super secret birthday project!

So, my friend Sarah from Saturday Sequins had a birthday yesterday. In my homemade gifts excitement, I decided to make her a mini quilt to celebrate the occasion! Never mind that I'd never made a mini quilt. I certainly wasn't going to let that stop me!

I think the hardest part was deciding on the quilt blocks. Since it was so much smaller than the quilts I usually make, I wanted blocks with lots of punch. I kept rejecting ideas I saw until I saw an awesome mini quilt on bijou lovely. It's called the Kaleidoscope Mini Quilt, and while it features a super fun pinwheel, if you flip the blocks another way, you'll find yourself with a wonky star. LOVED it=had to do it!

And BAM! I ended up with this lovely.

I like it so much, I find I need one for myself!

But first, I should probably finish quilting my own pinwheel quilt. I'm maybe two-thirds done? My binding is all prepped--I'd like to have her done...maybe by next Sunday?

WIP Wednesday: The Gray and Yellow Edition

This week, there wasn't much time for me to get my quilt on, but what quilting I did fit in I did with gusto!

While I didn't start quilting the pinwheel quilt, I did manage to get three HST blocks done. I have a fourth, and then I'm all caught up. Repeated Note to Self: Always buy enough fabric the first time, and don't try to guess on the color when you go back to purchase more. It results in re-doing perfectly good blocks. But then, I guess the idea behind doing this QAL was to practice my HST skillz, so perhaps this is a disguised blessing? Yes, we'll call it that! I did this all on purpose!

Here's January's:

Skip February to March: 

And April's:

And if you're wondering about February, here are the fabrics I'm looking to use:

I'm not sure how the yellow and gray blocks will fit in with the all gray blocks. They admittedly feel like different projects, but I'm not sure how any of it will look together until it's all...well...together.

I also managed to piece together and baste my secret project, but no photos this week. For this next week, dare I say, I'd like to at least start quilting the pinwheel quilt? I'd also like to get my secret project quilted and the February block done. This may be expecting too much, but I find being over-ambitious suits.

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced.

Meet Agatha.

Have you met Agatha?

She is my super cool Singer sewing machine that was built SIXTY YEARS AGO.

Yeah, she's kind of a big deal.

I learned to sew on my Mama's 1970's Singer, but that baby was nothing compared to Agatha.

And while she doesn't have a walking foot or a bunch of fancy accessories or even a zigzag stitch, I love sewing on her. Making quilts with the sewing machine that my husband's grandmother (the original and only other owner) gave me is super fierce.

Also, for being sixty years old, Agatha is quite the looker. My friend D took some photos of her awhile back, and he's posted them on his photo site. Go take a look!

WIP Wednesday

Hello, 11pm baby feedings! And 2am feedings. And 5am feedings. I did not miss you. Not at all. And yet, here you are, dominating my life once again! (I have no pass to complain. Lito is my second, so I already knew just how sleep-deprived new babies can make a person. Even so! I still feel compelled to whine.) And now that I've had the bambino, I have to turn my planning energies and attention to preparing for our summer adventure. *Sigh.* The to-do list never ends.

But even in my sleep-deprived coma-like state, I managed to get some quilting in, and I didn't even cut myself with my rotary cutter. Bravo for me!

This week:

• I pulled fabric, cut and sewed Half Square Triangles for my do-over March block and my April block for the In Color Order HST QAL. If I was being completely honest, I would have to 'fess up to the fact that I cannot seem to find a color scheme idea that I absolutely love. I've tossed around several ideas, and all I can concretely say is that I want it to prominently feature the color gray and not be too girly-girl. I initially wanted it to feature pops of yellow, but I can't seem to find yellow fabrics that I both like and that seem to work with my gray fabrics. I'm struggling with this, and maybe I'll keep it at just gray and white. I'll finish the blocks in the next day or so.
  

• I've decided (maybe) on a quilting strategy for the pinwheel quilt, though I saw something today.... There are too many options. I'm hoping to start the actual quilting this next week.
  

• I'm starting work on a new project tonight, but I'm not saying anything else about it! (Shhhh! It's a secret!) But look! I was nice and gave you a sneak peek. (Yes, more HSTs.)

This is my first time linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. (Hooray!)

solids. done.

Phew! I'm done with the solids quilt. After marathon binding that puppy, I finished it up this afternoon. (As I was finishing, I had to put up with the commentary of an eleven-year-old who found it crazy talk that I could possibly enjoy quilting. I wanted to tell him that throwing a frisbee around didn't give me chills of pleasure, personally, but I wasn't dissing his hobby, now was I? I remembered just in time that I am much older than he is and should act my age. Phew! Age prevailed!)

But you didn't come here to talk about that eleven-year-old. You came here to talk quilts! Or see photos, anyhow.

Ta da!

I used a gray and white herringbone fabric for the back after deciding that the batik I'd originally picked out wasn't going to do the trick.

You can see the quilting a little clearer in this picture. I quilted chevrons across the squares because I think chevrons are fierce.

This was my first quilt using continuous binding, and I used leftover fabric from the quilt top for the binding. I really like the look of it!

Now to wash and sew on the "from" tag and deliver it! Pending, of course, that the stain on the front comes out.

pillow love.

I haven't been getting in as much quilting as before Lito's arrival, but I've gotten in a bit. I finished my glider pillow and its inverse twin.

I'm planning to send the inverse (pictured on the left) to my BFF back home. We've been friends since our freshmen year of high school, and she is also a HUGE hot pink fan. I can't think of a better person for my twinny pillow. I considered keeping it, but both would look funny on my glider, and I can't think of anywhere else in my home where I need a hot pink and white pillow. (Odd, right?) They both have envelope closure backs, and I used a large scale chocolate brown and white polka dot print for the back.

I also picked up a pillow form for this bad boy. It'll go on Banzo's bed, though right now, it's serving as glider pillow because the glider is--you guessed it!--still in Banzo's room. No plans to move it any time in the near future, but Lito is such a mellow calm baby (so far) that we haven't needed to use it. I'm surprised it isn't entirely worn out from using it with Banzo, but I guess its good quality is why it survived a glider-lovin' kiddo.

I've started quilting the solids quilt, and to be honest, when I sewed the first line of stitches, I was sure I hated it and would want to rip it all out. I persevered, and I'm glad I did because I LOVE how it looks. I was originally planning to place the quilting lines fairly far apart, but after making one run through the quilt, I decided I liked the look of lines closer together, so I'm going back between the existing lines and adding another. I'm always surprised at how much texture and interest the quilting adds to a piece. In the case of the solids quilt, I'm using a variegated purple thread and sewing in lines that are diagonal to the piecing, so the quilting on this quilt definitely stands out. I had hoped to finish the quilting last night, but first one boy, then the other decided that their needs stood above my quilting ambitions, and I find myself 80% (ish?) done. Hopefully tonight, but I'm tired, and sleep has to take a higher priority.

gone curvy.

 

It may not look like much, but this is my first attempt sewing anything but a straight line using Agatha. The first lines were sweeping curves until I got a little braver and started making tighter ripples. Friends, I'm stoked. Agatha can handle curvy lines, meaning I can get on with quilting the pinwheel quilt. (Yay!)

Oh! And that blue and white blanket underneath? Handsome Assistant Numero Dos has joined our ranks! (Meaning, I have no idea when I'll actually get around to quilting the pinwheel quilt, but that was sort of to be expected.)