Finished or Not - Jolie Quilt with an Egyptian theme

 My quilting project this week was finishing a UFO.  I'm doing the APQ UFO challenge and this is the one that came up for January.   I had chosen the fabric for this quilt, but hadn't even got it cut out.  The fabrics were a bit on the unusual side - Egyptian themed!  I made a version of my Jolie quilt pattern - I am really love this pattern for using those fabrics that you can't figure out what to do with because it does a great job of showcasing them.

I enjoyed a pleasant afternoon of cutting and piecing and pressed my blocks out - then had to look a little closer at this one!  OOPS!  Out came the seam ripper to fix the square that ended up facing the wrong way.

After putting the top together I quilted it using spirals in a coppery colored thread.  I love the results!  The blue really pops against the the browns in the quilt.

I'll be adding this to my Etsy shop.  I figure that this will be the perfect quilt for someone who loves the Egyptian theme.

This month's number was 8, so I will be working on a quilt made with strips and a block I designed called reflections.  I think I'll work on writing up the pattern as I finish the quilt - it's about time, I think this one has been sitting on the back burner for a few years.

Linking up with Myra for Finished or Not Friday - come join the fun!

The Week of Flimsies

I had a busy week in the sewing room this week - so busy I forgot to blog about it!  It all started when we spent last weekend up north visiting the kids and grandkids.  We drove all the way up to Puyallup,  WA to see one of our daughters compete in a weight lifting competition.  She was awesome, completing all 6 of her lifts in good form!  It was her first competition and I think she is hooked.  She said the adrenaline rush was fierce, when she went out on the platform the first time she definitely felt like she was in fight or flight mode and wanted to cry, but she was awesome!  We definitely saw her confidence level rise with each lift and really enjoyed seeing her do so well.  We spent the rest of the weekend in Portland, then drove home on Monday.

I knew I had a short, but busy week in front of me, so just got to it on Tuesday.  My friend who owns the local alteration shop that I help out for is going to be on vacation for the month of August, so she had passed a few gowns on to me that needed to be done before she left.  I spent a good part of my week doing that, but also went to work on some of those tops (flimsies) that I have been wanting to get done.

This one is made with leftovers from another top.  These half square triangles were too big to discard, and I ended up with a nicely sized top in the end:

I had already made all the blocks, so it was just a matter of adding the sashing and borders.

The next one was a cheater panel.  I had more panel than border print, so it's just been aging in the drawer.  When I pulled it out this time, I realized that I could cut a row of blocks off in each direction and use them for cornerstones.  I have three blocks leftover that could be pillows, or small quilts.

This one will also be a nice lap size quilt.  I love the colors in this one!

Another quilt made using a panel, but for this one I had planned 5 inch pieced blocks for cornerstones.  It was a lot of fun to make the small blocks and I have another lap size quilt top ready to be quilted:

Aren't the chickens fun?  I know someone is going to love this quilt!

It's time to set up the Christmas display at the quilt shop, so I have a couple of samples to put together.  This one is from my Jolie pattern.  I absolutely adore the truck fabric in this - we have a lot of red and gray prints this year in the shop.

This one will get quilted first, I have backing for it and want to take it in on Wednesday so we can start selling the fabric.  Last, but not least, I added the borders for my quilt for the Island Batik blog hop next month!  My quilt shows the Seashore line - here is a peak at the borders I used:

You can read more about the line here on Auribuzz (Aurifil Thread's Blog) as well as enter to win some of these gorgeous fabrics!  It's a lovely line and you will enjoy reading about Tammy's role in designing it and putting together an Aurifil Thread collection to go with it.  While you are there, make sure you read the whole week's worth of posts, as they all feature great giveaways and feature Island Batik and Aurifil thread collections.  Two of my favorite things in the whole world - and not just because I am an Island Batik Ambassador and receive free fabric.  It truly is awesome fabric that is a pleasure to work with!

That makes a total of 5 quilt tops ready to be quilted!  I need to pull together backs for 4 of them, so it might not happen this week, but I definitely know I'll be finishing lots of quilts in August.

Just a fun note - I entered 8 items in the County fair this year.  Five of them were Island Batik projects!  Those monthly challenges have not only been a lot of fun to do, but I am getting a nice pile of quilts out of it as well.  I am trying to finish up some of my older projects, but I sure do love creating something fresh and new, and these monthly challenges have inspired and stretched me.  I think that's why we quilters love the quilt-a-longs, challenges, and mystery quilts.  They give us opportunities to be creative and make quilts while being part of a community.

I hope you find a way to use your creativity today!

...

On Track

I've been working hard all week at catching up and I think I am finally back on track!  Whew!  I've felt behind on so many projects for so long that I don't quite know what to do with myself.  Well, that's not true - I have a lot of things I am itching to get to work on, as well as projects that are coming up.  It's just that I'm not behind schedule on anything right now.  At any rate, I sandwiched this to get quilted this weekend:

It is going to get loop the loops and butterflies in light orange thread.  Shouldn't take too long to get this one done!  I also want to get the quilt I am hand-quilting bound.  I decided I want to put a scalloped border on, so I need to figure that out.  It's been a while and I'm afraid I've forgotten how to figure out the math for the scallops.

And I saw this picture on Facebook  

and realized it would be perfect to use my overflowing green stash on!  I have been thinking of making a triangle quilt in greens, so this one is perfect.  I think I could figure this out on my own, but the magazine looks like it will have lots of great patterns, so I may have to add it to my collection when I see it!  Is there anything as fun as deciding on a new quilting project? I just love the feeling of knowing I want to make something special and new!

And I am going to try to finish piecing the border for my Grand Illusion Mystery.  I need to get on the hunt for the perfect backing for it, too.  I'm thinking of quilting it with a medium loft poly batting.  I like my cotton quilts, but a nice fluffy quilt can be a fun change of pace sometimes.  I probably won't be quilting it for a while, so I have time to think about it.

What are you sewing this weekend?  Will you watch the superbowl or sew?  (I plan to do my binding while I watch the game!)

"WIP"ing along...

Ha - thought my title was witty, but it just looks like I'm cleaning up!  Well, maybe I am, since I am working at cleaning up all the piles of projects I have going on in the sewing room these days....

This is a second sample for my newest pattern - Jolie.  I love the fabric - from the Sweet Serenade line.  The blocks came out great, and the center went together great, then I hit a roadblock.  The fabric I chose for the inner border just wasn't working.  I love the patchy chevron but it had zero contrast with the center, and that's the entire purpose of having the inner border!  What to do?

I had the bright idea of adding a narrow flange.  I found a lovely peachy fabric that was perfect, but realized that if I pressed the flange toward my center I'd be hiding my lovely points...nope, didn't want to do that.  Then I realized why flanges always press in toward the center - in order to add them going the other way you have to miter the border!  Ok, I can do that.  Unfortunaterly, when I realized I needed to make my inner border 1/4 inch wider to make up for the flange covering part of it I forgot to add the 1/2 inch for seams.  So, now my inner border is actually only 1/2 inch showing instead of the 1 inch.  Sigh.  

But now the top is done.  I need to quilt it up, but I am mostly happy with the end result.  It will be hanging in Threads That Bind for a while to sell some of that pretty fabric, which I am sure it will do nicely.

How are your WIP's (Works In Progress) coming along?  I hope you don't have as many problems with your projects as this one gave me!  

Check out the Quiltsy Blog to see what my fellow quilters are up to this week!  Feel free to add your own link and share your projects as well.