Welcome to my 100th post!

Huh.  This is post number 100.  I think it's great that it's about a finish from my quilting weekend.

I sat down to finish one of my WIPs.  It's a pretty recent WIP - I started to use up some batik scraps.

This quilt has some of my absolute favorite fabrics.

Each log cabin was meant to be pieced as a whole and then cut into four.  Using scraps though, I often didn't have big enough pieces to do that.  So I pieced each 6" blog individually so they don't all match - I actually like this about it.

Would you believe I don't like pink?

The only fabric I bought specifically for this quilt are the large white piece on the back (also inner border and binding), the dark piece (backing and a couple blocks) and the blue from the sashing and borders.

Quilted with straight lines using a green and pink variegated thread from Sulky (and my LQS).

I can't even lie, I've been carrying this around the house like Linus from the Peanuts.  I took it up to my bedroom when I went to bed last night just so I could look at it again.

Currently, we are debating whether the front or the back is better.  It's definitely one of my better pieced backs, asymmetric, colourful and it uses the big chunk of the light fabric which I kind of fell in love with in the matter of a few days (hours).

I don't know what it is, but I have a serious soft spot for batiks.  You should see the ones Mom brought back from Hawai'i.

I wish this weren't so small.  I have no idea what I'll do with it so maybe it'll just end up hanging on the wall in my quilting room.  But first it'll go to the quilt retreat with me this weekend.

Linked on

So what is wrong with this quilt?

Why do I hate it so?

Why do I prefer looking at the back instead of the front?  Maybe it's because the friend this is going to requested tan after I'd made up the front so this is meant to be reversible.

Which worked out well, I think it's absolutely reversible and I totally prefer the back.

I can look at this one in pictures and think it looks great, if a little blurry.  Apparently my camera had a fingerprint on the lens so it wouldn't focus properly. 

But I've hated working on it for awhile now.  In fact, that back?  The red and black bits were meant to be the border for the front until I decided I was done with this quilt and just wanted to finish it.  So I sewed them together in strips, added some color blocking to the outside and called it the backing.

Now here's the thing.  This is the first quilt I'll give away.  I had others that I'd planned to give away, but when I'd finished quilting them, I was unhappy.  My biggest problem has been puckers in the back.  Big, giant puckers.

But not this time!

And the straight line quilting turned out pretty good, even if I did dread every minute of it.

After my last few attempts at quilting previous quilts, I decided to spend some time investigating my problems with the quilting.  What I was doing wrong?  I narrowed it down to two things.  First, my back wasn't taut enough.  I worried about stretching the fabric and didn't smooth it as much as I should have.  I also pinned the living crap out of this quilt - which may account for some of the dislike.  That was a lot of time spent laying on a hardwood floor, fighting with safety pins.  So much that my husband suggested next time we'd try spray basting.

So, I've learned how to layer and baste and I've played a bit with a more interesting pieced back.  I may not like working on this quilt right now, but I do like what I've learned from it.

Maybe I whined just a little too much.

In other news, this quilt and I have a date with a seam ripper.

I love the prints in this beyond all reason and it's time they got used for something other than a quilt both my husband and I don't like.   Sometimes you just have to accept that it isn't going to work and you need to go back to the drawing board.

Those owls are still awesome.

I am still quilting

Not a lot of progress, but I'm building a pile of christmas hunter star blocks.

Slowly.  the pile in the back are together and pressed, I just need to get this last pile in the front made up.  Soon.

Postage Stamp Quilt along - top DONE!

So, it's been awhile since I updated.  I just haven't been quilting or taking pictures like I should be.  I finally got Mr. Moose to hold up the postage stamp quilt from the quilt along so I could get a good picture.

I'm pretty happy with this AND it's got a home.  My Mother in Law (MIL) seemed very interested when I described it to her.  Unless I decide to keep it myself because it looks awfully great on my red furniture.

I'm not sure why the photo is blurred, but there you have it.

I did have to trim up the blocks when I was done thanks to uneven strips.  Here's a shot of the trimmings.

I just love how bright and colourful this quilt ended up being.

Postage Stamp Quilt Along goodness

Oh yes, I've made progress on this.  So much, that I have a name for it.  Yes, yes I do.  Here Comes the Rain.  Why?  Well, we'll start with it's giant rainbowness

Yup.  Rainbowness.

I wish I had a better picture of the binding fabric, but it's a raindrop print batik.

You see it right?  Pretty raindrops to go with a pretty rainbow.

The only issue I have is with the acid green backing.  Note to self, do not pick fabric when I'm in a hurry.  No matter how much I think they'll go with the rest of the fabric.  I do like it, it just might be a bit much in the end.  I suppose we'll see.  Worst case, I break it up with a pieced back, fold it up and pretend the back doesn't exist while admiring the rainbow goodness of the front, right?

Right.

Moving on, then.  More progress pictures.

And finally, cat tested, husband approved?

Well, husband approved remains to be seen.  I think he thinks it's a bit too much. 

Prairie Traditions

Prairie Traditions
Originally uploaded by wading moose

Posted for Quilt Story's fabric Tuesday.

Finally have pictures of my finished nine-patch which I've named Prairie Traditions thanks to the fabric contributions from my mother, grandmother, Mom's neighbor and Mom's neighbor's sister. And myself - I contributed a few of the nine-patches, all of the borders, binding and backing.

The whole thing started because a portion of my mother's stash looked like this:

That is just her scraps, fat quarters and a box of the fabric from my grandmother.  She has much more in the basement.  Every time I go home, it seems a tradition for her to haul out fabric, WIPs, magazines, patterns and all that good stuff.  I'm pretty sure she was trying desperately to get me back into quilting and it eventually worked.

She never seems to make much progress using up this fabric, so I took it upon myself to start cutting and pieceing nine-patches for a pattern out of one of her magazines.  This process took 9-10 years, I'm quite ashamed to say.  I will say that I've come by my fabric obsession quite honestly.

The back is flannel from my stash that I'd bought for another quilt top that has mysteriously gone missing through several moves.  It wasn't wide enough for a queen sized quilt, so I added a pieced strip down the middle.

The pieced strip is a chunk of leftover border that I suspect was meant to be used as the binding along with pieces of fat quarters I used in the quilt top.

I quilted it in the ditch as well as diagonally through the nine-patch blocks and the borders were quilted in the ditch with an additional line running down the middle of each border.

The binding is a yellow Debbie Mum print I had in my stash from a baby quilt I did years ago.

I really enjoyed piecing this quilt and now that my grandmother is gone, I love seeing the fabrics in there that I picked out of stash she'd given to my Mom.  The quilt also includes bits of table toppers my Mom has made for me over the years.  I get kind of sentimental about the fact that this quilt is now spread on my bed.  It seems appropriate that Mr.  Moose and I go to sleep every night under years of tradition passed down from generation to generation in my family as well as so many other families over the years.

What's black and white and red all over?

The current challenge on Paula's Sewing Challenges is to show something made in your favorite colour/colours for sewing or quilting.

It's actually something I don't sew with often because it just doesn't fit into my house right now.  Funny thing since Mr.  Moose and I are both fans of it.

It's black and white (with red, or yellow).  I do have a rail fence quilt that I'll be doing soon in black and white with red accents, and Mr. Moose LOVES black and white with yellow so maybe we should change our plans for the bedroom and go nuts with black and white!

Regardless, here are some things I've made in black and white (and a little stack of B&W fabric).

Pillowcase for our oldest nephew.

Fat quarters for the B & W rail fence.

Some bats from a halloween quilt

A bag I made that I now use as a lunch bag for work.  I have exras of all of these fabrics and they'll be showing up in the rail fence as well.

So, there you have it, my favorite colours.

But wait, there's more:

Ok.  He's not exactly black and white and that isn't exactly red, but darn it, isn't he cute?

And, gratuitous food shot

Chocolate is almost as good as black, right? (Photo from FineCooking.com.  My version of this didn't look quite so perfect)

Christmas star quilt

A few pictures of my Christmas Star quilt as I slowly make progress.

Chain piecing.  I love that red star fabric so much.  You have no idea.

See the dark starry print poking out there in the middle?  I also love it.  Go figure.

I'm pressing the seams open to reduce bulk where the stars meet.  Don't worry, I trimmed the extra fabric after pressing.

Couldn't resist putting them together to see how the stars would look.  Next up, attaching the gold/yellow triangles.

Because I needed to start another project

I've been cutting out fabric for a Christmas quilt.  There's really nothing like starting early and being proactive, is there?  Maybe some day I'll start.  But for now, here's the fabric:

I love the stars on the right.  There's a red that matches it, but it's buried under the rest of the reds.  Here's a better look at the stars

There are 256 dark green rectangles.  Yep.  Two hundred and fifty-six.  The red?  128.  I feel like I cut fabric out forever and I still haven't gotten to the golds yet.

Results of the mini quilt retreat with my mother.

End result?  More shopping done than actual quilting.  I should've known with Christmas so close that a visit to the city would require more shopping.  She commented at the end of the weekend that she thought we'd get more sewing done.  Really?  Well.  I wasn't the one who wanted to do everything else.  Although, I do take full responsibility for my Christmas party.  And the pampered chef party...

Anyway, sewing did get done.  The first night, we watched some TV so I was able to get working on my hand quilting.

I LOVE this block.   I suspect I'll be making a quilt out of it in the future.

Flying geese.  Oh.  Flying geese.

I started quilting on this one when I needed a quick break from the red and green. 

We also spent Friday afternoon quilting.

Lookit all those geese.  Yeesh.  In the end, I've almost finished the full 45 needed to do one of the 12 strips of geese on my flying geese quilt.  I don't think I'll ever sew another goose ever again after this.  Ever.

I also got started prewashing the fabrics for the kids' pillow cases.  Fresh out of the dryer, here's the first batch - pinks and light blues.

Tonight I'll be sewing up a bunch of lovely, soft pillowcases.