Anyone else feel like they are on a race to complete goals before the end of the year? One of my big goals for 2015 was to work down my WIP list. Unfortunately, I added quite a few projects to the list this year, but I am doing my best to knock many of my projects into the finished column before the end of the year. Here's the binding for my next four quilt finishes. Okay, one is actually for my son's finish, but since I help him, then I get half credit, right?
Two of those are for Christmas gifts, so I'm just about down to the wire on those deadlines. I'm about 40% done quilting this 60" X 72" lap quilt. I was inspired by Jessica's woodgrain pattern that I saw on her Top 10 Tips: Quilting Large Quilts on Your Home Machine post. See her Stripey quilt in #9 of her post for my inspiration. Tons of great ideas in her 10 tips, too!
I'm quilting mine with aurifil #2915 (very light brass). I don't even know how I ended up with this spool. (Was it maybe in the sampler of aurifil that I got from you an eternity ago, Sarah N?) I like the rich color and the great contrast on my dark fabrics. It blends in somewhat with the backing fabric, which I'll show off when it's done.
We're nearing the end of this year's The Bee Hive quilting bee, I need to make the December block and then January is my month to be queen bee. So I worked a bit on both of those tasks. I'm making a couple Houndstooth blocks this month, so I printed my paper piecing patterns and cut fabric for those:
And I also pulled fabrics to make a couple sample blocks for my month so I can get that email out to my hive just after Christmas:
Perhaps I'll be sewing my sample blocks on Christmas Day?
Yesterday I didn't manage to spend any time sewing (oops), so this afternoon will be spent quilting and binding the Christmas gifts.
I knocked one of my three current quilting projects into the finish column last week. Here's the full report on Basic Shapes, my IG (instagram) Mini Swap quilt. It has made it's way to Becky, so I can finally tell you all about it. This project was a lot of firsts for me.
first quilt swap
first IG swap
first medallion style quilt
first flying geese
first time using Rita Hutchens' tubular strip piecing method
first frankenbatting
first time quilting using aurifil (I have been piecing with it)
first time using 1 3/4" binding strips
I loved watching the progress in the IG community. It was so inspiring (and at times intimidating) to see all the beautiful work being done by the hundreds of other quilters participating. I'm hooked, seriously. I've already signed up for two three more IG swaps (the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap: round 3, as a late addition to be a swap angel in the Disney 2015 swap, and to the new rainbow mini swap).
Then my 2.5-year-old helper had to take a picture... apparently we had different understandings of what "Do you want to help Mama take some pictures of her quilt?" meant.
A little on my process:
I had a hard time making a plan for my quilt and decided to start with doing something I had never done. I chose a blue fabric to make some flying geese. I also made some with orange. I made the flying geese using Rita Hutchens' Totally Tubular Strip Piecing after seeing her speak at a guild meeting. Halfway in, I decided to alternate the blue and orange geese. They aren't perfect, but I'm pretty happy with them. I'll definitely be doing more of Rita's magical tube piecing. I loved the geometry of the process.
I decided the flying geese would be a fun first border on a medallion style quilt, so I found a 9" star block to use in my center, pleased that the math worked out and I had 32 geese, with a total length of 36". I got stuck there for a while. There were 120 pieces in that 14" square. I kinda didn't know what to do next.
I decided to do the thin green border as a rest from the busy center. Then having used the green, I wanted to avoid it in the final border. I was worried that the last two borders were too simple, but I think with so much detail in the middle it worked out very nicely. In the end, the quilt finished at about 18" square. I'm looking forward to another medallion style quilt. Maybe by myself, or I'd love to do one round robin style with a group.
(I guess I thought the blue side was the top when I was working... it ended up on the bottom corner.)My frankenbatting. It was remarkably easy to piece together with a 3-step zigzag stitch.
I had a great time quilting it. It's the most dense quilting I've done. I worked without marking my lines (cause I think I just don't have the patience for that) and I really felt like I was in control. It was the first time I've quilted with Aurifil thread and I am so pleased! It was so smooth and I had zero thread breaks while I worked. This is amazing compared to normal for me. I'm sold on Aurifil and just picked up some red thread for quilting the mystery quilt. (I see a collection of Aurifil in my future... I'm eyeing the Aurifil color card.)
I attach my binding by machine, and usually use a 2" width, but I've found that it's a little wider than I want it to be, and the stitching visible on the back is 1/8" from the edge of the binding. I tried the 1 3/4" width on this project and it was a little tight, some places the stitching on the back is on the edge of the binding, but I was overall pleased. I added corners at the top for hanging.
I haven't yet received my mini quilt from the swap, but there is so much amazing work being done by all the swappers. Check out #igminiswap on Instagram.
This fun, colorful quilt was pieced by another guild member and I picked it up... a while back... to do the quilting. I started on it over 2 1/2 years ago when I was first starting to free motion quilt. I had found Leah Day and was determined to learn how to free motion. I use a Viking 6690 with a 7" throat, and I was a bit intimidated by free motion quilting. With a little bit of help from Gordon at Viking Sewing Center and Leah's great videos, I was off and running. I decided that this philanthropy quilt was a great way to practice. I decided to quilt every other square in a checkerboard pattern, and to use a different quilting design in each of them. I did about 1/2 of the project, then I was hot to do some free motion quilting on some of my own projects. Then I started more other projects. And this quilt sat on the back burner. I decided it was high time to get this one into the finish category, so I made it my October ALYoF Goal. Once again I have ALYoF to thank for getting a project DONE!
The month started with my first 10K, followed by a foot injury that plagued me until right before our trip to Disneyland. I did manage to sew The Girl a new dress for our trip. The kids and I were all sick on vacation and I spent most of this week in the recliner and watching movies as I battled this virus. So I finally got started on finishing up the quilt yesterday or the day before. I had a dozen 6" squares to quilt, plus making and attaching the binding. Oh, and I still had to finish The Boy's Halloween costume. Well, this afternoon about 10 minutes before going out to trick or treat with the kiddos I finished putting the binding on the quilt. Phew! Here are some of my favorite patterns.
Railroad Tracks: Leah Day's design #354. I loved this one that I did way back when I was a beginner because it was easy to do, but I thought it looked flashy.Pine Needles: Leah Day's design #24. Oops, I did my pine needles all going the same way. Travel stitching was a little tough.Pipe Maze: Leah Day's design #249. Mine has more rounded corners than her version, but I was so happy with this block yesterday. No puckers or anything (I think)!Basic Spiral: Leah Day's design #5. I could certainly stand to get better at spirals, but I like this one and can see using it for a filler... I like that it was easy to fill in around the dinosaur.Gentle Flames: Leah Day's design #3. I like that this was so easy and it's pretty forgiving if you aren't perfect, but it still looks flashy.Zen Breaks: Leah Day's design #369. It was great to use around a feature, but could also be used to create sections to use different fillers in.Etch n' Sketch: Leah Day's design #2 (I used a bunch of her first patterns on this project!). My right edge is kinda wackadoo since I didn't go all the way to the edge, which I guess I should have. Perhaps this crazy plaid distracts you from that fact. :-)Layered Flower: Leah Day's design #226. This block gives me the confidence to do more designs where I'm stitching over my quilting lines multiple times. My flower is a little different from Leah's since I didn't go all the way to the edge of the block with my largest layer.
I need to free motion quilt more regularly. It would really help me to get back to the Building Blocks Quilt Along for regular practice. It's nice to see how far I've come and I continue to be amazed at how I can see progress on my skills across a project or even a single block!
A couple free motion quilting questions for you quilters out there: What kind of thread do you prefer for free motion quilting? If you piece and quilt with Aurifil, do you use the same weight thread for both?
I knocked one of my 
