FAL: First Quarter Wrap Up {2014}

Way back in early January I wrote up an optimistic list of projects I wanted to finish in the first quarter of the year.  Here's a re-cap of what REALLY happened:

1. Swoon 2013
This is definitely NOT a finish. This past weekend I did get my sashing and one of the three borders added, so I hope to have a finished top to show you in the near future.  This will slide onto my Q2 list happily.

2. Home Sweet Bone

A finish!  This little cross stitch is now complete and hanging at my desk at work.  I absolutely love it.

3.  Modern Irish Bee Quilt: Twinkle Twinkle

It's a personal triumph that I pulled this out and started working on it again.  That said, it is 100% not finished.  I have the center blocks pieced and a plan sketched for the exterior 8 blocks.  This too will slide into my Q2 to-do list.

4. Mini Spools Quilt:

No progress what so ever.  Moving on....

5. Donation Quilt for Mexico City

A finish!  It's not my most favorite finish of all time, but I'm delighted that it's done and on its way to its new home.

Two out of five isn't brilliant, but it isn't a total failure.  Two of those that I haven't finished yet have a bit of motivation behind them now and that's what counts.  Linking up with Miss Katy and my FAL friends.  Katy, thanks a mil for organizing us!

Mexico City Donation Quilt: Finished!

Earlier this year, the call went out from Alison, of Little Island Quilting, to create quilts for a home in Mexico City for street children.   The timing was perfect for me.  I had somewhat lost my quilting and blogging mojo around Christmas time, but this took my interest right away.  Before I knew it, I found myself stitching!

I had the quilt top finished in no time, but had a mental block against layering and quilting this cutie.  I do not know what my problem was because it took not time at all to baste and was quilted in one evening.

The backing is a single piece of Ikea hippos.  You can see the concentric (irregular) spiralling square/rectangle quilting a bit better back here.  I used good old 50 weight Aurifil (2024).  It never fails.  The binding is a white with blue and yellow dots and little orange flowers.  I like how it ties together the top and the back, but I'm a bit worried it will get dirty quite quickly.

I like the charms used here.  They're bright, colorful and unisex.  There are a few critters to keep a child's interest and different textures (cotton and cotton:linen).  I hope that some child will find it warm and comforting.

Alison, thank you for passing this along to a child who needs it!  It's already wrapped up and in the post winging its way to you.

This quilt is another finish on my Finish Along 2014 first quarter list.  Yippee!  That's 2 of 5 projects finished.  I had better get crackin' on the other 3...time is running out!

Name: Doesn't have one. I should think about that.

Made for: Mexican home for street children.

Fabric: Stash Kona Snow, charms from my stash, IKEA backing, Riley Blake binding.

Thread: Pieced with Aurifil 2024.

Batting: 100% Simply Cotton.

Size: Approximately 42x42 inches.

Quilting: Quilted in concentric, spiralling squares

Pattern: Moda Bake Shop pattern found here.

Galway Stitching Meetup: March

Last night I met up with two lovely ladies to sit, drink tea/coffee and stitch together.  A few hours of that is truly good for my soul.  We talked about sewing techniques, religion, local patchwork guilds, all boys vs mixed schools and a weekend getaway to Belfast to take a few classes by Judith.  All good stuff filled with laughter.

Anneliese brought with her the famous Nerd Quilt.  It is absolutely beautiful in person.  There was a coordinating cushion, too, but I forgot to snap a photo of that goodie with all of the show and tell/chatter.

What?  No, Anneliese,  I didn't get you in that photo...just the quilt.  **ahem**.

And then Miss Annette.  She's working on a quilt that will be part of an exhibition in the Aran Islands this July.  The theme is water, so she's created a quilt filled with various sizes of DP blocks as sand...

(It's upside down here - we were carried away and not paying attention to what we were doing!)

And then she's going to quilt/embroider on it the "feathers" that water creates when receding back to the sea.  She spent the night practicing on her little hoop stitching over her tracing paper.

Do you see her amazing notebook?  First off, it's MASSIVE.  She has in it her inspirational photos, sketches, fabric swatches, quilt math and little trial samples (left page here).  I've never seen anything like it.  Gorgeous.

I'm getting quite boring and repetitive now.  I spent the evening stitching on one side of my binding.  I am about half way through attaching it to the back, so with any luck I'll finish it off this weekend.  Fingers crossed!

Nearly there!

I live in Galway.  It's a lovely town tucked inland a wee bit from the Atlantic Ocean.  It is (in my opinion) one of the most beautiful places on Earth.  Why, then, is it not a booming metropolis where EVERYONE wants to live?  Well, I'll tell you.  It rains.  A lot.

Today was no exception.

I have had enough of the wet weather (apparently the wettest winter since records began in 1866) especially now that the sun is out later into the night.  So, rain or no rain I brought the quilt I am binding out to the line for photos.  I'll show you, rain.  Humpf.

Right. When I realized this was the best photo I was going to get, I went back inside.  Stinker.  

This quilt is a small (42x42 inches) made for a little person in Mexico City.  I am trying to keep it gender neutral, but it is looking more and more girly to me.

On Monday night I quilted a spiral concentric square/rectangle starting in the charm squares. It's quite organic in that each line is not spaced as the last, but generally speaking I tried to keep to straight lines.  I think you can see the quilting a bit better on the back.

I have to say, this was possibly the most quilting fun I've had quilting in AGES.  It's a good thing, too.  This is a motif I'd like to try with Electronica some day.

With the two stripes of yellow and blue and the bold red on the back, I choose a binding with all three colors.  Now, this is the first time I've used a light color binding.  I usually like a dark binding to frame the quilt, so this is a small adventure for me.  So far I like how it ties the quilt together, but I reserve judgement until it's finished and washed.

Tomorrow night I'm meeting up with the Galway Ladies to stitch our late afternoon away.  We have to bring hand work only, so with any luck I'll have this cutie finished tomorrow night.  Boy that feels good.

Mexico City Donation Quilt

After reading Hadley's post last week, I too was inspired to make a donation quilt to be sent to Mexico City. I skipped right over to Alison's post to get the details and I signed up to make a small charm quilt for a small person.  I quickly decided this was going to be made 100% from my stash, using the wealth of charms I have recently accumulated via swaps.  As usual, the Moda Bake Shop had the perfect pattern for me! 

The background is really cream - that awful yellow is from the ceiling light
in the room.  Stinky winter lighting.

I jumped right in and finished the top in a day.  The charms, background and solid stripes are indeed from my stash.  I have to say I was surprised to find enough background cream in my stash to make this!  I have also find enough backing, batting and binding.  Super.

Sadly, I didn't realize until the top was constructed that the dotty navy blue in the upper left 9-patch should really have been cream.  It doesn't bother me enough that I have the urge to unpick it and fix my mistake.  I also mis-interpreted the pattern where they discuss the charm squares for the upper and side stripes.  I should really have cut up double the number of charms that I did (and mixed them all up between the 4 stripes), but only realized after the two stripes on the left were pieced.  I thought it would look funny with other charm prints running across the top as compared to those running down the side, so I choose to go with a solid.  I think it still works.  Do you?  Or should I go back and re-piece them?

Can't wait to layer this and get to quilting!  It feels so good to have a project that takes my interest again.  I'm on a roll!

FAL 2014: First Quarter Goals

I am thrilled that the opening 2014 FAL linky is up and running over at The Littlest Thistle.  I could use a little help focusing and pressure inspiration to get myself back into the sewing room and creating again.  So, here are my (overly aspirational?) goals for the next 3 months:

1. Swoon 2013
I signed up for Sarah's QAL and was nearly on time getting my blocks finished...but then I lost steam finishing the sashing and getting the borders on.  So, I need to finish the top, quilt and bind this project.  I am excited to dig back in again!

2. Home Sweet Bone Cross Stitch
I have been diligently stitching each and every night.  Recently this is my primary project and I am loving it through and through.  I'd like to finish stitching, tie off the back and have it hanging over my desk before this quarter is finished.

3. Modern Irish Bee Quilt
This quilt was started over a year ago as part of the inaugural Modern Irish Bee.  My bee buddies were wonderful and I did receive each and every one of my blocks.  However, when I tried to make a few additional blocks to enlarge the quilt, I could not (for the life of me) get them to the appropriate final size.  Several I totally unpicked 3-4 times!  Anyway, I lost my love for the process and I put the blocks away.  I would love to pull them out, finish the top (add a border?), hand quilt (ahem!) and bind it.

4. Spools Mini Quilt

I made one of these minis to give away, but I'd love to have one myself to hang in my sewing room.  I have the pieces all cut and laid out, but not stitched together.  I need to piece, quilt and bind this cutie.

5. Donation Quilt

I would like to make a quilt to be sent to Mexico City.  I have a pattern in mind, but instead of using a fresh new charm pack I would like to dive into my stash for this project.  I have so many charms from the gazillion swaps I joined recently.  I have the top nearly done, so I need to quilt and bind this before we'll call it done.

That's my list and I will try my best to stick to it!  Thanks so much, Katy, for keeping us on the straight and narrow!  (HA!  Who would have thought it was you who would herd us in?)

I Spy...A Donation Quilt

I wanted to share with you a little I Spy quilt I finished this week.  This quilt will be one of many donated by my local Irish Patchwork Society branch to the pediatric ward in the local hospital.  This is a simple charm quilt made from charms I received in Jennifer's I Spy charm swap, alternated with Kona White charms.  

As I don't know if this will go home with a little girl or boy, I tried to stay gender neutral in my colors and choice of prints.  You'll find a mix of woodland creatures, pigs, bugs, fish, dogs, sheep, campers, birds, turtles, cars and robots...a little something for everyone.

The border is a happy green filled with woodland critters like hedgies, foxes and a squirrel or two.

The back is a dotty white on a blue background mixed with Wellington boots, both from the shop (here and here).  It's quilted in a grid pattern 1/2 inch on either side of each seam, creating a grid pattern.  Thankfully there were no massive wrinkles on this back!

Our quilts will be handed over to the hospital in May.  I hope it keeps a little gal/fella warm during their hospital stay and lifts their spirits if they're feeling down.

Quilt DetailsName - I Spy
Made For - Donation to Galway University Hospital
Fabric - All 100% cotton charm squares with Kona White background, Kona Papaya binding, Dot to Dot backing with Jack & Jenny Wellies
Thread - Pieced and quilted with Aurifil 50 wt in 2600.
Batting - 100% cotton Simply Cotton
Size - Approximately 35x35 inches
Quilting - 1/2 inch on either side of the seams, creating a grid pattern
Pattern - made it up as I went along