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!

Today is Wednesday, You Know What That Means...

It's Wednesday again, and once again I'm playing along with Freshly Pieced and WIP Wednesday.  It's been a bit of a frustrating week because my **BRAND NEW MACHINE** had to make a visit to the emergency room last week, and was gone **THE WHOLE WEEKEND**.  (Good thing my son came to visit so I wasn't quite as distressed at not having her home!)

Luckily I had finished this tote for my partner in the Sewing Room Swap before my machine broke.  All I had left was the flower on the tab, and I pulled out my trusty old Singer to run a little gathering stitch along the raw edge, then gathered and stitched it to the bag by hand while HS and I were watching BYU get beat by Virginia in the last few minutes of the game after a several really stupid play(s).  (NOTE TO QUARTERBACK:  When the field (and thus the ball) is that wet and slippery, and you're winning in the last 2 minutes of the game, don't try to pass...  Just keep the ball as controlled as possible and everything will be fine.)

Then I used Sally (Singer) to make this iron cozy for my Sewing Room Swap partner.  This pattern is such a great idea, and I was jazzed to find it on sale over the weekend in Oh Fransson!'s pattern shop.  Sweet!

As I reported the other day, I finished these three citrus quilts, which was totally fun.  I tried three different quilting motifs and just had a blast.  I hadn't ever done leaves before, but I'm thinking that might become one of my go-to favorites.

Woodland by the Lake II is sandwiched and ready to quilt, and might actually have gotten quilted if my machine hadn't broken.  It's on tap to get quilted very soon - hopefully this week.  I'm thinking a combination of loops and leaves for the quilting on this one.

And the faux string quilt is also sandwiched and ready to quilt.  I'm thinking of echo quilting hexagons in the white space, maybe with a flower motif in the middle of each one?! 

I haven't made much more progress on the Scrappy Trip...  I just need some time at the sewing machine to sew strips, then I can sit and watch TV while I'm seam ripping.

I actually worked on the GMFG a bit last night for the first time since Memorial Day Weekend.  After working on it for an hour or so, however, I was reminded of why I hadn't worked on it much this summer - the bigger it gets, the hotter it is.  Maybe it will cool off here in a month or so and I can get at least the top done by the end of the year.

And my Modern Maples needs to be sandwiched and quilted.  It's a Guild QAL, and the reveal is scheduled for a week from Saturday.  Better get busy on this guy.

I haven't done anything on the bookshelf quilt since I added the borders.  It needs to be sandwiched and quilted too, but no deadlines, so this one will probably wait awhile.

And I've made NO PROGRESS on these lovelies...  They're still sitting on the table where I left them.  I'm going to blame it on not having a machine all weekend...

And I've finished all the pinwheels and gotten the fabrics cut for the flying geese...  It's just a matter now of sitting down to do all 90-ish of them...

So, I think that's it.  Whew!  I think it's time to go take a nap!

WIP Wednesday - Again

Time seems to be flying by here at prsd4tim2.  I thought retirement might be boring, but no, I seem to fill every day and wonder where the day went when it gets dark.  What's up with that?  I honestly can't believe it's been a whole week since I blogged.  And I don't think I have any finishes to report, at least not any that can be shared until they are received by the recipients, but rest assured I've been stitching away!

I finished all the blocks for the Fat Quarter Shop 2012 Mystery Block of the Month quilt.  Next up - the 90 Flying Geese that make up the sashing for this quilt.  

Can I just say I'm overwhelmed by the sheer number of them?  Flying geese are no problem, but 90 of them?  Whew!  I'm tired just thinking about it.  

But I finally got the pieces cut out, so I will get to this soon.  I hope to have it finished to give to my friend in September.

And I don't know if  you follow the fabulous Sarah on Instagram, but she finished quilting the Hip Holiday Spin Cycle quilt I made for Amanda while I was on vacation.  It turned out wonderfully...  I offered to bind it, but Amanda may decide to bind it herself.  Either way, the quilt is on it's way, and officially out of my WIP's.

I worked on these blocks last week.  These are the last of the citrus blocks, but these were all different sizes, from 9" to 12-1/2", so I had to somehow get them to all-one-size.  And now that they are all the same size, I can't decide whether to sash these, or make 5 more blocks so the quilt is the right proportion....  What do you think?

I ended up with 51 blocks, and made a total of 4 quilts, 3 of which I managed to get sandwiched last week at the ECMQG meeting Sew Day.

Sandwiching is my least favorite part of the quilting process, but I have to say it is much better in the nice big space we have for our guild meetings.  I could lay the whole quilt out on the floor - several quilts in fact - and not have to try to scrunch up the queen size batting or push furniture out of the way.

In fact, I ended up sandwiching 5 quilts...  The 3 completed citrus quilts, and...

Woodland by the Lake 2, and ...

My faux string quilt.  The pattern, you may remember, is  Heximetry by my friend Ali of a_2_w and the fabric is from Westwood Acres' Stripes That Bind bundle.  By the way, I learned yesterday that Ali's book is available for pre-order on Amazon!  Woot! Woot!

I did a little embroidery for my partner in the Super Swaps swap.  I need to get to the store and buy a couple of little things and get this in the mail by tomorrow.  (I can't seem to find things in the sewing room yet.  Hopefully that will change soon as I begin to get more organization in there!  We have plans for some {more} shelves and a cutting table to give me more storage!  How in the world did I cram so. much. stuff. into my tiny previous space???)  By the way, this adorable stitchery pattern is available free on my friend Ellyn's blog.

I got all the pieces cut for Amanda's Starflower Quilt Along.  Want to join us?  It's really a beautiful quilt.  The fabric is Beechwood Park by Jeanene Morrison and a selection of solids from my stash.  I have a confession to make - I only had a FE bundle, and she calls for fat quarters in her instructions, so I grabbed the solids and started cutting...  and totally lost count.  It will be interesting to see if I have enough or way too many diamonds, won't it?  In any event, I can't wait.  The quilt is amazing!

And I got all the pieces cut and started making the blocks for the ECMQG Modern Maples quilt along.  So far, I have 15 of 18 blocks completed, so this may just become a quilt soon!

So, there you have it!  I'm pretty sure that's ALL the WIPs I worked on this week.  I hope to have at least one completed project by next week!  Wish me luck!  What are you working on?

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced again today...

WIP Wednesday

There's plenty goin' on in the sewing room lately, so I thought I would play along with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced this week.  I actually thought about making it a Wordless WIP Wednesday, but we all know that for me, that would be impossible!

My goal for August was to finish my citrus quilt.  I knew I had a few blocks tucked away from when I moved my sewing room, but boy was I surprised!  I had no idea!!  I had some original blocks...  And I had some from the Bees Helping Bees group...  And I had a bunch from the 2Q round of 3x6 Bee, which frankly, I didn't plan to mix with the original blocks at all, but they just looked so wonderful...  And apparently there was a round of the 3x6 bee from a year or two ago that I had forgotten, because...

There are enough blocks for...

More than one quilt.  I had planned to make a 4x5 quilt, but these blocks just went together so well, I just went with it.  So I'm wondering, should I add borders to make them bigger, or just leave them the way they are?  There's something just so inviting about sampler quilts, don't you think?

There is one more quilt to put together, but it's going to need some serious work.  Size-wise, those blocks are all over the place - some at 9" square and some at 12-1/2 and everything in the middle.  So I plan to work on those this week.

I'm not sure I've ever shared this quilt on the blog.  I did this quilt when the sewing room was in total upheaval and I needed a quick sewing fix.  I really like the way it turned out.  It's just so fresh, I think.  The fabric is mostly from a Lila Tueller Bohemian Festival jelly roll my friend gave me.  It went together in a flash - and then it went in the WIP pile, where it has been sitting, nearly untouched for more than a month.  Poor thing.

And I need to get Woodland by the Lake 2 finished before my friend/photography teacher gets back from North Carolina.

I finished up this block for the Block Lottery at the next ECMQG meeting on Saturday.  (Aren't you proud of my big finish?!)

So that's what I've been doing this week.

What are you working on?