WIP Wed 8/13/14: The one with all the quilt top beginnings

Now that I'm back into the swing of sewing again, I want to try harder to blog. I have a tendency to post things to Instagram because it's so quick and easy, but I forget that my blog serves as a sewing journal so I can document all the things I make. Needless to say, these pics are all from my IG feed (@pitterputterstitch). 

Let's get on with the WIP part of this post, eh?

Flower Box

I bought this V & Co pattern, which I really love, and then pulled together a group of navy, teal, and peach fabrics. For the background, I picked this Moda Bella teak, and I'm not sure I love it. In fact, I think I may not like it. I'm debating between recutting my background fabric using a lighter neutral or just pushing through and finishing the blocks as is.

Arkansas Florence Crossroads

This was such a fast top to put together. I used Denyse Schmidt's Florence with coordinating solids for the main blocks and Le Creme dots for the background. I plan to make another one of these soon.

New Star

This paper pieced star is called the New Star and I got the pattern from Quilter's Cache. The Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild is making a charity quilt using paper pieced stars and this color scheme. When I made this block, I forgot to use the designated solid background, so lucky me, I get to keep this one. It'll turn into a pillow eventually.

Neon Plus

In an effort to make a quilt for everyone in my family, I started on this neon plus quilt for my niece, Chamy. She's 19 and loves neon. When my dad was sick, she spent a lot of time at my parents' house tackling projects that needed to be done. She even refinished my parents' 11x40 foot deck! She's awesomesauce so I wanted to make her a quilt right away.

Wee Wander Pink and Orange

When Sarah Jane's Wee Wander line came out, I bought a fat quarter bundle of the whole line. This is such a sweet collection and I wanted to make coordinating quilts for my two girls. I played around with layouts and really liked this one, but The Middle has a mind of her own and convinced me to change it up. I'll post the final layout when I can take real pictures with my camera.

Wee Wander Blue and Green

For The Baby's quilt, I made a variety of patchwork blocks. I've since sashed them all in a cream solid and then I'll add a border around each block with green and blue solids.

Strips

I haven't made a small-strip striped quilt before. I pulled a focal fabric and then grabbed blues, reds, oranges, and greens to go with it. I pressed and trimmed all these blocks last night and settled on the final layout. I'll piece the top tonight. That'll put me at five quilt tops to baste, quilt, and bind. Not bad for a month's worth of sewing.

2011 Quilty To-Do List Check-In

Thanks, Elizabeth, for hosting this check-in. I really needed a reminder of the goals I set for this year. I'm sad to say that I'm pretty far off from where I'd like to be. I didn't realize how unproductive being pregnant would make me.

1. Cathedral Windows Quilt - Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure it's not going to happen. I at least bought all the background fabric that I'll need, so I'll be ready to go whenever I get around to starting on this one.

2. Bee Quilt - I'm mailing out the fabric today for my month in the Sew Beautiful Bee. I'm really excited to see what everyone sends back and how my circle of geese quilt comes together. Once all the blocks are received, I'll need to make two more blocks and then I can piece the top. Hopefully, this quilt doesn't get put on the back burner.

3. Goldfish Quilt - I've fussy cut all the goldfish for this quilt and pulled the fabric I want to use. Now it's just a matter of starting to piece the blocks.

4. New Bed Quilt - The quilt top for this one is almost finished and I'm really excited about it. I started heading in one direction (using All Star 2), but then changed my mind and decided to use my Far Far Away 2 Kitchen Windows quilt for my bed. Thankfully, the mister is on board regardless of the princesses. =)



5 & 6. Quilts for two of my sisters - I've got most of the HSTs pieced for one of the quilts. I've also gathered the fabrics for the other quilt and need to finalize the design I want to go with.

7. Quilt for my mom's bed - Haven't started on this one.

8. Colorbrick Quilt - I've got my fabrics set aside for this one (are you seeing a pattern here?), but haven't cut into them at all.

9. Wheels Quilt - Haven't started on this one either.

10. Figgy Pudding Christmas Quilt - I hope to make this one over the summer. I will have my hands full with a sweet new baby during the months that I would normally work on Christmas items, so I think Christmas in July will be in order this year.

11. Unfinished quilt tops - These are still on hold and will probably stay that way. I'll probably finish the Patching Up quilt I made when I had my miscarriage last year. I think it will be a good way to allow the quilt to come full circle by finishing it for this baby.



12. Swaps - I think I can fully check this item off my list. I participated in the Spicing Up the Kitchen Swap, the Urban Home Goods Swap, and the Make Mine Modern Swap (shipping today!). I'm taking a break from swaps for the rest of the year. I officially return to work in the office in May and it may take me a while to find a good balance in my new schedule. I don't want to commit to anything that I may not be able to give my full attention to.

So there you have it. I definitely can see where I need to step up my game and "git er dun" as my work friends would say. Now that I'm finished with my swap items and have a month off in my bee, I'll be able to start prioritizing and check a few items off this list.

Now, head on over to Don't Call Me Betsy to see how everyone else is doing on their 2011 goals.

Works in Progress Wednesday

I ordered some fabric from Hawthorne Threads and was so impressed with the quick shipping. I placed my order Wednesday morning, had confirmation of shipment about an hour later, and got the package in the mail on Friday. Awesome!

Here are some of my other purchases for soon-to-be works in progress.

I found a shirt pattern that I like (McCall's M6120) and decided to try my hand at making a couple. You can't beat on-sale knit, enough for four shirts for $11! I also got some linen-blend fabric to make a skirt.


Joann's had their Kona cottons on sale for $3.99 a yard. I grabbed some navy, grass green, and ivory for a project I'll show you on Friday.


This bunch of fabric is for a Christmas gift so mum's the word on this for a couple months (Kona khaki and some Joann's FQs and black with white dots).


Some Kona solids to have in my stash: rich red, turquoise, grass green, coal grey, orange, crocus purple, and candy blue.


This bunch of fabrics is for a quilt for my sister for Christmas. The Divine Damask in Gray (Retro Mod, Michael Miller) and the Kona rich red will be pieced for the top. The Nap Sack in Lake (Modern Meadow, Joel Dewberry) will be the backing.


I'll be using these Metro Kitchen fabrics (Robert Kaufman) to make some new hot pads and dish towels for my kitchen. (The mister and I still use the ones we got when we got married seven years ago...It's definitely time for an upgrade.)


I LOVE these bikes (Weekends, Erin McMorris)! I don't have any specific plans for them yet. I just wanted to get some so I can stare at them whenever I want.


So, there you have it, the start of an occasional series of Works in Progress Wednesdays.

SLMQG Sewing Saturday

For our quilt guild activity this month, we got together for a sewing Saturday. Four hours of uninterrupted sewing IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY!

I took a lot of WIPs with me because I didn't know how much I could get done in that amount of time.

First thing, I finished sewing the blue trim to the bottom of my Bloom and Grow skirt.



Next I finished the last few blocks for my Swirling Stars quilt. My SIL helped me come up with some layout ideas. Now I'm wondering if I should use this quilt for cuddling up on the couch instead of for my daughter's bed since it's not overly girlish. I have more girly prints in my stash that would probably lend themselves better to a quilt for a girl's room rather than a quilt to be partly used by the male members of my family.






Two of the girls in the guild with me demonstrated free motion quilting, one of a cute vine design and another of stippling and loops. Both girls, Leigh and Kati, said over and over that free motion quilting takes a lot of practice. But, they made it look so easy that I thought it would be a piece of cake. Uhhh...not so much. (These next two images don't even show the worst of it.)

Even though I made this baby quilt to practice on, I don't want it to look like crap because I really do like the fabrics and the quilt top.


When the mister got home from work that night, I asked him to give it try. He quilted a small section and decided it's not for him. When he finishes the quilt he's working on (hooray!), he said he'll be doing a different type of quilting.


When I picked up the Bloom and Grow fabric at my LQS, I saw these Christmas goodies. I want to make an advent calendar this year and this fabric, especially the panel, will work wonderfully!


I love the retro look to it. It reminds me of my grandma.



I also had to pick up some Rainy Days and Mondays by Melimba and Beccabury for Riley Blake. One of my older sisters sang that song so much when I was younger. She even has a beautiful deep alto voice and sounds just like Karen Carpenter. Maybe I'll have to make a quilt for her out of this fabric.

Make Life Baby Quilt

When I bought the fabric for the Life Is What You Make It quilt, I bought a couple extra charm packs. I only used eight or so squares on the back so I had several squares left over. I put them to use tonight on this baby quilt.


I'm using this quilt to practice my free motion quilting so I didn't want to spend a ton of time on the quilt top, but I also didn't want it to be basic 5" squares in rows and columns.

I started by pairing and piecing four squares together in a variety of colors and prints.



Then I cut each set of four squares once on the diagonal.


And then paired each with a different cut half.


I used 64 squares, laid out like so (with my daughter's help).


See how the new square sets make an X?


I added a two-inch border of green on green dots around the perimeter of the quilt to increase the size.


It's about 38" square.


The backing will be the white paisley print since I had just the right amount left over from the other quilt.


I haven't decided what fabric to use for the binding yet. I don't have enough of Make Life, so I may just pick a nice solid from Joann's when I get to that point.


This is the first baby-sized quilt I've done (except for the rag quilts I made a couple months ago), and I love how quickly it came together. All pieced in one night? That's my kind of project.

Springing to finish

I made a to-do list a while back. It really helped me to feel like I had some sort of order amid all the chaos that can sometimes be my life. As an extension of making that list (I love lists, by the way), I joined Jacquie from Tallgrass Prairie Studios in her Spring to Finish Challenge.

The idea is to complete all those unfinished projects (or UFOs as she calls them) you've got lying around by May 31st. I think it's a great idea because I can apply it not only to sewing/quilting, but also to my house projects. Of course, the bulk of what I'm attempting to complete will be sewing related, but I also have a few organizational things in mind for around the house. And since the mister is planning on taking a few days off in the next little while, we'll be all set to get some things done together.

So, whether you're into quilting or not, I hope you'll consider joining us in this challenge.

More on Life Is What You Make It Quilt

I spent the evening last night piecing the back of my Life Is What You Make It quilt. After that was finished, I cut the batting and basted the quilt. I shouldn't have cut my nails yesterday morning...it made closing those pins extra hard (not to mention ouchy). I haven't decided how I'm going to quilt it yet, but I hope to get some of it done before the quilt guild meeting on Thursday night so I have something to show off.

Instead of separating the two backing fabrics with the row of charms 2/3 of the way up, I opted to just split it half since the fabric width was pretty much perfect. (If I can find a way to make things easier, I will.) And even though the fabrics are different colors, I think the white paisley print is busy enough to balance out the green dots.





I also cut out another Buttercup bag for my good friend, Terre. Don't you love the fabric she picked out?


Joann's has been having some great fabric sales this month. I went the other day and picked up a few more half-yard cuts for a new quilt that I haven't planned out yet (surprise, surprise).


I also got the backing fabric for my Swirling Stars quilt. This pattern will look great with some free motion quilting (if I get the hang of it before I get around to finishing that quilt).