WIP Wednesday

New Projects: 

It's finally winter - quilts in the snow!

Star Log Cabin - This is really an OLD project, started when I was in high school!  I brought this back from my parents' house at Christmas, and decided to get to work on it and finally finish it.  I had finished the top quickly and hand-quilted it, but got stalled on the binding.  For some reason I decided it needed a bias binding, even though it doesn't have any curves and has some bleeding issues so it won't be washed.  This week I decided to soldier on, and now the binding is attached and waiting for some quality hand-sewing time.  

Roll of bias binding - finally made up.

Detail of the bleeding, which looks worse in person than it does on film.

Free Motion Quilting - I've done my homework for my FMQ class tomorrow night - cutting and pin-basting 18" sandwiches.  I'm wicked excited about my new FMQ foot and the prospect of improving my skills here.

Ongoing Projects:

Diamond Throw

No Progress/On Hold:

Placemat Pair

Curtains for the dining room

Fall wall hanging of maple leaves

Orange and aqua throw

Sisters Sampler
Wedding Quilt
Old Timey Stars
Dad's Sudoko Puzzle

Hand-quilted dresden plates

Orange and aqua pillow covers - still not dropped off my list

This Week's Stats:
New projects - 2
Completed projects - 0
Currently in progress - 13

2012 Sewing Plans

The new year has me reflecting on how I go about sewing, and I am making some plans (is it too late for them to be resolutions?) about what and how I want to sew this year. 

1. Finish more.  I am really good at diving into projects, pretty okay at finishing tops, and horrible at follow-through.  This is why I still have UFOs from more than eight years ago (almost a quarter of my life!).  I have already taken a stab at this particular UFO, and I'm hoping to finish the binding soon.  I'm also thinking of using the Finish It Up Friday link up at Crazy Mom Quilts as motivation to push myself to follow through on more.  Which leads me to...

2. Blog more.  As I've said before, once I miss a bit, I feel like I'll never catch up, and it perpetuates itself.  I am going to try to post more, maybe with more link ups - and hopefully with more finishes!  I want an awesome collage of finishes at the end of 2012. 

3. Explore more.  I want to push myself to learn new things (hopefully without starting too many new tangent UFOs.)  I am signed up for a free motion quilting class this week (and I have to finish my basting homework in prep for that!).  I also have a project set on the shelf because of my fear of Y-seams, which I need to get over and tackle.  I know I'll make good friends with my seam ripper for both of these, but they'll make me a better and more well-rounded quilter. 

WIP Wednesday

Completed Projects: 

Secret Project - Like I said earlier this week, all completed and on its way to a very special family member.  To be shared soon.  

Christmas Gifts - Posted earlier this week.

New Projects: 

None!  I have been sorting through some inherited blocks, but that's an OLD project, and I haven't technically started working on it yet.  However, here's a sneak peek at some antique Sunbonnet Sues: 

Ongoing Projects:

This now has another row of blocks across the top.

Diamond Throw - The nine-patch units are all sewn up as blocks, and they are assembled into diagonal rows.  We did some figuring on how to square up the edges, and I've been working on that.  It needs a little more width, which means picking up an appropriate light reproduction fabric to work with.  

Crosses and Losses - Interestingly, for the last couple weeks, the Quilt Index Blog has been focusing on examples of the Old Maid's Puzzle, which is a different name for the Crosses and Losses block.  I made a bunch more blocks, but ran out of Moda Ruby, and have to order since my local quilt shop is out.  I had planned to make a complete top of the same block, but the Quilt Index examples are making me reconsider using sashing or setting blocks. 

No Progress/On Hold:

Placemat Pair

Curtains for the dining room

Fall wall hanging of maple leaves

Orange and aqua throw

Sisters Sampler
Wedding Quilt
Old Timey Stars
Dad's Sudoko Puzzle

Hand-quilted dresden plates

Orange and aqua pillow covers - still not dropped off my list

This Week's Stats:
New projects - 0!
Completed projects - 2
Currently in progress - 12

Holiday Sewing

Now that the holidays are past, I can share some of the sewing I did for the holidays.  In reviewing my pictures, it's apparent that I didn't take all the pictures I meant to.

I made a couple sets of potholders - a set for my sister-in-law, and a set for my parents-in-law with a matching sightly larger hot pad.

This is the pair for my sister-in-law, with the accompanying baking dish.  I did an Ohio Star block and did simple in-the-ditch quilting.  In-the-ditch on a single Ohio Star can be done without starting and stopping, which was nice to figure out!  These were pieced, quilted, and machine-bound very quickly - I can work fast when I'm under a deadline!

The all-green set was for my in-laws: two potholders of hourglass blocks, and a hot pad with a larger Ohio Star (kind of visible in the picture below).  I didn't get a picture of any of these finished.

Under the trivet above is a doll quilt for my youngest sister-in-law.  She got a doll bed for her 18" doll from Santa, and this was made to go with it.  I went with the hot pink and dark pink because she loves them, but I tried to make it more sophisticated by contrasting them with greys.  I'm hoping that it grows up a little with her - at least as long as she's playing with dolls.  It's backed with a purple argyle flannel, which gives it a nice weight and drape without overdoing it with batting.

Last on my holiday sewing list were some drawstring gift bags.  These were literally last - I stayed up all night making them!  We flew to my parents' for Christmas, and I was determined that the TSA wouldn't interfere with me wrapping presents for my parents.  The solution - festive, handmade, reusable, search-friendly bags.  My mother loved hers, but I stole them back to fill up for the next time we travel.  I used the great tutorial from In Color Order, and more of these bags are definitely in my future!


I'm glad to get caught up on several secret projects - the last one is (finally) complete and was shipped out yesterday, so I will get to post on that one soon.

WIP Wednesday

Go figure that the week I get my act together and write a WIP Wednesday post, the linkup goes on hiatus!  I'm posting anyway, and this week the linky icon goes just to the main page of Freshly Pieced.  Maybe I can do it on my own through January when the linky comes back!

Completed Projects: 

Spring Zig Zag! - I got some time over Thanksgiving to sit and do some hand-sewing on the binding.  I think I have a couple of stitches left to put in the hanging sleeve, and it needs to be labeled, but it's completely bound, and I'm counting it as a win.  I mean, a finish.

A couple Christmas presents (new and completed, so I'll count it as one unit).  Secret, of course, until after Christmas.  There are a couple more to work on and to finish, but I'll plan on posting on them all after the holidays.

New Projects: 

Diamond Throw - Remember those diamonds I posted about my husband playing with a couple months ago?  They have evolved into a set of blocks and have been hanging out on the design wall.  Eric and I had a great morning playing with the diamonds and rearranging them.  

Ongoing Projects:

Secret Project - Finally making some progress on this - I need to quilt the border and bind and label it, and it can be off!  (And then, like the Christmas presents, it can stop being secret!)

Placemat Pair - One quilted, one to go.

No Progress/On Hold:

Crosses and Losses

Curtains for the dining room

Fall wall hanging of maple leaves

Orange and aqua throw

Sisters Sampler
Wedding Quilt
Old Timey Stars
Dad's Sudoko Puzzle

Hand-quilted dresden plates

Orange and aqua pillow covers - based on my new living room, I may be abandoning these.  I just have to convince myself that it's okay to drop something off my list!

This Week's Stats:
New projects - 2 (counting Christmas gifts all together)
Completed projects - 2
Currently in progress - 13

Back From Hiatus

I've been on an unintended hiatus - looking at my last post, since September.  I've been distracted and busy, and once I fell behind posting, I just kept staying behind.  (Every Wednesday I tell myself that THIS week, I'll at least link to WIP Wednesday - oops.)  Mostly I've been busy because I'm working six days a week now, which kind of puts a damper on down time at home.  On top of that, my camera had an incident (note - cameras don't like falling, even only a couple inches) and had to be replaced.  The upside of that means I've upgraded!

The other contributing factor in my delinquency has been a complete reorganization of my sewing space, with the accompanying chaos.  My darling husband has finally (almost) finished building us a custom room-divider/cutting counter/bookcase.  Almost because staining and really finishing won't be happening during either finals period or winter; however, it is fully assembled and a functional surface, which is a vast improvement over the folding table I had been using.

Before: 

During: 

Current:

As you can see, it's actually gone through several stages of rearranging and new furniture, including the addition of those awesome Ikea EXPEDIT shelves.  It's also gone through MANY stages of cleaning - somehow the piles of fabric have a tendency to just keep growing on their own!

If I start writing now, perhaps I can get myself caught up and posted for WIP Wednesday?

WIP Wednesday #3

Well, nothing new and nothing completed, so I'm afraid I'm pretty boring this week.  

Ongoing Projects:

Crosses and Losses - More HSTs and blocks this week - I'm at 15 12" blocks now.  I laid it out on my bed, and I'm thinking I'm not quite halfway there.  I'll keep chipping away at it, stacks of HSTs at a time, and maybe by the time it's cold enough, I'll have at least the top done.  

Tops Awaiting Quilting:

Placemat Pair

Quilted Awaiting Binding:

Spring Zig Zag (still)

No Progress/On Hold:

Curtains for the dining room

Fall wall hanging of maple leaves.  

Secret Project
Orange and aqua throw

Orange and aqua pillow covers

Sisters Sampler
Wedding Quilt
Curtains for the dining room
Old Timey Stars
Dad's Sudoko Puzzle

Hand-quilted dresden plates

This Week's Stats:
New projects - 0
Completed projects - 0
Currently in progress - 14