Urban Home Goods Swap Received

I should have posted about the goodies I received in the Urban Home Goods Swap a while ago as I received my package back in March. Jamie, stitch_girl, was my partner in round 4 of the Pillow Talk Swap. When I saw the photos she posted in the Flickr group of this bag and pincushion, I thought there was no way they were mine. But, what are the odds?! They wound up at my door.

She made me this gorgeous market bag and this adorable pear pincushion, complete with some fun pins.



She used fabric from both the Far Far Away and Far Far Away 2 lines by Heather Ross. Love it! Her choice of fabric for the straps was perfect too. Once I saw how well the Modern Meadow and Far Far Away 2 colors went together, I ordered some to use as the binding on my Far Far Away 2 Kitchen Windows quilt.

Here's sleeping beauty as the pocket on one side of the bag.



And the frog prince on the other pocket.



Jamie and I seriously must have been on the same wave length because as she was making this bag and using this exact little guy for the pocket, I was using him in the mini quilt I made for my Make Mine Modern Swap partner.



Here's a closeup of the pear pincushion that I absolutely adore! Jamie did such a good job on the construction. And look at the hand-stitching of the veins on the leaf!



Even her stitching on the stem is perfect. And I love these leaf pins. I want to go buy more of them because they're so nice and sturdy.



Thanks again, Jamie! You really did a great job putting this package together for me. I totally love everything about it!

Sewing Update

So, I've been more of a slacker with this blog than I thought I'd be after getting over the sick part of being pregnant. I've been sewing, but I just haven't made the time to take pictures of anything. I want to blame it on the cruddy weather we had up through Sunday (thanks, Mother Nature, for sending me not only rain on my birthday last week, but snow too!), but I know it's just my laziness winning out.

I finished the quilt top and backing for my Far Far Away 2 Kitchen Windows bed quilt. After much anxiety, I decided to send it out for quilting. I've never been willing to spend money on long-arm quilting since I figured I have the means to quilt myself, but this quilt is huge (between a king and a queen) and I knew I'd kill my back if I tried to baste it and quilt it myself. (A bad back plus no support due to an ever-expanding belly equals a lot of back pain.) So, I searched around and found a lady near my inlaws who is quilting it for me for a pretty good price. I should get it back next week. Once I get it bound and washed up, I'll post pictures of it.

While that quilt has been at the quilter's, I started item #3 on my 2011 quilty to-do list: my Goldfish quilt.



I had already fussy cut 20 goldfish out, and then I added a little bit of white around each fish. Then I used 3" strips of orange and blue fabrics to create each block. The sashing is Kona stone. I plan to add an additional border of the orange and blue stripes fabric from Heather Ross' Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries line to make it big enough for a lap quilt.





Several people have asked if I was making this quilt for our baby. That wasn't initially what I had in mind, but I have some more fish that I can use to make a baby-size version of this quilt...if I can keep some sewing momentum going through the summer.

WIP Wednesday #12

Hi all! Are you surprised to hear from me? I feel like it's been forever since I posted anything of substance on this blog. Truth is, I haven't made a ton of progress on many projects lately, just little bits here and there. But, I do want to show you what I've been working on, and since these are all in progress, I figured I'd link up to Lee's WIP Wednesday for the first time.


Ongoing projects

First off, I quilted the quilt for my cousin-in-law's soon to be little bundle of baby joy. (They opted to not find out the gender, but this Make Life fabric lends itself well to boys and girls.)



I started off by quilting horizontally and vertically through the one-inch sashing strips, then I quilted diagonally in both directions through each square. I didn't mark the quilt, so the lines don't perfectly intersect in some places, but that's just fine by me. I think the overall look is fun. I have some leftover Make Life binding from my Life Is What You Make It quilt, so I just have to make a bit more binding and then this quilt will be ready for that last step.



I also got my Far Far Away 2 Kitchen Windows quilt top pieced except for the outside border. I haven't gotten around to taking a picture of the entire thing, but I will soon (or at least after these blustery, bitter cold days are behind us).



The binding fabric I ordered finally came yesterday so I'll be able to work on finishing the quilt soon. I went with Kona sage (misleading name in my opinion as it looks more blue than green), and I love how it looks with the colors in the quilt, especially up against the Kona stone, which I used as the sashing. I just need to piece the outer border for the top and then piece the backing. I plan on using some of the Kona sage to sash the three extra kitchen windows for a bit of contrast on the back. It'll be nice to see how this one washes up when it's complete. I really like the weight of the FFA2 fabrics, which gives the entire quilt a heavier feel that I love.



New projects

The last project I want to show you is what I started for my partner in round 3 of the Urban Home Goods Swap. She mentioned liking Hope Valley as well as being happy about a new sewing machine cover. I've never made one before and thought it'd be a fun item to tackle. So, I called around to see if any local shops had some Hope Valley left, and it just so happened that one of them had some charms at 30% off, plus additional yardage. Score! I brought it home and went to work.

I used the Fat Cats Easy Dresden ruler on the charms and then pieced them like so. I had to offset the seams though so they would line up properly. Here's one end of the cover with a bit of hand-stitching inside the striped piece.



And here's the other in case my partner wants to turn it around. I'm thinking I'll make it reversible too so she can put the side facing her with the colors that match her mood - bright and cheery with the purples and oranges, or subdued and somber with the blues and grays. I have another little item that will go along with this cover, but I want to keep that part a secret.



To follow along with Lee's WIP Wednesday format, here are the rest of my stats.

Finished quilt tops (currently in limbo as I don't have plans to work on them anytime soon): 2

Patching Up Quilt Top

Jellyroll Sampler Quilt-Along Quilt Top

In progress with lower priority (for some reason): 3

Dresden plate pillow

HST Blush quilt

All Star 2 bed quilt

It's a little bit of a downer seeing how many projects I've started before finishing others. I usually like starting new projects while I have others in the works, but for some reason, it's really bothering me right now. I want to have a big burst of energy (oh, and time too) to knock out as many projects as I can. We'll see how this month pans out as it's the last one I have before returning to work at the office. =( Wish me luck.

The blocks are done!

I did it! All 25 blocks for the front of my Far Far Away 2 Kitchen Windows quilt are done. I laid them out on my living room floor to get an idea of how the finished quilt will look. I am so loving this quilt. It may just become my new favorite.



I made three more blocks for the back. I can't decide if I want to orient them like this (all vertical) or if I should lay them out similar to the front.



I am waiting on the background/sashing fabric to arrive so I can finish the quilt. I looked at a Kona Color Card on Saturday and with the help of some of the girls in my quilt group, I decided to go with Kona Stone. I had to order a lot of it since I doubled the size of the quilt from the pattern and I'm using the Stone on the back. But, the Fabric Shack didn't have enough yardage so I ordered what they had (they have good prices on Kona solids), and then ordered the rest of the yardage from Sew Fresh Fabrics on Etsy.

I'm really tempted to buy the plum colorway of this line now and figure out another project for it. I have loved working with this fabric. The weight is wonderful (80% cotton, 20% linen). It'll be nice to see how it feels all finished and washed up.

FFA2 Kitchen Windows Progress

As of last night: eight down, 17 to go.



The pattern calls for 12 blocks, 3 columns x 4 rows. I'm increasing the size to 25 blocks, 5 columns x 5 rows. The final quilt should finish somewhere around 82 inches square. That's a nice big quilt. Maybe I'll increase the size of the border to make it big enough to fit my queen bed in case I want to alternate between this one and my All Star 2 quilt.

I'm really starting to hate this winter light for taking photos.

The mister has complained year after year about how much he hates the winter months for photography. I didn't really understand what he meant until this year. In the early summer, he showed me how to use his Nikon and I think I got the hang of taking decent pictures outside so I could photograph my quilts and other projects. But now that the weather has changed and the light has gotten darker (the snow doesn't help either), I'm finding myself resorting to taking pictures inside with the flash. Plus, I've had a killer cold the last few days so my laziness has won out in the photography department. Anyway, that's why the following photos aren't that great.

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I'm in my first virtual quilting bee this year, the Sew Beautiful Bee. January is Cherie's month and she requested Dresden Plates. I hadn't made them before and opted to make a practice block to make sure I got everything right. I haven't decided what I'll be doing with this block. Kati had a great idea of keeping all the practice blocks for each month and then putting them together in a sampler quilt. I really like that idea, but I used leftovers from the baby quilt I finished yesterday so I'm not sure how well it will blend, color-wise, with the other practice blocks I make. I've toyed with the idea of turning this into a mini quilt for My Favorite Little Quilt Swap, which is currently in its second round. (The deadline is January 31.) Or, I can always turn it into a pillow or something to go along with the baby quilt. I dunno. We'll see.



Here's Cherie's finished block, using Soul Blossoms. I ended up using a blanket stitch to attach the flower to the background fabric and wish that I would have just used a straight stitch. I used a straight stitch on the circle and like how that looks better than the blanket stitch.



I've been anxious to finish my Far Far Away 2 Kitchen Windows quilt. I got all the pieces cut and the blocks laid out.



I decided to use Kona white for the window panes because I think it adds enough contrast to the muted color palate of the FFA2 fabrics. I really like how Ashley at Film in the Fridge used white to frame her FFA2 quilt and opted for the same contrast in mine. I also saw Lee's Lattice quilt today and I'm really thinking of scrapping the Kona ivory I was planning on using as the sashing and getting some Kona stone instead.





Two blocks down, 23 to go.

Finally some quilty sewing!

After Christmas, I was so excited to get started on some new projects. You might say I was a little impatient. I felt a little scatterbrained at first trying to decide what new project to start, so I ended up starting three.

One of my quilt plans for 2011 is to make a new quilt for my bed. The mister and I decided to go with the All Star 2 line. My plan is to make square-in-square blocks. Here are the first two.





I'm not sure what the final size blocks will be. These are about 12 inches, but I'm just kind of winging this one. The finished quilt needs to fit our queen-sized bed so I might finish the blocks at around 16 inches. We'll see how they turn out.

I got a baby shower invite in the mail yesterday, so after working on the two blocks last night, I started a quilt top for the baby-to-be. I tried out Oh Fransson's Mixtape pattern, but made a few modifications to speed up the process. I'll talk about this more later as I work on the quilt (it's due by next Friday), but I left out the sashing and I think it came together nicely.



Finally, I decided to start on a Kitchen Windows quilt from Elizabeth Hartman's book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork, using two of the colorways from Far Far Away 2. I wasn't quite sure what fabric to use as the "windows." I initially went with Kona Green Grass to create a lot of contrast between the windows and the background. But, the more I looked at the fabric, I didn't like how the color changed depending on the light. In natural light, the fabric matched the colors in FFA2 nicely, but in florescent light, it totally clashed.



The problem with going with a neutral, though, is that I'm worried the quilt will just get muddled.



Then I had the thought that if I go with the green window sashing, the green might overpower the FFA2 fabrics and stand out more than anything else. I kind of want the FFA2 fabric to be the star of the quilt, so I'm torn.

Any suggestions?