Something nice, just for the sake of something nice - a finish Friday

It's Friday!  and I have a finish to share!

This quilt may look familiar.  I made a similar one a couple of years ago for my cousin's first baby.  Somehow my math was off when I made the HST's for the design. I think I forgot that you get TWO HST's from every pair of squares, because I had nearly double what I needed.  I had put the extras away for a rainy day.

While it hasn't been raining, I figured it was about time to pull those extras out and put them to good use.  One of the ladies that runs the front office where my kids take gymnastics is about to have a baby.  I chipped in for the group gift weeks ago, but she and her husband (who also works in the office) are always so nice to my girls and I.  I wanted to do something more, so I made this quilt.

Some of my quilty friends think it is funny that I would give something like this to someone I know so little.  I think it is nice to do something nice, just for the sake of doing something nice.  I hope she likes it, but I am keeping my expectations low (she is a muggle, after all).  Ironically, I have had better luck giving my quilts to complete strangers than my own family.  My mom (Hi Mom!) is the exception.  She always loves what I send her, and that's why she will get more quilts in the future too.

Do you give away any of your quilts to people you barely know?


Thanks for reading today,


Jen




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Modern Baby quilt - a finish Friday

It's the middle of the month and I finally have a finish to share!

Look familiar?  This is the 2nd quilt I've made in these colors using Emily Cier's pattern "Discontinuity".  I took her class way back in January of 2013, and made this baby quilt (which gave to Olivia).

At the time, I was so tired from piecing all those 723 pieces together that I really didn't want to put much effort into quilting it.  So, it is just stitched in the ditch.   (BORING!)

I really loved the look of this pattern, but the piecing method left me cold.  I had ordered enough fabric to make the quilt into a twin size, and it seemed a waste not to use it.  So, I tried to apply a log cabin approach to the piecing, like I did with Emily's "In the Groove" pattern (see my quilt here).  I reported about the log cabin piecing of Discontinuity 2 here (only one step down seam!).  Then the quilt top sat in a box until about 2 months ago.

My husband's cousin had her first baby in January.   Said cousin is very modern, loves art, loves modern art, AND she had a baby girl.  It seemed fortuitous that this quilt should be finished for her.  But, I couldn't just SID, NO!!  Any time saved having a quilt top already pieced had to be channeled into the quilting process!  So I quilted a different motif for each color.  This was made possible by using the log cabin method of piecing.  I'm not sure it would have the same effect if I had made it using the approach in the original pattern.

This time around, I also found the perfect backing!

I love the texture all that quilting gives, and I hope the baby does too.

Thanks for reading today,

Jen

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Irons in the fire - WIP Wednesday

It's been a while since I posted a WIP Wednesday post, and boy do I have some stuff in progress!

Here's what I've been working on for the last couple of days.

I started with my favorite swirls, then I worked myself up to this point....

Why oh why do I choose to make things difficult for myself by quilting a different motif in each color?  I suppose it is because it is fun too??  I've got 4 more colors to go before I'm done.

I've also got irons in a bunch of other fires, including my modern mini's, but I will share those when they are done.

As always, thanks for reading,

Jen

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Scoot down a Jungle Path - a Friday Finish

Yippee!  A finish to share!

Remember these?

I know you thought that was going to be one yellow quilt!  Well, they turned into this:

I used a free pattern on the Moda Bakeshop website called Jungle Path by Jessica Kelly at Sew Crafty Jess.  The fabric is "Scoot" by Riley Blake.

These blocks came together pretty quickly and I even with my directional fabrics, I only had to unpick one seam and turn it.  The only trouble came when deciding how to quilt it.

I stitched in the ditch all the seams, and nearly left it at that.  I loved how those little center squares puffed up and felt so soft.  But, I felt obligated to do some additional quilting.  I ended up with wavy lines in the colored sections of the outer squares and some of that right angle square stippling in the yellow sashing areas.  Then I left the center squares untouched.  Here is a close up.

I just love those center squares popping up.

And of course, the obligatory back shot:

I had all that yellow to work with for the front, and I like how it kept things nice and soft looking.  For the back though, I knew I was going to be using those off white prints, and in big chucks, so I felt like it could handle a little punch of brighter color.  I just made up some HST's to create the chevrons and added some additional solids where I was short on yardage of the white prints.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I'm even happier to say, other than a few random charms squares and some small strips, I used all the fabric I had in this line.  Poof!  Gone!  (Room for new fabric, right?)

I will be labeling this one up next week.  The baby shower is on the 20th, and I hope the mama likes it.

Thanks for reading today,

Jen

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Les Amis - a Friday Finish!

Finally! a Finish!

terrible picture, I know

I just had to do it.  This little baby quilt hasn't really been sitting for an extremely long time, but I recognized my familiar stalling techniques starting to pop up.   The most predominate is "I can't decide on how I want to quilt it".  On this quilt, I actually had more ideas than less and deciding was difficult.  But, when I sat down at the machine to get started with a practice sandwich, two of the motifs just weren't working out as nicely as I wanted.  I wasn't feeling the feathers.  So I opted for this flower design by Angela Walters (in her book and Craftsy class).

This design was fun!  And relatively fast.  I just love the texture it gives the quilt.  I love running my fingers over the little bumps.  I almost don't want to send it off to it's new home.

Quilt Stats:

• Fabric - Les Amis by Patty Sloniger for Michael Miller
• Size - 36 x 45
• I used a double thickness of Hobbs Heirloom Wool Batting (love it, by the way).
• Quilted with a creamish color of Sew Fine by Superior Threads, and Bottomline in the bobbin.
• Backed with one of the larger prints of Les Amis

As soon as I label and wash it, this quilt will be off to Prince Edward Island, Canada, where I'm told it is STILL cold.  Little Violette, it will be on it's way soon!

Thanks for reading today,

Jen

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Les Amis cont. - WIP Wednesday

80 HST's later and my Les Amis top is done!  It's not so much the making of that many HST's, it's the trimming that takes forever.  Normally, I would shy away from using this much white for a baby quilt, but I think making those depression blocks last month got this design stuck in my head.

Now to decide how I want to quilt it.  I keep thinking feathers, but we'll see what happens.  Who would have thought this time last year that I would even entertain doing feathers on anything?

This quilt is destined for a cold climate, so I ordered some wool batting.  It will be my first time using it, and I am considering layering it with my usual cotton blend batting.  Does anyone out there have any tips or things I really need to know before giving wool a go?

This Wednesday...

Completed Projects:

• Bee Blocks - Lucky Stars BOM for February
• Blue One Block Wonder quilt is DONE! I just need to photograph it so I can share. 

On-going Projects:

AKA - "stuff I plan to touch this week or next".

• Bee Blocks & BOM blocks - Skill Builder BOM blocks, Make it Modern blocks and Simply Solids blocks all need to be done.
• Star of Africa Bee - catch up continues  
• Curves Class goodies - I finally got the printer working!  Now that I have some templates to work with, I think I should make something, yes?
• Discontinuity Quilt - top is done, backed and basted.  Awaiting quilting.
• Les Amis Baby quilt - top complete.

Back Burner:

These will likely be touched in a couple of weeks.

• Handstitched Medallion Quilt - quilting in progress.  
• Beginner Quilt Along at Quilting Gallery - top still needs to be put together. 
• Charity quilt for the guild - not started.   

This week's stats:

Completed projects - 1 ish
New projects - 0
Currently in Progress - 5

Don't forget to link up any blocks you have been working on to the Building Blocks Tuesday post!

And as always, thanks for reading,

Jen



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Going to pieces - WIP Wednesday

I had a lovely time at the Road to California quilt show last week, but it has taken me a few days to get back in the swing of things.  Partly because I caught a cold while there, returned to a household of similar colds, had a mountain of laundry waiting for me, and, well, you get the idea.  I do plan on reviewing the classes I took while at the show, but first I figured I should finish one of the actual projects first.

This is what I've been working on:

This is a pattern by Emily Cier called "Discontinuity".  I am only 4/5 of the way finished with the baby sized quilt top, which has 723 individual pieces to it (according to the cutting directions - for the baby quilt!!!).  I can't write a review yet because 1) I'm not done, 2) I'm not done cursing it yet, and 3) I think more cursing might be coming as the top hasn't had a single seam pressed yet (Emily recommends waiting until the entire top is completed).

I realize that sounds pretty negative, so let me say something positive.  I adore the look of this pattern, and I know of a much easier way to piece it for future quilts.  However, I paid my money, so I played along with the original directions.  Curse me. Curse, curse, curse.

This Wednesday...

Completed Projects:

• Bee Blocks - Lucky Stars BOM practice block and sample/tutorial block for the We Bee Learning bee

On-going Projects:

AKA - "stuff I plan to touch this week or next".

• My Blue & White One Block Wonder -This is my January UFO - decided I had to go with what I had for backing. 
• Bee Blocks & BOM blocks - Skill Builder BOM blocks
• Star of Africa Bee - catch up continues  
• Curves Class goodies - I haven't done a single project yet.  So sad!  My printer won't allow me to print anything at the moment, so I can't print any of the templates needed for the majority of the projects.  Ugh, technology!
• Discontinuity Quilt - I didn't quite finish the first 1/2 of the baby quilt in class, and I am STILL working on it.  Tomorrow may be the day if I don't throw it out the window.

Back Burner:

These will likely be touched in a couple of weeks.

• Handstitched Medallion Quilt - quilting in progress.  I actually did a little bit of this one on my trip!
• Beginner Quilt Along at Quilting Gallery - top needs to be put together. It is ridiculous that I haven't just slapped this one together yet.  I am taking Leah Day's Craftsy class how to quilt a sampler hoping to get some good quilting ideas.
• Charity quilt for the guild - not started.   
• NEW Baby quilt - two friends are having a babies soon, and it sounds like a perfect reason to make a couple new quilts, right?  

The Back, Back Burner:

Lightning would have to strike twice, but I like to keep this category going just to remind me what I have in the pipeline.

• Handstitched goodies - several small projects in limbo.  
• Star Circles aka New York Beauty blocks - time is coming to get back to these

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 1 ish
New projects - 0
Currently in Progress - 5

Don't forget to link up any blocks you have been working on to the Building Blocks Tuesday post!

And as always, thanks for reading,

Jen



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Midnight Oil

A couple of nights burning the midnight oil, and a highly qualified team of babysitters one day, and I have finally finished the quilt for my niece.  

For such a small quilt, it sure did take FOREVER.  And thankfully, once I washed and dried it, it did soften up quite a bit.  Lesson learned though, when it comes to quilting, less is more sometimes.

Now for the holiday......