Quilts of 2012

 I've been busy. Above are the quilts I made in 2012, all folded in half length-wise.

Blue and Pink Diamonds covers the top of our queen-size bed.  That's the 5-year quilt which took about 10 years to do, off and on.  As mentioned before, I fussy-cut and sewed the entire thing by hand.

The small Half-Square Triangles quilt at the top, underneath the Baby, was fussy-cut but everything else was done by machine.  Yes, that's when I bought my sewing machine.  I don't know why I waited so long to do so.

The blues in the Blue and Yellow quilt are from a jelly roll of blue Kaffe Fassett fabrics from Intown Quilters. The yellows are white muslin that I cut and dyed different shades of yellow with Rit dye.

The reds and white quilt are based on the City Tracks pattern by Cherri House.  The white is muslin, the reds are from a jelly roll of batiks from Intown Quilters.

The Yellow, Orange, and White quilt is the first one made entirely from stash.  It includes more batiks from the batik jelly roll, yellows left over from the Blue and Pink Diamonds and the Blue and Yellow quilts, and fat quarters that was all or mostly orange, yellow or white.

Below are more stash quilts, for 2013.

Red, Black and White One-Patch.  The little slips of paper bobby-pinned on are the measurements of each piece of fabric so I calculate how many 4.5 inch patches I can get from each piece.

Based on my calculation, there are 120 black patches, 74 white patches, and 142 reds, for a total of 336 patches.  Not sure how I'm going to go about designing the quilt.  I could go ahead and cut out all the patches and then lay them out, but I also want to save some of the black for the binding... 

And here are possible pieces for a Purples and Greys quilt.  I may take out the busy print in the top left.    Not sure what pattern to make with this.  They're all fat quarters except for the 2.5 inch strips, again from the batik jelly roll.

As I was laying this out, the difference between the warm and cool greys became really apparent, if not in this picture.

Kind of on a schedule

Baby is one month old now and sleeping from 9pm to 4am, then back up at 7am.  If only I went to bed at 9am too.

I do try to take a nap during the day when she does, but so many other things call my attention.  Like quilting.  Finishing that 5, er 10, year quilt, then sewing those swaddling cloths made me really want to do more quilting.  Also, it's getting really hot in Atlanta and all my knitting projects are wool, so....cotton fabrics it is!

Baby likes to nap in the ring sling as I wear it, so I've been catching up on TV.  Thank goodness for the Internet and the pause button, since I hardly ever get to watch anything at the scheduled time.

So I've been watching:
Revenge -- soapy, soapy goodness
Scandal -- Love how take-charge Olivia Pope is and the unrequited love just gets to me.  And Mellie...what a smart piece of work she is.
Once Upon a Time -- love the Queen's outfits and outrageous hair
Grimm -- love Sgt. Wu
The Good Wife

I also started reading A Dance with Dragons, the latest book in the Game of Thrones series and have lost patience with the misogeny.

Five, er, Ten Year Quilt

It's done!

Here it is, on a bare queen-sized bed.

Started: 200? Was so long ago, I don't remember anymore.  But I know I started it while living at the first house I owned so was sometime after 2000.

Finished:  April 4, 2012.

All fussy-cut and hand sewn. Tied, instead of quilted. Binding is pre-made of Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

I love it.

Progress of all sorts

Finished sewing the pink border to the blue field of the 5 year quilt. Here's the cat using the quilt top as a bed. Next up, sewing on the yellow border, then shopping for orange fabric for the binding, something for the back, and the batting.
Here's the roll of blue Kaffe Fassett fabrics, partly laid out. Was watching Season One of Warehouse 13 while doing this.
Speaking of Syfy, I've really been into Alphas. I think I've mentioned before that I like how the show starts by just dropping the viewer into the story -- there are people with powers (called Alphas), there's a team of Alphas headed up by a non-Alpha that works for the US gov't, and they work to solve crimes that may or may not involve Alphas.

Part of the mythology is dangerous Alphas are sent to be imprisoned in a special facility in Binghamton, NY; the US gov't doesn't like that there are Alphas, and there's a rebel group of Alphas called Red Flag that is agitating for the right to live freely and not be hunted down by the gov't.

I've also been using MyFitnessPal app to track calories in, calories out. In the 3 weeks I've used it, I've lost 4 lbs, then gained back 2. Plus exercising more. Dang I'm tired. However, in the long run, it'll be good for me.

Fabric shopping

I can see the end of the tunnel with piecing the 5-year quilt top. So I went to Intown Quilters to see if they do finishing work. They don't but did refer me to people who can.

Quilt shops are like yarn shops. All the colors! All the possibilities!

I first went to Hancock Fabrics where I picked up the quarters. I'm consistently drawn to bright colors. I thought about getting some different kinds of colors too, but none of them spoke to me.

Then I stopped at Intown Quilters and picked up the roll of 20 Kaffe Fassett fabrics bundled in 2.5 inch strips. I so want to start a new project and have many in mind. Once I get the 5 year quilt off for finishing....

Progress on the 5 year quilt

As I posted before, I'm motivated to finish my 5 year quilt. I have started sewing the pink border to the blue/green field. I like the contrast of the the neat seams w/ the raw edges.

The label says [row] 27, bottom, 353 to 358. This means it's row 27 of pink diamonds, it goes along the bottom of the quilt (the picture's upside down), and it's the row of diamonds #353 to 358. Out of a total of 469 pink diamonds. And there are 238 blue/green diamonds.

I had originally cut out green diamonds to go around the pink, and then finish with yellow half and quarter diamonds. Depending on how I feel when the pink to blue joining is done, I may skip the green and just go to yellow.

Have not decided on what to do about the back yet. Need to know how big the top ends up being first.

Onwards!