WIP Wednesday 11/13/13: Quilty ADD makes me feel like I can't get anything DONE!

I don't know what my problem is, but lately, I keep wanting to start new projects without following through on others. Here's a peek at what's in progress at my house this week:

Navy, teal, and peach Flower Box quilt (pattern from V and Co.). All fabric cut; one block pieced.

EPP project using jewels and hexis; blue, green, orange prints pulled from my scrap bins.

Accuquilt diamond quilt. I'll have a tutorial for this one when I finally get around to piecing the top.

Pixelated camera quilt. I've pieced 1/4 of the blocks into rows. I need to come back to this one asap, but I also need to have no one in the house to mess up the layout so I don't get confused on where the blocks should go.

Labyrinth quilt. This one should have been done by now. All I need to do still is add an outer border and then it's ready for basting. Sometimes, though, the thought of cutting and adding a border is SO NOT what I want to work on.

Oranges and bacon pillow (thanks, Marci for the nickname). This one is a result of me not knowing what football laces look like when I was making my nephew's pixelated football quilt. There are a bazillion layouts that I came up with, but haven't been able to settle on one. Plus, I have to make one more X block and I've been putting that part off.

And finally, plusses in blue. This one is all pieced and awaiting basting. I've been putting it off because I hate basting and if I'm going to move my kitchen table and clean the spray residue from the floor afterward, I'm going to baste more than one quilt at a time. As soon as I add the border to the labyrinth quilt and finish the camera quilt, all three of these will get basted.

I don't like this feeling of not being able to finish a project all the way through before starting a new one. I know I've said this before, but it feels almost paralyzing. Maybe I'm just in a finishing funk or something. I hope to complete at least one project before next week though so I can feel like I'm accomplishing something. Especially with Christmas coming so soon.

My Pillow for the X Factor Pillow Swap

Quite a while ago, I joined the X Factor Pillow Swap on Flickr. With my goal to finish existing projects before starting anything new, I didn't join in on any of the rounds. But then I had surgery last month and I really wanted to sew something. Since I couldn't use my hand very well for my rotary cutter, I thought English paper piecing would be a good type of therapy. I also have been wanting to try a low volume project for a while now, something that is definitely out of my comfort zone, so round 7 of the X Factor swap was the perfect opportunity!

I looked through my stash and gathered a variety of low volume prints in rainbow colors. Then I pulled some whites, creams, and grays. I bought some diamond paper pieces from paperpieces.com a long time ago, but hadn't busted them out yet. I tried out several layouts, but ultimately settled on this one.



I tried to find a background fabric that was a little more low volume, but everything I auditioned just felt muddy. So, I used this yarn-dyed linen in black and while it's not quite "low" volume, I think it works as a fairly neutral background that allows the diamonds to stand out.

I quilted wavy lines vertically across the pillow with a white cotton thread.

I thought it'd be fun to place a dark print in with all the light fabrics. This text print from Madrona Road by Violet Craft is one of my favorite text prints of all time, so I just had to use it here. I also think it goes nicely with the background fabric.

For the back, I used this Heather Bailey light blue hop dot print and paired it with a light yellow (I can't recall the name of it now). I also used a strip of the yarn-dyed linen to cover the zipper and tie the back with the front.

The way this swap works is that you make a pillow and send a photo to the group admin. When all the pillows are posted, you vote on your favorites. If your pillow scores the most points, you get your first choice pillow. If not, then your second, third, fourth, etc. choice on down the line. I think it's a great swap idea because you can make a pillow any way you want (within the guidelines for that round of the swap) rather than making a pillow specifically for someone else in mind (although I love those types of swaps too).

This pillow is headed to its new home and I hope the recipient likes it. I really enjoyed doing something outside the norm for me.

Pillow stats:
Fits 20" x 20" pillow form
Diamond paper piecing
Low volume rainbow prints
Wavy line quilting
Hidden zipper closure