On Display

Last weekend I found some time to visit Sew Katie Jean in Lincoln, CA.

Sew Katie Jean is a darling quilt shop off the main street in historic Lincoln.  If you get the chance to drop in, I highly recommend it! Katie was so welcoming and you could tell she has a real eye for colors.  Check out these darling chairs:

And look what else was there.  That’s my quilt! 

Katie is displaying some quilts made by quilters in the Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild.  I lent her my Bliss Quilt.  If you get the chance, come check out the other beautiful quilts on display.  Betcha can't leave with just one Fat Quarter either!

Blissfully Finished!

I have a UFO Bust to report today! I'm linking up with Susan from Blackberry Creek Home Arts for the Friday UFO Report.

I finished my Bliss Quilt!

Stats: Pattern Charming Stars by Stefanie from Little Lady Patchwork for Moda Bake Shop. I changed it to make it smaller so I could use 2 Charm Packs of Bliss. It will be my cubicle quilt for when the AC is pumping hard and I'm wearing a dress.

Quilting: FMQ by me. I copied the designs from 501 Quilting Motifs and then did it free-hand. The stars were hand quilted. I really love how it turned out. I wish I would have learned to correctly bury my quilting knot before I began this. I learned towards the end. So some knots are visible. This quilt gave me so much confidence in my FMQ skills.

Backing: Some random piece of fabric I found. It's super soft and cuddly. I had to add a few leftover charm squares and some flying geese units made from the triangle scraps cut from the stars to make it big enough.

Binding was hand sewn to the back. My binding skills improved a lot too! Working with a smaller binding helps so much. I used 2 1/4 strips. I made sure to pack the binding with batting, something that took me a while to catch on to! I found the binding at Joann's Fabrics and it matches perfectly.

What's that? A label?! Haha, my first label. I wrote with a Micron Pen. This little guy was a bonus piece I got from cutting the star corners off. I hand stitched it to the back. This taught me to consider the label as I do my backing next time! I made the label and stiched it last night just so I can finally say:

This quilt is finished!

It's really straight, this angle is just weird :)

Started: Nov 20, 2010.

UFO Progress and Plans

First,

Where I’ve been:

This week not much sewing going on, UFO or otherwise. I’ve been hand quilting my Bliss Quilt. I did not think I would like hand quilting. It always seemed to me that it would be soooo boring. And why do something by hand that could easily (and much better) be done by machine? Surprise! Hand quilting is the MOST fun! It’s so relaxing and zen. Forget needle turn appliqué and hand-stitched binding. Those seem like chores compared to hand quilting. I really like the look of it too. Like it’s been stitched with lots of love.

At first I was just going to do the flower design by hand. Then I finished that and couldn’t stop! I decided to outline quilt inside the star. I thought it would make the star design stand out more. But I was worried it might make the quilting crowded and over-done. I was so wrong! I love how it looks.

I’m linking up with Susan at Blackberry Creek Home Arts. She’s been cracking the quilty whip on us to get our UFOs done. Thanks Susan! You’re awesome and inspiring!

Second,

Where I’m going:

This weekend I have some planned sewing time. First up will be my Rehab quilt. I searched every nook and cranny of my sewing room last night for my missing thread. I even dragged my husband from his video game and he helped. I blamed the cats, I found my little brother’s allergy medicine he lost 3 months ago, pulled the cushions from the couch and even had my husband look under the bed in our bedroom (blaming the cats again). Finally found it. In a drawer. Under my sewing machine. So I’m all set to FMQ to my heart’s content.

This is my before picture. I know, there’s not much to see. It’s hard to photograph. But I plan on completing 20 feather sprays this weekend. I think that’s doable. I can’t believe how huge this quilt is. It’s a monster.

I'm linking up with Thearica from Pigtales and Quilts. The idea is to work on your UFO this weekend and write a Before and After post. Thearica will be drawing prizes and you get some work done on some old UFO's. It's a win/win, so come by and hang out!

UFO Bust Report

I have been super motivated to work on my UFO’s these last two weeks. I am linking up with Susan's UFO Bust group. I finished the machine quilting on my Bliss Quilt and am working on hand-quilting the center design. Isn’t it cute?! I’m so proud of myself for doing all the FMQ free-hand. Weird Fact: I draw with my sewing machine MUCH better than I do with a pencil.

I also pulled out my ginormous Rehab quilt and quilted some feather wreaths. I’m still paper-quilting (following the design on paper pinned to the quilt). Don’t quite feel comfortable with feathers yet. I did 7 feather wreaths last Friday night. When I first started doing these, I would try to get 5 done in a week. Now I’m zooming right along! This quilt is all about slow progress, and I’m okay with that.

I misplaced the huge cone of bobbin thread I’ve been using and that has stalled me from pulling it out again. I knew I should never have cleaned my sewing room!

Then I pulled out my Christmas Sampler Quilt. This is going to be one funny quilt. It was the second quilt I ever started and there are a lot of techniques in this quilt: photo transfer, paper-piecing, needle-turn appliqué, machine appliqué, embroidery. Most of it was my first time trying that technique. Add that to the fact it was only my second quilt and I was still learning a correct ¼ inch seam. This is also where I learned the difference between “finished size” and “will finish at” size. So some of the blocks look like a kindergartner sewed them. Whatever! It was and still is a learning process. It’s a good quilt to watch my skills evolve. So I’ve been grabbing a few minutes here and there to put together a block.

I am a lot farther than I thought. Hopefully we will be able to put it out this Christmas! I would love to hang it on the wall.

(It's not the camera angle, that block is totally wonky!)

So lots of UFO progress this week! Better than that, I’m motivated and having fun working on these. Thanks for the motivation Susan!

Today is FNSI!

I’m so excited. This week I’ve been working on catching up on my Jewel in the Crown BOMs. I did Block 2

And Block 5

I am now officially caught up! Yay! Just in time too, because I think Reeze is going to be releasing two blocks per month pretty soon. I am totally loving this quilt. It’s so much easier to sew when you follow Reeze’s instructions! I am hoping she will post instructions to the setting triangles soon so we can start on those. I need to buy more batiks too, because I am running out!

That means I am caught up on half of my BOM projects. I’m still behind in the Civil War quilt along, although there is no stress. This week coming up I’ll work on catching up on my Boot Bash BOM.

Tonight, though, I will be quilting on my Bliss Quilt. I really love this quilt. I made it to take to work so it fits perfectly on my lap without making it look like I’m sleeping on the job. I have my thread picked out, a rough idea of what I am going to quilt and my quilt sandwich. I brought it to work today so I can let it my quilting plan germinate in my head. Hopefully by tonight it will sprout a fully-grown plan!

So get your comfy shorts on, pour yourself a glass of wine and let’s sew together!

Friday Night Sew In Results

How fun! I had another fabulous Friday Night Sew In! This time, my husband joined me! Well, kind of. He sat in my sewing room as I sewed and he played computer games. Ahh...my perfect Friday Night!

I'm not doing any homemade Christmas gifts this year. Instead, I thought I would work on getting closer to finishing some of my UFO's. It seems like I'm full-steam ahead on patchwork but once I hit borders, basting and quilting, I run into a snail trail. Stuck in my own path. I put it away and forget all about it. So I've decided that this month I'm going to concentrate on my 2 B's. Borders and Backings. I hate Borders and I hate Backings. Whenever I get to Borders and Backings I somehow convienantly forget about my work-in-progress.



So I pieced together the backing for my Bliss quilt. I had got this really soft, thin blanket from somewhere that I really wanted to use. Only problem, of course, was that it was too small. Maybe I should start making quilts that fit my backings. Hmm...there's an idea.



So I used my leftover Bliss squares and some pieced triangle scraps to make my back bigger. I might cut it again to make the Bliss run down the middle. RIght now I'm feeling a bit lazy. Maybe if I put it away for a few weeks, I'll find the motivation.

Wait, that's how I got into this situation in the first place!

I also put a border on my second Love Quilt. This is the one we are keeping here in the house. It's a good copy of the one we got married in front of:



That's all I did. I chatted with my husband, drank some wine, snacked on chocolate and lazily pieced. Like I said, a perfect Friday Night!