WIP Wednesday (The One With The Rescue)

So it's been a long time since I've been able to spend some quality time with my machine.  But now that Bertha and I are back to being BFF's, it's been nice to be able to resurrect some old projects and work on some new ones at the same time.

Block # 75 Rosebud

Over the last few weeks I've managed to make 1 (yes only one) Farmer's Wife Blocks.  It is block #75, Rosebud.  Now that I have a little more time to spend with Bertha I am really looking forward to working on some of the harder blocks I have left.  I have enough blocks done that I could stop here and just make a lap size quilt but learning new things is one of the main reasons I wanted to do this quilt along.  So I am sticking with it in hopes of finishing another super girly queen sized quilt for the guest bedroom.

Finished Loulouthi Tiles on a Queen Bed

My big finish this week was my Loulouthi Tiles Quilt.  You can read all about that here.  But I wanted to give you a quick second look and this time I took a photo on the bed so you could see how well it covers.  It does go to the end of the mattress on the left side but the right side against the wall could have used one more column in my opinion then it would be just right. 

Column 1 & 2 of Bizzy Kid

Bizzy Kid was my new start in the last two weeks.  I love how easy this pattern came together and if you haven't already used one of Allison's patterns I would recommend them for sure.  I am still working on a better name for this, maybe summer sorbet.  But I don't really know.  You can read more about the inspiration for this quilt here.
 

Needs at least 1 more block

New this week I am bringing back a quilt that has set as blocks for a very long time in my sewing space.  Do you remember this post way back in 2010?  Well that was the year of the bees for me and the first and only bee I have hosted to date Bee-Stitched was among those.  I remember spending way too much time fretting over what kind of block to use and finally landing on one inspired by Red Pepper Quilts.  Shortly after I requested this block I saw it popping up like crazy in blogland but I haven't really ever seen a finished quilt made from the pieces.  In fact I believe even Rita's is still a WIP.  This week I decided to get it out and see how many blocks I had and what I wanted to do with it.  I had originally planed to add stars to the sashing like in Rita's original layout but I think I really just like the overall scrappy goodness and the additional stars made from sewing the blocks together as they are.  I have to make at least one more block for this quilt top to have enough and I am contemplating actually making 4-5 more so that I can add another row or column.  I like my quilts to be big so that they are easy to snuggle under.  I'm not sure about this one just yet but I think it is destine to be a gift for a lovely friend that is moving the end of July.  It's strange because when I picked this block and these fabrics (yes that is original FMF in there-that I paid an arm and a leg for) I wanted it to be so perfect because I knew I would never give it up.  I didn't have much of a stash then and I bought a lot of fat quarters just to cut up into this treasure.  I begged people to be sure and use the FMF and those fussy cut goldfish in their blocks because I paid so much money for them when they were hard to find.  If only I had known by the time I got around to finishing the quilt those fabrics would be available as reprint.  But now because it is so scrappy good and I love it so much I think those are the best kinds of gifts.  The ones you want to keep for yourself but give away because you care for the person that much.

Blocks pressed and laid out

Be sure to head on over to Lee's to see what every one else is up too.  And be sure to link up your own WIP cause I know I need more inspiration.

Loulouthi Tiles

I finally managed my second finish of 2012.  I can't believe it is already May and I am this far behind on my goal of making 12 quilts in 2012 but maybe the summer will be productive.  After all summer is typically when blogland comes alive with numerous quilt alongs.  I started this quilt after my parents were nice enough to purchase a kit for my birthday last October.

Loulouthi Tiles

I first mentioned this quilt in "The List" and it made it's first appearance in WIP Wednesday all the way back in January.  I have to admit that there were several times throughout making this quilt that I really just wanted to pack it away and save it for later.  My dad is the one who convinced me that we really could work out the math and make this one happen.  I followed Rachel's original concept but changed the quilt a little.  I added both of my rows to the quilt into the length and didn't widen it.  My finished quilt measures about 97 inches long by 87 inches wide.  I do wish I had added a little more width since I fully intend to use this quilt on my bed.  But I think overall it will be fine.

Front of Loulouthi Tiles Quilt

This is the first quilt I have made so large and I opted not to hand quilt around the large tiles as I knew I would never get around to it.  Instead, I sent this one to the long arm that my mom and I both use.  She does a great job with all of our quilts and I love working with her.  After having some less than stellar experiences with different long arms in the local area it is well worth the hour drive to have Ellen quilt these up for me.  And lets face it, usually I just drop my quilts off with my mom and make her do the hard work of picking out a quilt pattern.  This quilt is the first one I sent to Ellen where I actually spent a lot of time looking through her books and picking a design.  I narrowed it down to this pattern and another called Orange Peel.  I was kind of set against a flower since I want to use this one on my bed and didn't want it to be overly girly (yes, you can feel free to laugh at me because I realize now that the butterflies and huge flowers amp up the girly factor A LOT).  In the end Ellen suggested this one as it matched a bit of the pattern in the fabric I chose for the backing.  Of course once she pointed that out to me I couldn't go with anything else.

Close up of the quilting

It's quilted in two different shades of gray.  With the thread on the top being a shade or two lighter than that on the back.  I really wanted the quilting on the back to sort of fade into the quilt rather than stand out.  I used didn't have enough fabric left to make binding and I really didn't know what I wanted that would look as great on the front as it would on the back.  In the end I used a solid PB Gray that I think frames out the front nicely and blends into the fabric on the back.  The back is mostly this gray and orange print with one little strip down the middle of miniature tiles which replicate the feeling of the front.
 

Back of Loulouthi Tiles Quilt

Overall, I think it looks great and I am pretty happy to have a new quilt to snuggle under when I go to bed tonight.  It's in the wash now getting it crinkle on.

Bizzy Kid

If you have been reading a long for a while you know that my life has been a little crazy as of late.  One of our friends was going through a rough spot and we opened our home to him and his two year old daughter.  It made it difficult to sew and I have gotten pretty far behind on a lot of my projects.  Is that possible?  Can you be behind on something that is just a hobby?  With the exception of my one commitment to a Round Robin group I have not joined any bees or swaps this year in anticipation that it might get a little crazy.  So can I really be behind?  I mean I doubt I will make my goal of 12 quilts this year since it is May and I have only one finish for the year thus far but that is just a personal goal so there really isn't any consequence to not meeting that goal but it feels strangely like pressure.  This weekend I was finally able to spend a little time in my sewing room just relaxing, listening to Pandora, and sewing away.  So what do you do when you have about 4 projects you are in the middle of, round robin quilts that need to be done, and about a million other things all calling for your attention-start something new of course.  At least that's what I did!  I was originally inspired by this fabric pull that Corey did for a pillow swap and knew I wanted to make something with these bright colors.  So I started pulling fabrics for a granny squares quilt since that is the latest quilt along that the Old Red Barn Quilt Along group is working on.  But then I saw this quilt top and knew that they would be too similar.  And well honestly I wasn't feeling the granny square love.  Sometimes I like to do quilt alongs but sometimes I can't help but think I don't want a quilt like everyone else.

The two different sets 

So I had seen a pattern over at Cluck Cluck Sew the other day that I liked.  I don't buy many patterns because usually I can look at the picture and sort of figure it out but in this case I just wanted someone else to have done all the math for me.  Bizzy Kid wasn't the original pattern I saw but it stuck my fancy when I was ordering.  I needed to spend time sewing and not looking at inspiration only to find the day gone and a project not started.  So on Thursday night I ordered the PDF (another first for me) pattern of Bizzy Kid and read through the instructions.  I looked at my fabrics I had pulled and figured out I had what I needed.  I went to the LQS on Friday during my lunch break to get some Kona Snow and was hoping to find some charcoal sketch.  They appeared to be out of both but lucky for me a willing salesperson and a trip to the back found a bolt of Kona Snow that was not in the inventory in the computer.  So Friday night I cut my solid six inch squares and made the larger hourglass blocks.  Sunday I spent most of the day sewing and was able to complete the blocks and sew the sets together.  The only thing left is to sew the columns together and wait till payday to order some washi tape fabric for the back.  I think it will be the perfect fabric for this quilt.

This is a queen bed with blocks laid out on it.  The row hanging off the side will actually move to the other side of the quilt there just wasn't enough room.  And this should finish at about a twin size according to the pattern.

This is the first pattern I have purchased from Allison but I would recommend her again.  I found the pattern to be very well written and easy to understand.  And while the pattern was simple enough and I probably could have figured it out myself it was nice to have the math already taken care of for me.  Another handy trick I learned while putting this one together, my Tucker Trimmer (HST ruler) was perfect for trimming my hourglass blocks.  The two diagonals on the ruler made it the perfect tool.

I also got my Loulouthi Tiles quilt back from the long arm so I should have my second finish of the year to share with you soon.  Hopefully that will take some of the pressure off.  What have you been sewing?

WIP Wednesday

How is it already Wednesday again?  You would think that the three day weekend would have helped but the truth is I just feel that much more behind.  I did make some progress this week though.  I finished piecing my Loulouith Tiles Quilt.

This quilt has really been a lot harder than I expected.  I did a few things different from Rachel's suggested pattern.  I increased my size to a queen because I wanted it to be big enough for my bed.  Rachel suggested adding a row to the top and side but I found I actually needed to work them both in to the height to get to the queen size I wanted since the width was already there.  I worked in one of my extra rows in the middle and the other at the top.  So far I am happy with the way this one is coming together.  I just need to piece a small strip for the back and then this one will be off to the long arm.

I'm still not sure if I'll had some hand stitches in those picture frames or not.  Anyone have any thoughts on that?  I think it would look good but I picked up my backing fabric on sale and it even though it is from the same line the fabric does not appear in the front of the quilt and I'm not sure it would look good with the hand stitches.

My fabric came in for my Sunny Trails Quilt I just needed the white fabric still so I am picking that project back up to work on.  I don't think it will be much longer before that one is ready to go to the quilter as well.  Now for this one I do plan to have it quilted all over by the long arm and then I will go back in and add some hand stitches so it will be a nice combination of the two.  I like the idea of hand quilting but I'm a little afraid of it as well.  Quilts around my house take a lot of beating between washes and dogs so I need them to hold up and I'm just afraid a little hand quilting won't last.

Sorry for the iphone photo but my camera died.

Finally I am working on getting my center pieced for the Awesome Rawsome Round Robin Group.  It is a spin off of the Old Red Barn Quilt Along group and I am super excited about this project.  Since I'm not participating in any bees this year I wanted something to do with a small community of quilters and this seemed like a good idea.  As the top goes around my group each person will add a round.  I plan to add more to this before sending it off to the next person.  Think braid and mini weather vane blocks, hopefully I can pull it off.

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

WIP Wednesday

With all the craziness that has been going on here I haven't been doing as much sewing as I would like so I don't have a ton of things to share this week.  I am at a stopping point on my Sunny Trails Quilt because I have to order some Bella White but once I do that I plan on finishing up that quilt top pretty quickly.

In the mean time I started work on my Loulouthi Tiles Quilt.  This quilt so far has not been what I expected.  There were some hiccups with cutting followed by some frustration in layout but now that I have it all worked out and on a chart I am making steady progress on this one.  This quilt is a little different for me because it is put together in sections rather than in rows.  It's a fun challenge making sure you put the sections together in the right order and then that you connect them the right way.  Since I snapped this photo a few days ago I have completed another section.  But it's dark and rainy here so no updated photo.  Sorry for the bad iphone photo as well.  But that's all I had on hand when snapping the picture.

This one is going to be a massive queen size quilt for my bed.  Not sure yet about the quilting.  I do plan to do a little hand stitching around the large blocks as Rachel suggested but probably before I make my quilt sandwich and then I will probably have the rest of it quilted on the long arm.  Anyone have any experience with this?  Or thoughts?


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

The List

I know I'm not the only one making list and thinking about crafty goals for 2012.  I'm interested to hear what you guys have in mind for the upcoming year.  My personal goal is to make 12 quilts in 2012.  It just seems like the thing to do, right?  Well I was sharing this with my mom and I think she thought I was a little bit crazy.  But she must have at least half believed me because she did sign up for 12 slots with the long arm quilter (we share) but that really got me thinking could I really do it?  could I afford to do it?  what about the fact I can't commit to a project?  what about all the new quilt alongs in 2012?  what about all the new inspiration?  what would I do with 12 more quilts?  So I made a list to help get me started on the right track.  Of course this list will be subject to change but you know what the heck I can put a rough draft of the list out here just to give you and idea, right.

1. Twisted Fandango- Remember these post.  Well I have everything I need to finish this quilt.  Reality is I'm just working on getting the boarders sewn on and then I'll have a finished quilt top.  I have my backing and binding already so this should be a pretty easy finish if I can just pick it up and then stay on task.
2. Sunny Trails-When Corey first introduced this quilt on Moda Bake Shop I knew I had to make it and I had been waiting for the perfect project to make with Sunkissed.  I ordered all the materials then and it has been sitting waiting for it's chance at the machine.
3. Swell-I was telling Mary (my online buddy) once about how much I liked swell and how I had gotten on board too late to find any.  Well she tracked down a Jelly Roll and sent it to me and then with the help of another online friend and a swap I now have everything I need to make this quilt.  Right now I am leaning towards a quilt from Camille's Book.
4. Farmer's Wife Quilt Along-This quilt along is on holiday right now but when we pick back up the end of January we will be at the half way point.  If I can stay on track or make up a few extra blocks between now and then I should finish in plenty of time to call this one a finish in 2012.  I am still really excited about this quilt and how it will turn out.
5. Anchors Away-Yes the Neptune Quilt.  It scares me a little because the fabric is out of print, it's hard to find, and I have just enough to make this quilt.  It also involves circles and applique neither of which I am happy about but I find that after spending a year on the hunt for everything I need to make this quilt that it has to happen!  Lucky for me my dad has volunteered to help with the cutting.  He might say he was volunteered but either way I'm happy to have him on board for this project.
6. Loulouthi Tiles-Rachel hosted this quilt on her blog and I loved it.  My parents got me the kit for my birthday back in October (thanks again Mom and Dad) and my dad helped me cut it all out.  I will admit it is a little tricky to get those large tiles cut out, luckily there is enough room in the fabric provided in the kits.  I still need to cut my sashing for this one before I can get started on it but I think it will be another fun quilt to put together.
7. Swoon-Santa (or rather my amazing parents) brought me the swoon quilt kit for Christmas this year.  I love the Ruby fabric and the pattern for this one and I am excited to put it together.  I've seen tons of these quilts in blog land made from all sorts of different fabrics and I am excited about having the chance to make one of my own.
8. Multicolored Stars-One of the bees I participated in (and hosted) back in 2010 made these amazing blocks for me and I have yet to put together the quilt top.  The truth is I'm not really sure how I want it to go together and I am at a total loss for quilting it so it has been sitting in my sewing room for a long time.  I am committed to seeing it finished in 2012 it deserves a chance to sparkle.
9. Summer Sampler Quilt Along-This is one of those projects I was late getting started on.  I really wanted to participate but I didn't have what I needed.  Then one of my amazing blog friends hooked me up with this amazing kit to get started.  I jumped in right away and finished the first 3 blocks, then we got to paper piecing.  I've mentioned before I am no good at this.  I really wish I had it in me but I get it all wrong all the time.  So I stalled but I would really like to see this one finished up.
10. Max and Whiskers-This one may be a little bit of a cheater since this quilt is finished and back from being quilted but it still needs binding so technically speaking it isn't finished just yet.  Hopefully those stitches will wait another week or so.  This one may also be a little bit of a cheat because it is one that my mom and I made together.  So I only 1/2 made it.  Do you think that counts?
11. Postcards-When Ashley first made this quilt I loved it and I wanted to make one for myself.  I thought that Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow line (that's how long I've been planning) teamed up with gray for the "grout" would look great.  I've had the bricks cut out for a long time but have yet to get sashing and make this quilt top.
12. Dueling Flurry-My husband and I have matching Christmas Quilts that my mom and I made.  I thought she and I were going to have quilts made to match but in the end she gifted hers to me and now the hubs has mine.  This year we decided to make matching quilts for my brother and SIL.  I'm going to call this dueling flurry for now because I will be making one and so will my mom.  Hopefully they will like them both.
13. Just in case you guys rule out the Max and Whiskers quilt I'll give you a bakers dozen.  Spring Weekends-This quilt top is all put together and about 1/2 quilted.  I just need to order more yellow thread to see this one completed.  Funny how it would be so easy and yet I still procrastinate.

So there you have it a tentative list of hopeful quilts for 2012.  But reality is I have a ton of things in my sewing room I still didn't mention.  Like my chasing chevrons quilt and a few other quilts tops that are hanging in my closet waiting to be quilted.  Then of course there are things like quilt alongs.  Have you seen the one coming up in January.  I'm thinking of making that in child size to either donate in 2012 or have on standby for one of the babies I know that are coming soon :)

Stay tuned because I have plenty of Christmas projects to show you in the next week or so and then hopefully we will be spending more time together in 2012 learning new things and accomplishing new goals together.  So go ahead throw it out there.  What are your quilting plans for 2012?  I'd love to hear all about them.  Who knows you might just throw my list completely off track :)