Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Triptych Tuesday

I've been plugging away on a commission and a former UFO:

Mondrian commission WIP
Mondrian commission


I'm currently adding sashing between the blocks. You can see above that I have the vertical sashing between the blocks on rows 1 and 2, but not 3 or any of the horizontal sashes.

B (squared) WIP
B (squared) -
if I knew how to make a superscript 2, I wouldn't spell it out...


I worked on this twice in over a year, so decided it was one of the WIPs/UFOs I needed to finish up this year.

And for perspective, I give you the punk:

Goofy helper


She's so funny! Each of the Mondrian blocks is 24" square, so this quilt will finish at 75" or so.

I'm also happy to report my sister-out-law has asked me to create a commission piece for her and her husband. After a few questions and a bit of back and forth, I'm really excited to get going! Have to finish up the lovely Mondrian commission, first, though.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Getting back on the wagon

Well, it appears I've missed the mark on one of my goals, already. It's been more than a week since my last post. Sorry! I've been working on a few things, but not making much progress that is ready to share on any.

First, I finished up a block for a friend from the flickrverse. She asked me to create a house that is approximately 4" square for a group project . I'm a big admirer of modern architecture, so I went straight to the web to find an inspiration pic. I knew this was going to call for precision and small pieces, so designed my first ever paper piecing foundation. It didn't turn out quite like I had planned, but I love it and hope Melinda does, too!

House for Melinda


I've also gotten all my B(squared) blocks trimmed up and ready to be joined with a tiny bit of lattice. It's going to be fabulous! I'm deciding whether to use it as my first stippled quilt (trying to be brave and jump in with Leah Day's instruction), do some straight line quilting, or create some fun motif.

B squared


I'm also very excited to be receiving my blocks from The 99 virtual quilting bee. There are only two packages outstanding. I'm cleaning up the threads on the back, making sure they're trimmed, and in some cases, peeling off the paper foundations to prepare. I just need to settle on a layout... It's going to be so pretty!!!

Almost ready!


Now, for the main project that has been taking my time: Around the World in a Day. You may remember I admitted before that it was a long-time UFO languishing in my hand quilting pile.

Around the World in a Day
Rule # 468: If you've laid out a quilt and there is a cat anywhere in the house,
said cat will immediately come running and sit on it.


Well, it's the project that has been taking most of my time, lately. I have the callouses growing on my middle finger and thumb to prove it. It's nearing completion (almost everything but the borders) and I'm thinking...I don't generally like borders. I don't want to quilt these borders. Should I just slice them off and bind it? (I did an envelope enclosure on the quilt forever ago, so it's not just a simple matter of unsewing them.) It's not going on my bed, but up in my living room where the colors will fit in better.

the problem with borders


If I keep the borders, I'll have to decide how to quilt them. No clue what approach I would take. Could I just do them on my machine instead of hand quilting? Is it cheating to mix quilting types because I'm admittedly lazy? Could I please just be done with this quilt????

I'd love to hear your thoughts.