Progress

Making progress on my sister's quilt for Christmas...

I have about half the inner part of the top pieced.


Still am not entirely sure how I'll quilt it - always the hardest part for me.

Celtic Knot-Work Quilt

I might have mentioned I've been tossing a few original quilt designs around in my head. This would be one of them...

I've always been very partial to celtic knot-work and Ireland (having been more then a few times) so it seems appropriate. However I'm a bit stuck on color and texture ideas. I don't know that I want to go so cliche and make it in off whites and greens, however appropriate. I want to somehow modernize it, use scraps and lots of colors but still make it work as obvious knot-work. It would be easy to make scrappy as it's basic unit is a 2" block, everything is based on that and comprised of half-square and quarter-square triangles. Guess I'll have to think about it some more.

I need to win the lottery

I love all the fabric bundles from fabricworm... too many quilts, too much beautiful fabric, not enough time!

Another NU

Yeah, I forgot one, ha! I actually have had the magazine with the pattern for this quilt laying around for a number of months and I've been drooling over the idea of making it. However, Cherri from the Portland Modern Quilt Guild beat me to it. Not that I mind. I absolutely love her version!

NU's

Well since I've been on vacation I haven't done any machine sewing in the past two weeks. I have however been working on the hexagon quilt steadily since it's all hand pieced and I was able to take it with me. However, it was worth giving up any and all other crafti-time to take Snookie to Disneyland for her fifth birthday though. She had a BLAST... actually so did DH and I. ^^ We took a long drive down into California and hit loads of fun places along the way (Monterey Bay Aquarium, Winchester Mystery House, San Diego Zoo, etc). It was super fun but now I need a vacation from my vacation! Heh.


This is us at a coffee shop in San Diego having a mellow afternoon.

In the meantime however, you know I was busy thinking up new quilts to make! Yeah, sick disease it is... the lure of the NEW. Since I'm always adding to the NU (Next Up's) tab but not sure that anyone ever checks it (besides me). I thought I'd share the latest entries. I think going forward I'll make a brief post about each one before adding it to the ever growing list. In a way it's satisfying to just have the list even if a good majority of them never get made.

Without further adieu...

NEXT UP'S

• STRING PLATES
  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)
  
• GENEALOGY QUILT
  Similar to a signature quilt but obviously with family names and dates... maybe a brief pictorial history of some kind? No idea really. This is something that's way on the back burner and I just wanted to mention it here so I can remember to think more about it. I like the fan lay out for showing names but not sure that would work as a quilt. I could do a traditional tree image but I feel like that's been done to death. I want something visually interesting but simple and dynamic.
• DEAR JANE
  I started a Dear Jane Quilt a few years ago with the idea that I would actually finish it. Heh. I did about twenty blocks but lost steam on it. It's one of those projects that I was feeling really guilty about not finishing and was considering letting it go. Now however I think I'll make a very modern version of a Dear Jane with the blocks I did finish. The idea is to create a strip out of the blocks and place them on a large solid ground at about horizon level. I'd like it to be seamless but I'll have to play with it a little before I decide.

Done!

Haha! DONE! Woo!

This is the X-Rated Schnibbles pattern. The fabric is a line from Free Spirit called Home. They were giving out free salesman sample strike off packs at the July(?) guild meeting. Anyway, there was enough to make this quilt with the addition of the dark espresso colored solid I used. It's about 72" square I think. I haven't measured it but I think that's what the pattern said it'd turn out to be. Anywhoodle - it's done! (Except for the label but I want to experiment with a new process so if it doesn't make it on there right away I'm not worried)

Since I went back to using Warm and Natural batting and a lot of straight stitching with the walking foot the quilting on this one was much more pleasent then the last quilt I worked on. I also used pink flannel for the backing which makes it extra snuggly.

My stitching is still so far from perfect though I'm always slightly disappointed. I know this is both a point of, I need more practice and that I know I have trouble dragging my quilts though my machine and would have smoother lines if I could use a long arm.

Ah well. None of that however will stop me from making quilts I adore.

I'm in love!

I do realize I don't need to actually start any new quilts with my UFO and WIP list being so long but that doesn't mean I can't look, right? This beauty was blogged about over on Quilt Granny's Blog. Maybe someday when I finish a few of my own stack I'll start one like this. I adore it!

My So Called Creative Life

I've been designing quilts lately. It feels really good, just allowing myself the freedom to commit the idea to paper without ever really worrying (at the moment) if I'll make them or not. I think up to this time I've been so concerned that if I designed one, that I'd then have to commit to making it, it had scared me off of designing them at all. What a relief it is just to create!

The Process Pledge

I have made a process pledge. The goal of the process pledge is to create a new sensibility in quilting blogs where we don’t just show finishes or occasionally confess about our moments of indecision, but chat openly and often about our works in progress, our inspirations, and our moments of decision. I know that many of us are already posting about our thinking on quilts and the processes involved from start to finish, let's do more! And let's post about quilts as we work on them. I want to see more half-done quilts, not just the finished thing with a journal entry about the process.



I think part of the reason I really like the blogs from quilting bees is because a lot of the process gets documented...from original concept, to raw materials, to each block in turn, and often a few drafts of the final layout. It's awesome!

So, without further ado. Here's the process pledge. Take it, shake it, make it yours.
~r0ssie

of http://r0ssie.blogspot.com

I, Just Jenn, pledge to talk more about my processes, even when I can’t quite put them in the in words or be sure I’m being totally clear. I’m going to put my thinking and my gut feelings out there.

A Work in Progress

I managed to get this one pin basted today. ^^ (Which is always so much more then just basting... First I have to pick up kid junk off the living room floor, roll up the throw rug, sweep and steam mop, let the floor dry, lay the backing down, iron it then tape it to the floor to keep from shifting, lay down the batting, iron & tape, the top... iron and tape. THEN I can start pinning! lol Still, I listened to books on tape while working and it went by quickly.)

And after all the crazed excessive free-motion quilting of the last quilt, I'm going to go with *very* simple straight line quilting for this one, except for the border which I'm still not sure exactly how I'm going to manage. Should I just continue the quilting from the inner part off into the border creating X's across the piano keys?