WIP Wednesday- a label, a backing, hexagons and new project

My Little Apples Valentine quilt was selected by Portland Modern Quilt Guild to be in the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show- but it needed a label. I should have been labeling all my quilts, I know, and from now on I will (I hope the Spoonflower way, like Jaybird Quilts shows) but for this I had to go simple because it had to be done soon. So I went the route of hand embroidered and spliced onto the back, and I like the way it came out.

I also have been working on a backing for the Sparkle Punch quilt- just piecing the squares I cut (please do not ask why in the world I cut so many in the first place) to make a big stripe on the back and some randomly placed squares in the solids. My 2.5 year old has been very excited to help with sewing these- he is always asking.

I have jumped on the hexagon train too, but only because it does not involve hand piecing. I am using the machine piecing method outlined by Lady Havartine. The above-mentioned toddler has outgrown his baby blanket and quilt and has been asking for a "big boy blanket." Enter those 6 yards of Curious Nature...

I am adding a new project too, which is jumping to the top of my priority list: a baby quilt for my nephew due in September. His mom picked this quilt, which I am ecstatic to make as well, so everything is coming up roses there. Any advice for fabrics, besides Children at Play? I know we are going to switch the largely white background to a darker blue (because who needs the stain issues with a newborn) but am happy to have suggestions on the rest!

Linking up...

WIP Wednesday- stacks and scraps

Stacks for Sparkle Punch QAL

A block that makes it look like i am doing more than cutting and stacking fabric

 Scrap blocks- tiny bits, log cabin-ish and strips

 Closer view of the little bits block

Not feeling very wordy today, because I am under the weather, but wanted to share!

WIP Wednesday: Bit by bit

Work in Progress Wednesday! I have some fun stuff to show for my work this week:
(and have been working on the blog too- new quilt gallery page!)


Ongoing projects:
Blocks for the Sparkle Punch QAL at Oh, Frannson!
These are nice and easy to punch out about 6 whole star blocks a day, but I am antsy to put them all together and see what they look like!


Scrap attack quilt blocks
(Thanks everyone for the encouragement to keep going last week!)

No progress:
Cutting for the Sparkle QAL (I am planning on the mini size)
Name tag for Portland Modern Quilt Guild Feb meeting

Completed or new projects:
None!

WIP Wednesday- are these scrap blocks working?

Work in progress Wednesday! And a happy snow day to those with one- we have one, and it is so beautiful! We rarely have seen snow where we live for the last few years (since Boston!) so it is exciting to have snow on the ground in Portland. 

New Projects: 

Scrap usage 

 I am working on using up some scraps, inspired by all the scrap posts lately, but I a not sure if these are a hot mess or just a mess. I kinda just wanted to go whole hog (wow, there is a lot of slang in this post already!) and just piece scraps together in a big block and then frame it in some neutral background, but I am not sure that will work. What do you think? Keep on trucking (couldn't resist) or just trash these and work from other scraps? I am tempted just to keep at it and see what happens...

Taza Sparkle Punch Quilt

I posted about this new WIP yesterday. These are my cut bundles of Taza for the Oh, Frannson! Sparkle Punch QAL. I am very excited about these, just have to get some grey Kona (coal? medium grey?) for the background. White would be too boring, and lots of the prints have white in them. Ugh, more cutting, but yay, more sewing blocks!

Old Projects:
Here is where I have re-evaluated. I have no uncompleted projects that I have started in the past, and I am making up a new list of what I want to do this year. Among them is a quilt from Dare to be Square by Boo Davis, which I got for Christmas, and some kind of quilt(s) to use up my Parisville FQs in purple. Either a giant vintage star or a couple minis in some cool pattern. I am open to suggestions!

Completed:
None!

Linking up...

New QAL project with Taza bundle

 This is mostly fabric eye candy, but I have been a bit silent- my son decided he wanted to learn to use the potty out of the blue, so I have been sitting on the bathroom floor a large portion of my day! He also got his first real injury, with blood and contusions and all, on his eye of all places, but he is fine.

So cutting fabric has been a nice break, especially when it is so pretty and I had forgotten I had it to play with! I actually received this fabric right after we moved, from the Free Spirit Fabric blog after commenting there. You should visit- they give away some nice packs of goodies! This is Taza by Dena Fishbein. They sent a whole FQ pack of 30!

 So I thought these would be perfect for wonky star blocks, and then found that Elizabeth at Oh, Fransson! is doing a Sparkle Punch Quilt-A-Long. Perfect! So I started cutting...and cutting...and cutting. Then I had to put together a test block to see if I could pull it off.

Yes! This is going to be fun.

Sew Modern Monday post- hope this counts!

Okay, so Sew Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations is for modern sewing finishes- a finished quilt top counts right? I hope so, because I am posting- so comment to warn me if it doesn't! I am itching to share though!
This is the improv quilt I am making from Art Gallery fabric scraps sent by Pat Bravo for Project Linus quilts. These fabrics were a blast to work with, and it was a great challenge for me to sew a project using just these scraps. So great a challenge in fact that I failed just a bit. I had to use some Kona snow yardage from my stash to make up the quilt backing- the remaining scraps Ms. Bravo sent were too skinny to make it up. Cheater cheater me. But hey, they were my rules that I broke.
Picture disclaimer- I am having a wicked hard time with my camera, so these are not lovely, but they do convey the idea. However, the pics of the sewn together pieces are terrible, so I guess you have to take my word for it? The last picture is terrible, but proof they are done...

See? The last shows it all taped up to guide my not-usually-very-straight line quilting. So far...not so good. Lots of tension issues. I seem to have these worst with my King Tut thread- anyone else? Maybe I need a new machine...

One last bit- a rearrangement of my to be done Little Apples string quilt. I will need to add borders too.

Linking up...

Little Apples quilt blocks ready to be sewn up and a new project

My Little Apples blocks are ready to be made into a quilt top! I am excited to get this ball rolling, as I hope to give this as a Christmas gift this year. Plus, I just love to complete a project. 

I think the quilting should go easy too- I plan to just to straight line quilting in random arrangement across the entire quilt top. I think this will be best considering this is the largest quilt top I have made to date, I am quilting it on my machine at home, and there are all kinds of lines on this quilt already, so no need to distract any more! It is already quite busy, though I am liking it this way. I would like some opinions though.

1. I think the top needs to be larger, because I would like it to be more throw sized than baby sized, but I am out of fabric from my jelly roll! Should I just do a border in the same grey as the main lattice fabric, go for a brighter color from the Little Apples line, or do half blocks with the strips from Little Apples and a solid on the other half? (And does all that even make sense?)
2. I have not started piecing because I do not have a 1/4" quilting foot (horrendous, I know), but I did all the blocks without one...will it make a difference?
3. What color for the binding- grey, red, the dark green or turquoise from the blocks?

Also, just to add things to a list already chock full and unfinished with the holidays so close, I signed on to make a quilt for Project Linus through Pat Bravo's blog. She sent out bags of scraps to volunteers, and I started cutting into mine and arranging by color to do a quilt from Fresh Quilting- Nate's Quilt. I love the idea of improv piecing and hope that makes it come together pretty fast. The scraps are gorgeous by the way- even if I mess up the quilt design someone is going to love this quilt just for the fabrics! Thanks for the materials. Art Gallery Fabrics and Ms. Bravo!

Sewing and general crafting updates

I am admittedly having a difficult time fitting blogging into my life right now! The first reason is we have no internet in our new place- I just use my husband's phone to get online. So that means I can only be on the net when he is home and we are not busy eating, playing, cooking, cleaning, relaxing together or doing a multitude of other non-internet things. The second is, I have been busy doing crafty things for Halloween! First up, a bluebird costume for my little man (he's almost two!):

(my chair doing my modeling here) 

 (closeup of the wing)
This was really fun, it all came together in a day (luckily a very sleepy day for my son) and he wore it yesterday for a zoo Halloween scavenger hunt. The wings need to be adjusted to stay on better, but he loved to wear the hat. I used this Martha Stewart baby pattern as inspiration, but drew my own wings and followed the instructions very minimally.

The next project was a first trip to the pumpkin patch, and then carving pumpkins. I went for the bird theme whole hog this year and chose to do an owl.

I used a Dremmel tool specifically made for carving pumpkins, which I highly recommend! It was a blast and so easy, but I did get little bits of pumpkin all over my arms. Shower after the carving, not before.

And the third reason for my lack of blogging? I want to use all my free time to see how this Little Apples string block quilt is going to turn out! I get about 2-3 blocks done a day, but I am getting anxious!

I've got a nice pile going, but I have a lot of my jelly roll left! I can't wait to start laying it out.

Best of luck to all for the coming week, getting through a sugar-fueled late-night holiday and getting some sewing/crafting/work/relaxing done!

A WIP Wed post for my peace of mind

Had to post my WIP Wednesday, I guess it is now ingrained in me. So I will make this one different too. I feel the need to post it since it will likely be my last post for a month or so. I will not be doing much sewing to report on, because I will need to be packing- just found out I will be moving to the Portland area in two weeks. So here goes my progress before I have to pack up my sewing room!

My banners/bunting are finished! One for each of two boys, and finished up and ready to go to their new home. This was a fun and relatively easy one!

Now, finally got to piecing this quilt top, using my blue colorway of Parisville. I ended up making two (relatively) square quilts so that they could both be donated. Then I found out I was going to need to spend all my time packing. So now I am in finish-it-up-NOW mode. Thus, trying to get these quilted and done by Friday. At least I made progress...

Pinned and the machine is set up to quilt this one at naptime today. If I only finish one, just one more going to 100 Quilts for Kids, so here's to being really good and finishing both!

It'll be a while, so I'll see you all on the flip side (of October).

WIP Wednesday- where not a lot got done

Okay, some things got done, but mostly these involved caring for a sick son and trying to take care of a house in the process. And the sick son is a toddler, not eating anything and not sleeping. This last you realize does cut into my sewing time. There's a reason this blog is titled the way it is. So I'll be less wordy this time.



Completed:

My quilt to donate for 100 quilts for kids, as seen yesterday. It is now washed, but I doubt that justifies many more pictures.








Making a new list for my to-do for this page. Last week I winged it, but now I want to actually use it to keep myself accountable. Yay.


New:

Banner (bunting?) for my friends' kids, to decorate their new room. I am using blues for background and red for the letters. They have now been cut out, ready to sew- maybe tonight?






Ongoing:
Cutting out patterns and fabrics for my Amy Butler patterns using my Harmony Arts fabrics. This is where I need some advice.

For the Domestic Goddess Apron: This fabric combo...is too busy? Or is it okay? I wanted to make a kinda crazy mix here for my sister, so the flowery fabric would make up the bulk and the blue and brown Harmony Arts the accents. Thoughts?

The next project from the AB patterns is the Birdie Sling. I am using the center Harmony Arts fabric for the main part of the bag and trying to decide on my accent fabric. The batik on the left? The flowery Kona Bay on the right?

Or the green?













No progress:

• DNA quilt (design and cutting step 1)
• Echino Squared-inspired Parisville quilt top (arranging blocks)
• Kaleidoscope quilt with the pomegranate Parisville
• Other quilt to donate to 100 Quilts for Kids- perhaps a ticker tape or other QAL quilt?
• Knitting a doll/softie for Christmas gift for my niece

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 1
New projects - 1
Currently in progress - 7

WIP Wednesday for 100 Quilts for Kids, and a Travel Handmade linkup

Whew! Lots to show and talk about this week! I am going to try to format this correctly this week so that we can stay organized....

Ongoing projects:

100 Quilts for Kids QAL- currently doing okay?

A new work in progress, started this week as my project for 100 Quilts for Kids, the charity quilt drive at Swim Bike Quilt. I am following the QAL using the Storytime Squares pattern from Made by Rae. I used some charm squares from my stash for this one, and hope that kids like brown. Will it be okay? I think it will be cute, but hope that the occasional florals will not dissuade a boy from liking it too. 

So I added my second row of piecing last night and saw that I really do need to find/replace my 1/4" quilting foot. My top right squares do not line up, and since I have also somehow misplaced my seam ripper, I am going to have to fix it after a trip to my LQS.

Echino squared inspired quilt for Parisville fabric- progress to quilt top piecing

Posted here previously, now on the wall and possibly I am going to rip up some blocks or replace some with more white space to calm down the crazy. More to come when seam ripper is replaced.

Super large Amy Butler bag- finished

Someday I will get a new camera, I promise. For now, please forgive my poor photos and lighting, I am simply making do with the fact that I rarely finish anything during the day. And forgive my lack of process shots. There is no room for extra brain power to take photos while following an AB pattern. This is the Modern Diaper Bag from Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones. First off, wow. This bag is gigantic. As I cut out the pattern, this became more and more obvious, but I somehow thought in my delusion that it would get smaller as I sewed it, as if the seam allowances were 5 inches instead of 1/2 inch. 

That being said, I am really pleased with how it turned out, and very pleased with my color and fabric choices. Alas, I did not get to use Ms. Butler's fabrics for the bag, and even more of a bummer, have no idea what this fabric is called or what line it is from, as it came from the stash. 

I do like how the stripes compliment the damask print, and I don't usually work with grey and yellow, but love the way it matches up here. 

I actually gifted this to a friend to use for her baby, as I know she loves a large bag and travels quite a bit. I hope she loves it and gets lots of use out of it!

No "real" progress: 

1. Plans for rest of Kona Poseidon FQs
2. Plan for pomegranate colorway of Parisville- I am thinking a Kaleidoscope quilt though, using Don't Call Me Betsy's QAL
3. Plan/start the second quilt top for 100 Quilts for Kids
4. Start the Little Apples string block quilt top