Teal Vomit Quilt

Finished Top

Close-up

I'm making my friend a quilt for her wedding this winter.  She said her favorite color is teal... I really hope she meant it!

I used this great tutorial from Quiltville, with the larger 12" blocks.  I wanted to make an ombre effect from the center, so I took the leftover triangles from the pineapple corners and mirrored the ombre on the border.  I wasn't sure about SO MUCH TEAL (hence the name), but as usual it came together much better than expected.  I am now in the process of quilting straight lines vertically and horizontally to match the piecing pattern.  Still haven't quite figured out the border... not sure I'm willing to add another teal fabric.  Maybe navy blue?  I do have a lot of the Alison Glass teal Corsage left, and after spending so much time with this color scheme I don't think I'll be heartbroken to see it go.  We'll see what speaks to me after the quilting is done!

First finished project of the year

So anyone who actually reads my blog is probably wondering to themselves, "does this girl ever actually finish anything?"  Well the answer is YES!  Sometimes!!  Sometimes I finish lampshades!  

I finished a lamp shade!

I also did a little remedial crafty work on this lamp, which I bought on clearance at Anthropologie.  Bird on the Left was missing a nose and it really stuck out since it was the color of unfinished clay, but a few coats of Essie marshmallow and you can't tell a thing!  Plus now I have a great new color that the blogs tell me is really in right now :)

Happy Sunday!

More catching up

The other day I posted my progress on the Vice Versa Block-of-the-Month quilt, which I really like.  But it's been straightforward, especially with the color choices.  I don't really obsess over which combination I'm going to use every month because they are all very similar within each color scheme.  

My Lucky Stars BOM is another story entirely.  I can spend HOURS obsessing over the color combinations, trying to figure out how to make the "rays" pop, and which parts I want to be solid versus scrappy.  I think the first half has come together very nicely, despite some choices I really questioned.

Halfway through my Lucky Stars BOM

The bottom middle block (from March) has been a real pain.  I just really didn't like it when it first came together.  I thought the green in the corners was just hideous.  Here's what it originally looked like: 

Not quite right

I don't think instagram did it any favors.  I really thought about completely doing it over, and never mixing yellow and grey again.  But then I had an idea... it's the only one without any sort of "floral" pattern, and the green looks flat.  So I swapped out one triangle in each corner with a floral triangle and voila!!  I can't believe how much better it looks!  I may be imagining things, but it just gives it some depth, and maybe a little prettiness to go with the grungy middle.  I think I'll keep her.  Now the one on the bottom left is my least favorite, but she really goes well with all the others so she's here to stay for now.  The lesson here is don't mix light yellow with grey unless you're going for some weird industrial look.  And I need a few more blocks with small pops of black, I think the orange star looks so good with the contrast.  

Stars for the 4th- hope everyone has a good one!!!

Catching up

It's been while!!  I moved apartments and with all the packing, unpacking, sorting, etc, I haven't had much time to "waste" on sewing... but I'm slowly catching up!  Let's start with my Vice Versa BOM... I've managed to sew three months in the past few weeks.

And here's how it looks so far with all 6 months... halfway there!

Weekend Update

So it's been exactly a month since I last posted here.  Not on purpose... I just happened to look at the date and realize that I haven't written anything since EXACTLY a month ago.  What's NOT a coincidence is that I'm writing this on a Sunday, after a fairly productive weekend (I found a new place to live and just signed the lease!).  I also found some time to do a "little" sewing :)

First up, let's go ahead and show what I just finished... this month's Vice Versa blocks.  

 
I've never done the bear paws before, but I already love HSTs so these were just fun!  The bold colors also really make me happy.  Here are the close-ups:

It's going to be such a happy quilt!

Next up is the other BOM I'm working on, Lucky Stars.  

I have to admit, I'm not sold on this one.  I actually don't like the match-matchy look of the grey and yellow, and I think the mint in the corners is kind of atrocious.  I am clearly still having challenges combining colors (something I spend a lot of time on, I'm not sure it really comes naturally for me).  However, when I look at it with the other two blocks so far, I start to like it a little more.  In fact, it's not so bad having this grungy block, especially if I end up adding a few more florals in future blocks.  I don't want the final product to look TOO pretty, and this block certainly does the trick there.  And at the end of the day, I'm not doing it again, so it's here to stay.  Here's where it breaks up the prettiness of the others... see?  Not too bad I guess...

And finally, I made a pillow!  I finally used the LouLouthi velveteen from Anna Marie Horner I've been hoarding for a while, and whadda ya know, it's not that hard to make a pillow.  And this fabric is GORGEOUS!  It really stands out on all my neutral old furniture.

That's all for now... happy weekend!

February Vice Versa Blocks

I finished up this month's vice versa blocks in short order this morning- I like the half-square triangles so this one was a breeze. I'm really liking all the colors together!  What a great way to finish up the weekend. 

Lovely piles of squares and scraps:

I even got to practice a little chain piecing:

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

New Year, New Projects: Bandwagon Edition

As January winds to a close, this is the last installment of "all the projects I'm starting this year."  Who knows when I'll actually finish, but man, I'm good at starting!  There are a few things that are all the rage on the quilting blogosphere, and I've totally fallen victim to the excitement.  

First up is my single girl quilt, which I've been wanting to start for a long time (I know I'm very late to this party, people have been quilting-along to this one for a few years now).  It's based on Denyse Schmidt's pattern, but Im cheating a little and using plexi templates that I bought on Etsy.  I wasn't sure about the colors, because I originally envisioned something more vibrant, but the first piece looks very springy, and I already love the softness of the fabrics I picked.  So this will be my Spring quilt!  Well, one of them at least :)  Check out everyone else's gorgeous Single Gal Quilts on the Single Girl Support Group flickr page.

Next up is my other "spring quilt" which I haven't touched in a while, but I'm looking forward to digging back into, my Cuzco scrappy trip-around-the-world.  Well, it's not really scrappy if it's one fabric line, but I'm reconsidering using only Cuzco.  I'm just crazy for scrappy quilts right now, so I don't know!  At any rate, these are the two blocks I did last year, and I LOVE the colors but the uniformity is starting to bother me.  I may have to ponder this one a while before I finally pick it up again.  This one may just end up being my "summer quilt."

Here is the tutorial that really helped me figure out the process. 

Onward!  Last year I caved to the pressure and bought the gorgeous Tula Pink City Sampler book.  I also bought the Saltwater collection and decided to make my sampler quilt a sort of beachy one.  I made it about a third of the way through the book before the holidays last year, but it's definitely another one I'm eager to pick up again.  Since I'm still a pretty new quilter, I learned all kinds of new techniques (flying geese, the importance of starch, etc) and I think the next two thirds will go a little faster.  Here's how it looks so far:

I'm thinking about bordering it in grey between the blocks, and quilting each one separately before I put them all together, sort of a "quilt as you go" technique.  I would like to try some free-motion quilting, but I'm not even sure I can do it on the little blocks, much less a whole quilt, so the smaller chunks may be a good way to start.  


And finally, I have jumped feet first into the latest craze: the Economy Block Quilt!  I am using the tutorial from Red Pepper Quilts, who makes some of the most beautiful quilts I've ever seen (I just love her simple blocks and vibrant colors).  Mine is going to be very scrappy, I'm taking a "kitchen sink" approach and just throwing in random fabrics to see how they all look together in the end.  I love the fussy cutting in the center, so I'm trying to put something interesting in the middle for the other fabrics to frame.   Starting with the hipster glasses, of course :)  I have a bunch of fabric pieces cut out, so the next step will be putting them all together into a loud, random quilt.

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot!  I'm trying my hand at paper piecing hexies.  With all the quilts in progress, I need something to do with all the scraps!     

Happy Saturday everyone!