Snowed In Finish

Final Stats

Name: Snowed In

Dimensions: 68x85 Inches

Pieces: Front - 400

Pattern: Alternating bordered squares

Technique: Patchwork

Materials: 100% Quilting Cottons

Quilting: Machine quilting done on my little Euro-Pro

 

This started with a layer cake of In From the Cold by Kate Spain for Moda. I loved the whole line, which is rare for me, so I decided to go for it. I should have gotten a second layer cake in Kona Snow, which is what I used for the background and done a hack and slash, but instead I cut it from yardage.

 

I left 2 squares out of the layer cake to get an even 40.

 

From each square, I cut the following:

1 5x5" square

2 2.5x5" strips

2 2.5x10" strips

 

From the Kona Snow I cut the following:

40 5x5" squares

80 2.5x5" strips (I actually cut these 3x5")

80 2.5x9" strips (I cut these 3x9.5" to have room to cut them down)

 

The pattern for the blocks is self-explanatory. Once made, I trimmed them down to 9" square, using the 6 3/4" marks on my 12.5" ruler in the corner of the center square to make sure all sides were even.

 

The backing is from one large piece of the red on white snowflake fabric from the line and some Kona Snow. Quilting is straight line about 1/2" from both sides of the center square. The trim is also from the line. I love striped binding.

 

And best of all, I got to keep it.

 

Goals for 2014 and January

Having closed out another year, it's time to look back and reflect but also time to look forward and plan. I feel I do both pretty well. So here are my finishes for 2013:

 

1. Fracture Quilt - Complete Top, 2. Applique Toucan, 3. Red and White Star Quilt, 4. Low Volume Baby Quilt, 5. Christmas Quilt, 6. Riley Blake Challenge

The Riley Blake Challenge quilt was finished on New Year's Eve, I just don't have a final picture yet.

I will be participating in the 2014 A Lovely Year of Finishes again. I also decided to wait to restart Color Bee Shocked, because of some issues later in the year that I haven't quite gotten over. Instead I somehow managed to sign up for the Stash Bee, without actually remembering signing up. I have February as the queen bee. 

My January goal is to make the January block and finalize my plans for February, make a block, and write a tutorial.

As a stretch goal I have the following:

1) Finish putting together the Community Quilt top; I've given up on waiting for other people to make additional house blocks. 

2)  Keep cutting half hexies.

My sewing goals for 2014 are as follow:

1) Finish the Community Quilt

2) Finish the Hexie Wedding Quilt

3) Finish the top of the Plus Wedding Quilt

4) Make a commissioned plus quilt

5) Learn how to use a longarm machine

6) Make baby quilts as necessary (perhaps one for us, we'll see, no news yet)

December Finishes

So my goal for the December "A Lovely Year of Finishes" was to finish the Riley Blake Challenge top. I did that the day after I posted my goal on Flickr. So here it is, with the backing done and basted for quilting. I may even get it finished before the new year. We'll see.

I am particularly pleased with the backing for this quilt. It works with the front perfectly. But you'll have to wait for all the pictures until I have finished it.

I also completed my Christmas Quilt, which I've decided to name "Snowed In," in time for Christmas. My hubby and I sat under it to watch Aladdin on Christmas Eve. It was one of his gifts and we always unwrap one each on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas Day.

Here I am, hand stitching the binding down on Christmas Eve. My cuddly Sir Galahad is perched behind me, unhappy that the quilt is taking up all of his lap space. It was so great to be able to snuggle under it together while we played Guild Wars 2 after everyone had left on Christmas Day.

I leave you with a panorama picture of our Christmas Day Open House spread. We had Mucho Gusto, Bruschetta, charcuterie and cheeses, root veggies, vegetarian and sausage stuff mushrooms, Swedish meatballs, raw veggies with ranch dip, cream cheese logs, easy Swedish apple pie, buckeyes, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and spiced pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting. Also homemade eggnog  (alcoholic), mulled cider (with optional alcohol), and an assortment of beers, juices, milk, or sparkling cider. We had a blast, had quite a few people drop in, and played Munchkin and Cards Against Humanity.

Productivity is Good

I've been quite productive lately. Spending some time in my craft room every day has been amazing.

I have finished one of two Color Bee Shocked blocks for October. It turned out great, but man does it suck to trim 28 HST's to 2.5" square. Almost as much as pressing those suckers. Next up the same block in red. Tutorial for the block can be found here.

I also cut the rest of my Kona Sprout for my Giant Churn Dash blocks, and put three of them together.

I am using my Christmas blocks as the Leaders and Enders, so I have four of those completed as well, and one more in my machine as my Ender block.

Jacquie Gering and October Update

I wrote a guest post on the DC Modern Quilt Guild blog here. It's about the amazing trunk show by Jacquie Gering that I went to in Baltimore on Monday. It was hosted by the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild. In case you don't know who Jacquie Gering is, here is a link to her blog Tallgrass Prairie Studio. Go check it out, you won't be sorry. Here is another picture of the trunk show that I didn't post on the DCMQG blog.

This is the quilt the publishers didn't want to use in her book, because they didn't like the antennae on the TV's. No sense of humor, so sad. I love them.

 

I finished cutting fabric for my plus quilt! I started laying it out on the floor and just started sewing. Next thing I knew, I had sewn together 21 rows.

 

Here is just a small sampling of the many fabrics used in this quilt.

 

I ended up with tons of extra grey cut fabric which I will be using on the back. Each row is 19 "squares" long and as previously mentioned, the quilt will be 21 rows across. It will be a king sized quilt and will finish at about 95x105. I will be getting this quilted by a long-armer, just need to narrow down my choices. But that won't happen until after the wedding next June, because my FSIL and I had discussed using fabric for the guest book and incorporating those fabric squares into the back of the quilt.

 

Other projects that I am actively working on include the following:

 

The Christmas quilt: I have now run completely out of cut Kona Snow and need to start cutting some more.

 

A second low volume baby quilt: need to mark more of the fabrics so I can turn them into HSTs.

 

Japanese X and Plus blocks: finished cutting all the grey end squares and need to concentrate on the center pluses.

 

Color Bee Shocked blocks for October: I have cut the red fabrics for one and have picked out the pink fabrics for the other.

 

Scrappy Swoon Wedding Quilt: I have sorted out all of my purple, blue-green, and black fabrics ready to be cut. I have decided to make the pattern a bit larger and will be using 4.5 and 5" squares.

 

Memory Quilts: I made a second octagonal block section and a second Double Wedding Ring "melon"/"football"/whatever from the fabrics I used in the Plus Quilt.

 

Left: Toucan Quilt; Right: Plus Quilt

Top: Plus Quilt; Bottom: Toucan Quilt

 

This crafting every day thing is really working. I did actually get some cleaning in and have put away all of the fabrics that I had finished cutting. Not to mention all the cutting and sewing I've been doing recently.





Block Progress

Two posts in one day... crazy. Then again, I'm trying this new things were I spend some time each day in my craft room, and it's been incredibly productive so far.

You saw the first four Giant Churn Dash blocks. I have all of the prints cut and all of the background fabric I had as well. Now I just need to start sewing the blocks together. Unfortunately, I'm going to need to order more background fabric, because I'm short several blocks.

The flash washed this picture out horribly. It's block 5 of 20. And the churn dash is a rather bright red and the background is Kona Sprout.

I have also been working on my Christmas quilt as the leader and ender blocks, but I'm running out of cut Kona Snow, so I'll have to cut some more soon.

I have more blocks complete, but this is what I've finished in the last few days. The blocks currently measure 9" and will be 8.5" finished. I also have a few with white borders and a print in the center, but I made those a while ago.

I also finally finished the block for the September Color Bee Shocked queen bee. It took a while, because I didn't want to touch anyone else's fabric while I was sick, and there were a lot of HSTs to square up. Especially since the red fabric didn't want to cooperate. But it's done and it looks good. Almost makes me want to try this slightly larger. I have this obsession currently with huge blocks.