3xS – Finished!

I’m sort of on a roll!

I finished 3xS (Stars, Squares, and Scraps)!

I’m enjoying the way some of the squares and HSTs disappear into the backing fabric. There’s unexpected depth to the pattern because of that.

I used Sandi’s mid-arm frame again. As I’ve said previously, I’ve given up on the Janome, and after quilting this top, given up on the Little Gracie II frame entirely. It’s just too limited for what I want to do, for what I’m capable of doing.

Anyway, the details! The entire thing was quilted on Saturday, the 24th. I used a pale aqua-ish thread in the top, and the same light grey Bottom Line in the bobbin. Rather than do an all-over meander again, I got brave decided to play a little. This time, I did three leafed clover shapes in varying sizes. Getting braver yet, I set myself a challenge to echo each of the leaves in one of the clovers, and discovered I could do it with a decent amount of accuracy. I then randomly spaced the echoed clovers through the quilting.

I wasn’t sure how the quilting would show up after washing – I experimented and used a wool batting in this quilt. I’d bought the wool batting with the intention of hand-quilting a different project. However, since this was my January goal for finishes, I figured I ought to just use the wool rather than buying more batting. This particular batting required quilting in every four inches – I didn’t see that as a problem, though I expected this top to take me quite a while to finish quilting.

I can’t tell you what any of the prints in the backing are – I didn’t save the selvage for the lovely print on the left. The purple paisley was a scrap cut from Fat Quarter Shop. The purple floral print was something from Joann’s, and the smallest cut of fabric in the backing was something I bought ages ago and cut the selvage off.

To give this a really strong finish, I used up a yard(ish) of a fabric that had been in my stash for ages. I cut 3″ wide strips, and made sure I left half an inch of batting all around the top’s edges when I trimmed down the batting and backing after quilting. As a result, I’ve got a nice wide, and full, binding on this top.

Linking to A Lovely Year of Finishes, for my January finish!

Also marking this for the 2015 Finish Along! My list of goals is here!

Also linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday and Devoted Quilter for Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday.

WIP Wednesday – Millefiore QAL

Round 1 of Rosette 1 for the The New Hexagon Millefiore 2015 QAL has been completed! If you’d like to know what fabrics I’ve used thus far, check out this post. Be warned, most of these fabrics are likely out of print. They’ve just found new life through this project.

It’s not as precise as I’d like in some spots… However, I’m accepting those small ‘flaws’ as part of the process.

EPP is something I’d only barely flirted with before, and actually hated. But then, I was using the June Tailor Simple Shapes hexagon templates to do it. I found the plastic templates too thick, and when I whip-stitched hexies together, I was disappointed by how visible the stitches were. Also, I found thread basting all of these pieces to be tedious.

Now that I’ve changed up my methodology, I can see myself doing EPP far more often. Instead of plastic, I’m using cardstock. I’m also glue basting all my pieces, and using ladder stitch to join everything. I’m finding all of these changes make piecing these hexagons much faster. More importantly (to me), they’re much neater looking. I can’t see my stitches.

I’ve picked out fabrics for the Debbie blocks in Round 2, and prepped those pieces.

I selected the bird fabric in order to reintroduce blue to the rosette, based on the center hexagon, which is the same reason I selected the yellow print. The purple print chevron print seemed like a natural addition, based on the bird fabric.

I have a coordinating print for the bird fabric that might be introduced in the other half of round two… I’m not sure yet. I need to audition fabrics, but don’t want to do so until I have one of these block pieced. I’m finding I’m having some trouble with visualizing the final hexagons – this method of constructing a block is just a little too new to me.

Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

A Lovely Year of Finishes – January Goal

As part of my goal to hold myself accountable and actually finish out some of my WIPs, I’ll be participating in the 2015 Finish Along, and the 2015 Lovely Year of Finishes (see sidebar for links).

For January’s goal for the Lovely Year of Finishes:

3xS

This top is already on my quilting frame – I pieced together backing a few days ago. Now I just need to figure out the last couple of issues with the sewing machine, and this can be quilted up. I still have to identify a binding fabric. I have a couple of stash fabrics that I think might work well – I just need to get the thing off the frame to decide.

I’m due to have surgery to remove a gallstone (scheduling this today with the surgeon), so I’m hoping I can stick with this goal. If surgery is to happen after this week, then I’ll plan on quilting this up this weekend. I’ll also get the binding ready. Then I’ll have the binding to attach, as well as some hand-quilting to work on while I’m recovering.

Block Attack!

I tackled my swap blocks last night and today, wanting to get them all out of the way. I’m only in the two block swaps for the moment: Fat Stash Bee and Granny Block Bee.

I’d received Svea P’s fabrics for her Fat Stash block very early this month – I just didn’t really have any drive to get them done. Bad me! So, I forced myself to start with her block, because hers was waiting the longest. Svea requested feathers from Anna Maria Horner’s pattern. I do have to admit that I really love the look of this pattern though I really kind of hate putting it together from templates.

Svea provided a lovely Essex linen for the background and Sketch in Chocolate for the spine of the feathers, and requested scrappy feathers. I have to admit that once I realized what she’d given me to work with, I was super excited. I’ve been wanting to try Essex linen in something, but was afraid to buy yardage in case I hated it. It was a pleasure to work with, and I loved the contrast in textures.

Svea provided enough linen to get through one feather block. I’d been hoping to squeeze enough out of her quarter yard to make two for her:

I sort of got carried away, and made several extra feather halves to contribute to the scrappiness of her quilt:

Yeah, that was a lot of strip piecing there… Still, these are fun, and feathers might be making an appearance in a project soon.

From there, I moved onto Susan’s blocks for Fat Stash for December. She requested Windwill blocks, from a Moda Bake Shop pattern. I sort of ending up hating this pattern. It’s not that it’s not easy, because it is! It would just be a lot easier to do these blocks with Flying Geese subunits.

Susan requested blocks in “blues, greens, purples, grey, maybe some super mellow yellows”. Super easy for me to do, considering my stash:

Next up were Kelli’s blocks for Fat Stash for January. She’d sent her fabrics super early, to prevent any parcels from getting lost in the mail during the Christmas rush. Smart move! She sent us jelly roll strips of Seascapes by Deb Strain for Moda, and asked that we use a gray fabric for the background. She also asked us to follow piecing instructions for Origami Stars. There was enough fabric to do two blocks.

From there, I turned my attention to the Granny Block, which I was already caught up on. My thought was to see if December’s queens had posted their requests for this month. Then I realized that I was one of the queens for December. D’oh!

So, I quickly decided on my request for this month: chartreuse, aqua and gray blocks, with Kona White for the background. Then I made two blocks as an example:

So… that’s my last two days of sewing. I figure that’s a good way to wrap the end of November! Now, I’m off to make baked ziti and to celebrate kiddo’s sixth birthday!

That’s right! Six years ago today, Zebediah was born, at 11:50 PM. It’s been amazing to watch him grow and develop. I’m looking forward to many more birthdays to come!