Oh the Places We'll Go (and the projects we'll start) {100th Post}

Exciting news:  This is my one hundredth blog post!  Yay!  Thanks so much for joining me on this journey.  I'm glad that you're here and I'm grateful that you are actually interested in what and why I make.  I'd like to do something to celebrate this milestone but I'm not sure what yet.  Stay tuned for that...

This milestone also got me thinking about all of the projects I've blogged about but never finished.  I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with it all: keeping track of it and while being influenced by other ideas and my own creativity.

This inspired me to actually inventory all of my WIPs to see just how bad it really was.  I knew I had a lot but I was truly shocked by the number when I was finished.  Want to know how many?  Ten? Twenty?  The correct answer is 35.  Yes you read that correctly, thirty five WIPs -- anywhere from sketches and fabric bundles to just needing binding and a hem -- currently live in my sewing room.

That's bad.  Really bad.  But what makes it worse is that most of these are things I've started for other people, to celebrate milestones and accomplishments, which haven't yet made it to the intended recipients yet.  For me, that defeats the purpose of making.  I make because I love to but I also because I love to gift the things I make to people I love and care about.  By not finishing these projects I'm really doing a disservice to those people.  That's not okay with me and it needs to change.

I have set a goal of finishing up all of these WIPs in the next year.  To keep myself accountable I'm going to share each of my WIPs here over the new few weeks and create a page for tracking the progress of each one.  I'll blog about my progress and keep track of my finishes so that I know just where I stand.  If I get really creative, maybe I'll create a button and a link-up if anyone else wants to play along.

WIPs

Antique Black and White Mini Quilt

I picked up this fun antique mini quilt at MQX a few years ago (maybe two) and thought it would cute finished as a mini quilt to display on the wall.  

It just needs binding and a good press.

Blue Moda Hourglass Wall Hanging

I found a charm pack of this Moda collection called Hearty Good Wishes at some point this year.  It quickly became simple hourglass blocks but then dissappeared into one of my sewing boxes in what I'm sure was a mad attempt to clean up one day.  I've been looking for it all summer.  This was supposed to become a lap quilt for a friend who had a death in the family.

It just needs to be sewn together and have borders added.

Peach, Rose, and Plum Bee Blocks

I requested these colors in one of the first bee's I participated in back in early 2013.  At the time they were supposed to become table decorations for my pending wedding, then a quilt to remember the day but the color scheme was scrapped and I never did anything with them.  Earlier this year I pulled them out with the intent of making them into a baby quilt for a friend.

I need to piece the name of the baby, piece the top then quilt and bind.

Pink, Grey, and Yellow Bee Blocks

I started this sampler quilt back in February 2014 as part of several Bee Swaps.  There are 26 blocks in total.  I purchased border, binding, and backing fabric this past spring.

It needs to be pieced, have borders added, and then quilted and bound.

Starburst Blocks

I started these as a quilt for my cousin who was graduating high school.  I liked the blocks and the colors but didn't like them for him so I abandoned the idea in favor of a different approach (see the next line).  I may make more blocks to finish this off into a baby quilt or small lap quilt.  The fabrics are already cut.  I just need to find them and sew them up.

Modern Double Cross Quilt

I can't share a picture of this quilt yet because it's a gift.  I just need to finish piecing the improv top and then have it quilted and bound.

So there you have it.  The first six WIPs.  Only 29 to go.  

Happy Quilting!


I'm linking up with this weeks WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

Mosaic Tuesday - Clashy Brights {Quiltspiration 365}

Thanks to some of the lovely ladies over at Late Night Quilters I'm happy to introduce a new series of weekly posts I'm calling Mosaic Tuesdays (for lack of a better name at this point).  It's part of an effort we're calling quiltspiration365‬, intended to fulfill your every need when it comes to quilty inspiration 365 days a year.  You can find more posts about the series on Facebook and instagram using  #quiltspiration365 as well as links to the other posts this week below.  I'll be sharing color mosaics that inspire me, and hopefully you as well.  Feel free to use these to inspire your projects I just ask that you link back to the original color pallet post to give credit.  So without further adu...


I just love clashy brights.  This palette is partially inspired by the warm colors I used for my Windows for Wishes mini quilt and partially by the fact that I happened to see them all together when I picked up my hair ties the other morning.  (Inspiration is in all sorts of odd places).

Tangerine, Magenta, Lilac, Rose, Coral, and Peach come together in this gloriously mismatched color scheme, but somehow, it still works.  What do you think?  Would you make a quilt out of these colors?  The remind me a lot of Kaffe Fasset fabrics.  I think his trademark is the use of over saturated bright colors.

Left to Right, Top to Bottom: 1. Korean Textiles, 2. Pink and Orange, 3. Swatches, 4. Ombre modern baby quilt, 5. Cross Crib Quilt - Eggplant, 6. Purple by any other name, 7. Totem, 8. Bees, Swaps, Round Robins, 9. baby zebra visits the cheshire cat in wonderland, 10. curves quilt top , 11. Neon Pink Merino Wool, 12. orange ombre, 13. Doe - Lined Dots in Carrot, 14. A Purplelicious Top, 15. Charming Triangles, 16. Fabricworm Custom Bundle

Be sure to search for #quiltspiration365 for even more inspiration!

Windows for Wishes - a finished Mini Quilt

I finished something!  Can you believe it?  On Sunday I finished the fun cathedral window blocks that I'm going to be adding to Heather's "Wishes for my Daughter" quilt.  I wanted to practice working with them to see how difficult it would be before I worked on the final product for Heather's quilt and since I made a bunch of extra blocks I decided to keep some for myself to make a mini quilt.

When I was choosing a thread to top-stitch with I remembered that I had picked up a spool of hot pink thread at Vermont Quilt Festival this summer and thought it might be perfect for this.  I love how clashy-bright it is.  It blends nicely with some of the windows but really pops out on others.

After I finished top stitching and piecing the top I decided to pebble quilt the background.  Half way through I wasn't loving the result.  It's busier than I think I had originally pictured in my head but at that point, it was too late to go back.  There's no way I was going to pick out all of those stitches.  I used a soft mint thread that again blends nicely with some of the backgrounds and contrasts with others.  Overall I'm happy with the quality of the FMQ.  I've been doing a lot of sketching and practicing on paper so this was a nice opportunity to put some of that to use on a real (although small) quilt.  I had some problems with eye lashing towards the end of the quilting but the issues were minimal so I decided to leave them in place.

And finally, here's the finished mini.  See how nice that hot pink thread is?  I like how it stands out on the darker purples and palest pinks!  I'm calling this one "Windows for 'Wishes'".  It measures approximately 12 1/2" by 16 1/4".

It's bound using an unknown black and white polka-dot from my stash and backed using Pilvi in Eggplant from the Mormor collection, one of the fabrics that didn't make the cut for the front.  I used my favorite method to add fast triangle hangers to the back for quick display.

I brought this one to work with me to hang with some of my other mini quilts.  A nice reminder that I can be both analytical and creative.  It's also fun to see how different each of the mini's are and how much my skills have improved.  That circle of geese mini was one of the first paper piecing projects I ever worked on and also the first quilt I machine quilted myself and tried to machine bind.  Don't look at the back... it's terrible.  :)

Happy Quilting!

Mosaic Tuesday - Red, Chartreuse, Peach and Wood {Quiltspiration 365}

Thanks to some of the lovely ladies over at Late Night Quilters I'm happy to introduce a new series of weekly posts I'm calling Mosaic Tuesdays (for lack of a better name at this point).  It's part of an effort we're calling quiltspiration365‬, intended to fulfill your every need when it comes to quilty inspiration 365 days a year.  You can find more posts about the series on Facebook and instagram using  #quiltspiration365 as well as links to the other posts this week below.  I'll be sharing color mosaics that inspire me, and hopefully you as well.  Feel free to use these to inspire your projects I just ask that you link back to the original color pallet post to give credit.  So without further adu...

Deep red plays with warm dark brown and is off set by peaches and light natural.  Chartreuse makes it pop.

With fall in full swing, winter is just around the corner and so is Christmas.  This mosaic could go either way, Autumn or Christmas.  Just more proof that Red and Green can be more versatile than traditional holiday colors.

Left to Right, Top to Bottom: 1. favorite red quilts, 2. Twiggy in Brown from Honeycrisp, 3. Around the Color Wheel Solid Red, 4. Dottie - Caviar, 5. Squared Elements in Lime, 6. Branches in Tangerine, 7. Mail Day, 8. Doe - Lined Dots in Carrot, 9. so far this week…, 10. Felted Pebbles , 11. watercolor herringbone in pinks, 12. Trilobite {Fall 2014}, 13. Bark and Branch Leaf in Gray, 14. Raw Color, 15. Amalie Loves Denmark, 16. Moda Storybook #2

Be sure to search for #quiltspiration365 for even more inspiration!