Autumn Rose

I finished before the wedding!  That was very exciting.

The last stitch on the binding was put in Friday morning, and the label was attached in the hotel room the morning of the wedding.  I really need to stop running so late on quilts one of these days!

Unfortunately the weather was pretty disgusting the day of the wedding so my pictures are pretty dark, but they get the job done.

Despite it's slightly rocky beginnings, I ended up loving this quilt so much.  The quilting was simply gorgeous and exactly what I was hoping for.  I think I'm going to have to make a quilt for the hubby and me and have it custom quilted.

I had contemplated binding it in the border fabric but when it turned out that I didn't have enough, green was it!  I think it worked pretty well and gave a little bit of interest to the edges.

I have already heard from the happy couple that they loved it.  What a relief!

Stats -
Autumn Rose
Size: 86 x 98
Finished: September 2014

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

What's in a Name - A Giveaway

My baby quilt has been put aside for the moment because I've got many, many inches of binding to sew this week.

My (huge) maple leaf quilt is back from the quilter, and it's gorgeous!  There's no sneak peak of it quilted today (Sorry, I forgot my camera) but it turned out even better than I hoped!

The wedding is fast approaching now and I need to come up with a name for it, post haste.  So I'm going to host a little challenge...

The winner will receive a 20$ gift certificate to Hawthorne Threads!  Anyone can win, near or far, and I'll pick a winner this weekend.

In order to be eligible to win please leave me a name suggestion in your comment (and an email address if you are a no-reply blogger).  Thanks!

Linking up to Let's Bee Social.

EDIT: I've been getting some excellent suggestions today from no reply bloggers; most commonly from bloggers who use Google+ accounts.  Please make sure that I can access your email address if you would like to be entered into my giveaway.  Thanks so much!

Woodland Sampler - April and Completed Leaves

It's time to show some progress on my woodland critters.  I'm really lucky that May didn't start until Thursday last week or I would have had a really paltry showing.  Most of my progress has been made in May.  Oh well.

Even with the extra time I wasn't able to finish the whole square but I'm happy with my progress considering how much time I've put in on another little project I've had going...

So without further ado, I'd like to show you some leaves!  Ta da!

Very Nearly Finished!!

I played around with the blocks and decided to have like leaves touching instead of having all the blocks going the same direction.  I thought it looked better this way.  However, I find it interesting how different something can look on a screen versus in person.  Those paired leaves really stand out in this picture!

Now I just have to decide on border sizing and call the quilter.  The top contender is a 2 inch inner border and a 6 inch outer border.

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

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.

Half Square Triangle Fatigue

I didn't do a lick of actual sewing this week; instead, I did a whole lot of trimming.  I now have 144 half square triangles and 36 stems all prepped and ready to be made into leaves.

I'm hoping that by next week I'll have all the remaining blocks put together.

I didn't properly appreciate how many HSTs there were in this quilt.  There are 240 HSTs!  I'm looking forward to my next quilt.  It's not going to involve a single triangle!

I also did a little fabric shopping.  I went to find backing at a LQS Saturday... except I ended up walking out with approximately 8.5 yards for a completely different project and no backing.  Whoops!  So Monday I ordered a couple yards of wide back online.  There goes April's budget!  And I had been doing so well this year.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

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.

Pin Problem

I've been prodding myself to put in 15 minutes a day on my maple quilt.  I'm not sure why I'm dragging my feet so hard on this quilt but it needs to be done, so I'm going to have to make myself work on it.

Since the last time I posted, I decided on a layout, I cut out all the pieces for the remaining blocks, and marked up all my triangles.

Time for some sewing!

So sew I did.

But I was tired and I got sloppy about pulling my pins out.  And wouldn't you know it...  Bam!  As usual, less than an inch from the end.

And apparently I had no new machine needles handy.  The one I did find had obviously been used; it had a burr on the end.  Who knows why it was still lying around and not in the garbage... but now I'm hung up until I find another pack of needles.  I think there might be one hiding in my sewing room, somewhere.  But I'll likely be getting out to the store to buy more this weekend.  We'll see how my fabric diet goes when faced with a store-full of pretty temptation!

Linking up with 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.

Last Minute Medly

I'm lucky this set of blocks had two snowballs, because I may or may not have been assembling a leaf and a snowball block this morning before heading to work.

Last minute or not, I did manage to get three blocks made this week and that's what counts.  It's finally starting to look like a quilt and not just a random collection of blocks!

I had the opportunity to wander around a new quilt store and, despite all the tempting fabric, I only came home with this metallic and green Stonehenge.  How was I supposed to turn down a sale like that?  But I have a Christmas wall-hanging on the to do list this year, so it should be used shortly.

Last but not least I picked out some new floss to try in my cross-stitch sampler; there's a very light grey, a shimmery white, a silver metallic, and a softer white (winter white).  Snow white didn't show up on my Aida too well, so hopefully one of these options will do the trick.

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

50th Post!

I finally made a little more progress on my maple quilt.  Slow and steady and all that.  Except if I keep up at this pace I won't be finished piecing until after the wedding!  So I'll have to pick up the pace a bit.

I'm also still trying to finalize the layout.  The pattern called for 35 blocks (using a 5x7 layout), but the proportions were odd for a queen sized quilt.

I'm planning to make my quilt shorter by using only 30 blocks and the last row will be split between the top and the bottom so that all the corners are still the same.  The only thing I have left to do is to figure out which half block I want to use in the corners; a decision that shouldn't be as difficult as it's proving to be.

New Beginnings

Quite a few quilts were finished last year and I'm looking forward to being able to start a few new ones that have been waiting patiently for their turn.  So here's to starting off the new year with a brand new project! 

First up on the 2014 roster is a quilt for a couple of hiker friends getting married in September.  My goal is to just enjoy the process this year, after a record breaking year of finishes, and that means I don't want to be cramming for any deadlines!


First there was some cutting.  I started with only one leaf block.  I like to test new designs to make sure that I like how it looks and that I don't need pieces any bigger.

Then there was some sewing.

This will be a big quilt.  Each of the blocks are 14 inches.  There will only be 15 of each, though the exact layout is still under consideration.



I was a little worried about how some of the colors were playing together when I had my face 6 inches from them at the machine, but after letting them sit I think everything will work just fine.

One leaf block and two snowball blocks out on my design floor today.  I keep thinking I should make a design wall, but until then, my floor will have to do.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Let's Be Social.

Sunday Stash

A little while ago I bought fabric for another quilt when I had no time to start it.  And since I'm not exactly trustworthy when it comes to not overloading my project list, I've had my husband holding on to my acquisitions.

But yesterday I reached my goal and unlocked my fabric!  So I can't help but show it all off.  And as I type, the first batch is already through the wash.
 

The funky black above is the border.  The first border I picked was giving me such trouble.  I kept picking out colors to go with it and coming up against the fact that the colors matched, and I didn't like them at all!  Once I realized that, with the help of my awesome husband, everything started to come together!



Tans for the background and some small borders.  There's a lot of tan.  I think there is 5 yards of the fabric on the left.  It's a big quilt.  Bigger than I expected it was going to be... with a lot of open space.

I can't wait to start cutting in to it all!

Linking up with Sunday Stash!