Friday, October 21, 2011

Topped off

I can't believe that just a week ago I was shopping for fabric for my MIL's quilt.  Tonight I finished piecing the quilt top.  Crazy!  It's amazing how fast a quilt can come together when the blocks are 17" across.  The person who posted the tutorial also commented on how fast it can be completed. 

I'm not posting a picture yet because it's pretty big, and I need to find a good place to hang it up to get a photo.  I think I'm going to take a break from it before I quilt it...I want to see if I can do free motion quilting with my machine.  It's not designed for that, but I heard you can tape an old credit card with a hole in it over the feed dogs and that might work.  We'll see.  But I definitely want to practice on some other things before I try her quilt.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Anatomy of a star

I'm done cutting out the pieces of fabric to build my blocks for the star quilt.  There will be four white blocks in the corners and I haven't cut those yet, but I will if I have a chance tomorrow night. 

This evening I laid out the colored parts of my quilt.  I wasn't sure all the pinks would play nicely together, but I think it's okay.  Also, as you can tell, I sewed one of the blocks together incorrectly...half of it is upside-down.  I'll have to rip it apart and re-sew it.

The yellow half of that incorrect square is actually pretty small - in some places, almost a half-inch too small.  I'm not sure if I'll try to make it work, if I'll trim all the blocks to match its size, or if I'll get another yellow fat quarter to replace it altogether. Getting replacement fabric would mean putting the entire project off until the weekend, which saddens me.  I'm still considering what to do.

Also these quilt blocks just seem so massive.  For comparison, I photographed my hand on one of the blocks.  And my hand is not small.

I'm excited.  Also, my mom called me this evening and requested my Christmas wish list, and she said she'd like to get me a bunch of quilting gifts!  That makes me excited too!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

My daughter's quilt

I finished a lap quilt for my daughter.  It's small, but so is she.  It's only three feet by three feet, which is a good size for her to drag around.

Here's a close-up of some of the fabrics.  Half of them were from a Moda charm pack, and the rest were squares that I cut.  I especially love the lemon fabric.


And the whole thing, finished.  It's so bright and cheery.  I almost wish that I had made a bigger one for me to cuddle up with.
Yesterday I picked up fabric for my mother-in-law's quilt.  Damn that's a lot of pink.  It's like being hit in the face with joy.  I'm not a big fan of pink, but I think she'll like it.  And actually, I liked the print in the middle so much that I bought an extra one for myself.  So pretty!

I cut up the prints yesterday and today I hope to cut up the background fabric today.  Exciting!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Done with the quilting

This evening I started and finished the quilting portion of my daughter's lap quilt.  Since it was only a little over three feet across and consisted of eight rows of eight squares, it was really easy to follow the seams in the quilt top and zip through the quilting stage.  Next I just have binding, and since my husband works on Friday night I might be able to get it done.

That means I'd be able to concentrate entirely on my mother-in-law's Christmas gift quilt.  She was admitted to the hospital this evening for testing, and it looks like she might be heading toward surgery and a stay in a rehabilitation facility so she can do physical therapy.  I think having a quilt would make it feel more homey and brighter.  Plus, my husband thinks that she'd really like to have a quilt that I made.

My MIL's taste definitely leans more toward floral and cute than my taste does.  I do like a good floral print, but I like mine to be more modern while she prefers the traditional romantic look.  So, in search of a fabric we'll both like, I found this.  It's from the Fandango collection by Kate Spain for Moda.


I may actually have to buy double the yardage so I can make something for myself out of this.  I think it's so pretty.

And this is the quilt I'll be making.  I've never done half-square triangles, but it looks do-able.  Also, I probably won't do as many colors in the star.  I love that look, but this isn't a quilt for me. 

I love starting out a new project.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

All done!

I finished the quilt for my son.


The quilt top is made entirely from scraps, and I love that.  I think log cabin quilting was created as a way of using up scraps and getting the most use possible out of your fabric.  I really like that I'm still using it that way.

The finished quilt isn't large...about three and a half feet square.  But it's just the right size for my son to spread out over himself, toss over his head, or tote around, all of which he's done today. 

Now I'm working on a quilt top for my daughter, but next weekend I think that work will stop when I go shopping for fabric for my mother-in-law's quilt.  I was going to make her a quilt for Mother's Day and my husband wanted to buy her tickets to a dinner theater about two hours away.  Unfortunately she's had some health problems that make it difficult for her to get out of the house, let alone to a theater a couple of hours away.  I hope she's doing better by Christmas but if she isn't I don't want her to get a gift that will just remind her of what she can't do.  So I'm going to do my best to finish her quilt by Christmas.  We have opposite tastes in decor - she likes things that are floral and cutesy - so it might be a trick to find fabrics that she'll love and that I can tolerate looking at for two months.  We'll see.

Saturday, October 1, 2011