Wonky star baby quilt - 2013 finish

Wonky star baby quilt, a photo by Bnh123 on Flickr.

This was an end of the year finish in 2013.

I manage a small team of employees and one of them is having a baby girl. They are using a lot of blues, and kind of a Pixar theme, so I decided to make a quilt with bold colors.

At the same time, I was working on an aqua and orange helix quilt, so I had those colors in mind, but didn't want to do another white background quilt. So I branched out to navy, since I thought that would make the colors pop.

I originally was going to do big stars and then some variable size stars like the one in the upper left corner, but I ran out of Kona navy fabric and my local JoAnn fabrics didn't have any. I bought another navy cotton, but it wasn't a great match, so I decided to do reverse blocks instead.

I actually love how it turned out because it looks more improvised to me.

It's quilted with an allover meander in aqua thread. The backing fabric is an orange button print, which is a little bit more country than I would normally pick, but this employee's camp name is Buttons, and her office baby shower theme was "cute as a button" so it worked out perfectly.

Linking up to: http://www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2014/01/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-baby-steps.html and http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2014/01/3-is-magic-number-finished.html.

Works in Progress - #2

Works in Progress (1/3/14), a photo by Bnh123 on Flickr.

This giant star quilt has been on my to-be-quilted pile for years. It was maybe the fourth or fifth quilt top I finished.

It is various flannel shirting plaids on a red flannel background. It is intended to be a warm throw for our pine-panelled tv room, which has a brown sofa and red throw pillows.

Today's cold weather in DC and around the country is making me long to be home (although the sewing room is one of the coldest in the house) so I can stay cozy and warm and finish this. And then wrap up!

I am thinking that I'll try a minky backing, which I haven't done before.

Works in Progress--1

Works in Progress (1/3/14), a photo by Bnh123 on Flickr.

As I've mentioned multiple times, one of my resolutions for this year is to keep this blog updated fairly regularly. I've already had more posts and page views this year than in all of 2013, so I think I'm doing well so far!

I have two sets of "filler" posts I want to make - one to share my works-in-progress, and the other to share past finishes. I don't always get to sew on a regular schedule--I usually manage one day a month or so when I can do a lot of sewing, but then do bits and pieces here and there.

So I'll start with a work-in-progress post.

In my goals for 2014, I mentioned that I have about 12 works in progress, and this is one that I'm really excited to finish.

I pinned this on pinterest a long time ago. For months, every time I saw it, the image would go to a spam site so I couldn't get any information about it, but I finally tracked it down to its source and saw that the fabric was Chrysalis by Moda and was able to figure out the pattern on my own.

I pieced it at least a year ago, and have been wary of quilting it because I love it so much and want it to be perfect. I just ordered backing fabric (not in green, though - I 'm not copying it completely!), and I plan to work on it soon. This one will be for me. It is lap-size.

Stash Report, Week One

I'm looking forward to doing more things like this and keeping this blog updated in 2014.

I am trying to do the fabric fast and want to use my stash for all of my projects through June.

So this week:

Used this Week: 2 yards
Used year to Date: 2 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 0 yards
Net Used for 2014: 2 yards

 To see other stash reports, go to Patchwork Times.

2014 goals, part 1

1) Fabric Fast! My spending has been a bit out of control lately so I am participating in this. I'd be lying if I didn't say that I bought a bit of fabric at the end of 2013 in anticipation of this, but I'm planning on shopping my stash for 6 months, except for backing. 

So far, so good. I pulled a baby fabric out of my swap/ trade bag of fabric and actually used it with some stash fabric today and it turned out well.

This is going to go to a friend's little boy.

2) Finish WIPs. I counted today and I have seven quilt tops that need to be sandwiched, quilted and bound, I have two more that are partially pieced, one that has been cut, and two that are on the cutting mat. That's 12 quilts in various stages of progress. If I finish all of those, the Riley Blake challenge quilt and the two baby quilts I know are coming up, I'll have exceeded my 2013 number for finished.

My goal is going to be to quilt the finished tops by June.

I will post pictures of those later--my husband and son are walking in the door!

2013 in review

First, my year in review. When I was looking for photos to make a collage, I realized I actually finished 13 quilts this year. Amazing! That's more than one a month. Of those, 10 were baby gifts, since I apparently know lots of people who have babies. One was a lap quilt for my aunt, one is a lap quilt for a friend, and one is a baby quilt for Project Linus.

This was the only collage that had room for 13, so here's the legend:

(l to r) 1) Jungle Path baby quilt, 2) x and o baby quilt 3) Wonky Star baby quilt 4) stacked coin baby quilt
5) S'more Love Baby Quilt 6) Dark Star rainbow spiral lap quilt 7) Jungle Path baby quilt
8) Red, Blue and Yellow baby quilt 9) Giant Star baby quilt
10) Dinosaur baby quilt 11) Jungle Path baby quilt 12) Lap Quilt 13) Helix baby quilt

When I look at them all together, it's kind of amazing.

Three of these were my own designs - the wonky star (although that's based on zillions of wonky star quilts, of course), the rainbow spiral and the dinosaur quilt.

Clearly I like the Jungle Path pattern - it comes together really easily and is a great way to showcase fussy cut prints. I've only used it for boy quilts - maybe I'll have the chance to do a girl quilt this year!

For the x and o quilt, I used this tutorial.

For the helix quilt, I used this pattern.

The S'more Love quilt, I blogged here.

Oh, and I had another quilt featured on the DC Modern Quilt blog Friday Flickr favorites.

I do have another baby quilt that was quilted and bound in 2013 but still needs to have about a million threads buried so I'm going to let that be my first 2014 finish!

Next post will be my goals for 2014!

Last week I was happy to see my S'More Love quilt featured on the DC Modern Quilt Guild blog!

I have a quite a few works in progress:

1) helix quilt is quilted and ready to be bound. I just need to cut/sew together/press binding.
2) I started piecing a new project - a tie-dye inspired rainbow spiral. I have almost all the squares cut out and finished the first spiral (pink).
3) plus my numerous finished quilt tops. My goal is to quilt at least three of those before the new year.