WIP Wednesdays

Portland Modern Quilt Guild
I went to the PMQG meeting Thursday night. Click the link to see what we're up to. Want proof I was there? Third picture down (on the PMQG blog), that's me in the black hat right behind the lady in green. What? You can't tell that's me? lol Sadly I didn't win anything this time around but it's still fun to be excited for those who do get the give-a-ways.

For the FQ swap I wound up with a cute little green one - my favorite color!

Hexagon Quilts
Also it was *awesome-possum* to see Tania finish the bulk of her squid hexagon quilt - so cool! We both started our hexagon quilts at the same time. She's super speedy. I loved getting a chance to look at all the fabrics close up. We had a nice little chat after the meeting about hexi's. (Yay for crazy english paper piecers!)
And I didn't know they took a picture of my hex in progress... ::grin:: Yeah, it's been stalled out a little bit but you can see I've finally finished the orange star. Next up with that project is to add in the diamonds around the blue star and attach the teal and orange stars so it's all one big piece. Then I can start working on the outer stars. What? You thought that was it? No, no. I am insane. Ha.


Kaleidoscope Quilt
Sunday was not a good quilting day. I was in the middle of working on my sister's quilt when...

...my kiddo comes into my sewing room with a red permanent marker. Yes. You can imagine what happened next. I nearly knocked her over in my rush to run from my sewing room to the laundry room, quilt in hand, to hit the effected area with a stain remover. The good news is, I was able to get most of it out.

You can hardly see where there's just a little bit of the red pen mark left.

The bad news, it was sitting there mostly stain free but also with a couple of spots of stain remover on it. The stain remover isn't supposed to dry on the fabric so I really needed to wash it out. However, because it's still all mostly pinned together, there's no way I could put it in a washing machine. I knew if I didn't treat it right away though it'd have a permanent mark. So after I sprayed it, I tried my best to rinse out just those spots. There was a big drippy chunk of it that then needed drying. I draped it over the shower curtain rod in the bathroom where it took all day and night to dry out enough to move back into the sewing room.

After all the rinsing and scrubbing I couldn't find any mark once it was dry. Whew~!

Apron
So in the meantime, instead of working on my sister's quilt I started the apron my daughter's been begging me for.

The Lola Apron

She picked out the pink fabric and I chose the coordinating fabrics to go with it. I'm not planning on any rick-rack (as shown in the pattern) since she said she didn't want any. I love how sophisticated this will all look together.

The pink will be the main body, the light grey patterned one will be at the top chest and for the pockets, the solid as the binding.


Here it is all done and sitting on the work table long after everyone else had fallen asleep.


She tried it on the next morning and it fits her perfectly!

WIP Wednesdays

THE BIG PURGE
So besides the BIG CLEAN UP that I was doing last week - aaah so clean - I also went through all my quilting magazines that have been lying around for ages and figured out which ones I want to keep (some have patterns I'd like to make someday) and others, while fun, I'm now done with. That was a pretty fun "task". ;^)

I also went and did something I've not ever done before. I went through my *entire* fabric stash and purged. I've got two grocery bags full of fabric ready for the curb. I might go donate them to Scrap since there's one close by. At least there I know they'll get used properly. I never know what happens to stuff that goes to Goodwill or similar. I guess I could bring it to a guild meeting but I don't know that I want it sticking around the house that long.

KALEIDOSCOPE QUILT
Besides that I've mostly been working on my sister's quilt:


I finally picked out the last of the last of the dark stitches and have been able to move forward with actual quilting (in the cream colored thread). Yay progress! I think I might want to sneak in some writing somewhere and not tell her, to make it fun. I'll have to wait to see how long it takes her to notice it. Heehee.

POSTAGE STAMP QUILT
In mid-fabric-purge I also went though the fabric I was getting rid of to see if any of it would work in my crazy-making postage stamp quilt. I know I've put this one down for such a long time but I'm still in love with the idea of making it so it was nice to go back and revisit it. I was able to match up a few more colors. Someday I might even be able to start assembling. I have a lot of cutting left as well.

WIP Wednesdays

• APRONS (2010)
  I've got two aprons in works. One holiday one that I'd started for my self but my sister really wants, so I'll finish it up and give it to her. And another that's in the process of being pieced together, quilt like, for myself as an everyday apron. While I most likely won't add batting, I do think I'll line and quilt it.
  Here is the little stack of fabric I'm making it with. Most of it I pulled from my Single Girl quilt stash.
  
• STRING PLATES (2011)
  I bought a little bag of stringy scraps from a single line for another project that I actually only needed very little of the fabric for. Now I have this lovely little pile of fabric that needs a project. For once the fabric will dictate the pattern! (I usually decide on a pattern first then find the fabric to fit it.) Anyway I was rather inspired by Andie's quilt and I think it would be the perfect match of pattern and fabric. Isn't her quilt adorable? Now I just need someone to have a baby to give the quilt to! (Oh wait! I need to make it first! lol)
  
  Here is my pile of scrap fabric (Verna by Kate Spain for Moda)...
  
  And I still have lots of the espresso brown fabric laying around which does in fact seem to go with so much...Pictures of it however always seem to come out black looking. In fact this is more of the "real" color when seen with the naked eye.
  
  And this is pretty much how far I've gotten with the top assembly. I'm actually really enjoying this pattern and think it would be great fun to make another one to fit the new Queen sized bed for the guest room.
  
  
  Edited to add Sunday night (I add to these all week in an as-I-go-along fashion):
  I um. Finished the top tonight. Heehee.
  
  
  This pattern was seriously *perfect* for the fabric I had. If it had been any bigger I'd have run out. It wasn't a lot to begin with. I was also trying to not have spend any $ on new fabric or supplies. As mentioned I have a ton of espresso fabric I'm trying to use up and a large spool of matching thread. I have a lot of Warm 'n Natural cotton scrap batting left over and I'm trying to decide if I should zigzag it together and use it up (wouldn't that be nice?) except most of it is in 8" strips. Can anyone use that size batting? I feel like it might make my quilt lumpy. On the other hand I do have two largish chunks of poly batting (shudder) so it'd only be one zig-zag seam and I wouldn't have to buy any batting.
  
  Now my other thought is backing. I'd like a flannel back but all I have on hand is some citron green and white striped stuff someone gave me long ago. It'd be okay (but not ideal - other then "free") if I wasn't planning on "hiding" my quilting on the front by using dark espresso colored thread. If I do that and use matching bobbin then all my quilting would show up dramatically on the back, which I don't really want. I prefer to always have my quilting be "invisible" on the back - that is matching thread to fabric. If I use a bobbin that's light to match the back and a dark to match the front, I usually wind up getting "stars" in my stitching on the front... meaning you can see little bits of where the light colored bobbin thread overlocks the dark thread that runs on the top of the quilt. Ideally I should go look for a dark colored flannel for the back.
  
  Oh and the last thing? I'm now not allowing myself to work on this any more until I finish my sister's quilt.
  

What I really should be working on is my sister's kaleidoscope quilt. I didn't finish it in time for Christmas so now I've got till mid-month to finish it for her BD. I sort of took a break from it as shoving it through my machine knots up my shoulders. I find pushing that much fabric through my machine tiring after a while so I need to work on it intermittently.

WIP Wednesday

So until my serger died I was working on an apron for myself at the same time as I was making one for my mom... see previous post to see the one I finished for her. Anyway, here's the pile of would-be cute apron I now don't have time to make. Foo. The pattern is Indigo Junction's The Ruffled Chef.


I also sit in the coffee shop on Monday afternoons and quilt while Snookie is in school for a few hours. There is a group of spinners and knitters who I usually sit with and one of them made this lovely pumpkin cowl. I bought it off her and just need to add buttons. I had the big coat button which I think goes in such a nice way. I needed two more buttons and it's taken me a while to remember to pick them up. I have them now and just need the ten minutes to sit down and attach them all.


The thing that's been really keeping me busy is my sister's quilt. OH the trouble this quilt has given me! Sheesh.


Now, as a disclaimer before I became a SAHM I used to quilt by check (yay for having extra $$ from being employed) of course I can't afford that now so I've been left up to my own devices. Fortunately before I quit my last job I had enough forethought when buying my sewing machine to get a stitch regulator with it. I've been using it to quilt with for the past few years. So while I've been piecing for a long time, the whole quilting aspect is rather new to me. I admit the SR is a bit of a crutch.

Now back to the problem of my sister's quilt. For whatever reason the SR is not happy when I sew over seams while also having a flannel back. I love flannel on the back of a quilt... it makes it so warm and cosy. My friend Heather has been encouraging me to let go of the SR and learn to self regulate. Well I had the thread bread six times while trying to quilt just one of the 12" motifs. I knew then that there was no way I could make it all the way though all the quilting I had to do if it was going to keep going that way. So I let the SR go. It wasn't as hard as I imagined it would be! How wonderful that she had more faith in me then I did in myself. Thanks Heather! See? My stitches are pretty even and small. Yay! Of course I still have a long way to go and need loads more practice but it's a start.


I also was planning on using two different thread colors for this quilt. I stitched up four of the 12" motifs before I realized that the dark teal color looked ghastly. I had done a wee bit of the border in a cream thread and decided it was loads better.... SO last night I started picking out all the thread and starting those sections all over. Maybe you can see the difference in this picture... the light triangle block in the lower right has the cream thread while the light triangle block in the upper left is using the dark teal thread... yack. I still have to pick that one out and redo it.


So all that to say there's no way I'll be done with this quilt in time for Christmas... so I broke the news to my sis this morning and happily she was cool with it. Thankfully her BD is in late January which *should be* just enough time to actually get it done. ^^

I've not been on-line in the evenings because I just want to sew and have been like a fiend. It's good. I think I finally found a rhythm that works for me. Work a little bit on a lot of quilts for a short amount of time. I've been putting together blocks for my sister's quilt, and working on the 30's repo quilt that I'd already half assembled a few years ago, hated, ripped this past winter and now I'm sewing all the pieces together again in a different pattern that I like so much better. In fact there's a kinda funny story about it.

My BFF had come up to visit a few years ago and she'd picked a pattern and bought fabric for this quilt (you know the one, the one we just finished this past weekend in one day!):

So she was asking to see all my UFO's and I popped open a box I'd completely forgotten about, the one with my own set of 30's repo pieces in it. Guess what? I'd chosen the same pattern and mocked up four blocks about six months ago. Great minds and all that... lulz.


Also thought I'd give you a little peek at the hexagon quilt I've been working on. It's nice to have a traveling piece.


I took it out while at my daughter's Tae Kwon Do class and my BFF thought it was such a nice take-a-long project that we had to run right off to the fabric store after the class finished up so she could put together her own little kit. I love the fabrics she chose. I can hardly wait to see her make some progress on it.


I might have mentioned that they gave out a bunch of salesman sample strike offs (headers) of quilt fabric at last month's guild meeting (PMQG) that someone had picked up (yay! whoever you were!) from some conference or other. I got a bundle before they were gone and the little stack has been staring me in the face since. Tempting me.


I don't know why but I'm completely fascinated with them and well you know me, I love a new project! So in between working on everything else I've been cutting fabric and sticking it to my design wall.... If I can just keep working in the evenings I can easily see finishing up this quilt in a few weeks. (Pattern is Schnibbles X-Rated quilt - it'll finish at about 60" x 60" I think)

UFO's - A Pictorial Revelation

I haven't taken a good hard look at my stack of UFO's for about three years.... What's shocking now is that every single one of the UFO's from then, I still have waiting to be done. Pah-thetic. Except now? Yeah, there's *more*. So since this is the year of getting stuff done I'm making a list. I can't prioritize until I know what I have. Even if I only get one thing done every three months I'll be happy. (I've already finished two quilts this year so I'm feeling pretty good). I'm trying not to overwhelm myself by thinking I need to get them all done now. That's too much "deer in the headlights" for me and I'll just freeze up and not work on anything. I'm also not going to list all my other half stalled projects either (dolls, clothes, purses, etc.) but am going to try to just focus on the quilts for now.

This is the order I'd like to finish them in, with #1 being the next one to work on.

1. ROUND ROBIN (2009)

This quilt was made by the round robin quilt group on LJ in 2009. I only made the center block, the borders were then added by the next person on the list and finally all the way back around to me. It's a complete top. I just need to make a backing that will fit and quilt and bind it. It's the one closest to being finished. It's also rather small and square. It'd make a nice baby blanket.

2. DEPRESSION QUILT (2008)

Not that this quilt is depressing! The name of the block that makes up the quilt is called "Depression". It was from the depression era and is scrappy and wonderful. I love the way this top came together. It was made by the Birthday Block group on LJ in 2008. It's a complete top. I just need to make a backing that will fit and quilt and bind it.

3. TWISTED SISTER (2004)

This is what I wrote after the last UFO evaluation, "Ah, the Twisted Sister quilt. I do so like this one. However it's reached the point where most of my quilts go to die. 3/4ths of the way through. Ha! It's so close I really just need to "get on it" and wrap it up. I just don't like working with large unwieldy pieces of fabric and that's the stage I'm at. I need to sew on the borders (already cut out - no excuse there) and quilt the dang thing! The sad thing is I did the whole top in a month and then didn't touch it again. Off to the next thing!" So yeah, sew on the border, pin, baste, quilt and bind. Sounds easy, right?

4. STARRY LOG CABIN (2000)

This is the oldest completed top I have sitting around. Up until 2000 any quilting I'd done was from an unstudied, naive, self-taught perspective. This was the first quilt I made where I actually knew what I was doing. I made the top in three days and now it's just sat around for a decade waiting to be finished. I think it's a full or maybe a queen size quilt. Honestly I don't remember! I'd really, really like to finish this one though.

5. BIRTHDAY BLOCK BUTTERFLY QUILT (2007)

Each of the individual pieced blocks were made by the ladies in the Birthday Block Quilt Group on LJ. I added the solid purple blocks and the sashing to make the top. Originally I'd made it for my daughter when she was a baby. (It matched the colors of her nursery). Now however I'm not sure what to do with it. She's nearly five and wants things that are PINK. Alas I might donate it to Linus. It would at least get it off my to do list and would go to some little girl who'd love it and who would need it. If not then I'll finish the top and maybe send it to my nieces back east. I'm kinda up in the air on this one.

6. NO NAME QUILT (2010)

I'm terrible at naming quilts, hence the name for this one! lol This was made by the Birthday Block Quilt Group on LJ. I need to figure out the final layout and sew the blocks together and add a border, plus quilting ect. It'll make a nice lap quilt.

7. SINGLE GIRL QUILT (2009)

This is actually a quilt I'm dying to get back to. I almost wish this was closer to the top of the list but it has a much longer way to go then the other quilts. I've only completed four of the large rings. It's fun though and I'm loving it. It'll be really satisfying to come back to.

8. WINDING WAYS QUILT (2007)

I love this quilt too but it's a lot of work, all those curved seams. It takes me about 1/2 hour for each little block. I'm slooooooooow. Heh. It's hard to keep on keepin' on when the results are so long in coming. BUT it's too beautiful to give up on.

9. BOM QUILT (2007)

There was an active on-line group but it fizzled out kinda half way though the year so I have a number of Block of the Month blocks done. I did a few more on my own and I do have a layout all planned but I haven't done much more then that. It should be nice when it's finished and rather large, fitting on our king sized bed. I just need to get back around to it. Sampler quilts aren't my all time favorite but they're a good way to build skills so somehow I keep doing them.

10. JAVA JANE (2008)

My version of the Dear Jane. OH, I have a long way to go. I just need to work on a block a month if I ever want to finish this thing. I just don't like paper piecing so I'm dreading working on it but I do have about 25 blocks done so I should think about working on it some more. I can't imagine working solely on this quilt though. It seems like you just do a little in between working on other things. My problem is the in between part, heh. It's a shame because each of these little blocks really are fun and satisfying to make.

11. 30's REPO QUILT (2005)


I love the old 30's reproduction fabrics. I started this quilt for my daughter too (actually when I was pregnant)! I just really wanted to make it in the worst way but I didn't take enough time to think about what I was doing and chose a pattern that I ended up hating. I got it half assembled (see top picture for what the pattern looked like) and then decided there was no way I'd finish it because I just couldn't stand it. So I've been thinking about how I'm going to rework it. I've ripped a number of the blocks apart. I was thinking about changing the pattern to something like the little mock up in the second picture, I also have another idea for what I can do (now that I'm limited by how the pieces are cut). I still think it'll come out really cute but there's twice the work with this quilt since I have to first undo it all before I can even start assembling it for a second time! Ug.

12. THOUSAND PYRAMID CHARM QUILT (2009)

I've always wanted to make a thousand pyramid quilt. Of course I couldn't make it easy, oh no. I had to go and make it a charm quilt too. I sorta stalled out when I became overwhelmed both by the cutting of all my fabrics and the cutting of 5" squares in trade with the people who'd sent me fabric. I still owe a bunch of people fabric. I really need to sit down and cut more out to ship out. I told my self no more swapping till I'd sent every one fabric who I owe fabric to, so that's first priority. Then I need to focus just on this quilt and no other so I can keep track of exactly what fabrics I've cut and which one's I haven't.

13. PINWHEEL QUILT (2001)

This is what I'd written last time I'd taken a look at all my UFO's, "I had just finished (yes I actually DO finish stuff! lol) a queen size quilt w/ matching lap quilt for my Mom and Dad, and really wanted to start a quilt for myself. This was it. But sadly I ran out of time and moved to Portland and started working a real job again. This got put on the back shelf and I'm not sure why I never picked it up again. I like it and want to get back into it one of these days. It's a very simple color scheme and pattern but at the time I wanted a simple quilt to help balance out a complicated life." I did actually go back and work on this quilt a little bit and was horrified at how bad my seams were! lol... I actually had to put it back down because it was bugging me too much. I should finish it but, meh. The fire's gone out of it for me.

13. DENALI POSTAGE STAMP QUILT (2003)

This is what I wrote last time I reviewed my UFO's, "This is my *CRAZY* quilt, and by crazy I mean googlee-eyed bonkers. This is composed of 1/2" finished squares. The total quilts measures over 100" wide. It is color matching intensive to get it right. The last house we lived in (over three years ago) had a design wall that I was using to lay things out on but I don't have that in this house. I can't do this quilt without it. So anyway I've been collecting and cutting out little tiny squares for ages. Top picture is what it should look like when it's finished. Bottom picture is all the little squares in their baggies and the code to the position that they'll fit into (on the grid) of the image. Like I said. Nuts. ;^)" I still have the same problem, lack of a large enough space to lay it all out though I suppose I could keep working on cutting out all those little teeny tiny pieces of fabric.

14. NINE PATCH (1996)

"This was the first quilt I ever attempted that involved measuring and cutting and sewing flat squares of fabric. I didn't really know how to use the rulers so I used the squares on the cutting mat to measure things out! lol. I love its primitiveness. Unfortunately I also didn't understand about consistent 1/4" seams (apparently I sewed into the seam allowance to help "straighten" the squares.) It was in a bad spot when we experienced some leaking from pipes downstairs (read: got all wet and gross) so I had to wash it. I popped those thin seams all over the place doing that. Now I don't know what to do with it. I don't know that it can be fixed but I hate to throw it out. I dunno!" Yeah, it's a mess. I guess I could rip the whole thing apart or just have really wonky seams but they just make me crazy, so it continues to sit in a box doing nothing but taunting me. It's a someday problem quilt to deal with, hence the bottom of the list.

15. PUFF QUILT (1987)

"I was a sophomore in high school when I started this quilt. It was my VERY FIRST attempt at quilting. I didn't know anything about cutting out patterns or any of that, so I steered clear. But I was looking at books and the occasional magazine and my Aunt quilted. She'd made me and my sister a quilt each. I fell in love with the homeyness of them. They seemed so real, working pieces of art. So tactile and imperfect. What's not to love? So I found a book that had a pattern for a "puff" quilt. It told the story of a convalescing young girl in the 1880's who'd made her very first quilt this way by hand (I identified!) but not knowing much about it I used velvets and silks (now I think of the horror of trying to clean it!) so I began quilting all my little puffs by hand. However the excitement of college and the ability to drive took me far away from quilting for nearly half a dozen years and this remains more a monument to that first spark than a truly UFO to be completed some day."

Done!

Yay finished the binding on my MIL's quilt. I'll try to get pictures up soon!

So busy

I've been so busy! I can't believe the month is half over and I have hardly touched my sewing machine. I did get a chance to work a bit on the winding ways quilt but not much else. I'm trying to get set up and going on a Christmas table runner for my Mom. She's had some fabric stashed away in a drawer for a few years now with the intent of making something of it. (Don't we all?) So I took it from her with the promise that I'd have it done by Thanksgiving. I think I'll send her some block choices and let her pick one out. It's in her court now so I just have to wait and see which one she picks. ::grin::

Do you have a favorite?
A.
B.
C.

WIP's

I dragged my sick dead self off to the fabric store yesterday evening. I had to get out of the house. While I blew the very last of my personal rainy day fund I didn't squander it on random bits of fabric for new projects*. I'm so proud of me! That's so my MO. lol... I actually found a backing fabric for my super outdated celestial navy / yellow log cabin that works.

I wandered all over looking at the seasonal in-line fabrics and couldn't find anything. It's all marbles and florals and repos and retros.

So I started poking around in the Christmas fabrics which I normally don't look at too closely. I found the *exact* fabric I was envisioning! A mottled navy/cobalt back ground with a smattering of bright yellow stars. Perfect. The best part? I needed seven yards. I think they had 7 1/2. lol... It was so close - I was nervous that she'd unravel the bolt and there wouldn't be enough. I also managed to pick up some more black fabric to finish the borders on the twisted sisters quilt. I think the next time I get a chance to sew I'll start there.

I'm also excited to head off to the 2008 NW Quilting Expo on Thursday. I hope this cold is waning by then.

*Okay that's not total honesty. I did buy 1/2 yard of really cute fabric that I have in mind for the Bento Box. But I'm not working on that quilt so it doesn't really count. lol ;^)