Vanilla's Quilt in Progress

After what I think was a successful spray basting session--or at the very least, what I hope was successful--I've commenced the quilting on Vanilla's baby quilt. So far, it's involved seven different types of thread, three different sewing machine feet, and by-the-seat-of-my-pants creativity.

I cannot get over echo quilting. I just can't. So that's what I spent a lot of my start doing, and let me tell you, it involved a lot of quilt turning around those NY Beauty wedges! I would do a bit at a time to make sure my back and shoulders didn't punish me later. (And even then, I spent some time with a heat pad and/or ice pack, but that could also be the whole, eight months pregnant thing.)

The straight line machine quilting came along really nicely, and I love this shot from the back. I didn't think to snag a picture after I added the FMQ in two of the corners, but I added a triangular meander to two opposite corners.

And then I jumped right into handquilting the center, as I haven't completely decided what to do with the friendship stars just yet. I'm using perl cottons, which I adore--I love the chunky texture and uneven stitches up against the machine stitched bits.

The center portion of the medallion is now complete, and you can see I did some infinity loops in the first border. I need to figure out a plan for the other borders, then attack!

I may not finish the quilt until after Vanilla arrives. I had an appointment a couple of days ago, and Vanilla is doing well. Oh, and she's locked and loaded and sitting really, really low. While I could still make it to my due date (later in November), it's highly likely she'll come before then. Given my history, and the fact that my three sons all came long before their due dates, it seems prudent to make sure everything else is ready to go. So we've been doing a lot of prepping around here. Laundry, carseat installation, laundry, hospital bag packing, trying to figure out a name, and MORE laundry. I keep thinking we're almost done--minus the tiny matter of not having a name picked out thing--but then I think of more stuff I need to do!

I'll keep you posted!

Menorah Table Runner.

Awhile back, fabric.com had this huge clearance sale, and I picked up a yard of fabric to make my sister cloth napkins for the holidays. Of course, then I had a ~6" strip leftover, and what am I going to do with menorah fabric? I thought to myself, why, I'll slap a strip of WOF solid on either side, quilt that bad boy and call it a table runner. Easiest gift ever, right? Like fifteen minutes of work, right? WRONG.

Or rather, it wasn't terribly hard, but it was terribly time consuming. Straight line quilting 1/4" apart over the entire runner took some time. I think by the time all was said and done, I easily spent at least three times as much time on this runner as I did on the napkins. (This pic is pre-binding.)

I do love the effect though. I placed masking tape across the surface at random angles, then used those as a basic guide. I think the quilting is what makes this runner awesome.

The solid was "pick a random solid that matches" and I really do love the blue. I chose to bind it in the same thing. The backing is a Kona gray. Steel or Coal, I think. My one grump about this runner is that the straight line quilting slightly warped the center stripe, so in certain spots, it looks a little wavy. (You can kind of see it in the second photo.) Hopefully, that won't be too noticeable to people other than me. My sister knows it's coming, and she's excited! It's a really early holiday gift, but since I wanted her to be able to use it during the holiday, well, that's the way it had to be!

The finished product is ~20" wide and ~42" long.

Boardgames and Some FMQ

As y'all might remember, September is my birthday month around these parts. It is also the birthday month of my super amazing wonderful and magnificent husband, but he doesn't really care about things like birthday week, so I kind of had to force him to enjoy it. This weekend, we watched lots of football, ate ice cream, played boardgames, ate good food, and I forced him to take a long nap.

We also learned how to play 7 Wonders, which was awesome fun. (BTW, if you enjoy playing games like 7 Wonders, you should totally tell me your favorite games. We play a lot of Dominion around these parts, but we love trying new games too.)

The weekend wasn't all play though. I've committed to a bit of FMQ on this quilt, though the majority is still straight line echo quilting, aka, bread-and-butter-Audrey-quilting. I'm still working on stitch length consistency, but I'm getting better.

And I've been burying threads as I go, as I hate burying them all at the end. I'm probably 60-70% of the way done with quilting this bad boy, and I'd really like to finish quilting it this week and get the binding attached. I'm planning to handsew the binding since it's a special quilt, and this weekend sounds like a great time to get started.

Did y'all have a good weekend? And how are those Q3 FAL projects finishing up?

WIP: Sisters' 10 Quilting Edition.

I finished my blocks in early October. I finished my quilt top in early December. I'd hoped to have the quilt finished by Christmas, but here we are, early March, and I've just finished the quilting. But no complaints! I'm just thrilled to be done jerking that thing lovingly feeding this glorious quilt through my machine.

The quilting on this 78" square quilt started off easily enough.

More quilt got shoved into the throat space.

Then more quilt.(Yes, that's a peek at the ninjas on the back. The back is...a little eclectic.)

Until done.

I used a gray Mettler thread for the quilting lines. I debated going with a lime in the negative space down the center diagonal, but a lack of the right thread color had been my excuse for not finishing this quilt for a long time, and I didn't want anything else keeping me from getting this done.

Now, to bind. Thoughts? I'm thinking about using a delicious lime solid, and I also thought about using more of the background fabric. My husband (the quilt's recipient) thinks lime or green. But what do you think?

I'm linking up today with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced featuring Stephanie from Quarter Incher!

Finishing Marie.

A few weeks ago, I sent off my precious Marie quilt top to a longarm quilter. It was my first time working with a longarm quilter, and you can bet I was all sorts of nervous! Had I prepared my top well enough? Was my craftmanship up to par? Was it all going to be okay?

I'm happy to report that it was MORE than okay.

The quilter (Sarah) and I talked about feathers. Since this quilt uses Tula Pink's Parisville line, I wanted the quilting to be decadent and full of feathers. Mission accomplished.

I still swoon whenever I see the quilting lines. Like, I can't believe this is going to be on my bed, and soon!

Here is a view of the back. I went with Bella Solids wide backing in navy because I wanted the quilting to really show up on the back. SO delicious. Sarah suggested using a double layer of cotton batting to make sure it would be extra warm for the winter months. Um, yes please!

I'm working on binding, and it's slow going, but I know it will be worth it when I'm done! I should have an absolutely amazing finish to show you, and soon! Squee!

This weekend...

Friends, this weekend was an explosion of awesomesauce. You think I'm joking? Try starting off Saturday morning with tater tots covered in homemade white cheddar cheese sauce and bacon, then hopping in the car for a quilt retreat thingiemabob! And if that wasn't enough, coming home to a clean house and folded laundry and my loving family. Yep! That's what I did this weekend!

K, my friend and quilty teacher came with me on the retreat, and we spent 10+ hours quilting between yesterday and today. It. Was. Awesome.

First, K's work:

Snails Quilt

Geometrics Quilt

Tons of Cutting for the Chili Peppers Quilt (Not sure if everyone calls it that or just me.)

And some FMQ practice.

 

The butterfly blocks were a team effort. (Isn't this block amazing? K's mom designed it!)

 

We relied on our friend, the chocolate Teddy Graham, to help us power into late night sewing territory. (And by late night, I mean 10pm.)

I made a few things too: 

Lots of cutting. R 6/7 for the 10" Tula swap and fabric for two kidlet quilt tops.

Block 5 from TP's City Sampler...

...and block 6.

Start of a new kidlet quilt. Three blocks down, six to go! These blocks finish at 16.5".

And a paper pieced lone star for Sarah from the Make It Modern Bee. 

This weekend was quite possibly the most awesomest weekend ever for me. It really was a lovely weekend, and it was so nice to get so much done. 

I know that was a lot of photos, but I wanted you all to share in my awesome weekend! I hope you had a lovely weekend as well! Tell me all about it in the comments, okay?

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I feel like picking a quilt for the BQF is almost like picking a favorite child. I almost went with my latest finish, Mr. M's Owl quilt, but I decided instead to go with a quilt I made just for me, Le Mille.

 

 

Using leftover HST units from a snowball quilt, I pieced this bad boy together for a Tula SAL last fall, but with holiday sewing, a cross-country move, and life in general, I didn't finish it until this spring.

But when I did, oh la la! Love! This is my snuggle quilt, and it makes its home on my favorite chair. When I'm feeling generous, I let my husband snuggle under it with me.

 

Full disclosure: trimming the 300+ HST units was awful. Keeping them in order while I was sewing rows was awful. But the finished product? Totally worth it. 

If you'd like more details, please visit the original post.

Quilt Stats

Name: Le Mille

Size: 50" x 58" 

Fabrics: Tula Pink's Parisville line, Bella Solids in Jade; Backing is a print from Patty Young's Heaven and Helsinki line and a print from Laura Gunn's Cosmos; Binding is Bella Solids in Jade

Quilting: Straight line quilting in solid stripes; FMQ flower in center bullseye

Started: September 2012

Completed: March 2013 

I'm linking up to the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted at Amy's Creative Side.

FF: QBB Quilt.

 

Hi Friends! How is your Friday treating you? This week, I finished sewing up my Quilts Beyond Borders quilt, and I'm hoping to drop it in the mail later today! (They're still looking for another 100-150 by June, so if you can help, contact them. I'm going to try try try to fit another into my schedule.)

Backing is this turquoise and brown print with a smidge of the brown and white polka dot as I didn't have enough. I'm almost out of that polka dot print, and it will be a sad day when it's gone.

Quilting was straight lines through both sets of corners. I finally convinced myself to quilt both diagonals, and I love it. (Of course.) This quilt is so simple, but it's so happy and cheerful that I love it for its simplicity.

 

One of the requirements of QBB quilts is that they have to have machine-sewn binding. Since I typically handsew one side, I practiced on two other quilts before giving this one a shot. Of course, I practiced a zigzag stitch binding on those two, and I only had Agatha and her straight-stitchin' ways, so I gave another method a shot. It wasn't bad, but as you can see in the pic above, there were a few spots where I sewed over the binding by accident. (Oops.) I keep telling myself that one day I will rock at this. That day is not today, but I am getting better!

I was so close to having a second finish this week (the owls quilt!) but I wasn't able to get the binding done. Next week, Friends...

What have you been up to this week? I'm linking up with TGIFF and Crazy Mom Quilts. You are too, right?

WIP: Finishing February Edition.

Agatha and I are keeping busy. Besides quilting work, I'm also spending time getting our house into shape. This nook is my current sewing spot, but I'm hoping to expand it to another tabletop soon as I use this surface to cut, iron, and sew. This table is 36" long, and I feel like that's expecting a lot from one tabletop.

 

I finished up my February bee blocks, and just in time! This one was based on Elizabeth Hartman's improv series in a color scheme of white, turquoise, lime, and purple. It measures 15" square.

My Lucky Stars Feb block is still a pile of un-ironed, uncut fabric. 

 

And I've been spending naptime quilting my Le Mille quilt in hopes of getting it finished. I don't think I'll make my end of Feb self-imposed deadline, but I'm making progress, and I'm happy with how she's turning out! 

What are you working on? I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Building Blocks Tuesday at Quilter in the Closet. 

HST BOM Finish

This lovely is packed and ready to go. I'm taking her to Austin, Texas this weekend where she'll change hands and go home with my sister as a very belated holiday gift.

I've been working on this quilt for fourteen months, but since it was a block of the month quilt, that's not so bad, right? My original idea was to make a gray and white quilt, which metamorphosed into a gray, white and yellow quilt, which ended with those pops of red and a red binding because why not? About halfway through the piecing process, I realized, who in my life really really really loves this color combination? My younger sister. And wouldn't a throw quilt in her fave colors make a lovely holiday gift? Oh, Friends. It would.

 

I didn't have any lovely assistants to help me hold her up for a photo, but this photo gives you a pretty good idea of the full quilt. If you were an In Color Order HST BOM'er yourself, you'll notice I didn't do all of the planned blocks, but in my eagerness to get it done, I pieced my twelfth block in November. (And I *still* didn't get it done in time for the holidays!) 

I quilted this with FMQ, including some big loop-de-loops in the border. The backing, as you can see in the top picture, is the large scale text print from IKEA. (IKEA, I love you!)

This was a really fun quilt. I started this BOM because I wanted to have rockin' HST skillz by December, and while I'm not sure "rock" is the word I'd use to classify my current HST abilities, I've improved significantly, and my later blocks definitely reflect the additional practice! It will be in my sister's mitts tomorrow, and I'm hoping she really really loves it. 

I'm linking up with TGIFF (at Sewing by Moonlight this week) and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Hello, February!

Hi February! It's good to see you. Could you bring some warmer temperatures my way? Thanks a latte! Love, Audrey

I didn't get much done for January, and I had to fight the clock for every minute I got!

Blocks for the Sisters' 10 BOM

This month I gave myself a short list:

• Make It Modern Bee Blocks (2)-check
• Lucky Stars BOM Blocks (2)-I got January done. I'm calling it good.
• Sisters' 10 BOM Blocks (2)-check
• Cape for Banzo-nope
• Unpack-check

I'm not sure my poor son is ever going to get his cape. Good thing he has his trusty hooded bath towel to wear, right?

And as for February, here is my seriously ambitious plan:

• Make It Modern Bee Blocks (2)
• Lucky Stars BOM Block (1)
• Sisters' 10 BOM Blocks (2)
• Cape for Banzo
• Quilt for my sister--baste, quilt, and bind
• Quilt for my cousin--start to finish
• Le Mille Quilt--finish quilting and bind
• Organize and purge junk and clean all the things!  

Wish me luck! I'm linking up with Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts because FSD is awesomesauce!