Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

I have six quilt tops (plus batting and binding) that are waiting for me to purchase backing fabric. Although I have lots of fabric in my stash and can make many more quilt tops, I don't have lots of yardage that would work for backings. Most of my yardage is "too pretty" to use for backings, so I'm saving it for future quilt tops.

Time to go fabric shopping!!

Yes, Another Quilt Project

I keep finding more and more projects that I want to work on while I wait until I get to a fabric shop to buy some backings for quilt tops that are already done.

I've decided to finally make the blocks in this book, Tula Pink's City Sampler --100 Modern Quilt Blocks. All the blocks are pieced, so I don't have to worry about having to applique anything. And since all the blocks are just 6 1/2 inches unfinished, most of the pieces are small and can come from fabrics that I already have. My goal is to only use fabrics from my stash/scraps and to only use them once. We'll see if that happens.

Fifteen blocks are finished, using 45 different fabrics.

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation

Well, since I don't work outside the home, I don't really have a "Christmas vacation", but I am fortunate enough to have time to do what I'm passionate about -- sewing and quilting. And during the cold winter months, I spend the time doing just that.

In December, I managed to finish four quilt tops and start on a fifth, all using fabric from my stash. I have the batting and binding all ready for them, but I don't have any fabrics in my stash that I want to use for backings, so that will wait until I get to a fabric shop. My goal in 2018 is to just use what I have, and only buy backings (and maybe an occasional binding) when necessary.

Once these quilts are finished, they will go into my "to be given away someday" pile.

What I'm Working On

I'm currently working on several projects that I need to make in time for my guild's exhibit in September, so I haven't had anything finished to blog about lately. Since I don't want to go too long without posting, here's a shot of one of the projects. It's quite an easy fabric weaving technique that a friend of mine recently showed me how to do. It's hard to explain in words, but once I saw her do it, it became quite clear.

If this is successful, I'll post a photo of the completed project sometime this summer.

Miles and Miles of Binding

I haven't blogged for a while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy on the quilting front. I finished three quilt tops and pieced backings for them, and now the bindings are ready as well. I like to prepare the bindings before I quilt my quilts, so as soon as the quilting is done, I can sew the binding on quickly and get the whole project finished.

Of course, I made bias striped binding...my favorite look.

Sewing Some More

I've started another quilt and I'm loving the colors!

 And it's all from my stash, including the backing and binding! I wonder how many quilts I can make before I run out of fabric...

I Almost Missed It

Over the weekend, I had loaded my latest quilt top on the frame to be quilted, when I noticed that one block was not sewn in right. I debated for several hours about whether to fix it or not, and even asked my Facebook quilting friends their opinion. 

Since this quilt is made from free fabric that I won in a giveaway, and since I don't have any particular recipient in mind for it right now, I could have easily left it the way it was. But I knew that even though most people wouldn't notice the mistake, it would bother me if I left it in, especially since it was in a place that was easy to fix. Not a whole lot of unstitching to do. In the time that I spent debating, I could have easily taken care of the issue. I finally decided to fix it and get on with the quilting.

I'll show the completed quilt in my next blog post.

Waste Not, Want Not

It may be a bit hard to see in the photo, but this batting for my latest quilt is made up of six leftover pieces from previous quilts.

click on the photo for a larger view

I use a flat-joining seam on my Bernina to sew them together, and it works great. The seams really are flat.

click on the photo for a larger view

I don't usually piece batting if I'm making a white or other light-colored quilt -- the seams can often be seen and I don't like that look. But with this quilt, the dark fabrics on both the top and bottom will hide the batting seams just fine.

Now to quilt it!

Another Finished Flimsy

I have another quilt top finished. Now it's time to find a fun backing. Road trip!

Something New

I finally have another new quilt top in the works. Right now, it's just on my design wall, but I hope to get started sewing the top this week.

WIP

I don't often show my projects as I'm working on them, but since I've had very little time to do any kind of stitching at all lately, I thought I'd show what I'm currently working (very slowly) on. The top is finished; now to decide on a quilting design.

The pattern is Shenandoah (click here for info). It's a great way to show off large-print fabric that you don't want to cut up into teeny tiny pieces.

I Can't Help Myself

I have this disease...you know...it's an addiction...an addiction to piecing fabrics on my sewing machine...I can't seem to stop...

I may not be able to stop, but I'm going to make a concerted effort to control myself...My new rule is that I am not allowed to start piecing (or cutting) a new quilt top until I have quilted two tops that are in line waiting to be quilted! Hopefully, I'll get things taken care of in just a few weeks. Sew one, quilt two...sew one, quilt two....I just have to keep repeating that to myself.

So, I am stepping away from the sewing machine and moving over to my mid-arm...Really, I am...

What I'm Working On

Doing some straight-line quilting on a gingham patchwork chevron quilt...and yes, I know some of the points are cut off, but that's what happens with this pattern. I made large half-square triangles with a nine-patch block and a plain white block. This was an experiment, so I don't mind that the points are "gently tucked away", as one of the speaker's at my guild once said.

Found Treasure?

 A couple of days ago, I was sewing with some friends and we were discussing a floral nine-patch block exchange that members of my guild had participated in a while back (more than five years ago!). Some of us have made our blocks into final projects and some (mainly me) had completely forgotten about them. So, when I came home, I went through some cabinets in my quilting studio and found these...

This is the fabric that I used for my blocks...

I have about a yard of this left, along with some of the white-on-white print that I used in my blocks, so I'll probably use it with the blocks. I'm not sure of a design yet, but the one thing I'm sure of is that I will not be putting this project away (and will not start a different quilt top) until they're sewn together.

What's hiding in your quilting studio?

OK, I Lied

Well, maybe I just changed my mind...

I know that in my last post I said that I was going to do more straight-line grid quilting on some tops that are waiting to be quilted, but when I got this two-year old (!) top loaded on my frame, I decided to do a wavy grid instead. I'll post a photo of the whole quilt once it's bound, but in the meantime, you can see another one of my quilts with a similar style of quilting on my post here.

More Gingham Love

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I've been working on a project using various colors of gingham. A couple of months ago, I picked up a package of gingham pieces from SewGreen for just $5 and decided to try making patchwork half-square triangles (yes, the points are cut off on some of the triangles and the squares don't all line up perfectly, but I don't care). Last week, I stopped in at SewGreen again and decided to buy another package of gingham. At $5, who could resist...and the $$ goes toward a good cause (read about what SewGreen does by clicking here).

The top is now finished and ready to be quilted...I even have several yards of pink gingham that I picked up at a yard sale for $2 that will make a great backing.

In Love With Gingham

I've been working on a larger project involving gingham fabric, but took a slight detour today to make this scrappy block from a tutorial that I've been meaning to try for quite a while now. You can find the tutorial by clicking here.

I love how this has turned out and plan to make a larger quilt with all of the gingham scraps I have. But I really need to finish the other gingham project first...

Mini-Quilt Challenge Progress -- Sneak Peek

The 625 1-inch squares that I showed in Monday's post have now been sewn together -- half-inch finished squares! Well, approximately half-inch and approximately squares. Now I have to figure out how to quilt this.

Nope, it's not a crossword puzzle. You'll have to wait until after the July meeting of the Ithaca Modern Quilt Guild to see the whole thing.

Don't Tell The Quilt Police

My latest project involves corners that are cut off...oh my!

If anyone calls the quilt police, I won't answer the door...

I've Been Busy

As I said when the New Year arrived, I plan to make my 2013 quilts using my stash, scraps, selvages, and strings and using up orphan blocks and finishing UFOs. I've been successful so far and what you see in the photo are eight (count them, EIGHT!) quilts that I've pieced and quilted, all done without buying new fabric or batting. The bindings have all been sewn on by machine and the hand sewing is finished on the top three. Now I'll work on the other five, and since I have finished a couple of quilts already this year, I'll give myself permission to start piecing another top...without buying new fabric, of course.