WIP and should-be finish

As expected, I *finished* this quilt last weekend. This is probably the most densely I've quilted to date. Of course, I love it and of course it's a gift. It was really fun to work with pink too, not much pink in my house. 

 
 

 

The last step for me is washing the quilt. Well I've already washed it twice and the Dritz chalk I used hasn't completely come out yet. ARGH! I even soaked it in Oxy Clean and there are still some green chalk marks. Of course now I read the terrible reviews online that say the chalk doesn't wash out. How can chalk NOT wash out? Sure I've heard some of the markers don't always wash out, but chalk? Apparently this chalk is waxy. Great. And here I thought I had an easy way to mark lines all over my quilt to keep the quilting straight. Anyone have any better suggestions, either for getting the chalk out or for a better product?

 
 

I also finished these Picture Perfect Polaroid blocks for the swap. Super cute, I am excited to make something out of them. I'm thinking pillows or maybe placemats.





Other than that, it's bee block week. I've been busy working on bee blocks so that I can move on to my next quilt. That one is top secret so I won't be able to show you anything. I'll try to work on some of my other UFO's to keep my blog moving.

I'm linking up!

It's been an exciting week

It's only Wednesday and so far it's been a great week. I got to see my extended family this weekend and I won a $500 gift certificate to my LQS, Patched Works. YIPPEE!! I'm still a little bit in shock.

I've also been working on a challenge for my chapter of the MQG. It's coming right along, things are starting to fall into place, it'll all be official very soon. Super exciting.

Made good progress on this baby quilt. I'm currently putting the binding on. Thanks for all the encouragement about my quilting last week. As you all predicted, the quilting looks just fine on the back. I did quite a bit of quilting too, I used all the white space for some geometric straight line quilting. I really love how it turned out, I am going to use some of this quilting for a quilt that I'm going to keep. Can't wait to show you when it's all washed, otherwise you have to look at all my chalk lines.



I'm up to another swap, I'm doing the Picture Perfect Polaroid Block swap so I've been fussy cutting 2.5" squares. I agreed to 30 and cut 5 extra for the hostess and 11 for me. Should be fun.

 

Coming up maybe some bee blocks and then I'm working on a top secret project. Doing a little pattern testing and I've picked out some awesome fabric. Eventually you'll get to see that.

I'm linking up!

WIP, going a little crazy

For some reason, I've been super busy this week. I've had or will have something to do almost every night this week. Add to that somewhat busy days and you get little sewing time. I still have a list with too many things on it! Ahhh, I can't wait for the weekend!!

So even though I finished a top and a back since last week, I swear I have made no real progress in the last two days. I need to baste this darn thing so I can quilt it.

I posted last week where I got the star patterns from to make the top. Love the ample white space.




Here is what I chose for the back:



And speaking of quilting...here is my plan:



I'm a little nervous about how my white thread will look on the pink polka dot back, so instead of doing real dense lines, I think I'll leave at least an inch between each line. What do you think? Should I change my back to accommodate my quilting design or do you think it will look ok?

I'm linking up!

 

WIP on Thursday

It's been an unusual week for me. The 4th of July was on Wednesday this week so graciously Lee is letting us have another day to post. Thank goodness because I've been busy! But not entirely with my quilting endeavors.

It's the season for outside music and I've been braving the heat (it was 102 yesterday!) and attending a few concerts at Milwaukee's huge music festival, Summerfest. And of course we've had BBQ's to attend, fireworks and parades, all in this terrible heat wave we're having. That leads to lots of crabbiness around here and then lack of energy. To top it off, our power was out for a few hours during naptime today, so only phone internet service and no sewing. Needless to say I'm just getting to my post now.

In other ironic news, I finished my Starry Punch Quilt yesterday, the hottest, record breaking day of the year. My gracious quilt holder (the hubs) and lucky recipient of this quilt thought that was quite amusing. Here's the front:




And the back:



After binding, I sewed up the side a little more than 12" to make a foot flap, as requested.



Lastly, my true work in progress is a quilt going to a cousin who's having a baby girl in December. I'm making 4 different 12.5" stars, 3 from Faith's Solstice Stars QAL and one from Ellison Lane Quilts. I'm using solids that I also featured in my NY Beauty mini quilt. This time I'm using Kona white for the background. Everything is all cut up and ready to go. Hopefully I can work on this tonight whilst watching Le Tour de France.



I'm linking up!