My Summer Sewing in a Nutshell

While I have no big shiny finished quilts to show you, I have found a few moments to sneak into my sewing room over the summer.  Here's a couple things I've been working on.

First of all my favorite, these foundation pieced strip blocks made from all my vintage-y scraps.  I cut Warm and White batting into 6" squares and then started by using a red strip in the middle.  After that, I used a very loose color palette of pinks, yellows, oranges, and a little bit of green and aqua.  And then a tiny bit of black...  yes, this is how I work:)  I find these type of quilt as you go blocks the most relaxing and fun to make.  Partly because there's not a marathon of cutting, but rather just dump out the scraps and start digging through, adding each strip as you go.  Only downside is it makes a big mess on my sewing table...

THEN, I've got my blue baskets.  Have I talked about them here?  Actually don't think I have, and I've been planning and thinking on this quilt for a long time.  I really have a thing for basket quilts.  Maybe because they haven't really entered the modern quilting arena yet and are largely unexplored in a fresh updated way.  I've had this fun idea for a challenge of trying to make a basket quilt that would be so modern it could be entered at Quiltcon. (but still be recognizably a basket quilt)  And label it, "Basket Quilt Sneaks into Quiltcon"  or something equally silly.  But no, this is not likely to happen.

What I'm doing here though, is fairly traditional.  It's going to be a queen sized quilt with a variety of cream and white backgrounds, and all the baskets will be navy and royal blues.  The thing that I think will make this quilt a winner is the way I've figured out of setting the blocks.  So many basket quilts I don't quite like for how the baskets are placed.  I like them to be staggered, with breathing room, etc.  I've got all the blocks cut, and about 1/4 sewed, and I'm planning this one for my new guest bedroom.  Won't it be classic and pretty?  I wish it was done already!  Secretly I hate sewing all these tiny half square triangles.  Actually, does anyone like them?  They're so cute and pretty but such a pain.



And lastly, a finished quilt top!  I should be so happy about this, and have it quilted already.  But one small problem.  I really dislike the colors!

How did this happen?  It's called the magic spell that AMH has over me, which makes me assume that I will naturally love every fabric collection she produces.  I bought a fat eighth bundle of Mod Corsage, and then proceeded to ignore all warning bells as it sat on my cupboard in all it's cool purpley toned glory.  I chose to use this pattern by Thimbleblossoms, so all is not lost as I found that I loved this pattern's way of constructing a traditional spiderweb block and will definitely make another quilt with this pattern in the future.

Anyway, as I put the spiderweb blocks together, I started to realized that the colors in this quilt were so. not. me.  But I forged ahead and the only fabrics that seemed to work as the background pieces were a medium gray, and a navy.  Now, I do not say this is an ugly quilt, for surely somebody likes these colors?  It's just not for me.  And I can't decide if I want to waste my few and precious sewing hours on finishing it up.  And yet it's still too nice to send as is to the thrift shop.  So I guess I'll have to finish it.  And maybe once it's done it will be my favorite quilt ever!

So that is the end of my sewing update.  I hope there will soon be many finished quilts to show you, as I have definitely not lost my sewing mojo, but only the time required for this frivolous pastime:)

Pinwheels and the Three Bears

Don't those little bears just melt your heart?  I used my Monthly Sparks bundle from Fabric Spark to make this sweet little pinwheel quilt.  The large squares were  cut to 5", and the small squares for the HST's in the pinwheels were cut to 3 1/4".  This gives you enough extra to sew them and then trim to 2 3/4" before sewing them together into pinwheels.

I've been trying out a few different weights and types of Warm Company batting lately, and this one I used Warm and White.  It's a flat lightweight batting, that gives just the perfect bit of crinkle when washed.  It's also perfect when using fabrics with a white background, as no cream or brown specks will show through as they might with a natural colored batting.

I'm excited to be collaborating with the Warm Company here in the future. They supply me with batting, and I'll be mentioning it here, trying out some of the different types they have available and letting you know what I think of them, etc, as well as convincing you to buy their brand;) (if you don't already.)

Pinwheels and the Three Bears

So excited to be back to a bit of quilting again!  This bundle of fabrics is the fat quarter bundle that I put together for Monthly Sparks at Fabric Spark!  There are also a few individual bundles left.

The whimsical black bears were my starting point for this bundle.  Somehow pinwheels seemed to be perfect to pair with the bears!

I took the 4 light background prints and cut them into 5" squares.  I took the remaining prints and cut them into 3 1/4" squares and made hst units out of them.  (Trim them to 2 3/4")  These 12 fat quarters will make a 40"x 40" quilt, with a strip of each left over to add to my scrap bin.

Granny Square Quilt

This little quilt is a trip down memory land for me!  I posted my first tutorial for this block on January 23, 2012!  Over four years ago.  It's still by far the most viewed page on my blog.

I so clearly remember the first two blocks I put together for my original quilt.  I was wanting to make a block that resemble a crocheted granny square.  I started with one 2.5" square in the middle.  Went around it with two more colors, added a white border, and then Voila!  It looked a bit like a granny square!

It was of course, a traditional quilt block already.  Often called the Album block, although I've seen it under many other names as well.  All I did was pull it out of the past and throw it into the online quilt blogging community.  It had all the right ingredients to be a popular quilt pattern, considering it's simple vintage appeal, the way it looks so good in scrappy colors, it is simply a pleasing shape.

So four years later, it's still a quilt design that  I find appealing!  It truly is a classic, which stands to reason, since it has been around for a lot longer than four years.  (Here' s where it would be nice if I had done some research on this block and could tell you about it, but I didn't:)