Yearly Archives: 2015

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Hello. It's been a while. I'm happy to be back.

The Other Placemat. Here's a situation of how lacking a deadline really affects getting something done. My Zig Zag Placemat tutorial was published in mid-September. I only finished one of the two placemats in time for publication. The second placemat was pieced in time, but not yet quilted. I finally quilted and finished it at my guild's retreat at the beginning of November. I'm not 100% pleased with the quilting, but it's done. And the wonky part in the middle will be covered by the plate. ;-) Happy to check off another item from the lengthy WIP list and I know the recipients will not be as picky as me about a little wonky quilting.

 

I'm a member of the Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association and this was the first time I took part in one of their retreats. They do two annual Marin Headlands retreats (where we were) as well as in-town retreats at a local hotel. I highly encourage you to participate in a quilting retreat if you haven't done so yet. I've been a member of this guild on and off since 2002 and over the years I've met a few people from the group at guild events, and more recently through blogs and IG. But this event really changed how connected I feel to the group. (And I got so much done!) The 3-day retreat was a nice long time to get to talk about quilty and other stuff with some lovely women. I look forward to my next retreat! And here are a couple of the pictures I took at the retreat. Such a lovely area!

Thank you for visiting!

I'm linking up to Adrienne's 2015 Q4 Finish Along post. See all my Q4 goals here.

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Leasa hosted the Sew My Stash Mini Quilt Swap on Instagram. The shipping window ended earlier this week and my partner Kathryn received her package yesterday.

Right around the time that our first check in photo was due, I was working on my first Swoon block. I sew a second line of stitching 1/2" from the first where triangles are going to be trimmed off so I'll automatically have HSTs that just need to be trimmed to size. (See an example in step 4 of my Watermelon Plate Tutorial.) I had stitched these HSTs (trimmed down to 2.5" unfinished) with my Swoon scraps and they were in some of my partner's favorite colors.

I decided if I made some progress on a couple more Swoon blocks I would have a nice variety of HSTs to use for a mini. And remnants from another projects was definitely in the spirit of sewing my stash. Each swoon block provided a variety of print A/print B HSTs, print A/background HSTs and print B/background HSTs, so using the pieces from three Swoon blocks gave me nine different varieties of HSTs, and my background fabric, as you can see, is scrappy low volume. I used four of each variety, giving me 36 blocks to play with. I considered creating a pattern with the HSTs, but opted to go with random. I threw all my HSTs into a bag and pulled them out one by one and lined them up. I made one switch to avoid a section there was a cluster of one fabric. So, it's 94% random. ;-)

I opted to quilt it with match stick quilting, using white Aurifil 50wt thread. This was the first time I didn't worry about my lines being perfectly spaced and perfectly parallel and I love the effect.

For the binding I used some of my favorite Alison Glass fabric which coordinated well with the colors in the quilt. I didn't have a navy blue thread, so I opted for turquoise (Aurifil #2810, 50wt). I love this effect, but it did make the imperfections stand out.  You'll see lots more photos of this binding when I get my binding tutorial up on the blog.

I used more of my HSTs to make QSTs as a feature on an openwide zipper pouch. I'd already cut the main fabric out before I realized that my extra was practically larger than my quilt. ;-)

 

Yesterday I also received this amazing swap package from Ginny! I love the big mini and the mug rug. Plus mini charms, chocolate and a fun wind-up toy. So excellent!

I'm linking up to TGIFF, Fabric Frenzy Friday, Link-A-Finish Friday, Finish It Up Friday and Adrienne's 2015 Q4 Finish Along post. See all my Q4 goals here.

Thanks for visiting!

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This quarter's motto is: Don't start any new projects.

The WIP list just keeps growing. With the kids home for summer and a variety of other "life" getting in the way of sewing time as well as sewing mojo I finished a mere 4 projects from the list last quarter. Such as life. As I like to say: I can only do one human's amount of work.

So... most of this will look very familiar to you (updated with some new pics!). Now I'm really on a break signing up for swaps (though if the IG Mini Swap round 2 comes up, I don't think I'll be able to resist... AND I've got an idea for one that I want to host -- that one will just have to wait for now).

My year end goal from the beginning of the year is to have no more than 12 WIPs on the list. (Are you laughing yet?) I sure have my work cut out for me this quarter, don't I? A number of these are clothing items for the kids. Perhaps I can whip out some of these for Hanukkah gifts.

The WIPs: In no particular order...

  1. Schnitzel and Boo Mini Swap (round 4). This one is due in early November. It's the last swap I'm signed up for. Here's my initial fabric pull. I have a great idea... that has Y-seams. ;-) We'll see how that goes.
  2. Sew My Stash Mini Quilt Swap. Most urgent based on the deadline. I've decided to go with HSTs and I'm using the trimmings from another project... if that isn't using my stash, I don't know what is! Here's a peak of my palette.
  3. EZ Quilting QuiltCon 2016 Triangle Quilt Challenge. Due November 30.
  4. The Purple Ninja Quilt. I'm getting this one done for real this quarter. It's been quilted by Patti Joki, a local long-arm quilter (my first time sending a quilt out for quilting). The binding fabric is prewashed. Now to make and attach over 400 inches of binding!
  5. Help my son finish his third quilt.
  6. 2004 (ugh) Baseball Quilt... This one continues to be my oldest WIP. I've finished constructing all the blocks and I've even pieced a couple of them together.
  7. Little Letters in Blues/Greens Quilt.
  8. Text Me Mini for myself. I made two for this swap, one for my partner and one for me. Somehow, mine didn't get done by the deadline. ;-)
  9. Another Retro Camper Mini. I made one for my Home Sweet Home partner and one for myself that's currently unfinished.
  10. My other Zig Zap Placemat. Ya know, so I have a pair! Just needs to be quilted and bound. Check out my tutorial.
  11. Very Hungry Caterpillar twin quilt. Fabric all cut for Fat Quarter Fizz quilt and piecing has begun.
  12. Very Hungry Caterpillar baby quilt. I cut all the fabric I had and had way too many sets for the twin quilt for my son's bed, so I should be able to get 1 or 2 baby quilts out of the remaining pieces. See above.
  13. Hawaiian lap quilt. Again, I'm using the Fat Quarter Fizz pattern. Fabric is all cut. :-)
  14. My safari animal baby quilt. Ready to baste and quilt. I'm considering going with graffiti quilting on this one.
  15. Ocean quilt for my daughter (top pieced, but needs applique done)
  16. Little Letters in Brights Quilt.
  17. Cotton & Steel (and low volume) Quilt (I have a HST plan... with these 5" squares)
  18. * Batik SCVQA philanthropy quilt. Basted and ready to quilt.
  19. * Roman Stripez with butterfly backing. Some blocks done. (see #18)
  20. * Roman Stripez with turtle backing.
  21. * Memory House Vol. 1 Quilt (2 houses complete)
  22. * Leah Day's Building Blocks Quilt Along (first 3 sets of blocks done)
  23. Envelope quilt. A couple blocks pieced. I'll probably make a mini for myself.
  24. * Monster Quilt (first applique block in progress)
  25. Christmas Mini Quilt (using 4 orphan blocks I somehow acquired)
  26. * Swoon Quilt (finished my first block, next two are in progress)
  27. Primary mini quilt. Same pattern as my Cotton & Steel mini swap. Hoping to get better at adding those bias edge triangles to finish it.
  28. Frog dress for my daughter. She picked out this fabric while on the Shop Hop with me. I intend to make my first Nelle Dress (by Brownie Goose).
  29. Frog shirt for my son. His pick on the shop hop. Not sure what was with the frogs. He'd like a new Bowling Shirt (pattern by Scientific Seamstress).
  30. Baseball dress for my daughter. Ever since my son started playing t-ball, she's had a thing for baseball. She picked out these two fabrics. I'm planning to make the Jewel's Stripwork Peasant Dress (by Create Kids Couture) without using strips for the skirt. She's been wearing the last one I made her for a year.
  31. Baseball print Bowling Shirt for my son. Same fabrics as above.
  32. Winnie the Pooh Skirt/Shorts for my daughter. Fabric currently MIA. Hm. Found it!
  33. * Rainbow Simply Woven lap quilt with bee blocks from Stash Bee. I need to decide how big I want this to be and how many additional blocks I'll be making for myself. I didn't have a good place to lay out my whole set of blocks for a photo, so here are the first few blocks I received.
  34. 4th of July shop hop table runner.
  35. * Patchwork City Metro Area Quilt. It's becoming a bit of a fabric collection... I do love the blocks I've finished.
  36. * Midnight Mystery Quilt. In progress, expected finish early 2016. 

* Indicates that these projects will almost certainly roll over to Q1 2016.

Stats: Since I like data, here's some further info comparing project status of my Q3 list to this one. While I only had four Q4 finishes, I made progress on many of the projects, particularly in moving them from Fabric Pulled to Fabric Cut and from Fabric Cut to Piecing in Progress.

  • Planning Stages (pre-fabric pull): 2 (Q3), 1 (Q4)
  • Fabric Pulled: 10 (Q3), 7 (Q4)
  • Fabric Cut: 6 (Q3), 3 (Q4)
  • Piecing in Progress: 14 (Q3), 19 (Q4)
  • Quilt Top Completed: 3 (Q3), 5 (Q4)
  • Quilted: 0 (Q3), 1 (Q4)

Bucket List: I haven't pulled fabric for these (except #9), but I can't stop thinking about them. Remember the motto: Don't start any new projects.

  1. Wizard of Oz baby quilt, gift for a baby due in March.
  2. Triangle Squared quilt.
  3. Equilateral triangle quilt, perhaps Chopsticks pattern.
  4. Raspberry Kiss lap quilt.
  5. Floating Squares improv score from The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Lynn Wood.
  6. Technicolor Galaxy. I didn't have the bandwidth to do it real time, but every time I see everyone else's I kick myself just a little bit for not diving in.
  7. Polaroid quilt.
  8. Chopsticks quilt.
  9. Pirate Quilt. (I have fabric, but no firm plan on design yet.)
  10. Leah Day's Dancing Butterflies to develop my free motion quilting. (I joined at the start of the year, but never... um... started.)
  11. Mini Mini Quilt Swap on IG.

I'm linking up to the Q4 Finish Along Goal Party.

2015 FAL at On the Windy Side

Things I Make