Mini Swoon

 When quilts made with the Swoon pattern started popping up on blogs, I decided to use some of the Frolic fabric left over from the pinwheel quilt to make a block for the backing.  During the piecing of the backing, I determined that sewing additional 100+ inch seams just to put the block in wasn't my cup of tea so I left it out.   I added 6 inch borders for about a 36 inch square quilt.

 And I tried a new style of quilting since it was such a small quilt.  An S shape is in the borders and a swirly clover thing is on the block.  I think the clover idea was from one of the Quiltmaker 100 blocks issues.  After getting my machine back from servicing, I discovered that I will need to pay close attention to tension settings while FMQ for awhile since I had eyelash stitches on the initial curves.

 The back was some left over pinwheels that did not make it in the sashing of the king size quilt.  I now wish I had paid more attention and centered them.

I think this quilt will be donated to Project Linus but I haven't figured that out yet.  With the tension issues (and some bobbin issues), I've started investigating how much a new machine would cost.  It isn't going to happen right now.

The Big Zig...sort of

The oranges arrived and while my machine was in the shop, I cut, marked and prepared some flying geese and large HST for my sister's quilt.  I used my mom's temporary machine, a little Elna, and wasn't super successful.  My machine came back from the shop this afternoon and I managed to piece and press all the HST for my scrappy Big Zig from Denyse Schmidt Quilts.  My sister would love the Flock of Triangles quilt, but I'm not quite up to doing that for a quilt.  She'll get a pillow or two with that design.  She sent the following links from Flickr as quilts she liked.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blempgorf/2502570801/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/heavenlydays/324966779/in/pool-11875430@N00/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/colfax/3163722483/in/pool-11875430@N00/

I sort of combined the two requests into a scrappy Big Zig.  I think I want to substitute some more of the darker oranges into the right hand zig zag.  I'm hoping she's ok with this plan since when I started quilting she sent me Amanda Jean's tutorial of how to piece zig zags without using triangles.  This is not the final layout of the colors.  I was just postponing the need to trim the HST down to the right size.  I sent her a picture of the fabrics and she said that they did match her expectations of "sunset" colors.

the pillow to be

dark and light oranges in same zig zag mock layout

And I'm actually in a bee.  Leah of Burgundy Buttons posted about it on her blog and it was weird and exciting to see her post in my reader and know that I'm a part of it too.  Yep, I'm really happy to be in a bee and really happy that my sewing machine is back from the shop.  Never would have thought that 4 years ago.

Strong shoulders

It took 3 people two hours to pin baste a king size quilt last night.  Currently 4 squares quilted and 45 more to go.  Quilting a king size quilt on my machine seems slightly easier than I envisioned, but I think my shoulder muscles are going to be much stronger after spending the hours maneuvering it.  I am quilting 4 imperfect flying geese pinwheels in each block and stippling the sashing.  Knowing that it will never be perfect, makes the process a lot easier.  I think I am just fine with it knowing that I will have completed the whole darn thing by myself (with help from my mom with pressing, basting and trimming threads).   If all goes well, I hope to be done with the quilting by January 3rd.  Somebody needs to resume afternoon naps on a reliable basis though for this to be possible.  Binding may wait until April.

If you look carefully, you can see one of the two winter skirts that I made with Flurry.  I'm really not good at remembering to take pictures.  This one goes to my niece.

Melissa at Happy Quilting posted asking for people to respond if they might be interested in being in a bee.  It took a few days but I responded.  I need to be less of a lurker and more of a participant.  It may be full.  I might have waited too long, but at least I attempted, finally.  Now I should attempt to comment on other's blogs more often than I do.  And, start a list of all the quilty, crafty things I want to try to accomplish in 2012.

I asked my sister to trade me a hat for a baby quilt.  Feeling selfish, she decided that she wanted the quilt.  Either a shoulder quilt or one for her bed...After many questions and a few days, she either wants pillow shams or a bed runner.  So now, since her idea was sunset colors (aka oranges) and I don't have many of those, I had to order some fabric...

Quilt for a Smile complete and sent

 Here is the finished quilt for Project Linus.  The outside white border ended up being really wavy thanks to some lovely bias edges so the purple border was added.  The wave isn't quite as noticeable now as it was before but I can still see it.  The purple does help to minimize the yellow solid which was a goal.

 Although I am not wonderful at machine binding, it sure does make the binding process manageable and quick.  I think this has been the best job so far.  It is quilted with loops all over.

The backing was picked up at Fat Quarter Shop during the Black Friday sale.  5.5 yards for half price and it maintains that nearly all of the fabric was from Art Gallery even if it meant buying some of the fabric myself.  I'm glad I had the opportunity to participate as it makes me feel like I might help someone in a similar position as my niece.  The quilt finished at 54x70".  Next time I will figure out something better to deal with the bias edges.