WIP Wednesday

It’s been ages since I did any quilting, figured I’d better get past my funk this morning & just do it.  I’ve seen some cute charm quilts lately in blogland and wanted to try one myself.  Found the template for this “spool” quilt in an old thrift store pattern book full of traditional blocks & thought it might make a cute kids i-spy.  After 2 hrs of back pain at the machine here’s what I’ve got so far (and lookie, all that work shampooing carpets & I can finally snap a pic on my “design floor” again).  If you’ve been around my blog before you’ll recognize the fabrics, I’m still going through my scrap basket.

 

These are 4 1/4” spools so it’s going to take lots of scraps even for a baby quilt.  I forgot how tedious sewing curves can be…but I only had to rip & resew the first pair.  Broke 2 pins though, lol.  Thanks for stopping by!

WIP Wednesday

 

After some extensive housework today (blah!) I got my top finished.  It’s umm, crazy, but should definitely brighten up the bedroom.

‘Scuse the floor shot, dog bone, etc…Floor was just mopped so I figured what the heck.

Closeup, I did some sloppy raw edge applique (fusible) so it’ll curl & fray after a wash.  The quilting will be the showcase but it’ll have to wait, I’m out of batting except ridiculously small scraps & this is a big quilt.  I have some turquoise and white ric rac, throwing around the idea of adding stems to the “flowers” but I’m not really a ric rac gal, probably won’t bother…Thanks for looking, I’m linking up with WIP Wed today.

WIP Wednesday

 

Happy Birthday to me, lol.  I’m finally making a quilt for myself (well, I have one other in progress but it’ll be a long while). 

I started this yesterday with not much of a plan in mind, I just had lots of extra orange fabric on hand.  Unfortunately I don’t have enough of the turquoise to continue without a trip to the store.  I have half of the top pieced & started cutting my fusible appliques.  They’re just randomly laid on top so you can see the neat poppies (& zinnias, etc) fabric I found last week.  It was such a wild color combination I had to try it.  My BF asked if I’d suddenly become a Dolphins fan, lol.  All the patchwork is random & on point 5” finished squares.  It’ll be approximately twin size which is plenty big enough for me (who makes those measurements anyway?  Twin fits fine on my full size bed, I layer them over a bigger quilt that covers the mattress sides & box spring).  It’s bigger than I normally make & I’m sure I’ll be cursing as I quilt it but I can’t wait for that part.  I’m going to start with straight line quilting along both sides of the seams (with my trusty walking foot), then raw edge applique the circles & finish up filling in the solid squares with a variety of circle FMQ.  It’ll be one of my most heavily quilted ones yet.  I hope it comes out, I’m a little freaked by the patchwork by itself, it’s LOUD!  Thanks for stopping by, happy quilting!

Finally Done

 

Ugh, this didn’t finish up quite as well as I’d like.  I tried a faux piped binding tutorial I saw online and I messed it up somewhere big time.  It’s ok and I’ll try it again but I have another method in mind.

It looks ok from the back but one corner was totally goofy.

This one was ok, but see?  I had to topstitch the edge (with invisible thread), so it’s really just a wonky stripe along the edge.  And I had too much green & not enough white (though I followed the cutting directions?).  Ahh well, another WIP done, off to another!

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!

Woo-hoo Wednesday!

 

Wednesday’s my favorite day of the week, I don’t really know why, sometimes I go out for a little evening entertainment on Wed, sometimes not.  I think it’s just knowing I’m that much closer to the weekend.  ETA, I had to look it up, I was born on a Wed, maybe that’s it *grin*

I’m trying out Freshly Pieced’s WIP Wednesday this week, glad to have found you all, can’t wait to see what everyone’s working on!

I’m almost finished hand quilting my Central Park #2 quilt (made from the teeny amount of scraps I had left from the first one).  I’m NOT a hand quilter, my stitches are big & childish, crooked, meandering, but HEY, you can definitely tell it’s got hours & hours of hand work in it, LOL!  I like it regardless.

I got my red block stitched but I’m running short on oranges for the next one…I even dug out and cut some stash.  Not sure what’s up with that, I love orange.  I’m going to move on to another color for now.

Just other stuff I wanted to rattle on about…

1. It’s Creative Mojo day!  3pm eastern, don’t forget to listen (or download) Mark Lipinski’s great show!

2. Just One Star for a great cause, check it out!

I think that’s it, I have a TON of work sewing to finish & deliver today.  Have a great Wednesday!