WIP Wednesday... Um... Thursday

Well, as is often the case around here, I am a day late and a dollar short.  I woke up yesterday morning determined to take some decent pictures of all of the quilty stuff that's been going on around here and get a blog post written, but I made the mistake of taking a detour into the sewing room to gather everything and got... um... distracted.  I barely made it out alive!  Well, not really, but by the time I finished up in there and gathered my stuff and went out to find a suitable location for my photo "shoot", it was 4:30 in the afternoon.  Whew!

As you might have guessed from the photo above, I finally got the edge pieces and borders sewn onto the Starflower quilt from Amanda's Starflower QAL.  I had been putting it off, but I'm not sure why.  This looks like a difficult and intricate quilt, doesn't it?  If you try it, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.  Amanda's instructions are superb, well written, and very easy to follow.  Even better, the results are fantastic!  Would you look at those points???  And they're not a fluke.  Every.  Single.  Point.  Matches.  Perfectly.  It's so nice to create something that turns out so well.  And it was easy.  Really.  I am truly amazed and excited by this quilt.  Now to find the perfect backing!

I finished up the top of the Spot-On quilt late last week.  Spot On is another of the patterns in Camille Roskelly's Simplify book, so this is one more toward my goal of making all the quilts in the book.  I ordered fabric from someone other than my favorite shop, and I must have gotten spoiled by the same-day shipping because it seemed to take forever.  I ordered this on Thursday, but it didn't ship until Monday, and so it was Thursday before it arrived.  A whole week!  I admit that was a bit impatient and frustrated.  I will say, however, that when it arrived the fabric was perfectly cut and nicely wrapped, which was very pleasant.

I had the leftovers of the layer cake, plus a charm pack, some scraps, and the leftover yardage, so I created a really scrappy back for it.  It's kind of fun.  Notice anything unusual.  Yup.  Totally outside my norm, I used tons of gray.  Still, I have to admit that it works really well with Juggling Summer and really makes the colors pop.  I thought it was ironic that the front is all circles and the back is mostly squares...

I took my Modern Maples quilt along on my photo shoot...

Because I made a back for it as well.  I was going to do just the one big leaf, but then the charm pack called to me, and I couldn't resist doing this "falling leaves" motif.  Seemed appropriate for autumn, don't you think?  And I don't think there has ever been a time in my life I've bought 4  yards of Kona Coal in a two week period.   Don't worry though.  There's plenty left at the store!

I'm glad to finally get some decent pictures of the Quilts of Valor.  I have to admit that I really like this one.  The process of creating this quilt was really interesting to me.  I usually either use a pattern or have a really good idea of what the quilt will look like before I begin.  This one just kind of *grew*.  I started out with the flag idea from some scraps that were left from the star QOV, and it built itself, row by row.  And after all is said and done, I really like it.

I had a pretty good idea of what this one would look like when I started.  I wanted to do a large wonky star as a Quilt of Valor after being inspired by this quilt.  And I wanted the color scheme to be somewhat less traditional than red, white and blue.  The khaki in this quilt reminds me of the desert fatigues that so many of our troops wear now.  I'm pretty happy with this one as well.

Finally, I made a back for the bookshelf quilt I started last July when I was moving my sewing space and needed a quick sewing fix.  My friend had given me a few Santorini layer cake squares and some yardage so I decided to use what I had, and this was what I came up with. I honestly really like it.

The layer cake squares remind me a bit of cubbies, where you might place  your belongings at school or even stuff books into, and the pinwheels are sort of symbolic of the excitement and surprises one might find in books.  (I love to read, can you tell?)  Anyway, this was what distracted me so much yesterday.   It was a really fun quilt back to create.

So, even though there are no finishes to report this week either, I am making progress.   I love the idea of using what I had on hand to create an original quilt back to go with the quilt.  I'm sure I won't do that every time, but it was a fun challenge. 

Now, to get these sandwiched!  Let the quilting begin!

Lots of activity (finally!) Not. One. Finish.

I have been in a bit of a creative funk lately.  For a couple of weeks I've been having trouble getting anything done.  I am here to say that I think my little funk was an aberration and I'm back in the groove.  Maybe.

Last week I posted photos of all the stuff in my to-be-quilted pile.  It is all still there.  Every last bit of it.  But it's funny how I got back on track...

A few months ago, my friend gave me this Juggling Summer Layer Cake to go along with the Juggling Summer FE bundle she gave me for my birthday.  (I have very generous friends, don't I?) 

So, last Friday, I was sitting here feeling all guilty about the stack of quilts that only needed backs so they could be sandwiched and quilted, and inspiration struck.  Finally.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the back of my Modern Maples quilt.

I dug into the back of that layer cake and pulled out 5 black squares and made this giant modern maples block.  It measures 27-1/2 inches.  It's gonna be the focal point on the back of that Modern Maples quilt.  I ordered some yardage to go along with it.  I think it's gonna be awesome.

And while I was digging around in that layer cake, I remembered a quilt pattern I've been wanting to make for-ev-er as part of my goal to make every quilt in Camille Roskelly's Simplify book at least once (there are several I've made more than that), and the rest of this Juggling Summer layer cake seemed like the perfect fabric choice.

So I grabbed the Wonder Under and started drawing circles.  And by Saturday afternoon, the layout was done...

all the circles were fused and appliqued onto the layer cake squares....

And by Monday afternoon, I had an almost-finished quilt top.  I'm still trying to decide what to do about the borders.  I used Kona Coal for the sashing (totally out of character, I know) because it really made the colors pop.  Yes, I admit it.  Gray has it's place.  (Speaking of gray, I'm sorry for the weird glary inside pictures, but it's been gray and gloomy here most of this week.  The weather seems to be more agreeable today, so maybe I'll try to get out and take some pictures later.)

I was catching up on my blog reading the other night and I noticed this quilt and it occurred to me that a giant wonky star would make a wonderful Quilt of Valor.  Our MQG has had an urgent request for Quilts of Valor  recently, and I've been planning to join in.  Yesterday, I dug into my newly purchased stack of fabrics and came up with this.  The problem is that the QOV Foundation has very specific rules for quilts to be accepted as Quilts of Valor.  They need to be a minimum of 50" x 70".  I wasn't there yet, and I was determined to work from my stash and not to buy any more fabric.

So, after some strategic fabric additions, here is the quilt I came up with.  It measures 60" x 75".  Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, although I'm not sure I don't regret using Kona Putty instead of Kona White for the background fabric.  The putty has the advantage of matching the background of the light colored prints, so it won out over white.  Hopefully I will like it more once it's quilted.

The original center of the star quilt was supposed to be this bright blue square, but it just didn't work.  It was way too bright for the rest of the fabrics in the quilt.  But that fail gave me another idea.  The inspiration for this quilt seemed to come just one piece at a time.  It isn't finished yet, and I still don't know exactly what it will look like. 

I added a Kona snow panel (I had the Kona in my stash) with cornerstones.  (Here I was auditioning this red floral fabric for another row.  Nope!)

Next I added a row of red and then a row of 6" squares with nine patch cornerstones....  It's coming.  It measures 48" x 54" right now.  But I think I'm going to have to break my rule and go buy some fabric for the outside rows.

So now I have 8 (count them! E.I.G.H.T.) unquilted quilts, all needing backs, all needing batting (sounds expensive!), all needing sandwiching (yuck), and all needing quilting and binding.

Guess I had better get busy!

Outfoxed.... Again!

 If you are looking for My {Very Own} Memories Giveaway, click this link.  Giveaway ends June 22.

We finally have some decent weather here in Northwest Florida  - the first truly sunny day we've had in a couple of weeks, and I couldn't wait for the "sweet light" to take pictures, so please forgive the too bright photos.

Last Saturday dawned dark and stormy, but unperturbed, I decided it was a great day to sew and sat down to finish some things I had already started.  WH and I didn't leave the house all day.  Good thing, too from the sound of it.  While we were snug and cozy in our "castle" on the hill, others in our area were experiencing the devastating effects of too much rain.  Please keep those folks who suffered damage from the flooding in your prayers. 

I work about two blocks from where this video was shot.  I'm told that in some places the water was as much as 4 feet high.  Luckily, since it was Saturday, I wasn't there.  And since we live on a hill, we suffered no damage. 

Anyway, it was a great day for staying home, warm and dry, and finishing up a project or two.

My Outfoxed quilt was all sandwiched, just itching to be quilted.  I started with a charm pack of Outfoxed from Westwood Acres and a charm pack of Kona solids.  It's amazing what you can do with these little bits of fabric, isn't it?

I chose to quilt it in a swirl-ish (yes, I made up that word!) pattern.  I love it when the quilting gives the quilt lots of texture.

The back was a piece of orange yardage that was "donated" by BD#1, who decided she didn't have a use for it.  In other words - it was free!  And perfect for this quilt.

I bought a couple of pieces of Outfoxed yardage (the brown foxes and some pearl bracelets) and pieced one side of the back because the yardage wasn't wide enough.  With the scallops, the "fun fabrics" didn't end up as wide as I would have liked.  If I were to do this again, I would slice the large piece of orange, probably off-center, and insert the pieced strip.

Normally, I use binding cut straight with the grain, but because of the curves, bias binding was a better choice.  I usually hate cutting bias binding, both because of the waste and because it is a pain in the neck.  But I used this tutorial, and it was remarkably easy, and I had much less waste than any other method I've tried.  And it was fast - Heather says you can cut enough bias binding for a queen bed in 10 minutes, and with this method, you absolutely can.  I was impressed.

The pattern is "Sweet Pea", from Camille Roskelly's Simplify so I'm another step closer to my goal.  It was truly an easy pattern, and I really enjoyed it.  I finished all the blocks for the top in about an hour one night after work.

I have to say, the fabric is cute, and I love the bow,

 but I think the scallops really make this quilt.

I think I'll put scallops on everything from now on.... maybe.

Yesterday...

I've had several quilt tops in progress for a few weeks - some longer than others, of course, and yesterday, I  managed to finish them.  I was pretty jazzed to get the tops pieced, to be honest.  The down side is that now I have to sandwich them.  I really love the piecing and I don't mind the quilting or binding, but the sandwiching is my least favorite part.

Is there a part of the quilt process you're not especially fond of??

I know that sandwiching is a necessary part of the process, but the older I get, the less I like it. Maybe it's the crawling around on the floor.  I did see a method to do it on a table top and pin it in sections, using binder clips to hold it taut.  I don't have a suitable table, but someday I just may invest in one.  Since we put in our hardwood floors in 2007, crawling around on my knees has been anything but comfortable.

This is another quilt top from Camille Roskelly's book Simplify made from American Jane's Fairy Tale Friends fabrics by Moda.  It uses a charm square pack and a honey bun, along with the sashing.  I used a bone sashing on this quilt, although it looks white in the photo.  It's a little smaller than my normal quilt, but would be fine for a child.

I love the fabric.  It's so bright and fresh, although my photography doesn't do it justice.  I bought the charm pack last fall from my daughter's little shop, Westwood Acres, but it wasn't until I found the honey bun that I knew it was the perfect fit for Camille's pattern, "Square One". 

I've had some of Aneela Hoey's Little Apples sitting around here for awhile.  I met Aneela at last year's Quilt Market in SLC and it was such a pleasure.  I love this fabric.  I had a charm pack, a jelly roll, and a fat quarter bundle that I actually won from Pink Chalk Fabrics and I have been debating what to do with it for months.

I wanted to showcase the fabric, so the pattern had to be something that wouldn't require me cutting this adorable fabric in to teeny little pieces.  In the end, I kind of did my own thing. I surrounded each charm square in a length of jelly roll, and then joined 4 of them into a reverse bento-ish square, with the jelly roll to the center.  I really liked the blocks when they were finished.  I used a narrow yellow (Kona Buttercup to be exact) sashing because the blocks had so much white, and I wanted them to stand out.  I tried a border of randomly sized jelly roll pieces for the outer border, but it was just too much.  I finally decided that the white was perfect.  It's so fresh and clean, it kinda thrills me.  (There I go with my brights on white thing again - it doesn't take much to get me excited!)

Those of you who have visited here a time or two know that gray is just not my favorite color, but I rather like it in this line, although it does kind of remind me of winter, rather than summer.  Even so, I was pretty pleased with how the top turned out.  I'm looking forward to quilting this one.

 My final finish yesterday was this little "Sweet Pea" quilt, again from Camille's book.  I had a charm pack of Lizzie House's Outfoxed from Westwood Acres and a Kona charm pack I got in my swag from Sewing Summit last fall.  I was playing with my stash when I noticed how well the colors went together.  One of the things I really like about Amanda and Weston's shop is that you can get charms and jelly rolls of fabrics that aren't manufactured that way.  Sometimes it's fun to just play with a little bit of something, and not make a big investment.  They painstakingly cut them and make them available for sale.  It's like having them do most of the work.  I love it!  I'm not sure you can get Outfoxed charms anywhere else. 

Some of the prints in this line are just so cute.  I love the foxes and the hedgehogs!  There are only something like 25 pieces in Outfoxed, so I needed a pattern that mixed them up pretty well.  The way the charms are sliced and switched in "Sweet Pea" was perfect.  Some of the blocks used two solids, and some of the blocks had solids mixed in with the Outfoxed charms .  I wanted the Outfoxed fabric for the border, and had a difficult time finding yardage of the Outfoxed print in the brown "Outsmarted" color.  I finally found it and placed my  earlier this week, and it arrived in yesterday's mail.  Perfect timing, don't you think?

I love the little bow on this one.  I bought some brown polka dot ribbon, but it was way too busy, so in the end, I settled for the orange.

The Sweet Pea pattern calls for scalloped borders, but you don't cut the scallops until you finish the quilting.  And I neglected to enlarge the pattern 133%, so I'm going to have to make a run to Kinko's - but not today.

Guess I'd better get busy.  I think I'll go put on a movie and lay these babies out on the floor and get started with the sandwiching.  Once that's done, I'm home free.

Happy quilting!

So - What Have You Been Doing Lately?

So, what have you been doing lately?  I've been getting caught up on bee blocks.  This was an easy-peasy one for Becky in the Sew Fun Bee.

And these Halloween Blocks are for Mary in the Fall Bee.  Making these blocks with 2" squares was a ton easier than making similar blocks with 1" squares.  Guess I'm just not a postage stamp quilt kind of girl.

And then I've been working on a mini quilt for the Mini QT swap.  The theme this time is movies, and I'm really having fun with this one.  Can't show the whole project yet, because in this swap you know who your partner is, so this is just a hint.  Any guesses?  This little guy is going all the way to Sweden!

 

And if you've been reading this little blog since the first of the year, you know that one of my goals is to make every quilt in this book.  So far, I have made 3 Sugar Rush quilts and 2 Little Man quilts.  

Well, when I was at Sewing Summit last fall, I picked up a Fairy Tale Friends charm pack from  my daughter's little etsy shop, Westwood Acres.   The pattern I had in mind for this called for a charm pack and a honey bun.  Well, it seems that honey buns are scarce as hen's teeth around here lately, but I finally found a Fairy Tale Friends honey bun online, so I've been working on those blocks. I'm ready for the sashing and borders.

Wish JoAnn's carried Kona Snow. 

And I got the borders on my jelly roll race quilt, so I could quilt that and get it out of the WIP pile.  That would be a good feeling.

Finally, I traded some Flora charm packs for a whole passel of 2-1/2 inch squares, so I laid out a couple of granny squares for the Granny Square QAL, if I'd ever cut the white setting squares.

And I really should get something done for my sister for her birthday, which is Tuesday, and she lives in California...  Oops, late again!

So, I have a jam packed weekend planned.

And I really should clean my house.

What about you?  What are you working on?  I'd love to hear about it, and if you have a blog, stash a link in the comments.  I'd love to come visit.

Little Man

Photo by Adorn-It

When I was at Sewing Summit, I was going through a fabric craving and ran across this delightful little bundle, perfect for the Little Man quilt I planned to make.

It's been sitting there all this time, begging to be sewn together into a quilt.  I made the blocks two or three weeks ago.

And if you read last Friday's post, you will know I finally got the tops done, and had them sandwiched and quilted, so they were just waiting for binding.

 Not just one quilt  - two quilts.  And I have enough fat quarters for one more.

Luckily, machine binding is a job that doesn't take much thought.  I actually finished them both on Friday night after I came home from work.  I worked 10 hours Friday.  I didn't have much brain power to use.

I really liked the red with the neutral look of the Buckaroo fabric.  It just gave it a little pizzaz.

 The pattern is, of course, from Camille Roskelly's book, Simplify. 

These should make nice baby gifts.  They're a little small for grown ups.

Another project checked off my list.