another baby quilt finish.

Thank you, 2012 Olympics, for helping me get this quilt's binding done! Several lengthy sessions of gymnastics resulted in a finished quilt, now all washed and crinkly and ready to get dropped in the mail!

It sounds kind of crazy--and I'm sure I looked even crazier--but I snapped these photos in my apartment complex's laundry room. I had planned to take the photos around my apartment--possibly in the grass or lounging on a chair by the pool--but I pulled the quilt out of the dryer, and voila! I saw the wicker loveseat and knew. And in my photos, you can't even see the dudes just outside that window tearing rotten wood siding off of the building. Are those photo skillz or what?

It measures roughly 41" x 49", and I backed it in this lovely green batik I purchased at 50% off. (Woop woop!) You can see a hint of the quilting on the back (yep, that's black on green, a traditional lazy Audrey technique that involves using a contrasting thread to loudly announce any quilting wobbles) but I quilted 1/4" inside the sides of the whale squares, then stitched in the ditch to cross over to the whale square just below or just above, depending on what direction I was quilting. That probably doesn't make sense, but you can't see it well on the front, and the back doesn't tell you anything anyway, so you'll just have to trust that it looks rad.

I bound the whole thing up in a magenta solid that I think is Kona, but I can't swear to that. The black is Kona black, that I do know, and the whales I found at Hancock Fabrics.

This bad boy is headed off to a friend to celebrate the arrival of her fifth kidlet--a lovely baby girl! And I'm off to work on paper piecing! I couldn't quite work up the courage yesterday, but I've got all of my pieces of fabric cut and in a nice order, so maybe? Just maybe....

WIP: Frustrating Edition

Hi Friends! Welcome to another week of WIPs!

I'm still plugging away on my black and batiks lap quilt. I'm loving it, and I've conquered four blocks now, but this last block...oh vey! It took about twice as long as it should have, and grrrr.

Nothing about this block was particularly tricky--HSTs, nine patches, some stripes...all straight seams, and all stuff I've done before. I loved the complicated look of the block but the lack of complicated features. Still, I don't think I've ever used my seam ripper so much for one block, and if I had enough fabric to do it over, I would, but I don't, so I'm stuck making do with what I have. I will make this block again, but I will certainly do things differently next time.

This bad boy was my first set of Y-seams, and while my first Y-seam was less than amazing, the second one came together much easier. I probably should have referenced a tutorial or some form of instruction, but I looked at it, guessed what I needed to do, and did it. (There are probably much easier ways to accomplish this.)

And a star within a star because I love me my stars. One of the points in the center star is too close in value and hue to the background material, so it kind of fades, but I'm hoping to remedy that with some echo quilting or whatnot. I am totally planning to quilt this in black thread, BTW.

All four blocks together, and I've got two more to go! Each block is 20.5" unfinished. I've got a paper pieced block to tackle in the next day or so--yikes! My first time foundation piecing!--and one other block that should be the easiest of the bunch. Then, sashing, friendship stars, pinwheel border, etc., but I think all of that will be pretty easy to put together.

I finished a couple of small lovelies this week. A pillow for a pregnant friend--my back always killed me and demanded a pillow near the end of both pregnancies, and she's in her third trimester, so I'm trying to halt as much pain as possible...

...and cheerful bunting for her baby shower. It took me forever to complete this, mostly because I was trying to work up the effort to make my own bias tape, then saw how ridiculously cheap it was at the store and just bought some. Totally worth it. I love this bunting. I am very sad to see it go, especially since it looks so cheerful in my sewing room dining room...

...and Annabel's quilt, which I'm hoping to post about later this week!

What are you working on?

I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

 

WIP: Edition of Few Words

Even in an edition of mostly photos, I am too verbose to eliminate words all together. If you missed my Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop post, please check out my tutorial for a fun baby quilt!

Baby A's Quilt--Almost Finished with Binding!

S' Quilt--Block 1 of 6 Done. 20.5" {Tutorial Used}

Business Card Holder--Needs Button! {Tutorial Used}

Other WIPs:
Marie Quilt - Blocks 12 of 20 Done.

Linking up with Freshly Pieced and Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet. Time to go devour the other quilting blogs' offerings!

sewing with my two-year-old.

This morning, I spent some time chain piecing 48 charm squares for that baby quilt I forgot about decided to put together last minute just to see if I could do it.  My little one woke up from his nap and demanded to be fed, and halfway through our feeding session, I realized it had gotten quiet, and unless it's late and both kidlets are in bed, quiet in this house is never a good sign.

I found my son giggling with excitement because he was sitting in front of Agatha. (Since his feet can't touch the pedal and my needle was down, I wasn't too concerned.)

After I finished feeding Lito, Banzo and I proceeded to sew some of "his" scraps together. When I have pieces that are too small, I typically give them to him, and he uses them in his cooking endeavors. But today, he was super excited to bring them to me so that we could sew them together. Of course, he couldn't understand why I kept flattening out the huge wads of fabric he gave me, and I think he started to question my artistic discretion, but kindly, he said nothing.

Lito lay in his massage chair--I kid you not, this thing reclines and vibrates and plays music, and sometimes I wish I had one--while we finished, and after Banzo and I were through, I even managed to finish my chain piecing. I'm excited to see this quilt top come together. I'm only using a handful of fabrics, but I think the finished product will be nice. (Woo!)

We have a friend in town this weekend, so I'm envisioning very little sewing time. Better get to pressing all of those blocks before he arrives!

Have a lovely weekend! Do you have any fun sewing plans?