WIP Wednesday {3.16.2011}



It's been a very productive sewing week, with a good bit to show on a few projects!

Completed Projects

DQS 10



I finished up my Hope Valley Circles doll quilt for DQS 10!  I posted about it here.  We had a pretty quiet weekend around here, so I had the majority of both Saturday AND Sunday to do as I pleased (which means play in my sewing room!)  I really enjoyed working on this project, and picked up a few new skills along the way. 

Ongoing Projects

Scrap Bin Quilt

I finished up the color scrappy blocks for my scrappy quilt!  I was a little unsure of my choice of colors, but now seeing all the blocks together, I'm really liking it!  I'm not sure how I want to proceed from here...for some reason I'm just not all that fond of square quilts (aside from baby quilts that is), so I was thinking of making 4 more blocks and doing them in shades of greys/black prints to kind of neutralize the brightness.  Although as I'm looking at it, maybe I should just embrace the brightness and make 4 more blocks, but in colors I've already used?  What say you oh wise bloggy friends??

New Projects

Central Park Squared baby quilt



This is my boy version using mostly Central Park in the green/blue/orange color ways and the animal prints, with a few Hope Valley prints thrown in there as well.

This is the first time I've ever set charm squares on point, and I can't believe what a different look it gives the quilt!  I really like how these colors work together, so pretty and calming, yet "boyish" too. 

Quilt tops awaiting quilting

Central Park baby quilt #1

On Hold

p.s. i quilt postage stamp quilt along quilt
Amy Butler sew along

This Weeks Stats

New Projects: 1
Completed Projects: 1
Ongoing Projects: 5 (I'm including March Bee blocks here too!)

Be sure to head on over to Freshly Pieced to check out all the WIPs!



DQS 10 - Hope Valley Circles

It's finished!  I finished hand sewing the binding down this afternoon while catching up on my DVR, and I must say, that while I usually find hand sewing binding to be my least favorite part of the quilting process (hence why I usually machine sew my quilt bindings) I actually enjoyed spending this last little bit of time working on this quilt.

As for the binding, I used verykerryberry's single fold binding tutorial and I am really pleased with how it turned out.  I had used this tutoral for my Mug Rug in the Mug Rug Swap, and yet again this tutorial did not dissapoint.  I really like how the binding is nice and tight and not bulky at all.  This will certainly be my go to binding technique for smaller projects from here on out.

Here are a few close up pictures of the hand quilting.  I was a little unsure of how I'd like hand quilting in general but I must say, that I really enjoyed the actual quilting and love the extra layer of design that it adds to the quilt itself.  I would love to one day hand quilt a larger quilt...maybe one day.

As for the backing, I cut 5 1/2 inch charm squares using Hope Valley and put together a simple patchwork pieced back.

As for the label, I had some of that photo fabric iron on paper, so I printed out a little label with the DQS 10 logo and mine and my partners info and voila! 

I really enjoyed creating this quilt, and am so glad that I decided on this design as opposed to the others that I had floating around as possibilities, as it challenged me to try new things, and I really think that my partner will be uber pleased with it. 

Now off to decide on what goodies to include with it!



Stylish Blogger Award

Imagine my surprise this morning when I check my email and found an email from Kristen letting me know she had selected my blog as one of her choices to pass along the Stylish Blog Award!

Now I by no means consider myself particularly "stylish" but I am honored and flattered!  I've just spent oh the last hour or so checking out Kristen's blog, K*D Quilts, and she is amazing!  Her most recent wall hanging quilt has me wanting to add a project like this to my to do list.  Be sure to head over and check out what Kristen is up to.

Now onto the details of this cool blog award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.

2. Share seven things about yourself.

3. Award 6 recently discovered great bloggers.

4. Contact the bloggers and tell them about the award.

Hmmm...7 things about myself?? Lets see... 

1.  I love to read, and particularly books about nothing!  I love reading "beach reads" all year round :)  Aside from sewing and quilting, reading is a nice escape, my Nook is currently inundated right now by the J.D. Robb books, ah nothing like trashy romance and a little murder mystery all tied into one!

2.  I am mildly over obsessed about having my nails manicured weekly.  Usually I do them myself (and have gotten quite good if I don't say so myself!) but love to treat myself to a professional manicure every now and again.  I have an exclusive relationship with OPI polish, and, not gonna lie, its mostly because I LOVE the names of thier colors!  I believe right now my color is "Monsooner or Later".

3.  I'm a reality TV junkie.  Particularly shows on E! or Bravo.  Real Housewives of ____________, love it!  I certainly keep up with the Kardashians.   I will add into this category anything seen on HGTV as well, and try to pass myself off as an interior decorator/real estate expert/home staging expert to my husband as a result.  He just loves it. 

4.  I love ketchup but hate tomatoes, but love bananas and hate banana flavored things.

5.  I'm a south paw.  Not exactly sure where the left-handedness came from, as I'm the only one in my family who's a leftie!

6.  I've kissed the Blarney Stone.  My husband and I went Italy and Ireland for our honeymoon, and amidst the highlights of our trip, we visited Cork, Ireland and were granted the "gift of gab" by kissing the Blarney Stone. 

7.  I love grocery shopping.  While some find this weekly chore tedious and avoid it all all costs, I love it.  I could peruse those aisles for hours.  Of course this may just be an outlet of my love for shopping in general, but regardless, I love it.

Whew!  That was really hard to come up with that list!  I'd like to pass this award along to a few super fun blogs I've come across, that I thoroughly enjoy reading and immediately head to when I see they have something new posted!  I'm going to try and only mention blogs who I haven't seen have received this award...  Here goes:

1.  Elizabeth of Dont Call me Betsy.  She always has such fun projects going on, including her current Margaret's Hope Chest quilt which will be donated to a girl who's father is in prison.  Her Drunk Love blocks are looking so so pretty, and I'm sure Kayla will just love this quilt!

2. Mary of Piece Garden.  Now this is one sylish chica!  She made these fabulous run around jackets which she has featured on her blog right now.  So super cute, I admire her skill at garment making! 

3.  Megan of Canoe Ridge Creations.  Megan is the host of Sew Modern Monday, a fun linky party every Monday where fellow bloggers link up wit their modern creations!  She is always working on something fun and pretty, including these fabulous chic Kleenex cases, which I plan on making very very soon!

4.  Sara of SewSweetness.  Again, this is one super stylish sewer!  I am in awe of her skills to whip up the most amazing dresses and bags.  Yes, dresses, that can actually be worn!  I only hope to be able to one day complete the things she is able to create!

5.  Cindy of RoseRoom Quilts.  I've actually had the pleasure of meeting Cindy through our local Modern Quilt Guild, as she is the president, aside from being super nice, and she is one awesome quilter! 

6.  Lee of Freshly Pieced.  Lee is the host of WIP Wednesday, a weekly linky party to show off what WIPs you are working on!  I don't think I've seen one thing Lee has made that I wasn't drooling over!  One amoung many is her awesome Single Girl Quilt.  

Sorry if this is a duplicate for anyone, but I'd like to thank Kristen again for passing it along to me! 

WIP Wednesday {3.9.2011}

Wednesday already??  Here's whats been going on in my sewing room...

Completed Projects

Central Park Quilt Top

This stack of fabric quickly turned into this baby quilt over the weekend.  Super simple piecing of a bunch of 4 1/2 inch squares using Central Park.  I just love how this shows off all the beautiful fabrics.  This will eventually be going to a baby girl...as soon as I find someone having a girl!  Haha.  The person I had in mind, well, turns out shes having a boy!  This just means I get to hang on to this a little longer :)

Ongoing Projects

Scrap Bin Quilt

I dug into my red and pink/purple scrap bin and put together a few scrappy blocks.  Unfortunately I ran out of white fabric, so these are on hold until I can restock my Kona stash!  I am really excited about finishing up these blocks and seeing them all together, this quilt will definitely be a keeper!

DQS 10

My pearl cotton size 8 thread FINALLY came in the mail, so the majority of my evenings this week have been spent on the couch, thimbles in hand, endlessly hand quilting my doll quilt.  I grossly underestimated how long it would take to do the hand quilting, but I am really enjoying the process.  It's almost complete, hope my partner likes!

Quilt Tops Awaiting Quilting

Central Park baby quilt

On Hold

p.s. i quilt postage stamp quilt along quilt

Amy Butler sew along

This Weeks Stats

New Projects: 0

Completed Projects: 1
Ongoing Projects: 5

Be sure to head on over to Freshly Pieced to check out all the WIPs!





Central Park Quilt Top

I feel like it's been forever since I've actually completed something!  Albeit that this is only the top of a quilt, but I'm considering it a completion.  I was able to get my Central Park baby quilt pieced together this weekend, and while its a very very simple layout, I really like how it shows off the fabrics against the crisp white blocks.

Now of course, the baby I had in mind when making this, we found out this weekend is a boy and not a girl!  Oh well, we still have one other couple we know who is pregant who hasn't found out yet what the baby will be.  Maybe a girl??

My first thought was that the fabrics from the Central Park line would only really work for a girl quilt,  but when I really started looking, I think I can make it work for a boy too...I have a new pile of fabrics which will hopefully be cut into soon for a boy quilt using alot of the blue, green and orange colorways as well as mixing in the animal prints.  I pulled a few other blue prints from my stash to give the pile an extra punch of "boy", and really like where this second baby quilt is headed. 

Back to the quilt at hand, the top measures 40 inches square, and am putting aside to quilt in the near future. 

I will be linking this post to Sew Modern Monday hosted by Megan over at Canoe Ridge Creations.  Be sure to stop over and check out all the great projects!

I'm being featured on Gen X Quilters today!

I'm being featured today over at Gen X Quilters!  Be sure to head on over and check out the Follower Friday series!

WIP Wednesday {3.2.2011}

Time for another WIP Wednesday! 

New Projects

Central Park Baby Quilt

I have finally cut into my Central Park fat quarter bundle.  These fabrics have just been screaming to be made into a baby quilt...we have two couple friends who are expecting, neither of them know what they are having, so I'm taking a chance that one of the two of them will have a girl! 

I started with this stack...

And then had these yummy scraps and squares...

Which turned into this pretty pretty layout on my design wall!  I need to cut the white squares and then get busy sewing this little quilt top together.

Ongoing Projects

Scrap Bin Quilt (I really must think of a new name...)

I posted about this in my weekend sewing post, but I have been wanting to really dig into my scrap bins and make a quilt solely out of fabric scraps from other projects. 

This is what I have so far, using up a good bit of my green and blue fabric scraps.  As a side bonus in cutting into my Central Park fabric, I even have a few scraps of oranges and pinks that I was lacking to add to those blocks! 

DQS 10

Unfortunately I don't have any further progress to share on my Hope Valley Quilt for DQS 10...BUT a little birdie told me (ok, not a little birdie but the UPS tracking system) that my pearl cotton thread I ordered to do the hand quilting should be awaiting me at my doorstep when I get home!  If this is true, this project will jump to the number one spot, as I'm uber anxious to get quilting and see the finished result!

Projects In Waiting

p.s. i quilt postage stamp quilt along quilt

Amy Butler sew along

This Weeks Stats:

New Projects: 1

Completed Projects: 0

Ongoing Projects:  5 (up one from last week)

Be sure to pop over to Freshly Pieced and see all the wonderful WIPs!