How long has it been?

 

Since I posted?  Wow, it’s been crazy busy here!  I do have a few finishes.  I had to return the broken walking foot, the new one is much better.  Sadly most of this was quilted with the first one so it’s not perfect (stitch length varies, straight lines not so straight, lol).  I still love it, it should wash up nice.

I backed it with more of the great orange tie dye and bound it in a solid, more rust colored orange.  I can’t remember the name of the charm pack I started with but I blogged it a while back.  It wasn’t my favorite line on first glance but I adore the finished quilt.

This was a super un-traditional/modern/whatever wedding wall hanging quilt I made on commission.  I can’t get a true color shot of this to save my life.  It’s lime green & fuschia (yep, weird, those are the wedding colors).  I had issues with the embroidery…I’m so glad she liked it because I had to rip it out and do it again and was about to start over with a fabric marker.

It has a ton of tiny pieces I drew & used raw edge applique (fusible).  The walking foot totally ROCKS for quilting these!  Lots of thread changes but I’m pretty happy with it and I have extra flowers & swirls that just didn’t fit in to use on a future project. 

And a little yarn fun, this is my first ever string bag.  I started with the standard Lily pattern & abandoned it for the top edge & strap (I’m not good at crochet instructions, I was impressed I got as far as I did).  It only took me 2 days but I still haven’t woven in the tails, nor did I appropriately line up the color change when I switched balls but I like it just fine.

That’s it for today, thanks for stopping by!

 

Design Wall Monday

 

I usually have a finish on Monday morning, not today but here are some process pics for you.

Another installment in my ticker quilt, orange is done, more sparse than I’d like but I actually had a hard time finding orange scraps.  I really should have done another yesterday but I got distracted with other stuff…namely this

I’ve been throwing around ideas on how to label my quilts.  I’ve done the little ribbon across a back corner thing, written on in sharpie.  Ehh, kind of primitive, not much room to write.  I have 2 alphabets on my machine but they don’t stitch very well & I have to do it on a scrap & then applique it to the quilt.  It rarely gets done, it’s hard to read…yesterday I pulled out my big ole Speedball screen printing box o’ fun and made a mini screen ala craftgrrl’s tutorial.  This is real screen filler instead of Modge Podge or the like since I actually do have the kit.  First print on paper, I touched up the screen & it’s ready to have a go at a real quilt.  I’m simply going to write “made by” and the year with a sharpie around the bottom of the swirl.  Love this!  It’s similar to my tattoo, it’s repeatable for every quilt without much effort and I’ve never seen someone do this to a quilt they spent hours & hours on, I’m a risk taker!

 Edit to add first print (on a scrap).  I used a makeshift squeegee instead of a foam brush, slightly better.  Embellished with a sharpie.  Actually just the look I was going for!

Repeat pic before quilting but I’m also hand quilting this baby quilt, I have some of the charm square straight line quilting done and I’m buttonhole stitching around the flowers.  My first real try at the stitch, it looks SO adorable, front and back!  It’s backed with a turquoise solid, really wild with the green sashing, I might bind this in orange for even more zing.  Edit, had to rip out buttonhole stitches, ugh, puckering.

It’s pouring down rain and I have some really. boring. work. sewing. to do today (sob!).  Hopefully I can finish that and get back to fun quilting this afternoon.  Please stop by Judy’s and QuiltStory and Freshly Pieced this week to see what everyone’s working on!  Hopping on a new one, Canoe Ridge Creations!  I’ve met some super nice sewers & quilters since I started playing along.  Have a great week everyone!

Design Wall Monday

 

Here we go again, I’m creating an insane pile of tops that I need to quilt.  I have a ton of “work” sewing to do but I couldn’t get inspired there, this charm pack was calling.  I’ll be honest, I wasn’t excited about this one at all, it looked better online than in my hands.  But I like how it morphed once I was playing with the pieces.

This is Hideaway by Lauren & Jessi Jung for moda.  I adore green, especially for babies. 

I think it could have been fairly gender neutral but I had to use some of the extra squares and appliqued some flowers, girly now, huh?

I let the petals go all whimsical, I think it works.  This one will also be hand quilted & shouldn’t take nearly as long as the Central Park one I’m quilting now (which is kicking along pretty well).  I think I’m going to continue the flower theme by quilting some in the borders.  Very fast project, I had the top together (minus the applique) in about an hour. 

Editing Tues to add a pic of my WIP.  I saw a Ticker Tape Quilt Along on a blog and had to hop on the bandwagon, I love TT’s!  Here’s my morning progress, I’m digging a QAYG project, one less top to get to “later.”

Thanks for stopping by, don’t forget to visit Judy’s for more Design Wall Monday & Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday!

Design Wall Monday

 

I wish I had room for an actual wall but here’s my table in progress.  This is Sugar Pop! by Liz Scott for Moda, another charm pack, this one paired with a dark almost turquoise solid (it looks very green here for some reason).  I’ve had a zigzag quilt on my list for a while now and I used that method where you sew two fabrics RST around the edges and then cut on the X.  Quick & easy, we’ll see if I can get this top finished today, I have to go in to work soon.

Here ‘tis!  Might add a border in the blue but I love it with the morning sun shining through.  Boy was I sick of triangles, lol.

 

Editing to add Monday night’s progress (hope you can see the tons of stitching).

I’ve decided to attempt hand quilting this Central Park #2.  I don’t have a walking foot and want simple straight line quilting, I’m afraid my less than stellar meandering will distort the nice lines.  If it goes well I’ll also hand quilt this one from Saturday’s sewing marathon.

Don’t forget to swing by Judy’s for more Design Wall Mondays & Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday!