Swoon Finished!

Well, the Swoon King is FINALLY done! Took me long enough right? In my defense, my shoulders ached from quilting this. I decided to give up on some fancy it-would-take-me-a-year quilting design and go for a good ol' squiggly meandering swirl. I mapped out the "how-to" in my head and went to work! It took me four good days of quilting to finish it, but I can tell you, when it came time to do the binding I was THRILLED!

It fits on the bed so well! I may even be able to cheat that up a bit and work some pillow magic below the top row of stars.

You can also see that someone is OBSESSED! 

I spent one afternoon quilting, a huge pile of quilt on the table running out of the machine. I walked away and looked for the cat but couldn't find her anywhere! I called and called for her, then started to panic a bit. Well, I finally found her, buried in the quilt on the table. She didn't even come to bed that night, she would not get out of that quilt. Since it's been washed and dried and put on the bed in hopes that spring weather will make us shed our comforter for something more quilt-y, she has slept only on the quilt. I guess it's a testament to my work. This is one quilting cat.

A quick close up of the mixed quilting design I used since I started with some straight line groupings and then just meandered all over it. I kind of love it.

Now, should I make some pillow shams?

A new lap quilt is cut and ready for sewing and a coworker has a baby on the way! It's been awhile since baby quilting so I'm excited to start a new one. Compared to this monster, baby quilts are a breeze! Now off to the fabric shop!

Happy Crafting!

I'm the Last One to Join the Hexie Club

You may remember from this post that I picked up an amazing nap-inducing quilt kit & pattern from The Quilting Loft a-ways back.

It has EVERYTHING (except backing) that you may need, including binding and all that jazz. Without a quilting project and while waiting for fabric for my next project (post coming to explain) I turned to this adorable quilt to get things started.

I am super in love with the fabric choices for this quilt. A great mix of reds, blues, pinks, greens, creams, and grays. All are Denyse Schmidt fabrics. They look really vintage, which I am a sucker for.

I even had to purchase two new rulers for the job. A 60 degree triangle and a hexagon ruler. Now, I realize that hexagon quilts have been all the rage for the last like two years. I finally joined the club and bought myself a ruler. Now I have to make more hexagon quilts to make it worth it. So far, it's a life saver when it comes to quick cuts.

I literally spent a good few hours ironing and cutting fabric yesterday. Neti at my side, and for the first time not necessarily in the way, for the whole process.

I finished all of the hexagons. They are staged and ready to go.

I also finished all of the contrast triangles, all 108 of them. All I have left is all of the background fabric to cut down, as I've already got the appropriate widths cut down from a few yards of fabric. Maybe I'll start that tonight.

Looking forward to my upcoming three day weekend! Unfortunately, this hexagon quilt may get set aside, once it's all cut, in lieu of some amazing fabric I have heading my way.

Also, I'm still sitting on that Swoon trying to decide what to do. If I want someone else to quilt it, I have to seam rip everything I've already started. It's just folded up in the corner for now until I have the energy to deal with it. I think I may actually be juggling more projects than I thought.

Happy Crafting!

And We're Back!

Finally! It's been forever. I took a major break from quilting/sewing and focused on house hunting, which led to heartache. To soothe said heartache I am now back with a vengence! Also, the cooling and cloudy weather is helping me back in to the groove of things. I started off with something small made from scraps I had around.

 

 

This all started when I re-decorated our living room area. I got a new glass top coffee table that looked oh-so-bare and remote controls made oh-such-a-clatter. It needed a mini-quilt. So I pulled out my Farmer's Wife Sampler book and picked a block I knew I could deconstruct. I figured I'd want a 12" x 12" square and worked it out from there.

 

 

Someone else was VERY excited that I was rummaging in fabric again and was glad to be a part of the action. Within two hours I had this:

 

 

 

Super simple quilting with a ton of impact. I am crazy about the color/fabric combos. This has to be one of my most favorite things I've made. Which of course spurned my need to make more.

 

 

I quickly decided, oh, I have a baby shower coming up in two weeks, let's make a baby quilt.

 

 

Again, sweet Neti's enthusiasm for quilting was just as high as mine.

 

 

I found a quilt pattern online that I liked, but I hated their color motif. Not to worry! I quickly deconstructed the pattern again for a small crib size quilt (each patchwork square is 2" x 2").

 

Wham bahm and done! It took me one day to cut and piece and one day to quilt and bind. Holy cow that was fast! I used four different quilting patterns, mostly due to boredom. A blasé quilt pattern turned bananas once all that grey thread was quilted in. It's crazy busy now and I'm super loving it.

 

I used swirls and pebbles intermixed for the bottom of the quilt.

 

Bowing squares and squiggles for the center along with some florets (I'm totally making up these words by the way, no technical terms here).

 

And leaves for the top. I hope no one thinks those are flames. I thought about that about half way through quilting. Oh well, I did not intend for the giraffes to be on fire, just in a leafy jungle.

 

FINISHED! Giving it to the new mom this Saturday. Can't wait for her to unwrap it.

 

And these two pictures of Neti are just here for fun. She was pestering me during basting of the quilt and I couldn't decide which of these was cuter. :) You're welcome, Auntie Lou.  

I'm sure you're also wondering, hey, what happened to that Swoon? Well, I think it's too huge for me to manage so I'm going to see if I can outsource that quilting. The problem is I already started quilting it. Yikes! Here's hoping I can find someone to save the day!

Happy Crafting!