String Quilt

I started another quilt from the Practical Guide to Patchwork.  It's called "Valentine," but it's a basic string quilt pattern.  I thought originally that I'd make it with 16 blocks, but I decided to expand to 20.  

Now all I need to do is figure out how to quilt this...

Small Plates Finish

I finished this quilt back in early February but never got around to posting about it.  February was a busy month and I hope to do more sewing this month.  I used straight line quilting along the block edges.  I tried to free motion quilt it, but stopped a few minutes in.  I think I need to start out with smaller projects, like place mats, before jumping into quilting something large.

It still needs to be washed, but since I have no recipient in mind I'm going to wait until it needs to be cleaned from all the cat hairs it's accumulated.

Small Plates

I decided to start the "small plates" quilt from The Practical Guide to Patchwork, though I haven't decided how large I want to make it.  On one hand it's been really easy to piece the blocks, but then if I want to try free motion quilting, it should probably be a smaller quilt to start out with.  I guess I'll put together the current blocks and then decided how big to make it.  There won't be any action on it for a while since I've run out of white fabric.

In other news you'll probably be seeing a lot of Simply Color from Moda in the next few months.  I got a fat quarter bundle and just calculated that it's a total of 10.5 yards of fabric from 42 fat quarters.  Between my new wave quilt and this one I've probably only used about eight so I've got a long way to go before it gets depleted from my stash.  I'm not sure if I'll buy many more pre-cut bundles.  Simply Color is great because it has a lot of colors I don't have in my stash, but if I really love a print, I'd probably want more of it than just a fat quarter.  It also seems like the jelly rolls and other pre-cuts are overpriced for the amount of fabric that you get.  

Batch of Brownies almost done!

I've had lots of free time to finish this quilt as I unexpectedly got a three-day weekend.  Alice seems to approve of the fabric choices!

On to making the quilt back!  I've decided I must baste and quilt this one and my Fenced In quilt before starting any new projects.  

Yellow blocks

I wasn't expecting to have these blocks completed today.  But recent events in Cairo and neighboring countries made me want to focus on something else for a while.  I had a late start and early dismissal to my work day and things still won't be back to normal tomorrow.

block A

block B

all together now!

Blue Blocks

Here are my blue blocks for my Batch of Brownies quilt.  There are just the yellow blocks left before I can lay them all out and start adding the sashing.  :)

Purple blocks

I'm making my way through the purple blocks for the Batch of Brownies quilt.  I'm really liking how they're coming together!

block A

block B

block C 

Other projects lying around include my Fenced In quilt which I still need to baste and quilt together.  

Batch of Brownies

I've started making the blocks for my next quilt selection out of the Practical Guide to Patchwork: Batch of Brownies.  I'm making my way through the red blocks and then I'll move on to purple, blue, and yellow.

block A construction

block A

block B

block C

all red blocks

The blocks are turning out pretty well so far!  Of course there are some points that don't match up exactly, but they aren't too noticeable.

Happy Labor Day to all those in the United States!  

Quilt Back

I didn't have that much fabric left over from making the blocks.  I decided to piece them together in a strip and border it with the grey sashing fabric.

sorry for the bad picture!

Then I added blocks from the remaining fabrics in the bundle on either side.  The more I look at it, the less I'm sure that I like it.  Is it too busy? Would it be better if the side blocks were coordinated on either side like in this colorblock design? What if the whole back had a border?  Do I just not like the way it looks in pictures?  I guess I'll be letting this rest until I can figure out what I want.

Fenced In Quilt Top!

All the blocks have been completed and rows joined together!  I tweaked the pattern a little bit, apart from making a smaller version (16 blocks instead of 36), I also changed the measurements slightly since I wanted to make sure I'd have enough fabric from my fat quarters.  As a result, my blocks are more squares than rectangles and I didn't think through the implications this would have for adding sashing.  It all worked out well with some minor adjustments.  I think it would have been better to follow the pattern faithfully since it would have been a little more forgiving in terms of hiding when the square blocks weren't exactly squares.  From a distance it isn't too obvious when the blocks didn't meet up at least.

Now I need to decide what to do about the quilt back!  I definitely can't follow the pattern for this one since I don't have enough leftover fabric, though I think I do want to incorporate whatever is left as well as use the remaining fat quarters from the bundle.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pierced.  Thanks for stopping by!

block by block

Well, I'm making progress on my Fenced In quilt.  The blocks are slowly coming together.  Pretty soon it'll be time to add the sashing and join them all together!

completed blocks!

I've decided on this gray tiny dot print from Bonnie & Camile's Ruby line for the sashing.  I had wanted to do a gray solid, but there isn't enough in my stash and I am too impatient to order it and wait for it to arrive in Egypt.  :)

Eid Mubarak!

We have a four day weekend here in Egypt to celebrate the Eid at the end of Ramadan.  I had wanted to travel, but instead got assigned to work so I've been making progress on my quilt instead.  

All cut up!

The fabric I'm using is from a fat quarter bundle that Jeni put together for the Fat Quarter Shop.  I'm not the best at deciding whether fabric goes together so I tend to buy from collections and ready-made bundles.  Plus I don't have a huge fabric stash which limits my ability to improvise!  Choosing fabric for projects is definitely one of my areas for improvement. 

Sorted into blocks

Fenced In

I've decided to start out by making one of the beginner quilts from The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman.  Fenced In looks like exactly what I need to get back into the swing of quilting - the blocks are composed of 6 strips of fabric.  No worrying about matching points here!  I've also settled on making a total of 16 blocks instead of 36 like the pattern recommends.