WIP Wednesday

 Oh, my goodness. I finished a boat load of stuff this past week. I blame the snow! 

This morning, I finished the binding on The Cool Side of the Rainbow.

Yesterday, I sewed the button on my Marine Mom tote.

 

Monday, I quilted and bound the Selvage Log Cabin.

 

I needed a break, so I crocheted this adorable blue elephant on Sunday night.

 On Saturday, I made myself a tray table ironing board.

I finished the Friendship Star on Thursday night. I've been enjoying hand stitching bindings at night while I watch TV.

 

I also finished a secret little project on Thursday. (Come back on Friday for the reveal.)

 

In progress: 

I made 48 string blocks to use as "thread" in an upcoming spools workshop.

I've made a few more Wild & Goosey blocks as leaders/enders. This one might become the primary piecing project soon.

I went to a workshop with Thomas Knauer last Wednesday which was awesome! I'm not ready to show that piece yet. It still needs some tweaking.

 I guess it's time to dig out some older WIPs. What will Tina finish next week?

Selvage Log Cabin

 Here it is- the selvage quilt that didn't make a dent in my collection of selvages! This is my second selvage quilt (Emerald Selvage Spiderweb, 2013) and probably won't be my last. Now that I'm in the habit of saving them, I can't stop!

This is where I started a couple of weeks ago. If you are wondering, the red is Kona Tomato. (My grandfather grew the best tomatoes.)

It only took about a week to complete the top. Many thanks to Karen Griska for writing a great pattern! I opted to set the blocks on point and skipped the borders. I wanted to make lots of blocks (I cut mine at 10"). This size fits perfectly on my kitchen wall. Selvage quilts are heavy, so a lap quilt wasn't appealing to me.

I knew I wanted to quilt this with red and white thread. I started with "organic" vertical lines through the red squares. I figured whatever I quilted in white would disappear, so I decided to practice feathers. (I really stink at quilting feathers!) All that top to bottom quilting means no threads to bury. No marking, no threads to bury = win, win.

There are some really cute selvages in here. And so many memories of projects past! Printed copyright dates range from 1994 to 2014.

The back is loaded with dots. Why not?

The only place you can really see the feathers is on this section of the back. That's OK with me! More practice required.

One more glamor shot on the couch with the matching pillow. Yes, it's snowing again! 

Selvage Log Cabin

(needs a cuter name. any suggestions?)

42" X 42"
Started January 31, 2015

Completed February 16, 2015

Pattern by Karen Griska

Scraptastic Tuesday

 It has certainly been scrappy around here lately! It all started two weeks ago when I had everything out to finish up my Farmer's Wife blocks. I needed a plan for tackling the scraps, and I finally feel like I'm making progress.

The top of my selvage log cabin has been assembled. (I highly recommend this pattern by Karen Griska!) I'm trying to decide if I want to add borders. It is already 45" square, which is a nice size for a wall hanging. If I make it much bigger, it limits where I can hang it. OK. No borders. How should I quilt it? Organic vertical lines or free motion swirls? I'm thinking about using red thread.

I had a couple of blocks leftover, so I made a pillow cover for the couch. (More about it here.)

I had not done much improv piecing in my 24 years of quilting. I fixed that yesterday! This little quilt top was made in about 4 hours! Twenty five 6.5" squares came directly out of my bin of cool (not warm) modern scraps. Why have I not done this before? Liberating is definitely the right word for it!

I wanted to see it on the wall, so I pinned it to the back of the wall hanging that was on display in the kitchen. We really like it with the pale yellow "borders." It pains me that I'll have to buy some fresh yellow to finish this.

It seems like this bin is still full, but I really did use a lot. 

 Wild & Goosey is coming along (pattern info here). I've been mostly using these as leaders/enders, but I do sit and sew a few units when I have a bit of free time.

Thirteen blocks to go...

I pulled some 2.5" strips of red and pink to make two of these mug mats. One will be a gift tonight at our guild meeting. This one is mine! Happy Valentine's Day to me! Looking back, the one I made for my mother last year has more quilting.

Mrs. Sew and Sow is hosting the Scraptastic Tuesday link up this month. Head on over for lots of scrappy inspiration!

Two at a Time

I'm having so much fun working on these two projects this week! The selvage log cabins are coming along nicely. I need to make six more blocks for the layout I have planned. I was hoping to get them done today, but it is not looking promising. 

 

I have discovered that the process goes more quickly if I plan out the selvages before I sit down to sew. Here are my piles waiting to go. 

 

I'm using the Wild & Goosey blocks as leaders/enders and it is working like a charm!

 

I don't have enough variety to be truly random, so I dealt out the pieces last night while I was watching TV. Nineteen blocks ready to go! 

 

In about 40 minutes, I can sew a log cabin block and two goosey units. My Featherweight is getting a workout this week! I'm trying to take good care of her with lots of TLC and oil.

Have a great weekend!

Scrappy WIP Wednesday

 I've been obsessively stitching for weeks now. The plus side of all this productivity is that I don't snack when I'm sewing so much, so I've lost a few pounds. Win-Win! Here's what I've been up to.

Farmer's Engineer's Wife: All 111 blocks are now done! I'm a little sick of looking at them, as cute as they are, so we're going to take a little break.

RIMQG Bee blocks for Jackie: Jackie provided the blue for her log cabins. These went in the mail today.

Wild & Goosey: Oh, how I love these blocks! Learn more about Bonnie Hunter's pattern here.

Selvage Log Cabins: This will be my entry in the RIMQG Log Cabin challenge, due in March. These blocks are really time consuming, but so worth it! Karen Griska's pattern is only $5 on Etsy. It's worth every penny!

I'm planning to set them on point. Don't mind my thready socks.

Friendship Star Swap: I quilted half of this last week before I ran out of thread. As soon as my order arrives from Superior, I'll get this finished.

Scrappy Mountain Majesties: When all the scraps were out, I cut some big squares for this project. Can't wait to get back to this one!

It's time to surf...

Log Cabin UFO

This is an old UFO. The log cabin blocks were made during a retreat weekend in the mid- to late-1990's. The workshop was actually a Colorado log cabin pattern. I got as far as making the straight log cabin blocks, but never managed to get the Colorado star points pieced. Take a look at this quilt to see what I'm missing.

I played with the blocks for a while before deciding on this setting. I think it looks a little modern. I need to find some fabric for the borders, backing and binding which might require a trip to a local quilt shop's sale later today! Eventually, this quilt will be donated to Quilts of Valor.