepare the quilt top after hand stitching the snowman to the background fabric.

Also following the pattern, I cut all of the applique pieces from wool and hand stitched them to the quilt background using my favorite Aurifil 12Wt thread

On the snowman and the holly leaves I used a blanket stitch.

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On the berries, birds, poinsettia leaves and stems I used an overhand or whip stitch.

This stitch moves along much faster than a blanket stitch and still looks beautiful.

I added a few fancy stitches to top off the poinsettia center -- that was fun!

Once the applique was stitched down I layered the quilt top with Quilters Dream - Dream Orient batting and pin basted.

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Again following Pat's amazingly detailed and thorough book, I put a new needed in my Janome 7700 and got busy quilting.

You can see my quilting setup in this post.

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I stitched around the wool applique with my trusty FMQ Echo Foot and using Aurifil 40Wt thread in the top and 50 wt in the bobbin.

This foot is so handy when stitching around wool.  

Because the foot is slightly curved it gently rides up over the edge of the wool applique, allowing you to stitch just outside of the edge. 

An open toed foot would catch on the stitches and other rounded feet would keep you from getting close to the applique.

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This foot is perfect.

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Once I outlined all the applique (per Pat's suggestion in Teach Me To Machine Quilt) I decided to top stitch border 1 using Aurifil 12 Wt thread and a walking foot. 

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I always love how that looks:

Now back to quilting... time to get the background and the snowman quilted:

 I used Aurifil 40Wt thread for most of the quilting.  It gives such beautiful texture.

Around the outside border I quilted a simple teardrop / paisley with loops.
The fabric is too busy to see much of the quilting.
When you're quilting busy fabrics though, take the opportunity to be creative with your practice as mistakes will go unseen ;)
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When I got to the corner blocks I tried out Free Motion Straight Line quilting per Pat's Book.

Simple, fun, effective...

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Done quilting, I squared up the quilt top, cut a 2" binding on the bias and attached it to the quilt top with my favorite mitered finish tutorial by Lisa Bongean for the Fat Quarter Shop.
Thank you Lisa and Kimberly.

You can see my mitered, flanged, machine binding variation of this tutorial here.

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Quilt Top Complete...

Sew much fun!

I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about the Winter Bliss prep and quilting.  It's a fun project that can be displayed for months during the winter.  I would love to see any project you create from Pat's new book -- Teach Me to Machine Quilt.

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And now for the winners of the

Really Mini Redbird and Berries Wool Kits

complete with Background Grunge Fabric, Wool Pieces, Aurifil 12Wt thread and Layout Diagram

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On Facebook the Winner is:

On Instagram the Winner is:

And on the Blog the Winner is:

 Congratulations everyone -- if you've not already sent me your addresses please do --- I can't wait to get your kits in the mail.

Many thanks again to all that participated in the Sale and Giveaway.

Happy Quilting!!

I'm booking Redbird Quilt Co. Lectures, Trunk Shows and Workshops for 2017 & 2018

If your Shop, Group or Guild is looking for programs or workshops I would love to hear from you.

Domestic Machine Quilting,  Wool & Needle turn Applique - Technique or Project oriented workshops are available.

Send email inquiries to karen at redbirdquiltco dot com

or redbirdquiltco at gmail dot com

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Have a blessed week all and many thanks for your continued support!

YOU Make my World a Happy Place!

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