The Black Swoon (WIP Wednesday)

I don't know if it was because I was so excited that I only had 3 swoon blocks left to make, or the fact that I had been up sick all night on Saturday, or the extra stress at work, but this swoon block is now lovingly the BLACK SWOON.  You get my movie reference, right?  The Black Swan.

The Black Swoon

Typically when I finish sewing up a swoon block I have a new favorite.  This time though I was extremely disappointed.  I didn't know what it was at first.  My seams didn't match as well as they had been-disappointing but not unusual.  It just didn't look right.  I couldn't figure out why so I just stuck it up next to the others and went to bed.  I woke up in the middle of the night and that stupid block was taunting me from the other room.  Of course knowing I wouldn't sleep until I figure it out I got up to go look at the block again.  This time it was like a giant head slap.  You know the kind in the V8 commercial.  Duh, could have sewed the block right.  Turns out I had sewed one of the pieces in my corner units the wrong way.

The culprit!

Normally this would have just been annoying if I had caught it when I laid out the block as it would have required two seams in each of the four units to be unsewn.  Transfer that to the fact that I had to take the whole block apart and it meant unsewing 14 seams.  Of course I wouldn't notice the mistake until the whole block was together.

Current favorite

So Monday night instead of sewing I was seam ripping.  Well I guess that is technically part of sewing, right? I did manage to get the block taken apart and put back together the right way.  But I have to say it still doesn't replace my most recent favorite.  I think the fabric in that block is holding strong as my favorite in the whole quilt.  Hopefully this time next week I will have a finished quilt top, of course only if I do more sewing and less unsewing.

Head on over to Lee's to see what everyone else is up to this week.

Finish it up Friday (Posh Enigma)

Is it still Friday?  I was just about to run out of light to take pictures today as I finished sewing the last stitches of hand binding on my Posh Enigma quilt.  I still can't believe I started this quilt over 4 years ago.  I knew it wasn't my style any more after leaving it sitting in my closet unfinished for so long.  When I first bought the fabric to make the backing for this quilt I didn't get enough.  So it sat and sat then one day I had it out of the closet and just happen to see a piece of leftover Bliss from the back of a baby quilt I had made and I knew it would work perfect on the back of this quilt.  So I pieced the back and took it to the quilter.

Posh Enigma

Front and Back 

Close up of quilting

It's finished now and thanks to the help of some readers during WIP Wednesday I have some choices now of ways to send it to benefit those impacted by the explosion in West, TX.  So I feel great having another finish under my belt and even better knowing that this quilt that I no longer love won't languish unused for much longer and hopefully will find its way to someone who will love it for a long time.  And hopefully they will know every time they see it that there are people out there thinking about them and praying for them in their time of need and long after.

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.

Swoon Lovin'

Slow and steady, okay not really cut as fast as you can so you can get some stitches sewn in between the madness.  That about sums it up for me.  But I still love my Swoon Quilt and it has been a huge help having all of the white background pieces cut.  Saturday after my quilt guild meeting I was able to make one block.  I think this is my favorite one yet.

I mean how can you not love that sweet little flower.  Lucky for me since I got this quilt as a kit from my parents that is also the fabric that was included for the backing.  I know you can't see it through the computer but big happy smile on my face there.  Then on Sunday I really really really needed to do some cleaning so in my haste to cut out a second block I cut some pieces twice and not enough of another.  It was a hot mess but in the end it works and I wonder how many of you even noticed not all of the squares are cut running the same way on the fabric.

So that brings my grand total to 6 down and 3 to go.  I love the way they are looking all together.  Funny story though.  My dad did help me cut out one of the blocks and the first thing I said was I want to make the middle red so it will be the opposite of the other one.  Of course we cut and then I pieced and went duh we cut this backwards but it's okay because it is still a pretty block.

The two red and gray are made with different fabrics they just look the same here.

So I'm still in LOVE with my Swoon quilt.  Have you got the bug yet?  Did you make one?  Did you see this scrappy version?  I missed it to start with but someone in my guild told me about it.  I have to say if I didn't have a backing kit for this quilt I would be making this for the other side.  But now I am thinking it would make a perfect reverse to my Complications quilt.  So many ideas so little time.

Pillow Talk (Finish it up Friday)

I love it when I get to share something on WIP Wednesday and by Finish it up Friday it's done.  That doesn't happen very much with quilts so maybe I should tackle some more of these smaller projects.  My modern quilt guild is hosting a pillow cover exchange on Saturday as part of our meeting.  Anyone who wanted to participate put their name and the colors they like on a piece of paper and entered it into a hat.  Then we randomly drew names.  Needless to say I don't know much about my partner and with no flickr or blog to stalk I was flying blind.  The only thing I knew was that she wanted something in the Quiltcon color scheme.

Quilting close up

I decided to go with the carpenter star after seeing this picture over on flickr.  I thought it was a pretty great concept that I could easily make into a pillow.  I had thought about doing a lot of quilting on this but in the end I decided to go minimal.  I quilting  in a spiral from the outside in of the four large diamonds.  I have never had a quilted pillow and I wasn't sure if my partner would want one or not.  I know it would be trickier to add more quilting once the pillow is done but figured if she wanted more quilting I could offer to do that.  After all that is way easier than taking out a bunch of quilting.

This really is straight I promise.  Not sure why it looks wonky here.

In the back I wasn't sure if I would have enough of the gray fabric so I added in a strip of the same lime green from the front.  I think it gives it a nice pop of color and is a playful little detail.  The Quiltcon colors don't match anything in my house and that is probably a very good thing since I need LOVE this pillow.

In other news if you haven't heard yet there are some amazing groups collecting items for Boston to share the LOVE.  The Boston Modern Quilt Guild is collecting blocks to turn into quilts for those hurting after last weeks bombing.  It doesn't feel like much to me to make a quilt block or two but having people I love in Boston makes me want to do something, anything.  No matter how small it may seem I know it will be a good way of letting them know we are praying for them and sharing our love.

You can find out more by checking out the Boston Modern Quilt Guild blog.

WIP Wednesday

How is it that we are back to Wednesday again already.  I guess I should have expected it since it comes around faster and faster every week.  I had the chance to visit my parents this past weekend and my dad helped me cut some more pieces for my Swoon Quilt.  So I managed to sew up one more block.  That's 4 down and 5 to go if you are keeping up.

In other news, I have gone to the last two meetings of the VA Beach Modern Quilt Guild.  They meet on the last Saturday of the month and it can be pretty hard to get up in time to make the almost hour drive to where they meet.  After the first meeting I wasn't too sure I would go back but after some encouragement I gave it a go and I am so glad I did.  The highlight for me at the last meeting was getting to meet fabric designer Alison Glass of Lucky Penny fame.  She is so kind and patient in person.  And she brought with her one of her quilts that had been quilted by none other than Angela Walters.  It was so cool to see Angela's quilting in person and I know if it wasn't for the guild I probably wouldn't ever have the chance.

But I said all of that to say we are having a pillow swap at our meeting on Saturday.  Since I am pretty new to the group I don't know a whole lot about my partner only that she requested a pillow made in the colors of Quiltcon.  I decided to go with a Carpenter's Star because I thought it was just modern enough.  I'm going with this cool Comma fabric on the back for a little something extra.  I've been thinking about quilting the front panel before adding the back.  What do you think?  How would you quilt it?  Or is it okay with out any quilting?  And what color thread?  I thought about maybe just some straight lines radiating from the middle to enhance the star quality but I'm not sure.  And I thought about just using plan old white thread but do you think that will stand out too much on the bright colors?  Oh choices, they are always so much harder when it's for a swap.  Especially when you don't know the person you are giving it to.

My last little update for the week was playing around with the blog some more.  Now that so many people have switched over to Bloglovin I really want the blog to look great.  One thing I really like about Bloglovin is that when you read the blog post it actually pulls up the blog.  That is something I missed in google reader because you never got to see the actual blog unless you clicked through further.  Anyway I've added a finished quilts page to the top of the blog so you can see my finished quilts all in one place.  It's still a WIP and I'd like to make the photos tile instead of all line up down the middle like that but I'm not yet sure how to do that.  I'm also planning to add an about page at some point, I just haven't decided what kind of format I want to go with there.

So that's it for me.  Be sure to head over to Lee's and 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.