Terrain Star Mini Quilt

Little bit by little bit, I'm whittling away at my beloved Terrain layer cake.



Now that my youngest is in kindergarten I've got a few quiet hours to myself a couple days a week, so it felt like I whipped this up in no time!



I had fun piecing together a back with the extra HSTs from the front. Sometimes it's hard to decide if I like the front or the back better!



With the last few quilts I've made I've been in a hurry to finish and opted to machine stitch the binding onto the front of the quilt. With this one, I went the old fashioned route and hand stitched it to the back. I like the results so much better! I've got to remember that it's worth taking your time with the finishing.



I made this quilt as a gift for our realtor who helped us sell our old house and find a new one this past spring. We've been in the new house almost 3 months now (how can that be?!), so I've been a bit slow in thanking her. But I hope she likes it nonetheless.

WIP Wednesday - 2/13/13

I'll start with a finish:



If you click over to my post from yesterday, you can download the foundation pattern for the arrow block!

And now for the in-progress:

I'm still chugging along on my Modern Meadow HST quilt, but trimming all those squares can get tedious. So, as a little distraction, I pulled out some of the scraps and started piecing. The strips are 6" long, but none were more than 1.5" wide. I'm thinking of cutting this into strips and making some sort of pillow with the same neutral fabric used in the quilt.



Am I a hoarder for keeping such small scraps in the first place? How small is too small too keep? Seriously, I'm like a twitch away from being on a TLC show.

I've also pieced my little spools together. And I've got a project in mind for them too- Noodlehead's Open Wide Zippered Pouch.

Archery (and a free pattern!)

I settled on a design for my arrow blocks...



It screams "Valentine's Day!" a bit more than my original vision for these arrows, but we can enjoy it for a few more days!



I did some simple outline quilting around the arrows and heart. I thought about adding more straight line quilting to the background, but after trying out a few lines I decided it was too busy. If you look closely you can still see the little holes from the quilting I ripped out. I tried steaming them with the iron and it helped, but the holes are still visible. Any suggestions on how to get rid of them??



The arrows and the heart are all foundation pieced. I drew the arrow in EQ7, and I'm sharing the pattern with you! You can download the pattern here. The finished size of the block is 8" wide x 5" high. Make sure when you print the PDF that you have Page Scaling set to None. If you use the pattern, I'd love to see it!



Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

WIP Wednesday - 1/30/13

I've made a couple more arrow blocks.



But now I'm not quite sure what to do with them. The layout I had in my head seems a bit boring now. Kinda wish I had used some varying shades and/or patterns of grey for the background of the blocks. May have to sit on these a bit until inspiration strikes.

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Just for fun, I made a couple of little spool blocks yesterday. Aren't they just the cutest?!



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I finally committed to a layout for my Modern Meadow HST quilt and it feels so good to actually be sewing these blocks together!



I decided to go with layout #2 (of the three that I posted last week). I had a few more blocks in reserve, so I added blocks to the right and bottom to make the X more off-center. Now that I've sewn about half the rows together, I've really got the motivation to finish this quilt!

WIP Wednesday - 1/23/13

I've had the idea of an arrow quilt block rattling around in my head for a bit. Yesterday I sat down and drew out a few different versions. AND I managed to stitch one up too.



I'm thinking of making a few arrows in different shades of pink for a Valentines mini quilt.

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In other work-in-progress news, I've decided my next "big" quilt project will be to finally finish my Modern Meadow HST quilt. However, I'm still not totally sure which layout I should choose:

#1


#2


#3


I looked at the dates on these photos and they were taken almost two years ago. Sheesh am I indecisive. Luckily, I still love these fabrics! I think I'm leaning toward layout 2, but what do you think?

Gifts & Such

Happy New Year to all!

The gifts have all been given, so I can now share the projects I've been working on the past few weeks...

Red & White Heart Embroidery


A gift for my grandmother-in-law who turned 100 a couple of weeks before Christmas. Pattern found via Pinterest.

Hummingbird Mini Quilt


A little hummingbird mini quilt for my grandma. Grandma always had hummingbird feeders on her back deck when I was growing up. These little birds make me think of the summer afternoons spent at Grandma's pool, watching the hummingbirds flit around her backyard.



I tried something new with this little quilt-- triangles sewn into the binding to use for hanging. I really like the look and will definitely use these on future projects!

Kitty Potholders


A set of potholders for a cat lover in the family, made using this tutorial. My first time using Insul-Bright, and now that I have some on hand I see lots of potholders in my future!

Mug Rugs






Mug rugs to go along with some photo mugs I had made for the grandparents. I love them all, but I think the flower may be my favorite!

Star Wars Cover


A heavily-padded electronic gadget cover for my son. I was going for ultra-protection, but the first version I made was sooo thick with batting that the tablet wouldn't fit! Adjustments were made and eventually there was a functional case.



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Not only were gifts given, but I also received some great sewing gifts! I've got lots of inspiration to keep me busy in 2013!

Mini Tree Quilt

I made a little Christmas tree quilt... with enough time left to actually enjoy it a bit before Christmas. It's a holiday miracle!



Back in November, I mentioned that I saw this plate at Target:



And thought it was the perfect inspiration for a quilt. I'm so proud of myself for actually getting it done! So many times, I see non-quilty objects and say to myself, "That would make a great quilt design!", but that's as far as it goes. Nice to follow through for once!



This quilt was a nice distraction from all the holiday gift sewing I've been doing. Too many late nights, and a bit of rushing, has made for some frustrating work. The seam ripper has been working overtime lately. Luckily, this was a problem-free, relaxing project. But now it's back to my elf-ly duties as I desperately try to finish all my half-finished gifts!