Changed My Mind

I didn't end up going with the celestial idea from the last post.  I grew to hate the yellow being anywhere near my turquoise.  So I added a green border.  It looked a little too weird, suddenly having another strong color along the border.  So I cut out some stars from my leftover green and appliquéd them in place.

I am still horrible with appliqué, and didn't improve much with this practice.  But I'm looking up class schedules at local quilt shops to see what I can learn.

This is quilted in a star pattern.  I am so over free-motion quilting on my machine.  It just wasn't built to handle that kind of job.  So until $300 drops from the sky for a new machine, it's hand-quilting or fixed machine-quilting.

I'm going to put this quilt up for sale on my Etsy account this week.  But it's going to be hard to part with!

Fabric Avalanche

I sold the baby quilt I wrote about in my last post.  That fueled the last two days I spent maniacally digging through my stash looking for another project to sell.  I found a small cache of turquoise fabrics I forgot I had, then got to work.  I ended up cutting most of the 9" blocks I needed from another project I abandoned years ago.

This is where I am now:

I was going to do a baby quilt again, but I want more out of this small little thing.  So I pulled out my yellow for a border, then dark blues/blacks for a darker night sky feeling to go around it.  Instead of hoping that I get it right, I'm letting my gut do the decision making on this one.

Which means....  I need more fabric!  As always.

Baby Quilt Experiment

I've been in love with this fabric for over a year, and finally decided to buy it as part of my baby quilt experiment.  So I picked up a nice darker purple for the back and border.  The goal was to find out how long it would take me to hand quilt something crib sized.  It was a simple piecing job, but once the hand quilted motifs in the center were done, I decided to just do a quick machine zig-zag stitch along the border.  This one will be for sale soon.

I always think it's so weird to see quilted pieces in a picture.  The indentations look inverted unless you work on your eyes for a second.

Below is a sample from my current project.  I have lots of time for this one, its due date being in December.  I'm not sure I've ever loved a project so much.  I'm in love with the colors, and the design when combined with the fabric choices.  This is for a client, and I dearly hope they enjoy the finished product as much as I am enjoying working on it.

Placemats

I made a table runner a while back for my cousin, and have finally gotten around to doing placemats for her as well.  I went through some 10" squares from a collection I bought last summer, and just finished these last week.



I didn't want to add any extra colors on either side, so they ended up being 14"x14".  I like them better as squares.   I machine-quilted these in a meandering pattern.  Still trying to brush up my skills, though it seems pointless on this machine.  It's just not built for free-motion, and I ended up breaking WAY more needles than necessary on such a small project.

The only handwork I did on these was hand-sewing the back of the binding.  I truly enjoyed making these.  It's nice to not have to focus on complexities and just enjoy the process.

Phew

Look at the simple piecing.  I figured this would take me about a month, maybe two if I took my time.  5 months!  The crooked bandanas?  I was trying to wash out the dye smell and make the fabric less stiff.  100% cotton in hot water.  I am not laundry proficient!  But I learned my lesson.  From there, things just kept going wrong.  But I am so happy it's done!

It's got flaws throughout, most of which I was able to hide.  I was going to take some better pictures, but forgot before it was time to pack it up and mail it off to my step-mother-in-law.  I really hope she likes it!  At least enough to line a stall with it, if need be.  I really need to sharpen my skills.

Autumn Scraps

This was a quick project I actually finished over a week ago.  Just a bunch of scrap fabric that happened to work perfectly for an autumn table runner.

The border fabrics were just laying around waiting for a purpose.  I used a zig-zag stitch to quilt in a rectangle around the patches, then hand quilted the inside.

Well, that's not a great picture of the quilting, but at least you can kinda see where I couldn't get the chalk marking off.

Right now I'm trying to figure out quilted Christmas stockings.  REALLY don't think I'll have these done in time for this year, but maybe next year.

Machine Applique

My first autumn table runner is finally done.

I wasn't happy with my color choices once I had pieced the top, so I added some zaz to it with the appliqued leaves.  It was my first time doing any kind of applique, and I didn't do so hot.

I used a zig-zag stitch with some heavy yellow thread that you would normally use on jeans.  I thought it gave it a country primitive look.  But I messed up several times, and I'm afraid to wash it for fear the leaves will shred.

In the very center, I machine-quilted a design, which I ended up screwing up horribly.  So after carefully picking out the stitches, I hand-quilted the same design.  But it may never look quite right.

And here's the back.  All in all, I like it, and I'll definitely use it.  But it's certainly not up to the standards of being a gift.