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

Brown and yellow fall quilt for 100 Quilts for Kids- completion!

I love saying this- done! I am done with my quilt for the 100 Quilts for Kids drive. Well, the first one at least. Now the race is on to finish at least one more. Maybe I will also donate my Parisville quilt, or my Kona poseidon quilt. I doubt I need them as much as they will be enjoyed by someone who receives them through the drive.

Here's a closeup so you can see the quilting. I loved the quilting for the original quilt from Made by Rae, so I stuck with that, nice parallel lines in yellow variegated thread to set off the brown. Okay, close to parallel. I am trying to buck this perfectionist thing in my quilting.

This is the back, made of extra smaller charm squares, a big piece of brown fabric and some white printed with cute little bunnies in brown.

These are the cute little bunnies! And some view of what the quilting looks like on the backside. Pieced backs make me wonder how they will line up, especially with straight line quilting, but this worked pretty well. 

 Here is another closeup so you can see the prints. Mixed some yellow in there because the brown was getting overwhelming and the fall colors need some yellow, yes? So I had to throw some in the brown binding too- just some smatters, like fallen leaves.

 The thrown-carelessly-over-a-chair look.

 I did not plant that ball. But it does bring out the yellow in the binding. Thanks dear toddler.

All folded up. Love that brown print with the flowers.

Did I overdo it with the pictures? Hopefully not. I was having fun celebrating my finish, and wondering who will love this quilt? Hopefully a kid who needs a extra bit of love and comfort.

Linking? Why yes I am. Also to Sew Modern Monday!

Project from a craft book (Amy Butler of course)

I have been on a road trip the last week and just got in my sewing room yesterday, so I am posting just to keep up. I wanted to show off a project I completed for my son a while ago, from Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones. This is the quick change tabletop set. It made a nice nesting project for me before my son was born, and I loved having a nice place to change him in different rooms- instead of buying a changing table we were able to use this on top of a dresser. 

Again, I am not sure of the fabric maker or name of the prints, as this came from a gifted stash, but I know the flannel I used for the removable pad was from a receiving blanket. Those turned out to be very ubiquitous and useless for swaddling, but nice for covering a changing table!

The pattern was easy to work with, and the real challenge was prepping the materials, because it asks for high density foam, and for it to be cut to exacting measurements- and me without the suggested electric serrated knife! I muddled through and was able to get the fabric to fit over the bolsters (in some cases just barely!) and it worked wonderfully.

The genius of this design is many fold, and it was the most useful thing I made for my son so far.

1. The changing pad itself is removable (you may be able to see in the picture above, the extra edge) and attaches with velcro, so when it gets dirty (say, 15 times a day) you can wash it separately.
2. The bolsters on the sides are also removable, so they can be washed when they get dirty as well. Saying this reminds me- sewing that velcro was also kind of a pain. And I was surprised how expensive it was to outfit this pad in velcro! Shocking!
3. The little pocket on the side is lovely for storage and makes the whole deal look that much better finished. That Amy Butler, she does know how to make even a diaper disaster area look good!
4. The length is nice and was useable for a long period of time, even with a pretty long baby. By the time he really started rolling around I was on the floor anyway.
5. No need to buy extra furniture, or to move something heavy when baby changes rooms- moved easily from my dresser to his room and to the floor for visitors or roly poly babies.

Overall, highly recommend this project, very useful, very cute and makes a nice decorative (and customizable) addition to a baby room.

I made a few other things from this book- the modern diaper bag pattern I posted about here with pictures (end of the post), and I will have to show off the snuggie blanket some other time :)

Linking up to Craft Buds for Craft Book Month!

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

Putting together a quilt- opinions needed!

I began working on piecing blocks for my other Parisville quilt this weekend, the one inspired by Fresh Lemons' Echino Squared (as as I tend to think of it Echino2). So far so good. Used my scissors, as per my last post, and happy with the way blocks looked in piecing- at least for the most part.

These look nice, I think. I decided to mix the fabrics, patterns and colors in the blocks to create some more interest and less uniformity. I think this may be where I got off track. I did it sort of off the cuff, so then when I pieced the blocks and then started laying them out, things were looking a bit off...

Exhibit A. What the....? This looks so odd to me. Granted, I pieced it last night just working kinda randomly to see what worked and how big it looked with 4 blocks by 5 blocks and how to arrange. But still. I did not love this layout at all, and didn't love how the blocks looked together.

So this morning I went back out and tried again, rearranged a few blocks, and got to wondering why some things looked off.





Exhibit B. I like this arrangement better, but I could use some help figuring out where I am going wrong. Do I need more white space? More careful arranging of the blocks for color coordination? Do I need to cut up some of the topiary fabric to make it work better? (NB: the topiary background is more cream than white.)

I'd love some assistance.

Why I returned to scissors, pencil and ruler: a story of disillusionment

No kidding, I am through with rotary cutters. A few reasons you ask? Gladly.
1) I always make more mistakes than the time it saves me and end up wasting fabric cuts.
2) I have issues making it go straight.
3) My blade is always dulling wicked fast so I have to go back and cut the missed spots with scissors anyway.
4) My cutting area happens to be my dining room table which (no coincidence) is also where my toddler eats yogurt and applesauce, with a spoon, by himself. Equals epic mess (but also mommy pride).

So I did all my cutting for the Parisville mist colorway quilt the old fashioned way- and I loved it! Never turning back. I used the Echino Squared quilt from Fresh Lemons as inspiration (thanks Toni!) though mine is of course not going to look much like this! Once again I muddled it all out myself in all of 20 minutes and then started cutting. I am impetuous like that.

Work in progress Wednesday- with a finish!

Yes, let's start with the finish, because I am so glad I am done- er, i mean, I am so proud of it. This quilt proved to be difficult in the end- maybe I just had it too easy piecing it in the beginning. Either way, I am  proud of the finished product and happy with how it came together. 

This shot really showcases how well the binding matches certain fabrics in the Parisville line, especially the cameos and fans. Trouble is, it is hard to match a binding to all the fabrics in the line, and since I have them all in this quilt, it was a bit of an issue. But I decided to go big and bold. I quilted all of the blocks differently, because I like to make things difficult on myself, and I thought different shapes looked better with the fabrics. Some have boxes, some arches, some frames, some linked triangles. The I just quilted along the yellow center lines, parallel to the blocks. I tried a variegated Kin Tut thread, which was a first for me, and it was perfect for this quilt, since the yellow is a major hallmark of this colorway, and the reddish-pink binding compliments the other dominant color.

Here is a shot of the whole deal. It is likely hard to tell what the quilting looks like- my apologies, I need a new camera and perhaps a pro photographer to correct my poor quilting photos. At least you get an idea of what it looks like. Heh. The dimensions are about 36" x 42" and I have no idea what the binding fabric is called- it is the oldest fabric in my stash (predates it in fact) and was given to me with a pile of stuff.

To do list as of now (short version):
1) Plan for the Little Apples jelly roll I got from Di and The Intrepid Thread- maybe a string block quilt like FITF's or this modern tracks pattern from Me? A Mom?

2) Plan for the other Parisville quilts- I still have the other two colorways in FQs! I'm thinking one like Fussy Cut's kaleidoscope quilt and Fresh Lemons' Echino Squared. Or maybe one like this?

3) Decide on a palette for the Dead Simple QAL at Lily's Quilts. And if I can pull it off.

Does this post count as a work in progress? I hope so- I need some advice on what you all think will work for my Parisville blues and purples and the Little Apples jelly roll!

As a side note, if anyone has a little one and needs a cool stroller, there's a giveaway for a Bumbleride Indie Natural at The Baby Guy Gear Guide. A straying from fabric and quilt giveaways for sure, but maybe worthwhile!