WIP Wednesday: Makeover edition

It's been quite a busy and productive week around these parts, we had a pretty lazy weekend, which means lots of time for sewing!  First things first though, you may notice something different around these parts...SewCraftyJess has gotten a little facelift!  I've been waiting to design a new blog header with something I could tie into business cards, labels, etc for some time now, and just couldn't settle on a logo of sorts.  Finally, with the help of TouchDraw and Vista Print, I now have a new little "logo" (I guess we'll call it that) that I turned into a blog header, with new fun business cards on the way.  It still needs a few tweaks, but I'm super happy with it!  Anyways, onto what's new:

Completed Projects

Granny Squares baby quilt

Granny got the final touches this past weekend, and we had a gorgeous day to snap some pictures outside.  You can read more about her here.

April Bee Blocks

I got down to business and (at the last possible moment) got these bee blocks finished and in the mail to their new homes.  More on these guys here.

In progress

Scallop Quilt

I am thisclose to finishing up the quilting on my scallop quilt .  I'm thinking one more quilting session will finish her up, and then to begin auditioning bindings!   

TouchDraw

Speaking of TouchDraw, I heard about this awesome iPad app from Lynne and am officially addicted.  I've been playing away designing quilt layouts like this one.  I'm thinking I may dig into my FMF stash that has been just staring at me from its little cubby on my fabric shelf saying "use me!" to make the quilt layout above.  Once I dig in, I'll be sure to share a tutorial for this block if anyone wants :-)

That about sums up this week, what have you been working on??  Head over to Freshly Pieced and add your WIP!

bee block round up

Nothing like waiting till the last minute here, but this past weekend I got down to business and tackled a few bee blocks which have been sitting around begging for my attention all month.  

These fun bright hexing around blocks are for Andy in the Imagine circle of do. Good Stitches.  She had us each pick a color, and then make two blocks in that color, so she will end up with a super pretty color variated quilt in all colors of the rainbow.  Obviously my color was yellow and while these blocks totally remind me of looking up at the sun, you can't help but smile at that bright sunny color.  

As if I hadn't made enough granny square blocks as of late, for Angie's month in the Stash Bee, she requested two tone scrappy granny square blocks constructed using Jolene's granny square block tutorial.  I very likely am now able to make these blocks in my sleep by now, but I just can't get enough of them.  The scrappy versions were quite fun to pick through my scrap bins to create, hope you like them Angie!

Lastly, I just received my last block from Quarter 1 of the 4x5 bee.  This is my third round of this bee, and I'll just say that the ladies of Hive 10 certainly did not disappoint this round!

These six blocks joined the others for a total of 20 blocks I've accumulated through the past three rounds I've played along with this bee.  I'm going to stick with the same colors for one more round, before whipping these blocks into a quilt top.

granny.

I think I'm in love.  Granny and I spent some quality time together this weekend quilting away, and I am so so pleased with how she has come together.

This quilt is based on Jolene's granny squares block tutorial, and of course I had to doctor it just a little, deciding to omit the sashing between the blocks and instead strip piece the quilt with just one white square to separate the blocks.



I was really unsure of how I wanted to quilt this, and kept on coming back to my original idea of clean and simple straight lines on each side of the seams.  I thought about some sort of intricate curvy free motion quilting, but the more I looked at it, the more I thought that there was so much going on with all the bright colorful fabrics, that simple quilting was the way to go and let the fabrics speak for themselves.  I'm really happy with my decision, and it has come together just as I had envisioned in my head.



When I started this quilt, I had all intentions of giving it as a gift for one of the many friends and family of ours who are expecting a baby in the near future, but I'm not sure I can give this one away.  I just love the sort of retro vibe the Granny squares block has, and paired with the bright vibrant modern fabrics just seems to be a perfect match.  Not that I think I am some master quilter or anything, but I'm not sure anyone I would give this to would appreciate it as much as I do.  I hope that doesn't sound terrible, most of the quilts I make are for gifts, and I understand that anything handmade is all a matter of taste, but for some reason, this is just screaming at me to keep it.  We don't have any children yet, but are hoping to start a family soon, so I think I'll tuck this quilt away for our hopefully one day baby.



I backed this with this super cute grey and white houndstooth print I picked up at Joann's a little while back, and I just love it.  That coupled with the aqua Timeless Treasures crosshatch sketch (another fav) for the binding, and the quilt rounds out to a solid 78 different stash fabrics used in this quilt.  I find it a little frightening that I hardly found it challenging to come up with this many different prints all from stash... addicted to fabric much?  I think so.

Granny and I will be linking up to Kati's Slash the Stash April linky party, be sure you head over to From the Blue Chair and add your April stash project!

Quilt Stats

Quilt Name:  Granny Squares baby quilt

Pattern:  Based on the Granny Square block tutorial by Jolene of Blue Elephant Stitches

Quilt Size:  45" square

Fabrics used:  78 different fabrics from my personal fabric stash, with Kona White solid

Binding:  Timeless Treasures Crosshatch Sketch in Aqua

Quilting:  Straight line quilting 1/4" on both sides of each seam done by me on my home machine

WIP Wednesday {4.25.2012}

Happy Wednesday!  Its been quite a week, completely aside from sewing, Mother Nature is playing cruel tricks on us in these parts, we went from 80 degree weather on Friday, to snow on Monday (real snow...like the local kids didn't have school snow) to mid 60 degree weather today.  Whaaaat??  Anyways, I've been sewing away, my aunt and I had a little sewing date last week to show her how to FMQ her quilt, and aside from that I've been scalloping away!  Here's whats new:

In Progress

DP Scallop Quilt

I sewed my little hearts out to get this top put together this weekend, and I couldn't be happier with how this turned out.  I'll be putting together a little tutorial when I finish up this quilt, be on the lookout if your interested.  More about Mr. Scallop here.

The other day I took advantage of my clean floors, had a little basting party, and then got to quilting.  I decided to branch out of my normal quilting pattern and try something new.  Ever since seeing Elizabeth's baptist fan quilting, I have been wanting to try it out.  I thought this quilt might be a good opportunity, but didn't want something quite so ordered and structured since the quilt its self is pretty ordered and structured.  I played around a little and settled on this design that I'm calling "Liberated baptist fans" sort of the same idea, but my arches go every which way.  It's taking forever to quilt it this way, and my arms and shoulders feel like they got a good workout after each quilting session, but I think it will be well worth it in the end.   

Granny Squares Baby Quilt

During my little basting party, I pulled out my granny squares quilt top, and let it join in the fun as well.  Granny will get some TLC soon, and be off to its new home hopefully in the next few days. 

Bee Blocks

No pics here, but I have bee blocks out to wazoo that are crying for attention this weekend.  Seeing as how Monday is the last day in April, nothing like waiting to the last minute :-)

What have you been working on?  Head over to Freshly Pieced and link up!

Scallop quilt top

According to the weather man, I've finished this quilt top just in time for the giant nor-easter storm to roll on through Pittsburgh.  Whaaat?  Seriously folks, it was 80 degrees here on Friday, and its predicted for 6 inches of snow tomorrow?  Craziness.

This makes me all the more happy to have this bright cheery "I-scream-summer" quilt top to work on, and think of much warmer temperatures.  Bertha and I spent some quality time this weekend, and the majority of that was spent piecing this guy together.  

Mr. Scallops came together quite quickly with the help of my Accuquilt and Drunkards Path die, and good ole pal rotary cutter to trim the blocks for assembly.  My preplanned color chart was super helpful in remembering where each color was supposed to go.  

This quilt top just screams to be placed under a bright vibrant beach umbrella on warm soft sand, so you can bet that's what I'll be thinking about while quilting this guy.  

I took advantage of Joann's big sale this weekend and stocked up on quilt batting, so I'll be a basting machine over the next few days with a few tops that have just been waiting for batting to be purchased.  Also, I did a fairly large house clean yesterday, and feel its necessary to take advantage of those nice clean floors for some basting action.



What about you?  What were you sewing this weekend??

WIP Wednesday {4.18.2012}

While I was waiting for the rest of my Kona Aqua to arrive to start on my Owly baby quilt, I decided to dive right into a project I've had on my mind for some time now using my Drunkards Path Accuquilt GO! die.  Ever since appliqueing this pillow, I thought "hey I could piece this using the drunkards path die."  Its nice to finally see this idea coming together in fabric. 

Most of Saturday was spent pulling fabrics, and turning that crank to cut the pieces, while Sunday was spent designing the arrangement and finally beginning to stitch some blocks together.  I am so happy that I had no intentions of giving this one away when I started it, because I'm loving where its headed.  I really forced myself to step out of my comfort zone color-wise, and I think I must do so more often!  

Now that my Kona Aqua has finally arrived perhaps I'll give that owly baby quilt some love this week, but for now, it continues to sit in a pile, cut and patiently waiting to be pieced.

Before wrapping up this weeks post, I have to give a shout out to my Aunt Linda who just sent me a picture of her first completed quilt top!  We took our first Joann's sewing/quilting lessons together a year or two ago, and this is her first completed top all on her own.  I just love it to pieces, all those bright fun colors, and on point to boot?  Just perfect.  She says that the points don't line up, but from my view, its lookin' pretty awesome! 

What have you been working on this week??   Head over to Freshly Pieced and add your WIP!

weekend stitching

Call me a nerd, but one of my favorite parts in the quilting process is sitting down with my graph paper and colored pencils, drawing out my design and figuring all the quilty math necessary to make the quilt come alive in fabric.

Starting with this....

Pulled out all this....

And started stitching this...

This color palate is so not in my wheel house, but  I wanted to branch away from the typical blues and greens I tend to be drawn to, and head toward yummy summery colors.  I am now considering myself 100% converted to pinless curved piecing using Leann's tutorial, and it makes sewing these scallops a piece o' cake.  These blocks are another great use of my Drunkards Path die for my Accuquilt GO!, which makes cutting the curved pieces super quick and simple.  

What about you, what were you stitching this weekend?