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

WIP Wednesday #2

I had a nice long three-day weekend for Labor Day, with two days all on my own.  I felt so productive!  I cut half-square triangles while watching the entire first season of Glee (yeah, I'm late to the party).  


Completed Projects:

Nada.

New Projects:

Fall wall hanging of maple leaves (no pictures yet).  

Ongoing Projects:

Crosses and Losses - Lots and lots of cutting and sewing HSTs and trimming.  Eight twelve-inch blocks down, I'm not sure how many to go.  I'm thinking that I'd like to make it bed-sized, which means a couple more weekends of sewing.  

Curtains for the dining room - One panel is done, one needs to be hemmed still.  But it's pinned up and hanging, so it's a partial win, right?

Tops Awaiting Quilting:

Placemat Pair - Finished the second front and cut batting.  Still debating cross-hatch and organic wavy quilting.

Quilted Awaiting Binding:

Spring Zig Zag (half-bound)

No Progress/On Hold:

Secret Project
Orange and aqua throw

Orange and aqua pillow coversSisters Sampler - found out that I'm more behind than I realized, made a list, and got copies of my sister's drafting
Wedding Quilt
Curtains for the dining room
Old Timey Stars
Dad's Sudoko Puzzle

Hand-quilted dresden plates

This Week's Stats:
New projects - 1
Completed projects - 0
Currently in progress - 14

In Irene's Path

I missed WIP Wednesday this week, which I feel guilty about - but I haven't made any progress except for finding out I'm more behind on my Sisters quilt than I thought.  This weekend will either be very productive or see no work at all - we're hunkering down tonight and expecting Irene to hit at some point tomorrow.  If we don't lose power, I'm hoping to make some progress on Sisters blocks and some quilting. If we do lose power... hey, maybe I'll finish that hand-stitching of binding by candlelight or get my Singer treadle functioning!

WIP Wednesday (#1!)

I'm joining in the Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday for the first time this week.  It seems like a perfect linky for me - I love lists, and I have plenty of things in progress.  

I've been a little stalled in progress because of a living room makeover (involving *three* trips to the furniture store, one failed delivery of a couch that wouldn't fit, and four to seven more weeks of waiting) and a smelly washer, but I have made some progress!  I'm hoping that this linky (and especially those stats at the bottom) give me a push to at least move some things from the "On Hold" list to the "Ongoing" (or *gasp* "Completed"?) list.  

Completed Projects:

Sewing Machine Cover - This one was new *and* completed!  Start to finish in two days!  It's not the most shapely, but it will keep dust off and out of my machine.  

New Projects:

Crosses and Losses - Fabric acquired (Kona? Ruby and White), but not even washed yet.  I did do a mock-up in purples of my cheater plan for the block - all HSTs and squares means no evil bias triangles.  (The mock-up block doesn't count as a project, does it?)

Ongoing Projects:

Spring Zig Zag - Finished quilting and attached binding, just need to hand-sew the rest of the binding, add a hanger and a label!  Just in time for fall!

Orange and aqua pillow covers

Placemat Pair - One top is finished, and then I ran out of a fabric.  I'm trying to decide what quilting to do on these - crosshatch, squiggly lines, or taking another stab at free motion.  

Tops Awaiting Quilting:

I really thought there was something to go here.

No Progress/On Hold:
Secret Project (need to get moving on it!)
Orange and aqua throw
Sisters Sampler - held up by wedding and now sister's summer school schedule
Wedding Quilt
Curtains for the dining room
Old Timey Stars
Dad's Sudoko Puzzle - I have all nine blocks for this one, I just have to decide how to sash and set them, and if I want to make the quilt bigger somehow.  

Hand-quilted dresden plates
This Week's Stats:
New projects - 2
Completed projects - 1
Currently in progress - 13

Perfection

I've been struggling in my quilting with perfection.  Not that perfection is a problem, but my desire for it has been holding me back, making me afraid to try something lest I screw it up.  To illustrate: I have four projects sitting in my living room that are half-quilted.  (Okay, so part of that is that I have a lot of loose ends to weave in before I move on, and it's been HOT.)  But I keep second-guessing myself on how I want to quilt something or if I can execute what I imagine.  I'm making a resolution to go ahead and just finish some things.  If I botch it, I have my handy seam ripper and I will learn something from the process.

All that said, this (found here) is exactly how I want to finish quilting my zig-zag quilt - yes, the same one I've been waffling about since, oh, March?