J is for Jaden: First Finish of 2013

Woo hoo! I'm off to a great start with my 2013 plan to finish stuff.

J is for Jaden is done!

It's a straight-up I Spy quilt, but I arranged the patchwork so that the values contrasted to create the initial J on the front.

I kept the quilting simple because I wanted a quick finish, and because I'm annoyed at Bernie right now for having such a terribly small throat that it really impedes my FMQ.

The light bits got quilted with a larger meander in white (Aurifil 50 wt):

And the darker bits got quilted with back and forth lines or concentric squares done via FMQ for a more organic look and so I didn't have to keep turning the quilt under the needle. Colour is a dark grey (Aurifil #5004 in 50 wt) which ended up blending beautifully with all of the darker-value fabrics.

nice blurry photo! *eyeroll*

I made the label by folding a square in half and stitching it on with a less than 1/4" seam allowance prior to applying the binding, which is Michael Miller Clown Stripe in a great blue.

I'm delighted with how it turned out, and it was a relatively fast project. Final size is 36"x48" - a nice playmat/crib size.

Here's G giggling as she is giving it a test-drive.

This counts toward my Q1 Finish A Long goals. Admittedly, this one was kind of a gimme since it was a quick project and already started. But I achieved my mini-goal of finishing it in time to gift it to my niece tonight. So yay for finishes!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Hello and welcome! I hope you're enjoying the Bloggers' Quilt Festival - a wonderful collection of beautiful quilts from all over the world!

I'm sharing my most recent finish for this BQF, Rainbow I Spy. It is a quilt for my 4-year-old daughter since she's outgrown the Hungry Caterpillar quilt I made her a couple of years ago.



I wanted this quilt to be fun, but able to grow with her a bit. I do like the idea of I Spy quilts but all those novelty prints can sometimes run the risk of being too young-feeling after a while.

Beginning with 6½" I Spy charms grouped by colour (including black/white), I double-framed them with strips in matching and complementary colours. Then, I arranged the blocks in ROYGBV order, inserting the black & white/white & black blocks before the R and between the Y and G. I'm really pleased with the outcome.

 

And so is my daughter, who hasn't let me take it off her bed long enough to stitch on the label.

I'd say it was a success!

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of the Festival.

WIP Wednesday + Bonus Tip

Woo hoo! So happy to have a finish this week.

Finished

Rainbow I Spy for my little girl, who loves it so much that I haven't been able to get it off her bed in order to get the label sewn on!

Bonus tip: I have been using fusible thread to fuse my binding prior to stitching it down (by hand or by machine), following this tutorial. With the I Spy quilt, I was really lazy eager to get going on it, so as a time-saver, I combined two steps by putting fusible thread in the bobbin for doing my usual stay-stitching around the outside of the quilt prior to trimming and binding. It worked great for securing the binding in place so that I could successfully stitch it down from the front.

Progress

Made another block to contribute to one of the group quilts that the Siblings Together Flickr Group is putting together.

Still Waiting for Attention

Habitat Pillow Covers
Heather R memory quilt
Charity Quilt 
New Wave
Kaleidoscope
Bee quilt (Jewel Squares)
Bee quilt (Circle of Geese) 

Stats
Completed Projects - 1 (yippeeeee!)
New Projects - 0
Currently in Progress - 7 (so nice to see this number going down!)


What are you up to this week? Come over to Lee's and Monika's and share!

Rainbow I Spy

No one is happier than I am that this quilt is finally finished, except perhaps its recipient, my daughter.

This project was one of my longest-standing WIPs. I began it in a Quilt Along in November, 2010. I worked on it at various retreats, but kept getting bumped by other projects.

The original design was intended to work with a charm pack (which are 5" squares) but I got all fancy and chose some 6½" I Spy charms I'd amassed, so it was a bit more work what with the calculating of all new cutting measurements and whatnot. The plus side is that the quilt ended up being more or less twin sized, which works well for Miss G's bed.

You may or may not be able to see it, but the colour of the charms' frames is planned. I chose the 40 I Spy charms based on what colour each one "read". Then using the colour pairings as follows - white/black, red/violet, orange/blue, yellow/green - I alternated the colours of the frames to contrast then match the charm. So the blue charms have an inner frame of orange, and an outer frame of blue.

I'd originally planned to lay out the quilt with one outer frame colour per row, but I didn't like the layout once I saw it all together. So I switched it up, and laid the blocks out sequentially in ROYGBV order with the addition of black and white in the sequence so that it was BROYWGBV.

It's quilted very simply: in the ditch, and in diagonal lines. I didn't even bother marking the diagonal lines; just eyeballed it and they came out very nicely if I do say so myself. Thread is Aurifil 40wt in variegated colour 3817 ("Crayons"). Binding fabric is a neat sketchy black and white gingham from the Love Me Leave Me Not line by Ro Gregg for Northcott. I did a bias binding because I love how it looks with a gingham, and this quilt is going to get a lot of washing so I wanted something durable.

This is a 100% stash quilt (YAY! Slash the Stash for May!), and even the striped fabric you see on the back is a repurposed IKEA duvet cover that we never ended up putting to use.

Linking up for the first time what seems like a very long time to {Sew} Modern Monday, Manic Monday and Fabric Tuesday (buttons on the left sidebar)! Woot!

WIP Wednesday: Just Three Report

I swear I sewed this month! But I feel like I have precious little to show for it. Strange.

Anyhoodle, I did manage to make great progress on this WIP:

It's backed, basted, quilted and trimmed! All that's left is to bind it. Here's a sneak peek:

Full reveal is coming soon. Just needs binding and crinkling.

No progress was made on anything else. But that brings me to my Just Three report and list of Just Three Things I wish to accomplish in May. (Go here for Just Three details then do come and join us!)

April's Three:
1. Finish the tutorial for the scrappy potholder - done!
2. Make a backing for the I Spy Quilt - done (photo soon).
3. Baste the I Spy Quilt - goal exceeded - quilt is quilted!

May's Three:
1. Complete the I Spy Quilt. A gimme, I know. What can I say? I'd like to start the month with a win, okay?
2. Complete the Habitat Pillow Covers (last pictured here). I mean, really. This project has been a WIP for too long considering they're a gift. My sister's probably completely forgotten about them by now. To recap, three of four tops are pieced, and the fourth is ready to go (81 bleeping 2½" squares - *sob*).
3. Piece the Memory Quilt. This project is technically not a WIP because I haven't cut any fabric. But I will, gosh darn it. I WILL!!

This week's WIP stats:
Completed Projects - 0 (but we're close, friends!)
New Projects - 0
In Progress - 8

Linking up with Lee and Monika and also Tracey. Lots of linkies this week! Please check them out and join on in.

WIP Wednesday

Did you know I'm doing a giveaway of 5 BasicGrey patterns? It ends tonight (Wednesday) but there still time to enter. Go here and check it out.

****************************************

Hooray! It's the First Day of Spring! We had hail yesterday! Woot! (sarcasm)

I have chugged along on my 2012 Project list.

Finished

March's block for Amy in Stash Trad Bee - a traditional block called Winged Square. Tutorial here. She asked us to select a centre fabric that reads two-coloured, then to use scraps to carry those colours out in each "wing" of the Winged Square. Neat, eh? The background is Essex Linen in Natural.

Folks, this bee is chock-a-block full of keeners and over-achievers, many of whom have the block finished before the month even starts. I've had to up my game and relinquish my position as President of the Last Minute Club, at least where this bee is concerned.

Made Some Progress

I'm really close on my Layer Cake version of Easy Going Modern. She's all quilted and just needs to be trimmed and bound. I found the perfect fabric for binding in my stash. Stay tuned for the full reveal and you will see it!

The backing is a thrifted IKEA duvet cover. I quilted the same wavy lines as on my original Easy Going Modern but I used a few different threads. Again, more detail in the full reveal post when it's all bound, washed and crinkled.

I've also finally pieced the top for G's I Spy quilt!

I began this one in a quilt-along approximately 1,000 years ago and I'm so pleased that it's close to being done. The backing has been selected - that just needs to be pieced, then I'll be ready to baste and quilt. See what I mean by chugging along? I'm a regular old Thomas the Tank Engine here, people!

I also worked on my Stacked Strips/Books quilt but ran out of Kona Snow. I got out on the weekend to pick some up, then came home and found the 2 metres I already had set aside for the project. Whoops. When I start doing dumb stuff like that, I can tell I have too many balls in the air. Or as I like to say, when there's too much in my mind, some stuff falls out. Please tell me I'm not the only one.

No Progress
Habitat Pillow Covers
Kaleidoscope (on hold)
Heather R memory quilt
Charity Quilt
New Wave
Bee quilt (Jewel Squares)
Bee quilt (Circle of Geese) 

This Week's Stats
Completed Projects - 0 (the bee is ongoing)
New Projects - 0 
Currently in Progress - 10 


Quite happy with my forward movement on various projects this week. Thanks for stopping by for WIP Wednesday - please do go see what everyone's been up to at Lee's and Monika's.

WIP Wednesday

Because I got so much done on retreat on Saturday, this is a combo retreat report and WIP update. I haven't had a WIP Wednesday post in a while because I really haven't had much to show. Not so this week!

Finished

The Crane Star pillow, blogged here. I am so, so happy with this project!

Progress

I Spy Quilt:

During the retreat, I was annoyed to discover that I hadn't cut enough of the black inner framing strips for 3 of those white-bordered blocks so I had to halt production on this project and move on to other stuff (you can see the blank spots in the layout where I was thinking the blocks could go). They're now pieced, and I've made some great progress on assembling the top since the photo was taken.

Habitat Challenge pillow covers:

Oh brother - am I ever kicking myself for choosing this interlocking star layout for the pillow. The design itself is fine - I really like it. What I didn't think through was that there are 81 darn squares in this layout, MOST of which require the little star points to be added to them. Yes, they're wonky, so they don't require precision, but they're still time-consuming. I managed to finish off all of the star points (forgot to photograph!), and the pieces are ready to be pieced into the pillow front.

I also basted Easy Going Modern (the LC version) as planned, so it's all set to get quilted. Soon.

New Projects

Stacked Strips:

New project alert! I was so inspired by the blocks that I won, I needed to put them together right away. I got as far as piecing the blocks into four columns of varying heights. They look like stacks of books, don't they? I'll finish the rest of the top with the Kona Snow background including a strip between each stack so that I don't have to deal with all of those seams coming together. Plus, it will add some girth to the quilt to make it a more useable size. I'm aiming for 3" strips between the columns and perhaps along the outside edges as well. That will make the top finish at around 60" wide, which is a nice lap quilt width. Height will be 70" ish, I think. Depends how much Kona Snow I've got!

No Progress
Kaleidoscope (on hold)
Heather R memory quilt
Charity Quilt
New Wave
Bee quilt (Jewel Squares)
Bee quilt (Circle of Geese)

This Week's Stats
Completed Projects - 1
New Projects - 1
Currently in Progress - 10 (why doesn't this number ever seem to go down?!)

Whew! That was a long one - I think my Project List has been caught up nicely. What's everyone else doing over at Lee's and Monika's? Go see!

Quilt Along Fabrics

Because I don't have nearly enough on my to-sew list (nyuk nyuk nyuk - as IF), I've joined another Quilt-Along over at That Girl That Quilt.

They're a great way to try something new, or to get to some fabrics you've been stashing. It's very much my style - doing a little bit at a time.

So I'm going to be making a Rainbow I Spy quilt. An I Spy (or "eye spy" as it's sometimes called) is a quilt that's made with fabrics that can be used to play "I Spy" - conversationals, odd motifs, etc.

I've chosen 5 I Spy charms in 8 colours to follow ROYGBV plus white on black and black on white.

Still working on the cutting (it's slow going because I'm using some FQs and scraps, and I am trying to make sure ahead of time that I've got enough to go round).