Work In Progress Wednesday #3

I didn't mean for this to turn into a once a week blog but things have been a bit crazy here lately.  I haven't spent much time with Bertha again this week.  I haven't been feeling the best and sitting at the sewing machine has just been low on the list of things to do.  I won't bore you with the details but I'm hoping that making some changes will have me feeling better and back at the sewing machine in no time.

After swearing off bees for this year my good friend Mary asked me to participate in the Bee Neptune.  A sewing bee just for those of us who love the Tula Pink line of fabric.  Since trying to track it down for my Anchors Away quilt I have developed a small collection of the line and decided that it would be okay to join in on the fun.  The bee doesn't officially get underway until June but our bee mama and first up sent out her fabric already.  I was able to finish this block up just in time to add it as a completed project to this weeks WIP Wednesday post.

I also reworked the top of my Spring Weekends quilt to make it an even 7 by 7 instead of the original 5 by 7.  This one is all basted and ready for quilting but I can't decided what color thread to use for the quilting.  I'm considering white because that what I have on hand and I wasn't able to match the aqua at my LQS.  Any suggestions?  Here's a look at the top again just in case.

Dreaming About But Not Underway:
I decided I would share some (because the list gets longer everyday) of the quilts I have planned but not started.

• Anchors Away
• Origins Lattice Quilt
• Sunny Trails
• Verna Stars

That does it for me this week.  Be sure to check out what everyone else is up to over here.

Anchors Away

How do you pick your fabrics?  That's something that has been running around in my mind all day.  I think most of my quilts to date have been in one of two categories.  They have either been super scrappy or have been made from one line of fabric.  Not a lot of mixing and matching going on in my world but I would like to try to outreach more in that direction.  A while back my mom surprised me with a quilt kit she picked up down in Florida.

I give my mom a lot of credit because most of this kit is made up of Neptune which my mom had no idea I had been secretly lamenting having come into quilting to late to have any of this great fabric.  You know it's one of those lines like Flea Market Fancy, everyone wants it but only a few people actually have any.  At lease it seems that way.  What my mom did know at the time was that I had been constantly chewing her ear off about Freshcuts by Heather Bailey.  I was having a hard time finding it and really wanted to make a quilt from the line because Heather is one of my favorite designers.  My mom recognized one of the prints as Freshcuts and snapped up the kit.  I was thrilled when she gave it to me.  Intimidated to no end by convinced that I wanted to make the quilt picture here.

Now that I'm ready to start thinking about making said quilt I've been wondering why in the world would the add Freshcuts to a primarily Neptune quilt?  The colors are the right shades.  The prints are the right sizes.  But flowers and turtles?  Flowers and anchors?  I think I am going to give credit to the store and say that they got it right in this case because when it's all stacked up it looks great.  But in my quilt I think I am going to try and hunt down a few elusive fat quarters of Neptune.  The pattern actually calls for 2 layer cakes and 9 fat quarters plus yardage for boarders, binding, and backing.  The shop included 9 fat quarters and 21 cuts that measure 12 inches by width of fabric.  I have no idea what I am going to do when it comes time to find boarder and backing fabric but in the mean time I'm looking forward to making this quilt this year.  Even if I am a little scared of it.  I'd love to hear your processes for selecting fabrics.  Let me know, how do you mix and match?  And if you have any leads on Neptune I'd love to hear those too.