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.