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!

Start of a new quilt?

 

I’m really not sure if I like this or not…

I bought the coloring book a few weeks ago thinking I’d make a cute baby quilt with 9 animal blocks.  Hmm, maybe it’s just my lack of contrast with the 3 green prints I chose…or the horrible job I did zigzagging the edges…the raw edge butterflies came out ok, lol.

While I was sewing that I got a call to come see where Little Bear was—he found a window that’s never open (hot & humid here, I don’t blame him!).  He never poses for pics, I was glad to get one!

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, April 4

 

Another finish, inspired by Oh Fransson’s pattern “New Wave.”  I finally bit the bullet & bought a walking foot (gosh, took me long enough!).  I think there’s a learning curve to this thing, my lines aren’t the straightest, but it’s definitely an improvement & sped up the process considerably.  Maybe there’s hope for the big pile of tops I have waiting to quilt!

I’m calling this the “Edgy Baby Quilt” because I used some interesting novelty prints, several of which aren’t babyish at all.  Had some minor issues binding the points, I did make bias binding but I couldn’t quite miter all the turns neatly.  It measures (approx) 34x43.”

Some of my favorite fabrics.

And I finally used one of my silk screened & embellished labels.  Next time I’ll try printing directly on the backing fabric so I don’t have to hand sew the thing on.  Fun pattern, I’ll definitely make this again!

Almost finished with the quilting on this one too!  Love the turquoise with orange.  I need to go exchange my walking foot this morning, something’s not right with it, I’m having to drag the quilt through to keep a consistent stitch length.

I’m linking up to Judy’s Design Wall Monday, happy sewing everyone!

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!

A Near-finish

 

I’ve been super busy with work this week but before the sun came up this morning I got this finished except the binding (debating colors).

It’s sort of a quilt-as-you-go (QAYG), I quilted the top squares with batting but then sewed them all together & added the backing, quilting a double line down each of the 4 big seams.  I should have waited until I bought a walking foot, my lines are a little crooked but no one will notice after it’s washed.  I don’t care for the usual QAYG method that looks like window sashing when it’s done, the construction is so obvious.

I think the pink is my favorite circle.  Many memories in this quilt of clothes, quilts & bags I made for my girls.

Super easy way to make a quilt!  It measures 36” square.  I can’t take credit for the design, I saw one on flickr somewhere and had to try a circle ticker tape, though the white & green center is all mine, I didn’t want to use brown scraps.

It’s backed with a silky minky type fabric remnant, my only cost for the quilt, $5.  Had great fun with it and I’m going to make a few more with different colored center blocks.  I didn’t even make a dent in my scraps.

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!

Friday Finish

 

We had a beautiful, sunny 80 degrees here today!  I didn’t spend as much time outside as I’d like though, this was calling me.

It’s entirely hand quilted, many many hours of it.  I’m a lousy hand quilter, my stitches are big & child-like but I adore the finished look.  I made this with the very small amount of leftover charm squares from my first Central Park quilt.  It measures 31.5 x 41.5.”  Bound in orange, I think that’s my favorite part.

I got a great deal on the backing fabric, $1/yd.  It’s hard to see but there are little hearts, dots & stars, I think it works pretty well with the line.  Off to the washer, can’t wait to see the crinkled look.  Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend!

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!

Back up and running!

 

The internet, that is.  Need to get my butt back out on the road running but I’m sick of the cold!  I’m about half caught up on my blog reading, gosh did I miss that for the last week.  We’ve already called & set up internet & tv with a new company but I’m not cancelling the current company until they get here next week.  I’ve done SO much sewing!  Even knocked out a 3 day work order, delivered it and picked up some more for the weekend.  I’m not sewing on it today though…some fluffy mail arrived a couple hours ago.

My thanks again to my supplier, I’m totally addicted to these little charm packs.  I already dove into the Dilly Dally, it’s about half cut and assembled for another cute baby quilt.

Did anyone catch the boo-boo in my 2nd Central Park quilt?  I left out a whole row of sashing, oops!  Here it is fixed & ready to quilt when I figure out what I’m doing with it.  I can’t believe I laid it on the kitchen floor but that’s all that was available right now.  Not that wonky, I was just in a rush & didn’t lay it out nicely (that would mean crawling on the floor that surely has some cat hair on it, I did give the quilt a good shake, lol).

OK, back to work, just had to check in, happy sewing!

Design Wall Monday—Lots of finishes

 

AKA, I haven’t had internet access in 4 days, argh!!  I’m going batty but I did get a lot of sewing done.

First up, I finished piecing this top.  No wonder I never do traditional quilts, it gave me fits due to non-exact cutting of the squares.  This used every tiny scrap of my 2 Central Park charm packs.  I haven’t decided what to back it with yet, might have to spring for a yard of one of the prints (if I can get to a real quilt store to buy it).  Excuse ugly curtains & some freshly dyed fabric drying there behind it, we played with snow dyeing last week.

Next up, I finally finished this little mini.

I quilted around some of the veins in the background fabric too.  This is Jennifer’s Fairy Dreaming applique pattern again.  Once again I skipped the borders & did my own thing, adding the sun & moon.  It measures about 12x12”.

Next, I finished the little square I submitted in the QuiltStory contest last month.  Raw edge appliqued around Fishy, SID for the rest.  It measures 10x12”.

And I machine quilted another of the Heather Ross fish quilt tops I had laying around for several years.  It still needs binding but I’m kind of sick of fish quilts so it’ll sit a while longer.  I didn’t do a great job quilting and it’s heavy (even though it only has flannel for batting).  Nice warm quilt though, good FMQ practice, used up recycled denim.  Measures about 45” square.

Editing to add the last one, this was a practice silk screen run I did last summer.  I saw a similar design on someone’s blog (I think) and added some elements from some fabric I had, hand drawing my own interpretation onto the screen.  I backed & bound it in that pretty batik & hand quilted it last night.  It measures about 9x10”.

Don’t forget to stop by Judy’s for more Monday fun & I’m linking up with Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday.  Thanks for visiting!

Contest Submission

 

I’ve been thinking about joining in on the Quiltstory Block Party (button on the left sidebar) for a few weeks but didn’t finish a block I really liked until I got an idea today.  It’s lying on the backside of a cream quilt just so ya know, my table is too shiny to photograph on.

I’ve done SO much with this Heather Ross fabric (see post below, lol).  I LOVE the free styling here, the different sashing widths, the way it starts traditional log cabin layout and then rotates, the rectangular block (I’m so over plain squares), our little pal eyeing “Swimmy” in his bag, poor thing!   The block measures 10x12” and the fishy is an applique I printed off a free clip site & altered to be able to cut the fine bits out.  This is SO totally ME!  I shared a couple reject blocks a week or so ago, one also using these fabrics but this is my pick, wish me luck, I’d love to win!  He’s going in the “modern” category.

Hmm, sometimes I wonder…

 

I don’t remember making this quilt…or know who I gave it to!  I had it in a list of UFO pics to finish and darned if it doesn’t look like I DID tie quilt it & bound it so what the heck?

This one is still a UFO waiting to quilt, I know where it is.

And the one I just finished.

Apparently I started 3 in the same theme with the same fabrics, lol…I definitely got my money’s worth from the fabric, I have enough scraps for a couple more!

Design Wall Monday

 

First up, my 2 Saturday finishes!  I made this little baby puff quilt in 2 or 3 days including the hand work (I tied it and hand sewed the backing to the front for binding).  It’s almost all satins with some brocade and something I’m calling “crepe” though I don’t know if that’s right.  Lots of nice texture but let me tell you, it was quite “stringy” to work with all those fraying squares!  I skipped the border & used flannel under the puff layer instead of batting because the last one I did weighed a ton.

The brocade butterflies are my favorite!  I had just enough scrap left from another quilt backing I made a few yrs ago for 8 squares.  I’ll definitely make another in these types of fabric, I find them a lot on the remnant rack though all of these came from my scrap bin, not a penny spent!  Ready to be gifted to a friend’s niece who’s pregnant with her first.  It’s small, just 29” square, but nice for a little newborn.  One of my fav, most used baby quilts was no bigger from my girls, it was our “car seat quilt” for going out in the winter.

I pieced this top over 3 years ago when my friend was pregnant with her twins.  Then I changed my mind on the whole project and made them something else, it’s been lugged around through a few moves and finally is done!  I practiced my FMQ on every bit of it except the denim strips.  The wonderful woman behind A Few Scraps blog has a great FMQ-along/tutorial I used and I’ll tell you, my quilting got SO much better!  Not so much my photography though, I was in a rush & only had the dining table available.

I’ve been hoarding these Heather Ross prints for years & if I’m frugal I can knock out a few more quilts with them   It measures 30x41” which I found an excellent size to run through my machine.  Scrappy binding allows me to really use every little bit!  I backed it with a cream corduroy that feels really nice & it has flannel batting.  No home yet, I may take it to a local store to consign, the next baby on my list is a girl.  I have another coordinating top pieced from the same project that I’ll be tackling very soon.

I’m waiting for some charm packs to arrive for the next baby girl quilt so I’m back to my paper pieced flying geese circles for my Superbowl sewing…

Edited to add---I’ll share more tomorrow but here’s what I ended up doing during the game!

Design Wall Monday (a day late)

 

I woke up feeling sick yesterday so here we are a little late.  Not a lot on my wall but I’m liking this “no deadline” project.  I’m not sure who this is for, perhaps one to finally keep, though all that white with the pets might be a bad thing…

Please excuse my ugly curtains, aka my design wall.  It keeps them conveniently in sight anyway.  These take a crazy amount of time, each 4 block square is a good hour or more of pressing & sewing.

 

I started this last night, a puff quilt for my friend’s brother’s newest granddaughter-to-be.  Did you get that?  LOL, said friend’s brother and his wife took care of my best bud for several weeks around Christmas while he was laid up with the broken leg & bad back.  Their daughter is a really good kid (ok, young woman) and when I heard she’s having baby girl I had to start something pink.  From the stash, lots of white satin & a pretty pink brocade I had just 8 squares left of.  Not much yet (started sewing at 9pm last night) but I’m hoping with today’s ice & snow I can finish it in a day or two despite the slippery fabrics.

I have the squares cut for my UFO Challenge (that was due yesterday) but have yet to sew any together…I’m not real thrilled with the project, we’ll see if I can get that going today too…

Instant Gratification Quilting

 

I made this little quilt over my morning coffee—only 3 hrs including hand stitching the binding.  My scrap bin overfloweth…and I save some ridiculously small pieces.  This was a “scrap purist” project, I didn’t trim a thing on the little triangles.  Even the binding was leftover strips I trimmed from another quilt.  I’ve wanted to make a “ticker tape” quilt for a while so I’m calling this “Ticker Triangled.”  They’re simply raw edge appliqued to a white quilt sandwich (made from a $4 flat sheet from walmart, one of my favorite sources for cheap fabric, I don’t mind that they’re a poly/cotton blend).

I plan to hang it vertically on the outside of the bathroom door to brighten up the paneled hallway a bit.  It measures 13x20.”

And I thought I’d share my little ‘found’ binding tools—these often come with clothing but this particular batch came with a pre-packaged quilt kit I bought last fall.  Much more pleasant than constantly jabbing yourself with pins holding the binding in place while you stitch.