Wednesday 12 February 2014

Wednesday WIP

Back to Wednesday WIP after a long break - this is the best way to document and feel the progress. 

I've decided to be a bit more frugal in my quilt approach and have less WIPs in 2014. I find that with many ongoing projects I get less done and spend more time being frustrated about lack of progress. So now it's all about clearing out and finish before starting a new project. So far it's two finishes and one new start. I already know what the next project will be - a string quilt, but... I am not going to start it until I have finished the quilt below.

So this is my WIP. This project started end of January. The picture is a little old - I have four more stars ready, so I'll assemble the quilt next week. It's a shared project from my quilting class, which of course I had to do differently that planned - can't seem to ever play by the rules. We swapped fabric and were supposed to make the stick block. I really didn't like neither the fabrics nor the pattern, so I changed it into 15 color coordinated stars and a single stick. I'm beginning to actually like this quilt and despite the frustrating start I have a feeling this quilt will be used and not just hidden away. Heck, I'm even starting to like some of the fabrics I got after I organised them into color groups. 

I'm taking this quilt back to class end of February and hoping the others will have a laugh too. The stars are each 20x20 inches so this will be another 80 x 80 biggie.



Then a couple of finishes... I wrapped up this beauty on Friday - 1,5 years in progress. I am so happy about it.  It's one of those quilt that just grew and grew. When I started the center EPP I had no plan. Love it when it progresses and finishes like this. (More about this quilt here http://my-quilts.blogspot.it/2014/02/a-finish.html)


Another finish from January was this quilt for my oldest, who turned 13. To say he loves it is underestimated. He literally wanted to take it on the plane going on vacation last week (which evil mom of course said no to).  It's the pattern Long Johns from. Stephanie @ LoftCreations. (More about this quilt here http://my-quilts.blogspot.it/2014/01/i-finished-longjohn-quilt-week-ago-and.html)



Monday 10 February 2014

A crazy, large finish...

I've finished the bed quilt - finally. As I'm typing this I'm actually away skiing in Italy but managed to snap a few pictures before we left on Saturday. This afternoon I'm staying home at the hotel with my youngest, who stretched something in his knee yesterday and is ordered of the skies today, so I thought I would just post the last pictures of the quilt to make time pass a little faster :) The sweet little bugger is luckily already much better after a days rest, so I'm hoping we will all hit the slopes again tomorrow.



I loved making this quilt (most of the time anyway) and I love how it turned out. What I don't love is the way it photographs. The blue color just never is quite right, not deep enough... So you gotta trust me and take my word for it. It is really a stunning blue and fits perfectly with the Lark fabric.

In the centre a large EPP piece that I started 1,5 years ago. I remember that I sewed everywhere that summer! The pattern is the classical Ferris Wheels made from hexagons, squares and triangles.


Then I made two borders from the great book Moden Blocks. I'd did take a while to select them, but am glad about the outcome. The Lattice block in particular. I asked my quilting bee to make some of the blocks, but unintentionally they seemed a bit difficult to make, so I don't think my block was the most popular of choices...



I finally selected the Pogo Stick block as the last border making this the largest quilt to date. The king size alone made the quilting intimidating, so I asked the wonderful quilter Diane (http://dianes-quilting.blogspot.it) to help me. I think her quilting of this one is breathtaking and it exactly the icing of the cake I was hoping for. It wasn't easy for her because the lattice blocks wasn't all completely even, but seriously, she managed to hide it completely. She really deserves a medal.


The only one not so happy is DH, who is now forced to either get up before me OR make the bed every morning. But then, one can't have it all, right ;)


Sunday 2 February 2014

On the last stretch...

I started this king size quilt 1,5 years ago with the hand stitched EPP centre and no plan what so ever about I wanted to make with it. Then Bee Europa contributed some of the lattice blocks before I added the last border this autum. Diane worked wonders quilting it and I'm now (finally) on the homestretch. 



This is what 10 metres of binding looks like, all rolled up and ready to sew on:







Saturday 1 February 2014

A fun quilting group challenge...

In my quilting group we usually work on each our projects, but once a year some of us do a common challenge, to force ourselves into unknown terroritoty, so to speak.

This year we were asked to bring 100 6"x6" non solid fabrics. We then did a swap so we all ended up with lots of different fabrics all mixed together. The despair was notable in the group at this point... Batiks, modern, yes even some Christmas fabrics was in the piles and all colors mixed together. It was difficult to see anything good come out of it.



We were supposed to make a particular block - and I did make one, but have to say I didn't particularly like it. 



Here's a picture from the group with some of the blocks. (The green project is not part of the challenge)


I hate not going with a challenge, but also to work on a quilt I don't like. So I did the centres in color groups of 4 (like the challenge) but then made giant stars with hst of the rest. I went to my scrap pile at home for all kind of whites and beige for the background. I had to add a few color fabrics for the hst's too, but it was all from my scrap pile.

This is where I am now... And I have to say, I think I'm going to love this scrappy, fun quilt. I have not pressed the blocks yet - just layed them out on the floor to play with. I am going to add another row of stars, write a little poem about stars with embroidery thread on the square block and most likely add some scrappy centres in the big squares. 


Each block is 20"x20" so I'm going the end up with an 80x80 quilt. 

So in one way I feel a little bad for not sticking with the original plan, on the other hand I'm excited that I did the challenge but formed it into something I like. I hope the quilting group will think its fun too even if it's a bit different from theirs...

 My mojo is back thanks to this fun project - I'm happy and thankful.