WIP Wednesday

I have made lots of progress on my pile of unquilted tops this week. These quilts are waiting to be bound and listed in the store. First, a quilt made from my Hip to Be Square pattern in the "Make Life" fabric collection from Sweetwater. I am almost out of this fabric -- one of my favorites!

Secondly, a Modern Meadow quilt in my Bricklayer pattern -- I made four quilt tops this summer out of Modern Meadow, and I have one left to quilt.



And currently on the machine, the first of three Sugar Pop tops that need quilting. Love these bright, cheery colors! After this one is quilted, I will have whittled that pile of 40 quilt tops down to 15!

My local quilt guild has a WIP pledge every September, and being such a type A personality, this is a huge motivation for me to complete old projects, even if it means some last minute marathon sewing! This year, I'm trying not to leave everything to the last minute. One of the five projects I promised to finish this year consists of leftover label block kits from our guild's Block of the Month a few years ago. I have 15 kits , so I think I can scrape up a sixteenth one and make a nice table topper to donate to our quilt show's silent auction in the fall. The first two blocks went together quickly on Sunday, so hopefully I'll keep the momentum going. These blue and white blocks measure 6 inch finished.

This weekend, I will be concentrating on several custom orders -- the pretty stock of fabrics shown below is one of them! I'll share some progress soon!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday!

 

Work-in-Progress Wednesday

Yesterday, needing a diversion from some other projects, I pulled out this basket of blocks to see if I could make any progress on it.

I got hooked on these Great Granny blocks over the summer -- they are so addictive, and a great way to use up scraps. I've already finished one quilt using Tula Pink's Parisville line , and this fall, I started this Bliss one, as well as an Amy Butler Soul Blossoms quilt using grey as the background (see this blog post for more details and pics).

I had set the blocks aside for a while to work on other projects, but have been anxious to get back to them. I knew I had made 10 blocks already, but I didn't remember if I had started the rest.



I was very happily surprised to find that I had already sewn all the pieces into rows for the next 10 blocks, so I just needed to add the background fabric and assemble the rows.

The remainder of the blocks were quickly finished, and now I have enough for a quilt top! I'm leaning toward adding sashing and cornerstones this time, both to stabilize the bias edges of the blocks, and to make the quilt a little larger. I'm also considering the possibility of making more blocks and turning it into a full-size quilt for our bed.

The impetus for the full size quilt is that we spent the weekend ripping out a hideous dark brown shag carpet in our bedroom, and replacing it with laminate flooring. The room looks so beautiful that I'd love to make a brand new quilt for our bed! However, I am thinking I might join in on the Scrappy Trip Along fun and do that pattern in a full size quilt -- I absolutely love the way Camille's turned out!

Linking up with Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday!
 

Almost-finished Friday!

One of my goals this month is to concentrate on quilting the remaining pile of quilt tops from my summer sewing extravaganza (see this post for an explanation!). Between the tops I made before we left for California, and the ones I finished there, I ended up with 50 tops to quilt! There are about 20 remaining-- here are some of this week's "almost" finishes!

This is the last of three quilts I made from a Peak Hour fat quarter bundle (plus some miscellaneous yardage). I used the same green circles fabric to bind all three quilts. I think I purchased about a yard of that fabric originally...

....and I came SO close to having just enough to bind all three quilts! More has been ordered, and once it arrives, this one will be quickly finished and listed in the store!

I just love the large scale car fabric in this collection -- it made an adorable backing!

The second almost-finish of the week was another Riley Blake fabric quilt. This is the Puppy Park collection. I love the oranges, blues and browns in this one. I used my Hip to Be Square pattern, which makes great use of layer cakes.

Ironically, the fabric I chose for the backing (and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there is enough for the binding!) was a dot fabric from a different puppy collection -- Max and Whiskers by Basic Grey for Moda Fabrics.

The next quilt top is on the frame and ready to be quilted -- hopefully I"ll have at least two more to share next Friday!

Linking up with Amanda Jean's Finish-It-Up-Friday!

 

Mustache Quilt

Thank you to everyone for your lovely comments on my kids' Christmas quilts! As promised, here are some more details! For today's post, I'll focus on the mustache quilt:

My twelve year old daughter has been obsessed with mustaches this year, so I thought it would be fun to make her a quilt. I had planned to make my kids quilts as presents in 2011, but ran out of time, so I was determined to make it work in 2012! I originally purchased this pattern, which was really cute. However, when I actually sat down to work on it (December 23rd!) I couldn't decide what fabrics to use. I really wanted to use my daughter's favorite color combo of blue and orange, but it didn't seem to gel with the pattern. So, I went to the web for inspiration and found this tutorial by I'm A Ginger Monkey. I really loved the simplicity of the design, and the look of the mustaches in bright colors and bold prints. Since I was running low on time, and because I had some dark grey minky fabric for the backing that I wanted to tie in, I decided to appliqué the mustaches on a charcoal Kona cotton solid, and add in alternate fabric squares.

I started with some Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush fabrics that I had been hoarding saving for something special. I dug through all of my fabric collections for additional blue and orange fabrics, adding in some Joel Dewberry (Heirloom), some Denyse Schmidt (Flea Market Fancy), and other Anna Maria Horner fabrics (Field Study and Loulouthi).

I was able to trace, cut and fuse all of the mustaches in the morning, and then I did a LOT of blanket stitch appliqué after my daughter went to bed that night. (The blocks were cut at 10 inches square, and the blocks were set in a 6 x 7 grid). By midnight, the top was put together.

I was able to do the quilting the next day on my Viking Mega Quilter (my daughter was banned from the sewing room!). I decided to be brave and use orange thread, which actually turned out to be a nice blend with both the prints and the grey. I also decided to quilt right through the mustaches, and I'm very happy with the overall look.

I used minky on the back, but I did include Warm and Natural batting, too. I wanted the quilt to be super warm and cuddly.

The recipient was very happy. She knew a quilt was in the works, but she was very surprised by the mustaches and favorite colors!

I'll blog about my son's quilt later this week!