2014 in Review

2014 was indeed a great year for making things!  I feel like I learned some great skills including sewing curves and improved FMQ technique. I participated in A Lovely Year of Finishes for several months; here’s a list of the goals accomplished this year:

March: Quilt of Neptune
April: Spring Stripes II
May: Fortunate Granny
June: Fields of Foxes
July: Metro Rings I top
August: Finishing Metro Rings I
October: Aeroplane Bag
December: Metro Rings II
(Also pictured is Gathering Flowers because I’m proud of it and needed an 8th photo for the mosaic)

I’m linking up with the 2014 ALOYF Finish Party.

In addition to the above, I also finished three of my six (admittedly lofty) Q4 Finish Along goals: the Aeroplane Bag and Metro Rings II above, as well as four Geranium dresses.

Here’s to much more sewing in 2014!

A Christmas Quilting Miracle

It’s a Christmas Quilting Miracle, you guys. Huge Secret Project (aka Metro Rings II – yes, I did make another one!) is finished. I’m still not exactly sure how. I remember quilting the first one, which took a literal month. And this one was quilted in a matter of days and finished on Christmas Eve.

Let’s back up a bit. I’ve wanted to make my parents a quilt for a while now. It was their 40th anniversary in September, and while my ducks weren’t in a row enough to make it then, I wanted to make something for Christmas.

There’s 35 different fabrics in the ring segments in shades of blue, green, and indigo with a few pops of red and orange and gold. My parents like to hike and birdwatch together, so I used a lot of botanical and bird prints. All of the fabric for the top came from my stash and I used several favorites (hello Tula Pink!).

I quilted parallel lines within the rings and almond sections but left out the FMQ. The large white segments within the rings have some petals and a little star in the middle.

The binding is Netorious from Cotton + Steel and the backing (not pictured, as it was raining) is a super wide purple, blue, and teal batik.

We opened presents with my parents last night and my mom cried when she opened this one. I’m glad she likes it, and I’m glad I finished it and didn’t have to gift it with pins in.

Finishing Metro Rings II was my December ALOYF goal and one of my Finish Along Q4 goals– hooray! It is done!

Here’s hoping you and yours are having a wonderful holiday season filled with light and love. I know I sure am!

Aeroplane Bag

I’ve been drooling over Quilt As You Go (QAYG) bags for a while now. I love the ability to use scraps and bits of favorites and to frame motifs within the larger patchwork. I also need a weekend getaway bag. I’ve been using either a backpack or an open tote bag, which works but isn’t… cute. And with the open tote, has the possibility of tipping over and spilling my clean underwear all over the trunk. So a small, zippered something was needed.

Enter the Aeroplane Bag from Sew Sweetness. I like its domed shape, size, and that it requires no piping. I gathered scraps and quilted them directly on to the Soft and Stable top pieces using Elizabeth Hartman’s technique . I got to use pieces of my favorite lines: a fox here, a raccoon there, an octopus in the corner. Unable to decide on warm or cool colors, I went with all of them, with Kona Shale as the bottom and straps to tone things down.

So far, I’ve made the top and bottom panels and the straps.

I’m hoping to have this bag finished by this weekend and have made it my October ALOYF goal! It is also what I’m working on today for WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Summer Goals

It is that goal-setting time of year again for the Finish Along at Littlest Thistle! This quarter’s goals feel lofty. Last quarter, I had tops and backs and batting all set to be quilted, so finishing the quilts was No Big Deal.

This quarter, I have stacks of fabric and ideas.

First up, Metro Rings out of Botanics and Pure Elements with some custom quilting. This is the only project with a hard deadline, as it is for a friend getting married in October (or her shower, whenever that is). I’ve wanted to work with Botanics for a while, and B & G will be decorating their home in greens, blues, oranges, and yellows. The facing triangles will be orange and yellow, and I’m going to add a wide grey border similar to this quilt.  Finishing the top is my July Lovely Year of Finishes goal.

Next, I want to finally do something with these leftover blocks from LLamas in Log Cabins. My idea is to make some flying geese to sit between the blocks and then add a couple of borders, medallion-style to make the finished piece larger.

I’ve had this gorgeous Salt Water and coordinating solids stack on the top of the fabric pile for months, and I think it is time to sew them into a Honey quilt from Elizabeth Hartman’s second book, Modern Patchwork.

My last amorphous goal is to do something with this lovely Acacia and solids stack. I’m open to suggestions – maybe hexagons or a kaleidoscope?

This all seems a bit daunting, yes? Better start cutting fabric!

Two Foxy WIPs

Last Friday, I got the rest of the top and bottom edge triangles pieced from leftover strips and scraps. Mostly, the joins are a bit obvious in the busy patterns of Fox Field but look!

A completely accidental pattern match! I’m rather tickled with it.

Husband helped me lay out the quilt and make sure that the colors were balanced and then I got to sewing the top together.

It is probably going to be around queen sized, especially if I add a nice border of the leftover cream geo print that I didn’t use to make the top and bottom triangles. Husband really likes this quilt too and might insist we keep it.

Fields of Foxes is my June Lovely Year of Finishes goal. Go big or go home, right? I need to work out backing; part of me wants to splurge for a great whack of the Fox Trot print and another part of me insists on using what is in the stash, which is probably wiser and more thrifty.

While I’m pondering backing, I started on another WIP project. You may remember that I wanted to requilt my first quilt ever, Foxes Out My Window, which I got started on this week as well. I removed the binding and ironed it, and then started pulling out the quilting. I’m starting from the middle and working about a block of space at a time. Luckily, it’s pretty easy, because my old machine had such terrible tension! The quilt still a little crinkly from the first time I washed it, but I like the crinkle and it doesn’t seem to be hindering anything.

After these Foxy WIPs done, I have a whole bunch of ideas of what to cut next: a plus quilt, Ring Toss, Metro Rings, something using Tula Pink’s Salt Water or Acacia lines, experimenting with the Quick Curve ruler… I think the planning and drafting stage may be one of my favorite parts of all this!

I’m linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. Oh and hey! Lee also started hosting #WIPWednesday on Instagram too – I’m lucymade over there as well!

To Finish In March

I’ve been wanting to participate in A Lovely Year of Finishes at Fiber of All Sorts for a couple of months now, but my ducks just haven’t seemed to get neatly in a row. January was a month of alternating travel and sickness, February was All Olympics and knitting (tune in this weekend to see a sock FO!), but March will be the month I finish my Quilt of Poseidon. If I end up calling it that. It’s a mashup of 12″ squares from the 2013 Sugar Block Club, Vintage Quilt Revival, and I think a couple of other sources, laid out using the Sampler Quilt On-Point pattern from Vintage Quilt Revival.

So that’s the plan. Here’s a small, dark, blurry phone shot of the progress:

According to the running document I keep of my projects, I’ve completed 19/20 blocks. I have fabric and paper piecing templates cut for that last block (the pesky February Block from the Sugar Block Club, for those of you keeping a running tally) and I have the fabric for the simple repeating blocks, the binding, and the back, which will be the delicious Kitty Dreams and Butterflies prints from Lizzy House’s Catnap.

Delicious. Also, my husband picked it out all by himself, and who am I to argue with that level of fabric selecting genius?

I will finish this in March. I will, I will, I will. I want this on our bed by the time the snow melts!

Linking up with the March Goal Setting Party!