Quick Pics

Just a quick post. Had a productive weekend. 4 tops finished, w00t!
A Christmas gift, two commissioned pieces, and a surprise gift.

I desperately want to post the surprise gift one, but I'm not sure if the recipient reads this blog so I have to hold off. I'm in love with it though, so I'm hoping I can ship it soon!

Design Wall Monday

First up, the Civil War quilt:

The top is done! I don't have quite enough material (at least not in the right direction) for the backing, so I'm taking a little field trip over lunch to grab some coordinating stuff for a border. Tonight, I'll hopefully get it basted and start with the quilting!

Next up, the design wall:

This is a memory quilt I'm putting together for my sisters-in-law's friends who are getting married soon. I love the fabrics they picked out - so colorful!

Just a quickie today, gotta get back to work!

Impromptu Shop Hop and Design Wall

This weekend hubs and I went up to Franconia, NH for a weekend with his soaring club. As much as I love watching specks of planes in the distance floating slowly in and out of the clouds, it was pretty muggy and warm, so I excused myself from the picnic tables and took a little road trip.

First stop was at Stitch at the Old Mill, which billed itself as "a social club and fabric resource". Love it. The shop wasn't too big, but half of the building was set up with tables that would allow 20+ quilters enough space to work and chatter for hours on end. I wished I'd brought my machine (or at least the latest finish, since they'd had a show n tell not half an hour before I got there). Their list of social activities makes me want to retire early and just hang out at the shop all day.

The next stop took a little work to find. Google Maps led me slightly astray, so I ended up needing to stop for directions from a surly guy working at the paint your own pottery place (he made fun of me for using a GPS...I'm sorry, but I wouldn't have known your little town even existed, let alone had a quilt shop if it weren't for Google Maps, so don't knock it!) Then I got closer and had to ask a sketchy dude running what might have been a pot shop if he knew where the shop was.

Finally, I made it to Pinestead Quilts in Lincoln, NH. They don't have a website, and the shop was really pretty tiny...but I loved it anyway. They had bins and bins of precut squares that you could put together and purchase as little kits...sort of like a by the pound candy shop, but with fabric. Love it! The lady working the counter was 75 (she told me so) and just this tiny little thing, but she had some great opinions about technology. Not ones I agree with necessarily, but she had them anyway. :-)
I bought these fat quarters for a project I'm not at liberty to discuss yet. I'm actually hoping that this project won't be necessary, but just in case...

Aren't they lovely? I just love the rich colors and the subtle texture/pattern. Beautiful.

The final stop was Keepsake Quilting in the Lakes Region. Oh. My. Goodness.

They had an outlet store!

The place was seriously enormous. It took up an entire side of a strip mall, and the fabric selection was just overwhelming.

I loved this little tie quilt! It made me think of church-going babies

I bought this fabric for an upcoming project for a friend's mom. She wants a "whimsical cat-themed" quilt, so I found this stuff. The fishes is going to be sashing and the paw prints is the backing.

And after much labor and graphing (see below), the layout for the Civil War quilt is coming together. All the feature pieces (flags and maps) have fusible stuff on them, so now the next step is to crease the edges then iron them to their background blocks (blue has the Gettysburg address on it and cream is just a pretty pattern). Then I'll start putting the blocks together in chunks and hopefully by the end of the week the top will be done! I'm thinking I'll quilt around the feature pieces with cream or tan thread, some kind of swirly something.

Seriously, this is the most planning I've done on a quilt since the first one!

Design Wall Monday and a Finish

First, the finish.

The masterpiece is done! The backing is just tan fleece, and I just rolled it over to the front to bind it. I machine tied it (read: used the button stitch) in every block and in a few other strategic places (like the corners of the shirt). It's HEAVY, but it's done! Next up for this family is two queen-sized quilts made from the rest of the uniform materials, for her sons. Depending on what I have left from that, I may have an extra surprise up my sleeve...but no spoilers yet.

I also whipped up this top this weekend:

 It's going to be a Christmas present, so I'm not doing anything more with it for a bit. It was such a quick and easy project though, I just wanted something "bubble gum" to do for a few hours. I'll do something more exciting for the quilting part of it, promise. :-)

 I also got the focus pieces cut for the Civil War quilt. I'm still toying around with ideas on how to get them all into the same quilt without requiring applique, but I haven't quite come to an adequate solution yet. I'll keep you posted.

 Finally, I got out and took a few "good" pictures of the ARL donation quilt.

 How artsy am I, huh? Ha.

Pay no attention to that computer tower...or the fact that I had to strategically angle the shot to crop out the boxes full of junk on the porch. Next time I'll haul the chair out into the yard maybe.

First Shop Hop, Or: A Brief Introduction to Mud Season in VT

I'm hooked!  Shop hopping was SO FUN!!  My mom came up from Texas to hop in VT with me this past weekend, and we had such a blast!!

This hop had 17 (!!) shops, spread out over the whole state of VT (which sounds like not much since it's a small state, but a lot of the roads are backwoods and windy, and while they're beautiful, they're also not always terribly well-marked...)

http://vermontshophop.com/index.htm

So there's the shop hop map.  Originally, we'd planned to hit maybe 9 of the shops, if we were really ambitious.  It turned into an adventure and we ended up hitting 12 total.  Day 1 took us from point A through point E ("home"...more on that later).  Day 2 took us from point E through point L ("home" again).  And finally, day 3 took us from point L through point Q.  We actually only drove past point P, but it was integral in getting us back on the right road to get us home, so I left it on the map. 


View Larger Map

I'm having issues uploading pictures from my phone right now, and I don't have the majority of the pics (on my mom's camera), so these will have to suffice for the time being. 

 The spoils of war.  A new book, 5 total yards (20 FQs) of Civil War fabric, probably 10 total yards of batiks (all in FQs, including the shop hop fabrics), and 2 or so total yards of animal print fabrics which I'll need to get better pics of later.  There were some other misc purchases/free FQs as well. 

 One of my favorite quilts.  So fun!

I liked the colors on this one.

UPDATE: A few more pictures (in no particular order):

 The shop project from the last shop.  The star parts are all the shop hop fabrics (which I don't have a good picture of, but will get tonight...promise!)

 I love the modern, blocky feel of this.  It's simple but powerful. 

 Quilts quilts quilts.

 This one store had over 5000 bolts of flannel alone!  They also had thousands of fat quarter bundles...most were in the $45 for 17 range, but I snagged one (a Civil War one) for $35 for 20! Inspiration for that one is coming.

 More bundles.

 Most of the shops were little houses converted into shops.  Love love love.

 Here are 4 of the 6 SH fabrics, but still not a great picture.

 Inspiration for the CW quilt.  There are 121 blocks, and I'm going to make them all...eventually.  I figure I'll QAIG and do a block here and there when I have time/inspiration.  Have I mentioned my sewing room needs serious reorging?

 Cute cute placemats.

 More inspiration.

 I loved this one!  I'm starting to think my next endeavors are going to be sampler quilts.

 This was called something like "butterfly house"...you're looking into the butterflies' home, from the window.  Can you see the shutters and clapboards?

 More inspiration.

One of the stores was a bar converted into a shop!  LOVED IT!  There were even still booths for the menfolk to take a break, and the quilts were hung from glass racks! 

There are dozens more where those came from, but for now this will have to suffice.  I've got big plans for the fabrics I got (3 whole new quilts came out of this weekend!  At least!) so stay tuned for design walls galore.  I also need to reorganize my sewing room...anyone want a treadmill??

Neighborly Love

As if Mother Nature knew I was starting to wonder if making a quilt for our amazing neighbors (who always plow our driveway, without so much as knocking to say "hey look what I did!") was a little too much, she dumped another 5 inches of snow on us over night.  Sigh.  Is anyone in the southern states (I'm looking at you, Hawaii) accepting applications for poolboy/house maid?  Nick and I would make a great addition to your household staff!

In any case, here's a little update on the quilt I'm making for the neighbors.  I won't lie...it's not as muted as I'd hoped for.  The pictures of the Moda line (Charlevoix) made it look like the colors were sort of...dusty?  I dunno.  Less whubam than they are, anyway.  They're bright.  It's not necessarily a terrible thing, it's just that muted tends to be more "decor-neutral" and since I don't know how they decorate their house, I'm hoping this won't completely clash.  There are so many different colors though, I'm sure something's bound to work.  I hope.

Anyway, pictures.

 The first few strips.  Even pictures now still look a little less intense than they do in person.  I dunno.

 More strips, with between stuff added.

All the  blocks are done and sewn together.  The between stuff with the smaller squares isn't sewn together yet, but this gives an idea of what I'm doing with it.  The treadmill makes design-walling a near-acrobatic experience, but I'm lucky enough to have both so I won't complain. 

The wrapped in hope quilt is officially done too!  I need to get pics of it...stand by! UPDATE: PICS!

Design Stuff Monday

Yesterday I did a bunch of shopping for MOTU, so to reward myself I went to Joann's and used up some coupons.  I got this nifty book which has literally opened up entire new worlds for me.  I never thought to quilt using paper stencils.  Duh.  I think I need to get myself some thinner paper, but for now just plain printer paper is working ok.

I played around with the new stencils, using some leftovers from the last round of QFKs. I made a couple of these and turned them into Valentine's gifts for some unsuspecting friends.  Muahaha.

The paper should be thinner...it's hard to get off as is.  If I wet it, it mostly works but some stuff still lingers.  If I don't, I'm afraid I'll rip the stitches.

I kind of like the slightly damp effect here.

I have (as usual) a couple projects going on right now.  In addition to the quilt for the neighbor, I signed up for one of the kids in the Wrapped in Hope program.  My girl likes dancing (but not ballet) and the color orange.  Her birthday is in March, so I need to get working on this.  I'm cheating and using a modified version of the QFK pattern for this.  I have a lot of the dark orange and a bit of the pink/orange hearts and the lighter orange.  So that pic up there is the basic pattern I'm using.  Grey is the focus print (dancers), and the rest of the colors are self-explanatory.

Blocks and strips cut.

Trying out the first few blocks.  I'm still mid-strip-sewing, but I wanted to see if this would even look ok.  I think it works.  I'm excited to try some of my new paper patterns to quilt on these!!

I also have the wedding quilt and the colonial quilt for our bed in progress as well...should really put some more time in on those.  They're just really big and slightly overwhelming right now.  But I'll get there.  Really.


UPDATE!!

I actually finished the entire top before going to bed last night.  I don't have a good picture of the whole thing, but here's a sneak peek anyway:

Happy Monday!!

Design Strip Twist Monday

The strip twist top is coming together nicely.  I have the top three rows sewn together...just 5 more to go!  I'm not sure what I'm calling this one, nor what I'll do with it when it's done.  I'm starting to think I might keep it for myself...selfish, I know.  :-)  I got this fabric to make a bed quilt for MOTU and me in the first place, so I guess it's not so wrong. 

I got these two sets of fabric to make a quilt for our sainted neighbors (right) and possibly another one for me to keep (left).  It's hard to explain the pattern I'm going to try, so I won't bother until it's in progress.

If all you want to see is quilts, stop here. 

This is our back yard right now.  That mound is actually a car...no joke.  Fortunately, it's not one we use frequently, but still.  Anyone out there in a warmer place need a nanny or something for the winter? 

The snow is so high that Kini doesn't have to jump up to the window anymore.  She can now simply walk up the pile outside the kitchen window and poke her nose against the glass. 

I spent 3 nights in Cambridge last week, and this was the view from my hotel room.  Pretty spectacular.

Different day, same window.  Love it.