Sunday, January 23, 2011

WIPs, WISPs, and UFOs

I acquired my love of quilting and fabrics from my mother at an early age.  However, as the titles of this post and this blog suggest, my experience in quilting mostly consists of works in progress and unfinished objects (or as I once heard them called WISPs - works in slow progress).  See, I love selecting fabric and pulling coordinating stacks and cutting and piecing.  But I get stuck at quilting and I'm too cheap to send my tops out to be quilted.  Last year I finally got my own sewing machine after six years without one, taught my fiancĂ© to quilt, and learned that he actually enjoys and has talent for quilting!  

In light of this history, I thought I should start my blogging with an inventory of my patchwork in progress.  One of my goals for this blog is to prod myself to complete my WIPs and new projects.  

- Dragon Quilt (spring 2000)
Status: Completed

This wall hanging applique is, I believe, the only quilt I have totally completed.  It was a project for my eighth grade English class at the end of a unit focused on dragons.  

- Star Log Cabin (pre-2004)
Status: Quilted, needs binding

This was my first real quilt, directly from a pattern book: Quilt in a Day Star Log Cabin Quilt, by Eleanor Burns.  I went all-out in my fabric selection - blues, purples, and whites with star motifs.  The most major mistake was trusting my pre-washing enough to put a dark purple batik next to a white - this is a quilt that will definitely not be washed.  All that's left is to bind it, but the quilt is on the opposite side of the continent from the binding and me!

- Broken Bricks fat quarter quilt (pre-2004)
Status: Pieced Top

This quilt top went together very quickly from a fat quarter package I think I got as a prize in a quilt shop hop.  The bright red and bold fabrics were not my style, but they worked really well in this pattern from Fat Quarter Quilts by Mliss Rae Hawley.  I stopped at the top on this one because I don't have a plan for where to use this top.  



The fabrics used in the quilt - cut into strips.
- Purple Dresden Plates (started winter 2004)
Status: Hand Quilting In Progress

These blocks were pieced entirely by hand, and the top will be hand quilted.  I think I finished the top over Christmas break in 2004.  This means that it has been basted and on the quilt hoop for six years and it is half done.  

- Old Timey quilt (fall 2009)
Status: Portions of blocks pieced

I found a pattern called "Sowing Seeds" in a secondhand copy of Love of Quilting magazine, which is a variation on a traditional Virginia Star pattern.  I am using mostly Civil War period reproduction fabrics and plan on making it queen size.  I have all the diamonds cut but I can't get my Y seams to lay flat, so the quilt has stalled.  This is intended to be a quilt large enough to cover our bed, which makes it my most ambitious WIP.  

Excuse the horrible horrible picture!
- Eric’s Christmas Quilt (Dec. 2009)
Status: Quilted, binding in progress

I taught Eric to quilt on this one.  He chose the simple Mine Shaft pattern and selected the fabric himself.  Both of us cut and pieced, and he completed the quilting and is currently binding it.  The student has become a master, and I love it!



Again, excuse the awful lighting in this photograph...


- Teals and Oranges lap quilt (spring 2010)
Status: Quilting in progress

This quilt was inspired by a charm pack of 5" x 5" squares at JoAnn.  I usually prefer to match my own fabrics, but the combination of teals and oranges had already been in my mind for our living room and the pre-cut squares made a nice change from the finicky piecing of points in the old timey quilt.  This one is partially quilted, but issues in tension on my machine have held me up.  I need Eric to take over!

- Wedding Signature Quilt (for summer 2011)
Status: Planned and prototyped

For our wedding in June we are planning to make a signature quilt as a guestbook.  We are collecting fabric from friends and family and will use it to piece the top; the white strips will be signed at our wedding and other events.  I sketched it using the highly advanced graphic design tool of Excel!