Finished True Colors Chevron Quilt

I finished my fourth quilt for the year! And it's the fourth month. I didn't think I'd have four finished quilts at this point in the year with how busy I've been with school. But, I'm happy that I've finished my two main quilt goals for the year. In a couple weeks the semester will be over and I'll be able to spend more time quilting, hopefully.

Here she is in all her colorful glory. I'm really pleased with how everything came together for this quilt.

For the backing, I pieced half yard cuts of some of the True Colors prints with yard cuts of two of Anna Maria Horner's Dowry prints.

I did a variety of quilting on this quilt with no real rhyme or reason. I changed designs when I felt like it.

I also initially planned to bind this quilt by hand so I cut the binding at 2.5 inches, which is smaller than my typical 3-inch binding. After attaching the binding to the front of the quilt though, I just wasn't feeling the hand-binding thing and ended up finishing it by machine.

And just because he's cute, here's an photo outtake of the mister. Love his guts.

WIP Wednesday: AMH True Colors Chevron Quilt Top

I had a busy month of March. I finished this quilt top on March 9. I went to work on March 10 to find out that the company was doing a round of layoffs and my position was affected. So the last few weeks of the month were spent submitting my resume, interviewing for jobs, working on house projects, and not spending enough time sewing. I was blessed to get a new job just over two weeks later, and I started working again this week. So, the WIP I have going on right now is this quilt top.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I used Anna Maria Horner's True Colors line (two fat eighth bundles) that I picked up from Amanda's shop. I then pulled out my parallelogram die for my Accuquilt Go Baby fabric cutter, but you can easily cut this shape with your ruler and rotary cutter. I then pieced the parallelograms into this chevron design and used the leftover fabric to make half square triangles (HSTs) to use in the side borders.

I've since pieced the backing, basted the quilt, and started quilting it. I hope to finish it up soon so it can get some use at my house before mother nature turns up the heat.

Linking up with:

WIP Wednesday: 3/5/14

I haven't had a lot of things going on in terms of sewing for the last little while because I've been so busy with work and school. But, after writing a couple of big papers, I needed a bit of fabric therapy. One of my quilt goals I set for the year was to use my Anna Maria Horner True Colors fabrics to make a value quilt. I used my Accuquilt Go Baby cutter and my parallelogram die and set to work on this:

I used two fat-eighth bundles and some Kona white for the top chevrons. I want the quilt a bit wider, but I don't have enough fabric to cut out more parallelograms. My leftover fabric pieces are triangles so I've been toying with the idea of adding a border of flying geese, but I'm still thinking about it. Next week is my spring break, so hopefully, I can get more work done on it.

Linking up with:

2014 Planning

As the year is coming to a close, I've been thinking about the projects I'd like to work on next year. I'm starting graduate school and I know that my sewing time will be whittled down quite a bit as a result. I still have a few WIPs that I'd like to finish off, but I've decided that (at this moment in time) there are two projects that I'm really excited to work on. And they're new...which means I should probably stitch up some of those projects for which I've already cut the fabric. Hmmm.

Ever since finishing my nephew's Chicopee Scrappy Trip quilt, I've wanted one for myself. And I decided a couple months ago that I wanted to make it out of Nordika by Jeni Baker. She even put together an amazing color-matching guide that I used to order some coordinating oval elements and pure elements fabrics since the scrappy trip pattern takes a ton of yardage.

Photo courtesy Westwood Acres Fabric

Photo courtesy Jeni Baker via incolororder.com

Photo courtesy Jeni Baker via incolororder.com

A photo by Pitter Putter Stitch

The other project that I'm really excited about is a half-square triangle quilt using Anna Maria Horner's new True Colors line. I haven't been a die-hard AMH fan in the past (I know, blasphemous - there are lots of prints from her that I've loved though), but the colors in this True Colors line are so saturated and absolutely glorious!

Photo courtesy Westwood Acres Fabric 

My quilt won't look like this one from Anna's booth at Fall Quilt Market, but I definitely will be using HSTs in my value study layout. I. Seriously. Cannot. Wait!

Photo courtesy Lee Heinrich via freshlypieced.com

There is one more project swirling in my head today that I think I want to tackle next year as well. I just don't have the fabrics figured out yet. I really love Angela's Arkansas Crossroads quilt that she posted on IG today (and has shown snippets of in the past). I absolutely LOVE it!

Photo courtesy Fussycut via Instagram

So there you have it. A few projects I'm excited to work on in 2014. I've got one more quilt to finish up for Christmas and I'll be back to share my other finishes for the end of the year. Merry Christmas next week to those of you celebrating!

Finished Melon Patch Quilt [and Oregon Vacation]

Wow. The summer has been going by so quickly. I haven't been around for the last month, but I've definitely been busy! Since I last posted, I finished two quilts and went with my family to Oregon for my BFF's wedding. We got back on Friday, decompressed for the weekend, and are recharged for a new work week tomorrow. Or as recharged as you can get having to start a new work week. =(

This is the quilt I made for Natalie and her new hubby, Ross.

I used a fat quarter bundle of Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush in the potpourri colorway and Kona white to make this melon patch quilt.

If you remember, one of my quilt guild friends, Andrea, asked us to make melon patch blocks for her month in our local guild bee.

I loved it so much that I wanted to make an entire quilt out of it. Although, I opted to alter the composition a bit to make series of white blocks and series of colored blocks as opposed to alternating white and colored quadrants.

The quilt measures approximately 64 inches square. I quilted it in meandering loops, and machine-embroidered a label on the back to commemorate the day.

It's not perfect, but it works.

I made her open the quilt while I was there so I could see her reaction, and she didn't disappoint!

They bought a house a few months ago and so they held the wedding there.

It was nice and cozy even if it rained a lot. (Isn't the picture of Natalie, Ross, and Ross' daughter in the upper corner so adorable?!)

We drove up to Oregon a couple of days before the wedding and spent some time sight-seeing. We visited Multnomah Falls on our way to Salem and had a good time hiking up to the falls.

My sweet baby unfortunately had an ear infection and then woke up with a crazy rash the day of the wedding. She's still a cutie though and was a good sport despite not feeling well.

The day after the wedding, we left Salem and headed to Rockaway Beach on the coast where we rented a beach house for the rest of the week. My kids absolutely LOVED playing at the beach. I, however, do not love cleaning up sand several times a day.

Over the next few days, we spent time exploring the coast. We visited the Peter Iredale shipwreck. My son is absolutely fearless. Here he is climbing on the shipwreck. Good thing he didn't cut himself on the rusty ship's frame.

We also headed up to Astoria and climbed the Astoria Column, where I incidentally ran into a coworker who I didn't know would be in Oregon. Small world.

We tossed off a couple of balsa wood airplanes. My son would have climbed up and down the column all day if we had let him.

On the fourth of July, we drove out to the Cape Meares lighthouse near Tillamook. I've been to Oregon several times and I can never get over how absolutely gorgeous it is! The mister kept saying that we should move out there. If I could handle constant rain I could maybe consider it.

Throughout the trip, we did a lot of kid and baby carrying. Thank goodness my sister came with us and offered an extra set of hands so we weren't outnumbered.

That night, we headed down to the beach to watch the fireworks. My three-year-old was pretty much terrified, but the rest of us had a good time.

We headed to Boise the following morning and then the rest of the way to Utah the following day. We had a such a great time, but it was good to get back to our routines at home.

Later this week I'll be posting about the quilt I made for the beach, so stay tuned.

Squaretastic

For Elizabeth's month in the Sew Beautiful Bee, she asked us to make blocks made up of multi-sized squares. We could come up with our own design or use one of hers.

I chose this one:



She sent us a bunch of Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks voile. I've only sewn with voile once, so I wasn't sure how difficult it would be to make a quilt block. The voile was a little slippery, but it actually came together pretty well. I'm excited to see Elizabeth's quilt come together. The colors go really well together and the fabric is so soft.

x and + Block for Megan

If you're looking for the AccuQuilt GO! Baby giveaway, click here. You have until July 14th to enter to win.

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Man, was I on the ball this month! I received Megan's fabric last week and got the block sewn up within a couple of days. Woot woot!

In our Sew Beautiful Bee, Megan asked for x and + blocks using this tutorial from Badskirt. This was such a fun block to make and I am seriously tempted to make an entire quilt out of these babies. The tutorial was really easy to follow and the block sewed up super fast.



I think this would be a great design to use up some of my scraps. But, I promised myself I wouldn't start any new projects until I tackle some of the old works in progress.

This and that

I tried my hand at paper foundation piecing for the first time a couple weeks ago. In our Sew Beautiful Bee, Elizabeth sent out these AMH fabrics and asked for spiderweb blocks. After two nights of sewing, I finished this puppy up. Talk about needing patience to tackle this block! I love how it turned out though.





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Tomorrow is going to be a big day! I'm heading to Portland with two of my sisters to check out this:


I can't tell you how excited I am. Not only do I get to have a little vacation with my sisters and pick Lizzy House's brain for three days, but I get to spend time with my best friend. It's sure to be an amazing weekend!

I hope all of you have a fantastic weekend too!

My Christmas Wish List

Coming up with a Christmas wish list to give my family has always been difficult in the past. It was much easier when I was little and living at home. But as an adult, I think it's hard because if I want/need something, I just buy it. I usually don't wait until Christmas or my birthday and ask for whatever it is. This year, however, has been different.

I decided to ask for fabric that I really want, but maybe am not willing to buy myself for whatever reason. Here's what made my list this year.

A fat quarter bundle of All Star 2 in green from Hawthorne Threads.


Some linen in The Morning Dew from Fabrics-store.com.


A fat quarter bundle of Innocent Crush in Potpourri from Hawthorne Threads. I want to make the Colorbrick quilt from Stitched In Color with this Innocent Crush fabric (hers looks amazing!), but I want to use the gray linen as the sashing instead of a tan neutral.


A fat quarter bundle of Far Far Away II in Meadow from Hawthorne Threads. I really want the aqua colorway too, but all the FQ bundles were out of stock when I made my list.


And lastly, some paper hexagon pieces. I love looking through the Bee Hexed In Flickr group and seeing all the variations people have made of the pillow from Fat Quarterly. Kati brought hers to our Modern Quilt Guild meeting a few months ago and I loved it. Now that I'm getting braver in trying new techniques, I'm finally ready to try hexagons.


So, there you have it. What are you hoping to get for Christmas this year?