WIP Wednesday... a day early

 

Since I know I'm not going to have time tomorrow...

 

New Project: Across the Sea Modern Quilt-Along

 

 

Because I've been SUPER great about finishing my other quilt-along quilts. (Supernova is still waiting to be quilted, I'm not even finished cutting fabric for the Kaleidoscope, and my Garden Fence quilt has completely stalled out.) but I really like this one and it looks pretty easy.

I cut the crosses from my first 8 FQs tonight, two of each. I'm making the lap sized quilt. The fabric is Loulouthi... love it! I bought the FQ bundle at my LYS, Wooly Bully in Tallahassee. They started carrying fabric earlier this year and this was my first fabric purchase from them. Love it! However I need 5 more FQs unless I want to have another repeat of each cross (which I don't). So I'm picking out 5 more from the quiltalong sponsor, one of my FAVORITE online fabric shops, Sew Fresh Fabrics!

 

I'm not married to these FQs--I want to add more blue, so I need to find some Triflora in the blue colorway to replace either the hugs and kisses or the Summer Totem. We'll see.

 

For The Love of Solids Swap

 

I'm actually almost done with the top of this mini-quilt--just need to finish sewing the last two rows together then add the border. However, my husband and his friends started saying as I finished the 9 blocks on Saturday night that they looked too much like swastikas. I don't think they do--what about you?? I do feel like I'm getting better overall at piecing evenly, so that's good--and this required virtually no seam ripping! Happy day!

Since it's a mini-quilt that will likely be used as a wall hanging, the back will probably be just the coal gray, though I may include some of the leftover triangles in there, we'll see. I'm definitely going to do a scrappy binding with all eight colors.

 

Supernova:

 

Basted and the quilting has begun. I'm doing straight-line quilting through each star, three lines total--one in a variegated orange and yellow, one in a variegated purple, and one in variegated green. So far I've only gotten the vertical and horizontal lines of the orange/yellow done--I'm using a heavier batting this time than last, and this quilt weighs A LOT and I'm sick of dragging it through the machine. I'll get it finished eventually. I also realized that the fabric I bought for binding (Gardenia from Connecting Threads in Marigold) is completely NOT the same yellow as the one used in the quilt top--I'll post a picture soon, but I'm hoping it's not too noticeable. I need a yellow or a green to contrast well with the backing fabric.

Finally, the most pressing project of the last week--my classroom got finished and my students came back on Monday.

This is the cleanest and most organized it will be all year.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday! (Also, go vote for Lee's super cute fabric on the Connecting Threads website!)

Pets on Quilts

Haven't had any time at all this week for sewing (I went back to work on Monday, and I'm planning to work both Saturday and Sunday to be ready for the kiddies to come back) but I wanted to post an entry for the Pets on Quilts show before it ends tonight.

 

This is Peanut. She is about 2 years old. We adopted her at a Petco adoption event for the shelter in the county south of ours. She is a MESS. She likes to eat plastic things... which can include disposable razors (she swallowed the blade!) and Tupperware containers full of cookies and brownies. She also likes to eat leather (like expensive flip-flops). She is a giant mess but we love her anyway.

 

It's an upside-down dog!

 

 

This is Izzy. She's 6 years old and we think she's an American Dingo.

In January 2009, we saw Marley and Me, and then the next day went to the animal shelter. My husband had seen her on the shelter's online kennel and liked her. When we went there, we noticed that she wasn't barking and hadn't pooped in her kennel. So we took her for a walk. As soon as she jumped up and gave me a hug, we decided that she was ours. Fortunately, we came to get her just in time. Izzy was heartworm-positive and had been in the shelter for over three months. If she hadn't been adopted that week, she would have been put down. Instead, we took her home, got her heartworms treated, bought a house with a backyard for her to run around in, and we couldn't be happier.

 

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Want to see some cute cats and dogs? Go to the show!

Skill-Builder Sampler Series--caught up again

Here they are!

 

This month's blocks were a plethora of mistake-making, and I officially hate HSTs now.

 

 

Block 4: Pinwheel

 

So I wasn't thrilled about this block while I was making it (and oops--I totally JUST realized that the pinwheels on the right side are backwards from the rest) and I'm still not. I wish that instead of using white for the plain squares I had used one of my other prints. I feel like that would have made this block more exciting. I'll remember for next time.

 

Block 5: Arizona

 

OMFG I HATE THIS BLOCK SOOOOO MUCH. It's cool looking (or it would be if I hadn't screwed it up). But sooooo many HSTs, soooo many mistakes made. By the time I realized what I'd done with the top row, I was just done. It's a design element. Whatever.

 

Block 6: Bow Ties

 

 

This one, I like. I've actually liked the bow tie look for a long time and I've meant to do something with it, but this is the first time I have. I also tried to bring together the red/green and the blue in this block, and will continue trying to do that in future blocks, so that the couple of blue blocks that I will have (the value nine-patch, for example) won't look out of place.

 

This quilt is going to end up being a throw-sized quilt for my mother-in-law for Christmas (shhh, don't tell!) and so I will likely stop after the 4th month at 12 blocks. I plan to add at least one, possibly two blocks with machine embroidery, though, so we'll see what I actually end up doing. I'm really enjoying this quilt-along, though, and I'm sure I can definitely use the practice, so what I may do is continue the quilt along with either different fabrics or the same fabrics and make a different sampler quilt for me.

 

In other news... I'm working on my For the Love of Solids project. At first I was going to make a tote bag, using these fabrics:

 

I might still, I don't know. But I think my swap partner would prefer a mini-quilt, and I know she prefers rainbows. So yesterday I went to Hobby Lobby (which, btw, I had NO IDEA they carried Kona solids, and I'm super thrilled and plan to shop there more often now) and picked out these.

 

This is a very "me" color palette--I'm worried that it's a little too "me" and not enough of my swap partner--but she said she likes rainbows, sooo.... I think I'm going to go with it.

 

In terms of the block pattern: I am insane, and thought I would do this:

(photo from The Parfait Cafe, tutorial here), but yeah, I am insane. I tried it yesterday with the teal palette, and after much swearing, gave up and went shopping. So I THINK I'm back to my original plan, and going to do this:

(photo and tutorial from Moda Bake Shop, click on the picture to get to the tutorial). I really like this block but when I posted a link on the Flickr group most people were pretty "meh" about it. I think, though, that the fabrics used in the sample just aren't "modern" enough for most people, and in solids it would have a totally different look. So I'm going to try it out.

 

I go back to work on Mondayyyyyyy.... noooooooo.... summer vacation is almost over!!!! :(

Small New Blog Meetup!

First off--can I tell you how excited I am that I have followers who aren't people I know in real life?? I had to make my husband be a follower because I felt like a loser! So if you're reading my blog--THANK YOU!! :)

 

I also want to thank Lily's Quilts for hosting the Small New Blog Meetup.

 

This is a link party for those of us who have fewer than 20 followers and are trying to grow our blogs--sort of exactly like me! So thanks for the opportunity.

A little bit about me:

• I started quilting in about March of this year. I credit Moda Bake Shop's awesome tutorials for being the major motivator in that decision--I kept seeing all these really cute quilts that didn't look like ones I was used to seeing and thinking, "Hey! That looks like fun!" I already had a sewing machine and a basic knowledge of how to use it.
• I started blogging earlier this summer because I really liked reading all the quilting blogs out there and wanted to put my projects and whatnot out there for people to see. The original idea was that I was going to do all sorts of things to better myself this summer (since I'm on summer vacation and all), including diet and exercise, but pretty much the only one I've done is sewing... ooops. And I only have a week and a half left of summer vacation, too.
• My mom (hi Mom!) has been quilting for a very long time. I wish I had a picture--she was PTO president at my elementary school, and when the school had its 30th birthday, she and a number of other volunteers got together to make a MASSIVE quilt with the signature of every student and teacher at the school on it. She's also really into photo quilts. We have different quilting styles, but I think that the quilting bug was in the blood!
• I am WAY more ambitious with my quilting than my limited experience should allow. My first quilt was a flannel rag quilt (easy!). My second quilt was a Moda Bake Shop tutorial that was reasonably easy (I just finished it yesterday, go check it out!). My third quilt... was the Supernova. Yeeeahh. Maybe it's a good thing that I didn't realize it was that hard when I started it? I'm ridiculously proud of how the top turned out anyway.
• I teach high school math and coach my school's math team. I am constantly amazed at how much smarter than me some of my students are. Fortunately, we get to learn from each other--and I can't imagine not working with them! (This, by the way, is why the blogging and sewing will likely slack off during the months of January through March, when I go to a math competition every other weekend.)
• I've been married for three years, and have two adorable puppies. You can see the whole family in the upper right-hand corner of the blog.
• Things I like other than sewing and quilting (in no particular order): knitting, reading my Nook (I read soooo much), Harry Potter, chick flicks, the color pink (the brighter the better), dancing (I've done ballet and jazz my whole life and just started tap a year ago!), getting pedicures, math, Mac computers, embroidering on my new sewing machine, shopping (for just about anything except groceries), parentheses and exclamation marks (in case you hadn't noticed!)

 

Thanks for reading, and if you'd like to find some other new blogs, you can click the button up above!

Finished--my very first (real) quilt!!!

(Note: When I say real, I mean that it goes in the traditional order, making a quilt top, then quilting together with backing and batting, then binding the edges--I've made a rag quilt prior to this.)

 

I did it!!!

 

 

My first official quilt is finally finished.

 

I started this quilt back in March over my spring break. I actually finished the top in a day--it's small and the piecing was relatively easy. Then... it sat. And sat. And sat. I didn't know how to back it, how to quilt it, I was clueless. I did eventually pick out a backing fabric I was happy with (First Impressions by Anna Maria Horner, from the Innocent Crush collection), but still, I knew I couldn't quilt it on my old machine, so it sat for a while, and I was still unsure about binding fabric. Then, I got a new machine, complete with walking foot, my mom came and visited me and looked through my fabric and found a binding fabric that would work (also a backing fabric for the Supernova, too, more on that later), and I got motivated again... and here it is!

 

 

 

 

 

(This one is post-quilting, pre-binding.)

 

I love this pattern and would like to make the full-size quilt. This one is baby-sized--full-sized would involve 4 of these being sewn together in a square.

 

What did I learn from this process? Tons!

1. Seam allowance is important if you want your pieces to line up right--something I've relearned repeatedly...
2. It is a good idea to mark your quilting lines, even if you're doing echo quilting--I have a couple of wonky corners in there.
3. Sew the binding to the front of the quilt BEFORE you trim the backing and batting. Instead of doing that, I sewed 1/4" from the edge of the top, all the way around, but then when I sewed on my binding, that first line of stitching showed up.
4. Try to sew in a straight line when sewing on the binding.... I had to go back and handstitch it on to the front in some places because it wasn't actually attached to the quilt top, just the backing and batting.
5. Words can't express how much I need a 1/4" piecing foot for my machine...
6. If you sew too far on a mitered corner, or backstitch too much, then you won't be able to fit the binding over the corner. Learned that one from experience.
7. (on a related note) Use 2.5" wide binding strips, NOT 2.25"--I feel like that would have made my life ever so slightly easier.
8. Handsewing takes a REALLY long time. But it looks really nice. I need to decide which is better--quick and dirty, or beautiful and slow?

 

This quilt is most likely destined to be part of the 100 Quilts for Kids project, since there are no babies in my immediate future and I don't know of anyone having a girl baby that would like these colors. They are very, very me--meaning lots of brights and very bold. (The girls at my knitting group joke that they can always predict what colorway of any yarn I'm going to pick out... it's the one with the most pink and the brightest colors!) And not many people I know share my taste in colors. So off to charity it is--specific charity to be determined later (I think our NICU unit might want blankets? Not sure.)

 

Stats:

Pattern: Sunkissed Squares, from Moda Bake Shop

Fabric for top: off-white background, jelly roll from Joann Fabrics (I really wish I'd bought like 5 of these when I first found it, I love these fabrics)

Backing: First Impression from Innocent Crush by Anna Maria Horner

Binding: some stuff from Hobby Lobby that I got for 3 bucks a yard

Size: 32" by 32"

Quilting: echo quilting around inside and outside of each square, done by me on machine

 

This is my entry for the Gen X Quilters Summer Fair, and I'm also linking up to {Sew} Modern Monday and Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts.

 

 

 

Go link up your summer quilts (and recipes) too!

 

WIP Wednesday

I am so excited today! Why? Because I finished the top for my Supernova quilt!!!!

 

 

It could probably use some ironing.

 

I was unsure about whether to add the border or not, but it seemed too small without it. I had to square the blocks down to about 13.5 inches? I think? because the edges were so uneven. There are some places where the quilt really looks weird as a result. But all in all I am SO pleased with how it turned out. I'm a VERY new quilter--I've made one quilt-as-you-go rag quilt, and one small quilt top for a Sunkissed Squares quilt, so this was my first attempt at doing any complicated piecing. The bias seams are kind of a disaster. Oh well. :)

 

The next question is how to back it and how to quilt it. I was sort of inspired by this picture:

 

 

I really like the way the points match up like that, so I'm thinking about getting a half a yard or so of each of those point fabrics and doing a big cross like that on the back. Problem is, the purple is a FQ from JoAnn's and the chartreuse is discontinued. I can get the yellow and I already have the pink, but I'm not sure how I would do the other two colors.

 

Alternately, this line came with these other prints:

 

I was initially drawn to the eggplant plaid (the only one of these that I used in the quilt). I'm not a huge fan of the vegetables--I don't think it goes. I would LOVE ideas from anyone that has them! :)

 

Kaleidoscope Quilt Along:

 

I've started cutting and I've done a little bit of piecing, but right now I'm mostly laying out the fabrics and seeing how I like them.

 

The first three I'm thrilled with. The last one in the top row is really not that orange in person. With the exception of the left-hand one on the bottom row, I'm really not sure about any of those--so much so that I haven't even cut the fabric yet. I have fat quarters of all of these, and I have enough fabric to do 3 blocks of each print. I've got two that aren't pictured here and I might replace those three. I'd like to wind up with a total of 10, for 30 blocks. We'll see how it goes.

 

Garden Squares quilt: no progress

 

Skillbuilder Sampler blocks: caught up

 

Other news: I signed up for the For the Love of Solids swap. I'm excited to do some work with solids, since I haven't done much with them yet!

 

Finally--on Saturday I will be taking a break from vacationing to take my students to a national math competition. This is a competition in which we won second place last year, which was the best we've ever done. Wish us luck to do as well or better this year! There won't be any sewing going on, since we're flying to Dallas and I'm not hauling my sewing machine on the plane, but I'm sure I'll be doing some knitting while we're there.

 

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced!

 

We Can Do It! Skillbuilder Sampler blocks

I realized this weekend that it had been a month since the We Can Do It! Skillbuilder Sampler quiltalong had started... and not only had I not made any of the blocks, I hadn't even picked out fabric! Oops.
Not wanting to buy new fabric specifically for this quiltalong (and knowing just how much fabric I've bought this summer already...) I looked at my stash. Then it jumped out at me.

I bought this fabric a couple of weeks ago from Connecting Threads--they've been having a huge sale on a variety of their fabrics, including clearance on last year's Christmas fabrics. I bought a half-yard each of 14 different Christmassy prints, anticipating that some sort of inspiration would strike. And what do you know, it did!
I LOVE Connecting Threads. I've been ordering from their sister company Knitpicks since I started knitting about 6 years ago and loved the great prices and customer service. I'm similarly thrilled with Connecting Threads. They may not be as trendy as some of the other fabric companies out there, but I can pretty much always find something I like there. That said, I wasn't knocked out with all of this fabric--the blue fabrics, in particular, appeared a little faded, or maybe my monitor was just misleading and I expected more saturated colors. But when I take into account that I got 7 yards of fabric for about 20 bucks, I'm satisfied. I also noticed that a half yard of one fabric was NOT the same length as a half yard of another--there was never less than half a yard, but in some cases there were up to 4 inches more. I'm not going to complain about getting extra fabric, but it was something that caught my eye (pressing fabrics and thinking "wow, why is this fabric so much longer than the last one??").
I was able to knock out all three of these blocks in just a couple of hours yesterday and today, and now I'm all caught up!
Block 1: Log Cabin

I love the way log cabin quilts look, and I have no idea why I haven't done anything with them yet. The only thing I dislike about this block (and I disliked it when the tutorial was posted, but I see that there's no way around it) is that the block is asymmetrical. In knitting when I do log cabin blankets, I do the same number of stripes on every side, around a central square. Here the central square is not actually in the center of the block. If I were making a log cabin quilt and not just a block, what I probably would do is take the center block and the first set of strips (bottom and right-hand side) and make that all one square, and that would make it symmetrical. It bothers me the way it is. But not enough to go back and redo it. I also am glad I didn't do all green on one side and all red on the other, but that central square really blends in with the green above and to the left of it, and I'm not thrilled with that either.
Block 2: Value Nine-Patch

I had my doubts about this one, but as it turns out, I REALLY like it! The blues were the only fabrics in which I really had lights and darks (so my complaint about the fabrics not being saturated enough for my liking actually worked out to benefit me!) so that's what I chose. I'll have to figure out how to make the different colors come together in the final quilt layout, but of course I have a while till I have to figure that out (this quiltalong lasts a whole year!) I also am happy that I got to use the Christmas trees, which are going to be a challenge throughout due to the directional nature of that print.
The main challenge I had with this block is keeping a constant 1/4" seam allowance. You can see in both the pictures below that there are places where it gets bigger or smaller than 1/4" and as a result, my seams don't match up perfectly in the nine-patches.

Block 3: Churn Dash
I LOVE this block. Unfortunately it doesn't love me. :(

I made so many mistakes in this one! First, I've never made half-square triangles before. So I used the option of cutting squares a little bigger than called for, then sewing and trimming them down to the correct size. My squares were 5 inches, and my half-square triangles needed to be trimmed to 4.5 inches.

The first one was fine...

The second one was... not. About 1/8" too small. What the heck happened? I have no idea. It probably has something to do with me being incapable of sewing with a 1/4" seam allowance. The same thing happened on both sets I sewed.
Then, once all the HSTs were made, I started putting the block together, and this happened...

Yeah. That was wrong. Rip it out, try it again. And then I finally got a completed block, which I actually really love the look of, and you can ALMOST barely notice the fact that the edges are not straight.
I haven't done the bonus block yet but it's going to have more HSTs in it (just because I'm a glutton for punishment). I'm thinking a broken dishes block, like this one,only obviously just one block, not a whole quilt! The block would probably be 4 broken dish pieces.
Other Fabric News
I got my fabric for the Spoonflower Swap in the mail--it was delivered while we were on vacation, and it's now cut into charms and on its way!

The non-math one is the one for the swap. The print was bigger than I was expecting, but still totally doable for 5-inch charms. The math one I just thought was awesome! No idea what I will possibly do with it, but I had to have it.
I was also a winner of a giveaway I entered--for the first time EVER!! Lee from Freshly Pieced gave away several pieces of her Spoonflower Swap fabric--she actually designed this one herself! I was randomly selected to win a fat quarter of it.

Thanks, Lee! It will be put to good use... eventually!
Linking up this week with Sew Modern Monday and Fabric Tuesday.
Giveaways I'm entering this week: Everyone in blogland is giving away an Accuquilt Go! Baby cutter!
Here's one at All Things Vintage Sheets...
And another one at Bugglebee Handmade...
And still another one at Threadgather! Who knows, maybe I'll win one! That would be awesome. :)
It's Melissa's blogiversary, and she's giving away a fat quarter pack in honor of the occasion!

Have a great week!