Stockings

I don't remember when I started these. I tried looking back through this blog, but I don't see a mention of them. 2013, maybe? Anyway, these are finished now, haha.

They were almost finished when I dug them out a month ago. They just needed the cuff and a hanging loop. The only motivation I had to finish these, though, was the prospect of buying new fabric. Then I let them sit for a few more weeks. My husband was getting worried I wouldn't finish them in time for Christmas, and I purposely left our older store-bought stockings in storage to push me.

And I finally did!

They are happily hanging on the mantle now, all ready for Santa to fill.

I've been making progress on my patchwork. Of 300 (5"x5") blocks, 81 are quilted!!! I've put over a hundred hours into the hand-quilting. This is why I don't sell my quilts. By the time it's done, I will have spent more time on it than I could reasonably charge for. So it continues to be a fun hobby for me, and one I will never expect to be compensated for in any way but my own entertainment.

Here's a picture of the front, back before it was properly basted, to remind you which quilt I'm talking about.

And here's a picture of the back, which I took about 2 months ago. It's come a long way since then.

Okay, I need a cup of coffee and a good tv show. Everyone in the house has a cold, currently, so it's been a chill night with lots of coughing, sneezing and nose blowing. Not the exciting night of Christmas cookie decorating we had originally planned :\

something different

Well, I am in the process of selling my big quilting machine. It's on consignment at my favorite quilting shop. Since it's been out of the house, my desire to quilt has grown. Weird, right? But that machine was adding a lot of pressure to keep production up. And even once I completed a quilt, I didn't really want to use the machine to quilt it.

It became a huge waste of space, which is a shame when you're talking about top of the line machinery. My brain just won't combine the joys of a well functioning machine with the magic of creativity. I've always just had to create by hand, and I can't stay inspired with the raw ultility of machine quilting.

I don't know if it will sell this way, but somehow it will have to. I have concluded, with true finality, that machine quilting is not for me.

Since it's been gone, I have gone and finished another quilt top. See, I don't even like sitting at my little Kenmore when I'm creating. It's why piecing takes forever!

This simple patchwork was meant to be a practice piece on the quilting machine, heh. Most of those fabrics are super cheap-o Joann specials. And there it is on my very first full size ironing board! I finally basted it over the weekend, which took me two hours. I started in the dining room, where after pinning it, I noticed a big wrinkle in the backing. So I had to unpin it and take it apart. Then I decided to move ALL the furniture out of my living room and get out the masking tape. That worked much better! But I am still hurting from the acrobatics.

I took a private poll among friends, and this is the quilting design they voted for:

In three days, I've only just finished one large motif. I need to build up the muscle in my right upper arm again. It's been a long while since I've done serious hand-quilting. And this quilt is monstrous compared to the small projects I'm used to.

As for the Gemini quilt, it needs to wait until I come up with the right border idea. I am not rushing that quilt. If I'm not completely proud of it when it's finished, it will have been a failure. Maybe quilting this simple patchwork will keep my mind open to creative ideas.

Springtime Blues (and Purples)

It's a relief to have spring this year. Winter was long and unproductive. But when things warmed up a little, I got all this energy to throw into some projects.

Erica's quilt top has been pieced, except for the borders. I had to take a picture of it outside, otherwise the colors look inaccurate. And I didn't want to lay it on the ground, so you get a draped photo. Once I get borders, there will be much better pictures.

This shows the essence of the project, and that's what I want you to see. This might be the last time I ever do this design. It has not been easy. And I recently figured out why. There's a line on my machine that marks the quarter inch seam allowance, and I just measured it for the first time in my life, and it's wrong!! This is not so noticeable when I'm sewing squares together. But when those squares are sewed to multiple triangles like this, it just doesn't turn out even in the end. It meant I had to scrap or creatively adjust all the blocks that weren't snail trail.

In the end, I am moderately happy with the outcome. If I magically mustered up the energy to attempt this design again, the blocks would be 8" instead of 12", and I would add in some velvet scraps here and there.

I am not planning to do any more on this quilt until it sees its future home this month. Then we can make some decisions on the borders, and I can work on it until it's done.

Feeling like I needed something else to work on, I pulled out ALL of my fabric scraps, including prints I thought I would use on the above quilt, and didn't. And some that I did. And some that I got from my mother. I've been seeing a lot of amazing vintage style quilts on the net that have me salivating, so I finally started putting one together.

Here's the first quarter of it. It doesn't look as vintagey as I'd hoped, but I so appreciate the turquoise and purple together that I don't care. I have to make 3 more of those strips and I'll have a complete top. No borders for this one. I'm going get some batting in there, slap a muslin backing on it and put it under the machine.

The main reason I am doing this patchwork is to get machine practice before I quilt Erica's. I might do a few more to make sure I am getting the hang of it. Not sure what I will do with the practice patchworks, but I have a couple of ideas. In the mean time, I am now accepting unwanted fat quarters! Not that I ever expect to see an unwanted fat quarter. (Is there such thing?) I would more prefer to see anyone reading this finish their own projects that they bought that fat quarter for in the first place.

And now I'm going to do some hand quilting on a project I will be posting next time, after a certain someone has their birthday this month.

piecing adventures

I've been piecing this lady for a while. This is the original photo, before I cut the rest of the edge triangles.

Those of you with a good eye will know which block is facing the wrong direction... I didn't notice that until I had spent about 40 minutes staring at it, making mental notes for future adjustments.

Also, one of the blocks up there has been removed. It was a temporary place filler until I finished the last block.

I still have not decided on just the right layout. I'll probably be rearranging this one for a while, because I actually really like this one. It has to be perfect.

Here are some of the light blocks grouped together.

I am really proud of this one. And very glad I waited so long to do the Erica quilt. I would have been disappointed if I had attempted it too early in the evolution of my personal quilting style.  The second the top is pieced, I am taking it to SW Decoratives, where I got most of the fabric. I can't wait to show it off.

Usually I am perpetually excited about future possible projects in quilting. But I haven't been that way lately. Maybe because I am too excited about my current project. Or maybe I've finally learned not to bite off more than I can chew. I want to use all of my enthusiasm to finish this one before the end of the year. Then I will have my full attention to use on the next project. I really can't even afford to think about what direction I will go once this one is done.

But I'm sure I will surprise myself.