accepted!

Just a quick note before I head to the reunion...

The 8 quilts my guild entered for the AQS show in Grand Rapids in August got accepted!!!!!

Under the Microscope will be in the show.

Happy quilting,
Katie

a pretty awesome weekend

This weekend there was nothing on the agenda other than an oil change, so I got to do some of my own stuff!

I was thinking about trying to catch up on my scrap blocks, but it's gotten so far out of hand, I'm ready to throw in the towel.  I'm still going to try to use my scraps and make quilts, but why not make the same blocks?  Simpler blocks.  I stumbled upon a pattern on Pinterest and sadly don't remember what it was called, only that the link to the original photo was spam.  But I'm pretty good at drawing a block from a photo, so away I went...

I cut what I thought was everything on Saturday and then took a break.  20 blocks at 18" each.  Then today I started to sew them together and realized I needed 8 color squares, not 4, for each block.  So I dug out the remaining scraps and did what I could, but had to add an orange and a few mismatched squares to fill everything out.  But it's a scrap quilt, and I say it's okay.

I got two blocks put together completely today, showing that I'm not a complete failure at drawing a block from a photo, and then got sidetracked.  (Not to mention it's rather warm in an upstairs bedroom with no air conditioning and an iron going!)

Pretty simple blocks, right?  Getting that ric-rac fabric going the right way threw me for a bit of a challenge on the first block, but I've got it down now.

The quilt will finish 72x90 without borders and I've already cut the binding!

But then...

JoAnn Fabrics had a 1-day sale today.  50% off all their Keepsake Calicos.  Since many of them are $7.99 and $9.99, I'm very cautious in my purchases for new quilts.  But at 50%, I could buy without as much restraint!  But I didn't have any quilts needing to be made.  So I talked myself out of going.  Then the hubby talked me back into it, saying that I'd need a project or three for when we'd be on vacation next month and he'd be out fishing all day every day.

Hmmm...

There are a few quilts I'd like to make one day...for me...  (And we all know that no quilter has any unfinished quilts anywhere, right?)

So after a few hours of debating with myself, I made the decision to go for it.

4 quilts on the list.

Originally I was just going to tease you with this, but as I was sorting colors and getting ready to throw some in the washing machine, I realized I may not remember which fabrics are for which project.  Particularly the larger pieces.  So I took a few more photos.

First up is the most recent to make my list: a Quiltmaker Scrap Squad version of Mandarin Express:

I pretty much copied the colors because, well, that's what drew me in.  The original would never have appealed to me, so it's fun that Quiltmaker has their Scrap Squad to change things up a bit.

Next up is a quilt I've loved from the time I saw it with a grey background: Supernova.

I couldn't find a grey I liked to go with all of these, so the grey-black is going to have to do.  I think it will make the colors pop even more.  And those fabrics...so many are fabrics I would have NEVER chosen on their own, but I was going for 5 fabrics in a family with an eye towards variety in shades and trying to push out of my comfort zone.  Now that I look at the blues (my first set of fabrics), maybe I didn't do so well, but I'm confident it's all going to work out.  I had a lot of fun choosing these, just grabbing and evaluating and putting back.  Needless to say, with 21 fabrics here, my cart began to run over...and I wasn't done yet!

And then there's Nicole's Sofa Quilt.

If we're being honest here, the fabric requirements for this quilt have been in my purse since Judy over at Patchwork Times showed the first drawing.  About a year ago.  I was hoping for the courage to buy the fabrics to make this quilt for myself and finally had the opportunity.

And finally, I bought only the background fabric for Swoon.

I broke down and bought the pattern at a quilt show not too long ago, having found it right there, convenient and not too expensive.  And I'd bought this fat quarter bundle a while back...

...loving it and knowing I'd save it for something special.  I haven't looked at how the background works with these yet, but it's a nice neutral that will get used eventually if it doesn't work here.  And it was what I had in mind when I left to go shopping, so that's a bonus.  (Usually you never find what you're looking for if you go out looking for it, right?)

So in all, I spent a pretty penny, but in comparison to the PlayStation 4 the hubby pre-ordered yesterday, I got by cheap.  (And considering that he won't take possession of the game system until...oh, wait, we don't know when...I also have something to show for my shopping spree!)

I've started washing fabrics, but then realized I'm out of fabric softener.  Go figure.  I guess I didn't really want to iron all those pieces of fabric all at once anyways.  (Never mind that two of the largest cuts went in that load that got fabric softener...)  And we don't leave for vacation for a few weeks either, so maybe it's better I don't have them ready for me so soon.

I hope you've all had a wonderful quilty weekend.  My upcoming weekend is going to be crazy.  I'm travelling out of state with my brother to a family reunion (we're both leaving the spouses home) and planning to have a great relaxing time.  And that starts a month of much travel for me.  I'll try to share photos and whatnot as I get time, but if I fall off the blogging bandwagon in July, that's why.

Happy quilting,

Katie

baby quilt is a top!

I haven't been sewing much, but this Saturday was my quilt group's sewing day, so I took the baby quilt.

Originally the plan was to use the floral shown in earlier photos as a border.  I'd pulled the colors for the quilt center from that, but once this was together, it just didn't work.  So that will be the back.  It would have added about 16" to the quilt, so it now finishes at about 40" square, which is a respectable size for a baby quilt and if noone tells the parents-to-be, they won't know any different.

I wish I had more than this to share, but I've had the worst Monday in history (and it wasn't just me - a coworker also had a rotten day), so I think I'm going to curl up on the couch with my kitties and a bag of chocolates and call it a night.

But first, another of my favorite songs by one of my most favoritest singers!

This guy has a new album coming out in a month and I can't wait for it!  I've seen him in concert and he's amazing.

Happy quilting!

Katie

the current project - a baby quilt

I've not been sewing as much as I would like to be (and part of my sewing efforts were to repair a rip in the couch), but I do have a little to show!

I teased with this photo of fabrics last week:

The pattern I'm using is one I picked up out of a $1 bin at a quilt show not too long ago.  "Polka Dots and Posies" by Terri Staats, published by Sweet Treasures.

As you can see, I didn't exactly stick with the color scheme, but I wanted a bold print for the border (the one on the bottom of the stack), so I had to work from there.

The blocks finish 16", so it only needs four blocks to make a 55" square quilt with all the borders, so there wasn't much cutting to do and I got to sewing pretty quickly this weekend...and then a little sewing...

My lovely 8 megapixel camera phone cannot capture colors worth a darn, but it was handy, so forgive the color troubles from here on.  The first photo captured the colors rather nicely, so go with that.

So here's the main part of the block, but you can see from the pattern there in the corner, there's a bit more to be added to complete the block.  These are sewn together for the block center, so I moved on to marking for the outer part of the blocks.

This process was a bit tedious and I'm very thankful I'm only making 4 blocks, as I had to mark 64 pieces!  I haven't sewn them together, but this involves the "lost corner" technique.

Ready to sew!  Maybe I'll get to them tonight, but I'm not having a very productive day, quilt-wise, today, so maybe not.  If not, they're ready when I am!

While I've been sewing, my "smart"phone is capable of streaming Pandora music.  I love Pandora.  Actually, I love anything where I can listen to music with a minimum of fools talking at me between songs.  This is an artist I found thanks to Pandora and this song was the one that drew me in.  I heard it and got chills.  His voice, his guitar...he's amazing.  I think I listened to it about 400 times before I really listened to the words, but that's the music geek in me...I hear the music before the words...  This is a more acoustic version than is on the album I now own, but I love it better.

Off to catch up on blog reading and then maybe read or sew...  (I'm reading the last book in the 2011 stack!)

Happy quilting,

Katie