Whose Feathers are Falling?

This week, in addition to continuing my slow and steady work on Atoms and Oranges, I've been cutting fabric for a new 12 inch block.  I've been wanting to do a round robin for some time, and when I tried out the local quilt guild in September and they were doing sign-ups for a round robin...  It seemed like the perfect opportunity, so I jumped right in.

With a plan in mind, I first snuck a small square out of some colorful bubbles that I've been saving.  Then I searched my stash for a good background fabric.  I liked these feathers so much that I'm hoping someone out there can help me identify it.  (Because of course the piece I have didn't have a printed selvage!)  I think it would go well in the large bubble quilt I have planned, if it's still available.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Georgia and Gen Con

Traveling for most of July didn't leave me with much time to sew, but it did help me grab a couple of new states to add to my 50 states collection!  I added the big flowers on the left from Georgia and the puzzle pieces on the right from Indiana.

It proved rather difficult to get to a fabric store in Indiana, as my husband and I were in Indianapolis for Gen Con.  Gen Con was attended by over 61,000 people this year.  That meant we were were trying to secure resources like cars and hotel rooms at the same time as a lot of other people, and our reservations kept being given away to someone else!

But we persevered and, despite all of the scheduling snafus, thoroughly enjoyed our trip.

Even though Gen Con is a gaming convention, most of the events I signed up for were crafty!  I started with a couple of classes on knitting and embroidery, then moved on to some more unusual classes like ribbon embroidery and scale chain-mail.  The chain mail class was by far my favorite, and has a high probability of turning into another hobby!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Rainbow Work and a Fabric Pull

There has been progress on several different fronts this week.  The remaining fabric for the second round of rainbow blocks has been cut, and the pile of finished blocks is slowly growing again.

There is a new baby quilt taking shape here as well.  I had a pretty good selection in my stash, but there were still a few fabrics that needed to be purchased: some flannel for the back and a white for sashing.

Flannel was easy to find and the colors in this piece match so closely to the focus fabric that you'd think they were produced together!  On the other hand, it seems white on whites are hard to find around here.  It took three fabric stores to find a place that carried any, but it all worked out well in the end.

I'm really looking forward to getting started on this quilt.  It's been a while since I've had a good hand quilting project in the works, and that's a shame!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Progress Through Purchases

I went to visit a new quilt store last weekend and came home with fabrics for setting my rainbow cabins.  The brown dot will be used for setting triangles to put the blocks on point, and the two darker browns are for borders.  This is going to end up a pretty large quilt when it all comes together.

I wanted to have a fresh start for the second round of blocks, so next I worked on remaking the puckered blocks from the first round.  The block on the right still has the original stitching.  The tan fabric is puckered along the inner seam and is pretty wavy overall.  The block on the left has been re-sewn and lies a whole lot flatter.  Success!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Basically Patrick Suds

And we're back.  I haven't been waiting all this time for a replacement iron, never fear!

I was invited to hang some photography in a public space for the month of March, so my sewing room had to remain closed while I pulled it all together.  There was much framing and matting and running around this past month... but my pictures are all up now and just waiting for people to come in.  It is an amazing opportunity.  And it was also a lot more work than I ever expected.

So this weekend was the first time I've been able to get back in the sewing room since the end of January and I made good use of my time - washing and ironing (and petting) some fabric.

Now I swear that I don't bleed all my fabric, though I'm sure it looks like I do from my blog, but in the course of all the fabric washing I've been doing recently I did have some issues.  Some of the fabrics must have been damp next to each other in the washer for too long because the orange, red, and pink suds fabrics came out looking like a toddler had drawn all over them with a pen!

I tried applying some Dawn and water, to no avail.  However, with the liberal application of Shout stain remover and another trip through the washing machine, I was able to remove most of the dark marks!

Good as New!

And now all the colors of my suds line are washed and just waiting to be made into something delightful!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social and WiP Wednesday.

A New State - Nevada

This past weekend my husband surprised me with a trip.  Since he kept the location a secret all the way up to the drive towards the airport, finding a quilt store was a high priority once our destination was revealed (Las Vegas)!

Nevada - Quiltique

Google likes to rotate my pictures.

Never having been to Nevada before, once I found a quilt store I needed to find a good fabric to add to my 50 state collection.

I was a little surprised that I couldn't find a fabric with the lights of the strip, but I decided to go with the red in the bottom left to represent Red Rock Canyon and it suited me much better!  A bit of the blue may go with it to show how blue the sky was, but I'm still up in the air about that.

Red Rock was pretty awesome.  We didn't get to spend nearly enough time wandering around out there, so we will have to go back with more appropriate gear for sure!

The top two are some cute little critters that I just couldn't resist.

Linking up with  .

Fabric Recovery - Brown

Since cold water worked well for removing the wayward color from my finished quarter cabin blocks, I have begun a similar soaking process for the rest of the fabric.  I started with the brown since it was the obvious offender.

When I put the fabric into its bath, it hung on top of the water for a few seconds, then started to fall piece by piece.  It looks a little bit like a sting ray here!

There was a lot of color to remove.  I changed the soaking water six times before it stayed clear enough that I was satisfied.

I laid the pieces out on a towel to dry, trying to keep them as square as possible.  After soaking, the squares ended up approximately a quarter of an inch smaller in one direction so I'll have to trim them before they are ready for the sewing process.

Linking up to MOP Monday.

Rainbow Hand Quilting - The First Two Borders

I've been putting in some quilting time every night and am now about 50% of the way done with borders one and two.  I think I'm going to have to revise my estimated finish date again.  I must be putting in more quilting than usual...

The first border is done on the bottom in the hoop.

I've been using tape to mark the line borders.  I have one set for the side borders and one for the top and bottom borders because they are different widths.

I won a giveaway last week, and was pleasantly surprised to find my prize waiting in my mailbox when I got back in to town last night.

But, despite my excitement, I managed to leave the fabric in it's package overnight and used it as a reward to get myself out of bed early this morning.  Mission accomplished!

Linking up to Slow Sunday Stitching, MOP Monday, Let's Bee Social, and WiP Wednesday.

An Interesting Day at the Beach

I believe I was one of the odder sights at the beach we went to this weekend.

Initial Plan

Coming up on the to do list is a neutral log cabin.  So I pulled out and started arranging some tans I purchased recently.  (I must have a deadline I'm avoiding!)

First there are some darker tans.  I think I bought them planning for the floral fabric to be the lightest in this set.  However, despite the pale flowers, I think it reads a bit darker out of the store lighting.

New Plan?

So I tried laying them out another way.  There are so many different shades in that floral piece that it's hard to figure out where to put it, but I'm leaning towards this second layout.

Then there are some lighter tans.  These fell into place much easier.

Now I just have to pick a center for my cabins.  I'd like to follow the neutral theme, but I'm still not sure whether I should go light or dark.  Perhaps a cream solid would work...  Now there's an interesting idea.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social and WiP Wednesday.

Sponsored by the Color Yellow

The triangles for my border have been sewn, pressed, and are just waiting for a little trimming.

I loved how the colors were peeking out of the stack.

It seems that most of what I did this week was acquire new fabric; primarily yellow fabric.  Everything I bought has a purpose so I'm in the clear.  But I do need to get back to being good after this!

{no} hats in the house - #opgivewarmth

Flannel

I had been going to piece the back of my baby quilt, but I decided that for such a small quilt it pays to go simple.  I can use a yard and a half of a pretty flannel and leave the piecing for those quilts big enough to need it!  So I went to the store and found this bright yellow flannel.

Then I couldn't resist a little high street.

And last but not least, Sarah at {no} hats in the house is calling for blocks for My Very Own Blanket.  The palette really spoke to me this month so I picked up some great colors to make some blocks!

Linking up to Fabric Frenzy Friday and the HSTeria Quilt Along.

Lots of Leaves

My goal for this week was to have all the full blocks made.  But with three blocks left to do as of last night, I wasn't sure I was going to make it.

It seems last minute Rachel has pulled through yet again!

Almost there!

In related news, the backing that I ordered was delivered last week.  It's a little lighter in places than I was expecting but since it's going to be on the back, it's close enough.  It's all starting to come together now!

Backing.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social and W.i.P Wednesday.

Fabric Remnants

I've finished sewing all the stems for the remaining maple leaves.  I even made the stems for the block I forgot about.  That's thirty-six stems!  Someone needs to remind me, the next time I think about making a leaf, that I should just make bear paws instead.  All these stems were a bit annoying.

I have half of the leaf points sewn as well.  There's still a lot of trimming and ironing to do, but I may be ready for block assembly by the weekend.

Yesterday I found out that my tooth is going to require a bit more help and a little more time to heal than I anticipated, so to pick myself up I applied a little retail therapy.  A half yard of red polka dots helped quite nicely.

Last but not least, I recently had some fabric passed on to me by a friend.  I took part of it, but there are some pieces that I know will find a better home with someone else.  There's some flannel...

A large piece of upholstery weight stripes...

And a handful of creamy batiks.

I'd love to give them to a quilter that can use them, so if you're interested please let me know which fabrics you want and what you would use them for.  My apologies to my international readers, but preference will be given to those with US mailing addresses.

Linking up to Let's Bee Social.

Halfway To Fall

Three more blocks accomplished.  That makes me halfway done with full blocks.  I'm going to need to find somewhere bigger to lay it out the next time I photograph it!

 

There was also another fabric acquisition road trip this week!  I'm sure it doesn't look like I'm being good, but this fabric was guilt free!

I have one of the best friends ever.  For my birthday she offered to take me on a guilt free fabric trip, and we finally got out!  (We both run a little on the late side but, since we end up synced up anyway, it all works out!)



I got three yards of white on white for the background of a sampler project I'll be starting up soon.  I tried to get a decent picture of it; don't know if I was successful.  The pattern is uneven circles.

I also grabbed some winter fabrics to make my husband and me a table runner.  I like how it's wintery but not too Christmas-y.  Eventually I'd like to make one for each season.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social and Fabric Frenzy Friday.