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!

Gypsy Wife QAL - December

It's the final month of the Gypsy Wife quilt along hosted by Michelle at Factotum of Arts.  December's task was to assemble the top.  I think we all underestimated how much time it would take.  I think I spent somewhere between 12-16 hours on it.  Maybe I'm just slow?

But here she is.

I'm not in love with the blue and purple strip on the left, but my laziness is winning so far.  Too much work to swap it for another.

I'm so glad I participated in this quilt along!

Gypsy Wife QAL - November Blocks

It's been a month again.  This fall the kids had viruses, a sinus infection, I had a sinus infection, then a crazy Thanksgiving with a power outage, etc.  I lost my sewing mojo a bit. 

But, I've found it again, and I managed to finish up my Gypsy Wife blocks on November 30.  Then I had to wait until this weekend to photograph them with some actual sunlight! 

Here they are, the last of the blocks for the Gypsy Wife quilt. 

I love these half square triangle blocks.  I made the first one and then had the wild idea to rainbowtize the second one.  I love it even more.  

December is all about strips and assembling.  That is going to have to wait until after Christmas for me, but hopefully by New Years Eve I'll be rocking out a quilt top!

Linking up this month at No Hats!

Gypsy Wife QAL - October Blocks

We're almost done!!!  Just a few more blocks (and a bunch of strips) to go in the Gypsy Wife Quilt-Along.  The October blocks were a bit challenging from a fabric selection standpoint.  I'm trying to use different combos but make sure the colors are spread out evenly.

Here are the "big" blocks.
Nurses Cross - not perfect in the center but I still like it.

Old Maid's Puzzle (I made the half square triangle blocks and then realized those are for next month so had to go back and do these).

And the filler blocks.

Next month are the last few blocks, and then it's assembly time.  It's always nice to have this QAL as a break from other projects each month.  It's the first QAL I've actually done along with everyone (not finding it after the fact), and I've enjoyed it so much that I'm already trying to figure out quilt-alongs for next year. 

Linking up with the QAL at iamacraftykat!

Gypsy Wife Quilt Along - September Blocks

Another  month down in the Gypsy Wife quilt along!

I finished the two Puss in the Corner blocks months ago when I was working ahead.  Love these.

And the square in square fillers were completed this weekend.  Still sewing on the coffee table.  I really need to carve out a little time to finish my new sewing table.  I need to get it back in order for the "sewing season." 

Happy quilting!

Linking up to the September Gypsy Wife QAL here.

Gypsy Wife QAL – July Blocks

We are halfway through the quilt-along!  I love adding blocks to my box – the mishmash of colors is wonderful. 

Here are July’s blocks:

Star Block

An easy one.  I didn’t mean to at first but ended up going with a similar color palette as the original.  It’s bright and makes me happy.  Hooray for oversized squares, trimming, and starch!

Square in a Square Blocks

 I cut into my precious Japanese prints.  It was painful. 

When I saw the pattern I knew I had a vintage fabric that looked very similar to a couple of the square in a square blocks (the blue/pink/green/white print above).  This month was the month to use it!  It’s from a box of scraps that I got at an estate sale with my grandma when I was in middle school.  Yes, I’ve kept that box all these years. The batik on the other block is leftover from making sorority letter shirts in college. 

The bordered block had a slight mishap.  When I first assembled it the last strips came out wonky and not long enough (although they were cut correctly).  So I took them off, did a touch of trimming, and reattached them.  Second time was great. 

It seems there’s been a lag in enthusiasm for some of the quilt-alongers lately.  Summer is always hard for me with so much else going on (prime time for house projects, painting, and gardening around here), but I want everyone to be excited again.  There are great giveaways with the linkups.  In just another few months we’ll be assembling our quilt tops, so keep on trucking y’all!

Linking up to the July giveaway at Work-in-Progress Girl. 

The Flickr group will all the wonderful pictures is here.

Quilt-along schedule is here.

Gypsy Wife QAL - June Blocks

June was so busy!  Not with activities, but just house projects and all kinds of general life stuff - gardening, spray painting and redoing furniture while the weather is nice. 

I made the Crazy Anne block a while back when I was on a Gypsy Wife kick, but I just made the rest of this month's blocks today!  Luckily, Will took the nap of all naps this afternoon. 

Sam helped me pick out the fabrics for each block.  Some of his original combinations were a bit much for  me, but I think I only changed one fabric in each block.  I figured it would give me a fresh perspective on my fabric pull. 

I should have picked a better portion of the center print to cut.  I wasn't thinking about the aquas touching.  Meh. 

I was piecing on my Brother (which I used to do a lot) since my Juki is set up for quilting right now.  I don't know if it was that or trying to rush and get it done before Will woke up, but some of my points got cut off and a bit of extra trimming was needed.  Oh well.  Totally not going back to fix it.  I live by the motto "finished is better than perfect".  Not to say I don't try to do things right, but spending precious sewing time ripping apart a block and repressing and resewing for one point to get fixed . . . not high on my list of priorities these days. 

I adore this Crazy Anne block (even if the points aren't exactly right and they turn the wrong way).  She is a beaut. 

Well, I'm sitting here trying to think of something witty to write, but it's been a long day.  Church homecoming, Gypsy Wife piecing, a birthday celebration for my grandma, carefully cutting back drywall as part of our closet redo, and a current time of 11:13pm EDT, and this mama is ready for bed.  At least I can say I haven't fallen behind yet, and the blocks are almost halfway done!

Linking up to the Gypsy Wife QAL June linky at Paper Starfish!

Gypsy Wife QAL - May Blocks

It's another month of the Gypsy Wife Quilt Along!  I was busy this month and just finished the filler blocks this week.

This month was Hope from Hartford - I did this one a while ago, and it's about the best inset seams I've done.  (I'm working on a lonestar quilt with the #bucketlistqal on instagram, and those inset seams are not playing as nicely).

Then there were the filler blocks, some square within a square - I did better with contrast on these.

And some hourglass blocks.  The green one (hourglass + square within a square) was a total pain.  The pattern says cut a 3 3/4" square, cut into four triangles, but it really is a 4 3/4" square.  I figured that out on the third try.  Grrr.  I hate ripping and redoing and usually figure it adds to the charm of the quilt, but that one was not possible to leave.  I'm just glad it's done.

I've been trying to finish up a few things that were left undone before our Nebraska trip, and I'm getting there slowly but surely. 

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and our Gypsy Wife monthly linkup!

Gypsy Wife QAL – April Blocks

It’s another month of the Gypsy Wife quilt-along!  I finished up my April blocks a couple weeks ago.  I’m starting to get really excited for this quilt!  

Here are the April blocks.  

From the Heart

Courthouse Steps – 8” 

Courthouse Steps – 7” (I think I’m going to change the outer border – it’s just not right)

More Courthouse Steps – can I tell you how much I LOVE the orange/pink/gray one?!

And one Square in a Square block.  It’s fine, but I need to use better fabrics in these blocks in the future.  It’s too blendy or something.  I need definition!

It’s giving me great pleasure to highlight each block on clumsy kristel's Excel cheat sheet as I finish it!

There are enough blocks after three months that I decided to put them on my design wall in their respective spots.  It’s not an exact layout, but close enough.  I figure this will help me balance my color combos a little better.  And it makes me happy.  I may have to figure out which blocks I need to finish so I can get a section sewn up.  I may not make it to December without finishing this quilt!  But, I am loving the relaxed pace of this QAL.  It’s low stress, and that is a good thing for me.  Helps me not worry about twaddling along on a quilt (usually the QALs move at lightning speed and I’m all “I’ve made three blocks!”).    

I'm linking up to our monthly QAL party at Jaffa Quilts!