WIP Wednesday

Well, after I freaked you out with my Christmas countdown last week, I didn't actually get started on any holiday projects this week. But soon!



Finished:

Modern Crosses Wall Hanging


Done! And proudly hanging on my wall.

Vera bag #2

Luke's preschool teacher from last year asked me to make her a bag like mine. No problem. (Vera pattern from Green Bee Patterns. Fabric here.) I used the interfacing recommended in the pattern this time (the first time I couldn't remember what it was when I went to the fabric store). The recommended interfacing (Decor Bond?) worked out better (weird!) and gives the bag a little extra heft. I would've switched them out, but mine is too dirty to pass for new! Oh, and that would be wrong.

Ongoing projects:

For the Love of Solids Swap


I finished my small item. It's a notebook cover (tutorial here). Rachel from Stitched in Color has been cranking out journal covers, so I decided to give them a try too. My large item is well underway. I'm a little nervous about it, but I think my partner will be happy if I can pull it off.

Garden Fence Quilt

I'm going to use my DS Quilts fabric to make a Garden Fence quilt. I haven't started cutting yet, but I pulled all the fabric today, so I'm counting it as in progress! This is going to be a Christmas gift.

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Postage Stamp quilt
Kaleidoscope baby quilt #2

To do:
4x5 blocks
Deer quilt
Vera bag #2
superhero quilt
do Good Stitches Sept block
VIBees block


Head over to Lee's to see what everyone else is working on!

Have you voted??

Have you heard? My friend (and WIP Wednesday hostess) Lee has entered the fabric design contest at Connecting Threads. This is a really close competition, so I think every vote is going to count! The finalists get a great prize, and they get to design coordinating prints to go along with their focal print. Selfishly, I want Lee to win so I can see what else she comes up with!







Click here to vote for Lee's design. Her design is called Flourish. It's in the fourth row on the right.
Voting ends on August 31, so get over there!

Modern Crosses on the wall

We spend most of our time in our living room/sunroom. It's a great room with tall ceilings and lots of windows...and no decoration.


We have this blank wall above one of our sofas, and I've been thinking for a while that I should put a quilt on it.
Go ahead, take your time. There's a lot to take in here.


Solution: Modern Crosses wall hanging! Ah, that's better! The pattern is from Modern Log Cabin Quilting. I bought a copy after seeing great versions popping up in Flickr (love Elizabeth's Baby boy version, and I borrowed heavily from this version by Betty Crocker Ass). I bought the book just for this pattern, and I think it was money well spent. I'm sure I'll be using it again.


I used brown/green/orange prints from my stash with Essex Linen in Natural for the sashing. This is a similar color palette to my Colorbrick quilt. The linen got a little shifty on me, but I love the look. The finished size is about 28 x 38.


I hand quilted around each cross with a variegated pearl cotton. I wish I'd used plain orange, but I was trying to only use materials I had on hand, so the variegated worked. (It's kind of crazy how much I can do using only materials I have on hand. Some may say I don't need to buy new fabric. I'm not one of those people, but some may say that.) My stitches are a little crazy in a few places. I need more practice for sure.


Thanks so much for your opinions on finishing! I'm so glad Toni reminded me of the binding flange tutorial on Jaybird Quilts. It was super easy, and it provided just the right amount of color. I used an orange print for the flange and Kona Espresso (I think) for the binding. My kitchen is adjacent to this room, and it is painted in a rusty orange color, so I think this ties things together nicely!

WIP Wednesday!

**Special Alert**
Fellow WIPers: I don't mean to cause alarm, but have you looked at a calendar lately? Cause Christmas is 4 months from tomorrow. I think it's time to get my crafty Christmas to-do list in order!

Back to our regularly scheduled WIP post... Great week! Check it out.



Finished:

New pressing table! Tutorial here.


Starflower blocks for do. Good Stitches. Tutorial from Ellison Lane Quilts.


Red Letter Day quilt!

Ongoing projects:
Modern Crosses Wall Hanging

I finished hand quilting this and just need to complete the binding. Maybe tomorrow!

For the Love of Solids Swap

I'm tweaking my plan a little... The deadline for this is sneaking up on me, so I need to get sewing!

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Red Letter Day quilt (yesssss)
Postage Stamp quilt
Kaleidoscope baby quilt #2


To do:
4x5 blocks
do. Good Stitches Starflower blocks for August
Deer quilt
Garden Fence Quilt-Along
Vera bag #2
superhero quilt

Head over to Lee's to see what everyone else is working on!

A red letter finish

Remember this quilt? I asked for opinions on the sashing, made some crazy graphs, decided on the black, and said I'd be back soon with the finished quilt. That was January 27. The quilt top got stuck in a pile, awaiting further attention. Lately I've been very eager to sew up my Lucky Stars blocks from my most recent bee, but it seemed wrong to do that before finishing this quilt from last year's bee.


So I finished it! You know I'm going to be excited to mark this one off my WIP list. A big thanks to the women of my bee who contributed these awesome blocks. The little borders are Kona Bahama Blue, as is the binding. The sashing is black. I quilted in straight lines with light blue thread. I'm not super thrilled with the way it turned out, but it will do the job. All of the prints are from Lizzy House's Red Letter Day.


For the back, I wanted to put the rest of my Red Letter Day stash to use. That fabric is too cute to sit in a drawer. So I sewed together large blocks of the fabric, keeping like colors together.

I've decided to donate this quilt as a part of Kate's (Swim, Bike, Quilt) 100 Quilts for Kids Campaign. She's asking for people to donate quilts to a local charity, and then link up to her blog in September. I need to research some charities in my area, but I'm going to be happy to send this to a new home!

Modern Crosses wall hanging--thoughts?

I finished up my Modern Crosses wall hanging for my living room. It's about 29 x 38. I used Essex linen in natural and assorted brown/green/orange prints from my stash.


So, my concern..the natural linen is very close to the wall color, so I need to finish this in a way that will make it pop. I'm thinking a small orange border and brown binding? Or the reverse? No border, just brown binding? I don't have room to make it much larger than it is. I'm thinking I'll hand quilt this, but I'm open to suggestions on that too!

Please weigh in with your thoughts!

(pattern from Modern Log Cabin Quilting)

An improvement.

Old pressing table.


New pressing table.


I much prefer Amy Butler's Nigela fabric to a ratty old towel. Go figure.

Tutorial from Oh! Fransson.

WIP Wednesday!

Feeling good this week!



Finished:

Tree quilts

Done and delivered! I think they're happy in their new home. More here.

Ongoing projects:
Modern Crosses Wall Hanging

This quilt has been on my mind for a while, so I'm glad to see it coming to life! I started on a wall hanging using the Modern Crosses pattern from Modern Log Cabin Quilting. I'm using a brown/orange/green color palette, with Essex linen in natural for the background. So far, I'm pretty much in love.

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
sigh. One day, my friends.
Red Letter Day quilt
Postage Stamp quilt
Kaleidoscope baby quilt #2


To do:
For the Love of Solids Swap. Making some calculations.
4x5 blocks
do. Good Stitches Starflower blocks for August
Deer quilt
Garden Fence Quilt-Along
Vera bag #2

Head over to Lee's to see what everyone else is working on!

A tale of two trees

My friend asked me to make two twin-size quilts for her daughters's room. She remembered this mini I made, and asked for quilts like that--just bigger. I used this tutorial from Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew as the basis for the mini, but making it twin-size required some figuring.


You'll have to use your imagination a little--when these are on twin-size beds, the tree will be on top of the mattress, with the white borders hanging off the sides. The top can be folded down so you can see the backing fabric.


We used a cream Moda Bella solid for the background. You can't really tell here, but the tree trunk is a fun print from Sanctuary. The leaves--all scraps and a few samples that my friend gave me. I appliquéd the leaves and did an all-over stippling (in cream).



A few process notes--this was a challenge for me, and there was definitely some making it up figuring it out as I went along. (Thanks to Elizabeth, Emily, and Angela for advice!) That's the good thing about making two--I was really able to refine my process the second time around. For the first tree, I prepared the quilt sandwich, then cut out the leaves and appliquéd them and quilted it at the same time. This led to some (expected) wrangling. I wasn't thinking I'd have room for quilting between the leaves, so I thought the appliqué would double as quilting. It ended up being more wrangling than I was interested in (and I was able to quilt between the leaves) so on #2 I appliquéd the leaves first, then basted and quilted. Much easier.

I didn't want any raw edges, so I used this appliqué method. Then I attached the leaves to the quilt using Heat N Bond Lite before stitching them down with invisible thread (as suggested by Linz!). I sewed around the perimeter of each leaf and a "vein" down the middle.


My friend chose these great Kumari Garden prints for the backing. Have you seen this line? I hadn't before this project. Love it.


Both quilts were bound using Kona Chartreuse.

Overall, I think they turned out pretty well! I'm glad to add these to my dunzo list.

(if you're wondering why I keep saying "dunzo," blame Tom Haverford. I'm not using it correctly, but I don't care, because Aziz Ansari is the funniest man on TV.)

My lucky stars

I have this thing about Anna Maria Horner fabric--first and foremost, I love it, and she's one of my very favorite fabric designers. But when it comes to actually using her fabric, I kind of panic. She's so adept at creating a compelling color palette and using large-scale prints...but I don't think I'm very good at putting them to use.

This happened with Innocent Crush. I fell in love with it and bought some, and then it sat because I wasn't sure what to do with it. So, when my month in the VIBees came around, I sent the fabric to them so they could figure out how best to put it to use. And figure it out they did!


I know you're thinking, "Dang, she's lucky." You're right.

I asked the ladies to make me stars, and they sent back these blocks. I am beyond thrilled. I have been waiting for one last block to arrive, but I've come to terms with the (very sad) fact that it must be lost in the mail. As much as I hate that, it's time to now unleash the rest of the blocks from their plastic bin and make them into a quilt. I'm thinking I'll sash the blocks in more Kona Ash, but I'm open to suggestions!


P.S. I succumbed to peer pressure and joined Pinterest. Are you a pinner?

WIP Wednesday

I'm going to keep my WIP post brief this week (you're welcome), so here we go...



Finished:

Kaleidoscope quilt

Done! More here.

Sew Beautiful block for Kati

Done!

Ongoing projects:

Tree quilts
I sewed the binding to the front of #1, and I just finished the applique work on #2. The end is in sight!

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
sigh. One day, my friends.
Red Letter Day quilt
Postage Stamp quilt
Kaleidoscope baby quilt #2


To do:
For the Love of Solids Swap. Planning has begun.
4x5 blocks
Sew Beautiful blocks for Kati
do. Good Stitches Starflower blocks for August
Modern Crosses wall quilt
Deer quilt
Garden Fence Quilt-Along

Head over to Lee's to see what everyone else is working on!

My pretties.

Anna Maria Horner Perle Cotton in Geranium Wall. Purchased here.

I see some hand quilting in my future.

Baby Kaleidoscope...Finished!

I ducked out between raindrops this afternoon to get a few shots of my finished baby kaleidoscope quilt.

I'm really happy with the way this turned out. I'm particularly excited that I was able to make the whole thing with fabric and supplies I already had on hand. I won the FQ bundle of Patricia Bravo Elements fabric several months ago, and I'm really glad I chose to use it in this project. I added a few extra prints from my stash too and used Kona ash as the background fabric.


I thought about stippling this, but I've stipped some big quilts lately, and if my delts get any bigger people will start confusing me for The Rock. I checked the Kaleidoscope Flickr pool and found some great straight-line quilting examples (thanks to Sharon and Debbie!). I decided to quilt in straight lines on either side of the seams. It does seem to distract a little bit from my not-so-pointy points. I used this pink dotty print from Pillow and Maxfield for the binding, and I'm pretty sure it bled a little in the washing machine. I've become really lax about washing because I haven't had any problems, so this is a good reminder. But no worries--it came out in a second wash.


Love the way the quilting pattern shows up on the back. I used some extra kaleidoscope blocks on the back with some extra Kona Ash.





Thanks so much to Elizabeth for another great quilt-along!

WIP Wednesday

First WIP Wednesday in August! I was feeling a little pouty about the end of summer, but we've been having temps over 100 degrees lately, so now I'm thinking fall can't come soon enough!!




Finished:

Central Park quilts



Hooray! More here.

Ongoing projects:

Kaleidoscope babies
Got one basted tonight. I'm hoping to get this quilted and bound before Elizabeth's deadline!

Tree quilts



#1 is quilted, ready for binding. #2 is in the works. These are twin-size quilts for a friend. She's going to use them in her daughter's room. Sorry for the crummy picture. It's on a queen bed here, with the top folded down and the back showing. On the twin bed, the tree will be on top of the mattress and the white fabric will hang over the edges.

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
sigh. One day, my friends.
Red Letter Day quilt
Postage Stamp quilt


To do:
For the Love of Solids Swap. Partner received. Waiting on a few solids to arrive.
4x5 blocks
Sew Beautiful blocks for Kati
do. Good Stitches Starflower blocks for August
Modern Crosses wall quilt
Deer quilt
Garden Fence Quilt-Along

Head over to Lee's to see what everyone else is working on!

Jack & Jill in Central Park: Dunzo!

Feel like I've been working on these forever! I made these quilts for my friend. She wanted twin-size bed quilts for her son and daughter. We decided on Central Park fabric and the Lemon Squares (free!) pattern from Faith of Fresh Lemons.

Central Park was the perfect choice for this project because it has great boy/girl options.


I added a cobblestone border on both quilts and used Kona Zucchini as the binding.


We went with the purple/pink/green fabrics for the girl version...


and green/blue/stone for the boy.


The girl version got loopy quilting.


And the boy version got an all-over meandering stipple.


I was able to do some fussy cutting with the animals...


and trees.


The backs are Kona Bahama Blue and Kona Violet. (Pretend these aren't upside down.)


Ready to head to their new home!



I'm linking up to Sew Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations!