On the Winds of North Carolina

That mini quilt challenge I had in my sights?  I managed to pull it all together!  In two days I designed, pieced, hand quilted, and constructed a 12x12'' pillow.  Phew!  But I'm very excited to show it off!  I may have done a happy dance after it was all pieced.  It came out better than I hoped.

The Glider

The challenge was to make a mini quilt based on a holiday memory.  I thought that was really cool!  Then I hemmed and hawed and got stuck.  I have lots of awesome holiday memories, but it was hard to pull something from them that could be made into a quilt in 2 days.  But after much struggling to choose, Wednesday morning my pattern just fell right out of my head.  Quilt plan and all!

Me in the middle!

This summer we went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina.  While we were there, we took the opportunity to give hang gliding a try.  There are some awesome winds in the Outer Banks (sometimes a little too awesome! Apparently 25mph is too strong to hang-glide on...) and sand dunes that at least made me feel as though it would be a soft landing.  I loved it.  If I lived near a gliding hill, I think I'd go once a month!

Family and friends tried too...

So without further ado...  I give you hang gliding, quilted style!
(I'm sorry the pictures are a bit dark, it's nasty out today.)

If you look closely, there's a needle in the arm of the chair!

You may notice that the sky fabric that I acquired the other day came in very handy.  I'm glad I bought extra!

I added a couple of clouds, a good wind keeping the glider aloft, and wind patterns in the sand.  The back is made from white polka dots, because who doesn't like a good polka dot?

It was a good trip, a great memory, and it became a pretty neat pillow!  I hope you enjoyed coming along on my trip down memory lane!

Linking up with Finish it up Friday, Fabric Tuesday, and a Holiday Memory Challenge.

Gathering Momentum

After some helpful comments last week and a trip to my local fabric store, I came up with a plan to move forward.  I now have two different skies and I will be making two blocks with each color for this 4 block wall-hanging.

The new fabric is in the back

I was able to find this blue at my local quilt shop, which matches the original pretty darn well, if I do say so myself.  I'm not sure I could have gotten any luckier!  Also the color is called "sky", which is perfect.  It's now washed, ironed, and waiting its turn.

In the meantime, I ripped out the two large trees that were now in the wrong color and assembled the smaller trees for my first fabric sets.

 

I didn't quite make it to sewing it all together yet, but soon!  I've been too busy hiking mountains of late.  Eight mountains and an 8.5 mile run... all in the past three weeks.  But now there needs to be some recovery time, my body is demanding it, and so my sewing room won't be so lonely for a while.

And in true quilter fashion, I have found a mini quilt challenge going on over at Celtic Thistle Stitches that ends on Friday but has caught my attention anyway.  I have a block designed but I don't know if I'll be able to pull it all together in two days.  Wish me luck!

Linking up to W.i.P Wednesday.

Growing Trees and Not Enough Fabric

Test Set

I've started a new project!

I started out by trying to make my triangles using regular rulers at first.  It was complicated and took a lot of time to figure out, but I had almost got it.  And that was when I realized I wouldn't have enough fabric to make this method work.

So I broke down, found some coupons in my inbox and bought the silly tri-recs ruler set at Joann's for half off.  It was a very good move; well worth the money!

I finished making my test set and started cutting into the real fabric.  After I made my largest triangles (6 inch tall blocks) I ran into a big problem.  I started thinking about what came after the trees and realized I need easily twice as much sky blue as I have.  Oh no!  I bought this fabric forever ago, so getting more is almost certainly out of the question.

The blue already used is in the back.

I really don't want to have to take out what I've already done and start over with something new, but I didn't plan on this being scrappy.  I scrounged around in my stash and came up with the following options to consider supplementing the blue I've already started with.  I'm not convinced any of them are working for me, so I'll probably be heading out to the store in the next few days to see what I can find...


So, what would you do?  Go scrappy or find a new blue and start over?

A Secret Finish!

I have a finish to share today, and it's a doozy!

I've disappeared for the past few months because I've been working double time to finish a secret quilt.  (Surprising people you know with a quilt gets a little tricky when you have a quilt blog!)

This quilt began at a mystery weekend several years ago.  I started the hand quilting in December of 2012.  The last binding stitch went in Saturday.  (Record time! That's about 1/3 of the calendar time it usually takes.)  Tuesday it was gifted.  And now I can show it off without ruining the surprise!

So, without further ado, I give you... "Secret Garden."
Hand Quilted.  Approximately 62x80.

Linking up with Finish it up Friday.

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!

Labor Day Progress

I hope everyone had a nice long weekend!  We had some unexpected sun and so there was a lot of hiking, kayaking, and swimming going on around here but I did make some progress none-the-less.

Here's a little sneak peak at what's going on over here these days...

What's in a stash

When I saw people were showing off their stashes at Sarah Quilts, how could I resist joining in?  So here's my little piece of heaven...

Why, yes.  My closet doors are mirrors.

Having a stash makes me quite happy.  I will unashamedly admit that I sometimes come to my sewing room just to sit and surround my self with all the pretty colors.

Assorted yardage and panels

I don't have the largest stash around, that's for sure...  But when I was restocking my sewing room after the renovation, I started to tally up what I do have.  And I was shocked at how much fabric I have accumulated!  I measured over 130 yards.

I organize my fabric primarily by size, marked so that I can tell at a glance whether I will have enough for what I want to make, but I also try to keep coordinating sets together.

Fat Quarters

When I started out as a quilter I mostly made pillows.  And even after I transitioned to making large quilts, I will still walk out of a quilt store and say: "Well, I only bought fat quarters."

But I have recently realized that's very silly.  I am not into making scrappy quilts and I can only make so many pillows!  So my new motto is: if you like it, buy more than a quarter!  (I don't see any way this could go wrong...)

What a mess!

And then there's all the fabric that has thus far escaped being put into my formal stash.  The fabric that is in use; that is odd shapes and sizes...  that has been washed and is patiently waiting to be ironed and put away...  Whoops!

Linking up to Sarah Quilts' Show me yours...I'll show you mine party