Quilting with Cats...

I've been getting back into my quilting (mostly finishing projects I stopped midway...) but its proven to be somewhat difficult since the cats decided the best place to sleep was on whatever quilt I'm in the middle of sewing. I have to admit, I've been almost shocked by how little they care about the sewing machine, or the fact that they keep drifting closer and closer to it as I try to move the quilt through the machine.

I'll make no comment on how hard it is to lay out a quilt on the floor with a small army of cats nearby...

FFAI&II

I started my Far Far Away I & II strip quilt yesterday, and I love it!!! I definitely need to make a smaller version of this for Sofi and Ella (maybe in place of the hand sewn quilt that I still haven't finished). I think I'm going to use Kona Coal for the backing, and still a bit undecided on the binding, but I've got time for that later. I want to make the smaller second one first. So much fun to make these, and so cute!!! I love fabric that can stand on its own!!:)

Underwater Sea Adventure Quilt

I've gone back and forth on this quilt since I started it, but now that it's finished I have to admit that I really like it a lot. And Adam said it's his second favorite quilt that I've made so far, which I think is saying something (especially considering that it's Heather Ross fabrics...).
It's the smallest quilt I've made, but I think it works. And I really love the back despite its simplicity (or maybe because of it?!).

Charm Quilt

I finally finished quilting the charms squares quilt, and while it does the job of keeping my legs protected from crazy cats while I watch tv, I don't really think this is my best looking quilt. I had a really hard time keeping the fabric on the back from bunching (even with a quilt adhesive and binding pins). But at least it's done and I can move on....
Zadie seems to like it though. And I am getting better at binding...!!!

String Quilt Blocks

With all my quilting this weekend I ended up with a replenished stash of scraps. Naturally I made a few new string quilt blocks to add to the pile....

A plethora of projects

I have about 8 different quilts going at the moment, most of which are stacked on top of my ironing board. The big squares are the basis for Paty's "mix-matched"quilt, and there are a couple of gnome blocks on top that.... I also have my string quilt blocks, my underwater sea adventure quilt blocks and two new quilts I started this weekend (both "math" quilts, with plus signs as the main design).

Not exactly sure when I plan on finishing all of these, but at least I have something to work towards!...

Math Quilt

It really has nothing to do with math, except that it reminds me of plus signs, which reminds me of math....

Purple Bow-tie Underwater Sea Adventure

This is my new purple underwater sea adventure quilt. The little bow-ties are all Heather Ross fabrics, and all (obviously) depicting ocean life. There are mermaids, seahorses, lobsters, octopi, turtles, etc. and I love it!!! For the reverse side I want to have larger blocks of each of the fabrics, so you can really see what they look like. Of course I'm still a ways off from finishing this quilt...

A Grandmotherly Quilt

Gnome Homes

Two gnome homes down, an undetermined number to go...

No scrap left behind....

I decided to put some of my scraps together to #1 cut down the size of my scraps bag and #2 try a new quilting style. I love the design the quilt blocks make, especially since there is no real pattern or rules or color scheme... just one strip of pink in the center of each block to tie all the blocks together (and make there appear to be actual squares within the quilt). Not having anything to figure out also makes this go pretty fast.... of course I won't have enough scraps to finish an entire quilt for a while, but its nice to have a stack started!!

Almost there....

I finished layering the UM quilt for my brother, and managed to sew the layers together (albeit poorly), so now all I have left on this one is the binding. I just need to figure out what fabric to use and then find the time/energy to bind it. I'm kinda over this one already!!

Layering:

Top side stitched:

Back side stitched:

Topside UM Quilt

The sun came out for the first time in months today, and I think it inspired a higher level productiveness in my apartment!! I finally finished the top layer of my brother's UM quilt, and I cut all the pieces for the back side. It should be pretty fast going to get the whole thing put together, I'm just way too energized to do something like that (or maybe its the three cokes and entire pot of coffee I just drank...).

Another one down

Hooray.... I finally finished the top layer of my goldfish quilt!!

For going into this with no clear plan I actually really like the way it ended up!! The colors also look great together (not expressed very well here with my bad iphone pictures taken in a poorly lit room). The blue is the Kona Robin's Egg, which has quickly become one of my favorites, and the rest are a mixture of bright blues and browns. Some of my favorite squares are featured below (I think 7 out of nine...).

Now on to the next quilt top...!!!

The Making of a Goldfish Quilt...

After about a week without sewing a single stitch, I finally finished adding the top and bottom blue pieces, and cut the middle blue pieces for my stripes. Once I get those sewn together I'll add the outer most blue pieces and then add the solid white stripes to the mix. I was pretty unsure about how this was all going to come together, but I think now that I can more accurately visualize the stripes as a whole I actually really like it.

I think for the back I'm going to keep it pretty simple... I'd say 90% solid white with one single stripe of blue (with a little square of goldfish).

The binding is a total mystery.

This quilt has also been reminding me of that old zebra rainbow stripe gum. I don't think they even make it anymore, but that stuff was really good. Now I want zebra gum....

Goldfish I have Loved

Its a terrible photo but here is a general idea of the goldfish quilt I just started. I'm going into this without any real sort of plan, other than using blues and browns as my color scheme. So far I like where its going, and almost wish I wasn't leaving town this weekend so I can work on it more!:)

Bento Squares

I finished sewing each of the squares and have now put them aside to focus on other quilts (and to let my eyes rest from the insanity of this one). I still need to add the border strip around each block, and then decide if I'm going to use any sashing. But as of right now I don't expect to come back to this project for at least another 2 weeks. I need to let it fester before moving on to the next steps.

In other news, I think I found an owner.

Bento Box - works progress administration

I finally cut my squares into fours, and spent a lot longer than expected laying it all out. Apparently its not nearly as easy as it looks to mix up quilt squares... its actually quite exhausting (which is why I'm now replenishing my strength with ice cream).

Here's the progress thus far:

In other news, these are my awesome new fabric scissors!!! They were part of my Christmas present from Adam's family, and I've definitely put them to good use with this quilt!

And this is why Adam and I get along so well... he plays video games and I sew, and its like hanging out while each doing our own thing:)

Bento Box Quilt Cunundrum

I'm at a critical juncture with the bento box quilt (two roads diverged in a wood)... The original plan was to just make the 12 blocks and then cut each one into fours and rearrange them. Now I've started thinking to cut the blocks the way they are now and rearrange them, and then add the one extra layer around the edge so the outer most strip is all the same and the inner strips are all jumbled. Although whichever way I choose to do this quilt I'll more than likely try the other way soon after, so I guess it really doesn't matter.

wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off...

This is the start of a beautiful friendship... I mean quilt.

I decided my next quilt should be done in the "bento box" style. Basically I'm making 12 quilt blocks, each of which I will cut into fours and rearrange to make 12 new, mixed up blocks. In theory they will all be sewn together with no white fabric separating them (I forgot what the techinical term for this is), so in the end it will be one big mixed up mush of a quilt. And I know that sounds awful, but from what I've seen it actually is really interesting and fun. It's a pretty time consuming process though so I might work on two quilts at the same time just so I can feel more like I'm getting somewhere.

Here is the initial layout, with the large block centers and some with the first strip in the block (there will eventually be four or five layers to each block...)