WIP: HAND QUILTING AND SWAG

Well my Madrona Road quilt is finished enough to post in the Flickr pool, but I'm still hand quilting it. So far, I absolutely love it! It's like embroidering on my quilt, an awesome combo of two of my favorite things. I will definitely be doing more hand quilting.

One more block and I'm done with my online bees. Not sure I'll be joining an online bee again anytime soon. I have my local quilt guild bee to look forward to instead. Here is one block, I need to make another one with purple on the outside and orange on the inside. Very putzy paper-piecing.

My LQS had Kona Club last night and it was so very fun! Not only do we celebrate Kona solids, but we share ideas and happenings in the quilt world. My LQS owner informed us she booked Tula Pink to give a talk in March. Yippee!! Tula has a new book out in May and the shop carries her fabrics, it should be great. It's really awesome to see a modern quilter coming to our neck of the woods.

I also picked up some good stuff....my LQS has started making packs of 2.5" squares for making 1" hexies!! And I picked up a couple of charm packs to cut into 2.5" squares. I'm catching the hexie fever. I also bought a new quilting hoop online that should help me with my hand quilting. My 6" plastic hoop keeps popping off, argh. I tried a circular 18" hoop but that was really uncomfortable and I couldn't grip it well enough so this oval size should help. You'd think my long arms would work, but alas, I had to keep putting the hoop down, not good.

Gotta go, this block and my guilds QuiltCon quilt need to get in the mail tomorrow! More on that soon. I'm linking up!

WIP: STILL MADRONA ROAD

Yep, still working on my Madrona Road quilt. It's quilted with a few straight lines but as you can see from this picture, I'm about to start some hand quilting. Then onto the binding, therefore lots of hand work ahead.

I have a couple of small projects coming up next. I'm making the Idea Pouch from MichellePatterns for my iPad and then a matching triple zip pouch. I bought the Idea Pouch pattern over the holidays and I'm participating in the Triple Zip A-Long over at A Quilters Table. Super excited to get working on these two. No surprise, I picked some Bella to use for these.

Nothing has changed on my UFO list. Someday I'll start checking those off.

I'm linking up.

WIP: MADRONA ROAD

Still plugging along at this Madrona Road quilt. We got hit with the stomach flu last week so I went 3 days without touching it. One of which was my guild sew day/holiday party (big bummer). I was really flying along too, but alas, I'm back at it. I tried to float my blocks a little bit. Not sure quite if it's what I was hoping for, in retrospect I should have varied the block size more. In any case I like how it's looking.

I am hoping to hand quilt this but the local shops around here don't seem to carry a good selection of perle cotton #8. I am hoping to find someone with a color card to borrow from, otherwise I'll have to break down and buy one. Not sure I want to attempt to color match from a computer.


Finished this cowl over the weekend. Very happy with how it turned out.

UFO's:

Star Wars quilt (binding only)

Echo Hexagon Quilt

BOM from Sew Mama Sew

Tumbler Quilt (all cut)

Malka Quilt (basted already)

Top Secret Quilt (have top and back done)

Bee Quilt (one a charity quilt, one a girl quilt)

Possible:  I Spy and Polaroid Quilts (no real actual plans)

Other projects:

Reusable Baby Wipes

Sweat pants

iPad case

Swim cover-up

Star Wars curtains and pillowcases

Bean Bag chair

I'm Linking Up.

WIP: MQG CHALLENGE

I'm plugging along on my Madrona Road quilt for the Modern Quilt Guild's fabric challenge.

I made 8 random blocks and then I'm going to asymmetrically place them into the quilt top with solids and some of the gray-toned fabrics in the collection. I want it to have a "pieced-back" look. I'm not overly happy with the blue block. I think I'm going to add a solid around the pinwheel to make it pop more.

Our guild got mostly blue and yellow fabrics but I have very little pink in my house and I really loved the pink prints. I think I did the pink justice but I need a little more of that fabulous magenta. I might use that as the binding. In any case, I'll have lots of leftover fabric for my stash.

Speaking of leftovers....I'm using scraps from this quilt to make a covered notebook. My local guild is having our holiday party on Saturday and we're doing a swap. Very excited about this swap, I've been meaning to make one of these!

Up next (although I should work on my UFO's) is another pattern testing quilt for my mom. She picked out the colors, you'll be able to see that right away! Not what I would have picked but I think they are beautiful colors.

Trying to be better about my quilty UFO's, so here they are:
Star Wars quilt (binding only)
Echo Hexagon Quilt
BOM from Sew Mama Sew
Malka Quilt (basted already)

Top Secret Quilt (have top and back done)
Bee Quilt (one a charity quilt, one a girl quilt)
Possible:  I Spy and Polaroid Quilts (no real actual plans)

Other projects:
Reusable Baby Wipes
Sweat pants
iPad case
Swim cover-up
Star Wars curtains and pillowcases
Bean Bag chair

Eek! Better get cracking! I'm linking up!

WIP: I'M BACK

Well I was hoping to show you all of my vinyl pouches that were causing me to lose my hair, but I forgot to take a picture. Ugh, they are all wrapped and mostly given away. Thankfully they were well received.

Speaking more of last year, I reached my goal of finishing 12 quilts, in fact I finished 15! My goal for next year is to learn how to FMQ. Gottta get over my fears.

I also embroidered and made this needle/project case for my bestie. She's a big Dr Who fan and it went well with my "knitting" theme for her gift. She got me two fabulous Lotta Jansdotter candles!!! They are going to be perfect for the new sewing room, coming in 2013.

On tap, I've got 8 blocks cut for the Modern Quilt Guild's Madrona Road fabric challenge. I'm excited to get started on this sampler quilt.

I've been knitting up a storm, I finished one of my socks I posted about several weeks ago and I'm working on a cowl. I don't know if it's because it's winter, but I've been really enthusiastic about knitting lately. So I dragged the boys to the local yarn shop and bought some yarn for a blanket for the new baby. It's Spud and Chloe, Outer. Aren't the colors fabulous? It also feels superb. Can't wait to get started on it.

Hope your New Year is off to a good start!

I'm linking up.