Sunday's Summary ~ Almost a finish!

Last week I participated in the Blog Hop so I didn't post my Sunday Summary...but I was quilting! 

I am almost finished with the triangle quilt that I posted about here. Yesterday being International Quilting Day, I spent time sewing on the binding and hand stitching it. I am a little over 1/2 way done with the hand stitching.

This is an art interpretation quilt that I still can't say too much about yet. I am so excited about this as it is my first such quilt. 

In honor of International Quilting Day, I watched several episodes of The Quilting Show which were free to non-members this weekend. So I hooked my iPad up to the television and while I hand stitched the binding, I watched

#509 Machine Quilting Magic with Joanie Zeier Poole

#1111 Pleasure of Painting Fabrics with Cindy Walter

Of coarse, I had to stop a few times to take some notes on some tips and techniques. 

I also watched episode #103 Visualizing Color with Joan Wolfrom.

I'm hoping to have time to view a few more episodes.

I also took time to make this banner for my niece and nephew to match the quilt I made for their 1st baby due next month. 

Their nursery theme is airplanes...colors are red white and blue...for baby boy on the way. This was hung to decorate at her shower at work. 

I also played a little with my ongoing hexagon project. I often make hexagons when I don't have a knitting or other hand stitch project to take along to my knitting club on Monday evenings. 

Seems I've been working on these off and on for a long time and this is what I have so far (one more row of scrappy colored flowers finished.) I have been working on the Kona snow flowers lately. I can see from the size that this will continue to be an ongoing project for some time...and all the connecting hexis still need to be done. 

Did you do something special to celebrate International Quilting Day? 

Sunday's Summary

It has been a week and it is time for my Sunday Summary of what's been happening here. I got a good amount done this week (at least in my sewing room) but the most exciting is....a finish! The baby airplane quilt is finished...quilting, binding, labeling, and washing. I'm named this quilt Wings!

Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating today...so no pretty outside pictures.

Besides quilting in the ditch around each airplane... I  FMQ in the negative space to resemble isobars or wind currents. The squares formed where the 4 propellers come together, I quilted a twirling circle to give the concept of the propeller movement. In the border, I FMQ the saying..."Give me wings and I will fly." The font is long and wispy to give the feel of a sky writer and I added a little plane. 

Finished in time for next week's baby shower!

Purple is the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Here is my block! To see some inspiration, click on the button on my side bar and it will take you to the challenge and link up. 

February is also the final month in the BOM with Quilt Story. This month the block challenge was 4 patch. I decided to do a disappearing 4 patch. 

Since I made all my blocks 6" instead of 12"...I will be framing each block in Kona Snow to give the quilt a more modern feel...a lot more negative space. 

Next month is the reveal!

I have also almost finished the quilting on my Craftsy BOM quilt. 

All the blocks are now done and I am quilting the border. 

Stay tuned...it should be finished soon!

Progress Report

 My DH was out of town on business all week which gave me time to spend in my sewing room. However, Monday is Knitting Club so there was no stitching done...but I have finally finished my first sock! I have barely started the matching pair.

I did work diligently on completing the Airplane blocks I showed last week. I had a lot of fun paper piecing these blocks! Then I arranged and rearranged the blocks to decide on the layout of the quilt. I tried 4 different layouts...and the winner is...

I really like the fun secondary design shape that emerged with this layout. I  also had to make a decision on the borders. Since the blocks are 6" finished...the quilt was only 24" x 36"...a bit smaller than I wanted. I added a 1" gray inner border, then a 1" scrappy border with small squares of the fabrics used in the planes, and finally a 3" outer border in Kona Snow (the background fabric.) The quilt is now 34" x 40"...a nice size for a baby quilt. I will sandwich and quilt this week! 

And since this week closed out the month of January...here is my completed pages of my Art Journal ~ 365 Challenge.

I am not an artist...my lettering needs a bit of improvement but I did jot down an event from every day...which in itself is an accomplishment. I have tried keeping journals before and have failed so I'm pretty happy with it. 

What have you been working on? 

Soon it will be time to enjoy the Superbowl! Maybe I'll get some knitting done but probably not Ü.

The Weekly Progress Report

Although I feel like I spent a bit of time quilting this week, I am at that stage where there isn't much to show...yet. 

I started quilting my Craftsy BOM quilt and have worked on 10 of the 20 blocks. Since this is a sampler quilt, each block is quilted differently. For the most part, I am straight line quilting using echo quilting 1/4" from the edge. Here are a few of the blocks.

Sorry for the poor lighting but the weather hasn't been cooperating for good photos

 Due to some time issues, I am putting the rest of the quilting on hold for a short while. Even though I have known about this deadline, it is quickly approaching. So on Thursday night, with graph paper and pencil in hand, I started designing a baby quilt. 

Yesterday I made 10 of the paper pieced blocks...14 more to go. I'm loving this block and can't wait to put it together. Aren't they just too cute?

On Friday night I attended a lecture and trunk show by Karen Combs at my LQS. Karen is known for her quilts of illusions as well as being an author, pattern and fabric designer.  Here are some of her illusion quilts using her fabrics. The illusions of 3D are created by the color values used. 

I apologize for the poor quality pictures.

Each quilt took on a different look when you turned it 90° or more. Here is an example of a 180° turn.

This was one of my favorites. I love how this cube is floating. 

Until next time...