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

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!

Unfinished Business

A Confession of Sorts

The idea of starting a super awesome and fun brand new quilt for me is very tantalizing.  However, fresh off the finish of my second Lisa Lam Diaper Bag, I have found myself wanting to continue the high of finishing things.  As a result I have been eyeballing my pile of unfinished quilts.  I have quite a large pile of unfinished quilt tops and blocks.  For hopes that public declaration will spur me to action here is a complete list with photos of the current state of progress:

Mom quilt

I started this for my mom well over a year ago.

Excuse:
I don't have the skills to finish it the way I want

I really want to learn how to do free motion quilting and am close to working up the nerve to try.  I want to work on something small first, so I may take some of my Jitterbug blocks and practice on those.  They would make cute pillows, even with sub-par quilting, they themselves are sub par afterall :)

Pinwheel quilt

My mom won a stack of fat quarters of Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley
when we saw her at a book signing. I stared these blocks the next day!

Excuse:
I'm mad at the blocks

I definitely need some work on my flying geese construction and my poor execution is one of the reasons I got mad at the pinwheels.  The other reason is that I just could NOT decide on a layout, so I put them down and never went back.

Chevron quilt

For my shop.

Excuse:
Just plain not excited

Honestly, I have never been excited about this quilt.  I made it only because I thought it would sell and I quickly learned that is not a good reason for me to make a quilt.  I am just not as motivated by money as I thought I was when I opened my Etsy shop.

Elephant quilt

Also for my shop.

Excuse:
I don't know how I want to quilt it

Originally I thought I wanted to do something loopy to add some softness and girliness, now I'm just not sure.  Again, I really want to do FMQ but in the interest of finishing in this millenia, I may do a tight grid pattern like this.

Choices choices.

Star quilt

A gift that is now well overdue, but the intended recipient do not know this.

Excuse:
It got too darn hot to quilt!

It just so happens that my craft room is the hottest room in the house and after the brother moved out, I relocated my machine out of the dining room back to its rightful home.  I had no interest in having a quilt draped over my shoulder in a hundred degree room.  But Fall is coming . . . and the husband gave me a new fancy fan . . .

Reed quilt

There are still two rows of blocks on the ground!

Excuse:
It's so big that I am totally intimidated by the prospect of quilting this thing!

Um, its. just. so. big.  I did take a class on using a quilt frame that is available to rent by the hour, clearly the best option for this monstrosity.  I just need to get motivated and make it happen.

Hopscotch

For me.

Excuse:
I'm mad at the blocks

When I laid out Hopscotch I realized that I was missing blocks, and managed to tackle that hurdle.  However, I also realized that this quilt is going to be LOUD, which normally I love . . . but, not loving it here.  I do generally go through a phase of not liking a quilt and thinking it won't turn out, typically when I get all the blocks done, so I should probably just forge ahead so I can get over it.

Phew.

Wow, I am full of excuses.  Some more lame than others.  Now that's over with, let's get on with some finishing!  What to tackle first?