WIP Wed. 6/11/14

This is an uncommon Wednesday for me. Not just because I've been lax about keeping up with these posts, but instead of sitting at the quilt shop I am sitting in a Jury Assembly room waiting to see if my name gets called. Gives me plenty of time to play around with combining mobile apps and my computer to hopefully post some photos of recent projects underway.

Right now I am working on two big projects: still making samples for The Creative Bungalow, trying to populate our Etsy shop with some great kits for you quilters! My most recent finish (or finished top, at least) is from the Modern Quilt Relish pattern Taffy Twists. LOVE how this one turned out and I'm even eager to quilt it up!!

I feel like there is another sample top that I've finished lately, but the last few weeks have been such a whirlwind that something is escaping me. Plus Cherie has also been busy at work and has busted out some gorgeous quilt tops which I cannot claim for my own WIP (though she did make up a sample using my new-ish pattern Dorm Room Cots!).

My other big project is busting out more of those paper-piecing blocks for the wedding chuppah my mom and I are making for my brother and his fiancé. We met up at her home in Scottsdale the last weekend in May and were able to get just a few blocks together on the design wall to give us an idea of how absolutely gorgeous it will be when it's all together!

I had been somewhat vague about these before, not wanting to give away any surprises. Even though Lee and Glenn helped choose the general design (which my mom drafted in EQ7 for the paper-piecing) they hadn't seen the fabrics we chose to work with. And those fabrics are these luscious hand-dyed ombré jelly rolls (I want to say from Northcott, but that's probably the other ombré she picked up) with Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen in Snow as the background. However, I can reveal now that Lee face-timed with Glenn who was still in NYC at the time and they got to see this preview "together". It was super-cute! And my first experience with Face-time!

Sadly, that about covers it. I did make a muslin of the bodice for one of the dresses I'm hoping to make for the wedding trip next month. It's too short-waisted, which is exactly what I had feared. Next step is to see if I can recall my costume shop education from college almost 20 years ago in order to make the necessary alterations to the pattern. Yikes.

Sorry there aren't more photos to share. Thanks for keeping up with me on this journey!

WIP Wed. 3/26/14

I am still getting my footing returning to sewing. Atlas and I have been gradually upping the time at the sewing machine and he even accompanied me to the studio over the weekend! First time since his injury!

But it's slow going. And how come it's so hard to concentrate with an injured pup looming over me? I mean, he's doing loads better, doesn't need that much attention, but somehow I still cannot help giving him the attention. And J keep reminding me that we've only had him since December and yet SO MUCH has occurred. Rehabilitation will take time.

So, we move forward. And get back to projects. Like my do.Good Stitches commitments:

March blocks based on the Rugby Stripe block by Teaginny.

Collection of the blocks from January (some of which I finished Tuesday afternoon to make one more row), based on the Converging Corners tutorial from Film in the Fridge.

I've also been working on finishing the quilting on a quilt from last year. Quilting was finished Tuesday morning, and binding chosen and cut that afternoon...

Obviously I need to take out a few little tucks back there, but otherwise I am hoping the little gathers blend in once this guy is washed.

There's been less progress with the paper-piecing, though I've done just a few over the last week or two on both the chuppah project and the The Creative Bungalow sample.

And today will mark the first day that both J and I are *supposed* to be at work full days since the pup's injury. However J took pity on my anxious self and is planning to go into work late so that Atlas' alone time will be closer to 5 hours than 8 hours. And this time HE will be the last one out the door and the first one back home. Ha!

Okay, linking up at Lee's blog for WIP Wednesday. Been a while but glad to take part again! Check them out!

WIP Wed. - 4/24/13

​I am happy to report that I actually got my butt to the studio EVERY day last weekend - and my definition of weekend here is Thursday through Sunday. Yay me! So that also means that I have a few things to share from this past week :-)

New:​

There's a new Pillow Talk Swap under way on Flickr, and I've decided to throw my hat in the ring for this round.​ I've only participated in one other round of this swap, maybe 2 years ago, and received one of the best swap items that have come my way, pictured here. And on a sweet little turn, though this is an international swap, my pillow-fairy was a local quilter whom I have since gotten to be friends with thanks to the Portland Modern Quilt Guild (I still love this pillow, Brittany!)

It looks like you've seen this before, but really you haven't (unless you were at the PMQG meeting last week). In the neon challenge we were given the option to either do a block to go into a group quilt (or quilts), OR to make an item that we could keep. I chose to make that iPad cover, but was asked if I could make a similar block for the quilt, too. I have trouble saying "no" sometimes. I wish I would have had more of the polka dot to work with, but other than that I was happy to oblige. 

In Progress:​

Made a couple more samples for next month's Simply Solids - Falu block, blogged about in my previous post here.​ I can already tell I'm gonna be happy with this one!

Got this quilt top finished. I'm hoping to quilt it around the same time as my "By Air, Land or Sea" quilt. Now that I've begun organizing my strip scraps I had fun using selective colors for the piano key rows!​

And speaking of strip scraps... I started putting together strip sets and testing out some triangle units for this wedding quilt commission. I've got a long way to go here, but it will be an inspiring journey I have no doubt!​

​Quilting by Jolene Knight of Good Knight Quilts.

And last Thursday night I received this quilt back from Jolene Knight, a fellow PMQG member and longarm quilter (click the photo above to see her website). This is the first quilt I've had someone else quilt for me in several years, and I couldn't be happier with the results! (There will be a dedicated post about this in the next couple of weeks, I promise). I managed to get this 72" x 90" quilt trimmed and just bought fabric for the binding yesterday.​

AND I am ticking more quilt tops off my list of needing quilting... revisited a classic quilting stitch that I haven't used in a long, long time – the good, ol' meander.​ That said, let's move on to the last category...

Completed:​

Phew! It's in the washing machine as I type this post. I actually marked the quilting lines on this one! (another thing I haven't done in ages)​

and two more sets of pot holders.​

No Progress:​

navy/beige HST

Design Camp 2 Improv quilt

By Air, Land or Sea

Dollhouse quilt

and there are probably others I just can't think of right now...​​

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and please be sure to pop over to Lee's blog Freshly Pieced to see a whole lot more inspiring and motivating posts linked up!​

WIP Wed - 4/10/13

It's been a week. And things were made. Ideas were gleaned with a few finishes, a couple of new projects and quite a bit of stepping back and taking stock. So here's my stock:

​New:

Both the little iPod Nano and the cozy for it are new this week. Splurge, I know, but I have no doubt that both will get plenty of use in the very, very near future. Talked a bit more about it here.​

Lately I've been looking for projects to diversify into, and I keep looking at these little pillows I have in my sewing studio which I made a couple of years ago, and you can see here.​ It seems a great way to use some of these coveted fabrics that I've had trouble making into quilts or placemats or other stuff. I definitely need to practice my FMQ (free-motion quilting), but I'm excited to do more of these little guys.

This combines both an "in progress" and a new project... the new part being a commission for a wedding gift. This was simply the initial all-in fabric pull – there will be edits going on before any cutting happens.​

In Progress:​

Trying to get a handle on organizing my scraps and making them more accessible for future use.​

​What? More pot holders? Unbelievable! Actually, these were two sets of blocks I already had pieced and just finally got around to quilting and getting the binding strips sewn on.​

Completed:​

BOM blocks for PMQG. I've decided to stick with the B/W with a hint of pinks, peach or orange for the ones I keep, and so far I've been cycling through the 3 colorway options (B/W/Pop; scrappy; ROYGBIV) for the donation blocks. I hope it's obvious which one this falls under.

​So, all in all not a bad start to the month. I made the mistake of going back to see how many finished quilt tops I have that need to be quilted... it's kind of horrifying. So those little gems will be popping up from time to time without warning. But hopefully each one will seem new and exciting by the time it hits the list!

​Gonna link up with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wed. Thanks for stopping by!

WIP Wed - 1/30/13

And the day keeps rolling around. We're only 4 weeks into this year and already I feel as though I'm getting way off track from my initial goals... but I think that's called being malleable.

The last week has been a roller coaster of developments and setbacks, but mostly developments. At least I hope that's how it works out.

My new projects this week are tied in with a potential venture. I've been in communication with the friend of a friend who is soon to open a shop here in Portland and wants to carry household items made by local artisans, as well as have someone sew items specifically for the shop. We're still ironing out which role I will be filling, but in the meantime  I did get started on a couple of projects for him.

Just hemming fabric for a table cloth

Some fancy-schmancy coasters that I'd be nervous to use EXCEPT with red wine!

And given the unexpected timing on that, plus the immediacy of it, I sadly have not gotten much else done this week. Oh, except working on my sample blocks for the Friends + Fabric 2 Bee, as February is my month as Queen Bee.

I wrote up a tutorial for the machine applique technique I've been using, found on this post: http://surroundedbyscraps.com/blog/2013/1/26/appliqu-circle-ish-tutorial-take-2, which had to be rewritten when I accidentally deleted the draft. So THAT took up some of my time, too. Not to mention taking over 100 process photos! Excessive, much??

The one other project I managed to get any work done on this week is the quilting of my icy-cool 60/30 diamond quilt. I'm about 75% finished with the quilting. Yay!

a peek from the back

And finally I completed the Warm/Cool QAL wall-hanging!!! I haven't taken a full photo of it, yet, but managed to snap a quick shot in my living room before leaving for work this morning.

So, I guess as I take stock, it wasn't quite as unproductive a week as I first thought. And if all goes well with this new venture, I may be sharing fewer quilty projects in the coming weeks and instead broadening my grab bag.

So, it looks like I got a couple of new projects under way, made a little progress on one or two things, and managed to finish one quilt. And didn't touch my green scrappy top, the navy and beige HST quilt, my super-secret wall hanging nor did I make any progress on sandwiching or quilting any more quilt tops.

Linking up with Lee's blog, Freshly Pieced for WIP Wed!

WIP Wed. 1/23/13

Another week of sewing! Lots and lots of sewing. And a few other things in the wings. I feel I should mention the great positive commotion related to the upcoming Visit Your Local Quilt Shop Day... it's been fun to see all the props people are giving their favorite shops. I've stayed in the wings on this one not wanting to unleash a potential conflict of interest, since I am employed by my favorite LQS, but it's great to see that Marie and her shop got lots of love on the blog hop this past week! Let's keep our fingers crossed that the love carries over into tomorrow and becomes a big shopping day!

Getting right to it, thank you Lee for continuing to host WIP Wednesday!

New

A new monochromatic scrappy scrappy

It's been a while since I've delved into my zipper bags of scraps to put one of THESE together. And doing it on my newest hand-me-down The Bernina Activa 240 - seems to be a little power house, let me tell you! And I have to admit it's kind of strange to be sewing in my basement again! I'm now spread out across half the city!

HST quilt-to-be. I have had the yardage for these guys piled up and set aside for about 2 years now. A project that I have wanted to do for my unofficial in-laws that somehow always got pushed back. You all know what I'm talking about, right?? But 2013 is the year, I tell ya!

MQG Madrona Road Challenge

This will be changed around, I am certain. If I even continue to pursue it. I talked a bit about this challenge in my previous post here. It's getting down to the wire and I should have been working on it when I got home from work yesterday, but the inspiration just wasn't there. What can I say?

Some Progress

Got this basted, but haven't begun quilting it. Which I need to do so that I can retrieve some of those pins in order to baste other projects!

I'm also nearly finished hand stitching the binding onto my warm/cool QAL wall hanging. I don't have any new photos of it, but I'll be sure to post a stellar one for next week's "Completed" category!

And that being said":

Completed

Two more sets of pot holders. That's all, nothing so exciting. Which leaves...

No Progress/Quilt Tops awaiting quilting

If I could count, I could tell you how many more sets of pot holders are pieced and just need to be quilted and bound. I think 6.

Grey/blue Nubees quilt

Green/brown spiderweb quilt

Pink Elephants

Yellow/magenta Encapsulated

Russet 60/30 Diamonds

So, the final tally seems to be:

New: 3

Some Progress: 3

No Progress: 11

Completed: 2

Thanks again for sticking with me here! I'm excited to keep going and share some new things in the next couple of months - Stay Tuned!

WIP Wed - 1/16/13

I've actually had quite a productive week in the sewing studio. Yay. The renewed energy of the online bees certainly doesn't hurt, and even though it's not generally my way, list-making IS quite effective.

That said, here's a rundown of this past week's follies:

New

a sneak peek... featuring fabrics from Kaffe Fasset, Jay McCarroll, Anna Maria Horner and newcomer Alison Glass.

Can't show much more of this just yet, but I've got a new wall-hanging under way. And it's been a long time since I've worked specifically on a wall-hanging. But I've definitely been having fun working from an original pattern again. Will share more in a few weeks!

Scrappy Trip blocks

I guess you could say that I got pulled onto the Scrappy Trip Around the World bandwagon, if briefly! And I do have to say that the Quiltville tutorial really is great! Easy to follow, straight-forward, and tremendously efficient! I don't expect to be making a whole project from this, but I can certainly see why so many people have been enamored!

Bliss do. Good Stitches January block #1

And I spoke a bit about these in my previous post. Chris put up a little "tutorial" on our group page on Flickr for the Bliss Circle of do. Good Stitches.

In Progress

basting my warm/cool QAL piece

quilting underway

And after having it *literally* hanging around for who knows how long, I finally basted and started quilting this gem. It was just a matter of taking that first step... getting over the basting hesitation! Whew.

Quilting not-yet-happening (or on hold)... i.e. No Progress

Grey/blue Nubees quilt

Green/brown spiderweb quilt

Pink Elephants

Yellow/magenta Encapsulated

Both of the 60/30 diamond quilts

Completed

Design Camp 2 [Think Outside the Block] Jan. 2013 for Shelley

Design Camp 2 [Think Outside the Block] Jan. 2013 for Shelley

We're closing in on the last couple of months for Camp 2 in the Design Camp [Think Outside the Block] Improv Bee. This is a technique I'm certainly not afraid of, and one that is GREAT for using up the itty-bitty scraps that I invariably keep around. Thank you, Shelley, for finding this gem and letting us play willy-nilly!!

more pot holders

Last week I mentioned the stack of many pot holders on the docket... I've shaved a few more off of the "in progress" list, and then continued progress on a few others... Leaving (I think) 5 pairs yet to be quilted, 4 more pairs quilted but yet to be bound, and 2 or 3 more pairs completed. And the cycle continues.

So, this appears to be a pretty healthy list, no? I feel like I've forgotten something, but if I can't think of it, then you all certainly won't miss it! And the final tally is:

New: 3

In Progress: 9 out of 15 pot holder sets, plus 1

Completed: 3

Quilts awaiting quilting: 6

Linking up to WIP Wed. at Freshly Pieced and gonna check in with some of the other talliers out there!