Complications (Finish It Up Friday)

I am so excited to have another finish to share with you this week.  I guess that is the only good part about getting two quilts back at the same time.  It makes for a few quick finishes.

This is Complications!  It is made all from Bonnie & Camille fabrics and uses fabrics from Ruby, Marmalade, and Vintage Modern.  I had a lot of fun making this quilt despite the many times I was frustrated about it.  You can read more about the journey here, here,here, and here.  Overall I LOVE the way this one turned out.

My only complaint would be that it is too small.  When I first finished the quilt top it was 63 by 72 and I thought that was big enough for a good throw.  Since this one also doesn't have my typical warm and white batting and the quilting is pretty dense it shrunk a lot more than I expected it would.  When I laid it out to take the pictures it almost seems like a baby quilt to me.  Of course it isn't that small but I like BIG quilts.  I want to cover my toes and shoulders at the same time.

I used a single print for the back and the binding.  I found it on sale and had intended to use it for the back of my Marmalade Squares & Stripes quilt but I miscalculated and it was a smidge too small for that one.  So instead I used it here.  I was planning on putting a bright pink print on the back of this one but I think the grey grounds the edges well and it all worked out this way.

This one was also quilted by a local long arm in a pumpkin seed pattern.  I talked about doing a possible series of post on this quilt with some tutorials and instructions on how mine was made along with the inspiration behind it.  I'm still thinking all of that through but look for an update soon.  Head on over to Amanda Jean's and see what everyone else is finishing up this Friday.

WIP Wednesday

I haven't had a chance to do much sewing this week.  I have spent most of my available time hand sewing binding on my Complications Quilt.  I CAN NOT wait to have this one done.  It is one of my favorite quilts I have ever made.  I'm a little disappointed that this one has the "other" batting in it but I am still a huge fan.  I did a few things a little differently with this one.  I tried trimming up 1/4 inch away from the edge of my quilt.  It does make the binding more full though in a few places it has been a little hard to navigate.  I'm guessing that is probably because those areas weren't a perfect 1/4 inch.

This quilt has gotten a lot of love over on Instagram.  It is based mostly on a block of the month pattern that was in German.  But I left some of the blogs out and duplicated others.  I am considering writing a series of post here on the blog about how mine was made with some measurements and thoughts.  I just haven't figured out the best way to do that because I don't want to step on any toes or imply that it is an original design.  Do any of you more experienced bloggers have any suggestions on how I can share what I did without offending anyone?

Next up I ordered this fabric for the back and binding of my APQ Quilt Along Quilt.  I really need to come up with a good name for that quilt because APQ Quilt Along Quilt isn't really working for me.  Most of my quilt names end up based off a combination of the pattern and fabric used in it.

Finally I did settle on my next project.  I have some fat quarters of Nordika and the Snow Blossoms pattern. I chose art gallery's tender green which was one of the suggested coordinates for the line.  I'm thinking this will be very different from anything I have made recently.  I believe we are going to do a little impromptu #snowblossomsalong over on Instagram if you have this pattern and would like to sew along.

Be sure to head over to Lee's to see what everyone else is up to this week.

WIP Wednesday

Somehow the weeks just keep speeding by and I feel like I have nothing to show you guys.  I took a little break from sewing this week to start to spruce up my sewing space.  Well I painted a shelf anyway.  I'm hoping that once it is hung I will have a place for some of my go to quilting books, precuts, and a few special treasures I like to keep in my space.  I'm also planning to hang some art on the walls-I have all of the tags from the precuts I have used in the past and I'm thinking a little shadow box or mosaic of them would be kind of cool.

So the shelf is actually a light aqua color-it's a little hard to tell in this bad iphone photo.  The color is Tropical Surf by Glidden just in case you wanted to know.  I was inspired to paint it light aqua by Camille's hutch.  She actually used a different color but when I was at the store I was afraid that shade would be too light and gray against my pale off white walls.  So I went with a color that had less grey and was a few shades darker.

In sewing news I did finish my Complications Quilt top.  Well maybe, it is done with the exception of the boarders which I decided to leave off.  Right now it is roughly 62 by 73.  I am thinking about adding a little more to two of the sides just to make it a little bigger.  What do you think?  Big enough for a lap quilt or does it need a little more?

The last tidbit of fun news here is that after a long search I finally found a bag of these chips.

I had been wanting to try them since the first commercial I saw.  Not a big fan but at least now I can stop looking for them in every store I walk into.

That's it for me this week.  Head on over the Lee's to see what everyone else is up to.

WIP Wednesday

I haven't had a ton of time for sewing lately but thanks to an extremely loud upstairs neighbor who makes it difficult to sleep I have managed to fit in a little bit of sewing time.  And while I should be using that time to get caught up on my mystery quilt I am thisclose to finishing the  top of my Complications quilt and so that has been winning out the fight for my time.

Last night I managed to finish up the last section I needed for the quilt.  It has one really big glaring error in it so I am debating ripping it out.  What do you think?  With all of the little squares and the way this quilt was put together in pieces I don't think it will be overwhelmingly obvious once the whole thing is together.

Once that section was done I joined it to another smaller piece I had worked on earlier so now this quilt top is in 4 large chunks and they just need to be joined together.  I am still debating if I want to add the boarder or not.  In my mind it would be 2 1/2 inch squares and alternate between the prints and a solid.  I was thinking Bella Snow but my conflict is there is no other solid in the quilt and the blocks in this quilt run together on purpose.  So what do you think?  Add a border?  Skip a border?

That's it for me this week be sure to head on over to Lee's to see what everyone else is up to.  Happy Sewing!

PS-If you are looking for the giveaway post you can find it here.

WIP Wednesday-The Best Laid Plans

Well I'm back from vacation and I need another vacation to recover.  You know those weeks you have where anything that can go wrong will.  Well that about sums up my vacation experience.  Between taking my husband to the emergency dentist and getting a call from the alarm company that someone had broken into our apartment it was anything but relaxing.  I should mention I had no cell service where we were so the call about the apartment was over 24 hours later when I heard it.  Luckily they didn't actually get into the apartment and nothing was broken or missing.  But it did freak me out a bit and I knew I wouldn't relax again until I had checked on things myself even after a kind neighbor took a look around for us.

I thought this week I would have so many good things to share with all of you.  But in reality I didn't sew at all while I was gone.  Turns out I assumed there would be an iron and ironing board at the rental and I was wrong.  So no way to press seams means no sewing.  Honestly though with all of the other craziness going on I doubt I would have been able to relax enough to sew a stitch anyway.  I did manage to lay out my Complications quilt all together to figure out my last section.  I now have a plan for that also so hopefully I will be able to add this one to the completed list soon.  It is still a favorite of mine so far!

One highlight of our vacation and the only thing we did outside of being on the lake was a trip to Rosemont Winery.  It's an old family farm turned winery in Virginia right on the North Carolina boarder.  Really its in the middle of no where but it was a great little side trip.  There wines aren't bad, I tend to like the sweeter wines so those of course were my favorites.

Be sure to head over to Lee's today and see what everyone else is sewing.  I know I can't wait to check them all out and get some more inspiration.  With Complications coming to an end and my dread of the mystery quilt I am suppose to be working on (don't worry mom I'll try and catch up by the time you get home) I'm already getting a little antsy to find my next project.

WIP Wednesday-Prevacation

So have I mentioned yet that next week I'm going to the lake on vacation.  Ha Ha just teasing you guys I know you are all tired of hearing about it already but I am super excited to spend some time unplugged.  The only bad part about this is that I won't be able to check email, flickr, or look up great sewing tutorials.  But the good news is I should have plenty of time to sew with few distractions.

This week I did manage to make a little more progress on my Complications quilt before moving on to other things.  I am hoping to get some stuff cut out and have a good list of projects together to take with me to the lake.  I want to avoid taking too much so a well thought out plan is what I'm counting on.  But with only 2 more days until we leave I'm not sure how well organized and prepared I am actually going to be.

Here's what I'm planning on taking with me:

• Complications
• Wonderland Baby Quilt-100 Quilts for Kids
• Sewing Machine Cover-Swap
• Market Tote-Swap
• Mystery Quilt-just so my mom won't be too mad that she is waiting for me to open that 3rd envelop

That is the plan anyway-but I have a few other things on my "wish" list so I guess we will just have to wait and see what actually happens.  After all there is floating in the lake and jet skis and fishing to think about too.

If you haven't heard yet the next round of 100 Quilts For Kids just opened.  You can read more about that here.  What are you making?  I have a Wonderland quilt top that I made up for this project almost 2 years ago-that's embarrassing that I am planning to finish for this round and then we will have to see what other goodies I can come up with.

If you haven't voted in the threadbias wallflowers quilt design competition yet be sure to check that out.  If you want to vote for my Mama's Wagon Wheel Design even better :) and thank you.  There are lots of great designs though so head on over.  I love when contest like this get a lot of response because it lets the companies know that we are interested in seeing more of these events.

Head on over to Lee's to see what everyone else is up to this week.  And I will see you guys after the 21st unless I manage to sneak in one more post before I go.

A little sewing

So I should be focused on getting all of my chores done before we head off to the lake for a week.  There is laundry to do and dusting and all kinds of other things but today I stole a few minutes for sewing.  I should be working on my mystery quilt so my mom doesn't get too far ahead of me since we have an agreement about not opening the next step until we are both ready.  But the thought of all of those HST's just wasn't working for me so instead I thought I'd try and make a little progress on my Complications Quilt since it is sitting out in the sewing room and just begging to be sewn together.

I managed to get this chunk of the quilt sewn up.  It is actually the bottom of the quilt.  I've been jumping around a little based on which blocks I have done and how much time I have to sew.  Since I only had about an hour today I went with a section that I had most of the blocks finished for.  I had to make another little churn dash block because I had used the one I made for this earlier in the quilt.  I've been just working in different pieces here and there to fill up the empty spaces.  I actually only have one more section a little larger than this to make and I will have the top finished.  I'm debating now if I want to add the boarders or if I want to just leave it like this with all the blocks running together.  I think the boarders add a bit of calm and bring it all together but I'm just not sure yet which way I'll end up going.

You can read more about this quilt here and here.

WIP Wednesday

I worked on a lot of different projects this week based on my location.  So while I didn't make a significant amount of progress on any one thing I made small progress on several things.  I baked a yummy cake for the holiday and spent a lot of time not doing sewing related things so I don't have a ton to share.

The first project I worked on I talked about on Monday and you can read more about that here.  I really do enjoy pulling this project out every once in a while and passing the time sewing all of those hexagons together.  Plus it is a great conversation starter, I got to talk to a great lady at my meeting on Friday who was working on a Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt as well.

When I got home I gave myself permission to change the way I was working on my Complications Quilt and once I allowed myself to change the blocks up I made a lot of good progress.  I have two more blocks to make and then it will just be about joining all of the pieces together.  I am still working through how I will go about doing that.  I am thinking maybe I will create a few more smaller blocks that will allow me to fill in some of the empty spaces.

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

It's Complicated-WIP Wednesday

I have started and stopped this post so many times today.  I don't know what I want to say, I don't get overly personal on here very often but sometimes I wonder if by not sharing more I'm being dishonest in a way.  So hang with me if you will and I'll try not to go on and on but maybe share just a little bit.

Sunday night I managed to finish up my Swoon quilt top.  I was excited about the finish because its been a long time coming.  Once that top was done I decided to go back to working on my Complications quilt.  Honestly, I picked it up and put it down about 5 times before finally just walking away and going to watch TV instead.  I really like the part of this quilt that is done so far.  You might remember I am putting it together in chunks and so I don't really have in mind what the entire quilt will look like.  I think I was feeling frustrated because while I love to quilt I typically follow a pattern.  I'm not very good at just thinking something up and pulling it out of myself and into a tangible form.  I like to have a plan and I find it frustrating when that plan changes.  Okay-yes you can laugh out loud now, I understand that plans rarely work and that part of life is adapting and modifying the "plan."

I was really struggling though with what to do next.  See I'm not particularly fond of all of the blocks in the original quilt.  They are all lovely and I don't mean to detract from what someone so graciously designed and then shared with me.  I am grateful because I don't think I ever would have made this quilt without that starting point.  But I just don't want my quilt to be exactly the same.  Of course it never would have been because of the difference in quilting, fabrics, and just general thought process but I was having a hard time with giving myself permission to do it differently.

Then on Monday as I was sitting in my sewing room crying listening to the news reports about Oklahoma and just being mad in general about how much hurting there is right now in the world I felt silly.  Here I was being super hard on myself because I couldn't figure out how to do something with a quilt, because I couldn't just make a choice about what to do next.  Here I was getting frustrated with myself and wanting to put the quilt away again when there was this going on in the world around me.  So while this quilt is not only complicated it is also forcing me to learn.  Not only techniques but about myself.  So maybe in the end I will have a beautiful quilt or maybe not but at least I will have learned along the way and I guess that is what matters.  After all if we aren't learning then what's the point of the experience.

Thanks for stopping by to visit and for listening.  Be sure to head over to Lee's and see what everyone else is working on this week  Hopefully you will find something that makes you want to learn more.

Edited to Add:  Looks like there is no link up for WIP Wednesday today.  Thanks for reading a long and be sure to check back next week.

WIP Wednesday

Did you know it's already Wednesday again.  I can't believe how fast the week is going by but I guess that is a good thing when you are counting down the days to the weekend.  I haven't been doing a whole lot of sewing this week.  But I am making some slow and steady progress.  If you are following along you know I have finished up 6 out of 9 Swoon blocks.  Which is super exciting.

That of course also means more Ruby making it's way into my Complications quilt.  I've started piecing together the next larger section of complications.  You can see in this graph the parts that are done.  The pink section is the larger part i have all sewn together.  The purple section is what I have sewn together in this second large section so far.  I need to make a few more blocks before I can really go any further.  Of course I have been doing some juggling and rearranging to be able to connect the sections but so far I am still happy with the results.

I didn't get a chance to show you this block last week but I stitched this up for our guild meeting on Saturday.  Each member of the guild can select a month and during their month the bring instructions and fabrics for a block.  Much like a bee and then the next month they get back a slew of blocks.  This is the first time I have participated.  I didn't grab a block at the meeting Saturday because all of the packets were gone so quickly.  But it's a fun little way to sew something different from my projects.

The last thing I am working on this week is sewing binding to my Posh Enigma quilt.  I'm still not sure what I am going to do with this one when it's done but I am leaning towards donating it if my mom doesn't want it.  I offered it to her first but she turned me down.  I'll give her another shot but if she still says no then I'll be looking for a good group to send it to.  Does anyone know of someone collecting quilts for West, TX?  I am working on flags and blocks for Boston but I haven't heard much about West.  But if I know quilters I am sure there is someone organizing hugs for those effected by the explosion down there.

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

WIP Wednesday

So remember how I was telling you guys I got distracted from my Complications Quilt by my Swoon Quilt.  I mean really what's not to love about both of these quilts.  I mean I don't think Bonnie and Camille could make better fabrics if they tried and they all play so nicely together.

Well here is my progress on the Complications Quilt.  You might notice a little bit of Ruby from my Swoon quilt already managed to slip itself in there.  One of the biggest challenges for me with this quilt is making sure I am getting color and fabrics dispersed evenly throughout the quilt.  Of course now that I realized I also want to mix Ruby into the fray it gets even more complicated (no pun intended).  I just can't help but LOVE this quilt.  This is the first part of the puzzle and it is now as wide as the quilt will be without the boarders.  It's pretty impressive to me because it's currently 5 feet wide.  I really am flying by the seat of my pants with this one so I had no idea how big it would end up being  Of course with another 12 inches in outside boarders it's going to end up being a pretty wide quilt.  I would say this section which measures about 2 feet makes up about 1/4 of the total quilt.

In other news I did make an additional Swoon block just so I could add the scraps into my selections for the Complications Quilt.  Somehow I feel like these two quilts are going to continue to evolve together.  So I have 3 blocks down and 6 more to go on this one.

My mom also picked up my Posh Enigma Quilt from the long arm so hopefully I will have a finish to show you soon.  I'm not meeting up with my mom until Saturday so it will be at least next week but I do have my binding fabrics all ready to go.  It's hard to believe that I pieced that top way back in November of 2009.  It's not at all my aesthetic anymore so I'm really not even sure what I am going to do with the finished quilt but it is nice to have my "first" quilt out of the closet and thisclo

se to the finished list.

Be sure to head over to Lee's to see what everyone else is up to.

WIP Wednesday

Puzzle Piece 2

I've been working on my Complications quilt again a little this week because I am procrastinating the bag, pillow cover, and block I have to make by the end of the month.  I know it happens but I will manage to get it all done.  One of the biggest challenges for me of this quilt is filling all of the empty spaces.  I still have a few more blocks to make but I'm a little impatient so I like to mix it up some and alternate between the blocks and building the other pieces.  In this case I was working on the chunk of quilt that goes to the right of puzzle piece one.  In the original pattern that area is mostly just made up of little squares.  I chose to make an extra block or two to take up some of that space and mixed in some large squares of fabric as well.

Pretty Little Squares 

One challenge I realized I was having is getting an even distribution of color.  See I have some fat quarters that I haven't even cut into yet.  Please tell me I am not the only one who does this. I don't have a large stash so fabric hoarding isn't really a problem for me most of the time.  But in this case in my mind I know I should be cutting them up so that I don't end up with all of some fabrics at the top and all of others at the bottom.  In my mind I know it will give me a more cohesive look which is what I'm really after but when I start sewing I can't help but think I don't want to cut those up just yet because they are so pretty sitting there.  Plus I think I get scared that since I don't have all of my blocks made just yet that I will end up not having enough fabric or large enough pieces to finish.  I did force myself into it once I realized that I have been gravitating towards all those yummy pinks while working on this quilt.  I have lots of pink fabrics mixed in and sometimes it was hard even just getting blocks to go where I wanted without having too much pink in one space.

So that's it for me this week.  Head over to Lee's to see what everyone else is up to.

Puzzle Piece One

I made some progress on my latest quilt top this weekend.  While everyone was at Quiltcon the online universe was pretty quiet so the time I usually spend stalking flickr and my google reader being overwhelmed with inspiration was spent in quality sewing time instead.

Sorry for the poor photo.  I snapped it on my iphone
because I haven't been able to find my
camera since the move.

I mentioned before that the instructions for this quilt are all in German and while google translate does provide some help it is far from perfect.  So I spend a lot of time just looking at the pictures and then just winging it.  So far this method has worked okay for me for the most part.  I did choose at the start of this project not to sew all of the blocks together to avoid those partial seams which I am now pretty proud of myself for doing.  Because of that I was able to put together the first segment of the quilt top last night.  It might not look like much yet but I am already in love with this quilt top.  It's been a long time since I worked on something without sashing between the blocks so I really love how these different blocks just sort of melt into each other.  It's a lot of fun but I know I still have a long way to go.

Finally this block doesn't allow me to avoid those partial seams altogether so I am doing the best I can with it.  I was able to get to this far and then well I sewed it together and took it apart what seems like 100 times. I know I am suppose to sew those two little triangles on next but I'm not sure where I should be sewing them.  If anyone has any advice I'd love to hear it.

WIP Wednesday

I haven't had a chance to do a whole lot of sewing since this weekend but I did make a little more progress on my newest project since I posted about Catnip earlier this week.  I mentioned before that there are y-seams in this quilt and that all of the instructions are in German.  At first I was sewing my blocks only part way because I wanted to avoid those tricky y-seams.  Now I realize they aren't actually y-seams but partial seams.  It's still scary but I think this will be an amazing chance for me to learn some new skills and really improve on what I already know.  Plus it's being made with some beautiful fabrics so it's easy to look at.

I already made some progress on the learning front because one of the blocks I tackled required partial seams already.  These blocks are far from perfect and I am sure most of you will be able to see pretty easily where my last seam was but over all I am pretty proud of them.  I have no delusions that I would want to make an entire quilt out of blocks that require this kind of seam but a few blocks wasn't so bad.

At the end of the 12 steps there is still a lot of empty space in this quilt I am planning to repeat some of my blocks rather than fill in all of those spaces with little postage stamp size squares but I'm not there yet.  Suggestions are welcome!

Be sure to head over to Lee's and see what everyone else is working on this week.

Catnip

New projects seem to be like catnip around here.  Like a kid who sees something shiny and gets distracted that has been my feeling lately.  With so many of my quilty friends getting ready to head off to Quiltcon the online community has been pretty quiet.  Typically this week I would be getting ready to go to the Mid Atlantic Quilt Show with my mom but for various reasons we aren't going to make it this year.  I was feeling a little down and out about that so I started surfing around online.  One of my friends told me about the Sew Sew Modern Swap that she had just finished up and how great it was.  I haven't done a swap in a long time but on that particular day was feeling up to the challenge so I went over and signed up-not sure if I made it in yet or not but one of the rules is that you have to post a mosaic before you can join.  So in looking through flickr and picking out favorites to include in my mosaic I came across this quilt.  It stayed in my head for a couple of days and Friday I decided I had to make one of my own.

I had full intentions of using my Marmalade and Vintage Modern for a second Farmer's Wife Quilt.  But I knew it would look perfect with a few other fabrics mixed in for this quilt.  The original directions are in German and google translator helped me navigate the basics but it still doesn't make complete sense so I am following along with the pictures the best I can.  Of course then there is the conversion from centimeters to inches and unfortunately the math didn't transfer right on so I had to make some adjustments there as well.  I'm still not sure it will all turn out right but I'm hopeful.

Right now I have finished the first two steps but I haven't sewn them all together yet.  The original instructions use y-seams to connect the different blocks.  Sine there is a lot of space left after making the 12 steps that you fill in with postage stamp like squares I decided to leave my blocks in pieces until I decide on a final layout just in case I need to move some things around.  I've never sewn y-seams before either so I am trying to avoid them the best I can.