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Some weeks I look back on what I accomplished and I am surprised that I did so much. This is one of those weeks. Kids being back in school and a mostly unscheduled long weekend led to a lot of sewing progress for me.

 

Mysterious Things

Last Thursday the first sewing instructions came out for the Meadow Mystery quilt, by Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs. I managed to finish up my cutting that day, but I haven't yet started the piecing. I have all month to get it done and still be on track, so I've been working on some other projects first. Instagram and Facebook are filled with beautiful versions of the first blocks.

 

Things I Put in the Mail

Yesterday, on the sixth day of the month, I shipped all my bee blocks for the month! This is unheard of. I sent two for my Do. Good Stitches group and one for Shirley in my Bee Hive swarm. Plus the two bonus blocks that I showed you on Monday for my friend Mary. It's so nice to have the monthly commitment already checked off. Sometimes I get them sewn early in the month, but then I usually don't manage to get them out the door until the end of the month.

 

Kid Things

My daughter is making progress on her second quilt. Just like my son's second project, she chose to make a doll quilt. Her's is for a friend. I love that she has been coming into the sewing room to play with her fabric, neatly arranging it on the floor. Over the weekend, I consulted with her on her plan and cut her strips of fabric for her. She pieced them with supervision from me and is so proud that she finished her quilt top in one day. ;-) She raided my remnant binding box to choose something for her quilt and settled on a purple, with a scrappy low volume white to go with it since the purple piece isn't big enough for the entire quilt. She's pinned the purple up on the design wall with her quilt top. (In the first picture you can see a peek of the kitty fabric she's chosen for the backing.)

 

Slow Stitching Things

I get up at 5:30am now. I'm just over a week into this new routine. It means I go to bed at 9:30pm sharp these days, but the kids don't get up until 7:00am so I get a fair amount of time to myself in the mornings. I am not inherently a morning person, but I think this is working. Over the weekend I kept up my schedule, since I figure that's easier than sleeping in on some days. This meant even more time to myself since nobody else in the house had anything to get up early for. I've used this time in a variety of ways, but I spent one of those weekend mornings making progress on my La Passacaglia project. I was halfway through connecting the pentagons, and I finished that step and attached them to the center section. 20 pieces down, 70 to go in this first rosette. Now I need to prep a bunch of itty bitty triangles to make the ten stars that go around this section.

 

Things I Can't Really Show You

Secret sewing is exciting, but it's so hard not to share. Luckily, I have a few friends who I can text pictures to when I'm itching to share but can't post publicly yet. The first project is a quilt that I've finished the top for. I'll be able to show it off once I've given the gift. The second secret project is my Nine-Patch Challenge quilt for Quilt Con that I've finished drafting in Illustrator (with Daisy's help). I've actually designed two versions. I think I'll piece the easier one first and then I'll decide if I want to try to tackle the harder one. My next steps on this project include deciding what colors I want to use and  how to go about piecing the trickier parts.

 

Things That Are Colorful

I love color and I find inspirations in a variety of places. This week presented two color palettes that stood out to me. First, as I'm working on chipping away at pre-washing and putting away my summer fabric acquisitions I stumbled across this palette of solids that reminds me of a vibrant sunset. I have some improv piecing in mind for these lovelies.

My second palette came from a more surprising location, my dishwasher. I opened the dishwasher to find these colorful cups in a line in this order. Deciding I liked them well enough to keep the colors in mind for a future project, I snapped a quick picture. (Don't you just love that awesome 80's tile!?)

These palettes are both particularly interesting to me, because I generally gravitate to the cool colors. I'll have to finish a bunch of other projects before I can dive into these, but I'm keeping them in mind for when I "need" a new project.

Thank you for visiting! I'm linking up to Midweek Makers, Let's Bee Social and Needle and Thread Thursday.

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This year I'm participating in two bees, The Bee Hive (swarm Tisha) and Do. Good Stitches charity bee. Sometimes I love the blocks I'm working on, sometimes not so much. Sometimes they stretch me in some way (which is great). At other times they are just so "me" that I could have chosen the block/color scheme myself (also great).

I'm not sure who started it, but it was fun to see people start making bee blocks for others outside their bee. Like, "I love that design (or that quilter) so much that I'm gonna make her a block." I made one as a surprise for an IG friend a while back and in August I was inspired once again.

My friend Mary blogs at Quilting is in My Blood. We met through the 2015 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop a little over a year ago. Fast forward: Last month she chose one of my favorite color schemes for her bee blocks (we're in different groups). And she picked a block that I don't hate making (the Quatrefoil block). (There are a few I would be less than excited to make again.) So, voila! I made her two blocks. I hope she loves them. Her quilt is going to rock! Here's her post about her turn as queen bee, so you can check out the couple blocks she made for herself. I can't wait to see her post pics of all her blocks together.

Thanks for visiting!

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My daughter turned four in May. She finished her first quilt last week and boy is she proud! She pulled the rainbow of fabrics from my stash (because she didn't have a stash at that point, a problem we've since rectified). The girl has an eye.

Now this may seem like a simple case of second child syndrome, since my son had a seven part series on his first quilt. In reality, she finished hers much more quickly than he did. Perhaps because I wasn't also chasing around a 2 year old while I was helping her sew. Additionally, we opted for a larger quilt with fewer pieces for her, so there was less piecing. (I totally owe you a "The Making of Rainbow Swift 2" post.)

The quilt is about 40" by 50", made up of 10" squares. Like my son, my daughter did all the piecing of her first project sitting on my lap at my machine. I pressed all the seams for her. And by the time we were on the quilting step she was itching and ready to sit at the "kids" machine (same model, on a kid sized table) to do the quilting by herself.

She still needed help with her walking foot quilting, particularly because she opted for curves when we brainstormed her options. I mostly managed the bulk of the quilt and reminded her when to stop and start to reposition her hands. She's great at stopping to take out the pins. Once she was done, I quilted her life-sized handprint onto the quilt. I love this fun little detail.

She hand wrote her quilt label. I love that she named the quilt Rainbow Swift 2. Rainbow Swift is the doll quilt my son made for her. The label is GIANT.

It was great fun to see her enthusiasm and pride in her work. I'm so happy that I can share my passion with my kids. We got it finished (I made and attached the binding) just in time for her to bring it along to my guild meeting last Monday for her first quilt show and tell. She's been sleeping under it every night since. And many morning she even makes her bed!

It's also great for hiding under and surprising people. ;-)

My son handed down a few months ago when he declared, "I'm not in training anymore."

An Interview with the New Quilter

Tell me the process of making a quilt.

Sew them together. Sew the squares together and then you sew the sandwich together. But first you put pins and pinmoors in. 

How did you decide on the name “Rainbow Swift 2”?

I already had Rainbow Swift and I liked the name.

How was it to be taught by your mom?

I liked it. Because [my brother] got to sew and I didn’t. (I think this amounts to “it was about time she taught me.”)

What did you like best about making a quilt?

I like that it is big and it can almost fit my bed.

What about the process of making it?

Sewing it like a rainbow. It looks real like a rainbow because the stitches go curving. [Admires her work.] And it’s rainbow thread. And there’s rainbow raindrops on the back and kind of rainbow curly fabric.

What is your favorite part of quilting?

My favorite part of quilting is sewing the stuff together.

What was the hardest part?

The hardest part was curving it [while quilting] because I had to press harder with this hand to make it curve that way.

What’s the most important thing to know to make a quilt?

To know not to go too fast and take out pins when you need to.

What would you tell a new quilter?

To do that same thing.

Will you submit your quilt to the next SCVQA quilt show?

Yes.

What are your plans for “Rainbow Swift 2“ now that it is done?

To cuddle with it and sleep with it.

What are you planning for your next quilt project?

To make a kitty quilt. And there’s stripes on the front. (sneak peak in my last post)

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Yes. I like sewing and I wish I could sew every day like Mom.

 

Thanks for visiting!

I'm linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday, TGIFF and Finish it Friday, as well as the Q3 Finish Along finishes party. See all my Q3 WIPs in my goal post.