WIP Wednesday

This week i have been plodding along on a small project for a new small person of a very good friend.






I am using Urban Cowgirl fabric...and i love it just as much as the first time i saw it. Isn't it pretty? It is also very fitting for its new recipient but it will be a few more months before that intro can be made(baby has to be born first).

The quilt for my husband is a ongoing WIP.... i think he would like it sooner than later so i am faithfully working away on it. Love you honey!


 

WIP Wednesday....for my honey

Things have been pretty quiet around the blog, but i am working on projects all the same. 

I have finished a few small quilts and now have set to work on a twin size for my husband. 

I don't know what he is going to think, but I am in L-O-V-E with this one.

I am hugely inspired by and totally crazy in love with this quilt by Emily at MLE knits, who got the basic directions here.

As i make each block i think that this one for sure is my favorite, until i make another and then i love that one even more. I am smitten!

It is going to take a little time....18 down and about 100 more to go...work will be slow but sure. i manage to squeeze a few in every day.

Here is a little layout sneaky peeky!

Happy WIP Wednesday. Head over to Freshly Pieced and ogle some of the other amazing things getting worked on this week.

 

And Here is my Answer!

i dove right in and stayed up way too late but in the end this is what i had to showe for it. My obvious inspiration came from here.

improv piecing is very liberating...more than i remembered. i love how it creates itself.

I did the contrast of warm and cool blocks since that is how i had sorted my fabric earlier in the day.

maybe i will make more of these and see how they look together. i don't know. Or maybe it will just be another mini quilt.

WIP Wednesday

Since we came home from vacation i have had just a little time to work on a few things...

This small quilt is a little sampling of a  HST sampler that Jeni at In Color Order is doing. I laid a few out on vacation and sewed them right up when we were home.

I have had these HST's forever in a box of UFO's. They were in there so long i forgot how cute they were.

Next i am working on a quilt for my mom. I have about half of the strips sewn together.

I am using a pattern from Amy Smart. I love it. Everything is coming together smoothly.

Lastly, these are the failed results of my attempt at doing the hand sewn sampler at Why Not Sew.  I was having trouble choosing fabric to begin with, then i saw a turning twenty quilt with FMF that i fell in love with and no longer wanted to commit all my FQ's to the sampler.

But i did have these pre cut FMF squares on my trip with me. I am just pairing them up and making 4 patches out of them to be wipped up into a small quilt.

Hop on over to Freshly Pieced and see what the other wonderful quilters are making!


 

Leslie

WIP Wednesday

Welcome to a WIP Wednesday where i actually have a few things to share.

First is my WIP. I have been working through the blocks of a Amy Smart pattern and i am loving it so far. I am hoping that it continues to go as smoothly as it has to this point(knock on wood). Last night i laid out all the strips, today i hope to get the whole top done

And I wanted to share a few shots of my latest finish...which was a WIP until this past weekend when i stayed up way too late 2 nights in a row to finish it. These blocks were made using a jelly roll of Salt Air fabric and a pattern i found on the Missouri Quilt Company blog.

It is backed by my new favorite fabric. I had thoughts of hoarding this one for the stash, to be used at who knows what point. I had mentioned this backing was coming in another WIP post. I hope it was not too anticlimactic! But i really do love it!

I was going to just simply straight line quilt it....but i was getting too caught up in trying to follow the lines of the quilt....and as you can tell by looking at this quilt, following lines would not be easy.  I decided i was over thinking everything and ended up just going for it and free handing some wavy overlapping lines that i followed with my walking foot. The quilting might  be seen a little easier if you click on any of the pictures.

I am really happy with it. This feels like it was a really productive week for me. I am getting back into a sewing groove and it is nice!

Head over to Lee's and see what everyone else has made.

 

Leslie

WIP Wednesday...all pinned up!

Today is WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced(go check it out), and i am thrilled to have something on the "table" to share!

This is my Salt Air quilt all pinned up and ready to go under the needle for quilting. It is pretty likely i will straight line it, as usual.

The backing fabric is really the star  of this quilt...but alas that shall be revealed when this quilt is complete.  

Leslie

Something Completed!

Besides completing 12 years of marriage...Happy Anniversary Honey!!!...

 I  needed to sew something this week....feel like i accomplished something, completed something.

Mini quilts became the project!

 I had already pre cut the patterned pieces in the first mini for another project that i started and just did not like. I paired them with a solid navy linen like fabric, which was also used as binding. I came out to be about 20x20ish.

This next mini was made from the leftovers of my WIP Salt Air quilt. I love the colors and prints so much i did not want anything to go to waste. It is a mini mini at only about 10x12.

These might be the start of the mini quilt wall i have been thinking about.

 

Check out the other pretty things at Amylouwho's sew and tell.

 Leslie

WIP Wednesday

Oh Finally! A new WIP!

I have been working on my ruby quilt for so long, and it was really coming along well until i ran out of thread this week. Joann's here i come!!! That gave me the opportunity to start this new project with Salt Air.




I love a pretty pile of scraps and trimmings from a project!

And this is my first block! Isn't it so fun?

I found the tutorial for how to make it on the Missouri Star Quilt Company's website. Honestly this block is like magic. All you need is a jelly roll and you have the potential for something really amazing.

I can not wait to make more.

Head over to Lee's at Freshly Pieced to see what everyone else is making.

Leslie

Ruby Experiment

I knew that this quilt was going to require some special time and attention for quilting....but what was i thinking when i decided to go for hand quilting?


This corner was a trial run. I was not sure, still am on the fence a little, if this was how i wanted to quilt something that was pretty large. But my design consultant, Avery, loves it....

...and since it is hopefully going to be done in time for her birthday(a present for her) i went with her on this one.

It is going to take a little while and my finger is killing me but in the end i know it will be worth the work.

Anyone have good hand quilting tips for me?

Leslie

WIP Wednesday

It is WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced, and i am so happy to have something to share today!!

Progress has been made on my Ruby quilt!!!

I have just a few more border strips to add and then she is all ready for quilting!!

This has turned out way prettier than i could have imagined and i am thrilled with how easily it has come together!!!

Check out some of the other WIP's at the Freshly Pieced link up.

Leslie

Scrap Happiness!!

This week i decided i needed a fast and easy project(i am talking 24 hours from piecing to binding). I also wanted to have a go at some of my scraps!! A personal scrap challenge, if you will, which I found to be harder than i thought. I just can not help myself, i always want to make the fabrics match!

In comes husband....i asked him for help. "Please Hubby, go through my scraps and pile up the ones that look good." He sure did and even snuck in a challenge piece to see if i would use it...can you find the pirate ship?

This denim wonky star is my favorite one. I always see scrap quilts and am stunned at how great they look when nothing is the same color and everything is random.

Right down to the bindings i used scraps...these had been in my bucket all ready to go from previous finished projects.

Today i want to say thank you to the blog friends out there that are still reading my blog. I would love to send you one of these mug rugs as a thank you!!! Please just leave a comment to let me know you were here and i will choose a winner by the end of the week.

Leslie

Ruby Stacks

Ruby!!

When i saw this new(ish) line i knew i wanted to make something with it...something that would live at our house.

Add Simplify with Camille Roskelley and i had the perfect combination. Her line of fabric and her book!

I am so happy to have a friend to quilt with so we are working on this quilt together...each in our own line of fabric. Makes it so much more fun!! Although she is much more motivated than me so she is a few steps ahead of me on this one.

I can not wait to see the finish on this!

Leslie

Hoarding? Addiction?

This post is not nearly as dramatic as i made the title sound!!!

However, i have a confession, i have somewhat of a quilt book addiction, hence i hoard them. So many are new, thanks to my wonderful husband who surprises me with books from my amazon list all of the time. Sweet , wonderful man! There are so many amazing quilts to oogle in these!

It is my grand plan to go through these this weekend and pick some things to make. There are a few i know for sure, from Jelly Babies and Block Party....and a few that are already in the works from Simplicity.

I have also recently overcome my mental block with free motion quilting. I will likely save it for the small more manageable things while i get better at it, but i tried it out...just went for it and loved it.

I had a ah-ha moment when i was getting this table runner ready to quilt. I
realized that when i had tried FMQ before i did not set my stitch length to the shortest i could. Man did that make a difference.

These little bags are the completion of my first money making sewing endeavor. I am relieved that they all are off to their new homes. It felt a little strange to get money for my work!!! But cool too!

Leslie

Tree Pants....Destination Germany

I learned from Sew Mama Sew blog that this is tree pants, not a tree skirt. I guess because it is square not round.

Who knew?! :o)

This was finally done and a long time in the making for my very dear and wonderful friend Jonelle in Germany. She, many moons ago, asked me to make her a Christmas tree skirt in blue, white and some silver. Then she trusted me to make something for her. Time passed, a baby was born and 2 Christmas's later it is under her tree instead of in my WIP pile.

I made it reversible, not so much by design, but because i wanted to make sure to use all of the fabric i had bought for the project. Chris(hubby) suggested the straight line quilting, hoping that it would look a little like a snowflake(roughly). All in all i am calling it a success....mostly because i know she loves it and it has a wonderful home.

love you Jonelle

Leslie

Scrappy Rail Fence Quilt Complete

It is all done, and off to a new home! Auction complete. I love how it turned out.

This is my first experience quilting with minky and i think i am going to have to use it again. It made this little quilt go from cute to so warm and cozy and thick!!! So nice i might need one for me!

I had some concerns with how I was going to hand stitch the binding using the minky as backing, but i did not need to be worried. It worked out just fine. I think the only down side to using this stuff is the fluff and fuzz it leaves all over the house when you are cutting and sewing it. Oh my goodness.

I used simple straight lines for quilting. The best was the way the pattern showed through on the back.

Leslie

WIP Wednesday

When Wednesday's come around i always try to decide if i am feeling wordless or have i been crafty lately and do i have WIP's i can share. Mostly the answer is wordless, so i show you a cute picture of my kids. This week i have actual projects to share. Hooray!!!

I unearthed some of my Amy butler stash from the very bottom of the pile and put together this topper! I did it with strips(fast) but added the diagonals to make it a little more interesting. Husband thinks i should try to overcome my fear of FMQ and go for it. Do you think? Or hand quilting?

I have also been working on a baby quilt...it is a scrappy rail fence. I used the same fabrics i had in my fall table topper and just went for it...trimming as i went to get the right size and i really think i like how it came out. The blocks are trimmed to 6" making the quilt about 32"x40".

I think i will be backing it in minky to make it really cozy and a little more interesting, and then it is going to auction for my husbands work. I hope it finds a new happy home. :o(

it is the WIP Wednesday anniversary, go see what all those crafty ladies have made.

Leslie