modifications - cinched, part 2

i don't think i've ever followed a quilt pattern exactly as written. i always find some way to make adjustments, whether it be in size, layout, or fabric choices. apparently i can't even follow my own pattern without making modifications. i've made a few changes along the way with "cinched".

accent square/block

first up, instead of that simple accent square in the middle section, i chose to make a courthouse steps block. i spent about an hour fussy cutting and fidgeting to create the block that will be the focal point of the quilt. it's a bit busy, but all the fabrics from this line are loud and luscious. i had a little fun including the critters in the strips i cut for a touch of "eye spy" action in the outer ring.

the white floral fabric came from my backing and the other two pieces came from leftover jelly roll strips not used in the body of the quilt. the sizes of the strips came about purely out of what i had available to work with. i just kept adding until i had the block size i needed.

this block of the quilt is one place where you could spend a bit of time doing something special if you wanted to amp this pattern up just a bit. any favorite block, as long as it's size 10.5" unfinished would work here. or, like in my original, you could fussy cut a fabric you wanted to focus on or highlight. anything the correct size goes - the possibilities are wide open.

if you are simply cutting a 10.5" block, cut it from fabric a. if you are making a "racing stripes" pieced backing like mine, while you're cutting, you can cut additional 2.5" wide strips of fabric a until you have an 80" x 2.5" pieced strip.

*measurement options - another adjustment i've made to this quilt is a few of the measurements have changed. originally, i was trying to keep fabric requirements as small as possible, so i made the accent square 9" in order to get it out of 1/4yd. but after putting the quilt together, i noticed the 9" square didn't match up with the 2" strips. so i enlarged the square/block to 10" finished/10.5" cut. this means the accent strips adjoining the square are also slightly larger than the original at 10.5" high. if you want to buy less fabric, you could reduce the square/block to 9" cut in order to get it out of 1/4 fabric. just make sure you also adjust the adjoining strips to the same height.

accent strip

the rather clumsy name of this quilt comes from the accent strip & block that divides the upper and lower strip sections. i originally toyed with the name "sweet spot" because of that accent square, but that didn't sit right for a few reasons. then i thought how the accent strip looks kind of like a belt "cinched" around the waist of the quilt body. and this quilt is a "cinch" to make, being so easy and all, so that became the name. since nothing else brilliant came along, it's stuck with a somewhat lame name.

the whole point of the accent strip was to add some length to the quilt, making it a larger size than just a jelly roll alone allows. also, it was a chance to add interest to a basic strip quilt and showcase a few favorite fabrics from the line. selecting two fabrics with lots of contrast makes a better impact in the quilt.

anyhow, to make that accent strip, first create your 10.5" unfinished square/block (options above). from fabric b, cut one strip 10.5" x wof (or 42" long) and one strip 10.5" x 12". (this is a little wide, but it will give you room to place your block exactly where you want it in the quilt top.)

sew the long strip to the left side of the accent block and sew the shorter strip to the right of the accent block, as pictured above.

upper strip layer

this is where i left off last time - ready to sew strips together. once you have all strips laid out in a pleasing manner, begin sewing them together in pairs. then join 3 pairs together in one group of 6 strips. square off these groupings of 6 before joining them together. this will help keep everything straight. when you sew multiple strips by just adding the next strip on, you can get a slanted piece. so chain piece in pairs, then group in sixes, and square up before joining them all together.

also, to aid in keeping everything straight, i alternate the direction i sew the strips in. i chain pieced the pairs top-to-bottom and pieced the pairs together bottom-to-top.

now join your upper strip layer to the middle accent strip layer.

when you do this, line up the seams of the accent block with the strip seams above it. pin at the seams and at other intervals along the length of the seam, then sew.

lower strips layer

 a few days ago i got the top section of half strips sewn all together. now for the lower strip section. but as i looked at them hanging on the design wall, they weren't exciting me much. meh. blech. boring. so i just left them alone and did what i was supposed to be doing around the house instead.

however, yesterday i was browsing blue elephant stitches, catching up with jolene's work, when inspiration hit. i don't think i even saw anything specific there, i just got the idea of how to spice up my strips some while i was looking at her lovely quilts.

i was never really crazy about all the half strips put together in this pattern, but it was a necessity because of cutting all the strips in half for the top layer. so i tried cutting more long strips from my extra yardage and weeding out some of the pieced strips. surprisingly, i liked that even less. the joined up strips were adding interest to the quilt. i thought about breaking them up into more pieces per pieced strip, but each time you cut the strip you loose 1/2" length to seam allowances and that cut down the length of the over all quilt.

well, the idea i got was to take one extra half strip of  light green gingham and put a 2.5" (cut) block in between the joined strips. i already had my pieced strips sewn together, but it wasn't much work to unpick those few short seams. and it was worth it! i like the way these little boxes look a lot.

by using the little block to add length, i was able to put more pieces in some of the strips so that there is also variety in where the blocks fall and how many per strip. the lower section is peppered with little bits of green gingham and i like it. this could also be done with more than one fabric but i like the consistency it adds to the quilt having just one fabric for all the small blocks.

 i liked it so much that once i got going, i cut into some of the other long strips that i hadn't intended on cutting at all. now i have more variety and am much happier with the way the long lower section is looking.

new lower section layout awaiting sewing (just ignore the unrelated blocks sharing the board)

next up, sewing the strips together and finishing this top!
nearly there.

"cinched" - a pattern in the making, part one

i was quite content to work on that wip list of mine and not feeling the need to start anything new. but then my birthday rolled around and while everyone else spent a few hours watching the world cup game, i decided to sew something. seeing as it was my birthday, i also decided i wanted something fresh, especially since my machine was still tucked away upstairs and i had no desire to lug it down. a little pressing and cutting seemed perfect.

happy birthday to me sewing time

several weeks ago i brought out this jelly roll, which i had slated for a project for a friend, with the intention of completing the quilt before a certain deadline. but that didn't happen and the jelly roll has been decorating a cake plate in the dining/sewing room ever since. until my birthday, that is. a few hours to myself seemed the ideal opportunity to break open the jelly roll and get to work on that gift quilt. (um, sorry kids.)

flat view of the top - taken quickly on the back porch/excuse the sloppiness

i'm revisiting the first pattern i ever put together myself - the very simple jelly roll-friendly "cinched" pattern i used for "out on a limb." i've always meant to do this again, photographing along the way so i could write up a pattern to share. now here we are.

the friend i want to make the quilt for has always admired my "out on a limb" quilt and also likes the "oops-a-daisy" fabric line, so i think it's a good match. i'll be recording my process along the way and then try to do one sum-up pattern post when it's all done.

i'm not doing a quilt-along, but since i'm posting this to share, anyone is welcome to follow along. (that said, i'm not working on any set schedule. this is getting fit in as i have time.) it's a pretty easy beginner quilt, but also a fast and fun way to use a jelly roll you might have hanging around. of course, it could easily be made with yardage or scraps, too.

fabric requirements

i'm starting with a generous amount of yardage partly because i already have it in my stash and partly because i simply like to work that way. generally i need room for error and i happen to adore scraps. for the final pattern, i'll narrow down the fabric requirements more specifically.

• one jelly roll (or 45 - 2.5" wide x wof  strips *see further options below)
• fabric a - 1/2 yd for accent block and backing strip a (could be done with 1/4 yd or fat quarter if adjusting measurements slightly - see section on accent block)
• fabric b - 1/2 yd for accent strip and backing strip b
• fabric c - 1/4 yd for strip joining squares and backing strip c
• 1/2 yd binding fabric
• 4 yds backing fabric

it's a pretty small list. if you want more variety in the strips, which i do, you can use additional coordinating pieces. once i started getting my strips up on the design wall, i realized the fabric line i'm working with has a lot of repeats to make the full 40 strips. since i already have a lot of other yardage cuts for this line (went a little crazy on a clearance sale purchase), i'll be cutting into that to supplement the jelly roll. however, this quilt is totally doable with just a jelly roll + 5 extra strips for the strip portion.

* note - 1/4" seams used through out and all measurements are for "cut" (seam allowance included) not "final" unless otherwise noted.

preparing strips

my design wall is only half a wall, so i'm laying out my pieces in reverse - the top portion of half strips is on the floor

this pattern is constructed with 30 full strips, (measuring cut 2.5" x wof - some full length and some pieced from 2 halves) and 30 half strips (measuring cut 2.5" x 21"). a standard jelly roll has 40 strips so you will need an additional 5 full strips minimum for this pattern. options:

• one option is to use 5 white or other solid colored strips. this allows for some white space/breathing room in the busy design. 
• in my original quilt, i cut 2 additional strips from 3 pieces of yardage in the same line and pulled one fabric i didn't like. i did this to add some consistency to the quilt so it wasn't 100% scrappy. 

begin by sorting your jelly strips into those that will stay long and those you will cut in half. options:

• if you are only going to use the jelly roll + 5 more strips, you'll be cutting 30 of your strips in half, so pull the 15 strips you want to remain long. 
• if you are using extra yardage or scraps, you can decide how many extra strips you want to cut to which lengths. you will need a minimum of 30 half strips for the upper portion of the pattern. the lower portion is made of 30 strips that are either full length or pieced together out of two half strips. 

also, if you don't want pieced strips on the lower portion, you have two options.

• for jelly roll + 5 only, choose 15 strips to cut in half to make the top portion. (this means you will have each fabric in this section  repeated twice.) you will then have 30 full length strips left for the bottom. 
• if you are using extra yardage, you can choose to cut either more half strips or full length strips at your own discretion, so that you have 30 half strips for the top portion and 30 full strips for the lower portion.

 start prepping the strips by opening the jelly roll and pressing the strips. the jelly strips won't be that wrinkled, but i do find they need some quick pressing, especially that middle crease where they're folded in half. once the strips is pressed, i cut the printed selvage off. i don't bother with the other end because it comes off when the top is squared.

when they are all pressed, cut your half strips. you can do this by measuring with your rulers, but i use the following method:

fold the strip in half and lay out on your cutting mat, aligning it with the lines on your mat. slide your ruler up to the very edge of your fold, so that the fold just barely hangs out by a few threads. square the ruler with the fabric and mat lines, then cut along the ruler.

you'll have one tiny bit of a scrap left when you've cut.

my reference photo to check distribution

  if you have a design wall, begin laying out your strips in a row as you cut. you can also use a bed or the floor for this part of the process - just somewhere you can see how it's looking. when you have them all laid out, take a reference photo that you can use to get another view on how balanced your color/volume/scale distribution is looking. also, once it's completely arranged, i print the reference photo as a guide for when i'm sewing the strips to help me get them sewn together as i intended. no matter how well i mark them, i always mess up something, so i find the photo helps me a lot.

if using jelly roll + 5, you will have 30 half strips in a row for your top portion. to make your lower portion, you will have 30 half strips (leftover from when you cut for the top portion) to piece into 15 long strips and the 15 long strips you already set aside.

 as you lay out your strips, start pairing up the half strips to make pieced full strips. my pieced and full strips are randomly placed. in some places, i have pieced strips next to each other, but never in a mathematically patterned way. see the photo above of "out on a limb" for reference. you can make a pattern of every other one or if you are using solid strips for breathing room, place them every 5th or 6th strips. once you are happy with your layout, sew all the half strip pairs into pieced full strips for the lower portion.

you are now ready to sew your upper and lower strip sections.

this is as far as i've gotten - to be continued!

linking up to lee's wip wednesday at freshly pieced

from scrap to confetti

how do you explain to a 13yr old boy that the seemingly insignificant and useless scrap of fabric he just mindlessly hacked to pieces with your (off-limits) rotary cutter was in reality rather precious? he certainly won't understand that itty bitty smidge of fabric being a still-useful piece of an out-of-print designer fabric that is hard to come by these days; nor that you had plans for it in your current project which actually calls for pieces to be cut to that size, which further means you now have to deface another larger piece. oh, the waste!

please, son, just don't touch any of mom's fabric, no matter how tiny it looks to you. and definitely leave my tools alone. unless you ask first, of course. then we're good.

#firstworldquiltingtragedy #dramaforascraphoardingfabriholic #thatwasfuntoplayup #butsomeofyougetit

some fmq tricks and blips

 for anyone that was unduly impressed with my dogwood/orangepeel fmq on my penny patch quilt just examine this photo a bit. i'd like to say this is from the begining of the process, but it's actually from nearly the end, when i should have had the pattern perfected, right? or from when i started getting tired of the dang thing and became frantic and sloppy.

 in case you missed the obvious, just look at that dented/deflated petal in the orange on the upper left there. if you're really perceptive, you'll see another flat petal in the orange/white/blue katie jumprope  floral, too.

a view of the back shows that one more clearly:

people always wonder when to unpick and when to leave a mistake alone. really, it's a personal decision based on what you'll be able to live with later. in a quilt with hundreds of these petals, this is rather insignificant, but these two did not pass muster. out they went. sure, it was a pain, but they crossed the line. when i have blatant gaffs, i always think, "well, i've put this much effort into it already, i might as well spend just a little more time and make that correction." it's worth the extra effort to not be forever taunted by the mistake when you use the quilt later. without fail, that one spot will always be staring you in the face.

it seemed every time i did make a mistake like that, it was always in the most obvious squares where the thread contrasted strongly with the fabric, yelling out the mistake as loud as could be. that may simply be that it was noticeable because of the contrast and the squares where there was no contrast weren't really any better, just better hidden. it didn't feel that way, though.

something i learned along the way was this handy trick: you can still use your auto thread cutter even when you need to leave a tail for tying off and burying. this photo, thanks to the shallow depth of field in macro photography, is not as clear as i'd like it to be, but it still demonstrates my technique. that bent black line in the lower left corner points to where my quilting ends and where i need to tie off and bury the thread. normally i would lift the needle, pull the fabric to the side, and manually cut the thread with my snips. this required me then lifting the quilt and awkwardly snipping on the underside, too. the threads were never the same length this way, which made for further snipping. somewhere along the way i realized i could just lift the needle, pull the quilt to the side until my thread tail was the desired length, and then press my auto thread cutter button. voila! equal lengths of thread each time and no searching for the bobbin thread under a mound of quilt.

i also realized after a while that when finishing off one area and moving to start in another, instead of cutting the thread before moving, i could cut after. as long as the two points were within reasonable distance of each other, this worked nicely. again, looking at the above photo, if i left off quilting at the upper corner of that blue chevron square and wanted to start next in the blue and green square, i would lift the needle when done and then lower it in my next starting point. after making a few stitches in place to secure the thread, i'd be off quilting. later, when i was ready to knot and bury, i'd just cut the thread half way between the two points, pull the bobbin thread to the top, and then finish off.

both of these tricks saved me a bit of headache and time.

sewing my supreme slider to my quilt (for a second time, no less!) did not save me any time. what a mess. this time it happened not because my slider was linty and un-tacky. rather, i was messing in the bobbin chamber with the slider put out of the way to the side, bottom side up. i simply forgot to put it back into position when i got back to sewing. it slid right along with the quilt. poor slider is rather scarred now after all the accidental sewing. it may have to be replaced after this last fiasco.

and the last "we can laugh about this later" moment of the fmq experience was literally the last moment of the entire quilt. i noticed when putting on the binding that i'd stopped two petals shy of where i was supposed to with the fmq. that was annoying, but fixable. i got those two petals completed and was tying off my thread to bury it when my darn knot went awry. this seems to happen a lot lately. i use the wrap know method, but sometimes the knot tightens before the tails pull through and you're left with a knot too high up and no room to get your needle buried. it can be worked out, but it usually takes several minutes and sometimes the thread breaks, which is the worst case scenario. so there i was, literally trying to put my last stitch in the quilt, with the thread stuck in a position that was too short for burying. i was thinking, "seriously?!!! can't i just finish this once and for all?" nope. the thread snapped and i basically gave up. i always do stabilizing stitches in addition to knotting and burying my thread, so i just let it go. if it comes undone at some point in the future, i'll deal with that later.

reading this one might wonder why i do this quilting business. yes, it has it's moments of insanity and supreme frustration, but in the end, there is a quilt. and that's worth it to me.

really, how many more new mistakes can i make?

standing still

i hardly know what to say after a month of not saying anything here. my sewing output has been just about on par with my blogging - nothing. nada. zip. zilch. no sewing, no blogging. makes sense, right?

partly this is due to lots of travel and family events. my sewing/dining room even looks like a mostly dining room right now because i had to clear it for a luncheon we hosted for some 75+ people. with the weather too hot for al fresco eating, we had to have the dining room back. thus juki is tucked away in a corner of my bedroom on the floor.

the other factor is simple summer sewing slump blahs. nothing appeals to me. you'd almost think i was pregnant again. but i'm not. i just don't feel like sewing. i've fallen back on the old summer standby of reading. i dutifully took my epp and binding projects with me on my outings, but the only bit i managed all month long for june was to unpick about half a row of bad quilting on the baby quilt that was supposed to be delivered to florida in january. as in january-six-months-ago.

so there. i've done nothing and said a whole lot about it. typical.

however, the one thing i did not do that i'm pleased with is fabric shopping. i managed to not buy any fabric in may or june, completing my longest streak yet of fabric fasting. oh, i saw the quilt market frenzy on instagram. i'm well aware of cotton and steel and have been drooling achingly over up parasol (heather bailey, you know). but somehow i have resisted. i think this is largely attributable to staying away from shops, real or virtual, not reading blogs much, and not actually sewing much. the last factor doesnt' help decrease my stash but it does keep me from buying. it's almost like i just need to give up on quilting all together because i'm such an all or nothing gal and my life can not be all about quilting right now. nor should it ever be, if it comes to that.

 i almost caved when up parasol released a few weeks ago, but told myself it wouldn't hurt to wait just a little bit so i could complete the month honorably.



up parasol by heather bailey - isn't it gorgeous?!

now, with the rest of summer before me and so many events and other trips planned, i think i might extend that fast through the next two months. i'm not committing either way. i'll just see where i end up between now and then.

if i do happen to get juki back in place, i think i'll make myself complete my remaining wips, which are so close as it is:

• florida baby quilt needs a monogram and binding
• d1's chevron quilt has only a few feet of binding to go
• "paris daydreams" needs binding
• s2's "bandwidth" is waiting for straightline quilting
• s1's wonky stacked coins needs 36 more blocks
• diamond hst quilt is barely started
• "gypsy" is behind schedule and i'm due to host the blog stop in nov (eek!)
• "sugar block" is languishing, too
• there are also about 3 baby quilts i had intended to do

so there is plenty for me to do even without looking at another new stitch of fabric.
and maybe i'll find something to blog about along the way.

linking up to freshly pieced's wip wednesday and fabriholics anonymous with rebecca lynn.

the end of an era

"taite" and her sister are finished! it's been a long time coming. one not-so-little girl has been waiting and waiting for this "taite" quilt over the course of two birthdays and more; another no-longer-quite-so-little girl finally gets her quilt for the foot of her bed and still wants it. there are a few photos of "taite" and her sister to share as well as the stories associated with her, so look at the pictures and skip the words or settle in for a read if you like that sort of thing.

three years (and some change) ago, i took my second quilting class and started my third full-sized quilt. i strong-armed two good friends into taking the class with me for the company, because they both were interested in making a quilt, and because, frankly, i was hoping to recruit some companions into my new hobby. mequell and jill were very good quilting company for the class. mequell, with the aid of a longarmer, finished her quilt shortly after the class was over. jill and i took a bit more time, getting together on fridays to sew . . . over the course of three years. we had plenty of stops and starts during that time, large gaps of months where we didn't work on the quilts at all. there were even some crazy home ec moments along the way which gave us some really good laughs. but all good things come to an end, even the making of beginner quilts.

 jill and i met at church when we were working in the primary (children's sunday school organization). she was the president and i was her horrid secretary for several months. then i was assigned as her visiting teacher for a handful of years and got to really know her. she is one kind and gentle soul, always with a smile on her face and hand ready to help. she has great style and a knack for vintage finds. she also makes a mean chicken pot pie. my life has been the better for knowing her. and now she's moving away! really, we finished these quilts in the nick of time to get them photographed together.

i can't say exactly why it took us so long to get these done. by the time the one month class concluded, jill was working on her quilting but i was stalled at an inner border on the top, which i was unhappy with. getting pregnant definitely brought work on this quilt to a halt for me. when i got back to it a year later, the borders got fixed and finished quickly enough, but i desperately wanted to stipple this quilt. so i had to pause again while i learned how to stipple on a few other projects first. there was no way i was going to just go for it with the stipple on this quilt! i'd waited long enough, waiting a little longer in order to get it right didn't hurt. several friday sewing sessions later, here we are. quilts do get finished if you work on them long enough.

 recently, we went to breakfast at a local coffee shop located in a charming agricultural atmosphere where we could get some good eats, chat far longer than it took to eat said goods, and photograph our quilt finishes. finally. (i wish we'd had mequell's quilt, too, but she was out of town.)

i wasn't particulary excited about the pattern selected for the class, but i took the opportunity to really make the pattern my own and as a good excuse to use a whole slew of heather bailey fabrics i was drooling over. heavily influenced by elizabeth hartman's use of white and white space in her quilts for the practical guide to patchwork (on the sidebar), i chose to add breathing room into the quilt by alternating the inner square and outer sashing of each block between five colors of the primrose tile print and kona snow. this added dimension and space to the quilt pattern. all the tiny squares for the middle ring are various other hb prints from either "nicey jane" or "pop garden." there was very little blue in those middle squares, so to add a bit more blue to the top and tie in the blue primrose tile pieces, i pieced the inner border from more blue-toned prints. the binding is red primrose tile.

 for the backing, i let my daughter, the recipient, choose the main fabric. she selected the bold, bright, and cheery "pop garden" paisley in yellow. it always reminds me of large shrimp. (recently i saw the pineapple print in yellow and really wish we had used that instead, but it is as it is now.) the rest is pieced together with other elements from the top: primrose tile in pink, a green "nicey jane" floral, kona snow sashing, and rows of the leftover squares.

it's funny how my perspective has changed as i've gained experience as a quilter. this quilt seemed tedious and rather ambitious for a first time quilt, or even a second, because of all those little squares and the seam matching. now, of course, it does't phase me a bit and i'm sure i could churn out another one pretty quickly. skills only grow when you push yourself, anyway, right? learning to strip piece the squares was helpful, but they still took a long time. all the endless pressing open of the innumerable seams wore me out. but all of that moved me along as a quilter.

when i see this quilt, it reminds me of taking the class with my friends, getting pregnant with baby #7 (which is the reason it didn't get finished at once), a daughter who wanted and waited for a quilt for literally years (mom, are you staring another quilt? is mine done?), and many a friday sewing social with jill. this quilt will always remind me of jill. i can't even say how much i am going to miss her.

 jill's quilt, unnamed as far as i know, is a pull of reds, light turquoise blues, and apple greens. even though it was her first quilt, she prefered to coordinate her own prints and did a fabulous job. her border is a light blue "nicey jane" print and the binding a green with white dot from bonnie and camille's bliss line. for the backing she used the blue border print from the front.

i didn't think these quilts were that tall, but i was barely able to hold them up by standing on my tip toes and stretching my arms out as far as they could go. jill, by height default, was the photographer any time i wanted the quilt held up for a photo. she did a lovely job. this was our first location photo shoot and we immediately realized a few things would have been helpful to bring along - like a step ladder. and maybe some kind of clamps or tacks for hanging the quilt. (any good suggestions?)

there is one photo i did not get on this morning of celebrating finishes and saying good-byes: a photo of the two quilters. jill, like most women, is camera shy, so i didn't make a point of getting a photo of her, but i wish i had now. while we were in the farmstand area, a lady came up to look at the produce list and i almost asked her to photograph us together with our quilts, but didn't. what a missed opportunity and how i am regretting that now!

linking up with my quilt infatuation's thursday threads and crazy mom quilt's friday finishes.

pennies for the finish

 along about the fall of last year, i became slightly obsessed with a certain quilt by rachel hauser of stitched in color fame: the vintage tangerine penny patch quilt. rachel kindly hosted a penny patch quilt along and despite the fact that i was trying to complete a quilt for each of my seven children for christmas, i was sucked right in. the whole christmas idea sort of got blown out of the water because of dear old penny patch. (well, practicality had something to do with it too.)

i hemmed and hawed over fabric choices, made a color diagram of rachel's original so as to pick it apart, and shopped, culled, replaced, slaved over this quilt, trying to figure out what made it tick. (here, here and here) around thanksgiving time, the top was done. and my obsession abated. penny patch languished in the more urgent christmas gift wip pile on the piano room floor.

 a few months ago i decided to get that top off the floor, so i made a pieced backing, which then also lay in the wip pile on the floor. eventually a sandwich was spray basted and i finally tackled dogwood fmq. i've already written a lot about all these steps along the way, so no need to rehash.

another few days of intense handbinding and penny patch is now finished. with only 24 hours to go til the finished link party for the quilt along at stitched in color closes, no less.

oh, yes, i am happy.
this quilt has turned out differently than i anticipated, but the process of making it has taught me a lot about color choices and fabric placement, about myself as a quilter. it helped me to grow. i'm even starting to like it again.

but right now i'm mostly just so pleased to have it finished.

special thanks to my dear friend jill for helping me with the photographs!

linking up with thursday threads at my quilt infatuation.

box of joy

 it's no secret in this space that i'm a bit mad about sandi henderson's designs. that portabello pixie lady is just my absolute favorite. i've searched out and hoarded meadowdot in robins egg/mint/whatever for a while now. and i have also been looking for it in blush lately, to no avail. but that's okay because i'm well stocked on my favorite.

when sandi had a sale on instagram last month, i initially resisted on the grounds of my fabric fast. but the reason she was having the sale was to clear up space and raise money for her family's sudden trip to another state because of her unborn baby's heart condition. this really pulled at my heartstrings. she was offering a fully-stuffed box of various samples, patterns, and bits and pieces from around her studio. i thought for sure the boxes would all be gone in a heartbeat anyway.

however, the next day she indicated there were a few additional boxes available even though some of the items originally meant to be included were gone. well, i just couldn't resist the chance to show her support in her time of need and to get a handpicked box of her things. i emailed sandi that it was ok about the soak being all gone and mentioned my obsession love for meadowdot, particularly in the two colorways. she emailed me back saying she'd put every bit of meadowdot she still had, including some sample pieces from colorways that were never printed, in my box.

i've been giddy to see what she sent me for a few weeks now. finally, it's arrived and i couldn't be happier! as soon as i opened the top of the box and saw that wad of my favorite meadowdot, a huge grin broke out on my face.

 and then the next layer looked like this. more meadowdot in blush!

 by the time i got everything out, i'd found pieces of meadowdot in 8 colors! i'm pretty sure the small pieces are the strike-offs she was talking about. i especially love the pink one. the green pieces have less contrast in them and hence a less meadowdot feel to me, but i'm over the moon about the warm colored bits and wondering why they never got printed. i'm on the lookout for a project that can feature all these different colors together.

 here's the rest of the fabric included. all but the three pieces on the right are sandi designs. the gingerblossom print of the large scale pink flowers is a laminate. i've never tried laminate before and it's fairly begging to be an apron. the two meadowsweet prints on the far right are corduroys. i didn't know any of the meadowsweet was made in corduroy! that'll be a new sewing experience for me, too. looking at these pieces just reminded me what a great vintage vibe her designs have. this is something i came to appreciate so much as i worked more and more with her prints. they just make me so happy!

 other treasures: the lovely nail polish colors that coordinate with her fabrics, a darling owl pincushion made in her famous henna print (i was needing another pincushion - how did she know?), and three patterns.

 i think i can adjust the ruffle pants pattern to make some cute bloomers for under skirts for my girls since i don't think they'd go for the pants. but the cupcake pincushion is perfect for me and that berry picker skirt really is pretty cute. i might just do some garment sewing some day soon.

and then there was this bag of scraps, which i haven't even opened yet because i'm so busy taking in all the rest of the package. goodness, it felt like an early birthday getting all these lovelies in one box at one time. this is sewing bliss.

now what will i make?!

twirly and the twisty tree

 tuesday mornings my four oldest children have an art class in a nearby neighborhood. when the weather is nice, the little girls and i play in the neighborhood park while waiting for the art lesson to be completed. this affords me ninety minutes of handwork time. last week, i nearly finished off the binding on d3's quilt, "twirly." this week, i completed the remaining two feet of the binding and got to photograph the quilt in one of their favorite spots to visit during our park time. unfortunately, it was super windy, so getting photos was tres difficult!

 but first, a small anecdote of the price we mama quilters sometimes pay to get in a few moments at our craft. the girls happily romped on the play equipment for over 30 minutes. then d4 said she wanted to run around in the grassy area and go to the trees. "fine, just stay out of the muddy spots from the sprinkler," i said as i continued to stitch away. i could hear the girls laughing with each other as i contentedly bent over my work, the strong breezes ruffling my hair and the quilt. it was all quite blissful. then i looked up.

"mama! we are playing in the water!" d4 calls, gleefully.

"i told you to stay out of that!" i yell back in my most annoyed mama voice.

"but it's not muddy, it's water. it's clean!" she assures me.

i seriously doubt that. that water has been standing and is probably full of mosquito larva and who knows what other deadly ickiness. by that time, however, the baby's pants are soaked to her calves and there is no turning back. so i let them be, uttering a silent prayer there's nothing too horrible in the water, and continue stitching. really, when they're already wet and dirty, might as well let them have some more fun.

some less-clean water on the sidewalk

as d5 approached me, declaring she was wet and wanted her clothes off, i saw just how dirty she was and thought, "this is the price i pay sometimes." yes, sometimes, we let them be so we can sew and there are costs involved. as long as they didn't pick up any strange bugs in that water, this price was not too high. muddy jeans can go in the wash easily enough and it wasn't too cold for her to be a little wet.

 at this point, i was done stitching and we headed over to "the twisty tree" for some photos. the twisty tree is a mesquite tree who's trunk and major limbs have grown nearly horizontal and very close to the ground. the girls love to sit in it and eat snacks. it was a pretty good spot for hanging a quilt if only it hadn't been so darn windy. i kept having to adjust the quilt and/or wait until the wind blew the right way so it wasn't plastered to the tree.

the top on the horizontal

"twirly" is a simple quilt i started dec 2012 in a shabby seams class at ETC when i was just starting to get back into quilting. i think that makes it the sixth quilt i started although it's the fifteenth (fifth full-size) i've completed. the top came together quite quickly. it has three rows of pinwheel blocks, sashing, two large fabric panels, and side borders of small squares. i'm sort of wishing now that i picked a quieter fabric for the large panels because the paisley makes me a bit dizzy, but the daughter this quilt was made for is as loud, busy, and colorful as this quilt, so i suppose it's a good fit. if you are at all interested in reading about other parts of the process of this quilt, just click the highlighted links through out.

thank goodness the quilting, which was such a trial to me (more here), has disappeared into the top. or at least i just don't really notice it anymore. that should give my comfort in the future when things go awry.

there are plenty of things i like about this quilt, but i have evolved as a quilter since i started this and i don't feel it really fits me much. however, it tells me a lot about myself then and now. i made it during a phase where i selected easy, quick finishes with large blocks. i was new to quilting and didn't (don't) have a lot of time to devote to quilting, so getting some finishes under my belt was most appealing. and i do truly love those pinwheel blocks.

the pieced backing

now that i have more completed quilts to claim and no longer feel like i'm never going to have more than one or two done in this lifetime, i am more interested in advancing my skills and doing more intricate work. like gyspy wife! having a handful of legitimate finishes really does give me the freedom to slow down and expand my scope. i wanted to make quilts, which i did. now i want to make more interesting quilts.

love this corner where all of my favorite fabrics of the quilt are grouped together

 i think this quilt shows my progression in selecting fabrics and combining fabric lines. i even varied my values of the three main colors, which adds visual depth. the only thing i'd probably do differently now is add more neutral space somehow. maybe a ditsy print instead of the large scale paislies. i have come to learn that i really like white space in a quilt.

 another thing i really like about this quilt is the backing. i used some extra pinwheel blocks, small border squares, and large panels to piece the backing. at the time, i thought it was taking forever wheni just wanted to get the quilt sandwiched and finished. now i'm glad it took the time because i absolutely love it - especially the bottom where most of the piecing is.

part of this backing was a cover-up for a mistake i made on the front. the large fabric panels for the front were accidentally cut a few inches too short, so i just got more of the paisley fabric to redo those knowing i could use the goof-ups on the back. yes, it makes the back busy, too, but it was a practical decision; a nod to the roots of quilting where quilters lived by "waste not, want not."

there is a strip of extra border blocks joining the two large fabric panels on the back. they get rather lost in the paisley, but it's one more detail waiting to be discovered when you're cuddled up with the quilt, examining its parts.

 and down she blows! she's going to need a washing. that wind really made everything way more difficult than it needed to be. i was unable to get a picture of the top fully spread out.

 this little one was ready to go, too. she had her bag of snacks and was hitting the road.

 art class is over for the school year. i'll have to find some other regular time for handwork now because i still have several quilts to bind! i should probably make some labels, too. eventually.