WIP Wednesday: the one with summer dresses!

It has been a busy and not-busy week.

The busy has been in general sewing activity. The not-so-busy has been in general quilting activity.

WIP

Butterick 5317 in Heirloom

I took it into my head to make this dress back in, oh, January. It would figure that I only start making it once it gets too cold to wear it!

Ignore the mess of my WIR! *facepalm*

I like the design, I like the way it looks on me, and it goes beautifully with the Joel Dewberry Heirloom range in voile!

However, I will be travelling to the US in August-September, specifically San Francisco, Estes Park in Colorado, Raleigh in North Carolina, and New York City, and so I am hoping for sunny skies, warm weather, and the opportunity to wear this in temperatures above 20C!

Santorini Sun And Sky

I have otherwise been binding one of my quilt for the show - the Santorini Sun And Sky.

I still have to make the sleeve for the hanging rod. And one for the Eternity Quilt. This will be a new experience... *meeps*

things to be done

And there's the Blogger's Quilt Festival on this week and next, until the 31st May! So many pretty quilts! I'm going to enter a couple (eternity, and the new york cat mat) and we'll see how we go!

Short and sweet!

What have you been doing this week? Have you linked up at Freshly Pieced?

WIP Wednesday #14

I figured I should start numbering these. :)



Not a lot of progress this week - mostly finishing the borders on the Kaleidoscope quilt for Don't Call Me Betsy's QAL:



Colour is slightly yellowish because I took it on my smartphone camera.

Since I'm trying to piece together the back, I'm almost certainly not going to get it done by the due date. Just don't have the time right now.

Some shots setting up the back:

A block:


Most of the back fabrics laid out:


The purple will go all the way to the edge, but I'm trying different fabrics for the middle section to see how they work out.

Then it's just basting, quilting, and binding and then it's done!! (Okay, so maybe I'm never gonna do this again - it's just too much effort!)

I'm going to present Kate and Chris' quilt tonight at bible study: hope they like it!

finished quilt! and Blogger ugh

I just spent the last 90 minutes jiggling Blogger to display my new header properly - by which I mean, not off the page, approximately centered, and with the blog body and the widgets column correctly aligned under it.

What a bloody circus! And I'm a computer programmer by trade, too!

Anyway, I now have a header that actually displays a few of my finished quilts - since it is a quilting blog!

Which brings me to my next finished quilt!



It's 18 months late, but at least it's done. Poor Megs, probably wonder if she was ever going to get that quilt!

Just in time for the worst of winter, perhaps?

--

I've picked new colours for the Kaleidoscope Quilt-Along:



The colour values aren't so dark this time, so I'm hoping it'll fit the pale fabric better.

kaleidoscope argh

So I laid out a few blocks this evening to get a feel for the colours of the quilt.



I don't like the colours. Maybe because the pencils I used to colour in the plan were more saturated and so, brighter. I thought it would be okay.

It's not.

This quilt is speaking to me, but all it's saying right now is MEH.

*wonders where to now*

kaleidscope - DONE and DONE!

Ever had a project you just wanted to get finished and out of your hair?

This is that project for me. At least for this year! (So far, anyway!)

TA-DA!!


It's almost certainly the most finicky quilt I've ever made, and I'm still not sure that the fabrics are right for the quilt type itself, but what's done is done and I'm not going to unpick it all!

Out in the sun in the garden:


And another, closer up.


I might do some patching for the back, but the goal right now is more to get it actually quilted - along with the other four quilt tops I've made this year.

Next up is the quilt I'm going to call "Disappearing Imperials" which is a gift for my mum. Because if I don't get it done soon, she may disown me...

WIP Wednesday - nearly there!

So close, I can taste it!

It actually looks kinda okay.

The borders (outside the dark line) are just laid out right now, not sewn on:





It still seems awfully busy, and the seams are horrible when viewed up close. But the overall pattern is pretty good, I think!

I'm going to try to finish this on Friday. It's been lingering so long that it's become a millstone around my neck and I want it gone and done!

DONE IS THE ENGINE OF MORE.

And once it is...

I'm thinking that I need some very simple projects for a while. Super-simple and easy, after the nightmare complexity of the kaleidoscope quilt.

So, forthwith are my ideas for the next three quilts (not counting the kaleidoscope quilt-along that I'll be doing with Don't Call Me Betsy):

1. hourglass blocks in purple-green-black batiks
2. disappearing nine-patch with Robert Kaufman's Imperial Collection
3. Mountain Majesty in Harvest fabrics

Very very simple, chain-piecing, easy-to-assemble-and-sew quilts.

A good idea right now since I'm burned out on the complicated after Supernova and Kaleidoscope.

WIP Weekly, fabric purchases, and colour choices

To start with: WIP Weekly





The pic's rotated itself through 90degrees, thanks to Flickr - I think it was too wide for Flickr's parameters, so it turned it over.

But the circles and diamonds are very clear now, although I still think the fabric choices are too busy for the kaleidoscope pattern. My bad. And, uh, almost nothing meets at a point. *coughs*inexact seaming again*coughs*

I am not the most precise quilter - how y'all manage such exacting points and precision I don't know but I really admire! People say that it helps to starch your fabrics to keep them in shape...I'm definitely considering that.

Then again, it might just be me...

I kinda rewarded myself for some (non-quilting) work done with a spending spree at Sew Fresh Fabrics...

I bought about, oh, eight yards of various fabrics. Mostly stash-builders, because I looked through my fabrics and I have a lot of pre-cuts, but not quite as much yardage as I'd like (except in batiks, where I have a whole box full of batiks...I love batiks).

A handful of the fabrics I picked:



Nice punchy colours to add to my stash. I need more bold colours. And some blender fabrics. But that's for later perhaps.

This week was a week for spending:

I also bought a full yard of each fabric in Kaufman's Valley Of The Kings Jewel Colourstory. Hopefully I can put it together in a way that does the fabric justice!



Finally, here's the fabric choices for the Kaleidoscope Quilt-Along at Don't Call Me Betsy:



After the craziness of the Sanctuary Kaleidoscope, I'm going for something a lot more visually stable. A white almost-solid, a leafy autumn pattern, and a bunch of strong colour accents:



I'm hoping it'll produce a quilt with some good movement, but also a nice stable pattern that doesn't give people migranes.

WIP Wednesday: the Sanctuary Kaleidoscope

I finished the Moda Jelly Roll competition design. Now I have to put together instructions for it and photograph it. Easy peasy! (hah)

Which brings us to the quilt for April 2011 (we're ahead, I know; that's okay) - the Sanctuary Kaleidoscope.



I really like the fabric choices in this FQ bundle - Berry Sanctuary, I think it was called at Fat Quarter Quilting. So bright and beautifully contrasting!

The fabric stack:


The fabric spread:


This was my first attempt at laying out the pieces in a kaleidoscope:


That was just a starter to get the feel of the colours and fabrics and to work out how it was all going to fit together. And whether it was going to fit together.

Initially, I liked the strong patterns in the layout but then while sewing the blocks together, I decided I wanted to break it up more, which gave me this:



I'm not sure I like it so much now: the pattern gets too easily lost in the noise. It's salvageable - there's still have about half to two-thirds of the blocks to make - that's only 26 blocks there and I was hoping for an 8x8 block quilt (at least 60"x60") which means another 40 or so to go.

Redesigning with an eye to what I still have and what effect I want would probably be the best process to finding a good solution. Lay out the existing blocks and work with/design around those until I have something that maintains the shapes and colour blends, but still contains enough diversity to make it interesting for the eye.

I also need to be more careful when sewing - at least one of the blocks in there was supposed to be pieced differently and then I got my wedges out of order while sewing and it all went haywire.

This weekend is either going to be the Weekend Of Working It All Out, or the Weekend Of Sitting In A Blue Funk Wondering Why I Do This To Myself. I have Sunday mostly free at least...