Pillow Shamming!

Do you ever have a project that you drag your feet on or one that just seems to be full of problems from the start?  That's the kind of project I've been working off and on for the past few weeks.  Last summer I finished this Capriccio quilt for my daughter, and this summer she finally started using it. 

She is living with friends where she has a queen size bed , and amazingly the "twin" quilt fits it pretty well. (The "twin" size fits because I made it to cover the sides of her bed while up on double risers--luckily!)  But since there is no headboard there, she's asked me to make her some matching pillow shams.

Which should have been easy enough. But I hate having to work on the same colors again once I've finished something, and matching things from a distance is challenging, and I'd already used up the leftover strips, and well, I wanted to work on something else.

I also purchased the wrong zippers, accidentally cut a hole in the middle of one sham, sewed black borders to BOTH shams only to decide they looked awful,  and then--when it was all pieced--found a strip that was stained/flawed and had to be replaced,  and, well you get the idea.  But progress has been made.  Here's the front of one in process:

Front

And this is the back of one after quilting, which was done in the same design as the quilt.  The invisible zipper is on the left hand side between the red and black strips, and is pretty well invisible.

Both zippers are in now, and the sides sewn together.  They're just waiting for me to sew the binding on (fingers crossed that these will actually fit her pillows).

If you make shams that you plan to quilt, be sure to allow extra for what the quilting shrinks up--I was surprised by how much (and no, I didn't think to measure it, but before quilting they were way too big, and after, I only trimmed 1/2 inch off the width).  Also realize that 2 shams front and back is equivalent to one small quilt--and it has to be the right size when finished or the pillow won't fit--such stress! :) 

Also this month I was lucky enough to win a copy of  Patchwork Sassaman Style by Jane Sassaman in the book's blog hop.  Whoopee!  Full of absolutely stunning quilts made with just a few fabrics and very clever cutting.  Definitely something I need to study further.  Thanks so much to Jane and Lyric of http://lyrickinard.com/blog/  for hosting a blog hop day!  The book has so many gorgeous ideas!  Of course this means I will have to buy more fabric....much more fabric, right?!

Happy Stitching!

July's UFO (and May's too!)

The number drawn for July’s Patchwork Times UFO Challenge was #2.  Since I’ve been working ahead, my #2 was done back in May—click here to see that post, but for a reminder, here’s a photo of finished #2, which is one of Kim McLean's Roseville Album blocks.

 So what did I do in July? 

Well remember this package?  It was a birthday gift for my dd, and inside the package was this pillow, which was just a teaser for the rest of her birthday present. 

















Which was this:

If it looks familiar, it is my May UFO, Capriccio—ALL FINISHED--but kept under wraps.  Since my daughter opened it last night, I can finally show it to you.

I tried to use bright, happy colors and fabrics that I thought she would enjoy, although I have to admit that it is sadly lacking in dog prints.  I guess I just don’t buy many dog fabrics—cats are a different story thanks to Laurel Burch designs. 

Since the top ended up reading a bit more yellow/green than I planned, the backing fabric I’d purchased didn’t really seem to match the front of the quilt.  But neither did anything else I tried—even yellow or green, and I couldn’t find anything else that I thought would work better.  After mulling it over, I decided to go ahead and use what I'd bought since the red print would give her an entirely different look if she wanted to “redecorate” just by flipping it over.

I’m glad the red stayed as it adds to the cheerfulness, and I think it looks great with the quilting Yvette did in yellow.  The red backing is from the line, Lift Your Spirits by Wendy Bentley for Timeless Treasures.  The pillow center panel and the label on the quilt back are both from that same line too.

Gotta admit, though, my favorite part is the black and white squiggly binding!  I love it and have to remember to buy more! (I think it's by Blank Textiles--called coffee something or opposites attract.) 

But this has been done for a couple weeks now.  So what did I do the rest of July? 

Pretty much nothing!  I have prepped some more Flower Garden blocks, but have barely put in any stitches.  I’ve been itching to start something new (hexagons keep calling my name), and been doing some retail therapy and a little mental planning of a new project, but looking at the calendar (and knowing tomorrow will bring a new UFO Challenge number) is holding me back. 

Maybe I’ll go clean on my sewing room so I’m ready for a new UFO….or work on some quilt binding, or maybe I’ll just take a nap and rest up…..there must be a reason they call these the lazy days of summer.

Happy Stitching!

Long June Days

June's been flying by and I’ve been stitching like a crazed woman--and actually getting a few things done (for a change).  It must be the long June days.   First off, I finished stitching the Capriccio blocks from last month together.  Now they’re a completed top, but I didn't take a photo to show.  :(  (I’ll take one soon—maybe next month.)

Then, since I couldn’t seem to remember to have my husband move some heavy boxes so I could find my June’s UFO, and since my living room floor was empty after finishing up Capriccio, I started working again on this project from back in March.  Do you remember these blocks?

They were for a quilt based on the Stripping Vine quilt made by Kathy Doughty shown in the book, Material Obsession.

I made the star blocks in March, but then got sidetracked by other projects. This month, I decided it wouldn’t take that much longer to move them along into a top.

So the blocks were stitched together in columns (there are 3 columns here--not connected, just next to each other on the design wall.)

Turquoise strips of dogwoods were added in between the orange columns.

Then a black and white stripe was added to the top and bottom.  And I finished it all off with a floral border that just seemed to belong. I love the fabric--Pom Pom Dahlias by Philip Jacobs.  The extra borders are not part of the original pattern design. 

And now it’s a completed top! Hooray! This isn’t a very good photo, but it’s the best I can get of it for now. It’s a bit of an odd color/fabric combination, but it makes me happy, so I don’t care. Since the colors are similar to what I’m using for the Single Girl quilt, I’ve decided to postpone a decision on the back until I’ve finished cutting for that so I can see which fabrics are left before I decide if I want to piece the back for it. 

And then, the floor was empty again and since my living room was already a fabric disaster area, I decided that I could finish the borders on one of my UFO's (#7 Teal Quilt).  Here's the finished top--it’s now waiting to be quilted.  It's a king size, so I'll be stitching on binding for a L O N G  time before it's finished, but at least it's moving in the right direction.

June's been a good month—at least for stitching.  Not so good for my mother-in-law, though, who took a fall and ended up in the hospital with a fracture this past week.  She is now on the mend, and starting to walk again with help. It will be a slow recovery I'm afraid.  Although  the hospital's been a good place to stitch a little Flower Garden applique, I'm guessing July is going to be too busy for much stitching.

And, good news--my sister and her husband are back at work--still coughing and tiring way too easily, but they seem to be finally winning the Whooping Cough battle!  And lucky ducks--they get to spend the weekend with my lovely daughter!

And lest you wonder, I’ve even been working on my June UFO.  Really I have and it's almost done!  Photo of it soon... 
                                               Happy Stitching!  And HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Nate & Kim!

Snowballs...and other May flowers

Our weather has been pretty yucky, but thankfully no snow and no tornadoes, so I'm not complaining (too much) about the rain and wind. Despite cold rainy days, we have some lovely snowballs of the floral variety along the side of our house this year:

I've finished a couple more Flower Garden blocks that I started over the Mother's Day weekend.

And I've been working away on Capriccio, too, and have a bigger stack of blocks now, but I don't think it will be completed by the end of May.

In fact, I'm thinking it needs to be a much bigger quilt than originally planned. If my memory is correct, the pattern calls for 30 blocks (5 x 6), but I am aiming at double that or larger (8 x 9), so this may remain a UFO for awhile....anyway, back to stitching!

Moving in the right direction........

After a rainy weekend at home to visit my mom for Mother's Day, I'm back stitching away.  And, the Roseville Album block I mentioned in my last post is finished!

That makes seven of the center blocks done, with another in process.  Here are six of the finished ones along with the single panel I finished first.  (the seventh block didn't make it into the photo)  Still a long way to go, but at least it is still an active project and not a UFO (yet).

I actually have one more block started, but with the work needed for May's UFO, not much will happen on the Roseville until June or later. (How can it be that June is the next month--we haven't had spring yet?  Today is the first sunny day in so long--rain, wind and cold has been our spring so far.)

May's UFO is Capriccio, a colorful pattern by Pie in the Sky Quilts, that I am making in "happy" colors pretty similar to the pattern model.  It involves sewing pieces together, then cutting them up, and sewing them back together.  At the beginning of May, it wasn't very far along.  In fact, it looked mostly like these strips, with a stack of these triangles:

But now there are a few of these squares,  

and a (very) few of these blocks

 
And, I am finding out that I wasn't very accurate in cutting/stitching, so the quilt police are going to have lots of violations if they choose to look. I am just matching seams where I can, and letting those problem pieces do what they must. Since some of the strips are scraps, cut over many years and left over from odd projects, it doesn't surprise me that they vary a bit in size.  Maybe that's why this was a UFO for awhile...Guess I better get busy or it will stay a UFO!
Happy Stitching!