WIP Wednesday

 It's been a very quilty couple of weeks. I've been obsessively stitching every chance I get. Quilting mojo has been high! I wish I knew why or how to keep up the momentum. I'm taking a necessary break, but I hope I can get back to that high level soon.

Last Wednesday I finished a Quilt of Valor that has been waiting for years to be finished. It will be gifted soon to a very deserving WWII veteran.

 

The next finish was my One Block Wonder, AKA the geranium Jekyll and Hyde quilt. Read more about it here, including its two sided binding.

 

I had collected our guild's donated blocks for Diana's Golden Needle. When I saw that we were just a few short of having enough for a full top, I stitched up enough blocks from donated strips. Not being able to stop there, I stitched them up into a top. I'll mail it off to her after I show it to the guild next week.

I got a call that I didn't have to go in to work on Monday. I should have used that bonus time to clean the house. Instead, I took out these spool blocks and finished the top. I took a class a few months ago and picked up some tips for easily piecing Y-seams. The pattern is similar to Debbie Mumm's spools at this link. Our blocks are slightly smaller and pieced with Y-seams. I can't wait to start quilting this one with a rainbow spectrum of thread colors.

My poor machines were probably ready for a break! Lately I've been doing all my piecing on the Featherweight and all the quilting on the Bernina. It's a nice division of labor.

Jekyll and Hyde

This is my take on a One Block Wonder. I know I own the book by Maxine Rosenthal, but when it came time to cut my fabric, I couldn't find the book. I had to wing it, and I think my hexagons are a little bigger than others I've seen. The geranium print is so obnoxious, and I love it!

The backing is a sweet, soft print by Kate Spain. I was so enthralled by the texture created by the quilting that I was laying on the floor petting it!

The geranium print is by Phillip Jacobs. I bought it on clearance with this quilt in mind. Here it is before cutting.

I used a chrysanthemum quilting design, starting at the center of each hexagon, working my way out. I didn't want to travel to the center of the next hexagon, so I started and stopped stitching with each one. It was a lot of threads to bury, but that's the price you pay when the design in your head has to come out!

I tried and tried to find a fabric that would work as a binding on the front and the back, but nothing in my stash worked. It was time to break out the two-sided binding again. I used it on my selvage spiderweb 2 years ago. It looks tricky, but the tutorial on The Pattern Basket website makes it quite easy. The two color binding amplifies the hot/cold nature of the quilt.

This is one of those patterns that you could move blocks around forever and never feel like you've got it quite right.  It's done now, so no more rearranging!

 

Jekyll and Hyde One Block Wonder

56" X 62"

Cut & Pieced: January 2015

Completed: 6/26/15

Empty Nest Quilting

 Our nest is empty again. Bill and I helped Julia move into a new dorm room yesterday. There are perks to being an upperclassman, and she loves her larger room with private bath.

I've got a lot of projects to keep me busy. Last week was all about piecing. I love piecing! I love the process of cutting up fabric and sewing it back together. If the process involves some clever recutting and resewing, that makes me even happier!

Two examples from my recent sewing sessions:

Anita's Arrowheads for the back of my jelly roll quilt...

and Scrappy Mountain Majesties. 

This is my new stash project. As I come across smaller pieces of fabric, I'll be cutting 8.5" squares for this project.

 I pulled out this Philip Jacobs' geranium print for my New Year post. I couldn't resist getting right to work on this One Block Wonder. I'm sure I bought the book, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I had to wing it! It was a blast cutting and piecing this top. Now I need to figure out what to use on the back.

 I'll be focusing on quilting this week, starting with this mini for the schnitzel and boo swap. I'll tell you more about it when it is done.

 When I cleaned out my storage area, I found a basket full of Orca Bay parts from 2011. There were lots of HSTs and hourglass blocks. As I was piecing other projects, I pieced together pinwheels from the HSTs as leaders/enders. In no time, I had a new project to assemble. I put the last 2 borders on this morning making this a 40" square wall hanging. Now this needs backing fabric, too.

 And one more to quilt. My friend Ellie was working on this table runner and lost interest. I'll quilt it up and donate it to our guild auction in October.

 Let's sum up...

Ready for quilting:

Jelly roll/Arrowhead

One block wonder

schnitzel and boo mini

Scrappy blues

pink/yellow runner