Secret Kiss Quilt

At the 11th hour, this quilt finally gave itself a name.  I wish I'd known it from the start...it would have turned out differently, I think. 

 Excuse the slippers and hair bands in the background.  I really need to work on places to take pictures...it's hard to find a place that both looks nice and isn't covered in pet hair.

 Close up of some of the hearts.

 More hearts...some are more hidden than others.

 I love the Love Birds fabric. 

 Hearts on the back, with the "secret kiss" in the corner, top right.

 Stack of ready to ship items up for sale right now!

 One perfectly placed heart.

 Crumpled shot.

Next up: strips with a twist, using Martinique I bought ages ago.  Should be a twin to full size quilt when I'm done.  I'm loving it already. Might call it "Twisting Martinique" or something.  Ideas?

Design Wall Monday - No clever title this week sorry.

Just a few things going on. 

The first quarter (upper left) of the wedding quilt is done.  It's pretty chaotic, but I like that it tells a story only two of us know to completion.  I've decided to get it professionally quilted, when the time comes.  I really want it to turn out nicely, and I'm just not sure I can make that happen on a quilt so big (96x96 finished, in theory) on my machine (not to mention skill level). 

 I finished the pink lovey, then found a flaw I didn't like, so I hid it with some appliqued hearts.  Can't say I'm a fan of how they look now, but whatever...it's done. 

 I like it overall, just not really a fan of any of the parts that took real skill lol.

It's listed in my shop for $10 because I know it looks kind of amateurish, but I needed to practice somehow. 

Hung by the Wood Stove With Care

Over the weekend, I won my first Etsy Alchemy bid!  A military family stationed in Japan needed some last-minute stockings made, and while I couldn't find the nativity print she'd wanted, I think they came out quite nicely (and I got her permission before using other fabrics). 

Hung by the woodstove with care. 

They're all lined with fleece that says "believe" all over it.

I think this one is my favorite. 

Also, this was the first time I'd ever used rick rack...I think I'm in love!  I'm making more for MOTU's family who'll be around on Christmas, but I won't post those until after Christmas, so they can't see (just in case!)

happy Monday!

Design (Table space right in front of my sewing machine) Wall Monday

So last night I learned something very important about marriage that no one told me before I said "I do".  Apparently, somewhere in what the deacon was mumbling, he must have said, "do you, Kathryn, agree to relinquish all furniture building abilities to your husband such that you so much as touching a piece of furniture being built will render it completely useless?"  Of course, in the heat of the moment I said "I do!" and have thus lost all ability to assemble furniture.  So while MOTU was gently pushing me away from "helping" with this project:

I was working on this gem:

Finally, the start of OUR quilt!  MOTU had requested a "traditional" block design for our bed quilt months ago, and I've been so wrapped up in throwing together simple quilts that I just haven't even started on ours.  Until this weekend!  I got the following quilt done (and up for sale on Etsy) so now I have time to work on our quilt.  I can't promise I'll get it all done in one fell swoop, but here's hoping at least the triangles go together quickly.  I've already got one shortcut for making them a little nicer to deal with...we'll see what else I can come up with.

Here's Rag Train, all finished!

I take that back...mostly finished.  I need to continue fraying the back side (hence no pictures yet), but that'll be one night in front of the TV and then done. 

Structured Chaos

So this quilt is a little tricky.  I have this thing about having the same fabrics sitting next to each other in this style of quilt, so first fabrics of the train blocks can't touch. Then, fabrics of the borders can't touch.  Diagonal is ok, but not in any kind of pattern, and not more than 2 or 3 in a row, tops.  Then, the border needs to contrast with the square...so light block = dark border, bright block = light border, etc.  So there's a lot going on here...sort of like the whole "spend 2 hours each morning to look like you have bedhead" thing.  I'm trying really hard to make it look like I'm not trying.  :-)

That said, after I put these blocks together last night, I did a bunch more cutting and now have a pretty little stack of 1x5.5 or 6.5 inch strips just waiting to get their time to shine. 

And just for kicks, here's the lineup of quilts that used the fabrics first, from that top line (L-R):
Trains & Tractors/plaid couch/Save a Horse/Save a Horse/Save a Horse/plaid couch/Just His Size

I've got scraps from the complicated quilt, Abbey's Road, Mai's Ugly Quilt, and a couple of QFK quilts in the "to be cut" heap as well.  I'm trying to keep them relatively manly, so no pinks or purples (though lord knows I have enough of those!)  Oranges are ok though.

And on that note, I must leave my haven and head in to work.  Sigh.  :-)

Godspeed, Little Quilt

And just like that, he's gone.  My first commissioned quilt, on its way to the arms of 2 little boys and their mom.  *sigh*  I won't lie, it feels a little like having turned in a final exam that I'm pretty sure I did well on, but I'm still not 100% sure I got an A.  I hope they like it.  I had a lot of fun making it.

We had a little outdoor photoshoot yesterday:

This one is upside-down because that was how I could get the picture. 

The artsy ruffled shot

The back

My label!  How nifty is that??  It's technically an iron-on kind, and it faded a bit in the wash...I'm not too heartbroken since I got a good deal on them, but this might not be a permanent solution. 

All folded up and ready to go!

Oh, so my laundry woes...I washed the quilt and (gasp!) some of the blues looked distinctly more purple than when I started!  Eek!  I washed it again (and again and again...) with some color catching fabric and this is the result.  I sent a note to the buyer to make sure she washes it separately for the first couple washes.  The blues are back to blue, but my heart stopped a bit at first.  Phew!

All's well that ends well though, and this guy (shown here with a glimpse of the rod sleeve) went in the mail this morning.

Now that that one's out the door, I'm on to a new project.  Here are the squares of batting and backing, and a few choice scraps for border strips that I'm using for my Rag Train quilt:

Here's the final layout, with the upper left corner block done.

Quick picture of the workstation.  A note here...all the fabrics I'm using for this one are from my stash/scraps.  I'm not letting myself buy ANY more material for this - I have more than enough as it is, so I just need to get creative.  :-) If I've made you a quilt in the last year, you'll probably see familiar fabrics in this one.  

And the first two blocks done and sewn together,just to see how it'd work.  I found all manner of scraps from the plaid quilt to use, which I'm totally stoked about.  I adore plaid, especially as it's getting colder, and I think it lends a touch of funky personality to the quilt.  It makes me think of a lumberjack/hipster with a 3 year old who loves trains.  Anyone know anyone like that?  :-D 

So that's that.  Hopefully this one will be up on etsy sometime next week, assuming I get all my chores done so I have time to work on this.  It's going together quickly, but I gotta remember I have other stuff to do too...like wedding thank you notes.  :-) 

2 Finishes

I had 2 finishes last night!  w00t!

In the order in which they were taken: 

 My work station.  The laptop generally has Hulu streaming on something mindless...I'm thinking I need to start "reading" while I sew though...anyone have suggestions for a cheap audio books site? 

 The back, quilting and tying complete.

 The front, binding on!

A little better shot of the front.  I need to get better at taking nicer pictures of my quilts I think. 

 My second finish, I attempted more artsy stuff...too bad baby gate ~= artsy. 

 The privacy panels we have by the laundry area work a little better.

Sort of.  Anyway, this is the quilt for MOTU's grandmother.  The back is pink & white flowered flannel, and I'll get a picture of it when it's out of the dryer.

Laundry woes I'll save for another post.  Stay tuned.