HSTs + horses

Well, technically just one horse.  This guy:

A sweet, "peeping" horse, thanks (again) to the creative Sonja for the fabulously fun pattern.  (Note:  I poster-printed the file at ~180% so he'll be closer to 16" x 20" than the original 8" x 10").

He's in the mix with these HSTs (soon-to-be paper hats):

And this barn-sized carpenter's star in shades of burgundy and brown:

Side bar:  I thought about trying to get a better picture this afternoon, but melted snow doesn't make for the greatest backdrop, so this will have to do!

The top measures 90" x 90", yikes.  Still finalizing a quilting design, so any advice is much appreciated!  Right now I'm thinking of echoing the outer edges of the star on the background, then doing continuous line quilting along the spikes of the outer ring and center star... Hm, who knows!  Totally open to suggestions if any come to mind ;)

Also, non sequitur, but does anyone know how to tell the difference between the front/back of solid fabric? Is there even a true front and back? Sometimes the sheen looks a little different on one side, but even then I'm not quite sure what to make of it... just wondering if anyone had any tips to share!

Linking up with Lee at freshly pieced.  I wish I had time to write more (this post feels like a WIP!) but sadly non-sewing deadlines have kept me on my toes (and pretty much off my machine) the past week and a half.

Here's to getting back into the s{e}wing of things ;)

sam's {scrappy} quilt

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This quilt top was inspired in a last-minute burst of creativity as I was flipping through the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns* and daydreaming of emeralds the other week.

The block itself (#3725) is titled "Sam's Quilt," which seemed appropriate seeing as it's a family name and my husband has hinted that we need a larger-than-lapsized quilt for the family room (finished top is 72" x 77").  So I set to work selecting prints from my stash, cutting plastic templates (and lots of fabric!), and chain piecing like a crazy person.  Now, typically I infuse order into everything I sew (e.g., this quilt), but lately I've been envious of several quilty peers' innate ability to whip up brilliantly scrappy designs that seem so effortlessly carefree and cheerful.  In fact, after seeing this particular beauty, I told myself the next block-based quilt I made would be off-limits to any attempts at order.

Seeing as this approach goes against every designer grain in my being, it's been an interesting experience, to say the least.  Ironically, my little helper's eagerness to participate—namely by tossing triangles all over the floor at random—was actually quite useful in keeping me on my scrappy task.

Indeed, it's safe to say that from piecing to photography, she had a hand (or foot) in it all.

It's certainly not the "scrappy riot of colour" I one day aspire to achieve, but it's a start!  Entering this in the quilt tops category of a²(w)'s Pantone Challenge:  in addition to green, I used off-white fabrics (beige + eggshell + snow) for my neutral and various blue prints for my secondary color.

Much thanks to Ali for hosting and to the amazing sponsors and judges for your generosity and time!  You can check out the (steep!) competition here.

*Note:  Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns has been out of print for some time, and eBay/Amazon sellers have raised their prices in light of its relative rarity.  I happened to snatch up an old library copy at a fair price last fall, but I just stumbled up this newly released eBook for less than $30 in case spending upwards of $80 on a used book just isn't your thing ;)

    

Edited to add:  A few of you have commented about the stained glass effect of this quilt.  And I must say, after walking out to this in my family room the past few days...

Yes, it's still up.  Don't judge!

...I'm inclined to add quilted curtains to my {lengthy} sewing/dream home wishlist!

sea crystal + plaid

Without further ado, I am thrilled to introduce my latest creation to my quilty friends!

I call it "sea crystal & plaid," a two-sided quilt.  It measures 58" square.



The tartan side started out as a b&w sketch composed on an airline tray table during a flight to San Francisco last fall.  Inspiration for this particular plaid came from one of my husband's many (...many) plaid shirts.  I had originally envisioned using just three colors (light, medium and dark), but I liked the idea of toying with a number of hues so I ordered a little bit of everything and ended up using about a dozen different gradients of greenish-blues from that order and my stash.  (More on that here.)

Then it came time to decide what to do on the other side.  Lately, I've been content to piece a series of "paper hats" separating two panels of fabric (a print and a solid, comme ça).  But then I got to thinking... this is for the Emerald Challenge, so why not test out a round cut version of my paper-pieced birthstone?  I thought about making rounded emerald "top hats" but decided to go with the full 16" gems, bezel set in a pearly cream on a backdrop of half ivory, half kraft paper bag.  

Edited to add:  the round cut birthstone block pattern is now available for immediate download for $5 on etsy and craftsy.

I straight-line quilted using the plaid side as a guide, and bound the quilt in Simply Color Ombre in aqua (though it's really more sea green).  I have to say, I think I like this two-fer, I like it a lot ;)

Entering this in the quilts category of a²(w)'s Pantone Challenge, and linking up with finish it up Friday over at crazy mom quilts.  Thanks to both amazing women for hosting!

Edited to add:  For challenge purposes, in addition to vary degrees of light --> dark emerald tones, I chose off-whites (pearl + ivory + cream) for my neutral, and kraft brown for my secondary color.

And if you like this cool green/blue color palette, check out this top!

tartan, triangle stars + trinkets

Still working away on my emerald-toned quilts... annnd about six other WIPs that I'll share another time in light of the hard deadline for these two (only five days to go... eek!)  You can check out some of the beauties that some very talented quilters have already entered in the challenge here.

After spending an absurd amount of time figuring out fabrics for the layout...

I finally started and finished the tartan top last week.

It's about 57" square.  I had originally planned on ~70" until I went to calculate yardage requirements based on my sketch.  (Note to future self:  next time, run the numbers before deciding to just order a half yard of every shade.)   I'm not *as* in love with it as I was hoping, but I think I have my haphazard ordering to thank for that—with not enough of too many fabrics, not all the overlaps worked out how I had envisioned.  (Next time I'll take greater care to avoid that issue.)  I do, however, have an idea for a quilting design that I hope will unify the plaid, so we shall see!

On the plus side, having more leftovers of certain shades than anticipated, I decided to try some coordinated fun for the "back" (truth be told, by this point I think I've spent as much time on it as the front!)  Here's a sneak peak at the pre-set stones...

And a finished (bezel-set) emerald:

I have to say, I really have become quite smitten with the back and at the end of the day might just call this a two-sided tartan (or tartan-backed bezel emeralds).  But before I figure out which side is which and what to call the completed quilt, I have to figure out what to do about binding(!)  I'm really having trouble with this one.  As of right now, it's between Simply Color ombre in aqua and a random greenish/blue print from my stash.  Or I guess I could just go with white?  Beige? Oy.

Good thing I only have one set of binding to worry about before Sunday {for now, at least}.  I'm also hoping to complete a second top in time for the challenge.  I've made some progress on the "Sam's quilt" stars, though admittedly there are far more pieces lying around than completed blocks at this point.  Which isn't difficult seeing as there is exactly one fully assembled star {of 42}.

Wish me luck!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday ;)

setting goals + seeing green...

Or should I say emerald?  Like many others in the quiltosphere, I've had the color on my mind since discovering a²(w)'s {irresistible} Pantone Quilt Challenge.  And what a challenge this "emerald" color has been (!)  Apparently I missed the memo about emerald being closer to teal than bright green (I suppose I should have paid closer attention during The Wizard of Oz).

My progress so far?  Well... there are two quilts in the works.  And by "in the works" I mean in the very beginning stages...

BUT, I am going to be optimistic about finishing my emerald-tone tartan:

It'll be made from a yet-to-be-finalized combination of these lovely (and freshly laundered!) fabrics:

AND this more traditional quilt comprised of 35 variations of the "Sam's Quilt" block: 

 Using a scrappy assortment of these prints:

As you can see from my pencil+paper sketch and literally cut+paste block, my design process isn't always the most technically savvy.  I do own the whole Adobe suite and love it for certain purposes, but when I get an idea, sometimes I just find technology (ironically) slows me down?  Guess I probably should just break down and buy EQ7 one of these days, but until then I'll keep my notepad and BICs nearby ;)

So, goal setting time!  "To do" list for March:  Piece one top and start/finish the other quilt.  Which is which?  Who knows!  I could wind up with two tops or {gasp} none at all... Yikes!  I guess for March goal purposes I should just say I'll finish at least one of the tops ;)

Linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes and Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday.  Much thanks to Melissa, Shanna, and Lee for hosting!

xmas in february: santa in the sky {with diamonds}

Or, what happens when you accidentally use a horizontal (vs diagonal, agh!) measurement for a strip-pieced Lone Star and find yourself with half a star just days before the jolly old man is due to land on your rooftop. Needless to say, this design was more a product of creative necessity than careful planning. Details, details -- clearly I overlooked some important ones here ;)

The idea for this quilt came about in early December, which is about the time of year my husband chimes in about my grinchy-ness.  (It's not that I don't like Christmas; I just prefer Thanksgiving.)

In any event, this quilt was an attempt to add some (apparently lacking) holiday cheer to the {no} hats household.  You see, this being our daughter's very first Christmas, I thought that we could start a tradition of laying out a picnic for Santa every Christmas Eve right before her bedtime:  milk and cookies, naturally, but also some bread, cheese, small plates, and who knows, maybe even some mulled wine to warm up the big guy on those cold winter nights.  Lucky Santa ;)

Of course, to set up Santa's lovely picnic, we would need a picnic blanket, right?  But not just any old blanket...  No no, Santa would need his very own special picnic blanket in rich reds and snowy creams.  So I sketched what I believed would be an enormous Lone Star quilt, and in the usual holiday rush I hastily cut the fabric and started strip-piecing like mad.  Then, when it finally came time to re-cut the sewn fabric into diagonal strips, I quickly realized that I had grossly underestimated my initial cuts:  instead of the anticipated yield of eight strips per panel, I was lucky to get five.  Oh dear.

Now, what to do with the scraps... Maybe some placemats, coasters, and napkins for Mr. Claus's meal?

By that point, I was too far into the process to go back to square one (i.e., cut+sew+iron+cut just to be caught up), so I returned to sketching instead (which, ironically, is as "square one" as it gets, but that didn't occur to me at the time).  Realizing I had enough sections for at least four full diamonds, I played around with placement options until I finally outlined an oversized argyle-esque sequence.

But it was still missing something... So I grabbed a stack of solids left over from this adventure to figure out which secondary color might add some interest whilst honoring the quilt's seasonal significance.  As far as I could tell, I had two choices:  shades of green, or blue.  So why blue?  Honestly, the former combination seemed (1) too predictable and (2) too Christmassy (I think my husband is right about me).

Finished size will be about 85" x 90".  Plenty big for Mr. Clause, and perhaps even a guest or two ;)

In any event, what I wound up with was a snowy background filled with red --> white {wonky} diamonds bordered in strips of shaded solid blues.  And you know what?  If I may, I have to say I'm quite fond of the result.  Added bonus?  Plenty of straight lines to guide the quilting design ;)

Needless to say, Santa missed out on his picnic.  But I have a good feeling about this year...

Later this week I'll be linking up with Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday, freshly pieced's WIP Wednesday, and finish it up Friday hosted by crazy mom quilts. Yay for linky parties ;)  And I know, I know, at first blush it seems inconsistent to label a work in progress as a finish.  But if you don't at least acknowledge the mini-finishes with big quilts, you might never make it to the binding, right?

'Tis the season ;)

[my sister] love[s] [her] all stars

Sonja of Artisania, you may just be my pattern-designing hero.

To give you an idea of how serendipitous this quilt (top) turned out to be, here's a shot of what my incredible sister and her (edited to clarify) awesome boyfriend got my daughter for Christmas...

(The sneakers, not the {super-sweet} unicorn costume).

I just so happened to have stumbled upon this brilliant design last November, so, coincidentally, twenty-three "pairs" of All Stars were wrapped up and waiting for them that day.

I felt like quite the shoemaker, turning out 23 pairs in 24 hrs ;)

Okay, so technically they weren't at the "wrapping" stage, but in some sort of holiday adrenaline rush I managed to paper piece every last sneaker in time to lay them out on the basement floor so they could at least get a glimpse at what was brewing (months later, my fingertips are still recovering).  And I have to admit, having never paper pieced anything before, I was pretty anxious to see how these high tops were coming along, too!

The finished size of the quilt will be about 60" x 80" (side note:  the pattern produces a 52" x 59.5" throw, but I rearranged the sections in photoshop and printed them at ~130% to make it a two-lap sized quilt instead).  I used too many prints to name, and paired them with an antique quilting cotton background.

"I Love My All Stars" --> "My Sister Loves Her All Stars"

Somehow, most of my seasonal sewing took me in a solids-only direction, and I almost went there (yet again!) with this.  But as soon as I saw all those fabrics come together in a sea of blue and cyan, I quickly remembered why I've always been a prints person.  To pay homage to the heavily print-less holiday, however, I did throw in some shades of brown.  Those also helped give this the coastal feel I was going for (we've spent many happy summers together at the beach).

The "beachiest" high top of them all (and quite possibly my favorite!)

What do you think? Sonja's certainly got something special going on, that's for sure!  So thank you for thinking up a pattern so well-suited to my favorite all-stars-loving duo.

Now, all that's left to decide is the quilting design... I tend to default to straight line/echo quilting, so any thoughts are welcome (and appreciated!)

Linking up with finish it up Friday over at crazy mom quilts later today {another first this week ;)}.

Happy Friday!