I'm back!

Wow, I can't believe it's been a whole month since my last post.  I was on a quilting hiatus for awhile because I was having trouble assembling the blue and green baby quilt.  I put it aside and haven't it touched it since.  Weeks later I decided to revisit the coal and parsley quilt I started months ago.  I finished the back earlier this week and now I'm on to basting.

I really love the back.  It looks like a bamboo forest at sunset.

mod pod quilt

I'm finally putting my winnings to good use and making a mod pod quilt for my boyfriend's best friend's infant son. I'm deliberately taking my time on this one; I tend to make mistakes when I rush.  In this case the new parents aren't expecting a gift from us so I have the luxury of time.  Although, I would like to finish this quilt before the kid is weaned. 

I'm a little concerned that the solids and print are too matchy-matchy.  What do you think?

Ha!  I just noticed that there's a fly on the Rhino's snout!

it's quilt festival time

I'm really proud to be participating in this year's Blogger's Quilt Festival. I'm going to share a quilt that has been given many names.  In it's infancy I simply called it the Zig Zag Quilt.  After it was finished it was dubbed the Circus Tent Quilt.  Finally it became known as Lila's Quilt when it reached the hands of it's intended recipient.

This quilt was a gift to my boyfriend's mother.  Back in April her eldest son, my boyfriend's brother, announced that he was moving 500 miles away to Denver.  I anticipated that the adjustment would be hard for her and quickly got to work making a quilt especially for her.  Nick told me she liked fall colors so I picked a color palette from The Color Scheme Bible that I thought best represented the season.

She was really pleased with the quilt when she received it.  She told my boyfriend that it's going to be hung in a place of honor in her home: the living room sofa.

new project!

 

It looks like I'm going to be busy this week.  ; ) 

Oh, and thanks again for the encouraging comments in my last post.  I'm going to keep on trucking.

time for doubts

"Meh" pretty much sums up how I feel about this quilt right now.  I know this feeling will pass, it always does.  But I essentially gave birth to this quilt and I feel like a bad mother for not loving it unconditionally.

parsley and coal

I started a new project last week. I'm going to turn these two stacks of fabric

into a quilt that resembles this crude sketch:

Here's what I've got so far:

That's all, folks!

red and white do not always make pink

Title:  Little Red Hen Quilt
Size:  Approx. 30 inches square
Fabrics:  Snow and Tomato (Kona Cotton)

When I first designed this quilt I was having a love affair with wonky stars.  I even have a row of them cascading down the back of my zig zag quilt.  This design is simple, and the construction was even simpler.

I didn't prewash any of the fabrics so I was really worried when it was time to throw the quilt into the washer.  For good measure I also threw in a Color Catcher sheet to prevent discoloring.  It turns out I had worried for nothing. A half an hour later I opened up the washer to find that the sheet had not picked up any stray dye!  Phooey!  I guess it does attest to the superior quality of Robert Kaufman fabrics, though.

Anyway, I'm really happy about the results.  It feels really good to see a simple sketch on graph paper turn into an actual quilt. 

My favorite part of the quilt is the little touches of red on the binding.  It reminds me of striped calf-high athletic socks.

A big bag of excuses

Reasons why I haven't been posting lately:

• I'm going through a bout of post graduation blues
• I just adopted a new diet and work-out regimen
• I've been playing waaaaay too much Mario Kart Wii
• I'm lazy

Although all of the above has contributed to the sparse updates, I think the primary reason lies with my inability to handle set backs. 

See the puckering between the last two lines in the middle?  It's a huge problem that I've already tried to remedy twice now.  After several sessions of pulling out stitches, I put it aside and declared that I would think about it tomorrow (ala Scarlett O'Hara).  It's been nearly a week and the quilt is still unfinished.

I promise that I will have this quilt quilted, bound and washed by Wednesday.  I often break promises to myself, but I'll be damned if I break a promise to my reader(s).

Big ole mess

Remember those improvised blocks I made from scraps?  Well, I finally decided to make a mini quilt out of them.  My initial idea was to simply sew them together and create a back using additional scraps.  Not content with something simple, I made a few alterations.

I honestly don't know how to feel about it.  Part of me definitely hates it.  But the remaining part is keeping an open mind, hoping that the quilting and binding will improve the whole look of the quilt.

The plans I had for the back of the quilt under went several revisions.  I had a stack of "butt ends" that I cut off from the strips I used in the zig zag quilt. 

I sewed them together in rows and ended up with this:

I took out my rotary cutter.

Yuck.
Guys, I'm like King Midas in reverse.  :(

Hawaiian Quilting

Today I wanted to share some of my grandmother's work.  She has been quilting on and off for the last ten years.  I really admire her because she does everything by hand.  She exclusively does Hawaiian quilting and wouldn't even think about doing a patchwork quilt.  They just don't appeal to her.  You should know that my grandmother is a chronic procrastinator and most of her quilts are in various states of completeness. 

Pineapple

Breadfruit

Atherium

No idea

Another breadfruit

Taro

My favorite one, and thus far the only complete one in the whole collection, is the pineapple quilt.  It's just so yellow and cheery.

The Little Red Hen

The wonky star quilt has now been dubbed the Little Red Hen quilt.  Why?  I'm not entirely sure.  It's something like the word association game.  I just picked the first thing that came to mind when I saw it. 

The back of the quilt is coming along nicely.  It's not done, obviously, but I just wanted to give you an idea of what it will eventually look like once I piece it together.

I still like it even though the bulls eye block reminds me of the Target logo.

Whew

The Zig Zag quilt is finally done and ready to be shipped to my boyfriend's mother in South Dakota.  I don't have a lot to say about this quilt that hasn't already been said in previous posts.  I'm satisfied with how it turned out and I wouldn't change a single detail. 

My boyfriend just purchased a Cannon SLR and was kind enough to snap a few pics of my quilt.

He let me take a few too.

Red! Red! Red!

 This was my original plan for the wonky star quilt:

I wasn't exactly thrilled with the quilt when I saw it at this point in it's construction.  As much as I liked the color scheme, the blue star didn't seem to fit.  The smallest star, from afar, looked like a giant, blotchy stain.  After some hesitation, I decided to go in a different direction and created another block.

Wow!  I can't get over the richness and vibrancy of the red.

What a huge difference a few simple tweaks can make.  I'm glad I took a risk (albeit, a relatively small one) and experimented a little.

This post is about binding

After consulting the internet, I finally picked a suitable binding color for the Zig Zag Quilt. 

I can't wait to pack it up and ship it to to South Dakota.  Have you ever worked on a project for so long that the mere sight of it can make you sick?  Every time I look at this quilt I let out an audible groan.  Now I'm beginning to see why some quilters juggle three or more projects at a time; variety makes the work more enjoyable.  Looking at the same color palette for weeks on end could drive someone mad.  Well, that concludes this week's quilting rant.  Ta ta.

Sunrise, Sunset

Sunrise:
Finally, I have a new project to blog about!  I really love the tomato red.  It's so vibrant and rich.

Sunset:
Finally, the Zig Zag quilt is being quilted!  I took these pictures while the sun was setting.  I'm just noticing now how the light gives the whole quilt a pleasant, warm, yellowish hue.