I Made a Sale

OMG - someone admired my work enough to want to buy it!
Edit: One of her co-workers saw it and I got ANOTHER sale!

A friend of mine who stalks my quilting via Instagram fell in love with the quilted duffel, and I've now made a sale. This is a new thing for me. Friends constantly tell me that I should sell what I make, but I've never felt like my work was up to the level of the many other quilts I follow and admire.

This just means I need to make another quilted duffel for myself. Lesson learned, do a little bit less quilting - I did very intense quilting outlining 2/3 of each of the chevrons on both sides with zig-zag stitching - and it'll be fine and then it won't take 7 hours to make it. I have a feeling if I wanted to, I could make one in an afternoon (that would be with full focus). 

Practicing Concentric Circles

Since I've decided that I want to do concentric circle quilting on the triangle quilt, I wanted to practice before I moved to a top that size. If you've been reading this blog since it began, you'll recognize the flimsy I pulled for this practice - the 36"x 36" wonky disappearing four patch.

This top had puzzled me in terms of how I wanted to quilt it since the red and gold fabric already has so much movement in it (visit the link to see a close up). And much like the triangles top, this quilt is all angles, and the circles are able to soften it up a little bit while adding another layer of visual interest.

I followed the tutorial from Blooming Poppies for this. The first five circles I did approxiately an inch apart, and the next set approximately 3/8 apart (no real measurement, just by eye). I'll alternate back and forth, but so far I'm preferring the tigher circles. 

Steadily Working - Half Way There

I've got Livin' On a Prayer stuck in my head right now since I'm half way there... oooh-oooh... Yeah. I've been working on my 1000 Pyramids quilt steadily. I took a break from it Friday morning-Sunday evening when I took a short notice road trip to Ithaca for Cornell Hockey senior night.

I've made mention before that I'm a big college hockey fan, and the previous weekend Cornell was playing against Harvard (a short 10 minutes from where I live) which meant I played host to a friend who lives in Ithaca, and he suggested that since I have free time until I go to Navy training that I should come to the last home games of the season. I took him up on the offer of his guest room.

That was my little break from sewing, but it's still coming along nicely. And I've decided that I'm going to do concentric circle quilting once the top is done. This quilt is full of sharp lines and hard angles, so I want a quilting pattern that will soften it up.

Pyramids Assembly

Since the 1000 Pyramids Quilt is entirely random in regards to triangle placement, I decided to start piecing some of the rows together. I've made 10 rows thus far (each with 33 triangles), and now five are joined. It's steady progress. Each row of triangles takes about half an hour to put together, most of that time spent getting perfect allingment rather than the stitching itself.

I think if I were to try to make some sort of pattern with the colors I would drive myself mad with the 9 different prints that art part of this quilt. The random is working for me. There are some places where the same print match up to make diamonds, but for the most part, they end up paired with a different one. 

I did some calculations now that I've measured the rows and it'll end up being 62"x70" my previous math had a couple more rows, but that's a generous throw size - perfect for having on a couch. 

Quilted Duffel Finished

I finally finished the quilted duffel. It's been sitting for about 3 weeks because zippers are scary. But now less so (even if I did break two needles making this when going around the edges of the end pocket piece). I had been wary of my ability with zippers, but making the two triple zips certainly helped allay those fears. It was also a WIP that I really wanted to finish before I go to Navy training in three weeks.

The outside of the bag is home dec weight, almost feels like a light canvas, and the blue dotted print is also the lining of the main bag and the side pocket. 

 

The fact that the side zig zags line up on the zip pocket with the body of the bag 

is totally by happy accident. 

I'm quite pleased with how this project turned out. If I hadn't done such detailed quilting (zig-zag stitching around 2 lines of the pattern, skipping one, then outlining 2, etc.) I probably would have finished it sooner, but I like how sturdy it feels with that much quilting. I did leave out the side pocket which would be sewn in between the straps since I didn't feel like an open pocket would ever get any use. but I did put in the zippered, pleated end pocket seen in the picture on the left. This bag is bigger than I was thinking it would be, but that's never a bad thing.

I can certainly see making more of these. The pattern from Studio Cherie was straight forward and detailed. I never felt lost while making it. I'm looking forward to being able to travel with a hand made bag that's absolutely sturdy enough to hold up regardless of where I'm going.

Triangles, lots and lots of them

Short post, but an update of what I'm up to. Today I started on the Triangle Quilt. I've made 4 strips of 32 triangles each. Many more to go. My guess is I'll get another two or three done tonight. They're very easy to put together, just monotonous. But this is what Netflix in the background is for (can we say watching every episode of Star Trek: DS9).

Owl Binding and Waves Quilting Done

I finished the binding on the Owl baby quilt today. I used fabric that I think I bought during the summer of 2010 to be the back of something, but it just worked perfectly in terms of colors to be the binding. I still have a yard and a half left of this fabric, so who knows for what the rest will be used. I used the Red Pepper Quilts technique for machine stitching my binding down, and it's the cleanest bidning I've done to date. I will definitely continue to use Rita's method since I'm not one to hand sew my binding as some do.

I'm happy with how the quilting came out and how well the binding matches the owls. 

I took a picture of the minky backing because this is where the quilting shows up better. All the diamonds are outlined by sea waves to mimic the print. It was a quick an easy free motion pattern to do.  This one needs to be bound to be sent to Baby Jack. 

Owl Quilt Free Motioning

Today I sandwiched and quilted the Owl Quilt for the girl twin. I knew exactly how I wanted to quilt it so the boy quilt, the blue/white diamonds with the octopi is sandwiched but not yet quilted. I used the FriXion pen, whose ink disappears after being ironed, to draw the pattern onto the quilt before I sat down at my machine. Since this family lives in Northern Vermont, I used batting with the minky backing. These quilts will be warm.

To start with - this quilt has perfect corners. Every single one of them locked in exactly. 

And here is the quilting design that I knew I wanted to use from when I first thought about the quilt. Each white square has this pattern. And each one only took a few minutes to complete. 

And here it is quilted. Now all that's left is the binding. 

Cutting 850 Triangles

My next personal project is going to be a 1000 Pyriamids quilt - that means triangles, lots and lots and lots of triangles. I spent my Blizzard of 2013 cutting my fabrics. The color scheme came from Architextures fat quarters that I got on Local Quilt Shop Day in January. It's the sketch lines in black, orange, and raspberry. I then pulled two more of each color from my stash.

Apologies that the photo is a little blurry. But here are all the triangles, and I'll be starting on them shortly. This quilt will likely end up 64x80 if I've done my quilty math correctly. 

Baby Quilt and Bee Blocks

The little boy who is getting the blue wave diamonds and octopi is a twin and I've started working on his sister's quilt. She's also getting little critters, but she's getting ones that live in the air. I found super cute Owl fabric when I was in Atlanta at Christmas that I bought just for stash purposes, and it's what I selected for her.

The blocks are strip pieced - can you see a trend there? I like making things easy on myself. Long strips cut into 2.5" bars, then attaching 6 of the little bars onto another long strip on each side. Then cut between the blocks and boom, only 4 seams sewn to make 6 blocks after cutting. I do shorten my stitch length for these to strenthen the blocks since they don't get locked down at the beginning and end. 

And here is my February block for the Simply Solids Bee. The block is called Star Gazing and this month's Queen Bee sent out the fabric. It's pretty easy construction. I'll put it in the mail tomorrow, but who knows when it'll actually make it out of Boston since we're getting a blizzard this weekend.

And another one..

I wanted to right the wrongs of the triple zip I made last night. These are a little addictive to make, and I wanted to get it right. It also doesn't hurt that this past fall I ordered a ton of 9 inch zippers because you can get 25 for $10 on Etsy, so I've got plenty to play with.

So here is Triple Zip take two. At this point, I feel like I could actually gift any future ones, and I think with the upcoming baby quilts that I'm making I'll also make an on the go diaper case (make it bigger than the original tutorial) to be able to put diapers in the big section, wipes in the middle pocket, and little tubes of Desiten and baby powder in the smallest pocket.

Triple Zip Just Because

I've seen the tutorial for the triple zip over at A Quilter's Table a number of times. Tonight after the Super Bowl, I decided that I just wanted to make one. It's certainly not perfect, and I need a lot more practice with zippers, but I'm pleased with how it turned out. Not sure what I'll use it for, but it seems having little pouches, especially onces with multiple zips can never be a bad thing.

As you can see, the top is a little wider than the bottom. The zippers also aren't completely level. 

I used the same lining in all three pockets, it's a fun blue and white print which these mouth open, top down pictures show.  

Last Paper Pieced Bee Block

This last block was requested as rainbow with a white background. Since this block has 14 pieces to it, there's definitely a rainbow of hues present. The picture below are all the blocks I made for this, all but the orange and green one are going out (the orange and green one was my sample block) - the white ones all need their borders put on to make them full 12.5" blocks.

1: Caryn            2: Maria      3: Kathleen

              4: Stephanie        5: Sara        6: Me (sample block)