Winter Forest

This is a quilt I started last winter, before I put all the Christmas fabrics away.  It languished as a WIP most of the year because I couldn't decide how to quilt it and I didn't know what I was going to do with it.  I've been practicing my free motion quilting and finally decided that I simply had to bite the bullet and just do it.  This seemed like a good quilt to sacrifice because it wasn't very big and I didn't know what I was going to do it with it anyway.

 I am so unbelievably pleased with the way the quilting turned out.  I quilted it with a loopy meander.  I can't for the life of me get the movement of stippling down, but this loopy meander comes naturally.  I really like the cut down trees.  It was a great use for the end of the strip that I cut the triangles from.  I believe these are either 50 or 45 degree triangles.  I don't remember which I used.

Lookit!!!!  I FMQ'd!!!!

Words of Wisdom

I just read a quote on someone else's blog that really helped me think about quilting and crafting in a new way.  I keep thinking I need to turn my hobby into a business.  I'm a stay at home mom who's 2 children will both be in school next year.  I keep thinking I should do something oriented towards a profit stream.  Since I want to spend most of my day quilting, that would seem to be a logical direction. The truth is I don't like making the same quilt over and over.  I like my process to be fluid.  I have one pattern that I've sold and the truth is even when making my own pattern, I can't stick to the directions.

I'm just finishing up a quilt that I made with the idea of writing a pattern.  However, I made a few cutting mistakes and instead of starting over, I just fluidly incorporated the mistakes.  I love doing that.  However, now I'd have to make another quilt following the pattern directions to have a picture for the pattern cover.  I just don't want to.  I even have some of the fabric cut.  I explored that idea and now I'm ready to move on.

So the quote that inspired me today is from Leah Day, who said, "A craft is worth pursuing ONLY if you can pursue what you want, when you want to."


There have been times this year when I simply haven't quilted because I told myself I HAD to work on that pattern idea, so I just did nothing instead.  I sort of stubborn that way.  It's nice to have a paradigm shift every once in a while.

Red and Aqua

I made a red and aqua quilt for a friend of mine.  I introduced her to quilting so I would have someone to share my obsession with.  It worked a little too well.  She is awesome and adventurous and tries patterns I would never attempt.  As a just because you are great present, I made her this quilt.

 I quilted it very simply through the diagonals of all the squares.  I didn't get a single pucker, so I'm clearly doing something right and improving my technique.

 The back is my usual thing with scraps from the front.  Originally, I was going to sprinkle the grey stars through the front, but I just didn't get the contrast in values sharp enough.  They work fine on the back.

 I'm going to have to try those stars sprinkled in patchwork again.  It's a good idea.  i just need the right fabrics.

Hexies

Hexies are going swimmingly.  I have been limiting myself to just working on them outside the house.  I was working on them at night while watching TV, but after a few days my hands and wrists started to hurt.  Everything in moderation, right?

I've gotten a few more done since I took this picture.  Surprisingly, I'm really enjoying sewing these by hand.  I think I'm going to make a body pillow cover for Baby Girl's room.  I need to pull out the pink scrap bin and start adding those in to balance out the blues and greens.

Dog Shaming

Have you seen the website Dog-Shaming?  It's hilarious.  My kids love it.  Everyday, when the Wee Monsieur gets home from school, he wants to see if there are any new entries.  He insisted that we make our own version for our dogs.

There isn't enough time to list all the crime committed by Loki on the right.  He eats everything.  Little did I know, that we would soon have a new crime to add to the list.

That is my first hexagon flower.  Loki peeled all the papers out of it.  He only pulled out a few basting stitches, so I think it should be an easy fix.  But seriously, he ate all the papers out of my fabric?!  This dog also once very carefully pulled $62 in bills out of my husband's leather wallet, which was in his pants pocket.  The pants had been dropped on the floor, but neither the pants nor the wallet were harmed.  If you want to know how I know it was $62, I found them encased in poop in the backyard.  The bills were completely intact.  I cleaned them sterilized them and put them in ziplock bags and turned them into the bank as damaged.  It was 62 dollars!  You can imagine that the bank was not happy with me.

I was going to have a happy hexie post with nice photos of my first hexie flower, but you know who ruined that.  When I get another one made, I'll post it.

Christmas Pillowcases

I finished these last month, but it took me a while to find my camera.  Apparently it was in the car, who knew! I made some pillow cases for the nephews last Christmas and my SIL commissioned me to make her some Christmas themed ones.  I had to wait until the new Christmas fabrics came out to get started.  Nothing like Christmas in July.  SIL wanted a pair of pillow cases to use in the family room and a pair for her boys.  I thought the presents were a great general Christmas theme and the contrasting cuff of the red with Merry Christmas in many languages was a nice pairing.

 For the boys, the Grinch is one of their favorites, so that's what I used.  Ordinarily, I don't use much white when sewing for kids, but I thought pillowcases would be relatively safe.

Pinwheels

I've been wanting to make a pinwheel quilt for a while.  Last Spring I found out that the preschool teacher, who has taught both kiddos for the last 2 years and who is teaching Baby Girl this year, was expecting baby girl #3 in September.  She said she was planning on using the purple nursery she had already from the first two.  That gave me the idea of using purple and yellow as they are complementary colors and have a good value contrast.  I had to buy a bunch of purples as that is not a color I use very often.  It's good to have an excuse to beef up the stash. 

 Most of the pinwheels are unique fabric combinations.  I had enough fabrics that there are only a few places where I used the same combo twice.  Of course, I forgot to get a close up.  I love how some of the fabrics stand out more than others and how the secondary pattern of the quarter square triangles comes out when you least expect it.  I thought about mixing the HST components up completely before making the pinwheels, but then I thought the pinwheel pattern might get lost completely.

It's about 58 inches square, which is a good cuddle lap size.  I like to make baby quilts that are big enough to cuddle with the baby under.  I quilted it in cross hatching diagonals.  I've had really good luck quilting on the bias lately.  I haven't had any bunching.

For the backing, I took a single yard and half cut and sliced and diced and added fabric until it was big enough.  I had to go back and add two more strips after starting to baste when I realized it wasn't big enough.  Then I had to take out a quarter of my basting pins after I finished when I realized I had a big pucker in the backing.  Sigh, but at least it's done.  It's bound in a lavender and yellow stripe.

I don't have the HST bug out of my system.  I'm debating a king sized HST quilt, but I'm also leaning towards using half rectangle triangles.