WIP Wednesday

First, thank you for all your nice comments and encouragement from my last post about our upcoming move! I haven't had time yet to respond to all of your comments, but I've read them all and shared them with my husband. Y'all are so sweet!!

I've been doing way more cleaning than is typical around here, but that's almost done and I've squeezed in a little sewing time here and there. I've got a couple of WIPs that have been sitting around and thought maybe I should get going on those.

I finished up the blocks I had started on retreat last month and sewed them together into a top this week. The pattern is "Sparklettes" from Fat Quarter Style. I thought I'd change the setting a bit and simply added background strips to square up each block, then alternated their direction.

Next up is my Glam Clam quilt. I bought some Cotton + Steel lawn for the backing and am ready to get this pin basted. I'm at a loss on how to quilt it. Any suggestions??

So that's what's going on here! Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced!

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WIP Wednesday

Someone asked me the other day if I ever make something that I don't like. I had to think about it but the answer was a resounding "yes"! And today's WIP post is a testament to that! Here's what's happening in my sewing world this week...

Yesterday I started one of my 2015 new projects. Bring Me Flowers, a pattern by Jen Kingwell. My first block turned out pretty well, but not without some resewing. I had the stems positioned all wrong - they didn't even touch the "flower" motif. So I unappliqued them and resewed. They're still not perfect, but I'll get better.

My Flowering Snowball Quilt... My plan was to hand quilt this. I basted it together for hand-quilting, started quilting and decided I didn't enjoy the quilting or love the look to do the whole thing.  Hand quilting for me is definitely for smaller projects. So off to the machine I went. My mistake was to leave the basting stitches in. In hindsight, I should have pin-basted it and removed the thread basting. My machine foot is annoyingly getting caught up in the threads, but I'm now more than half-way done so I'll continue. Take my advice - no thread basting for machine quilting!

So now I'm in the middle of machine quilting 2 quilts. A common mistake for me here - I quilted a motif in the squares that I didn't like at all. After 3, I ripped the stitching out and found something new. We're now on a roll...

And this project is back on track. My original plan was to make the blocks with a Heather Bailey print and a variety of solid colors. Four blocks looked great (you may have seen them on Instagram), 8 blocks looked like a chaotic mess. So back to the drawing board and I'm going with a soft look of prints and white. Liking this much better...

And just for the fun of it one night, I made this little Dresden from a Day Sail 2 1/2" pack. No problems here - I love it! Just not sure what to do with it!

Something I know for sure - changing your mind and unstitching are just part of the process. Honestly I don't even think about it much!

Linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced!

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Charley Harper Fabrics

I became a huge fan of the artwork of Charley Harper after running across a book of his work in Anthropologie many years ago. I bought the book thinking it could be an inspiration for some appliqué designs. I never followed through with that (and wanting to avoid copyright issues), so I was thrilled when Birch Fabrics introduced the Charley Harper fabric!

I've had the fabric, and actually attempted a couple of ideas using it, but just couldn't come up with exactly what to do with it.

Yesterday I just got all the fabric out, pulled some coordinating basics and started making. It was one of those sewing days that created a huge mess, but I literally lost track of time. And here's what I came up with...

It's quite a slow process, but I'm fussy cutting the adorable motifs and framing them all to fit into several defined sizes.

And they'll all fit together into a neat little grid, kind of resembling a gallery wall.

So it's back to work this afternoon, fitting all these puzzle piece together...

And did you know that there is a recent release of some newer prints? Hoping they arrive in my mailbox today!

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WIP Wednesday

How about a little WIP this week?

First up, my sewing room has undergone a bit of a makeover. I had 2 machines and 2 cabinets, and have downsized to one of each. The result is a ton more space to move around and I was able to put my machine close to the windows. You can even see some of the beautiful Fall foliage out my window today!

We attended my nephew's wedding in NYC and I came home with an idea for a quilt for the couple. The pattern is Pow Wow by Cluck, Cluck, Sew and it's already in the quilting stage.

They got married in Brooklyn and I was excited to find some New York City fabric at The City Quilter to include in the quilt.

And I've finally cut into my Cotton + Steel! I'm making a simpler, fun variation of my Peppermint Float quilt from Simply Modern Christmas.

This one I'll blame on Lee {and my trip to Mood}...

Some knit fabrics for the Get Up and Go Skirt. Nervous and excited to start!

 And I've been knitting. I picked up some yarn at Purlsoho and using their free pattern for a scarf. I've had to rip it out a couple of times, but a very wise knitter mentioned on Instagram that ripping out is part of knitting - so true.

I'm loving the relaxing feel of knitting and I may already have some new yarn on the way!

So that's what I'm up to on this beautiful Fall day! Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced.

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WIP Wednesday and a fun freebie!

I seem to have a bad case of quilter's attention deficit. Maybe it's the laid-back Summer feeling, or the fact that sooo many beautiful fabrics that we saw from Spring Quilt Market are all coming out at once! Whatever the reason, I'm a little embarrassed to show you all the starts I've made in the past couple of weeks. But here are a few anyway!

First up an Instagram photo I shared last week as I started prepping for a retreat in early August. I cut a bunch of my Bonnie and Camille scraps into squares and then started making block piles...

I'm making Granny Square blocks using Lori Holt's book Great Granny Squared and using scraps from many of their lines. I think it will be fun to see how they all play together!

I can't resist an Anna Maria Horner line and Pretty Potent may be turning into one of my favorites. I've had Terry Atkinson's pattern, Hexie Garden, for a while waiting for the perfect fabric.  Thought it might be a nice combo, so I'll try a few blocks before I commit!

Have you seen the new Art Gallery line, Indelible? It wasn't on my list to watch for, but when my local quilt shop got some in I fell for the unusual combination of text, geometrics and nature-themed motifs. And one of my favorite color palettes of teal, coral, gray and gold.

I've had this free pattern for some time, wanting to try it but frustrated with the amount of cutting and waste involved. And then it dawned on me to cut individual 60 degree triangles, add a strip to each one and trim the strip even with the triangle. I think I may increase the size of the triangles a bit also. Can't wait to get further on this!

 And I've made some progress on my Flowering Snowball! I'm up to 16 blocks {out of 30} and thoroughly enjoying the process.

 Finally, I was so excited to see these lovely, FREE gift tags on the Martingale blog this morning. This one uses my "Hanging Around" design from Simply Modern Christmas. It's my favorite, but I'm a bit biased :-) Head on over to download your free gift tags!

That's it for today! Looks like I better get back to some sewing. Any tips on helping me focus???

For more WIPs visit Lee at Freshly Pieced!

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WIP Wednesday

I feel like I've lost my blogging mojo lately! {actually I think Instagram has stolen it} I'm here today to reclaim it! And it's Wednesday so why not a WIP?

Hope you all had a nice Mother's Day. I filled mine with some of my favorite things! I added another block to my Gathering Flowers Quilt. Even better I got all the pieces cut out, which is a big accomplishment!

I love the pinwheel effect they create when the blocks are set together...

This time of year is prime garden time, and I love playing around in the dirt...

I even washed my bike this weekend - ready for Summer! Gotta love a bike sporting Liberty of London!

I started a Farmer's Wife...ish quilt last Fall and finally had some fun adding new 6" blocks. I'm not using the official book, but pulling blocks from several of my block design sources.

And here are two books I want to share with you. When I shared the Ira Glass video, one of you mentioned the book "Steal Like An Artist". I've enjoyed reading it and found it very applicable to quilters. It's a wonderful guide to creativity wrapped around this theme quoted from the inside flap: "Nothing is original, so embrace influence, school yourself through the work of others, remix and reimagine to discover your own path".

My awesome daughter sent me "365 A Daily Creativity Journal" for Mother's Day. {She always finds the best stuff!} Every day there's a prompt for a creative activity. The book suggest you choose a theme and after thinking about it for a couple of days, I'm going with pattern. Not necessarily quilt patterns ~ we'll see what happens!

And here's my day one. Make something that fits in the palm of your hand using only materials in your immediate environment... {you may have noticed I had these little clothespins out for the block photo above}

Linking up to Lee today at Freshly Pieced.

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WIP Wednesday

After a fun week of hanging out with the grandkids, I was back in the sewing room on Monday taking inventory of what's up!

Here's what I'm working on...

Geezzz... my list of unquilted tops has grown to six! I've been really good at keeping up with them in the past year, but definitely fell off the wagon so far this year. My Bernina is being serviced, and I'm getting a couple of tops basted so I'm ready to go when it returns. Starting with this one...

This has been such a fun, but slow project. I'm down to finishing up the appliqué on a few more background pieces, then just have to fill in the edges. It's getting close and I still love this Gypsy Kisses so much!

I only needed to add some borders to this one this week...

Those are done and it's ready for quilting!

And I'm thinking about doing a little "Swooning" again....

What are you up to? Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced today!

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Another WIP Wednesday...

Between shoveling snow, photography class and painting walls, I feel like this year has gotten off to a slow start for me sewing-wise. So if for no one except me - a WIP Wednesday is sorely needed!

I did finish up my Hanging Around wall quilt. The pattern is in my book and I used the Botanics line with some peeks of Charlie Harper fabric thrown in...

Next up in my quest to use some scraps and stash fabrics this year, I started making Economy Blocks using the tutorial from Red Pepper Quilts. The blocks are colorful, fun, but slow-going especially in the cutting phase. 

Luckily, I cut the remainder of my blocks the other night, so things should move along soon. I'm making 90 blocks {9 x 10} - a nice lap size for the kiddos.

A bit at a time, I'm piecing the blocks for my Gypsy Kisses quilt from Material Obsession 2. I have some tricks I've discovered along the way - let me know if any of you are interested!

I pulled out my 2013 BOM, Lucky Stars, last week and happily discovered I had 12 blocks completed {I was procrastinating on this one because I thought I had one more block to make!}. My sashing had been stowed away, so it was a quick job to sew these together!

And my quilt top pile has seemed to grow again {how does it do that??}. I chose my Kaleidoscope first, got it basted and started quilting.

That's it for this week! Linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced!

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