The moment when..

you know that the super simple baby quilt you're making just isn't going to cut it..

I pieced these big HSTs and was just going to be done with it, but no.  Not for this baby.  She's too cute, I love her family too much (and her mom's a quilter).  So she got her name on the back too.

Of course, when you decide to piece the kid's name into a quilt, it's probably a good idea to check how the parents spell it first (I learned this the hard way)..

This quilt has been on my to-do list for over a year.. thankfully the baby is still small (though her birthday is coming up soon) and her mom is one of my most patient and laid back friends so she didn't make me feel bad for not getting it to them sooner.  If the weather is too warm for a quilt now, I really hope it can become her toddler picnic blanket this summer.

I enjoyed working on this quilt a lot.  The top is made from almost all of the colors of Timeless Treasures' Rain collection.  They are so pretty, I can't pick a favorite.  I stretched my FMQ creativity by stitching leaves over the diagonal seams and I came up with a loopy flower pattern that filled the space in between pretty well.  Taking a tip from Shannon, I stitched my miters closed on the front and back of the binding-- before now I had only been doing the back miters.   Do you do this too?  Just curious.

Linking up this week with Finish it up Friday at CrazyMomQuilts and TGIFF!  Be sure to pop over and see everyone else's finishes.

tiny patchwork needlebook

I did it.  I did some selfish, not-work sewing and made myself a little needlebook.

I used the pattern from nanaCompany and I'm really happy with it.  I am a scrap hoarder, this is not news to anyone, but a while back I started putting tiny scraps into a separate little tray next to my cutting table, and then when I moved the sewing room downstairs, I started a new tray for very little scraps.  I think my original goal was to sort out pieces small enough for this EPP project, but the collections came in really handy for this too. 

 

 I'm a little out of practice, and this improv scrap top didn't come together as easily as I thought it would.  I actually had several reject bits before these scraps just found each other and I stitched them up.  Instead of play trial and error for the back cover, I just went with a piece of this teal/turq floral from JoAnn's.  I hand quilted it with fans on the back,

and just followed the seam lines on the front.   It had been ages since I hand quilted anything with regular thread (instead of perle cotton).  It was nice to remember how much I like it, but I don't foresee myself doing much more of it in the near future.  All the quilting patterns I want to try are all FMQ, but who knows?  Another little side project like this could pop up at any time..

My favorite detail is the rubber stamping.. I used my little horse instead of putting the date (2014- year of the horse), and couldn't come up with anything cuter to say than my own name.  At least everyone will know who it belongs to.

On the inside I put one "sheet" of felt and a fabric-enclosed magnet to hold my loose paperclips. 

The magnet makes the case very heavy, and I'm pretty sure it would get me stopped at the TSA check at the airport, so I might not keep the case in my sewing kit while flying.  Actually, my TQ#5 sewing kit is bursting at the edges-- it's tough to keep it closed these days and I really don't know what to do.  Suddenly all of those other EPP sewing kits I've seen for hexie-based projects make a lot more sense to me.  We've got a trip coming up soon and as I prepare for it, I just don't know where I can fit all the stuff I need to bring (extra colors of thread, a new pack of 100 hexie templates).  I wanted to make this needlebook, but I'm not sure how to make it work for me yet.. 

Anyway, a finish is a finish, and it sure felt good to flex my patchwork and quilting muscles after all this constant EPPing.  I'm linking up with TGIFF! Be sure to pop over and see what everyone else has finished this week.

A bit of Thursday

We've got this quilt on the bed right now (baby spit up on the other one..):

And I find myself spending a lot of time thinking about it at 12, 3, and 5 in the morning as I pace back and forth around the room trying to get Jack to burp or fall back asleep.  It was a good quilt.  Some awesome memories in the t-shirts:

Where I studied in Kyoto, 1999-2000.

Heaven on earth (class of '01, Washburn~).

I have also been pondering the fabrics but I have a separate post brewing on that topic...

And so I decided to take one of George's old-but-loved tees

And play around a bit..

He is helping-- pulled out a big pile of fabrics for me to choose from.  Too sweet.
Have you been crafty yet today?

43.5"

That's just about the width of a piece of yardage.. it's also the same size as the circumference of my belly..

So at 38 weeks 2 days, I'm feeling big, occasionally uncomfortable (especially when I don't get enough sleep), but generally pretty good. I'm trying to make the most of each day that I've got left. We've been spending tons of quality time just the 3 of us, I've visitied with lots of friends, and I've been quilting, quilting a LOT.

I had some orphan blocks I'd been playing with a few years ago (after this awesome retreat), and thought it was about time to make something out of them.. I thought they might become pillows, but before I knew it, I had a small quilt.

It's a bizzare size-- 51" x 40"(?)  do I stop here or keep adding? I pulled out Gwen & Freddy's book for inspiration and really, the possibilities are endless. We'll see what happens in the time I have..

ETA: I just measured the width.. it's 43.5" 
it's a sign, I guess I'm done.

question

While browsing pinterest today, I found a link to a tutorial for an improv block.  Maybe you've seen it, it is done with the stack & whack method and reshuffling the fabrics.. the quilter made a really cute quilt from it, but my question is..

If there is a pattern, is it still an improv block?

(I am absolutely not intending to cause drama or criticism, just throwing an honest question out there to quilt-blog-land.. I know "improv" is "modern" but has the word taken on a new meaning while I was off line and busy sewing quilts?)

Happiness

warm cuddly quilts on the couch = happiness.
a quilt done in the first week of the new year = happiness.

I love having this quilt on the couch.  The seed of inspiration came a looong time ago on a photo on Luckybeans' blog (which I can't find now) of a basket weave quilt with red center strips.  Thanks Katurah.  Never knew I'd actually make it, but now that I did, I'm glad I remembered where the idea came from.

Inspiration for the flowers came from a bunch of places, this one from the Material Obsession book, and this one by Nifty mainly.  Renewed love of applique thanks to Shelly, as I mentioned before.

the quilting, oh the quilting.. at first I thought I'd try clam shells..but a test piece didn't work out so well, so I opted to play around with flowers and swirls.  It was fun.  Some worked out the way I wanted, but I need more practice with meanders because I didn't always know how to get out of the area I had just quilted.. move up?  move right?  the pattern lended itself to going in a L--> R direction, but then I had issues rolling the whole quilt back up and shoving it under the machine again.  Thank goodness it was a small quilt.

I backed it in a soft vintage (1980s?) purple that I got out of the Atlanta guild's ugly box in 2003.  I had 4 yards of it, taking up space in the stash for years.. It just worked so perfectly with this quilt, I'm happy it found a home.   What is it with me and purple these days?  I think I just have so much of it and I was tired of feeling like I couldn't use it because I live with two guys.  Yeah, whatever.  A quilt is a quilt.  If I buy floral fabric or girly colors, I need to use it!  Enough of my self-imposed rules-- I commit to make what I feel like making~

On my label I used both nengajo stamps-- the bunny from 2011 and the sea horse from 2012.  God it feels good to have a finish in 2012 already...

Friday?! Already?

Just as I caught myself thinking that December was moving along nice and slow.. here we are in the middle, and another TGIFF! party is upon us.  I finished the binding on this baby last night as I momentarily set aside a pile of grading to catch up on some netflix TV (re-watching season 2 of Glee, loving every minute!), and figured I might as well finish this one off and get it in the mail before Christmas.

I started this quilt sometime in the spring? summer?  as a simple piecing-- mindless sewing project to zip through the machine when I only had a short bit of time to sew.  The blocks grew, and grew.  It was fun to play with chunky scraps and I really let the size of the scrap determine the shape of the log cabin.. I didn't trim the logs down to any certain size before assembling the blocks. 

Actually, in the beginning I chain pieced a bunch of centers onto random sized strips and then cut them apart, pressing, trimming, and repeating for the next log.  I had no plan for the blocks and no idea how large I wanted to make them.  I though I'd just keep going til they looked big enough, then measure to find  the size most of them ended up being, and go from there.  In the end I trimmed them down to 11" square.  Some blocks have 3 rings of logs on all sides, some have only 2 rings on the white sides.  Whatever.  I was really not worried about anything with this quilt, and let it grow into its own.

I threw them up on the design wall last month and this layout just sort of happened.  No thought, just play.  I finished the last 6 blocks and pieced it right after Thanksgiving.  I was hoping to present it as a housewarming present when we travel to Chicago in January, but oops, I finished it early so it can be a Christmas present instead. 

I hope it keeps its new family warm..

improv-- a 6 minute circle story.

I'm working on my submission for the NYC Metro Mod Guild show (read more about the traveling show here, you may be able to see our quilts in a town near you!), and I hit a snag when I realized that I couldn't get as many words on it as I had originally planned..
Wait, let me explain-- the theme of the show is "What does Modern Quilting mean to you?" and along with the quilt, we all must submit artist statements detailing our personal beliefs on Modern Quilting and how that ties into our show quilts.  I, of course, wanted to write all over mine, in pieced letters.  Like, all over it, but I realized that my design space is much much smaller than what I wanted to say.
My quilt is split into two parts, with writing on both but using different background fabrics.
The bottom letters are 3" tall, and the quilt must be 15" x 20" to be included in the show.. I knew I could make smaller letters, but didn't want to try to piece itsy bitsy fabrics to make my "b" "g" and "a" look curved.  So, I got creative and tried something new.
Ages ago I saw the 6 minute circles technique on a blog somewhere (I think it was this one), but just filed it in the back of my mind, not needing it until last week..
I drew up some tiny circles, followed the directions, and gave it a try.

On my first attempt, I removed the freezer paper before stitching as the directions suggest, but my "circle" wasn't really round. 

For all subsequent attempts, I left the freezer paper on as a sewing guide and my results improved.

Yay!  I had little circles, which I then pieced into letters measuring just under 2" tall.

Now for a bit more applique and hand work, and my tiny quilt top will be ready for basting.

Couldn't help adding in some EPP..

What I learned:
This is a great method, and I think it will experiment more with this type of freezer paper piecing for letters.  Of course, with the success of my first 4 circles, I got a little over zealous, and ambitiously tried to use the technique to piece other shapes..

The hearts worked great! until I got to the accute point at the center of the top.. um, no.  physically impossible.  But, I improvised and just needleturned the points by hand.  I still got an awesome heart, just half pieced, half appliqued. 

It looks better than a raw-edged machine applique, and faster than hand appliqueing the whole thing.  I'm pretty sure I'd do it again.
(Btw, heart blocks are for the 15 minutes play Scrap bee.)

Ribbon block tutorial

Last night Frederick asked if I could point him to some directions for my ribbon block, which I made up last February.  At the time, I took pics to make a tutorial, thinking I'd use the block for my month in a bee, but changed my mind.  Now's as good a time to share it as any, right?  So here goes--

Start with a square (I think mine was 9")

Make a slice to one side of center, cutting the block into roughly 3/5 and 2/5.

add in a strip of fabric.

Press.  Rotate the block a quarter turn, slice again, making 3/5 and 2/5.

Add in a strip of the same color.  When joining the pieces, fold back the top a bit so you can line up the seams of your first strip.

Press.  Rotate the block another quarter turn.  Slice and add again.  This time I put in a different colored strip.

For the 4th cut, I added in the same yellow, making it appear to overlap the moss green.

First round done!  On to the next round..

As you slice and add, be sure to keep rotating in the same direction and it will appear that your ribbons overlap in a spiral pattern. 

Some slices can be a little wonky/angled, but be sure to match seams carefully and pin if you want your earlier strips to line up.

It's really not as difficult as it looks.  Go ahead, give it a try!

My second attempt:

If you make any, I'd love to see them!  add links to blogs/flickr in the comments~