And then...she spray basted / Pow Wow finish

I'm not sure why I've been resistant to spray baste. I'm generally in favor of shortcuts, but I've been a little bit stodgy in sticking to my pins. I did try the spray once before without much luck. But after seeing my growing pile of quilt tops, I figured it was time to bite the bullet and see if I could figure this out.

 
I found lots of helpful tips online (like Kelly's video and Kristie's tutorial). It does seem that brand matters, and most quilters seem to prefer 505 spray. (I got mine here--I've heard it's the best price around.)

 
And, guess what? It worked. Within a weekend, I had two quilts basted, quilted, and awaiting hand-stitched binding. (Machine stitching the binding is one shortcut I haven't been able to take. I've tried, but I'm no good at it. And hand-stitching the binding is my favorite.) Will I stick with the spray? Hard to say. It's definitely a time-saver, but spraying all of those chemicals on a quilt bothers me a little. I bought several cans, so I'll be using the spray for a while!


 
One of my finishes was this (Boom Boom) Pow-Wow quilt. (Pow-Wow pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew.) It's a fun, dynamic quilt that's great for small-scale prints. Most of the prints are from the Boy Crazy line by Riley Blake.

 
The large-scale print from Boy Crazy is really fun, but it didn't work with the Pow-Wow pattern, so it ended up on the back!

 
And...all finished up! One note on this pattern: Allison's fabric requirements don't include much room for error. Allison says right there on the pattern to cut carefully because you'll need the full width of fabric, but I still made a cutting mistake (or two...) that caused me to rework my plan. (Just to be clear: The cutting instructions are perfect. I happen to be a dunce.) If you're prone to cutting mistakes, you might order a little extra fabric. :)

WIP Wednesday!

Trying my best to stay on track seeing as *cough* Christmas is three months from today. *cough*



Finished:
Bee blocks

Scrappy Sticks blocks for Michelle (tutorial here)

 
Lemon Squares blocks for Michonne (tutorial from Fresh Lemons Quilts)

  Baby gift

 More on this soon, but it turned out pretty cute!

Pow Wow and Giraffe Quilts
 So after seeing the list of quilt tops in my last post, I decided it was time to take up spray basting to speed the process along. As a result, both of these are finished! More on this soon too.

In progress
Orphan dresden


I was looking through a storage bin this weekend and found this sad little dresden block. It deserves better! I'm going to make it into something. Probably a fall pillow!

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Heartstrings
Giraffe quilt
Guitar quilt
John Deere
Boom Boom Pow Feathers
 Pump Up the Volume

Head to Lee's for lots of WIP inspiration!

Epic blog post of awesomeness!

Well, hello there. How was your summer? We packed a lot into the last couple of months with summer school, family trips, birthdays, lots of pool time, and first days of school. But now it's time to get back on track, and what better way to do that than with a WIP post?


If you follow me on Instagram, lots of this will be familiar!




 Finished:
Bee blocks


In progress

Lots of quilt tops around here. My goal for the weekend is to get ONE of them quilted.

John Deere
 

Boom Boom Pow Wow

   

Pump up the Volume

   

Feathers
 

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Heartstrings
Giraffe quilt
Guitar quilt
John Deere
Boom Boom Pow
Feathers
 Pump Up the Volume

Head to Lee's for lots of WIP inspiration!

July Stash Match!

Ali is hosting another round of Stash Match, and I got to play along this month! You can enter your guess until July 10. Last month's Stash Match was really hard, so I'm going to give you a clue: the top print in my pile is a green and blue print. Should narrow it down nicely!

Baby quilt bliss

I'm loving the simplicity and serene color palette of this one.



My friend Ashley asked me to make a gender-neutral baby quilt for a friend, and she picked out the gorgeous hand-printed fabrics from Maze and Vale. 

 
We added in some coordinating Kona solids: Butter, Mustard, Ice Frappe, Sage, and Ash. The quilting is simple too--just straight lines along the seams.



Ashley wanted a modern and simple design, and I wanted to maximize the hand-printed fabrics, so we decided on rectangles. I think they ended up measuring something weird like 4.5x13.25 (just so I could get as much as possible out of the fabrics).


I found this fun random dresser at work...you might see it pop up as a prop in future posts.

WIP Wednesday

This summer is off to a busy start! Work, two summer school classes, a very active 5-year-old...I'm trying to fit in sewing time when I can. (Pity, party of 1.) I have gotten some things done in the last few weeks (and I have many things to do!). What better way to recap than a WIP post?



 Finished:

Map quilt

Done!

 Dino quilt


Done!
  Bee blocks

May do. Good Stitches blocks for Meg

 

May That Stash Bee blocks for Cathy

 
June That Stash Bee blocks for Deb

In progress

Heartstrings

Waiting for quilting inspiration to strike.

  Baby quilt

Trying to get over my fear of cutting into these lovelies.

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Heartstrings

To do:
June do. Good Stitches Block
Feathers Quilt
Half Moon Modern quilt borders
Baby Quilt
John Deere quilt

Head to Lee's for lots of WIP inspiration!

Dino-rrific

Luke caught me perusing some dino-themed fabrics at Fabricworm and started asking for a new quilt. As you can imagine, it took only minimal arm-twisting to convince me to make one for him.
 
 The pattern is Jack's Blocks from A Bright Corner on Etsy.

There are lots of cute dinosaur fabrics out there, but we went with these Kokka prints along with the Michael Miller Dinosaurs! text print, both from Fabricworm. They're not baby-ish, and I hope that extends his love for this quilt! The sashing is a grey sketch by Timeless Treasures.

 
The backing is a minky dino fabric (purchased here). I'm pretty sure I swore off minky the last time I used it to back a quilt, but my kid is a minky junkie, and it's dino minky! I was powerless to resist. This definitely worked out better than last time. On the last quilt, I used the double-sided minky fleece, which has a much higher nap. This cuddle-type of minky was easier to deal with. It was wide enough that I didn't need to piece the backing, so that helped a lot.

 
He's a fan! He started snuggling with it before I finished sewing on the binding, and he hasn't let it leave his sight since. I haven't even been able to wash it yet!

Around the world in 120 squares

 A recent finish...I started this quilt at the Stash Bash. It came together pretty quickly--just a map panel (from What a World by Jill McDonald) surrounded by patchwork squares.

 
 I quilted it in simple horizontal and vertical lines in an attempt to mimic longitude and latitude. The binding is an orange print from Comma.

 
 Simple solid blue backing, and this one goes in the done pile!

Heartstrings

I missed out on Bloggers' Quilt Festival, but I was determined to finish this in time for the Festival of Strings at Stitched in Color! http://www.stitchedincolor.com/2013/05/festival-of-strings.html?m=1 My do. Good Stitches friends helped make the blocks. Tutorial from Elizabeth/Don't Call Me Betsy. It's a great scrap-buster!!

WIP Wednesday

I'm really excited for the long weekend! Memorial Day. Great weather. Pool opens. I'm hoping to get in some sewing time too.
 (P.S. Anyone else feeling a bit stymied by the new Flickr?)
 (P.P.S. I had to turn off anonymous comments. Things were getting too spammy around here.)



 Finished:

Map quilt

All done! More on this one soon.


 In progress

 Dino quilt

My son is a minky junkie, so I used the evil fabric to back his dinosaur quilt (despite my better judgment). I finished the quilting last night, and...it honestly wasn't all that bad. We just need to pick out some binding fabric. This one should be done this weekend!

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Guitar quilt
Giraffe quilt

To do:
May do. Good Stitches Block
May That Stash Bee Block
Feathers Quilt
Half Moon Modern quilt borders
Baby Quilt


 Lee is taking the week off, but I'm sure there are lots of WIP posts to be found!

WIP Wednesday!

It seems like I've been all or nothing with my sewing lately, but I have managed to make some progress!



 Finished:

Not so much.


 In progress

Guitar quilt

Need to get this one basted. (Made using Jeni's Side Braid Pattern.)  

Giraffe quilt

Need to baste this one too! (Made using this Jack's Blocks pattern.)

 Dino quilt

Cut up and ready to sew together. I have a 5-year-old asking every night if it's ready, so I need to get working on this!


Completed tops awaiting quilting:
World Map

To do:
May do. Good Stitches Block
May That Stash Bee Block
Feathers Quilt
Half Moon Modern quilt borders
Baby Quilt


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