WIP Wednesdays

I decided to try something new and link up with Lee at Freshly Pieced who hosts a WIP (work in progress) Wednesday linksy. Not sure if that's what it's called officially, but that's what I'm gonna call it.

WIP:

I'm piecing the back for my Summer Sampler Quilt. I'm doing a row of 4" squares in between two pieces of Michael Miller's "Dot in Square" fabric in gray. You can see this fabric in my quilt top in previous posts.



Also using my sampler fabric, I've been working on two 18" pillow tops and I'm using Lee's "Hexing Around" pattern. I think they're looking good. I need borders to quilt the tops, then they'll be ready for putting together into pillow cases. Super excited.

Future Projects:

100 Quilts for Kids
Robert Kaufman Solids Challenge (these two might be combined)
Block of the Month Squares

That's all folks, hopefully I can figure out how to link up properly.

Future Quilts

You may have noticed I've added a bunch of buttons to the side bar. I'm going to participate in a few more QAL's. As I mentioned before I like having the deadlines of a QAL and the direction of other inspirational quilters.

I'm really having trouble with the RKSCQ. I'm tempted to use the charm pack for the 100 Quilts for Kids QAL. Then again, it's an opportunity to buy new fabric. Hmmm. What to do? I am excited to learn some new quilting techniques.

Dead Simple Quilt: This is supposed to be based on a color palette. Design Seeds was recommended for browsing. There were MANY attractive palettes, so I tried to select ones in which the original photo had meaning for me. Here are my five favorites. I have no idea how I'm going to choose!

Quilt Top

Sorry it's been a while. As I said, I was busy getting ready to torture my students. My quizzes are all done, I'll just tweek them the week before I give them. I am heading to school this week to get my packets made for my new students. I feel well ahead of the game, yay! This way I can keep up with my quilting too.

Speaking of that, after careful review of others in our flickr group, I asked Deb from A Quilters Table, if I could use her idea for borders. Essentially I put 2.5 inch borders around my blocks in an alternating fashion so that when sewn together, they look log-cabin-esk. I love the end result! The borders also allowed me a chance to trim my blocks to a uniform size without worrying about the block pattern. My blocks ended up 16". Now all I need to do is select backing fabric, sew together my binding (I'm going to make it scrappy), make my quilt sandwich, baste and quilt. It's getting there.


This weekend I made a trip to a fellow guilder's shop, Drawstring Studio. What a fantastic shop! I loved every fabric in that shop! Clearly the owner and I have similar tastes. I bought this great fabric for the back (zig-zags) and binding (solid brown) to go along with the RKSCQ, which is next on my list of quilts to make. Super excited.


I also found these fat quarters that were calling out to me. I am thinking of a little girls quilt maybe for my niece or one of my goddaughters. We shall see.

The QAL is complete

I know it's been a while. I had a busy weekend and didn't finish my final block until today. Block 12 looks great. I love how the center looks like a circle. This block was a lot to cut out but very easy to paper piece and then compile. Here is how it looks:



I can't believe how fast this QAL went. I'm thinking cream fabric for sashing and then maybe some pieced borders to make it a little larger quilt. Definitely looking forward to finishing this up.



Next on deck is a Machine Quilting show and then the Block of the Month block. After that I need to get working on my RKSCQ. Oh and I also need to start working on torturing my students. In other words, I need to make my quizzes and start prepping for class. Busy next few weeks!!

Block 11

Block 11 is done. This block used strips of fabric sewn together to make a sort-of new piece of fabric. I absolutely love how the strips look. Overall it was a pretty easy paper-pieced block to make. I have really taken to paper piecing.



Wow, I can't believe there is only one block left. Super sad. But it looks like a great paper-piecing block. I'll have to see how big this quilt is and decide if I want to make some extra blocks, I certainly have enough fabric left. I do want to make a matching pillow too. It'll just tie the room together.

I found another cool flickr group to join, Modern Crosses Get-Together. I can't wait to make this quilt, ever since I bought the book "Modern Log-Cabin Quilts", I've been in love with it! Might be a good use of the Modern Meadow fabric I just bought. I think the pattern will keep the collection looking feminine, even though there is so much navy in the colorway.

Perusing the quilting blog world, I am really inspired as usual. After this quilt is done, I'm going to really start linking up to other blogs and start a plan for blogging about my next quilt. I'm going to work on the Milwaukee Modern Quilt Guild Robert Kaufman Solids Challenge quilt next. I'm going to abbreviate that quilt to RKSCQ. Anyways, I've got a big bike ride planned for tomorrow, gotta get some decent sleep. Over and out.

Block 10

As I was about to start block 10, I became a little worried that I wouldn't have enough background fabric left. Low and behold, my Fabricworm order (along with the rest of the Modern Meadow fabric I ordered from two other places) came in the mail. Worries squashed! This was another paper pieced block that turned out pretty well. I don't know if I cut badly or if the directions weren't clear enough but I had to rotate some of my pieces on the diagonal in order for them to fit over the paper correctly. I struggled a little with this. Then construction of the entire block was a little dicey at the end. In the middle of the block all the points are supposed to meet up and mine are pretty darn close, but by no means perfect. Ready for tomorrow's block!