A Very Colorful Quilt

Summer is HERE!!! 

Pretty much only pool days are in our foreseeable future. 

Houston got more than its fair share of the water in this country for the last month and a half. 

It's made life just that much crazier with four little kids that get SERIOUS cabin fever. 

And it just keeps raining and raining and raining. 

Even more showers are expected today. 

But you know what happens to a quilter that can't leave home? 

They sew and sew and sew some more.

Quilting makes such a great hobby. 

But all us quilters already know that. :) 

The mushrooms are popping out everywhere from all the moisture. 
The orange ones are my favorite. 
Or course. 

And my little project during the last few weeks of storms was this half square triangle quilt in about an hundred kona cotton colors. 

I used an orange striped binding.
Because if you can pick any color, it should be orange. :)
The backing circles fabric I found was a perfect geometric juxtaposition and compliment to the front - Juggling Summer by Zen Chic for Moda. 

To give this quilt the right balance of all the crazy colors, I actually laid out half of the blocks to my liking, then used rotational symmetry to make the second half feel balanced but not mirrored. 
And I'd be surprised if anyone even notices it.
I mean, I can't and I made it.

I'm calling it my "Stairway to HST (Half Square Triangle) Heaven" and it finished at 64.5" x 64.5." 

This one's going in the shop.

New year, old projects.

It seems that each new year we take stock of life and evaluate our accomplishments and failures. Some decide to try to make changes with lists of resolutions. And the crafters? We have piles of unfinished projects that we look around at and realize it's been another YEAR and we still haven't gotten them out of the UFO pile. STILL!

Well, that list seems to be ever evolving but some of my projects have been on it for multiple years. Don't worry, I won't list them for you. Or even show them to you. That would take a LOT of photos.

So I'll start this year's blogging by sharing one project that I've been working on for the better part of a year already that hopefully will see a completion in the next few months. 

Hopefully. 

At this point in life you'd think I'd know better than to be hopeful about quilting projects getting finished. 

But I thought it deserved a share at the completion of over 200 blocks. 201 to be exact. Just need 41 more and I'll have enough for a king size quilt. It's all scrappy and happy and is the "rainbow rows" from the #apqquiltalong2015 pattern. So close to finishing. 

So close. So far. Still a lot of work before this one is ON MY BED! Can you imagine? I've never made myself a bed quilt. My kids all have quilts. But a king still seemed like a lot of work and time and commitment. Good thing I picked a super quick project. HA! not. 

Wish me luck finding some time to finish this one! 
I love it even from this picture. :) 

"Figuring" it out as I went.

I'm convinced I'm not the only quilter that purchases precuts without a plan. 

Case in point: I picked up a charm pack of "Figures" by Zen Chic for Moda at Quilt Festival.

And I would love to know how many start the quilt without an end game. 

I did this time. 

I made nine-patch blocks with white centers.

Then I stared at them on the floor all lined up in a grid (I like to create obstacle courses for people trying to get in and out of the room... ha.).

And I stared. It just didn't do anything for me. 

I kept staring for weeks. 

And weeks.

And I found something else to work on. (Lots of other things.)

And then after a while it just smacked me. 

Set it around a hexagon in a squares and equilateral triangles layout.

Easier said than done. 

I'd never calculated anything like this. 

And I've not done much with Y-seams in general. 

They are a bit time consuming and little more tedious than lining up the usual points in a quilt, but it was exciting to try something that stretched me a bit. 

 And the centered "medallion" aspect makes it particularly pleasant to me. 

I didn't want the middle to be a "boring piece" with too large a gap in the design and no focal point so I re-engineered a star into it. 

The center star actually required me to rip apart two of the nine-patch blocks, but the whole thing required 40 charm squares and some background yardage. 

And to further accent the medallion aspect, I did irregularly spaced concentric circles for the quilting. 

Pretty sure I traced every circular object in my house... to get it started in the right direction. All of the lines past the first circle of blocks had to be echoed around the inner circle using the markings on the walking foot because I couldn't find any larger circles to trace. 

And of course I chose a large scale print for the back like I always do... well, almost always. 

No absolutes here. 

It finished at about 39" x 39". 

Sloops

Sloop /slüp/ noun : a one-masted sailboat with a fore-and-aft mainsail and a jib.

About a year ago I started this project for my biggest little man. I designed and constructed it just for him from one of my all-time favorite fabric lines - Salt Air (by Cosmo Cricket for Moda). It fits his personality perfectly and he LOVES it. In fact, he's been loving it almost a year now. 

And it took a LOT of love for me to let him have it once it was complete. A queen-sized paper-pieced quilt in lovely fabrics... and he still occasionally has bedtime accidents. It's a good thing he's cute.

And it's about time I shared it on the blog. This seems to be the two hardest parts of quilting for me lately. Photos and journaling. Oh, and I'm sure you'll notice the fish pillow with clamshell pattern I made for him too. He jumps on it. Yes, I love him very much and he's very very cute. HA!

But back to the sloops. 

The paper-pieced little boats are offset to emphasize the equilateral triangle design and create continuous visual lines on the diagonal across the quilt.

And you can have one too if you like. Pattern here and here.

Horizon

Every year I try to go to Quilt Festival. 

Simply amazing.

Everywhere you look.

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Inspirational on every level.

And every time I think up something new I want to try.

And it's less than an hour's drive. 

This year I left dreaming of quilting fabulousness.

(Not a word, I know.)

"Horizon" (Kate Spain for Moda) was the next fabric on the cutting table.

I went with a very simple modern design with lots of negative space for the quilting to share the spotlight.

I highly recommend this sort of quilting. 

VERY fun.

I didn't want this project to end. 

At 36" x 37", I felt like this project ended too soon. 

I need to just start another one. 

It has a random assortment of free motion feathers, flowers, vines, paisleys, swirls, and any other design I could think of to quilt doodle. 

Granted it did take a lot of hours. 

But they were some happy hours! 

And more pics of the quilting. 

Pink Lemonade

My newest creation in Pink Lemonade by Tonga Treats.

My little who wanted to help... so I let her be Icarus. It looks like she's already too close and her wings are just starting to burn. 

And really, these batiks are BRILLIANT. 

I see lots of things when I look at these colors. 

Fire, sunsets, but mostly... 

Starburst candies? Seriously, reminds me of the Starbursts color combination. So much so that I had to go eat some. Thank goodness Halloween just happened and I had plenty of selection to rifle through for just the right thing. 

It ended up about 64" x 64" and it's in the shop. 

Hello Fall

HELLO fall! 

Even in Houston we've been enjoying some cooler (not exactly cool) temperatures and subsequently the great outdoors. 

But I have squeezed in a little stitching time. 

As everyone should.

Seriously lovely fabrics that NEED to be decorating someone's house this fall... 

Super skinny strip coasters.

Random echo straight line quilting.

A few gorgeous gourds. 

Autumnal awesomeness. 

Actually my house has been decorated for fall/halloween/thanksgiving for weeks. 

Might have jumped the gun a little on that one.

And my first rag wreath!

These could be a very addictive thing.

Like possibly more addictive than Candy Crush...

Possibly.

I hope you are enjoying the season too! 

Both are in the shop. 

Comma Yellow and Grey

Well, the children sleep on so I'll keep typing.

You never know exactly when that will happen again.

If ever... 

So those other colors I pulled out of the fat quarter stack I bought at Quilt Festival ages ago were earmarked for this project.

Seriously fast and easy fat quarter quilt. 

I'd tell you when I'll have the pattern ready, but I'd just make myself a liar I'm sure.

In the shop.

Have you noticed my boxes?
Garlic, Onions, and Potatoes?
I was all twitterpated with them at the antique shop we went to the other night.
My husband asked me, "What are the junkie little boxes for?"
Haha. Men.

Comma Baby Quilt

Another little baby quilt. 

In Comma by Zen Chic for Moda.

I set aside many of the golds and greys in the line to create this concoction. 

 

In the shop.

The half square triangles in this quilt are the left overs from making the shared baby quilt for the twins. 

It only got a picture with Parker since he decided to mark his territory during this photo shoot.

Oddly enough (as seems to happen with most things I make) it's now being used by my older boy in place of his quilt that is still under construction.

It's a little bit warm outside

but Christmas comes early for quilters.

Really early. 

It's awesome. 

The non-quilter world just doesn't understand. 

Like the In from the Cold fabric line by Kate Spain that made an appearance recently.

I've had this idea swimming in my head for a while. 

My very loving husband held the twinners for me so I could sew a bit here and there until it finished. 

Which reminds me... 

Parker Eli and Preston Emery haven't made their debut on this blog... oh, the sweet babies.

So much sweeter when they're sleeping too. hehe.

Back to the quilt... 

It's wall-hanging size.

I do plan on writing up a pattern for it in the very near future... just tell those little boys to go back to sleep. :)

I had a bit of fun with the quilting.

It had me singing Christmas songs again. 

I'm sure everyone around here really appreciated that part.

One more...