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NewSwoon - Finished!

I don’t really have a better name for this quilt, but I guess I’ll have to think of something when I label it! For now, it’s the NewSwoon! Reminds me of Newsroom, which has absolutely no bearing on the background or purpose for this quilt.

I picked fabrics that mixed batiks and prints within each block in a mix of blues, teals, grays, and browns.

 
Here’s a shot of the quilt in its entirety:

I used 2″ strips (1 1/2″ finished) for sashing with some cornerstones in the same tones from my leader and ender stash.  I think the smaller cornerstones really pop, although typically I prefer to use sashing and cornerstones in the same size increments as used in blocks. These particular cornerstones are half the finished size of the block components are 3″ finished for the HSTs and flying geese, so the math is simpatico if not exact.

Now to wrap it up and keep the cats off of it until it get to it’s final home!

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WIP Wednesday - The Brown Bag Edition

Rather than show what I’m sewing right now (HINT: not a durn thing, thanks to a lot of activity at work!), I thought I’d show a thing I recently finished that got swapped at my guild meeting on Sunday.

Our guild did a Brown Bag challenge where we swapped 5 fat quarters anonymously and could add up to two fabrics of our to make anything we’d like for the owners of the 5 FQs.  I received these five on the right to work with.

They are waaaaay more modern than what I usually work with, so after an initial panic, I turned them into these two 18″ blocks using a tutorial from Double Nickel Quilts (it’s a slightly smaller version of the Swoon block that relies on charm squares instead of FQs).  I added some Kona Snow to make the blocks, and then turned them a big old totebag with a interior zipper pocket with the addition of another linen-y teal fabric.

 
In making the blocks, you get some leftover HSTs, so I turned those into a coordinating zipper pouch.

I, being a big old enthusiastic nerd, got mine done a couple weeks after we received the fabric, which was several months ahead of the due date of the May 4th meeting. I’ve had to sit on it (and keep the cats from sitting in it) for that long. I was mostly successful in that after I figured out I need to keep it in a cabinet (until Nina figured out how to open said cabinet).

And I got my thingy back from the Kit, who made me a ticker tape wallhanging! My favorite part is how all the little pieces fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, which really speaks to the part of my soul that loves puzzles and fitting things in the spot where they belong. Thank you, Kit!

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Scrappy Swoon Redux - Finished!

I finished this late Sunday, but it took me until tonight to get it washed/dried and decent pictures taken.

The scrappiness of this one is much more controlled than the last one.  The white-on-white prints, versus a mix of low-volume prints makes it a cleaner look.  I think I could have expanded the beiges into tans more and been okay, but wouldn’t want to go lighter and minimize the contrast with the background.  I’d also love this with a teal instead of beige, but didn’t have enough fabric in that color to make it work.

For the quilting, I used matching thread in each section, with meanders in the blue and white, and radiating parallel lines in the beige.

The back of the quilt is a white on white print, so the quilting stands out a bit in those blue and beige thread colors.

Now to show it off at guild and then pack it away until the wedding date is set for the lucky couple. I got a little ahead of myself in making it, but I’ve always been one to plan ahead!

EDITED: Forgot to add the link to the original tutorial so those who want to make one of their own. It measures 72×72″ finished.

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WIP Wednesday - With ALL the Feels

I spent most of yesterday feeling unsettled, on the verge of anxiousness, and the feeling is still sort of sticking with me. So of course when I got back from a meeting last night and I sat down to quilt more on Scrappy Swoon OF COURSE my bobbin ran out after 2 minutes and I took it as a personal affront. Clearly my machine, and this quilt, my thread, NAY, the WHOLE WORLD was out to get me.

So I wisely went to bed instead of try to do anymore stitching. I’m not feeling all that much better today but a quick check of ye old Lady Times tracker showed me what the heck is going on with my feels.

At least today the sun is shining, a pleasant change from the dreary rain of the last week here in Georgia.

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WERQ that Swoon - Finished!

In my podcast today I mentioned the Swoon quilt I had made for a friend this week.

Most of the fabric comes from the Sophie line from Moda, which is a couple years old.  I know she likes retro prints, so it was a perfect fit (plus I had made her other things from the line which she liked).

Rather than do the straight sashing, I added some cornerstones to help me keep the blocks lined up, and added some star points to the center one to make a little tiny Hunter’s star.

I used the waste triangles from the flying geese for top/bottom borders, as well as a row on the pieced back.  I’m happy with how it turned out, and hope it helps her feel a little better.  The name comes from RuPaul’s Drag Race, which is a common interest of ours (and is honestly the tamest of the phrases I could use!).

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Scrappy Swoon - Finished!

I am very pleased to present the finished Scrappy Swoon quilt!

Here’s a little close-up to show the quilting detail. On the background I did a regular ol’ meander.  To set off the yellow parts, I did an elongated squiggle (by FMQ- that tested the old nerves, I tell you).  The blue part I tackled first and took the longest. I did a paisley design, and it about drove me bonkers.  I’ve known that quilting designs that require one to cover back over itself irritate me, yet I keep going back to them anyway. Either I need to acknowledge that even monkeys learn and I’m acting sub-simian, or that perhaps I just need to get over myself and embrace the whole slow-quilting thing.

Hmm. Anyone have a banana?

Anywho, here’s a better view of the quilting from the back.

If you want to make your own Scrappy Swoon quilt, you can follow the directions from Hopeful Homemaker here!

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Sunday Stash: The One with the Scrappy Swoon

I just stuck the Scrappy Swoon quilt in the wash, so it’s a nice balance to the fabric acquisition from the Shop Hop this week. I also whipped up 3 pillowcases for ConKerr  Cancer, so all my usage this week is for charity.

  • Used this Week: 11.5 yards
    • 8.25 for Scrappy Swoon (pics in separate post!)
    • 3.25 for 3 pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer
  • Used year to Date: 92.75 yards
  • Added this Week: 5 yards
    • 4 yd of yellows and oranges for the Stash Balance Initiative
    • 1 yd of green for Miss Jingle
  • Net Used for 2013: 29.25 yards
  • YTD Used for Charity: 65.5 yards (71% of total used)

See more stash reports at Patchwork Times!

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Lavender Kiss: FINISHED!

And now I present “Lavender Kiss” (formerly known as Purple Swoon)!

Here it is dappled in sunlight:

Here’s a close-up on one of the blocks - it’s just an overall meander for the quilting:

I need to re-do the label for it because the Pigma pen bled on the label after washing (not on the quilt - just the label). Never had that happen before, but I suspect it’s because I sprayed the label fabric with Mary Ellen’s Best Press before writing on it and perhaps it wasn’t quite dry when I started writing on it?