I'm Alive!

I can't believe I haven't posted anything in two months. I promise, I'm still alive. Just super busy. I started back to work last Wednesday and before that I was trying to cram as much sewing and baby time as possible into every minute. So I've got lots of stuff to share and don't even know where to start. Well, baby pictures are always good.

Let's see, the Hexie quilt has been set aside. I've sewn together about 12 out of 25 rows, but wasn't even close to finishing it in time for the wedding. So, since I have a ton of other things I need to get done with upcoming deadlines, I figured I'd set that aside and work on other stuff. I have 3 of these panels stitched together.

Then I decided that I should join the DCMQG Bee. Lynne had the first month and I'm queen bee for the second. Here are the blocks I made for her:

She wanted aqua and purple wonky stars with low volume backgrounds. I think I did alright, although aqua is one of those colors that completely frustrates me.

And here is the block I chose for my month. I made two test blocks and they were way more fun than I thought they would be since I don't usually do scrappy improv:

They will become a baby quilt for my nephew Jackson, who is due in August. That's the great thing about having two siblings who are 15 months and 3 years younger, we all end up with babies at roughly the same time (the same year). In this case, three boys who have already been dubbed the Three Musketeers.

Next up we have a whale baby quilt, using the Preppy the Whale pattern from Elizabeth Hartman. I bought the pattern and it made the quilty math so much easier because I had actual measurements for each piece to base it off of, not just eyeballing a design. First I blew up the whale times two, then I chopped the pattern into 4" (finished) sections. There was much scribbling on scrap paper before I was satisfied and I'm happy to say that it worked out.

I also pieced a back, basted, quilted and started making binding for it. But ended up stuck because I didn't have enough red solid to make the binding and the red and white striped binding I had leftover from another quilt also isn't enough. Unfortunately, since we're on a super tight budget until I get paid again, I have been unable to buy more. Hopefully it will get done soon though and I can write a post just about that quilt, because I think it's turning out fabulously! It's for the son of our friends, Kevin and Jess.

I also basted the braille alphabet quilt for the son of a coworker.

I'm extremely happy to say that I received the Pixel Michigan quilt back from the longarmer and didn't waste any time making scrappy binding for it and finishing it off. It's been hanging out on our bed since I presented it to my husband for his long overdue birthday, Christmas, birthday present. Here is a sneak peek, as I'll be making an entire post for that finish as well. It more than deserves it.

I am once again working on the wedding quilt for my brother-in-law and his fiancée. I'm making a Scrappy Swoon quilt, just a bit bigger than the original, so it fits a queen sized bed. Here's where I am with that, I just have to sew this layer together and onto the center and then have one more layer to go:

Although I think the greenish blues really stand out, the purple and the black blend together a little more than I would have liked. You can barely see that the center is supposed to be a star and not an X. But I like it anyway.

I've also done some work on the Layer Cake Sampler QAL and have paired one Sunnyside print with one white solid and drawn the lines on the back. I've even sewn up several of the pairs, cut some apart, and even managed to finish my first block:

I quite like how this first one turned out, we'll see what happens with the rest.

I've also put in some work on my cross-stitch pieces, but mainly on the piece I started most recently. Forest by Satsuma Street. It is coming together much faster than I thought possible, although I haven't had a chance recently to work on it.

I'm making it to go along with the baby quilt for my nephew. My sister-in-law said that she had a pillow that needed a cover, so that's the plan. Not sure how I'm going to "frame" it, but I'm thinking maybe a scrappy border to match the quilt for the front and then an envelope back that doesn't require a zipper.

Phew, that was a longer post than anticipated, but I really have been quite busy. And that's not including the guild meetings and the Denyse Schmidt lecture I attended. Maybe I'll post something about those some other time.

Snow Day and Sewing Day

Sarah from the Stash Bee organized a sewing day at the Tyson's Library in Virginia on Sunday. I actually got there roughly on time. There were three ladies there from the Stash Bee, including Sarah, and one member from the DCMQG. I spent most of the time laying out the teals/aquas and the purples for the Scrappy Swoon quilt.

I started sewing some of the joining HSTs together. Then I sewed two of the 3x6 panels and some of the 9 patches together. Unfortunately I ran out of time and had to carefully stack the remaining pieces and take copious amounts of pictures so I would remember what went where.

A snow day meant I got to stay home on Monday and sew some more. Worked a bit more on the Scrappy Swoon quilt and managed to sew together all of the panels and 9 patches that I had all the pieces for.

My current leader and ender project is the Checkerboard quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts. I have mixed in some low volume prints along with two different white solids. Here are a few of the 4 patches I have sewn together so far.

Celebrating 100+ Followers and the End of Cutting

Between Google Friends and Bloglovin', I now have over 100 followers, from the Sew Mama Sew Give-Away. I'm super excited. Thanks for joining me!

I have finally finished cutting fabric for my Scrappy Swoon quilt.

Let me just say... holy (insert your favorite four letter word here). What a process. But I feel quite happy about being done. I am using 4.5 and 5" squares instead of the 3.5 and 3 7/8" the original QAL called for. The QAL quilt finishes at 72" square, mine will finish at 96" square. I also like trimming down my HSTs a bit, since I'm trimming down the dog ears anyway, and have a tendency to meander slightly when sewing on the bias.

Some fabric highlights include a Tardis damask, bowtie fabrics, Thing 1 and 2 from Dr. Seuss, Phantom of the Opera masks, fire plumes, alpacas, and several other things that have special meaning to them.

The stats:
Background: Black, 42 5" squares, 192 4.5" squares
Primary Color: Purple, 36 5" squares, 132 4.5" squares
Secondary Color: Blue-green (Aqua, Teal, Turquoise), 30 5" squares, 168 4.5" squares

151 different fabrics
600 squares total
8.319 yards of cut fabric (not counting the extra squares I cut from the scraps)

I would love to say I'm done with cutting fabrics forever. Alas this is not the case. I have started on the half hexies for my sister's wedding quilt. I have several already cut (below is my very first one), and quite a few 4.5" strips from cutting the blue-greens for the Scrappy Swoon quilt. The colors for the half hexie quilt will be blue-green, green, grey, and pops of coral. Pretty excited about that one.

I also promised my mother a quilt, although she didn't specify an exact deadline and she's paying for the fabric I use, so yay. I'm leaning towards Modified Bento Boxes. And will be using blues and greens for hers. And I also promised my husband a quilt. I am making him a pixelated quilt using a county map of Michigan, where we both grew up. I had him choose the background color and to my surprise he chose first Kona Water, which was way lighter than I had originally intended to go, and then Kona Pacific, which was a little better. Since I let him choose, I ordered the fabrics despite my slight misgivings. It will still be stunning, regardless. He also gave me carte blanche on the colors for the counties. I specifically asked him about pink and he said there would be so little of it and it would be so spread out that it didn't really matter. Yay! I love creative freedom.

December Goals and Upcoming Contest/Give-Away

I am working on getting a quilt naming contest/give-away together since I am horrible at naming my own quilts and I need some help. I am just working on some suitable prizes for the winners and one bigger give-away item for a random winner. Stay tuned.

So I set my December goal for "A Lovely Year of Finishes" via Flickr this month. It was to finish the top for my Riley Blake Challenge hosted by the Modern Quilt Guild.

Fabrics were already cut when I made myself that goal. But guess what... I already finished my goal for the month. The very next day!

Now what am I supposed to do with the rest of my month!?! Just kidding, I have plenty of projects.

So here is my to do list for the rest of December. December for me includes a whopping two weeks off from my job for Christmas and we're not going anywhere because my hubby has to work, so in my mind that equates to two weeks of sewing!

1) Get the top of the Community Quilt put together, at least in a 5x6 block layout. I'm still missing one Skyline block, which someone has offered to make, and four house blocks, which I don't have any takers for yet. It took me long enough to make one, so I'm not keen on making another four.

My house block.

The Skyline blocks so far.

The four "odd" shaped road pieces.

I still need to put together several straight road pieces, square up the house blocks, and sew blocks together. I am already loving the Skyline blocks.

2) Finish sewing together the Giant Churn Dash blocks. Fabric is already cut out, just need to piece them together.

3) Start cutting half hexis for my sister's wedding quilt. Colors requested were blue-green and dark green, with potential grey. I may choose something besides grey, depending on how dark the rest of the quilt gets.

4) Work on the Java wedding quilt. I'm very tempted to just rip out the second borders I have on the first set of blocks and put the blocks together as is. Won't be much of a pineapple blossom design, but it may save my sanity and actually get this thing done.

5) Continue putting together the Plus Wedding Quilt. All the rows are done, just need to sew them together.

6) Keep cutting fabric for the Scrappy Swoon Wedding Quilt.

7) Decide if I want to participate in the Modern from Repo guild challenge. If I do decide to participate, I need to come up with a design by December 15. However, except for the solids and the blenders, none of the fabrics we're actually supposed to showcase really speak to me. So I'm having designer's block big time. Benefit of participating is that we get all the fabric needed for the project for free. Front, backing, and binding.

8) Decide on a project for the February quilt show at the Anacostia Arts Center. We need to have pictures of at least the front (or a portion of the finished front) by sometime in January. I might actually start on that Pixelated Michigan quilt I promised my hubby. Who knows. Alternatively, I may enter my Riley Blake Challenge or the Giant Churn Dash quilt, if I get it done in time.

I think that's plenty, although I have two other projects I could/should be starting on.

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.