Fireworks Quilt in Chicopee: A Finish

So the real reason that I wrote my catch-up blog post was as an intro for this post. I refuse to be that person and leave a cliff hanger in the blogosphere, no matter how delayed this post is. I am recording here, for posterity and the blogosphere that I did, in fact, finish my Fireworks quilt.

Now on to the fun bits. And by fun bits, I mean pictures. Well, that and my internal monologue.

Finally Finished

I love this quilt and it was a labor of love to bring it to fruition. I was so excited when I finally got the top done, but then things didn't really continue to click along like I hoped. As usual, I changed my mind and second guessed myself...

The Backing

If you can remember back, oh so long ago, I shared this plan for backing it binding.

BUT, the backing just wasn't doing it for me. I REALLY wanted to back it with a Chicopee fabric, but it had been so long since the line came out, I wasn't sure that was going to happen. I searched around on Etsy and there was some Chicopee fabric out there, but I just couldn't commit to anything. I eventually went to one of the smaller quilt shops in Portland, knowing that they rarely order full lines of anything, but since they do less business, often have things from older lines. I was in luck! I got a good piece of the blue and yellow paisley. I was going to need to stretch it though and opted for some solid shot cottons to compliment the other colors in the quilt. I tinkered quite a bit before landing on my design. It would look something like this:

The little quarter squares would be made from Chicopee scraps.

The Quilting

Even more than the backing, I was stuck on what I was going to do with the quilting. So I did something that I often do when I have a quilting dilemma, I Googled it. Looking at pictures of other completed quilts in the same pattern helps me see what different options will look like since I don't have any fancy software skills to mock things up. However, in this case, even though the pattern has been out for a long time, there are not a ton of photos out there of completed Fireworks quilts. Also, most of them that are out there feature free-motion quilting. I knew I wasn't up for tackling that on something I couldn't bear to "ruin" with sub-par quilting. However, I also knew that I wanted something with a little bit of movement without being too busy. There was already enough going on e with the fabric and the pattern. When I was bemoaning to myself that lack of finished Fireworks quilting options to peruse, I had a flash of an idea. I could look at Swoon quilts instead. Now if you a quilter you know that this pattern had a tight grip on the quilting community for several years so there are a lot of completed Swoon quilts out there. Swoon is by the same designer as Fireworks and is a similar large surround pattern. During my search, I stumbled on to a photo with a pattern like this and knew that was the direction I wanted to go.

A poor drawing, but enough to see the idea.

And I was off!

One of the few projects that I completed in the upstairs craft room.

Finishing

I actually used the binding the I originally picked out. I was nervous about the bright color but I think it turned out perfect with the grey background. Did I mention that I love this quilt? Cue gratuitous number of photos.

Of course Fractal had to make an appearance at the edge of the quilt. I like how much the quilting stands out in this photo.

I am so pleased with how the back came out. Totally worth the fabric hunt.

You can see some tiny puckers in the quilting here, but you what? I have never noticed in the year since I took this photo.

And there you have it, a finished quilt. All documented and everything :)

Two years, just like that!

Oh hi.

You may be wondering why I am bothering to write to this. I wondered myself if I should even pretend to try and keep this going at all. Then, I was reading through a blog that was several years old, following the bloggers progress on my newest quilting crush, The Farmer's Wife and boom, the blog was over. No more posts. But wait, did she finish the quilt?! How will I ever know?! Why does this always happen (this is not the first time that I have been reading a blog and had it end with a quilt mid-progress)? And in my agony, I realized that I had done the same thing. So I am here to rectify that.

Change

Things have changed so much for me over the last two years. Lots and lots of good things. Things that I am very thankful for. Let's just make a quick list shall we :)

1. Adding motherhood to the mix.

So this wasn't technically new since my last blog post but it is an ever evolving challenge for sure. It's funny how as kids go from being a baby to a toddler you find that they need more and less attention all at the same time. While I no longer have to chase Tate from room to room because I am worried he will fall and hurt himself, instead, there are very endearing requests to "C'mon. Play." Sometimes these requests are accompanied by a gentle push to get up off the couch.

2. I love agility.

Getting my second dog to be competition ready took a fair amount of time in 2016 and in 2017 we have been working really hard to come together as team. That was really starting to happen towards the end of the year and I think we can get out of Novice before Fractal turns four in May. It has taken a long time.

Add to that the fact that Dexter and I were getting ready to attend our very first nationals and agility figured big into 2016. Going to Cynosport in November 2016 was a huge milestone for me in my agility career. It went even better than I could have ever imagined. We actually won a ribbon when Dexter placed 5th out of 80 dogs in one of his runs! My heart was so full.

3. Moving

This one has been huge. The house hunting, actual moving and getting settled took A LOT of time this year, like most of it. While the move gave us more space inside and out (having three bathrooms is a beautiful thing!), we are further from pretty much everything. This means no more last minute dashes to the grocery store, there are not 50 restaurants within 15 minutes, drives to agility classes are up to twice as long and trips to Fabric Depot, or any fabric store, require some actual planning. Some of this has been very good for us, like eating out less, and some of it has been a tough adjustment. Overall, I am very happy with the move and know that the house and the property will only continue to get better with time as we continue our journey to make them everything we have in our minds eye.

5. Working

The true but un-fun fact that work has been busy and sapped a lot of time and energy from times I could have been sewing.

4. Adding motherhood to the mix.

Wait? Wasn't that #1? It was, but now Tate has a little brother! Which, of course, meant even more change. Good change. Blake is another happy, fun little boy. He is very different than his brother in many ways and in many other ways he is uncannily similar. I simply can't believe that he is almost a year old.

Sewing

So where does sewing fit into all this? Good question. It made me more than a little sad that even though as part of the move I got my very own sewing room again, I did not spend much time in it. And once we found out that we were expecting again, I knew that my time in that room was going to be short lived. Soon after the holidays, I began the process of moving out of my room and into the formal dining room to make way for another nursery. It is a little hard not having doors that I can shut to keep curious tiny people away from my work, but in the end being on the main floor allows me more sewing time. I have come to love my space in the dining room. It truly deserves a photo shoot and its own blog post.

This year I did more sewing than I did in 2016. In fact, I have dubbed this "the year of the baby quilt." Although, sadly, none of them were for Blake. Something that I must fix before his first birthday!

Other than baby quilts, in 2017 I worked an epic, year-long project called the Penny Sampler, by Rachel over at Stitched in Color. I have had a lot of fun working through the different techniques. Maybe I will find some time over the next year to share some musings about the project. Mostly, I hope to share a finished quilt. I just have to push myself to focus on it getting that done before getting swept away by another project or 12. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for listening/reading,

Whitney

P.S. I couldn't do a whole post without a single picture, so here is our family holiday photo. I had been begging to get a photo of all six us since Blake was in the womb. It isn't perfect, but it exists and that fact makes me very happy. Happy New Year!

Baby Boy Bento Box: A Finish

Oh look, I have emerged out from under my pile of house renovation madness, motherly duties, 9-5 obligations, and agility craziness to write a blog post. I thought it might never happen!

So what's new with me? For one, as you know, I have a cute little, ever demanding, growing, always doing something new, baby. He's awesome. Until it's 3 am and he won't go back to sleep, then, not so awesome. But really it isn't the baby that has kept me from sewing. It's my lack of sewing machine.

A Water-Logged Saga

A few days after we brought the Tater Tot home, a fitting on our new fridge failed and caused a flood in our kitchen and dining room. Buddy got everything fixed up, but a few hours later, it happened again. After consulting the insurance company, etc., we learned that our dining room floor was going to need to be replaced and the hardwoods needed to be refinished, wait for it, IN THE WHOLE HOUSE!

The nursery was the only place left I could lay the blocks out.
My fuzzy phone photo was necessary to make sure I sewed it together as intended!

Before any of that could commence, they needed to get the floor as dry as possible, which meant moving everything out of the dining room, aka my sewing room. So after being downsized from the extra bedroom (now Tate's nursery) to the dining room, I was being downsized again. All I was left with was the dining room table, stuffed in a corner of the living room. Did I let that stop me? No!



What did stop me was living in a hotel for two weeks and then basically having to move back in to our own house. With a baby, agility classes two nights a week, competing on most weekends, not to mention, my new super early bed time, the unpacking has been very slow. Plus, I promised Buddy that I would put away my clothes before I unpacked my sewing stuff. Silly me.

What's a Girl To Do?

Get out a needle and thread, of course. I had decided that I wanted to hand sew the binding on my Bento Box quilt. I thought it would be a good project to keep me busy while we lived at the hotel, but I just didn't feel like it.

It had been sitting on the back of the couch and finally, one day, I just picked up and starting sewing. It didn't take too long to get it done and I was helped along with  a quiet few hours while both Buddy and the baby napped.

Quilting and the Like

I knew that I wanted to keep the quilting somewhat simple, no plans to tackle FMQ here. However, I didn't want to just to straight lines either. I decided to do a zig-zag pattern, using the squares as my guide. Hooray! No marking. Shortly after starting, I regretted it. There was A LOT of stopping and turning the quilt. I didn't have to push it all the way through the machine, but the process was SSLLOOWW. Since there was no turning back, I forged on.

It is difficult to quilt with the table butted up against the wall, but I made it work!

I love how this quilt turned out. Especially since it was a quilt that was never really meant to be. Originally, I was going to make a small stroller sized quilt with the scraps from my nursery sewing. I realized the backing I was planning on using was too small. So I was going to use a piece of fabric originally bought for the back of the Bizzy Kid Quilt. Then I decided on the Bento Box pattern and THAT was too small AND I didn't have enough scraps. Fabric Depot always seems to benefit from my poorly laid quilting plans! I am so glad that I saw the vision through. This quilt has that scrappy but modern vibe that I love!

It is listed for sale in my Etsy shop. And now, a gratuitous number of photos. It was fun to actually have a crib to photograph a baby quilt on!

Now to unpack my sewing machine so that I can get on to my next adventure!

Hope Valley Pinwheels: A Finish

DONE!

Wow, I never thought it would happen. While I will admit that it isn't my favorite quilt, I do feel that it has a certain charm to it.

The pumpkin binding really does work well. I am glad that I stuck with it. Thanks to all of you who gave me the extra vote of confidence!

Please excuse the dog toy. It was so bright that I couldn't see anything in the view finder and this is the best shot I got!

So bright!

I finished the binding with a zig-zag stitch. This is becoming more and more common for me. I love the extra durability that it gives and how flat it makes the binding lay. Also, with the baby, I just don't have as much "sit around and hand stitch time" as I used to. He was kind of enough to take a long snooze so that I could finish.

I even remembered to add a tag! That never happens!

This quilt is listed for sale in my Etsy shop.

Linking up!
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF
Richard and Tanya Quilts

The List of Completed Quilty Goodness.

Ever since I started my blog, I wanted to have a place to catalog all my completed quilts. Today, finally, that is a reality :)

I was so surprised when I counted and realized that I have made over 25 quilts!!!

I have managed to capture most of the quilts that I have made in my blog, but not all of them. It is fun for me to see the evolution of my fabric, pattern and quilting choices.

Have a look for yourself on my Completed Quilts page!

My keepers.

Tinker Tote

Have to make it.

Isn't that how all projects start? You see something that you HAVE. TO. MAKE. The tinker tote pattern is only available through a Craftsy class, which was not something I had done before. They are online, webinar type classes. After you sign up, you always have access to the class. The classes can be a little expensive fore my taste, but they are often on sale, so when a good one came around, I signed up!

I watched the first few segments right away. The video quality was great and since the bag is made using the quilt as you go (QAYG) method, which I  was completely new to, it was really nice to have a demonstration.

I printed the pattern and traced it onto my batting. I was ready to get going, all I needed were some scraps. So I pulled out my giant bucket and started digging. I found a few scraps that felt that they belonged in the bag, but that was about it.  I had a pretty specific image in my head of how I wanted to the bag to turn out and I wasn't willing to compromise. Discouraged, I put the project away.

My blank canvas awaiting inspiration in the form of sorted scraps.

Time passes.

From time to time, I would pull out the scrap bin with the intent of gathering scraps for the bag, but it just never came together. Finally, I realized that until the scraps were sorted, I wasn't going to be able to find what I was looking for.

The small stack of six scraps were all that I could put together before my scraps got sorted and they served as the color inspiration for the quilted panels.

Once I got my scraps sorted, I started working on my tinker tote and was completely obsessed until it was done.

Working on my layout of the bits and bobs.

Construction

The bag went together pretty easily. I made a few little bobbles here and there but when I had my two exterior panels done, I was so excited! They turned out just like I wanted, sort of low volume and soft but with little pops of color. It is hard to explain all the rules that I had when picking scraps for this bag. I don't have a lot of color theory vocabulary but as I read about it more, I realize that I apply a lot of color rules when I am sewing.

Making progress on my first panel.

Now that I had the perfect exterior panels, I needed to pick lining and binding. Ugh. Sometimes this is the worst.You need yardage, which means an expense that you only want to incur once. That last thing you want is to realize that you made the wrong fabric choice and have decide whether you put something sub par in your perfect project or, spend a bunch more money on something that you think will be more suitable.

Low volume, texty print for the lining.

I ended up with the I'm a Maker print from Art Gallery's Maker line for the lining and a small red floral print from Windham for the binding. This is the part where things got tricky. Even though I traced my lining from the same pattern piece that I used for the exterior panels, it was huge and did not fit in the bag at all. I think this is due to the shrinkage that is experienced with the QAYG technique. All that quilting sucks the batting together. I ended up just cutting away the extra fabric to get a good fit, and after having to piece in the interfacing for the lining because I couldn't find anything wide enough to save my life.

Close but not quite. I added little bits of interfacing to the top of the handles to make up for it.

And if that wasn't enough, once I got the lining together, it didn't fit at all!

Then there was the binding. I could tell from watching the video that Tara (the bag designer and class teacher), did not have the same perfectionistic standards that I do when it comes to binding. I could also tell since I would be fighting several layers of fabric and working around curves, that I was unlikely to be able to achieve the standards that I am used to when it comes to binding. Plus, I REALLY wanted the bag to be done at this point. So I forged on and I try not to look it or think about it too much.

On your left is what binding should look like. On the right is what most of the binding on the bag does look like.

The Finish Line

Overall, I am very happy with how the bag turned out. I really like the quilt as you go method and can see myself using for more bags in the future, whether it be with this pattern, or others.

The front. I love that I got to feature some of my favorite prints, like those red music notes!

The back. I love it this panel too! It was actually rather difficult to decide which one I wanted on the front of the bag.

Linking up!

Confessions of a Fabric AddictTGIFF
Richard and Tanya Quilts

WIP Wednesday: Hope Valley Pinwheels

As I mentioned last Wednesday, I have a couple of smaller quilt tops in the queue for quilting that I want to finish before tackling my bigger quilt tops, Fireworks and Hopscotch. I made pretty good progress, but am not sure when I will get more sewing time again before heading off to my first agility trial since February. Squee!!! I know Dexter will be one happy dog!

Stuck at home, doing nothing, makes for a very sad boy.

One of the hardest parts of being a new mom, for me, has been feeling like I am letting my two fur kids down. Dexter has been quite depressed and Fractal is going stir crazy. It has been very hard for me to watch,especially when I am stuck in the glider nursing the baby and can literally do nothing for them. I know it is not as bad as it is in my head since they have had trips to the dog park, one class, a journey to a friend's house and Buddy plays with them regularly in the backyard. But still, nothing like what they had pre-baby.

Pinwheels

I can't believe it, my pinwheel blocks are going to make it into a finished quilt. I am in shock really. These have been sitting around for so long and I was at such a loss for what to do with them that I was pretty sure they would never amount to anything. Which bummed me out severely since I had made them from precious Hope Valley Fat Quarters won when my mom and I saw Denyse Schmidt at a local quilt store.

The first pinwheels I sewed. . . in 2012!

In the end, as it always seems to be, the answer was to keep it simple. Really simple. I just sewed the squares together: no sashing, not setting on point, nothing.  Originally, I had really wanted to do a very modern, non-grid layout with these very traditional blocks, but it just wasn't mean to be. Mostly because that would have required more blocks and I have no interest in making any.

The odd number of blocks I ended up with before quitting.
I managed to talk myself into sewing one more to
make it an even 20.

I was really nervous when I went to get backing for this quilt since I knew that there was no way to get something from the Hope Valley line. My thinking was to do a shot cotton since to me they have bit of that worn vintage-y look like the Hope Valley prints. Instead I ended up with a plum and orange print for Denyse's new Franklin line (which I like quite a bit).

It is very helpful that designers often use the same color palette from one collection to the next.

Again, I went simple with the quilting. The plan was a one inch grid, but after getting all the vertical lines done, I felt like adding the additional quilting would be too busy for the small quilt. So I called it good.

All that I have left to do is bind the darn thing. I have this pumpkin colored Kona for the binding, but I'm not totally sold on it, so I have working on quilting my Bento Box baby quilt instead.

What do you think, should I just go for it with the binding, or could I do better? Something a bit more unexpected perhaps?

Linking up with WIP Wednesday and Let's Bee Social!