Monthly Archives: January 2015

HtbaS - Episode 213

SBSILots of feedback to get through this week since I posted so many pictures of finished quilts! I’ve also got 2 charity quilts in the works and a couple other things brewing.

Feel free to play along with the Sportsball Sew-In this weekend on twitter! Use #SBSI to chat about what you’re sewing.

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Lone(ly) Rainbow - Finished!

Whew. This is the last of the backlogged, need-to-be-photographed finished quilts! And it’s a doozy.
Lone(ly) RainbowIt’s not particularly large, measuring 60×60″ or so, but the quilting was intimidating enough that I stalled and waffled on it for a while.

The color scheme came about from a jelly roll of solids and a serious love of rainbows harkening back to my childhood. I was tempted to add some Lisa Frank-esque elements to really emphasize it, but thinking about Lisa Frank made think of stickers and stationery in middle school, and middle school made me think of mean girls, and the mean girls made me think of lighting things on fire with the burning hatred of a 1,000 suns.

It could be that this took so long to quilt because I still have some unresolved issues related to mean girls in middle school. To be entirely truthful, alternate names I considered for this quilt were “Out of the Ashes” and “Where There’s Fire, There’s Hate Notes In My Locker”.

Lone(ly) RainbowANYWHO, quilting is literally therapy and all that, so here’s what I ultimately did.  Keeping the fire in mind, I went with some feathery flames in the blades themselves; the middle got pink threat, and the outer ring got an aqua thread.

I wanted to keep with the flame theme, and actually considered something “icy” to go with the fire, but ultimately when with a smokier texture.  In retrospect, I’d like to have found a “wispier” smoke than a cartoony smoke, but it is it what it is. And more importantly, it’s done!

Lone(ly) RainbowI did want to have the smoke look like it’s just furling out from the flames and onto the background, so I used a straight-line texture to look like a background for the smoke to be on top of.

I did start marking all the lines to quilt, but ended up using 1″ wide painters’ tape to finish out the marking.

I need to block the quilt still so it lies flat, and although I have some reservations about how I finished it, I’m happy to think this quilt was good preparation for my next quilt!

 

WIP Wednesday: Modern-ish

Welp, once again I almost forgot to post for WIP Wednesday. In my defense, I’m afraid the thing I’m actively working on is sort of… ugly? overwhelmingly, eyeball-seeringly scrappy? Once I get the top together I’ll take a picture and we can judge. Or maybe I’ll wait to take a picture until it’s quilted and bound so there will be NO BACKSIES.

Anywho, here’s something else I finished recently - the final top from the Grand Illusion units! In need of pressing, no less.

I sewed the outer border pieces into stars and added an extra orange flying geese unit to make orange diamond-looking hats? Feet? Not sure what to call them. I could probably push it into more modern design, but this was enough of a stretch for now. I plan on using some lime green thread to do some (intentionally) wobbly straight light quilting in all the background.

Go check out the other, more timely, WIP Wednesday posts on Lee’s blog!

Frilly Quilt - Finished!

This sweet little quilt seemed to take forever, but that’s likely because I pieced the units as leaders and enders while making other projects.

Frilly quiltApologies for the weird sun stripes - we take our exterior shots where we can around here.

Given all that negative space, I put a giant dahlia in the setting blocks and triangles, as well as in the middle of the blocks.

Frilly quiltFrilly quiltThe pattern was adapted from Scraps, Inc, so check that out if you like the modern(ish) aesthetic and are a scrap quilter.

Of course, mine is totally modern because it has a pieced back (inside guild joke).

Once we find out what the pending family baby is, I’ll decide if this is getting donated or given as a gift. Until then, it’s into the cabinet to stay (relatively) cat hair free, with final washing just before it heads to its new home.

Grand Illusion #2 - Finished!

Finally a break in cold and rain! And found the camera AND remembered to take pictures of quilts. Baby steps!

Anywho, here’s the finished second Grand Illusion quilt; this one sets the blocks without  Bonnie’s sashing, and then uses the checkerboard sashing as 1st border.  There’s a 1″ border of black, then Bonnie’s outer pieced border, and finally “regular” border of a single fabric.

Grand Illusion - Quilt #2Grand Illusion - Quilt #2The finished size is somewhere around 72×72″, I think. Nothing too fancy in the quilting since I stuck with a simple meander in all but the outermost border.

I’m almost done with all the pieces from this monster mystery - there’s one more quilt to finish with some of the elements. And three placemats. It’s the mystery that won’t end!

Sunday Stash: Frill Seeker

Well, another exciting week! And by that I mean, it’s Sunday and I’m staring around wondering where the week went. Anywho, I finished the Frilly quilt Saturday night, which may get added to the charitable column if the anticipated family summer baby is a not girl.  I promise as soon as this post gets published I’m taking a stack of finished quilts outside to photograph since I’ve got 3 that have finished but not photographed. I’m hoping I can find the good camera, too, since one of them is a show(ish) quilt.

POD block 3No purchases or intake this week, which is just ominous since next weekend is the Super Bolt sale at Tiny Stitches, and I typically blow out the net usage for the year in just an hour’s damage in the sale room. Oh, the anticipation!

I also whipped block 3 of the Project of Doom - rather than the plain book cover or the Dark Mark, I made a book on Quidditch with a golden snitch. I made my snitch wings sparkly with another tulle overlay and sandwiched some Angelina fibers in between the layers for some sparkle.

  • Used this Week: 4.25 yards
    • 4.25 yd for Frilly quilt
  • Used year to Date: 40 yards
  • Added this Week: 0 yards
    • Woohoo!
  • Net Used for 2015: 34.5 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 15.25 yards (38% of total used)

See more Stash Reports at Patchwork Times!

HtbaS - Episode 212

This week it’s all about fame and glory! From the quilting podcasters’ mention in Generation Q magazine to presenting to the Quilters Guild of the Southern Crescent last night, I try to stay humble while also talking about the glamor of motherhood and pet ownership. Now with 50% less pickle juice talk.

Also, I do talk about quilting.

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WIP Wednesday: Frilly

It’s rare that I do an overtly “girly” quilt for a number of reasons: I’m not overly girly, my daughter isn’t super girly, and I’m conscious that in charitable quilting, boy quilts are often not as “cute” as girl quilts. As a result of not doing girly quilts, though, I still seem to have a pile up of pinks and purples pile up in my scraps.

To use up some of these in a not-too-cutesy quilt, I made a number of these blocks from the book Scraps, Inc.  It’s worth noting my background corners are slightly bigger than the pattern calls for because of the sizes I keep my scraps in, and thus my petals are “pointier” than originally called for.

They’ll be set on point with alternate spacer blocks in some of the same whites, and thus I will have one of my first charity quilts for the year!

See more WIPs at Lee’s blog.

Sunday Stash - Rainbow Bright

YOU GUYS. I just have to put the binding on Lone(ly) Rainbow and it’s done!  I finished what I hoped was the final bit of straight-line quilting on the outer parts last night and posted a picture to Instagram asking the #twilters if I was done.  I had contemplating adding another row of straight-line quilting in between (the lines are 1″ apart now, and was contemplating making them denser at 1/2″ apart instead), or maybe doing perle cotton hand-quilting in between, and everyone responded that I was DONE. So I just need to bind it and it’s done, and I’ll get that done today so I’m being optimistic and including it in this week’s finishes.

I’m going to do a “palette cleanser” charity quilt next (so called because I can mindlessly piece and quilt it without getting angsty over how to design or make it), and then move on to finally getting back to the Dresden Garden quilt.

I also whipped up 6 journal covers for Wellspring Living this week, but donated them before I could take pics, so that’s in the usage as well.  While I was helping my friend Crystal organize her fabric yesterday, so gave me some patriotic fabrics to use for some Quilts of Valor, which is great since my red and blue stashes are a bit low.

  • Used this Week: 7.25 yards
    • 1.25 yd for 6 journal covers
    • 6 yd for Lone(ly) Rainbow
  • Used year to Date: 35.75 yards
  • Added this Week: 1.5 yards
    • 1.5 yd patriotic novelties
  • Net Used for 2015: 30.25 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 15.25 yards (43% of total used)

See more Stash Reports at Patchwork Times!

HtbaS - Episode 211

UntitledI run down current sewing, the Scrapitude mystery, pickle juice problems, and some book reviews.

Here’s my Scrapitude Scrap in a Box Step 1 progress - my colors are reds, browns, blacks, and grays with scrappy creams for the background.

Books:

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