Caught Up

Sorry I missed last week.  Between eye surgeries (not mine), doctor's appointments (not mine), and wisdom teeth removal (again, not mine), things have been pretty hectic here.  Nonetheless, here we are . . .

Four new ones. 

And the six all together.  Look at that.  So far, so good.  I'm not going to lie.  I'm a little distressed at the lack of perfection going on here, because Anina's are so. much. better.  I'm thinking I'll continue to improve, but if not, then in the end, nobody look too closely.  In fact, don't look too closely now.

I'm thinking maybe I should really show you some of the other things I've been working on.  

Anybody else Dear Jane-ing?

Farmer's Wife catch-up

I have not worked on these in quite some time. I know the Farmer's Wife girls took a sabbatical in December and January, but I took a MUCH longer break than that. I don't know why I have 18 of one quilt and 19 of the other. I'll have to rectify that. But anyway, I just recently made 6 more blocks for each, so I'm closer. I think the others have 56 done. Hm. I DO like a challenge. I can catch up.

Top quilt is made with fabrics from It's a Hoot by Momo for Moda. Bottom quilt is made with mostly Whimsy by Fig Tree for Moda with a few assorted scraps from other lines thrown in.

Don't ask me why I decided to make two quilts. I guess I really love the idea of all these different blocks. I've decided that after I finish these quilts (in another year, likely), I'm going to do a Dear Jane quilt. I am making myself wait so I'll actually finish these. Are you a Farmer's Wife? Are you caught up or behind (like me)?

This one's for Amanda Jean.

I'm halfway done piecing my blocks! I wasn't going to do this one, got a wild hair, cut all the blocks out at once, and now I'm piecing them as an afterthought to other projects. So I'm halfway done without even feeling it. Check out Amanda Jean's quilt here. Tutorial here.

And cross your fingers that I finish this one without knowing it. ;)

Do you remember Elizabeth Hartman's Tokyo Subway Map Quilt-Along? I love the quilt, but I think I was daunted by all the little pieces to cut out. I started cutting with her when the QAL started, but then I took a break. I didn't feel like I had enough of any of the colors to make a varied quilt. Plus, I'm sure I was just working on other things. Anyway, the last few weeks I have been cutting like crazy to finish up the amounts I needed. I still need a few dark blue squares, but there weren't any in this first block. So there, the first block is done.

I increased the size of my squares from 2" cut to 2 1/2" cut. It will be 80" square when finished instead of 60". And I opted not to cut all my white squares individually. I am amazed at how quickly this went together, though. The cutting was daunting, but the piecing is not. I look forward to whipping out a few more of these very soon. Elizabeth's instructions and designs are always so well-thought-out and clear. I love working from her patterns.

Flea Market Fancy -- Momo style.

Erin has been showing a number of quilts wherein she used Amanda Jean's tutorial. I loved her (Erin's) quilts so much, that I decided to use it for my next baby quilt. It is perfect for this pink and green It's a Hoot version. (I love Amanda Jean's too. I mean, come on, it's made from Flea Market Fancy!)

I'm trying to use up my fabrics while I still love them -- and also to make room for Sherbet Pips when it comes out. I am so coveting that fabric! Sorry for having so many posts with just blocks lately. I cut them all out when my machine was out of commission, and I want to get them finished before they become UFOs. Score one for motivation this week. Don't know where it came from, but I'm not going to complain about it. :)

Fussy Frames

A while back I got the fat-quarter pack of Momo's It's a Hoot. I love all the dots and leaves and flowers, but she had these very large prints in there as well that I wasn't quite sure what to do with. Then when I was looking at Kate Conklin's blog (Have you been there? I love her stuff!), I came across her tutorial that solved my dilemma. Here is just a sample of what I ended up with. Stay tuned for the finished product. :)

Birdie Stitches

Have you seen Little Miss Shabby's block-of-the-month. I love embroidery, and of course, we all know I love a quilt-along. Since it's only one block per month, I may actually be able to stay caught up. I actually have cut out all the squares and center blocks (although now I'm wishing I had used linen for the embroidery squares).

(Please, overlook my lovely ironing board. It's well-used.) Corey is using Sunkissed by Sweetwater for Moda in her blocks. I wanted to get some and do mine out of it too, especially since that's what they're using for Blockapalooza (which, yes, I'm going to do that one too). But I'm being good and using my Summer Song up (plus a few other random scraps).

Sometimes the math goes rogue.

This was supposed to be a baby quilt, people. Each block was supposed to be 12 inches finished. In planning the center pinwheel, it made it to be 8 inches. It should have been 4. So now the blocks are 23 inches. Rogue math. What are ya gonna do? And I really wanted them on point. Well, actually, I don't want the blocks on point, but I wanted the pinwheels themselves to be on point. Why, oh, why did I add the triangles to each corner then?

I am a math whiz. Seriously. I don't mean that sarcastically. Math was one of my best subjects in school. What happened here, then? I. Do. Not. Know. Sometimes the math goes rogue. That's all I can come up with.

So now what? Too much white? Colored sashing between each block? Pull off the corners and return the blocks to their 8 inch state? Brightly colored border? Anyone? Bueller? Seriously, give me your opinion. They're just sitting here waiting for someone to make a decision. That someone could be you.

Quilting along!

Look at me! I'm caught up to where Amanda Jean is. Well, sort of. I still have a few stacks of strips to cut, but I'm caught up with the sewing. I think I'll take this on vacation with me so I can keep up. I think Jill is quilting along too, so we can do it together. I will be in her neck of the woods for part of my vacation. Are you quilting along? And are you caught up?

Friday Night Sew-In Results for April

My husband, the scoutmaster, and my son, the Life Scout, usually have a campout on the third Friday of each month. Not so this month, so I didn't have as much time as I wanted to sew this Friday. Here's what I did do.

Blocks for Rachel Griffiths' Pinwheel Sampler quilt-along. I'm all caught up now. Blocks are made with Aster Manor by Three Sisters for Moda and some Quilter's Only (idk what color).

Two weeks' worth of blocks for Anina's Pinwheel Party. Now I am caught up there as well. If I actually stopped joining quilt-alongs, I'm sure I could finish other stuff up on these Friday nights. Ah, well, quilting is quilting. I enjoy it all.

This is one of the 25 string blocks I have to make for ORB round 4, hosted by a different Heidi -- The Wild Circle Surprise. You may recall the wonky nine-patch blocks I made before for this quilt. I swear I'm never going to finish. One-and-a-half down, 23 1/2 to go. (Sigh.) And there's still curved piecing and appliques circles after this. I seriously hope I love this quilt if it ever gets done. Heidi did an amazing job designing this quilt. So involved.

(Edited to add: I have looked for a post with the wonky 9-patches and have been unable to find them. If you don't recall them, it's possible that the reason is that I never posted them here. Go figure!)

Friday Night Sew-In Results for March

Heidi and Bobbi again hosted a Friday Night Sew-In. It is every third Friday of the month, and it happens to coincide perfectly with Scout campouts around here, so I'm available to participate. I have a tendency to start and not finish, so I have numerous UFOs (see the sidebar for details on that). I worked on a number of items, just chain sewing. Here's part of what got done last night.

Yep, that's half a quilt top. My quilt group wanted to make a zigzag quilt for this round, so I am making a prototype. I need to take it to church tomorrow for advertising, so I kept working on it today and finished it up.

I don't have enough boyish quilts in my personal stack of TV-or-movie-watching snugglers, so I decided on this color scheme. It's mostly Heather Ross' Mendocino line. I left the mermaids out of this one.

This is just leftovers from my stacked coins quilt out of Spring Magic. I had all the blocks made, sewn into strips, and then they just sat there. So I sewed the strips together last night. It still needs some borders -- not big enough for a baby quilt.

One of my Common Threads blocks. I worked on another one for Nadia, but it's not done, and I'm dissatisfied with how it's going. I may have to make it into two blocks. I also worked on some of my quilt-along blocks -- just a whole bunch of chain sewing. Not done. Thanks to Heidi and Bobbi for the motivation to get this stuff done!

Inspiration can come from the strangest places.

So Rebekah wanted squares and rectangles but not just concentric squares for her Common Threads blocks. She sent her fabrics out really early (aren't they great?!), and it took me almost the whole month to figure out what I was going to do.

This is what I came up with.

And this is where I got the idea.

Go figure.