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In the sewing room, no 5.

February 6, 2013 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

This was definitely a “slow craft” week in the sewing room. Lots going on at our busy house!

My most exciting progress was this little mini heart quilt that went from sketch to completed in a couple of days. Every once in a while I need a quick finish to keep me motivated on my slower projects, and this was it.

After wishing I had more yellow fabric last week, I went through my stash and found a few yellows that hadn’t been sorted by color last year. I’m excited to add them to my Scrappy Trip along quilt, which I didn’t even touch this week!

I spent a lot of time with my seam ripper this week, ripping out some quilting I wasn’t happy with. I’m ready to get back to work on this now.

I’m making slow progress on the half square triangles for my sawtooth quilt, and each time I’m working on them I ask myself how I managed to jump into three projects at the beginning of the year that all have tons of half square triangles in them! Not good planning. I do love my choreography quilt top and backing (which awaits quilting right now) and I’m sure I’ll love this when it’s finished also. At least I’m using a different HST construction method with each quilt. It’s kind of fun to try new ways of making the same square.

My Scrappy Swoon quilt is taking shape. Next week we’ll do the last sections of this, then put it all together. I’m having a lot of fun with this project!

In the coming week I hope to make bindings for two quilts ( and maybe even get them on the quilts?), cut more white fabric to use with a bunch of Field Study squares I cut in January, and spend a bit of time embroidering. I’d like to baste a quilt or two as well, if time allows. Although I have several new projects I’m excited to start I’m going to focus on finishing these first. Patience.

Happy Sewing, Jennifer Linking to Freshly Pieced

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In the sewing room, no. 4

January 30, 2013 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

What a great week it’s been! We had blue skies and sunshine on Monday – such a gift – and 11 inches of snow on Tuesday. As for sewing, Saturday was a quiet day and I was able to put together this:

It’s the back for my Choreography quilt top , and I think I like it every bit as much as the front. I used an Ikea print for the top and bottom and the center section is made using the remainder of my “arrows.”

I’m really excited to put this quilt together. I want to push myself in quilting it, and am tossing around a few ideas. I (who am HORRIBLE at free motion quilting) spent some time playing with an idea. This is also one of my goals for 2013, to pay the price and put in some hours learning to FMQ. Here it is:

It definitely needs work, but I might like it. I always have this inner battle over finishing a quilt quickly using quilting methods I’m comfortable with, or letting it be a “slow craft” as Denyse Schmidt calls it (I wrote about it here ) while I learn to do new things. I’m trying to take the slow craft approach with this quilt, telling myself I’ll love it even more if I do.

I made six more blocks for my Scrappy Trip quilt. I now have 18 done and am half way there! I’m still really enjoying this quilt. One thing I’m learning is that my fabric stash is pretty shallow on yellows, and I’m wishing I had a few more yellow strips to add. Interestingly, I read Joanna Figueroa’s thoughts on yellow in her book With Fabric and Thread.
She writes, “I would like to share with you that yellow goes with everything! Many years ago, I heard another designer say this in a workshop on brights and contemporary fabrics. The same principle has translated very well into vintage color combinations. There is no color on the color wheel that looks bad with yellow…Many of the most classic color combinations are paired with yellow…and yet somehow many people seem to be afraid of this wonderful color” (p.66). While I’ve never had an aversion to yellow, I haven’t really been drawn to it, either. Right now I’m wishing I had a lot more yellow in my stash… perhaps it’s time to consciously watch for yellows I like.

Speaking of yellow, I started working on my Sawtooth quilt, which is my first project using yellow for the background. I’m really loving this happy, sunny color and hope the quilt is as cheery as I think it will be.

My Scrappy Swoon quilt is coming along:

I discovered that when cutting all my squares I went a little crazy with the pink fabrics and have way too many. Rather than pack them away, I’ve used this little stack to plan a little Valentine project:

I’m thinking the pink will look pretty with some gray. I hope to piece it right away!

I guess that’s it this week. Can you believe the month is already over? I had hoped to do more, and yet I’m also grateful for all that has come together so far. February will be great.

Have a beautiful week, Jennifer Linking to Freshly Pieced

5 comments in the sewing room, quilting

In the sewing room, no. 2

January 16, 2013 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

This post should probably be subtitled “the one in which I caved” because in spite of my determination to resist, I jumped into the scrappy trip along this week with both feet.

I kept reading about how much fun these blocks are to make and late Saturday night I decided I’d better find out if it’s true. It is. I’m having so much fun with these. In fact, it’s pretty much all I want to do. While it meant I didn’t get other things done, I feel happy to have joined in. I still wish I’d jumped into the Farmer’s Wife quilt along and I had a feeling I’d regret not joining this one. Now I’ve got a pile of strips all cut up just waiting to become part of this quilt.

Lots of color, and I couldn’t be happier. I did force myself to put them away while I work on my HST project, which has gone from a pile of squares to a bunch of strips laying on the bed, just waiting to be pieced together.

Terrible lighting, I know, but it was taken at night. I hope to get this quilt top pieced in the next 24 hours.

And, of course, I’m working on my Scrappy Swoon :

This week I’ll keep working on these three projects, and I also hope to find time to start working on the sawtooth quilt I mentioned last week as well as finish up that Ellen’s Sewing basket block. I also need to pull myself away from the very rewarding task of piecing and do some basting, quilting and binding. Maybe if I let myself make another trip-along block every time I complete another task? We’ll see how far I get!

Good luck to you in your projects.
Jennifer Linking to Freshly Pieced

6 comments in the sewing room, quilting

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