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.  

Kite Baby Quilt

I had originally intended for my new wave quilt to go to a good friend/co-worker who is expecting her first child in March.  When she announced that she was having a baby girl I decided to make a different quilt that involved more 'girly' colors than the wave quilt that seems more gender neutral/boy-ish to my eyes.  I saw this tutorial on the Modern Quilt Guild blog and thought it seemed perfect.

I guess the only thing that really makes this quilt 'girly' is that it has coral-y reds.  I'm not sure I'll ever make a quilt like this again because I found it really tedious.  There was a lot of squaring (or rectangling) up to do and I never felt like any of my diamonds had all of their points match in the end.  Also some of the points were lopped off when I joined together the rows.  I'm still not sure why this was the case since the blocks were perfect half rectangle triangles after I squared them up.

But my biggest mistake didn't come until after I had sewn the binding on.  I saw a tutorial on machine stitching the binding on and decided to try it.  Usually I hand sew the binding onto the back, but I'm always in the mood for a short cut so decided to give machine binding a whirl.  I think it would have turned out perfectly well, except I had already stitched the binding onto the front 3/8" from the edge and the tutorial recommended that the binding be attached a quarter from the edge.  Not a big deal, I thought, and grabbed my rotary cutter and ruler and quickly trimmed everything up to a quarter of an inch.  Then I went to pin the binding to the back and discovered that when I trimmed up the binding, I also sliced through the bias tape so that it was no longer continuous.  I went ahead and stitched the binding on anyways and it turned out pretty well apart from the corners.  After that I went back and hand stitched the corners on so that the raw edges weren't visible.

Situations like these always make me wonder how noticeable the flaws are to people who don't quilt.  

Free Motion Quilting

I took advantage of a recent Egyptian holiday to start experimenting with free motion quilting.  I've mostly used my walking foot for straight lines so far and tried out several designs with my new darning foot, which curiously enough is actually called a quilting foot by Bernina.  The only difference I can see between the darning foot #9 and quilting foot #29 is that the darning foot has a metal circle end and the quilting foot has a plastic rounded rectangular end.  I guess the plastic makes it easier to see the designs as they're being quilted.

bubbles

robot/wavy lines

This attempt to do boxy straight lines didn't work as well with the darning foot.  Perhaps it would be better with the walking foot.

meandering lines

loopy lines

I think the loopy lines needed more loops.  Otherwise it started to look like the meandering lines and sometimes the loops started to turn into swirls.  The meandering lines were definitely the easiest once I started to get the hang of it.

Happy New Year!

Here's one of my recent finishes, the New Wave quilt, pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.  It's intended for one of my husband's colleagues who just gave birth to a boy.  She won't return to Egypt for a couple of months though so it's sitting on a chair right now.  The fabric is Simply Color from Moda.

I had an exciting Christmas and received a walking foot from my grandmother and a darning foot from my sister.  I had quilted the above quilt before receiving these gifts and was shocked to see how much easier it is to quilt straight lines using a walking first.  Of course, before that happened I managed to put the foot on the wrong way and had wondered what all the fuss was about because I couldn't see the huge difference.  The next few weeks will definitely involve a lot of free motion quilting practice.  I also have another baby quilt to finish before a shower next week and need to start thinking about what to give my grandmother for her birthday on February 14.  Maybe a pillow?  

What I've been up to lately....

gathered clutches from the Noodlehead pattern (1st & 2nd attempts)

finished batch of brownies quilt

table runner for my grandmother for Christmas

Christmas stockings

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!