Category Archives: Finished Projects

Sunday Stash - Homecoming

Finished Projects, Sunday Stash,

Lots of stuff going on this week! I finished a smaller charity quilt using panels from The Lorax children’s book, and two storage bags for recent finishes.  On top of that, I also finished the Quilt of Valor.  I forgot to take pictures of it before taking it to guild for donation, so here’s me showing it at the meeting this morning. Pattern was inspired by Cozy Quilt “Long May She Wave“, which I bought but ultimately didn’t use because I don’t like the tube strip method for HSTs, so I changed the size of the HSTs and made them a different way AND changed the star in the corner, all like an irritating recipe reviewer who never follows the directions and then criticizes the food.

Long May She Wave- Quilt of Valor

In other exciting news, my Round Robin quilt top came home! I’m about halfway done quilting it because I was so excited I went right ahead and started on it.  I added the bird in the center because Sally so nicely sent extra applique birds from her round, and it really brought the design together. Untitled

  • Used this Week: 12.75 yards
    • 3.5 yd for Lorax baby quilt
    • 2 yd for storage bags
    • 1.25 in FQs for Quilt-o entry
    • 6 yd for Quilt of Valor
  • Used year to Date: 203.25 yards
  • Added this Week: 5.75 yards
    • 2 yd of Kona Ash
    • 3 yd of Kona jellyroll
    • 0.75 yd of 3 FQs from friend’s destash
  • Net Used for 2015: 106 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 117.25 yards (58% of total used)

See more Stash Reports at Patchwork Times!

“There’s Always One” Quilt - Finished!

Finished Projects

I’m so happy to present “There’s Always One”, a queen-sized donation quilt for Good Mews.

There's Always One

It was too big to hang on the clothesline like I normally do, so I had to wait to photograph it in the yard. I always wonder what the neighbors think when they see me crawling around laying a quilt out in the yard.

The cat head blocks are 12″ finished, and offset ever so slightly to make kitties jaunty. That was my vision, but it’s entirely possible they just look like I sewed them while drunk and unable to make a straight line.

There's Always OneThere's Always OneThe mice blocks got quilted tails with a darker thread that matches the border, and the paw prints on the border got a swirl in the middle.

It’s getting appraised now, and I have to make a storage bag for it, then it’s off to the Caturday Night Fever auction for October!

Hugs and Kisses Quilt - Finished!

Finished Projects

I’ve got a family member expecting a little girl this year, and I recently bought a new ruler (which, I know - unlike me!), AND I’d had this dessert roll of Kate Spain fabric I’d been wanting to do something with for a while, so it all came together in this quilt I’m calling “Hugs and Kisses”:

Hugs and Kisses Baby QuiltThe ruler is the Quick Curve Ruler, and this pattern is the Metro Twist.  I paired the dessert roll with 3-4 other prints (per Jaye’s advice to liven up the collection) and some Kona Snow for the background.  The ruler itself is pretty easy to use, although all the patterns I’ve seen with it involve a lot of piecing and then trimming to size.  Trimming is not my favorite, but it’s one way to make sure you’re ending up with consistent and accurate pieces.

Hugs and Kisses Baby QuiltFor the quilting, I used my walking foot to stitch within the fabric along the curves, and then one center line.  To fill in the background I FMQed a serpentine stitch to give it some nice texture.

Since the pattern called for  3 1/4″ strips out of the 5″ ones I had from the dessert roll, the leftovers went to the Baby Rails quilt, and I had a couple extra units left over that I turned into a matching zipper pouch.

HtbaS - Episode 239

This week I tackle some of my first garment since sewing my wedding dress 15 years ago.  I made the Sutton Blouse from True Bias, and talk about the construction process. Here’s my submission for America’s Next Top Garment Sewist Who Photographs Skeptical Bathroom Selfies (it’s an elite group).

Books discussed:

Play

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WIP Wednesday: Molehills

Finished Projects, WIP Wednesdays

I am attempting to finish a number of small projects this week to build up to a mountain of progress.  However, there are only so many fat quarters that can be crammed into a journal cover and some zipper pouches.

Not Penny's QuiltIn the mean time, I finished my commission quilt, which is about the side of a table topper or small baby quilt. It, along with the Polkadotamus quilt, are on the way to their near-final destination.

I’m working on another baby quilt, potentially for donation, but we’ll see, and a couple other things that need cutting before I can dive into piecing.  I’m still working on the balance between day job, hobby, the start of school and my husband’s birthday, and ….

Yeah. A bit busy.

See more WIPs at Lee’s blog!

Sunday Stash - Totes Baggy

Finished Projects, Sunday Stash,

This week I managed to finish up a miniquilt and 18 luggage tags for work presents (don’t ask - half of them I had to throw away because of problems with the ink smearing on the printable fabric I used once I got close to the end).

I also made myself a new purse, which I am delighted with.  I use the “Candice Bag” pattern from Lazy Girl Designs.  Rather than just use a plain piece of fabric for the pocket exterior, I spent a little more time and paper pieced a ring of flying geese using this free pattern, scaled down to a 10″ block.

Candice Bag from Lazy Girl Designs.I used the last of the gray fabric from my Lone(ly) Rainbow quilt for the exterior; quite literally, I have a 2″ x 18″ strip of it left. Whew. Candice Bag from Lazy Girl Designs.

There are plenty of interior pockets, too - one is a “fat” pocket to stash my Kindle, and maybe one day an iPad (I have to save my pennies!).  I also added an interior zip pocket for makeup and other “lady things” that I don’t want to be out in plain view if I leave it unzipped. So, a fairly productive week.  Next up I’m tackling a smaller quilt on commission, but I don’t think I’ll finish it before bedtime tonight.

  • Used this Week: 3.5 yards
    • 3.5 yd for various work presents
    • 2.5 for Candice Bag
  • Used year to Date: 148.75 yards
  • Added this Week: 1 yard
    • 1 yd various FQs for a birthday gift
  • Net Used for 2015: 70 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 73 yards (49% of total used)

See more Stash Reports at Patchwork Times!

The Kitchen Sink Quilt - Finished!

Finished Projects

When I was thinking of this quilt during the block-of-the-month process, I was trying to think of a way to finish it that would be a little different from the standard 3 x 4 layout and refer in some way to the retro-style for the fabric used.

My first attempt was going to incorporate 6 applique blocks reminiscent of the “day of the week” kitten embroidery patterns. I got two blocks into the patterns and just wasn’t happy with the outcome. Perhaps sticking with embroidery would have been better, but with such a busy tiny dot background, the thread would not have show up well. And swapping out the background fabric for a traditional lighter color would have been too jarring, I think.

So, in the end, I did what I’ve been wanting to do with the Saturday Sampler blocks: put them around a center medallion.

The Kitchen Sink QuiltIn the blocks, one particular fabric was offered up twice and both times I substituted in something different because I just didn’t like it.  It was lighter background with orange flowers, and given the color-richness of the other fabrics, it didn’t quite look right to my eye within the 12 sampler blocks. That meant I had enough of it to use for the center star in the medallion.

The Kitchen Sink QuiltI did a star within a star for the center, surround by squares within squares. And then just regular squares. The entire center medallion was made from one charm pack and scraps leftover from the block construction, plus the navy dot yardage for the background.

The Kitchen Sink QuiltI called this quilt Kitchen Sink because of the mix of quilting textures in the blocks: orange peel and cheese grater (or whatever that not-quite-matchstick quilting is called!).

The orange peel quilting comes together in the blocks with large center squares to make a flower of sorts.

For the back of the quilt, I had picked up two yards of a reddish-orange reproduction print with tiny white  dots and small kittens. Because while I couldn’t use my kitten applique, I did need kittens in there somewhere.  The trimmings from the backing after I quilted it were enough to make most of the binding, interspersed with some of the blue from the background.

The Kitchen Sink Quilt

Polkadotamus Quilt - Finished!

Finished Projects,

The Polkadotamus quilt is a commission quilt for a friend of mine; she doesn’t have kids of her own, but has a plethora of nieces and nephews who have babies, and we both enjoy the thrill of giving something handmade. So it works out that she gives me high level requirements (colors or themes), and I get to whip up something fun that’s going to a good home.

Anywho, the guidance this time was pastels and animals, so I pulled out my copy of Scraps Inc and some 3-1/2″ scrap squares in the right colors and went to town.

PolkadotamusWith those blocks of big open negative space I had room to fit in some applique animals:

PolkadotamusI had a lot of fun with the polka dotted hippo, hence the quilt name, so I repeated him in the corners as a quilting motif:

PolkadotamusYou can also see a bit of the fern quilting  from the setting triangles in that shot. I think they might have been more balanced with the rest of the quilting in a slightly larger scale (and gone quicker to quilt!), but oh well. They are cute at least.

This same friend commissioned me to make another (even smaller) quilt, so once I get that one done I’ll mail both off to her.

Sunday Stash - Eeking By

Finished Projects, Sunday Stash

By some miracle, I managed to finish the Bonnie and Camille quilt, now known as “The Kitchen Sink”, between quilt show duties.  The show went great, with lots of good feedback from the attendees and delighted people in general. Super fun.

Orange & Teal Baby QuiltI’ll post pictures of The Kitchen Sink later this week, but in the mean time, here are pictures of the Orange & Teal charity baby quilt I finished last week.

It went together quick since the blocks are simple mixes of 9 patches and 4 patches, and I guess 1 patches? Just big old blocks of fabrics!

I did straight line quilting with a thicker orange thread.

Here’s a closer picture of the center - the chunk of fabric in the upper left was the color inspiration for the teal and orange with pops of yellow.

Orange & Teal Baby Quilt

Orange & Teal Baby QuiltAnd here’s the back, which is pieced, of course!

  • Used this Week: 5.75 yards
    • 5.75 yd for The Kitchen Sink quilt
  • Used year to Date: 140.5 yards
  • Added this Week: 0 yards
    • Woohoo!
  • Net Used for 2015: 69.25 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 69 yards (49% of total used)

See more Stash Reports at Patchwork Times!

Americana Quilt - Finished!

Finished Projects

I put the final stitches on my project from Charlotte Angotti’s “Surprise Yourself” class a bit ago, and decided to be Fancy and use wool batting in it. Since I made it for my mom for “decorating” purposes, I thought the wool would be a good choice since it does not have as much of a memory for folds as a cotton batting would.

Americana Quilt

The premise of Charlotte’s class is that you make a bunch of units without really planning and then figure out how to pull them together. You can imagine how this process goes over with a planner like me. Let’s see, here’s a list of things I dislike in quilting:

  • Leftover bits
  • Feeling like I’ve wasted fabric by having leftover bits.

So my design evolved to make use of pretty much every four patch, HST, and tri-rec unit we made.

Americana Quilt

FYI, wool batting is very foofy. The cats had a great time playing with the bits sticking out from under the top after it was sandwiched.

The other good thing about a foofy batting (technical term is having “loft”), is that it shows off quilting really well. So, you know, no pressure! I did a mix of feathers, orange peel, and some meadering in the background area.

Americana Quilt

All of that quilting is easy to see on the back, which has my one leftover block and some pieces from the fabric my mom picked out for the quilt.

Americana Quilt