WIP sneak peek

Here's a sneaky of what I've been working on for the last little bit - and it is what has generated all of those half square triangles for the last two baby quilts. I'm working hard on the quilting right now which is a little slow going. It's the largest thing I've quilted myself - 72" square. I'm hoping to have it finished this weekend and bound and ready to give to a friend next week as a surprise.

This quilt has totally confirmed two things for me -
1. I love my new machine, especially now that I've found the setting that keeps my presser foot pressed.
2. There is no way that I could have quilted my sister-in-law's quilt myself so I'm glad that my good friend Tamie helped me come to that decision and I handed it over to a professional. Sometimes it is a small price to pay for keeping your sanity.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday -


xoxoxoxox

HST love - round 2

Told you. I can't get enough of these half square triangle quilts. I finished this one and donated it last week at my state guild's spring meeting. It's going to a charity called Covering South Carolina Kids. I had enough scraps left over from a big quilt that I'm working on to make this one and one other. I only have about 18" more to do on the binding so I should have that one ready to post in a day or two.

Top is all Kona cottons. Border is ash grey. HSTs are butter, banana, violet, thistle, magenta and purple.

The back is a Robert Kaufman flannel. This was my first time using flannel. Don't think I'm a huge fan. It's very. . . sticky. Lots of drag on my sewing table. It sure is snuggly though. And this was my first time machine stitching binding. Not my best binding ever but one hour as opposed to six? In the interest of time, I'll take it, friends.

Linking up to Sew Modern Monday.

xoxoxox

Quilt for Wilkes

Oh my. A new obsession. I made this quilt for a friend's baby (idea 100% borrowed from here) and I can't stop. I'm obsessed. I've made two more this weekend out of scraps from another quilt that I'm working on. I should be finishing that quilt but the obsession took over. More on those later.

All fabrics are Kona cottons - snow, cactus, ash, medium grey, coal and pepper. Squares finished at 4". No pattern except using the link above for inspiration. It's hard for me to be random but I think I did a pretty good job. I chain pieced pieces as I picked them up until I had blocks of four squares. I waited until then to do a layout just so that I made sure that my acid greens and nearly blacks weren't too clumped up. You could play around with the layout forever, switching blocks here and there, but at some point you have to call it done. Scott came in and eyeballed it with me and I think we only ended up making two swaps. I really like some of the random things that happened on their own, like those four white triangles coming together to form one big white on point square. I really do love it. And as I was looking at the two tops I pieced last night, I think I have more of this quilt in me. Maybe even one that will stay with me.

And this fabric on the back? Totally fab. From the Backyard Baby collection by Patty Sloniger.  I thought the super modern, sort of hard front needed some softening.

Can't you feel the breeze blowing? Don't you want to sit down next to that puppy and give him a good scratch between his ears? I do. Love.

Linking up to Sew Modern Monday.


xoxoxox

Getting to know you. . .

. . . getting to know all about you.

Meet Astrid, my new baby.  She's a Viking Tribute 140C. I think I'm in love.

During the nightmare of having my Bernina serviced, I decided I wanted a backup. You know, an inexpensive machine that would get me through the several weeks long typical service turnaround. Maybe something lighter and easier to travel with than my 19.5lb machine.

Ahem. Throw all that out the window. Astrid was perhaps slightly more expensive than my Bernina. (Thanks to my fairy godmother for making it possible.) She weighs 21lbs according to my scale. But in my opinion totally worth both of those things. So many more features. More stitches, including automatic back-tacking. If the foot is up and I tap the foot pedal, the foot automatically lowers. If I'm in the needle down position and I stop sewing, the foot raises ever so slightly. Two lights. The list goes on and on. But you know the best thing? A full four inches more of harp space. Oh, I can't wait to quilt. And that stack of blocks next to pretty, pretty Astrid? Those will be a quilt top before I go to bed tonight.

Back to it, my peeps. I have pictures of a quilt that I finished more than a week ago that I need to post. I'll do that tomorrow.

xoxoxoxox