Finally, progress!

This may not seem like much progress to anyone but me, considering that I had 4 rings together back in April. However, I took those 4 all apart, reassembled 4 of them, and I've had 3 sitting together for months. My sewing time has been fairly limited, especially since August. I was not enjoying piecing all of those arcs. I seem to have gotten past that after spending some quality time with my sewing machine this past week. I finished putting this part together, then completed all of the arcs. I'm enjoying this quilt again. My frustration was probably the biggest obstacle to overcome.  I have double the number of  rings to assemble, then I will be adding a border. More assembly to come, soon, I hope!

HST quilt

 I started this quilt at the TMQG "rapture" retreat in May. I finished last month, but waited to share until after I had gifted it. I loved the idea of small half square triangles with large areas of solid. Two inch half square triangles are actually VERY small, so it ended up being more work just to make those triangles.

 Of course, silly me, I made too many HSTs, so I had plenty left over from the back. I think I also have enough left for a doll quilt, so that might be happening soon.

I had planned to quilt fully in straight line quilting. I created the first bit of straight line quilting, then tried adding straight lines in between. It was a MESS. I redid it and pulled at things and tried again. Tons of mistakes, bubbles, overlapped lines, etc. I decided that stippling was much more forgiving. After I added the stippling, I actually decided that I liked it better than I would have with all of the straight lines. The straight lines I used really popped in between the stippling.

And, here's a close-up.

I believe the finished size was about 50x70, a couch sized quilt.

Recent Sewing

I have been working on a couple of quilts. One is a gift that I will wait to share, and the other is making me want to stab my own eyes, though I have been plugging away at it. It is making me remember why I don't make many queen size quilts-I get bored LONG before they are finished. Baby or couch sized quilts are perfect for me. So, I wanted to do some other projects, just to avoid the work that I should be doing :) I made the above bag using this tutorial from Made by Rae. It came together really cute, but it was the first bag I've ever made, and I didn't use the right interfacing with my quilting cotton. It is far too floppy, so I will probably leave it hanging in my art room. I will use the tutorial again, though. It's really cute and only uses two fat quarters (seriously.)

I wanted to make a bag for my sister's birthday, so this time I bought a pattern from Made by Rae. I used light interfacing on both fabrics, and like the weight of it much more than the first one. I would recommend this pattern as well.

I've been wanting to make a pillowcase dress for Ashlyn for awhile. I used this tutorial with fabric from my stash. The dress is REALLY big, but, of course, I didn't try it on her until I was totally finished. I could make it shorter easily, but would have to make major adjustments to make it smaller around. At first, Ashlyn liked it, but she then decided that it wasn't made from enough fabrics. Basically, she wanted a dress pretty much like the one I made her last year.

I had already planned on using a peasant dress pattern from Little Lizard King. This was the same place I bought the pdf pattern for the apron knot dress. They were both very easy to follow. I had planned on using different fabrics, but when Ashlyn talked about wanting more than two fabrics, I headed to my stash for the rest of this Mendocino fabric. I plan to add a sash to it (and maybe a pocket,) but she wanted to wear it as soon as I made it (highest compliment.)

And, is it just me or does my little girl look awfully grown up in this photo? 

TMQG sewing day tomorrow. Now to decide if I should work on my queen sized quilt, start a baby quilt, or make myself one of the two skirts I want to have before school starts.

TMQG Retreat

Last month the Tulsa Modern Quilt Guild had a Saturday retreat at the Red Barn Quilting Retreat Center outside of Barnsdall, OK. It was a lovely day for the 6 of us.

Mama-Mama

The sewing area was right in the center of the shop, so fabric shopping and sewing! We had a wonderful lunch and dinner in the main house, with time to love on the dogs and cows along the way. Thank you, Brenda, for a wonderful day!

Patti's featherweight

Valerie and Sydney

Meredith and Valerie

Lisa

Sydney

The group at work

Valerie's Design Floor

Patti's Design Wall

Pressing seams

With our WIPs from the day. (I actually have many more than those two sad little 2 inch blocks, I swear!)

With Brenda

Baby Star Quilt

I thought I'd gotten a better photo of this quilt. This is what happens when I only look at the photos on my camera before giving away the quilt.

One of my cousins is having a baby boy any day now. The nursery was decorated with moons and stars in brown and blue. I didn't necessarily want to match, but I at least knew what she liked. I found a brown and blue bird fabric in my stash. I decided to use it for the centers of a star quilts. All of this fabric was from my stash, much of it from my smaller scraps. I  LOVE when that happens. I only bought new thread for this one. This quilt is approximately 52" square. I also made a doll quilt for big sister, but I apparently didn't take a photo of that one at all!

Out of my comfort zone

My sewing time has definitely taken a hit this year. I am attempting this double wedding ring quilt, and, um, it is humbling to say the least. I made the first full circle. There were problems in the seams and such, so I ripped things apart, thinking I could fix the problem. I really didn't. There were more problems. So, I just kept going. And more parts don't line up. I honestly don't know how to fix the problems. I used this pattern, which has paper piecing for each arc. That seemed like it would make things a bit more accurate. Or, so I thought.

This is where I need help. I obviously can't keep going this way. Does anyone know a better way to make this pattern? I'm generally not much of a pattern follower, and have only recently become comfortable with curved piecing. Thanks!

Man Quilt

I have a hard time with quilts for men. I'm not particularly a girly girl, but I have a lot of very feminine fabrics in my stash, floral galore. I do like solids, though. After a couple of bad starts, I ended up with a simple square in square design. I was determined to use as many of the scraps for the back as possible. As is often the case, I like the back as much or more than the front.

I actually finished this quilt almost two months ago, but somehow I didn't get it in the mail. This quilt was for my uncle, and I think it's about 52x70.

Help for Japan

Just a couple of opportunities for quilters to help tsunami victims in Japan.

Modern relief is raffling quilts to raise money for Mercy Corps.

OR you could make a comfort quilt to go directly to a tsunami victim.

First Finish of 2011

and it isn't mine.

I thought I was going to teach Ashlyn how to piece "correctly." The first few times she sewed, I kept helping her keep (close) to a 1/4" seam. But, she's 5. And I want it to be fun. And, she was at least careful about keeping her fingers out of the way. So, I let her go. You want to randomly add fabrics from my scrap bin. Ok. You want to add a strip of pink on top of the pieced sections. Ok. She was more excited when I let her work on her own, while I sewed at my own machine.

Last Saturday, Ashlyn was ready to put the "backings on" her quilt. We finished the quilt that day, with Ashlyn on my lap. We did free motion quilting with hearts all over it. Ashlyn's good friend was sick that day, so Ashlyn decided that we needed to give Lilly the quilt.  While I am truly proud that Ashlyn is generous with her sewing, I did not want her to give this quilt away. I asked her (more than once) if she was SURE that she wanted to send this quilt to her friend.

fabric gathering

I think I've finally chosen the fabrics for my next quilt. Maybe.

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New Quilter

A new sewing machine for Christmas. Now my 5 year old has taken over a corner of my studio and has two quilts on the design wall. She's going to do things HER way, and all quilts will include pink fabric.

Quilts of 2010

14 quilts for the year, mostly baby sized. (one not pictured, two backs are included in this mosaic.) I'm actually pretty surprised with how much I've accomplished this year in quilting. For this year, I had hoped to make a few quilts for charity (which only turned out to be one, but I did donate a couple that I made last year) make quilts for family and friends (check,) and make a few smaller quilts for myself (nope.) The idea of making them for myself was to try out new ideas, though, which I think I still accomplished with what I did make.



I was also a part of two different quilting bees this year. Both were a fun experience, but it's not something I am going to continue doing for now. Apparently, I didn't upload all of my blocks to flickr. I'm missing a few blocks, anyway.

Happy 2011, everyone!