What I’m Working On

Well, this post is a little late, but better late than never. Here’s what my design wall looks like in its new location:

My new sewing space is almost finished being set up in the garage. I am going to stick my design wall on to the front of this cabinet here, since there is no wall space. And yes, my new sewing space is in the garage! It’s a lot nicer than I expected. The previous owners of this house liked to spend time in the garage and had it set up as a den with indoor/outdoor carpeting, vents for heating/AC, etc. Somehow I was able to fit a lot more in one cabinet here than I was in a whole closet upstairs! Once I have it all finished the way I like, I’ll have to do a post.

Back to the quilt. Like I said before, I wanted to do a green colorway. It still feels “boyish” to me with the green rather than blue. I just need to sew all these rows together and the top will be finished. I hope I have a big enough piece of green fabric in my stash for the back without piecing it, but I’m not sure I do. I said about a week and a half ago I wanted to have this top finished quickly and it looks like I will. Right now I’m thinking I may finish off the green fabric I used for the frames and use it for the binding as well, but I’m not sure. It might be nice to use something else for a bit more variety.

What I’m Working On This Week

This isn’t a finish it up Friday post, but I have made some progress on my Foundation Paper Pieced quilt. Here is a shot of my design “wall” … haven’t had a chance to set that up in the new house yet.

I’m using this tutorial by April Rosenthal. I’ve finished 12 blocks so far. They finish pretty small, just about 3.5″ square (mine are not trimmed so they all look different sizes) so one needs to make quite a few to get something big enough for a quilt. I’m going to make 4 more, a total of 16, for a 4×4 centerpiece. I will probably sash them in white. I’m thinking of doing a pieced border and maybe another solid border, like I did on the Rainbow Pinwheels quilt earlier this year. I’ve got the fabrics for the next block picked out already:

I’ve been having fun fussy cutting the centerpiece fabric for this quilt. Next up is Snoopy, but I’ve also got a yellow rose, a cupcake, a strawberry, and a little girl. So far I’ve only used scraps from my scrap stash to make all of these blocks, which is great. I have a bucket overflowing with scraps.

Even though I’ve just finished a quilt, I find that I’ve got two more that jumped up on my priority list. My very good friend has just become engaged and she’s always wanted a quilt, so I’ll have to make her one for her wedding. And my boyfriend has recently requested a quilt. And those can’t be baby quilt sized… oh boy! My to-do list grows:

Quilt for C
Quilt for D
Quilt for baby boy 1
Quilt for baby boy 2
Quilt for baby boy 3
Quilt for baby girl 1
Quilt for baby girl 2
Mike’s T-shirt quilt…

I also have t-shirts pulled for another t-shirt quilt for me. Oh brother. At the rate I’m going, it will take me years to finish all of these quilts! People just need to stop having babies is what it comes down to!

Design Wall Monday March 21, 2016

I think I mentioned here during one of my stash reports that I bought a quilt kit for A Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt. I meant it as a gift to a friend having a baby. Well her baby shower is coming up and thankfully I got the quilt top finished up last night.

This was my first time making a quilt from a kit and I really liked it. I bought it from FatQuarterShop.com. I had some trouble with the flying geese units but I managed to fix them and I’m glad I did. It made piecing the top together so much easier.

Now all that is left on this quilt is piecing together the back, quilting & binding. Luckily I already have the binding cut & ready to go. The kit came with an extra panel. The caterpillar panel went on the front and I’m going to use the bonus butterfly panel for the back along with the scraps I have left from the front.

I’m linking up with Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Feb 8, 2016

A couple weeks ago I got an invitation to a friend’s baby shower. I figured it was coming up soon and I already had the fabric and the pattern I wanted to use, so now it was time to make the quilt.

My son 4 months old so it’s been a challenge to find time to work on the quilt, especially with my husband being sick again. Thankfully my mother and mother in law have been gracious enough to come over and watch the baby while I work. Here’s what’s on my design wall this week:

Beach Ball Baby Quilt from the Moda Bake Shop. Here’s the front of the quilt.

Some extra beach balls I’m going to use for the backing.

I’m linking up with Judy over at Patchwork Times today.

A New Project

Another week is starting, which means I’m another week closer to meeting our little guy. I’m 38 weeks pregnant now which means I will go into labor any day now (I hope). My sister was late with both of her children and my mom was late with at least one of hers, so who knows when I will go into labor!

My best friend and I at her wedding this August, I’m 34 weeks pregnant.

I was telling my husband the other day that I feel a little adrift and weird in this “in between” stage. All year I’ve had projects to occupy my time: last December DH was diagnosed with cancer again so we had his treatments to go to each week; that ended in August when he had his surgery. Now he’s at home recovering. Also in December my best friend’s now husband proposed, I helped her plan a winery wedding here in Temecula so that took up a lot of my time until the wedding happened on Aug 29. In February of this year I found out I was expecting our first child, so I was busy planning and making items for his nursery, his quilt and making quilts for family members before he arrived.

Now what am I supposed to do! DH is thankfully cancer free for the moment and recovering, so we’re only going to the hospital once a month instead of once a week; Vanessa’s wedding is over so I don’t have that to occupy my time; Henry’s nursery is done, his diapers are ready, his car seat is in the car, all of the little projects I wanted to finish before he made his entrance are done… I know I should be getting plenty of rest and I do try to, but I’m bored stiff!!

So I decided to start a new quilt, the Meet In the Middle/Springhouse pattern that Kelli & Jo over at Jo’s Country Junction wrote. It looks nice and easy and a great scraps buster. I have no expectations for finishing it anytime soon and I’m not going to push myself to get it done at any particular point. It will be nice to have something I can easily pickup as I have the time and inclination. Here’s my “Design Wall” this week:

A pile of lovely 2.5″ strips waiting to be sewn together! I love the scrappiness of the original and I think mine will be even more scrappy. I might even use a dark background since I’m fresh out of white fabric at the moment.

I’m linking up over at Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday. Click on over to see what others are up to.

Finishing Up

This week I was able to finish up the last of the sunburst blocks, so I’m reaching the home stretch for this quilt. I’m following a pattern from the Moda Bake Shop blog. I picked it because I thought it would go fast and it did. I’m glad it went so quick, I really wanted to have it done before baby arrives and it’s looking like that’s going to happen. Here’s what my design wall looks like today:

I was able to find some white fabric in my stash, it’s still a good thing that I used the dotty fabric though because I ran out of the white fabric before I finished all the sashing! I ended up digging through my scraps bin to find enough to finish it all off. Now all I need to do is decide on binding and backing fabrics, then baste, quilt, bind & label and it will be ready to ship to its new owner!

I’m linking up with Judy over at Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday. Head over and check out what others are up to this week!

A Productive Weekend

This pregnancy is rolling right along, right now I am at 36 weeks pregnant, just about a month to go. Some days I am full of energy and am able to get lots of housework and errands done. Some days I am too tired and only do the bare minimum. And then there are other days I am in too much pain or discomfort to do it all, even though I have the will and the energy!

This weekend I was able to finish my baby’s quilt, I am so relieved to have it done! Mike’s cousin is also pregnant right now with a little girl. She’s not due until December but I’d like to try to finish a baby quilt for her before Henry gets here. I’m sure I won’t have time once he arrives! I found this pattern for this Sunburst Quilt over at the Moda Bake Shop and thought it looked simple enough. I had thought about doing a quick granny squares quilt for the baby but this one looks a little more fun. I was able to whip through 6 blocks on Saturday and Sunday:

Turns out I didn’t have any acceptable white fabric in my stash, so I’m using this dotty fabric I have left over from Henry’s quilt instead. And turns out I don’t have enough of this fabric either so I’m going to have to get creative! It will end up being a fun, scrappy quilt. I’m linking up with Judy over at Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday.

Design Wall Monday

I’m still working on this project that I started around Halloween (jeez, was that almost 5 months ago??) Last Thursday night I finished cutting the squares and started assembling the blocks…

So that’s what’s on my Design Wall today! There are 100 blocks in this quilt, but depending on the size (I’m not a great planner :blush: ) I may cut that down and make it a bit smaller. We’ll see.

I’m linking up over at Patchwork Times. Head on over and see what others are working on!

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