WIP Wednesday {2.29.2012}

Happy Leap Day everyone!  This week has been quite the productive one, with a few finishes to share!  It feels nice to get a few things accomplished, and start to think about fresh new projects to start.  Here's what I've been up to:

Completed Projects

Swoon

Eeek, no words necessary, but its finished!  More on this big guy here.

Sparkle Punch Mini

It will be sad to see this little  guy go, but I think this is right up my partners alley, hopefully she likes!

February Bee Blocks

I have to admit, I had been putting these off all month,  hoping that maybe these triangles would just make themselves, but alas, no such luck.  So I put on my brave "I'm not scared of you" triangle face and got busy. And I have to say these turned out much better than anticipated!  I am usually not a spray starcher, but it helped immensely with keeping those biased edges under control.  These are for Smithiness in the Imagine circle of do. Good Stitches, using this Sew Mama Sew Modern Block of the Month tutorial from Alissa of Handmade by Alissa.

New Projects

Japanese x and + blocks

Speaking of do. Good Stitches, my month to be the quilter is March, and I am requesting these Japanese x and + blocks to make a bright fun scrappy quilt.  I've gotten started making the extra 12 blocks I'll need to finish off the quilt, and these things are so stinkin' addicting to make!  

This Weeks Stats

Completed Projects: 3

New Projects: 1

In Progress: 6

Swoon
HST pillows
Sparkle Punch mini
Ripple Afghan
February Bee Blocks
4x5 Bee Blocks
Farmers Wife QAL (this is getting dangerously close to UFO territory...)
Retro Flowers baby quilt
Japanese x and + blocks

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

Mini Sparkle Punch: Complete

My mini sparkle punch is complete!  This little mini will be off to a new home shortly, and is for my partner in the Fab Little Quilt Swap.  This was really fun to work on, as my partner and I seem to have very similar tastes and color preferences, so it was almost like working on something for myself!

I used Oh Fransson's sparkle punch QAL as my guide for this, and shrunk the blocks down, so that each finished block measured 1.5" square.  My partner seemed to like blues and greens, so I had fun digging through my blue and green scraps to put this mini together.

I hand quilted using size 5 pearl cotton thread in coordinating colors just on the inside of each star, and then using the green just along the edge of the white portions to highlight the wonky little pinwheels that developed from piecing the stars.  

As for the binding, I used a royal blue Timeless Treasures crosshatch print that I picked up at my LQS.  I had thought about doing the binding in grey since there was so much blue already, but I'm really glad I went with the blue, I think it sort of ties everything together nicely.  

I just love this pattern so much, I am definitely keeping it in mind for an upcoming baby quilt, possibly in this exact color scheme!  

Quilt Stats:

Name: Sparkle Punch Mini

Pattern:  Sparkle Punch QAL by Oh Fransson

Size:  15" x 18"

Fabrics:  Assorted blue and green prints from my stash and Kona White

Binding:  Timeless Treasures Royal Blue Crosshatch Sketch in Royal

Quilting:  Hand Quilting done by me in blue and green pearl cotton #5 thread

Mama Bee

This is my first round partaking in the do. Good Stitches bee, and March is my month to be the Hive mama.  I am really enjoying giving a little back, I do so much quilting and crafting for myself, friends and family, that it feels good to do a little for charity as well.  Our circle, the Imagine Circle will be making quilts for Threading Hope.  

I have been oogling all the amazing Japanese x and + blocks and quilts that have been popping up all over blog land and flickr land, and thought why not jump in the fun.  I took Megan's approach and upsized the blocks, so that mine will finish at 11.25" square...not exactly 12", but I took the easy way with the math ;-)

These blocks will be made using Amy of Badskirt's tutorial, only with upsized measurements.  In case you were wondering, here are the measurements  I figured out to get the larger block size:

fabric 1: (1) 7.25" x 2.75"

(2) 2.75" x 2.75"

fabric 2: (4) 2.75" x 2.75"

fabric 3: (8) 2.75" x 2.75"

fabrics 4, 5, 6, 7: (1) 5" x 5" of each color

These blocks are so addicting to make that I just couldn't stop at two (and I know I'll need extra blocks anyways...) 

Only 10 more to go, so that when all is said and done I will have a nice size quilt  with 30 blocks.  Not only do I love this block, it's so satisfying making use of some scraps!

I will be linking up to Sew Modern Monday over at Canoe Ridge Creations, head over and link up!

completed swoon

It's finished!  It's finished!  I've never been so excited to finish up a quilt before this one.  Don't get me wrong, I always get that sort of euphoric mad dash while finishing up all of my quilts, and usually I then say "this is my favorite quilt I've made" (the hubby says I say this about all of them, and he may be right), but I can really say 100% this is my most favorite quilt I've made to date!

It's funny, when I decided to drink the kool aid and start a Swoon of my own, I wasn't super sold on the idea that I would love this quilt when all was said and done.  The pattern is just a little more traditional than my typical tastes, but as I'd enjoyed the traditional piecing like in the Farmers Wife QAL, I thought I'd give it a try, and at least use up some stash fabric that needed to be used, and see where this went, and after seeing the amazing swoon-spiration in the group pool, who could resist.  

Well I have to say I'm so incredibly pleased with where this went.  And the fact that it has come entirely from stash fabrics, including the back, is the icing on the cake!

This is the largest quilt I've attempted to date, the Swoon as it is in the pattern finishes at 80" square, but I wanted it to be queen size, so I upped the widths of the sashing, using 3 1/2" in between the blocks, and 5 1/2" around the edges, so that the finished size is 90" square.  

In addition to this being the largest quilt I've ever made, it's also the first truly reversible quilt I've done.  I knew from the start that I wanted to do a mega-scrappy swoon on the back of the quilt, so I upsized the original swoon block, so that the back block measures 48" square, and went scrappy, using alot of my Kate Spain Central Park and Terrain scraps, and used Kona Ash, Kona Coal, and a Kona Aqua as the solids.

  

I won't lie, this wasn't the easiest to wrangle through my machine, but Bertha made light work of it, and I may have built some arm muscles I didn't know I had!  

I did an all over loopy stipple for the quilting of this big guy, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  It was a nice change of pace from my usual meandering stipple and I think works nicely as an all over pattern.

I know this post has been overly photo heavy, but it was so windy outside during my little photo shoot, that I was just snapping a million pictures hoping to get a few that weren't crazy blurry, or where my quilt didn't end up blowing across the driveway.  After all was said and done, I just couldn't pick my favorites!

It seems that Zoey and Bella give 4 paws up in approval...

 

 

At least someone is snuggling with this big guy!

Quilt Stats

Name: Jessica's Swoon

Pattern: Swoon by Camille Roskelley

Size:  90" x 90"

Fabrics:  Quilt top: Assorted fabrics from my stash with Kona White; Quilt Back: Assorted scraps from stash, Kona Ash, Kona Coal and Kona Aqua

Quilting:  All over loopy stippling done by me using Gutterman white thread

Binding:  DS Quilts Collection Aunt Edna Houndstooth Orange

I will be linking this quilt up to Kati's slash the stash linky party.  This quilt has been made entirely from stash...(even the back!) with the exception of extra solid white I needed to purchase and the binding is a new acquisition!  Be sure to stop over and add your latest stash finish!

WIP Wednesday {2.22.2012}

This week has not left much room for sewing, and the sad thing is there is nothing super exciting to report that I was doing instead!  Oh the hum drum ins and outs of every day life...

No new finishes this week, but a few goings on down in my sewing room, here's what I've been working on:

New Projects

Swoon HST pillows

I've been playing around with my leftover HSTs from my swoon blocks, and just couldn't settle on a design.  One or two of these layouts will become a set of pillows, and thanks to everyone's input, I've decided to definitely make the top right design.  As for the second pillow, I think the only logical solution is to whip up some more HSTs and make all of the other three  designs!  I'm kidding, but it's so hard to choose!  I'm leaning towards the top left as well, but we'll see.

In Progress

Swoon

I feel like I have been working on this quilt forever, and I'm at the point where I just want it to be done!  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love everything about it, but it's been So. Slow. Going.  Argh.  Hopefully by the weekend I'll have a finished quilt to share!

Sparkle Punch Mini - I've finished all the hand quilting and this little guy just needs some binding, should be finished soon!

This Weeks Stats:

New Projects: 1

In Progress: 8

Completed Projects: 0

Swoon

HST pillows

Sparkle Punch mini

Ripple Afghan

February Bee Blocks

4x5 Bee Blocks

Farmers Wife QAL

Retro Flowers baby quilt

Be sure to head over to Freshly Pieced and join in the linky WIP party!!

  

this? or that?

I've been playing around with my leftover half square triangles from my swoon blocks, and the possibilities seem endless!  I feel like a kid playing with those static cling sticker books, although I actually think this may be way more fun!  I know I want to turn them into two pillow covers, but I just can't settle on a design.  Maybe you can help?

Here's the four I've narrowed it down to.  I also haven't decided if I want two of the same design or different designs...decisions, decisions.  I think the only one I've ruled out are the zig zags, but other than that I'm at a loss.  What say you oh wise bloggy friends??

ready set quilt

I feel like my blog posts have been inundated with nothing but Swoon lately, so this is the last post about it until I have a finished quilt to show!  I couldn't resist writing up this post though, I had in my mind that for the quilt  back I wanted to upsize the Swoon block and make it scrappy.  So I set out with my quilty math in hand, and started cutting the ginormous pieces, and lo and behold, it came together just as I had pictured!

I really love that this will be a double sided quilt.  For the back, I used mostly Kate Spain Central Park and Terrain prints, with a few others thrown in that went with the color scheme, and then bordered it in Kona solids.  

 

I basted this behemoth this afternoon, and I am breathing a huge sigh of relief to finally be quilting this big guy.

 

This is the largest quilt I've ever made, and I must say Bertha is handling it like a champ!  While my arms are certainly getting a work out, Bertha is quilting like a dream.  

I'm about a third of the way finished quilting, so hopefully there will be completed Swoon to show soon!  

WIP Wednesday {2.15.2012}

Happy WIP Wednesday!  This week I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I saw my swoon quilt top come together.  There hasn't been much going on since then, my sewing room is in shambles and I'm working up a scrap project to deal with my over flowing scrap bins, anyone have any scrap friendly patterns they'd like to share??

In Progress

Swoon

I am over the moon that this quilt top has come together, and I'm planning to get to work on a scrappy mega swoon for the quilt back, more to come soon.

Ripple Afghan

I haven't posted an update on this in quite some time, but I've been slowly crocheting away.  I'm about a third of the way finished, and it's slow going, but I'm enjoying stitching away!

Sparkle Punch Mini

No new pics, still stitching away!  Getting quite close to finishing the hand stitching, so there should be a finish to share soon!

This weeks stats:

New Projects: 0

Completed Projects: 0

In Progress: 7

Swoon

Sparkle Punch Mini

Retro Flowers baby quilt

February Bee Blocks

4x5 Bee blocks

Farmers Wife QAL

Crochet Afghan

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

a wintry swoon quilt top

Unfortunately our planned mini quilt shop hop for Saturday had to be rescheduled because Leona is sick with the flu, but on the upside, it left me with a completely open Saturday to Swoon away!

 

I spent the day putting together my last three blocks, and then couldn't resist diving in to the sashing to finish this top up.

I decided to widen the sashing dimensions, and then do a wider outside border around the edges to bring the top up to queen size, measuring 90" x 90".  I'm not sure if I want to use this as a bed quilt in one of our spare rooms or not, but it will be nice to have the option if I want to.  

 

We've been having much more typical cold Pittsburgh winter weather as of late, so I ended up with a bunch of blustery windy pictures, and this photo shoot was short sweet and to the point.

I am so so happy with how this has come together, like I had said before, when I started this quilt I really wasn't sure what I'd think in the end, but I couldn't be happier with the quilt top.  I have plans for making a "mega swoon" for the back, by upping the block dimensions, so I'm eager to dig into one last swoon block.  Be sure to check out the Swoon-along pool for extra swoon inspiration!