Amish Snowflake block

     Only a month late, but I finished the guild charity block today.  Kristi wrote the tutorial and it was requested that we use black with jewel tones.  

     I am not so comfortable with my jewel tone selection, but I figured that turquoise and the dark blue were jewel tones.  The fuchsia color is similar to the tutorial and I suppose I can find a jewel of similar coloring.  Funny how another person I made a quilt for wanted jewel tones but thought more along the lines of ruby and emerald.  I guess it isn't really funny, just different definitions leaving me with a lack of confidence in my color selection.
     I used American Made Brand solids by Clothworks because that is what I could source locally when I thought better of going to Costco the week before Christmas.  (Costco is only relevant due to proximity of that and the fabric store).

     But hooray for crossing off another unfinished project from the list!

Purple Crazy Crossknot

Nearly a year ago, I took a crazy piecing class from Katie Pedersen of sewkatiedid.  I chose a monochromatic color palette as I had a lot of purples at the time.  It might be my favorite color.  I finished three 12 inch + sections during the class and put them on the design wall where they sat for 10 months.  I did hide them behind some other projects, but I knew they were there.  

     The original plan was for the squares to be diamonds surrounded by a white frame with the shot cotton background.  I was a little uncertain about needing to add triangles to the diamonds to set them in the background fabric.  Not sure why, but I didn't feel like doing that with the shot cotton and having the grains in multiple directions on the quilt.  So, the three diamonds continued to sit and sit and sit.
     But in the last few weeks, I saw Aria Lane's Crossknot  while shopping at Hawthorne Threads and thought that it might work.  Instead of following directions with sizes, I chose to use convenient sizes of the crazy piecing sections.  For the most part, I cut approximately the largest size of section I could with the sections I made and used those instead of the given measurements.  I think I should have cut down the size of the white frames around the blocks by a half inch but I can live with it.

      This quilt screamed that it needed custom quilting rather than get it done quilting, although it was a bit "get it done."  In the shot cotton, I quilted clam shells.  The white sashing has wishbone quilting and the purple sections have swirls.  I could have benefited from marking on the clam shell section as the sizes vary greatly, but so do different ages and species of clams so I really am just being true to the nature of clam shells.  (Yay for biodiversity!)  I tried one section from the top down and the other three sections were starting from the bottom up.  It worked much better that way.

      The backing used up three prints from Basic Grey's Eva line as well as Kona Wisteria and Orchid.  Look, some of the quilting is more visible on the back.  I chose to bind the quilt with the shot cotton and chose not to extend the white sashing into the binding.  This quilt is going to a co-worker when I return to work after the holidays.  Her unsuspecting husband told me over a year ago that her favorite color was purple.  Hopefully she'll like it and he knew what he was talking about..  

Finished size 58 x 70 inches (or so)
Fabrics: many Art Gallery purples, Lizzy House, Tula Pink, Valori Wells, Lavender Shot Cotton (Kaffe), Kona White
Backing:  Eva by Basic Grey, Kona Wisteria and Orchid
Binding: Lavender shot cotton
Quilting: clamshells, wishbones and spirals by me
Finished: 12/29/2014
Began: February 7, 2014

    The hourglass quilt is quilted and the binding is attached.  The binding fairy said she'll bind it next week when she returns.  Only one major guilt inducing work in progress remains, the blue HST quilt.  After changing the rotary blade, I trimmed the HST that were ready and figured out how many I have left to make.  Less than 200 HST.  That shouldn't take long....

     Perhaps I will do a goals for the year post with some specific projects that I'd like to complete.  Or, I will sew and trim blue solid HST to add another quilt to the finished list and not feel guilty about it anymore.  I did clean and sort fabric bins in an attempt to put it all in the locations it belongs.  Haven't sorted the colored scraps into various sizes, but there is always tomorrow or after the HST quilt is done.  Hope you all have a happy new year!

Hourglass quilt top finished

I'm not sure why this quilt top has given me such difficulties.  Determined to get it off the wall and in one complete piece, I set to finishing the component hourglasses the past two days.

     It has been taunting me on the wall for months now.  But finally I have a completed quilt top.  

      So here is how it currently looks.  Quilt holder wasn't very happy and wasn't quite tall enough to get a good shot of the quilt top.  I wish I would have picked a different background when I made the second batch of hourglasses, but I didn't realize that I wouldn't like it as much until I was laying out the completed pieces on the wall today.  The density of the dots just changes the coloring.

     This will now sit until I feel like quilting it.  I have three months until it needs to be completed and I'm currently just happy to have it off the wall and in a semi completed form.  Apparently I couldn't count the number of hourglasses that I needed and ended up with a whole bunch of extras.  After two additions to make the quilt bigger, I decided that it was big enough and would do just fine in the size that it is.

  Hooray for another project off the plate for now.  Just having it sit in quilt top form really does make me feel much better.  Perhaps tomorrow I will just finish it up.

Tree Pants!

During blog perusal this past month, I saw Monica Solorio-Snow's Tree Pants post.  Silly me decided to add another project to the list to finish before Christmas.  Or after.   Or before next Christmas.  With a selection of scrappy reds and greens, I made a set of pants for the tree following the tutorial on Sew Mama Sew.  Instead of making bias binding, I purchased some.  I wish I would have just used all red but for some reason I decided to buy one of each at the store.  The green is mostly in the back of the tree.

 Perhaps now I will finish the other advent calendars for next December.

Warm HST quilt

 Back in June I found out that I would be leading the July guild meeting.  I came up with some stations as standing up and talking for long periods of time is not one of my favorite things to do.  One of the stations involved pre-made HST.  I asked people to design a block using a 4x4 grid, take a picture, and place the squares into a bag.  I assembled the blocks from the pictures (I think just one was not assembled by me).

      As this has been lingering in the background as something in progress that I need to finish, I finished it up this weekend.  Turns out that finding the missing camera battery charger was not necessary for completion because the pictures were on the other camera instead.  Oops.  Part of my delay was not being able to access the pictures on the camera with the dead battery. But now both battery chargers are where they are supposed to be.

      The backing is made up of larger scrap pieces that reasonably coordinate with the front.  Binding was chosen by the 7 year old and is Kona Coral.  I wasn't sure if I would manage to attach the binding before the sun went down but I did manage to do so.  Quilt holder didn't want to go outside in 30 degree weather a second time and actually the lighting in the back room is much better.  Who knew.

     Two designs ended up with two blocks each.  I put them in opposite corners.  I think I could have increased the sashing size from 2.5" to something a little bit bigger to help blocks stand out.  Or, I guess I could have added borders around the outside or used a different color.  It only stands out in the pictures and I didn't notice that in person.  

      I had eight guild members design a block which allowed me to design one.  Instead of doing so myself, I let my oldest have fun with the squares and made her choose.  She chose to copy the block on the floor next to her.

    The block layout chosen by the 7 year old.  She is quite proud of it.  I do have over 150 more squares so perhaps she'll keep making designs and I'll make more blocks until we use up all the prepared HST.  I do like that she also knows that this is going to be donated through Katie's Comforters Guild.  She's starting to ask if it is a hospital quilt that I'm making.

   

Fabrics: Kona White, Charm squares from Color Wheel Charm Swaps
Binding:  Kona Coral
Backing:  Waterfront Park Reflections in Black and Yellow, Dear Stella Naroibi Gray, Orange Dot from RJR
Size:  52 x 52"
Quilted in a meandering stitch by me
Designed by various members of SSMQG

     Another WIP finished and ready to go.  Three more main quilt projects to finish before a fairly clean slate and not a feeling of quilt guilt as I walk past the bins.  The other three projects are Blue HST, Blue hourglasses and the Purple Crazy Pieced quilt (of which I apparently have no picture.  As I looked for pictures I also noticed that there are quite a few projects that I have not posted here.  Oops).  This doesn't manage to include all my intended projects or some of the projects I started cutting for, but just the main ones that are really bothering me that they aren't done and are keeping me from starting on some projects I want to do.

 

Riley Blake scraps

 Scraps from the Flying Darts guild project (and the extras from the MQG Riley Blake Challenge) needed to be put to good use.  This weekend, I assembled the geese into a quilt top and added a few larger geese just for fun.  The background fabric mostly came from my bag of white scraps that I pieced together.  Other than the larger geese (and all the white I used to make the small geese), I did not need to cut additional white for the layout.  That makes me happy.

 The binding is from Peacock Lane and was the closest I could get to a match of the color for the yellow dots.  The 7 year old color consultant chose yellow for the binding.  Quilting simply is a functional meandering stitch.

 The back uses just a few of the larger pieces and a Dear Stella print that I had in a reasonable quantity.  This quilt will also end up at Seattle Children's in a few weeks through Katie's Comforters Guild.

     This one has been staring at me for a few weeks.  The geese have been living in a bag since May.  I am perfectly happy that most of the scraps are nearly gone and I can move beyond them.  They are no longer staring at me whispering that I should really make them into something.  I really have been feeling like I have too many projects going on and not managing to accomplish anything because I don't know which one to start working on again.

Fabrics:  Riley Blake Modern Quilt Guild Challenge Fabrics and Kona White
Size 41 x 47"
Quilted by me with a meandering stitch
Binding by machine with Peacock Lane Falling Leaves

Birthday Cakes

Last weekend I finished quilting and binding both Birthday Cake quilts.  Both of them (and the plus quilt) should be delivered this week to Children's Hospital through Katie's Comforters Guild.  Usually my sister drops them off when she is there for appointments, but we'll be up this time around and it will be my first time dropping them off.

     Both quilts are backed with flannel leftover from other projects.  Flannel is usually my go to backing for quilts so it almost seems strange when I choose to bind a project in plain quilting cotton.  The pattern was pretty simple and I was grateful for the opportunity to trim blocks down to size.  I wish I had reversed the stripe orientation on the pink quilt so it would seem brighter but it works reasonably well.  

Birthday Cake quilts
Fabric: Tula Pink's Acacia and Birds and the Bees
Size:  Approximately 46x46"
Quilted with loops by me

Super Kids Quilt

     The quilting co-worker group is behind on baby quilts.  Two have been born and one more is expected and we haven't managed to kick it into gear and get anything done.  Today, the plan was to at least finish two quilt tops, possibly get more done and run some errands.  Enter the reality of a really late night at work last night, knock knock jokes starting at 5:30 this morning and a power outage and the hope of completing two quilt tops went out the door.  But I sort of managed to take a nap, frequently interrupted, and chose not to run the errands.  

Using a pattern from the Cloud 9 website, Spaced Out baby quilt, I spent the morning cutting and marking squares.  I didn't want the quilt to scream novelty fabric, so I only used 4 from Super Kids.  The second quilt has very similar fabrics, just slight variations.  I think there is one less blue and one more red in it.  All the hexagons for that are sewn, it just needs to be assembled.  Co-worker 1 plans to make that into a quilt top this weekend.  

The pattern seems to have a flaw or two in it.  Well, the finished size of 44 x 51 is mathematically impossible as written.  8.5 x 5= 42.5.  And that's without the seam allowances removed.  I didn't bother doing the math for the other direction just because the 44" irritated me.  Re-read, check measurements, re-read, ask 7 year old about 8 groups of 5, check for borders, ask someone else to read it...  Silly, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something obvious.

We chose to draw the second line across the white square so now we have about 120 HST for the next project.  I definitely could see some fancy quilting if I chose to do this pattern again, but I am guessing that I might settle for get it done quilting on this one.  3 months later than we wanted to be, get it done quilting it is...

Blue Plus QDAD

Not too long ago, I was impressed by a design made by Michelle Wilkie (Factotum of Arts) as part of the Quilt Design a Day project.  Specifically the plus quilt week on this post QDAD week 13.  I loved the simplicity of the design and the negative space.  Knowing that I had a plethora of blue 5 inch squares cut to make a HST blue quilt, I chose to sacrifice some of those squares to make this quilt. 

I am unsure what all of the solids are.  I know that there is Kona Alegria (the background blue) and the 7 year old's favorites Kona Ocean and Pacific.  The plus is probably Kona Azure.

I quilted it with the standard, negative space and row filling wishbone design.  Usually I try to quilt in only one direction as it is faster for me that way, but this time I quilted both right to left and left to right.  Although it may seem insignificant, when I've tried that previously, I usually mess up going the opposite direction.

The backing fabric was Premier Lord Daisy Turquoise by Dan Bennett.  This quilt, and the two birthday cake quilts, will go to Seattle Children's at the end of the month (as long as I get the other two quilted and bound) donated through Katie's Comforters Guild.

Blue Plus Quilt
Designed by Michelle Wilkie @ Factotum of Arts
Fabric: Kona Pacific, Alegria, Ocean and three other blue fabrics
Binding: Kona Alegria
Backing: Premier Lord Daisy Turquoise
Quilting: wishbone rows by me
Approximately 54" x 60"

Pink Plus quilt top

I kept looking at the Acacia quilt tops from yesterday and decided that perhaps I should make a nearly all pink quilt.  With Modern Meadow and Hope Valley fat quarters which were acquired at the beginning of my quilting habit, I started this top today.  I do have a bit of fabric acquisition guilt, but I'll keep working on dwindling the stockpile before resupplying.

With the crafting space being in the middle of a family room and home to two kids with active imaginations, an interlocking quilt design is not the most practical.  The squares on the floor became a hopscotch game (the three year old ran through the open spaces and called it hopscotch) or a river to jump across by the seven year old.  It also is their play space and where most of their toys live so I really shouldn't get upset.

 Somewhere in a fabric bin are a bunch of blue squares from the same lines cut to make a plus quilt using leftovers from my dad's quilt in 2012.  It didn't really take too long to piece this one, perhaps I should do that next weekend.  Nope, I should be finishing a quilt for a co-worker that's been basted for two weeks.  Or basting and quilting the three tops from the weekend.  Or making boy quilts for two other co-workers to give post delivery....oops.

If works in progress only count quilts that having some sewing done, here's my list:

Basted:  
Pam's quilt

Finished tops:
Pink Plus
Birthday Cake 1
Birthday Cake 2

Piecing:
Blue half square triangle
Purple Crazy Piecing
Blue hourglasses

Wonder if I can quilt four quilts in a two day weekend....

Two Birthday Cake quilt tops

The aunt I see most often is welcoming a granddaughter in December.  I've had little contact with my cousin just because of distance, and apparently his wife likes things that are pink.  Attempting to clear out some of the fabric that is in my house rather than acquire even more, I pulled out Acacia by Tula Pink.  I did need to supplement the pink colorway with four 1/4 yards as I primarily bought the blue/purple one.  I decided on Elizabeth Hartman's Birthday Cake pattern just because I wanted to try something quick without vast negative space.  

 I chose to make two versions because I had half yards of most of the prints and the pattern calls for fat quarters.  I plan to donate the second one.  Neither quilt really screams "baby" to me so I may change my mind and do something completely different for my cousin.

The pink one is growing on me a little bit.  Or perhaps I just make a third quilt top and see which one I like best.  I think I miss the negative space.

Corduroy and the Bee Fairy

My two decided to be Corduroy and a Bee Fairy for Halloween this year.

Corduroy's costume is made with a whole bunch of Oliver and S patterns.  The bear is hood is made with brown fleece from Little Things to Sew.  His shirt is a School Bus long sleeve t-shirt with brown Laguna Jersey and the chambray overalls use the base Sandbox pants with a basted overall part on top.  I hope that he will use the pants after I remove the overall part but we'll see.

The Bee Fairy has a Hula Hoop skirt from Oliver and S as well.  Yes, I am predictable as to my pattern company choices.  (And yes, I prefer to crop my kids' faces out of pictures I post.)

Pacific Crest for the shore

Our family back east has a new house at the shore.  Lucky for us, it significantly reduces the cost of going to visit that side of the family because we no longer have to contribute to a rental.  Not wanting to get something in exchange for nothing on our end (and because I like them and I know it would make her happy), I asked my sister in law if she would welcome the idea of a package arriving with a quilt for the new house. I do feel especially grateful that she appreciates the quilts I have made for her family and expresses her excitement and appreciation.  That makes me so much more willing to make more things for her.

And so she sent the decor for two of the rooms.  I chose the room with the above decor and went searching for fabric to coordinate.  I found a lovely clearance sale of Parson Gray fabric and bought mostly Seven Wonders with a little Curious Nature and World Tour fabrics mixed in.  

At this point, I can't remember my original plan for a pattern, but my sister in law's style is more traditional than modern.  Originally I chose a design with a lot of HST, but then Beyond Neutral by John Q. Adams (Quilt Dad) came out and I really liked the Pacific Crest quilt on the cover.  It was a nice balance of the number of HST and squares so the trimming process no longer seemed daunting.

The three year old helped me bring squares to the machine while I put together the top so one set in the upper corner is not quite the same as the normal pattern.  It did not affect the overall appearance so I chose to run with it rather than unpick.  Most likely you can't tell the difference.  

By the time I got to basting it, about a month ago, I was ready to be done so it is quilted with the normal meandering stitch in a cream thread.  

The weather did not cooperate today for outside pictures and I wanted to mail it off this weekend.  

Finished size: 72" x 84"

Pattern:  Pacific Crest by Quilt Dad in Beyond Neutral

Fabrics for top:  Seven Wonders by Parson Gray and Free Spirit Solids in Chamois

Binding:  Curious Nature Universe Academy

Quilted by me in a meandering stitch

Backing: Simple Marks by Malka Dubrawsky

Thoughts on fabric for the next color combination?  I think I might need a picture of the actual room all put together for this one.  

School Bus for the boys

 Not wanting to be left out, 2nd child wanted mom made clothes.  Unfortunately for him, he has myriad hand me downs from his cousins from both sides of the family.  If there is any shortage, it is in short sleeve t-shirts or long sleeve shirts without collars.  I think collared shirts must have been part of the dress code for his cousins based on the sheer number of them.

I debated whether or not I wanted to buy the smaller version of the School Bus pattern as he is on the upper end.  Good thing I did because it works for his larger cousin and for him.  He could probably get by with a 3T, but I made a 4.  His cousin happened to be here on the day I was making his two shirts and helped try them on in progress.  Turns out that the size 4 fits the cousin very well and leaves lots of room to grow for my own.   His cousin seemed to want to keep one of the shirts.

If I could change one thing about the animal shirt, I would use a contrasting neckband in brown.  But, I don't have a fantastic apparel store within an easy distance to go color match in person and a matching neckband works just fine.

O got 2 shirts from Monaluna knits.  His favorite one is the animal one because of all the different animals he can find on it.  Seems to me that I need to start buying some Euro knits for him that are quite busy because he'd like them.  And since I'm supplementing an ample wardrobe, I can try quality rather than quantity.   Even without substituting the ample wardrobe, I'm working on quality rather than quantity.

There was enough fabric leftover from the 3/4 yard cuts to get one more shirt.  The cousin shirt has the animals on the front and sleeves and the geo dots on the neckband and the back.  Although mine was quick to point out that it wasn't really a twin shirt because of the differences, I think he was happy that his cousin and him could sort of dress the same.  

Pink zig zag

Perhaps a logical way of catching up on the backlog of projects is to post the first few in terms of fabric use. Shortly after I started tackling my fears of knits in January, I bought 1.5 yards of pink zig zag from Patty Young's knit line.  The pictures online had a more purple look to them but it ended up being pink when it showed up.  

This week I finally got around to using the fabric.  Using her favorite Hopscotch pattern from Oliver and S, she now has a short sleeved version.  Like the Wonderland dress, this dress is hemmed a bit shorter after the picture.  It didn't quite pass the running test.  But look, I managed to sort of pattern match on the right side of the picture.  The light pinks are pretty good I think and it was an accident.  Wait, it was totally intentional....

Since this is quite a memorable print, I figured that I couldn't really get away with saving the leftovers and using it for another size t-shirt for my own child.  Lucky niece I hope.  Using the School Bus pattern from Oliver and S, her cousin now has a "twin" outfit.  Assembly line sewing did make it possible to get two shirts and the dress sewn before 1pm that day.

I made the mistake of attaching the neckline seam to the front and not noticing until I was hemming the bottom of the shirt.  No way was I unpicking my topstitched neckline with seam finishing and everything.  Instead we picked a lovely ribbon out of my mother's ribbon collection and sewed a bow on the center front of the neckline just like a shirt I had when I was growing up.  Hopefully it works.

I'm dreaming of acquiring a coverstitch machine.  Hems of knits are not my favorite.  Other than speed, I can mostly manage my normal machine for the parts that would be easier/faster with a serger.  

So, continuing the cost analysis.... $12.75 for the 1.5 yards and about $2 for Hopscotch and $3 for School Bus (which I've just recently acquired and have only used that sizing three times so far).   About $18 for the shirt and dress.  And I'm not counting shipping charges or sales tax.  That's not so easy to keep track of.