better late than never

The Naked Bed Challenge quilt top is done! It was supposed to be finished by June 2nd, but a series of unexpected events, plus a trip to the beach with my boys on my one big free day, meant I had to keep putting it off.

Oh well. Here it is and it is exactly what I had in mind: sweet and soothing. Only it is really, really big.

I guess that's what a queen size quilt is, but WOW. It is tempting to tie it because I don't know how I am going to quilt the thing on my dinky Singer. But I would like to do straight lines all the way across in white and gray and blue, so I guess I'll give it a try. Maybe.

Now I'm off to prepare the backing for it...

creative quilt top

I lost my sewing room this weekend to our new au pair. Although I am so glad to have reinforcement on the way, it was a little sad to put my fabric and notions away in boxes. Not having space to leave my machine and the iron out will mean a lot less sewing. I was able to get a lot done in twenty-minute increments of stolen time, here and there.

Luckily, I managed to finish this one last thing before packing it all up.

It is the top to what will hopefully soon be a quilted wall hanging. I followed this tutorial and it was the most fun I've had piecing since I made the improvisational blocks for my sons' quilt.

I didn't follow the guidance exactly. She recommends using four fabrics; I used three. She doesn't break up the strips as much as I did either. But I started out the way she suggested and relied heavily on her tips and the examples she provided for inspiration.

This concept of a non-pattern is incredibly appealing to me. It was the first time I felt like I was making art.

basted

I put a red and aqua frame on it and that has helped tame the busyness immeasurably. I like it much better now and never get tired of looking at all the little scenes. There are dogs and snails and little boys and girls in the squares, and tiny little hedgehogs. The fabric is so charming and there is always something new to notice.

The colors, though, are a lot for me, and I don't think I will take on so much red! and pink! and aqua! and gray in one single project again. It is too much for me. Not my style, I guess.

I don't know if you can see it in the picture above, but this quilt is called "Take me to the park" which I've embroidered in red on one little white square.

I can't wait to see this all finished. The back is even sweeter.

something beautiful

Finishing the quilt for the boys gave me more confidence in my abilities. As I worked on it, there was always, at the back of my mind, a tugging doubt that I might not finish. That I might come to some part of it that proved too difficult and I would abandon it altogether.

But that didn't happen. And as soon as it was done - or even before then - I was already thinking of what I could make next.

I managed to get my hands on some early release Sherbet Pips and I have been putting together a charm square quilt. It is smaller and there is some embroidery.

Much to my astonishment, I enjoy embroidery. (A lot!)

But I'm not so sure about the quilt. I love pieces of it, but when I look at it as a whole, there is just so much going on.

I could give up and put it away, or I could draw on the confidence gained with the Cars and Rockets and persevere, which I think is what I'll do. I will just play around with it a little until I come up with something I can live with.

Although I am enjoying it, it's a little discouraging because part of what I love so much about my newly discovered hobby is the way something beautiful comes out of it. There is this long, slow process, first the idea begins to take shape, then it grows and grows, taking on a life of its own, until it wants out of my head, and then I begin to make it. And little unexpected things come out of it, like this:

And hopefully, when it is finished, it has turned into something beautiful.

(But I guess not everything can turn out as well as one had hoped.)

In the meantime, my husband mentioned he needed a cover for his iPad and I was delighted. I put down my book immediately and ran for some fabric I thought he might like.

I suppose something useful will have to do for now.

sneak peak

Sunday dawned overcast - I know because my two-year-old called to me at exactly six a.m. to come get him out of bed and we watched the pink sunrise together over breakfast - and after everyone was up, I thought I might try to finish the back of the boys' quilt.

It was finished by lunchtime, so I figured I might as well tempt fate and try to baste it while my two-year-old took his nap.

Not only did I baste the thing, but he slept for three hours and I quilted it too. The whole thing. He woke up before I was done, so the very end of it was quilted with him climbing on me, but it turned out okay regardless, and was in keeping with how I'd pieced it. With him in my lap or climbing on my back...

The free motion quilting was still too intimidating and I don't have the right foot attachment for it anyway, so I did vertical wide-angle zigzags instead. After the first line I felt a little giddy with how good it looked.

Now all it needs is the binding... but I might not have the time for that until next Sunday.

quilt top done

Each block is different and they are all improvised. I just played around with bits of fabric until I came up with an arrangement I liked, sewing up one or two a day and all the while hoping it would look good when I put everything together.

This morning I arranged the blocks and began assembly. When it was done I realized I'd unwittingly created something of a pattern with the placement of the blocks. The ones with orange form one diagonal line, while the blocks with blue are around the edges.

I am pleased with how it looks. And my corners match up! Success.

It seemed to go by so quickly, the piecing of this little quilt, and I look forward to finding the time to make the back before my batting arrives from England.

cars and rockets

This is what I am working on, the quilt for my son. I do a little each day. It is slow going, but, and I base this solely on the quality of my piecework thus far, I can't quit my day job just yet.

I will be using the car blocks for the top and then I will do the back in solid orange with a handful of rocket blocks, including that little guy.

Hey there, little guy.

couldn't resist!

These are so much fun to do. I said I'd allow myself one per day, because that's all I really have time for. Except, then, yesterday, I made an exception and did two.

The little bicycle and moped are my favorites. This will be a small quilt for my son, and it shouldn't take me long at this rate. I'll probably end up having to wait on the batting, which I have to order from the UK since I haven't been able to find any 100% cotton batting around here.

one step forward, two steps back

Well. I spent the better part of Epiphany wrangling quilting my nine square quilt. I bought some pretty pale yellow thread and used straight horizontal and vertical lines.

It started out fairly well, except for the length of my stitches, which varied no matter how hard I tried to keep them even. And then, suddenly, things began to go awry. My fabric bunched up in a couple of places and I realized the quilt wasn't looking the way I had wanted it. But I would not give up! I would persevere! I finished quilting the thing.

Finally it was done. I took it off the machine and laid it out. I realized something had gone terribly wrong. There was the bunching, but it was more than that. The lines were too simple on an already simple quilt top, and the soft natural cotton fabric I decided to use for the sashing and back needed something sweeter and looser. The straight lines were almost too harsh for it. They made it look not just shoddy, but really drab, too. It was all wrong.

An hour later, I was ripping it all out.

Three days later, and I still have a third of the quilting seams to rip out. I have quilted around and inside the blocks in orange, green, yellow and blue perle cotton as I go, so that I don't go crazy with my seam ripper and poke my own eyes out; the hand quilting keeps me sane.

We had terrible wet weather this weekend. My husband built me a fire in the fireplace and I spent a few hours a day on the couch with my nine square quilt. It is so nice and cozy, even if it is still unfinished, and on Saturday, my five-year-old climbed in under it with me. He wasn't tired! He just wanted to help by ripping out a couple of stitches, and then he rested his head on my shoulder and promptly fell asleep.

If I'd been feeling at all discouraged, this would have cured me of it.