Billboard Quilt W-A-R-M

Remember this quilt along?

Yep I'm still working it!  Just wanted to have some actual progress before i started throwing pics up :)  I hope to have all the letters done this week. 

I'm about halfway done with the letters for this quilt.  I'm VERY glad I chose something simple to write.  To be honest, each letter is going faster and faster, but the part in the process where i have to cut out 40 tiny shapes that are weird sizes is SO TEDIOUS.  It's the worst, it makes me angry it's so boring.  That's why I only do one letter a day :)  It's totally weird, because the farmer's wife blocks are MUCH smaller and normally have way more pieces and I enjoy cutting them out.  So it makes no sense, but one letter a day seems to be my pace.

What's funny is the "M" I picked the colors as i was cutting it out instead of picking them upfront, and I was totally positive this would be not a strong letter.  NOPE!  It's my favorite!

So here we are on Kona Eggplant.   The final backdrop!  I haven't appliqued yet.  Just makin' letters.



Don't forget the back is already in progress.  This pretty quilt should be coming together very soon.  I'm still at a complete loss at the quilting, but I find that after the quilt sandwich has been made something always comes to me.

Farmer's Wife Week 13 and 14!

Last week there was alot going on, and I REALLY wanted to finish my summer sampler, so it's done and this week I got to make 4 squares!  (Really hard ones)

That block on the right is the infamous "cut glass"  TINY TINY little HST's.  So glad that's done!

I absolutely love these two.  They came out beautifully

I also took the time to square up the other 24 blocks.  I have to say, I was surprised, my blocks are actually 6.5" square.  There are the two that I paper pieced that came out 4"  (yes i printed at 100%) no idea why that happened.  I'll probably remake those and include the too small blocks on the back.


 
Anyway here they are!  In all 28 of their glory. 
 

WIP Wednesday

Ahh my first one. Drawing back the curtain to see how much nonsense I have going on.

To set the stage...

Finished!

SUMMER SAMPLER! - HOORAY and it looks excellent if I do say so myself.

Actively in the Queue

1. Billboard Quilt Along - Completed the letters "W" and "A" hope to finish the "R" tonight
2. Farmer's Wife Quilt Along - 27 Blocks done, one more TBD this week. - Should be no problem
3. "100 quilts for kids" charity quilts - 4 sets of squares ready to go!

and like Ravelry...

Hibernating
1. Another city subway map. Half the squares are done. Not everything is cut. I'm waiting until my sewing skills improve a bit more so the more difficult blocks come out nicer. I'm already going to have to redo at least one at this point.

Summer Sampler and a 13 mo old baby

I know!! 13 MONTHS I can't even believe it.  Firstly, she is such a big girl, she was so small last year and now she is running and babbling and secondly, we've only had her for 13 months!  It seems unbelievable that she was never with us, when in reality my husband and I were without children for the first 6 years of our relationship!



So the quilt... I LOVE IT!  The quilting is blocks is bias lines that are 3/4" apart.  There are seven in a pack, then about 6.5" later I repeated.  The effect is that the center of every block has a diamond of 36 blocks.  It looks so fantastic on the blocks, it highlights them and conceals mistakes at the same time!  There is also a grid in the squares inbetween it all looks amazing!  I did the quilting during hurricane Irene (which for us was just a windy rainstorm).





The back is white flannel which is incredibly snuggly and some scraps that I arranged.  They are 5" wide and just whatever fit!  I think it looks fresh and modern and the quilting sets it off nicely. 

I wanted the binding to be Loulouthi as well, but the acquisition of the fabric in question was going to be time consuming and expensive so I went for this cheery coral polka dot!  It is super cute.



I have already taken a nap under this blanket.  It worked VERY well.   As you can see kitties find it suitable for naps as well.

Happy Birthday Liz - Fun Hurricane Weekend

Yesterday was my birthday!  Hooray!  My wonderful husband got me THIS!!  CAN YOU BELIEVE IT! 

He also made me steak and fries for dinner with a red wine sauce, and brownies for dessert. MMMMM.  It was a great day

Having a birthday at the end of August typically means there is a hurricane somewhere, and occassionally there is some rain from a hurricane, but this year, (supposedly) we are a bit closer to the path.  We live about 40 miles outside DC, and I think it's going to be drizzling and windy.  Nevertheless we have put the deck furniture away.

What is funny is yesterday was a nice day, and before we went to the store (really to just get stuff we're low on...) I made sure to spray baste my Summer Sampler quilt!  Yep!  It has to be done outside when it's light out, and ideally my husband is there to help me.  So it's ready to be quilted.  I figured i'd be home all weekend and wanted to get that going.  No pics because the back design is a surprise :)

I spent the morning today making Barefoot Contessa Panzanella.  Delicious.   I bet she was evacuated from the Hamptons.  Oh well.  I'm enjoying her recipes to ride out this storm in style :)

Summer Sampler Top FINISHED!

Today after Isabella and I took our morning walk, I decided it was time to photograph the top of my Summer Sampler!  She as always was incredibly helpful.  The weather here in NoVA (earthquake notwithstanding) has been glorious this week and we've been really taking advantage of it.

I first sashed all the blocks in Kona white with 2.5" sashing... This was required because the blocks were vastly different sizes, I then cut them all to 14.5x14.5 This looked amazing. I have never cut blocks down to make them the same, and they all looked incredible.

Next I added 2" sashing in between them to connect them all together. I used a method just casually mentioned to me by Kate of SwimBikeQuilt, she told me to measure my area to be sashed, cut the sashing to fit and then MAKE SURE IT FITS! WELL, I had always jsut worked with big long strips and sewed them on. This apparently is a terrible idea because when you actually measure and make it fit, things turn out SQUARE! So this is the most rectangular thing I have ever made. It is only 1" off from side to side,and that's only on one side, the other dimension is perfect! THANK YOU KATE!

Incidentally Kate (and all of us in the Modern DC Quilt Guild) are starting the 100 quilts for kids project.  Note the button on the side of the blog ->  Please take time to check it out and even participate!  Goodness knows we all have stacks of quilts lying around (well I actually only have 3) and could easily take some time to whip one up for someone else.

I am extremely excited to quilt this up. I have some neat ideas and i'm jazzed to try them out.
Unfortunately I'm feeling uncreative about the back, so I'm not sure that will be all that excting, but
hopefully it will be finished soon and ready for snuggling!

ikea quilts

I love ikea fabric. It's 48" wide and comes in 3yd hunks for about $6. The colors are really bright and fun, and I think perfect for new baby quilts.

These two are for my friend who just had identical twin boys. Yep. How neat is that! Babies require almost and infinite amount of blankets, so I think these will make a wonderful gift to be used as a blanket or play mat or whatever!

The front is the fun hippo print combined with a big wide stripe that I cut into triangles and sewed together to make that nifty concentric square thing happen. I'm thinking of posting a tutorial on how to make that work every time. It's a great way to make striped fabric really work for you.

The back is a bright fun flannel with just a band of the hippo print. The binding is another stripe. I attempted to machine on this binding, but frankly it took as long as it would to hand sew it. I will continue to work on this skill, but i'm not in "love" with how the machined on binding looks, and I really like the last moments with my quilts before they are finished, quietly hand sewing. It provides closure.

As you can see the quilts then took a trip around my neighborhood. I am always looking for fun new ways to photograph my projects. Especially during the nice warm months!