Strip sets fixed and pressed

That's better.  Ready for cross cutting!

American Jane strip sets

They say that nothing good comes from late-night sewing.  Well, nothing good comes from early morning sewing when you haven't had enough sleep either. ::ahem::

Here is 13 lovely American Jane strip sets.  Only problem is, 5 of them are sewn completely wrong, LOL.  The red should be in the 2nd and 4th position.

Can you guess what I am making?  I have 60 strips left to sew.  Fabrics are ''Wee Play'', ''ABC123" and 'Pezzy Prints' by American Jane.

scrappy swoon quilt top

I finished my scrappy Swoon top, and it measures right about 86'', which is what I was aiming for.  Now to piece the backing and get it basted!  My mom is feeling better, so I might get that done later this week :)

Swoon quilt top

Well, my Swoon quilt top is finished.  Almost.

It finished at 78'' - so it needs a border added to make it a decent size quilt.

This is the backing I chose to use - I have 7+ yards of this (got it SUPER cheap at a fabric store close-out, I think it was like $2/yard and it is nice quality Benartex material too.)

So, the quilt could be huge if I wanted it to be, but I think around 86''ish is what I will shoot for......

I have LOTS of 2 1/2'' strips - maybe a piano key border?  Any other ideas?

Swooning oops

I wanted to work on my Metro Rings quilt today, but I am still waiting for the background fabric..... so I pulled out my Swoon project box and started to work on it.  Now I remember why I put it away, it's really a bit confusing to put together, LOL.  These blocks already were taken apart once, then I had one more oops I found when I went to press these partial blocks.  UGH.

I did finally get it together - this is my 7th block, only 2 more to go!

Backing for urban 9 patch

After seeing Sew Kind Of Wonderfuls blog post this morning, it gave me the incentive to get out my Urban 9-patch top and work on getting it finished.  It is 90'' square, so the same size as the last quilt I just finished (Scrappy Irish Chain), so I know that it can be basted at my mom's place - but that is pretty much the max for the room we baste quilts in.

I will need to wait to baste it for a while yet though - because my mom is sick and I don't want to bother her while she recovers.  (She has shingles on her face and in her mouth, OUCH!)

The backing had to be pieced in several pieces - two 95'' sections pieced together at the selvedge, then a 5''x95'' section (in 4 pieces!) added to the selvedge of one side to bring the backing up to 95'' square (I had to work with the pieces I had).  So, the backing is pressed and READY!  I will be binding it in the same white/white dotty print.  Lots of dots in this quilt!

And, YES, I am super duper paranoid to quilt this quilt top.  And even more paranoid to WASH it.  I don't remember what the red solid is, but I'm pretty sure I didn't prewash it.  I think it's a Kona red, so I am hoping hoping hoping it won't bleed.  Washing it scares me to death.  I will wash it with synthropol and a whole box of color catchers.  And lots of crossing fingers and toes.

not bleached white, not snow

I got my yardage of ''Snow'' I ordered, and it's NOT the right solid either!  Left is ''Snow'', right is ''Bleached White'', and the block in the middle is made with the mystery solid.....

 BUT, I think I figured out what the mystery bella color is!  I looked in my past Etsy purchases and found a purchase at the same time as the April Showers prints for ''Bleached White PDF''.  I think I just overlooked the PDF part back then - but apparently it IS different from regular ''bleached white''.  So, ordering some bleached white PDF and hopefully I can finish this quilt top, sheesh!

 I know the PDF part is ''prepared for dying'', just wondering if maybe it doesn't have the sizing in it?  Anybody know?

Moda Bake Shop - Scrappy Irish Chain

My latest quilt finish is featured over at Moda Bake Shop today!  This is my 10th MBS project!  It is one of my favorite quilts I have made in a while.  I just love postage stamp quilts - and to combine an Irish Chain and a postage stamp - LOVE!   It's a BIG 90'' square (and a whopping 2025  2''x2'' pieces in the front!), which is a little bit of a challenge on my sewing machine to quilt, so I decided to go with straight line quilting so I could use my walking foot :)

Unfortunately, the sun has not come out enough since I finished it for a good clear picture, booo.  I used 2 jelly rolls of ''Daysail'' by Bonnie and Camille - and 22 strips from a previous collection of theirs ''April Showers''.  I love how well these collections 'go' together!  They both are void of any mainly pink prints (yes!) and have lots of my favorite aqua/navy/reds prints.  For the 'chain', I chose to use Moda Bella ''Pond'' (it is VERY close to ''Betty Teal'') - it matches the color that is in small amounts of a few of the prints in both collections.  I think it would look equally well in many different colors - red, aqua, or even white or navy!  Oooooh, yes, I think it would look amaaaaazing in navy.

I did diagonal straight line quilting in every other square.  I love Aurifil thread - you can get so much more on a bobbin!  I think I only used 4 bobbins to quilt and bind this one, which is amazing!  And, doing the straight line quilting makes it go pretty fast too - it took me about 6 hours to complete the quilting, but my machine isn't real fast either.  Pedal to the metal!

backing:

I pieced the backing from 5 1/8'' yardage and leftovers from the front.  It was just 6'' too narrow with 2 panels of fabric to squeeze that top onto the backing.  So, I cut my 5 1/8 yards into two equal lengths of 92'' long and joined them together at the selvage (joining them at the selvage that does not have the printing on it with a 3/8'' seam).  At that point, it was about 86x92.  Then, I cut the backing lengthwise along the fold of one of the 92'' lengths.  I pieced 92'' long section that was solid/scrap squares/solid (all jelly roll strip width) and inserted it into that cut and that gave me the extra 6'' width that I needed to baste the quilt. I just used the scraps from the strip sets from the front to piece between two solid strips. It took 9 sections (+one square) from the leftover strip sets pieces and 3 Pond strips. I am glad I didn't insert it into the center, I really like it off-center!

Finished quilt sneek peek

I have a sneek peek of a quilt I have finished that you will be able to see all of tomorrow :)

Half a quilt top

Well, I went ahead and assembled the squares I had finished that were done with the ''Snow'' background.  I separated out the ones with the 'bleached white' background and I think I will make a baby quilt with those instead of using them in this top.  I just couldn't mix the two!  So, I ordered more 'Snow' and another jelly roll.  I am going to go with 8x8 blocks I think.  My blocks are 9'' finished, smaller than the pattern calls for because I didn't want the points of the intersecting triangles sticking out like in the original pattern - so that is a 72'' square quilt - so I MIGHT make it 10x10 instead - or maybe a border in snow, not completely sure yet....  I know only 72'' square isn't big enough for my taste....

Snow and White

I worked for a while on my Metro Rings blocks - then after I had them all trimmed up, I looked at the stack and quickly realized I messed up.

Ugh.  Apparently, I was first using ''Snow'' as the background fabric - I ran out, then ordered more thinking it was ''Bleached White'' because that is what Camille uses with her fabrics.....  So, now I have some partial blocks with all ''Snow'', some with all ''Bleached White'' and some with a mixture of the two.  Ugh ugh ugh.  I am not going to rip them out now, I am just going to go with it.  Maybe tea-dye the whole quilt when it's finished or something if it doesn't look right. ::SIGH::

Oh well.

I do have a tip for those strips sets though - there is a small piece at each end of the strip set left over after you are done cutting your arcs - well, I cut the selvedges off and joined them together at the straight edges and made a whole 'nother arc for each strip set! :)

Waste not, want not!