Monday, January 30, 2017

Baby scrap quilt

I finished this quilt before the end of January, as was my goal, and before the baby came.  In fact, it was finished about two weeks prior to both!

It is made with scraps of the spinwheel quilt.  There are four color categories: yellow, grey, dark purple, and light purple.  It is obvious that the yellow was going to stand out the most, so I planned the placement of those triangles.  I also planned the light and dark triangles around the diamond in the lower left corner.  It is a rather more subtle, but it's still there.

I backed it with minky, because that's my favorite.  For most of the quilting I did loops.  I was looking for a motif that would be done rather quickly and it matched that of the original quilt.  (Although I highly doubt the two quilts will ever meet.)

To make the quilting a bit more interesting I did a 8-pointed flower in the yellow diamonds with yellow thread.  (I've been seeing this flower all over.  It might have originally come from Angela Walters, if I recall correctly.)  I also did some back and forths in purple thread in the light purple squares that surround every diamond.

I tried having my five year old be a quilt holder.  It was a little bit too big and too heavy for him, but he's almost there.

Linking up to Finish it up Friday.

Sunday, January 29, 2017

New Fabric

I've won a few things over the past few months, so I wanted to share them (along with the generous donors!).

First of all, I won a gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop.  I go there on a pretty regular basis, so I was rather excited.  However, the next thing I needed was...Kona White.  How boring.  But you need what you need, right?  I got three yards of white and popped in some constellations just for fun.

Then I won a box from cotton cuts.  I was rather intrigued by it...the boxes that I've seen on other blogs look neat.  And it was neat.  There was a bunch of fabric, some M&Ms, and a few other goodies.  Most of the fabric I liked.  I loved two of the groupings - the batiks and the brights.  There was one that made me wonder a bit though.  It's a cheater panel, but only an eighth yard.  I'm not even sure how to fussy cut it so that the fussy cuts don't look weird.  Oh well...did I mention I really like the other selections?
In the end though, I realized that a subscription box is not for me.  I love getting new fabric, but I try to only get new fabric that I'll use...even if it's just a 2" square for a swap.  All of this fabric went into the correct color box for use at some point, but that point might not be soon.

Lastly, I got the fabric bundle for the latest Riley Blake challenge through the MQG.  I have some ideas floating around, but need to make sure it doesn't get pushed to the back burner.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Oops

I was finally trying to finish up the Simply Solids quilt...I needed to add some oddly shaped triangles to the upper right and lower left corners.


So I added some fabric, trimmed, and realized that this was really hard to square up.  Well, I could only move forward and hope it worked.

This was supposed to be a corner.  A 90 degree corner.  It didn't work.  I almost laughed...at least it was obvious that it didn't work.

(This took me a while to post, so you'll be happy to know that I cut and sewed and cut and sewed and I think I have a mostly square top now.  I'm going to quilt it and then reevaluate.)

Thursday, January 5, 2017

December recap

1.  bee hive scrap something - baby girl quilt.  This is January's goal.  It seems like a pretty easy goal to finish it, but if I don't make it the goal I will work on something else and not finish it.  The baby for whom it is intended should arrive this month, so I'm hoping to finish it before I see her.

2. Aunt's quilt. I finished piecing it.  I need to get some backing still, and figure out how I want to quilt it.  I think this one will be quilted next.
 
3. Sunset wall hanging.  I just have the half the binding left to do. It's getting finished, still slowly but steadily.  I also have to bury some threads in the back.




Other items still waiting around.
4. scrap quilt #2. 
needs a little more quilting, then blocking.  I'm a bit afraid of blocking, although I saw a tutorial by QuiltingJetgirl recently that made it look only a little scary.
5. Scrap quilt.  
needs a lot more quilting.
6. Rainbow log cabin. 
finish piecing - close
7. Orphan rocket block. 
Just make into a zip little bag.  I may need to make a second one for a sibling.
8. Jeweled floors.
Still in early design stage; I didn't do much with it this year.
9. Lost piece (almost whole cloth quilt).  
Still in design stage...I have so many other quilting things going on that this will probably hang out for a while.  But it's small, so it might be good to sew up so I could work on it easily...
10. Winter quilt.   
Design completed.
11. fabric from Christmas.   
Purpose figured out...a napping quilt for me.  For me!  Now to figure out the perfect design.
12. A pillow with green/purple fabric. 
I haven't done anything with this, but it should be easy. 
13. Simply solids bee quilt.  
piecing needs to be finished - it's close, but there are some weird angles so it might also be rather challenging.
14. Quilt nautical quilt.
Half way done.

Since it's January and I hit my goal of getting down to 15 WIPS, I gave myself permission to add several items.  I have to whole year to get the list shortened again!
15. Meshing solid HSTs.
I started cutting, but no solid design plan yet.
16. green/white hourglass quilt.
I have a design figured out
17. baby quilt - possibly pair with another quilt on the list.
TBD
18. woodlands quilt.
TBD
19. Trying to fit in - left over triangle quilt. 
I have an idea.
20. Temperature quilt.
My sister-in-law is crocheting a temperature blanket too.  It'll be fun to see how they look different (or the same) at the end.  The squares will be 2.5" finished, and each month will get two rows of 15 squares.  Some days might just have to share a square or will get two squares.