WIP Wednesday

I had a relaxing weekend at the lake but I didn't get to do much sewing this past week.  When I got home I had this lovely package waiting for me.  I was so excited to dive into it but forced myself to start laundry and unpack the suitcase first.  It was great motivation to get that done.

Inside was my Snow Blossoms Quilt.  This is the first quilt I had sent to Sarah (Crinklelove) and she did a great job with it. (More on that in a later post).  Last night I made lots and lots of binding.  I never thought binding was that hard but ever since I switched to using a diagnal seam to join the pieces I have had a lot more trouble.  It seems I have to use my seam ripper every third piece or so.  I don't know why I can't seem to get it right but it causes me a lot of frustration.  I did however manage to get it done and get it sewn to the front of the quilt so now I imagine I will be spending a lot of quality time hand stitching it down in the back. It's a big quilt coming in at 83 by 83 inches.

Other than that I spent some time getting the backs of my Jelly Filled Quilts ready to go to the quilter.  I'm trying out several new people right now in hopes that I will find one or two I really like.  I plan to do a full review of each of them as I get my quilts back so I'll keep you posted.  The baby quilt finished at about 40 inches wide so I just sewed a piece of muslin down one side of my back fabric to give them the extra room necessary to stretch it on the frame.

That's it for me this week-be sure to head over to Lee's and see what everyone else is up to.

WIP Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!  It's been a little difficult to get back in the swing of things this week after having a nice long weekend.  As we were expecting hurricane Aurthur here on Friday the picnic I had planned to attend and lots of local fireworks were canceled.  But that just meant I had more time to sew.  First up I tackled the Pips Quilts.  I added a few more rows to the large one and then a made a matching baby quilt with some of the more subtle colors from the line.

This one is getting a 4 inch boarder all the way around to bring it up to 42 by 37 1/2.  The larger version ended up at 69 1/2 by 71.  Nice and roomy should mom and baby just want to share.

After that because I can't seem to focus on just one project and because the 12 I currently have in progress just didn't seem like enough I started something new.  This is the Swell pattern from Camille's second book.  Still plugging away on that challenge to make all of her patterns.  I had two Moda Candy Bars of City Weekends plus 1/2 a charm pack and some scraps that I commandeered from my mom-leftovers from a baby tumbler quilt she made.  I only have enough fabric for a 3 by 3 layout which will end up somewhere around 36 by 36 and I have a yard I picked up in the great destash over on instagram for a boarder.  I'm thinking it will be just enough for a baby quilt or table topper and I'm good with that.

I am using the white and yellow polka dot from the line in place of a solid.  I have to admit since venturing out from my typical solid snow first with the pale green, then bright orange, and now with a print of all things it feels good.  I'm not planning on breaking up with snow anytime soon but it is good to have some variety.

That's it for me this week.  Head on over to Lee's and see what everyone else is up to.  And if you are on Instagram be sure to check out the Auction @quiltingfairy is hosting on Friday.  There are lots of hard to find fabrics & homemade items to be had and the proceeds are going to help a member of our quilting community after the loss of her mother in law.

WIP Wednesday

I missed all of you guys last week-but sometimes I just don't have anything to share by the time Wednesday gets here.  I do a lot of my sewing quilting on the weekends and so if I have a super busy weekend I might not have anything to share come Wednesday and then other times if I am feeling super motivated I can get a little time with my machine in after work during the week.

The hubs was out of town on Friday night so I treated myself to Sushi and had fun quilting.  My quilting ADD was in full effect and I couldn't settle on a project so I managed to piece the first set of pinwheels for my Dilly Dally quilt.  Then I thought maybe I would give Juggle another go but I only managed to add one row.  That does bring me to the 1/2 way point but I need to do more cutting before I can make anymore progress on that one.  I snuck one more Scrappy Trip Along block in there as well.  And then I needed to do some cleaning so that was the end of the fun for me.

Then on Saturday I got a chance to head down to my parents and my mom helped me out with making quilt backs for several (okay 5) quilts that needed to be done.  I typically like to piece my backs.  Nothing fancy but I usually will use some blocks from the front or another fabric so I can avoid trying to match up a pattern reprint.  This time though I just used one print and I didn't match them up.  They still look okay and once they are quilted I doubt the seam will even be noticeable.  But I think on the next one it will be back to a pieced back, it just makes it feel a little more special to me.

I'm not sure why but when I was doing the math for this one in my head I made a bit of a mistake.  The quilt top is 83 by 83 and so when I seamed the two lengths of fabric together I only had a total of 3 1/2 extra inches on the sides.  Most long arm quilters like 3-4 inches per side to get a good stretch on the frame and there is no way I was quilting this one myself so I ended up adding some muslin to one side to make it big enough.

My mom also gave me her Sherbet Pips Jelly Roll and since we had 11 yards of fabric for backing I knew I wanted to make my Jelly Filled Quilt Along top bigger and then it seems I just couldn't stop.  I still need to add one more row and thanks to some smart friends on Instagram I think I have a plan to make a baby quilt that matches.  Maybe my SIL and soon to be niece would like these as matching quilts.  My SIL loves all things pink and I think this one would do the trick.

That's it for me this week-I hope all of you in the US will enjoy your 4th of July and that all of my Canadian friends had a great Canada Day!  It looks like we are going to trade in our fireworks for a hurricane this year.  Head over to Lee's and see what everyone else is up to.