Finished quilt front: 30 Days of Creativity: Day 26

30 Days of Creativity: Day 26

I finally finished the quilt top for my son's bed!

Ahhhhhh.

12 blocks: 30 Days of Creativity: Day 24

30 Days of Creativity: Day 24

Quilt blocks done

After hours of pinning and sewing...

I finally got these 12 blocks done!

Twelve big circles just waiting to become a quilt.

Nearly there.

This Denyse Schmidt "Single Girl" quilt will get done yet.

Quilt Pieces: 30 Days of Creativity: Day 23

30 Days of Creativity: Day 23

More Quilt Process

Finally I finished all the main blocks!

Now I just have to sew these 48 pieces into 12 larger blocks...

And then those 12 blocks to each other...

And then sandwich it with the back and batting...

And then quilt it...

And then bind it.

Woah.

I better keep going.

Quilt Progress: 30 Days of Creativity: Day 20

30 Days of Creativity: Day 20

Quilt Progress

Making progress today.  Finished many quarter squares.

Goal of finishing the blocking by moving date is still possible.

I just have to say that five days ago I was ready to call it quits.  But it just so happens that I keep making "something" everyday, even if family is in town, or suddenly I get a call that someone is here to look at our house, or the boys seem to get possessed by craziness.  Yes, it happens.  Every day there is a nutty element thrown in, but I keep making something.  So, here we are, 20 days down, 10 days to go.  2/3 is pretty damn good.

Woot.  Woot.

And on we go...

Single Girl Quilt Take 2

Finally got all my circles sewn together.  31 x 12 = 372.  Again, I was very systematic, sewing all A pieces to the B pieces, then the Cs to the Ds, until I finished.  Atta girl!

I had to end my systematic ways because I desperately wanted to see one square complete...

Then, I wanted to make two.

But I did go back to the methodical ways, cutting out all my brown inner and outer pieces and sewing the inner pieces on first.  These curves are much more time consuming than squares.  My goal is to finish piecing it together in the next seven days.  Goals are much easier to achieve when you set them!  

Thank you to all of you in blogland who help me keep working.  

Where was I this last month?  Why no blogs for a whole month?  I even missed Ten on Ten, which was so sad for me.  Was it because...

A) I spent a week in DC visiting family
B) Three family members came to stay with us for a week
C) Both of my sons got sick and spent time vomiting ON ME
D) My car broke down on the side of the road with a blown head gasket
E) Therefore, I spent a weekend in Grand Junction trying to find a new car
F) One of my students' father passed away
G) We decided to sell our house and began cleaning, photographing and packing
H) All of the above

Oh yes, standardized test fans, the answer is H) All of the above!  Crazy few weeks.  I have still been crafting, no doubt.  I could not live without.  But, somehow I wasn't able to actually get all those adventures on this blog.  April will hopefully be a more balanced month.  Here's hoping!

Pieces cut for Single Girl Quilt

Hooray, the Single Girl Quilt is happening!

Finally my pattern came in the mail.

Here are my cut pieces--with wine glass and lip gloss in the corner of the pic--essential. :)

It took me two days to cut out all the pieces for the rings.

31 templates for 31 pieces.  12 of each.

That's 403 pieces total.

A good Bruce Willis movie and This American Life helped me to finish.

Bruce Willis is great for quilting by the way.  When he speaks, you know what facial expression he is using and have no need to look at the screen.  Not a dis, just saying it works with quilting. :)

Now all my ring pieces are organized in labeled envelopes.  

My mother has got to be so proud of this organization!

She is a woman who has all her stuff in boxes in the attic...

The boxes are numbered...

She has a chart showing where each box is in the attic...
 and another chart showing all the contents of each box.
Seriously, that woman knows what she's doing.

Me on the other hand...sure I have boxes.  They are full of stuff.  I'm not even sure what's there.
And my last quilt was made completely and wonderfully haphazardly, one unique square at a time.  I decided when I was finished by being done. 

So, this is a new thing.  Thank you to all the ladies helping me along in the Single Girl Quilt Along (check out button on the side bar)!  And thanks to my mother.

I'm on my way to DC tomorrow for a vacation and plan on getting even more behind on this quilt.

But, I'm so happy it's started and organized.

All is well in Quilt Land.

Single Girl Quilt Along

I am super excited and just have to share with you.  I am going to join 200 amazing ladies (how could they not be) in quilting Denyse Schmidt's Single Girl Quilt.  The Single Girl quilt along begins now!

Step-by-step instructions, help and enthusiasm is found here

 http://acuppaandacatchup.com/

and here

http://imagingermonkey.blogspot.com/

I love how humorous this quilt is, playing off the traditional double wedding ring quilt.  

And since mine is going to be for my son Solomon, I'm calling it a Single Boy Quilt.  It will have a brown background with rings of blues and whites.

I have to admit, it took me a bit to sign up for this because honestly (don't laugh...ok, you can), when I read about the Single Girl Quilt Along, I thought it was for single girls.  Doh!  Then I looked carefully and realized this was just the right project for me!

So, I'm still waiting for my pattern in the mail, making me a wee bit behind.  But I catch up fast. 

This will be my first twin quilt.  I've only made crib sized ones until now.  

Wheeeeee!

If you want to see the 200 quilts in process, follow the links above or click the button on my side bar.

Quilted

Streaked by sunlight, the quilted front.

I look forward to putting on the golden binding, which I think will frame the dark grey well.

Pinning the quilt sandwich.

The back. Golden and simple.

Close up detail.

In the sunlight you can really see the crazy texture of the free motion quilting pattern.

Quilt process

The autumn squares are going to be a baby blanket. After creating six 12 x 12" squares, I decided that a full size quilt was just not practical. If I'm going to make a "wonky" quilt in a large size, I'm going to need to follow a more methodical pattern. Perhaps one of the patterns in Denyse Schmidt's Quilts.

Here are the six squares, waiting for their vertical sashing.

I really like working with these colors. It will be a delight to quilt this.

More Autumn Squares

More Autumn squares done! I must say that I'm using very little method here while piecing these together. I am going clockwise in my piecing, rather than tops first, sides next. This gives it a kind of "wonky" feel. I'm deciding on the thickness of each strip as I go. This gives each square a very particular, homegrown feel. It is not very methodical or economical of time. But it is fun since I'm needing a "create as I go" kind of project right now. Scrappy fun.

I'm adding little birds from an Ikea print in reverse applique. I'm feeling quite drawn to birds and reverse applique right now. The orange colors are from an old napkin. The grey and blue are from old shirts that I got at the thrift store and cut up. There are also scraps of Amy Butler, Moda, Denyse Schmidt and Valori Wells.

Autumn Quilt Squares

Summer has been beautiful. Yet I must confess I am ready for fall. Summer in the mountains can be bright and sometimes harsh. The red mountains against the vibrant blue sky and green grass is amazing. But...I'm ready for the faded colors of fall. I love the days when the yellow aspen leaves seem to shine against the dusky grey of the sky. So, I put all my other projects to the side and started pulling out fabric scraps. I found enough of these autumn colors to begin. I made two wonky squares 12" x 12". I love not having a true pattern but just putting strips together as I go.

And then I just couldn't help myself and I put a little bird from some Ikea fabric behind the big blue rectangle.

New Baby Quilt

I'm working on a new baby quilt. Little Eloise is already 9 weeks old, so I'm a bit behind in this birthday present. I have been in a creative slump. And unslumping yourself is hard to do. But recently, I discovered the joys of reverse applique and found some inspiration in a little bird. I pulled out some scraps and began playing. I do believe this little bird square will propel me back into the world of creation.

Here is my process, and the first square in Eloise's baby quilt.

Lately it seems that bird silhoette motives are everywhere in designs. I found this bird online with a quick Google search. I printed out the outline and cut it out. Google image searches are so great for finding inspirational shapes and designs.

I love to upcycle old clothing. On the back is fabric from an old pair of Banana Republic pants. Somehow, I never quite found the right occasion for purple pants. So, I cut them up and made a scarf. The leftovers are going in this quilt.

The bird has flown onto my square of pink paisleys. I drew around it with a disappearing ink marker and sewed that line with brown thread.

After sewing around the bird, I used embroidery scissors to cut the top fabric out.

This is definitely the rough method for this technique. It will fray, but not much. And I like the folksy look to it.

On the back side, I trimmed the purple fabric down.

I put together some simple edges of brown in different widths and then sewed some brown strips into a swatch of those purple pants.

Trimmed them to size.

The first square!

I sure do like creating quilts without too much of a plan. I know this is not the way most people do it. But I like the freedom of it. We'll see how it goes.