Sunday, February 22, 2015

Completed Gypsy Wife Quilt


If you’ve kept up, I kind of disappeared after Christmas.  The dang sew-jo just went pfffft and was gone.  But, I’ve been slowly revving it back up during the last couple weeks.  One of the things that has helped me recover it was quilting and binding my Gypsy Wife quilt!  It's been a year since I started (the QAL started last February), and I can pretty much say I enjoyed the entire process.  It's a rare project that doesn't get to the "hate" part of the love-hate-love cycle.  



At first I was waffling on how to quilt it. Originally, horizontal lines.  Then, fancy quilting because I could.  Then, what type of fancy quilting, maybe simple was best.  Then, and I thought this was the winner, ditch quilt the blocks and horizontal lines on the background strips.  That was it.  And then I started quilting. 


The very first line I sewed right over the block (that I was supposed to ditch/outline stitch).  Whoops.  Oh well, that decision was made, and it just meant the quilt was quilted faster.  I am not one to rip out unless it’s really bad. 



It was quilted over a weekend, marking with a hera marker (pretty sweet), and the binding took a week.  I decided to hand bind in case I enter it in the fair.  I’ve been machine binding everything lately, and it is so much faster (if not quite as pretty from the back).  The hand binding has been exceptionally slow, and revealing in that I really do need to find a thimble that works for me.  I've tried several different kinds, but I guess I need to try a few more. 
Love the decision to go with low-volume strips.  This quilt makes me so happy!  The dark plum binding does not photograph true at all (it's really not brownish).  This next photo probably shows it the closest (also in the raccoon block and a couple others).  
Anyways, back to the subject at hand, my beautimous quilt!  I love her!  She is wild and crazy, and I’m so glad to have my own couch quilt.  The star block is probably my favorite, although I love that rainbowtized HST block beside it as well. 


My husband thinks the Amy Butler backing print is “old lady”.  That just goes to show what he knows.  Pattern matching is a pain, but it turned out great.

She's already been snuggled on the couch and makes that sad hand-me-down so much brighter!  

Thanks to Michelle for starting the QAL last year!

Friday, February 13, 2015

Sparkle Punch Baby Quilt


Today I’m sharing my first quilt finish of 2015 – a baby quilt for my nephew.  My sister-in-law is due in March, and I threw her a baby shower a couple weeks ago, so I had to have an awesome gift.  
The pattern is the Sparkle Punch QAL by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh!Fransson.  I started off planning for a 48”x48” quilt, but partway through I was getting tired of the sew, check, press, trim, press, trim for EVERY PIECE OF EVERY BLOCK.  So I changed it to a 36”x48” quilt.  Quicker to finish, and I can use the extra squares for another project.  
The effect of the crazy pressing and trimming is awesome, but the whole obligation sewing thing (even when I am the one deciding on said obligation sewing) combined with my sewing ADD/flakiness was putting me over the edge with this one.  I have something like four new projects I want to start (plus my UFOs), so I wanted to get this one done.  
I was 75% done with the top and had a slump.  A couple nights procrastinating and I finally put on my big girl pants and finished up the top. 

By that time I was on a deadline, so I made this quilt my biotch and finished it up stat.  
I do like the color scheme and the fabrics.  They are mostly new, but I have leftovers to add to the stash.  Can I just say, the steak fabric is freaking awesome, especially since we are a farming family.  It’s from the Farm to Fork collection by Lily Gonzalez-Creed for Windham.  The mustard/gold Glamping dots are pretty nifty as well.  And the Moo fabric is Milk Cow Kitchen by Mary Jane for Moda.  I have some of the feed sack fabric from that collection waiting for the right project.   

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