WIP Wednesday {8.10.2011}

Well, I'm afraid like I mentioned the other day that I don't have all that much to share this week, with all things wedding consuming the weekend, and visiting with out of town family as well, my sewing machine was likely enjoying a much earned break!  Here's what I have been up to...

In Progress

DQS 11

My DQS 11 quilt top has been hanging out on my design wall for the past week or so while I had been internally debating how to quilt it.  I was going back and forth between a nice clean simple echo style quilting, or getting a little more fancy-pants and doing some sort of FMQ either in the borders or over the entire piece.

  After much flip flopping on my decision, I ultimately chose to keep the quilting simple.  The more I looked at it, the more I was set that I wanted the pieced hexagons to be the star of the show, with nice clean "frame" looking borders around it.  Here's a quick pic of the finished quilting.  I should have a finish to show soon, as I just need to hand sew the binding down and make a label for the back.

Secret Mini Swap 

One more sneaky-peek (yes, I know.  I'm a terrible quilty secret keeper).  How about some curved piecing?  Check.  Bright colors?  Double check.  More on this next week!

Farmers Wife QAL

More on this weeks Farmers Wife blocks here.  

This Weeks Stats

New Projects: 0

Completed Projects: 0

In Progress: 8

DQS 11

For the Love of Solids {a modern swap}

4x5 bee blocks

FWQAL

Secret Mini Swap

August Bee Blocks

UFO Quilt tops (maybe, one day...)

Postage Stamp quilt top

Central Park quilt top

Be sure to pop over to Freshly Pieced and add your WIPs!

farmers wife blues

It feels like its been eons since I've posted anything, and well, its because I just haven't had anything to show.  We had a family wedding this weekend, which many days last week were spent baking cookies, and attending various wedding related functions.  In case you were wondering, the wedding was wonderful, and the bride loved the double wedding ring quilt I made for them!  The happy couple is now off to Mexico, and I am back down in my sewing room.

I was jonesing for something quick-ish and relatively simple to "finish", and turned to the next two blocks in the Farmers Wife Quilt Along.  Apparently I was feeling quite bluesy when I choose my fabrics for this weeks blocks, but I'm quite happy with both.

Block #22 Corn & Beans

Holy.  Triangles.  44 triangle to be exact.  All pieced into a finished block measuring 6 1/2" square.  That's a lot of teeny tiny triangles.  This block actually pieced together a lot easier than I was anticipating. Aside from a few of those small light blue triangles, the points matched up quite nicely, and for the ones that didn't, I'm ok with it.  I figure it adds character.  The grey is Alexander Henry Heath in Metal, the darker blue is Amy Butler Daisy Chain and the light blue is Monaco by Dena for Freespirit.  

Block #23 Country Farm

I think this block is one of my favorites so far.  It was an easier one to piece together (easier as in much less than 44 triangles!), so that was nice, and everything just matched up with nice perfect points, which was a bonus, as that doesn't happen often!  I sort of haphazardly pulled out these fabrics, and was quite pleased with how well they look together.  There is some Picnics and Fairgrounds by Denyse Schmidt, Central Park, a Freespirit fabric and the grey is a print I picked up on my local MQG's shop hop a few months back.  

All in all a good, yet "blue" Farmers Wife week!  Here are all of my blocks so far:

In peeking ahead, there are many many more teeny tiny triangles in my immediate farmers wife future, more to come next week!

WIP Wednesday {8.3.2011}

It's Wednesday, lets hit it!

Semi-Completed Projects

DQS 11

Not a complete "finish" finish, but I consider a quilt top a quasi finish, and here it is!  I hunkered down in my sewing room Saturday, and didn't come up for air until this top was pieced together.  I'm pretty sure this is right up my partner's alley, she said she liked scrappy...  More on this top here.  I'm stalling a little on finishing this up, as I'm still deciding on the quilting, but a finish finish should be soon!

In Progress

Secret Mini Swap

This has been on my "list" for a few weeks now, but I haven't posted anything about it because, well, its a secret!  I finally have an idea in mind, and I *think* it will work.  Since I'm not super good about keeping crafty projects a secret, I'll share a sneaky peek:

Think schmorgasboard of Kona solids and white.  More on this in the next few weeks!

Farmers Wife QAL

Another 3 blocks down, only 90 more to go!

This Weeks Stats

New Projects: 0

Completed Projects: 0

In Progress: 7

DQS 11

For the Love of Solids {a modern swap}

4x5 bee blocks

FWQAL

Secret Mini Swap

UFO Quilt tops (maybe, one day...)

Postage Stamp quilt top

Central Park quilt top

Be sure to head over to Freshly Pieced and add your WIP!

an update from the farm

After missing last week, I was super eager to get back in the saddle and put together some more blocks for Farmers Wife QAL.  To stay "on track" the goal is to make two blocks per week, with it taking about a year to make all 111 blocks.  I have been making more than two blocks a week, which seems to work for me, as then I am able to skip a week when need be, and still feel "on track".  Here are this weeks blocks:

Block #18 Century of Progress

This block technically should have been done last week, but the templates must have mysteriously grown legs and walked away.  No seriously, I would swear I printed them out, and vaguely remember cutting out those triangles.  Anyways, I skipped over this block last week, and here it is this week.  

I have to say, while its not my favorite, its slowly growing on me.  I think its because I like pattern and symmetry.  While I suppose those pink triangles are symmetrical, they just seem randomly placed to me.  Especially when you turn the block on point.  So its just "eh" for me.  I also wasn't crazy about the fabrics, but they are also growing on me.  The orange is Robert Kaufman Metro Living, the yellow is Sunkissed by Sweetwater for Moda, and  the pink is a random fabric I picked up on my latest trip to my LQS. 

Block #20 Churn Dash

I actually like this block, nice and simple, but terribly horrible fabric selections on my part.  Really, what was I thinking.  The green totally blends in with the brown, and all you see are turquoise triangles on the corners.  Oh well. I don't dislike it enough to redo it.  The brown is from Central Park by Kate Spain, the green is an Anna Maria Horner Good Folks Print  and the turquoise is scraps from the binding of my DWR quilt.

Block #21 Contrary Wife

This was another super easy block to put together.  Nice clean and simple.  The greeny-yellow and background fabric is more Central Park and the purple is Joel Dewberry Aviary 2.  

Here are all 21 blocks I have completed so far.  This week's blocks were pretty simple.  I peeked ahead, and next weeks blocks look like a doozy.  Lots and lots of teeny tiny HSTs...   

paintbox hexie doll quilt top

I am unbelievably incredibly pleased with how this turned out!  For some reason I was doubting that those little hexies would actually come together like I was envisioning them in my head the entire time I was putting them together, but they pieced together seamlessly.  The entire top is machine pieced, and I used the method described here to piece together the hexies.    

Hopefully my DQS 11 partner is just as thrilled with this as I am!  The top measures approximately 17" square, and the hexie center measures approximately 11" square.  I don't think I repeated a solid "ring", or fabric, and there are 16 different Kona solid colors represented.  The borders are Kona white and Robert Kaufman quilters linen in Grey.  

I'm mulling over how to quilt this, and I'm sort of at a loss.  I am typically not a huge fan of stitching in the ditch, as I like the quilting to add something to the quilt design...but because this top is so so busy, I'm thinking that may be the route I take.  Possibly some hand quilting around those borders.  I'm going to leave this on my design wall for a few days, and see what comes to mind.  More on this soon!

I will be linking this post up to Sew Modern Monday over at Canoe Ridge Creations stop over and check out what everyone is up to!

WIP Wednesday {7.27.2011}

Wednesday already?  And by the way, where exactly did July go??  No seriously...

Anyways, here's what I've been up to..

New/Completed Projects

Zippered Laptop Sleeve

This commissioned laptop sleeve was a new project and a completed project this week.  More about it here.

In Progress

DQS 11

I put together a few more of these mini "hexed in" hexies, and they are reminding me of sort of hexagon paintbox blocks.  I'm still a little unsure of the final arrangement of these, but I'm thinking I'll need about 9 more and perhaps a border (or a few) of some sort to finish this mini off.  My partner seems to be digging it (yippee!) so I'll keep at it...

For the Love of Solids {a modern swap}

I've sort of had this idea in my head for a while, and when this tutorial popped up over at Sew Mama Sew, I thought it might be something my partner would like.  I'm thinking of 1" chevron stripes in greens, yellows and oranges with white in between.  More on this soon!

This Weeks Stats

New Projects: 1

Completed Projects: 2

In Progress: 7

July bee blocks

DQS 11

For the Love of Solids {a modern swap}

4x5 bee blocks

FWQAL

Secret Mini Swap

UFO Quilt tops (maybe, one day...)

Postage Stamp quilt top

Central Park quilt top

July Bee Blocks

I have been having a bit of quilty ADD these past few days, I feel like I have so many things "in progress" that I just needed to work on something and finish it.  I turned to my July bee blocks (nothing like down to the wire, right?), and now have something to check off my list.

This block is for Lynda (Littleloops) in the Solids Bee.  She sent us some black and white solid fabric and asked that we make any pieced block we'd like!  I decided on some 2" HSTs in a fun zig zag design.  I just find this so striking, I will have to keep a black and white quilt in mind for the future.  These blocks will be made into a quilt for her daughter, I don't know how she will part with this quilt!

For the Simply Strings bee, Sabah (SparklySabah) sent along some fun red scraps with a fussy cut square for the center and asked for a log cabin type block.  I added a few of my own red scraps and ended up with a wonky log cabin/drunk love style block.  This has to be one of my favorite blocks to piece together, it's fun to not have to think about precise measurements and lining up points every once in a while!