I've been busy

For Christmas, I got some Flea Market Fancy from a quilting friend.  I added some solids and tone on tones to the Fat Quarter pack.

 Sometimes, I work late at night and my sewing room has pretty sad lighting.  So forgive the not so great pictures.  I've also got to use a camera that isn't part of my phone.

And sometimes I make good fabric choices (see the block on the right) and sometimes I make baaaaad choices (block on the left).

But I rarely regret doing the tutorials/quilt alongs at PS I Quilt. This one is her Pinwheel Sampler and I really like how it ended up.  I'm particularly fond of the grey and red Dutch Pinwheel. 

I've decided to do what many in the flickr group did - I'm putting pinwheel posts in the sashing.  I got these all trimmed up and the next step is going to be sewing them into pinwheels.  Almost done, and I can't wait.  This quilt is going to be great.

I've also been mucking about with my Strawberry Fields fabric.  About a year ago, I'd taken my jelly roll and sewn the strips together. 

They looked okay, but when I threw them together in a simple roman square layout for a baby quilt, I didn't like them.  At all.  So they got thrown in a bag.  And at one point, I chopped some of them up smaller and sewed them together in a 2" finished square, 2x3 layout. I had plans for them, but I just wasn't feeling it so they all got thrown back in a bag.

Until we pulled this dresser out of the basement and I decided I needed to make something colourful to top it.  And I had these roman square blocks just hanging out.

 

So I sewed them together.  And liked them.  But I had a dilemma.  I didn't have enough of the roman square blocks to actually make an entire quilt, but I didn't want to use just a few.

So, I played with it a bit.  I'll be able to use all of the roman squares as well as the postage stamps I'd put together.  I'll add some of the sashing fabric above and end up with a nice sized quilt, even if it isn't quite the normal colours I use.

This is a better example of what I normally end up with.  I like colours.  I like jewel tones.  I like colour.  I'm probably slightly insane, based on the looks I got while putting this together.  But once together, the ladies at the retreat in October thought it looked pretty good.  At least that's what they told me :D

First finish of 2013

I've actually finished something. And look at that pretty holly binding! I actually used up the entire piece of red holly fabric I had on the binding which is spectacular since I'm not sure I like doing Christmas quilts, even if I love the fabric.

And not only did I finish something, I finished a quilt I really really did not like.

Although I DO love these stars.  And the thread I ended up with for quilting.

Ok, I kind of love the whole thing, when I don't let myself remember all the screwups and corners that don't quite meet.

My Thanks to Lovely Year of Finishes for motivating me to finish this sucker.  That I actually LOVE now that it's finished.

Pinwheel quilt

All right, so there's a lot I've worked on in the last year, but I haven't updated my blog much at all.  So here's a start on that.

For Christmas, I was given a great stack of Flea Market Fancy fat quarters. 

I decided to add a few solids to them and make this Pinwheel Sampler at PS I Quilt.

I have two more blocks that were finished up last weekend, but I haven't taken pictures yet.

Adding fat quarters was likely a mistake, looking back.  The tutorial calls for a layer cake.  Doing some reasearch, I found that I would be able to get 2 10" squares from a fat quarter.  So to get enough fabric, I bought 19 fat quarters.  Which is WAY too much.  There are two or three fat quarters I didn't even cut into - which is fine because the blue solids work with my stack of Pure that needs a project.

I'm considering pulling out the two big pinwheels and putting them on the back and doing another pair of blocks for the top.  Which would also help me use up fabric from the fat quarters.  Can't wait to see this one put together with the sashing.

I'm so excited!

I've been hesitant to order fabric online because most of the shops I hear about are in the US and I'm in Canada.  Shipping, customs and length of time for delivery have always been concerns for me (I like instant gratification and I'm extremely lucky to have several shops near me).

This morning, I was flipping through the blogs I follow and I found this:

Kaffe Fassett Shot Cotton giveaway at Pile Of Fabric

First it's important because it's a giveaway.  You should all go and enter now.

Second, it's really cool because you know what?  The giveaway is for an online shop based in Canada. (but the contest is open for anyone so really, go enter!) 

Mad About Patchwork

Shipping anywhere in Canada for orders up to one hundred and fifty dollars ($150) is only $5.95.  Hooray.

Also important to note is she is currently having a sale.  Which means I have to go order some flea market fancy backing for my pinwheel quilt. 

Lovely finish update with pictures

As I mentioned last time, I ripped out all the work I'd done in favor of the new thread I purchased. That's it threaded on my machine, waiting patiently for me to get started.  How exciting is a fresh spool of thread?

And here is a picture of quilting in progress

you'll notice it is neither perfectly straight nor nice even stitches, but it's better than I have been in the past so there's that.  I'll admit freely that the actual quilting is my weakness.  I'm not great at it, but I'll get better if I keep working at it.

I'll definitely have this one finished by the end of the month and score my first lovely finish of the year.

It's kind of exciting.

A Lovely Year of Finishes - Update

I haven't posted since letting you know that I'm doing this.  And I still am.  Last week I got started on quilting the Christmas quilt. I started out trying to quilt 1/4" from the seams.  Without marking it.  With dark green thread.

That?  Did not go well.

For reference, I'm still working on the top quilt in this stack

Why yes, only the bottom quilt in that stack is finished.  It's clear I have a few months of projects for a lovely year of finishes, yes?

So, as an update, I've got the backing pieced.  I've got the quilt layered.

I quilted.  I hated it.

I quilted some more with beige thread on top, using tape to mark my lines.  Better, but I hated the thread.

I bought a variegated thread yesterday, ripped out ALL of the quilting I'd already done and started over, marking 1/4" from the seams rather using a 1" wide strip of tape.  I actually like it.  Even though it's showing me how badly pieced this particular project was.

I don't think I've really liked it since I started working on it.

But I'm going to finish it darn it!

I'm half done with the quilting.  One more set of diagonal lines and I'll be done.  Then just binding and I'll have my first finish of the year.  Hooray.

A lovely year of lovely finishes

I haven't posted since March of 2012.  Yikes.

Last year about this time, I posted about some quilts I found in the garage when we moved.  Quilt tops, specifically.  And my plans to finish them off throughout 2012.

I didn't.

So this year, I think I'm going to join up with the year of lovely finishes on Fiber of All Sorts.  To see if I can finish some of the things that are waiting for me to finish them.  This month?  I've decided to go easy and finish a Christmas quilt I've been working on for awhile now.

There it is, a nice quilt top waiting to be made into a quilt.  I have a few now, more than just the ones that Bailey is sitting on here:

But this month, I only have to focus on one and get one finished.