Swoon

This pattern has been making the rounds on a number of blogs I read.  I then headed over to Simplify, and fell in LOVE with it immediately.  I have enough Just wing it fabric and Central Park from my other quilts this year to make 9 beautiful blocks!  (This made my husband VERY happy)

I have been feeling pretty crappy.  I have poison ivy all over my chin, neck and collarbone.  It's behind my ears, and has just surfaced on the back of my hands... basically I'm itchy and irritated and trying not to give it to the baby.  On top of that something we made on Sunday made my husband and I violently ill.  It's over now, I think it was eggs... but still UGH.  So the completion of the following block made me pretty happy!

Just wing it Tomato w/ Penny Lane Stripe

I'm not totally convinced about the stripe in this particular application... But I'm VERY happy that my first attempt at half square triangles, and flying geese turned out so well!

Just Wing it... my circle quilt

I used "Just Wing It" by Moda in this quilt.  I love these fabrics, and I have alot left so expect more!  I took the name to heart and tried to not over plan this quilt.  Each step was considered separately so the quilt would take me somewhere.  I am THRILLED with the final product. 

Each circle is made from a charm square, and is almost 5" in diameter.  I appliqued them on, and then quilted around each circle.  This seemed like an easy but tedious task.  I was completely wrong about that.  It was seriously difficult.  I own a standard sewing machine, and this quilt is about 41x48"... A picture is worth a thousand words here:

As you can see that's the ENTIRE quilt having to pass between the side of the sewing machine and the needle.  To make matters worse, right there is the button you press to stitch backwards, and every time the massive mass of fabric would press it!

My lovely husband, quilt model and stylist.

I put the winged flight large pattern on the back.  It's GORGEOUS!  I felt no need to do any piecing, this is just a fun beautiful back.  I also broke out the spray adhesive again... referring again to the above photo I have no idea how pin basting would survive the amount of crumpling I needed to do to get the quilt around, but the glue did a beautiful job!

I have some photos from before the wash, it's very smooth and pretty and it's easier to see the zig zag quilting I did in the corners.  I *gasp* "stitched in the ditch" for the squares, and around the circles.  It looks fantastic!  I read on some blog somewhere that it's not considered modern to stitch in the ditch, and frankly i'm really terrible at it and my "ditches" aren't lined up all that well making the stitching dubious at times, but i'm super glad I did it.  I put some fun zig-zag in the corners which looks great, I love the look of straight line quilting.

The binding is Penny Lane, and the most perfect stripe ever!  My favorite bindings are stripes! 

Today was a beautiful day!  This is a beautiful quilt!

Quilt Expo!

I went to my first Quilting Expo on Friday.  It was HUGE!!  I had no idea.  It was the Quilters Unlimited of Northern VA and there were over 350 displayed quilts from the members not to mention the vendors from all over the country who had dozens of quilts on display.

Everyone should check out a quilt show at some point.  It is a breathtaking event, so many hours have been devoted to making these beautiful works of art.  The vendors were also a huge draw for me, my closest quilting shop is almost an hour away.  I was lamenting this as I spoke to the various vendors and scooped up lots of new fabric and quilting tools, and apparently this is a normal thing.  Quilt shops are going out of business all over the country.  Many of them are also on the internet and Etsy, but (much like yarn shops... where I have already experienced this precise phenomenon) the fabric markup isn't enough to really support a brick and mortar store.  It is harder to pick out fabrics online, and in my opinion sort of takes away some of the fun when I feel obliged to buy a pre-made bundle because I can't trust my monitor to match colors.  There is another expo in September.  I cannot wait!!

I was with the baby in the Ergo, she is a sweetie-pie and even managed to sleep a little bit while I was there.  Here are some of my favorite quilts!  (These were taken w/my phone with a baby trying to grab and chew my phone, so the quality isn't hot... but you get the idea.

The Artful Quilter - Kaffe Fassett Stripes!

Westminster floral fabrics... this pic doesn't do it justice

Quilt guild quilt.

This is a very modern arrangement with very traditional florals, the juxtaposition was beautiful

A colorful Irish Chain Quilt

Awesome modern snowflake quilt

a contender for a quilt for my mom

I love rainbow squares!

Fab use of jelly roll!

My circle quilt backing has arrived!  Hopefully that can be finished up this week!!

Circle Top!

It's been a very busy week, I have a 10mo old and she is a busy busy bee!! 

Anyway I did manage to get the top of this quilt finished, and I ordered some snazzy fabric for the back.  I haven't decided on binding yet, but I am looking forward to quilting this. 

I actually cut out all the 6" white squares, I NEVER do this, seems so pointless to cut out and sew back together solid fabric.  This time I felt it would give me way more flexibility for the final quilt pattern.  It is still in development, but I'm getting antsy to get started.  I totally got the hang of the applique, and it was actually pretty fun!  My machine doesn't have blanket stitch, so I used zig-zag... It looks good.

The final design is perfectly symmetrical.  See you can take the graph paper away from the girl.. but she will then just make her fabric into graph paper...   I have not made a single drawing, so my challenge to myself on this quilt is still holding.

Tomorrow I am going to a quilt expo.  I have no idea what this will entail, but I'm hoping there will be pretty quilts to see lots of cheap fat quarters to buy!  I will probably post about that and show my new wares. :)