Last Baby Quilt of 2013

This was pieced in just a few days.  I had started cutting for this quilt in January when I was having trouble being decisive about the Blue Stars quilt.  On the borders, I ran out of that particular cream, so I thought it would be fun to diagonally piece the corners.  Well, I don't usually do diagonally pieced blocks, so when I was trimming them down, I only trimmed one side after sewing them in.  So ALL of the corner border blocks are completely irregular!

I wanted to do all creams because I had seen someone do a subtle watercolor style quilt with only cream prints, and it was so beautiful.  So while I forwent the watercolor style, I still like the look of varied creams.  And the fairy frost green is something I've wanted to use forever.

Quilting this was a fun project.  I used an older stencil I have that I always fall back on.  But this time I realized when I use the stencil closely in rows, it creates a totally different look.

The big lesson I learned here is not to use the colored chalk on light fabrics.  The white always washes out.  And this is chalk specifically for cotton fabric.  It's supposed to wash out!  But it didn't.

Luckily, it faded enough that it just looks like I used a pale green thread.  Which I didn't -- it was white thread when I started this.

I'm slowly becoming more adept at binding in this way.  I truly hate cutting separate binding material, spending WAY more time than I like at the iron, then sewing carefully and pulling crazy maneuvers to close it off before having to flip it and hand-sew the other side.  I've been cutting the backing down to 1 extra inch on all sides and just turning it over the edges and sewing *one time*.  It takes no time at all compared to the traditional way.

This is the last one for a while.  But see, I was looking forward to my break in quilts.  Then the day after I mailed this one off, I started a new project!  It's a smaller project, a table runner with my favorite turquoise scraps.  But still...  I'm a quilter that can't sit still. 

Baby Quilt 2

As usual, I completely forgot to take pictures of the finished product, thanks to my irrational excitement at pulling it out of the dryer and finding it totally intact.  Luckily, the new owners kindly took some photos for me.

This is not a color combination I would have come up with on my own.  I know browns have been getting popular for nurseries over the years, but I was never much of a fan.  I was planning to use a nice bone muslin with the green and blue, but what I bought was too thin for me to work with easily, and it was driving me crazy.  In the end, the brown was sturdy, soft and contrasted enough to make the blue and green pop out.  I really dig the look. 

I ended up quilting a leaf border design on the sashing.  I was hoping to add some owl appliques, but it turns out it's much too soon in my skill level to attempt organic shapes.  This was a good quilt for me.  The quilting itself was very calming, and the piecing only took me a day or two of dedicated machine work.  The backing is solid brown, and I turned the edges to the front for the binding.  I've become very fond of that binding style.  It saves me so much time.  No extra cutting, folding, ironing and best of all, no hand-stitching around the back!  If only I could get my one sewing foot to cooperate -- it's open-toed, and tends to bunch the fold.

And with the new baby:

I still want to use the muslin.  Maybe for a whole-cloth quilt.  I like the look of it paired with a nice hand-quilted design.

The third baby quilt of the year has been pieced and basted already.  I have just started quilting it today.  I think it's going to take me about 3 weeks before it's done, unless I get inspired to add some touches.

Blue Stars

I finally finished piecing the blue baby quilt.  I get really giddy when I get to this point, because there's generally a lot of frustrations before I do.  But this one was easy.  Just time consuming.  I am so glad I finally gave in and started using a rotary cutter.

Probably the only quilt I've ever planned and pieced without changing my mind a hundred times.  I'm so pleased with the outcome, I actually started out this post with "look how amazing I am!"  Haha.  I'll get over it.  But maybe not until months after I've mailed it off to its new home.  Maybe years.  Come on, that's a damn fine quilt.

Hand-quilting this starting on Sunday or Monday.  Not sure if I need new thread or not.  Let's see, I've got pink, red, brown and lavender!  So, looks like I will have to make a quick stop at my favorite quilting shop in the world.  Hahahaha... quick stop.  Oh, I kill myself.

Queen Rules a New Home

She's done!  I started this broad in January, and have worked on it every single month of the year to various degrees.  And I've learned a LOT -- just when I thought I knew everything I needed to know about quilting.

Designing, cutting and piecing was a breeze.  Basting was less successful:

But after getting my pins in place and moving the furniture back into the living room, the real challenge began. 

Quilting it!

Must have new machine!  And it became clear that I didn't use enough basting pins when my in-the-ditch quilting started leaving smalls tucks in the corners. Gah!

But I carried on...  3 months were used on the machine quilting portion because I HATED being at my machine.  It should not have taken that long.  And that left me with very little time to hand-quilt a design in the blocks and on the borders.  I only had a remaining 3 months for that, and I had to choose a less complicated design to get it done in time.

Finally, I borrowed a closed-toe foot to bind from the left-over backing material, which went much better than planned!!  1 day of dedicated cutting and sewing.  Less time than I've ever spent on binding, and seriously the largest quilt I've ever had to bind.

Here she is before I washed the chalk quilting outlines out.  I had a very hard time packing her up for the journey to her new owners.  Not just because of the massive size, but because of how much I have fallen in love with this quilt over 2012.  It's everything I ever hoped to be able to do with a quilt, and by far, my best accomplishment in this field.

Three on the Way!

I have been very focused on the one huge quilt I'm doing, so I haven't had a lot of new projects coming down the line.  At least not until recently.

Three baby quilts!

I've started cutting one for a quick sample block to make sure I want to continue with the design and fabric choices.  Seems like you can't really get to the point of being sure without a sample block.  At least I can't.   Here are the current fabrics, subject to change:

 

 The rainbow filigree print is what I'm not sure about.  But the pattern I'm using works best when one of your fabric choices is a wild, chaotic print.

Then I'm taking the mellow road for the next baby quilt.  I can't decide who's getting this one yet, I just really missed hand-quilting a fairy frost.

Not as bold as I usually like, but I am completely in-love with that green.

The third baby quilt is undecided.  I haven't even gone through my stash for it yet.  If I use left-over fabrics, there's no doubt it will be turquoise, since I have SO MUCH of that color.  But if I discover the gender of one of the two later babies is female, I'm whipping out my Dogwood Trail collection again! 

I don't plan to have any of these completed until February, so I might be away until the queen is finished.

Happy holidays!

Incomplete

My completion rate has plummeted!  I sort of expected it to go up now that I no longer have a job.  But it turns out I don't need much of an escape at this point.  Also, a lack of funds will stop many projects dead in their tracks.

But I wanted to post what I've been working on.  These are are pretty much covered and just need their finishing touches.

This is a new autumn table runner.  I used scraps from other projects, and found the green border and backing fabric when I was looking for something else.  I'm hand quilting it in a pebble pattern, which takes forever, but is a relaxing project when I need something to do.

It's impossible to see the quilting.  Once it's done I'll take a proper photo.

This is my latest baby quilt.  I found 2 yards of pink fairy frost in my stash!!!  Turns out hand-quilting this fabric is a dream!  I've been looking for other colors online, but was faced with choosing between FAR too many color options, so I quit before buying a single thing, lest I buy a bolt of each and throw us into a serious debt.

I used part of my Dogwood Trail collection, as you can see.  It looks very granny, but I'm totally in love with it, and probably will never give it away or sell it. The center is quilted in a big circular medallion, and surrounding it is just corner-to-corner straight stitching.  I have the binding all ready to go, I'm just suffering from mid-summer lag.

Then there's my pride and joy, which I've being delaying on.  I'm not sure if I should take a big risk and use an insanely beautiful and weird fabric I'm in love with as a thin 2nd border, or just chill out and make it normal.  I think I'm going to let my inner freak finish this up, but the inner lion tamer keeps giving me good reasons NOT to.

Like the fields of eternity!  The biggest quilt I've ever embarked on.  I'm trying not to show too much of it.  The majority of this quilt is supposed to be a surprise.  *sigh*  I really need to be over this indecision-hump.  I should have started the quilting of this one by now.

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!