Lone star - quilted

My goal for November is this wall hanging aka Lone Star (tutorial) made with the Cherry Christmas line. I'm more than happy to claim this thing quilted. Quilting is not my fav part. I'm very unconfident when it comes to quilting. It's based on my experiences. There are not many. Plus I realized my table is way too high I would need to drop the sewing machine down. I tried to use higher chair but my feet were almost flying in the air, lol. I really need to think about how to make this work.

I'm still learning how to hold the quilt while quilting so my machine would produce even stitches. There are some places where the stitches are a bit smaller than they should. This size is pretty fine for learning. This time around I actually used a lot of pins. All of my pins to be precise which I use for regular size quilt which means I need to buy more. My fav thing when it comes to quilting is masking tape. The spacing in between the lines is based on the size of my masking tape. The quilting is pretty simple but it compliments the design well. The star itself was a bit bulky at the center so I ran straight lines across the whole star coming through the center. You might see it better on the back side. No fancy fabric for the back as I feel like there is no point for it. Plus I wanted to stay away from prints. I'm ready to make the binding and hopefully I'll meet my goal.

Linking up with WiP Wednesday

and 

Making Christmas - continues

I spent the first part of week with the Bside I shared but I also wanted to get back on that Making Christmas stuff. So I picked up the needles and made my girl long time promised sleeping socks. I'll share more on the process during Janine's Wool on Sundays.

Plus I made few felted balls to make the jewelry on my list.

I have also tried one vinyl pouch just to freshen up my memory on making those, lol. This pouch is based on this tut even though I sew the zipper differently.

Making Christmas list:
- Christmas theme wall hanging IN PROGRESS - basting awaiting
- Christmas ornaments for local swap
- winter/Christmas theme house pouch
- vinyl pouches as gifts 1 FINISHED
- pillow covers
- 241 tote pattern by Noodlehead FABRICS PICKED
- felted jewelry IN PROGRESS
- knitted socks 1 PAIR FINISHED
- mug rugs with pocket on the back 1 FINISHED
- Christmas Robin wreath by Kristy 1 FINISHED

Not much but any finish is fine with me.
Linking up with TGIFF,  Crazy mom quilts and

B side

Last week when I finished the quilt top Summertime sadness I talked with my friend about the B side. Thank you all for all your positive feedback. I felt like I created something special. Being in such good mood I pulled out the remaining fabrics and cut them into strips. When I saw all those stripes I got an idea of jelly roll kind of quilt. I have never done any so why not.

I can't help it but I'm sorting by the color order. I didn't like it too much at the beginning but as more and more colors occurred on my wall it started to look better. 

Those with white background didn't seem to fit at first. 

Not bad but it wasn't big enough. Lucky for me I have only sewed together first couple of rows. I pulled out all the leftovers and enlarged the blue and green section. It's not in exact color order since I didn't want to use seam ripper and I felt like I can do a little mixture. The pink section will be there as well but my designer's wall is not big enough to hold the whole thing. Here's what I'm looking at right now.

I'm only sewing couple of rows at the time as there are other projects screaming for attention. Once I'm done it'll go to local quilting pro. I know her personally so I'm excited about that. She only has pages in Czech but you can have a peak at her gallery which doesn't really need any words. 

Linking up with

Summertime sadness

You know people are naming their quilts and I thought what if I'll be naming my quilts by the song titles. This one isn't really a quilt yet but Summertime sadness came to mind. Not the slow version of Lana Del Rey song but the catchy dance tune which they still play on the radio around here. Even though I like both versions. I do have some songs associated with some people or certain memories so why not quilts. Good idea? Bad idea? Tell me what you think about it :-) One day I might do it the other way round. Make a quilt based on a song. I already know which one that would be, lol.

I know none of you really liked the idea of adding half column to the side but I did not have enough fabrics to make the whole column and I did not want this quilt to be skinny rectangle. So there it is and it looks just fine to me. For those of you unaware I made this quilt based on Broken Herringbone tut by Anne @ Play Crafts.

My fav part is the mixture of Urban mod and Oval elements.

The only tip I should give you based on my experience is watch the center of the block. It so easy to get off center. The ironing part and laying on the cutting board is really important and you should not pull your fabrics. All of my columns are actually different width due to my not so perfect trimming skills, lol. All together it ended up as 42.5 x 73".

The picture taking is getting harder. The days are getting short and the weather is not suitable either. I would like to say my part is done but I'll be doing the B side as well and it'll be even more colorful than the front. Stay tuned.

I ironed the seams off the white sashing and towards it while joing the columns.

Linking up with TGIFF and Crazy mom quilts.

Christmas Robin and Lone Star

My latest posts are mostly about Making Christmas projects. When I first read about this hop I wasn't sure about joining but I got inspired by the WK2 post. As a result I made colorful skull.

WK3 followed with Christmas Robin wreath created by Kristy and here we go. I got the wreath.

Quick snap with the paper still on. Something is missing?

I copied the fabrics Kristy used.

Oh yeah, here's the ribbon but no daylight.

I like 3D embellishments so I alternate the ribbon a bit. I made Christmas pouch while ago and I just loved the look of the ribbon. Not sure if it works for the wreath as well. I have to sleep on it. I made the wreath out of one jelly roll stripe. It fits just right.

Good for me we don't have a use for card holder M-R shared during WK4. I have no idea what's coming up. I hope to make at least few things from my list while adding these extras, lol. Let's check out my progress.

Making Christmas list:
- Christmas theme wall hanging IN PROGRESS
- Christmas ornaments for local swap
- winter/Christmas theme house pouch
- vinyl pouches as gifts
- pillow covers
- 241 tote pattern by Noodlehead FABRICS PICKED
- felted jewelry
- knitted socks
- mug rugs with pocket on the back 1 FINISHED
- Christmas Robin wreath by Kristy 1 FINISHED

I worked on my wall hanging. I followed tutorial for Scrappy Lone Star I got to the stage of cutting 8 squares but I totally did not understand how I was supposed to lay it. It just did not make sense to me. So I left the instructions and ended up using 6 squares. I cut 4 of them into 1/2 and 2 into 1/4. It would be better if the other two were 1inch larger as you can see on the pictures above they end up a bit smaller.

Have you noticed totally different border? I want the red star to be the main thing so subtle border suits better for my plan. It's out of the jelly roll as well. 

Little bulk in the middle but that's fine with me.

This one is especially for Sandra. Not all the points are sharp :-)

My fabrics for 241 tote. Yay!

I'm linking up with TGIFF and Crazy Mom quilts. Plus PPP.

Lone star = November goal

I wanted to update my Making Christmas list and I though I should link up to November Goal - Lovely Year of Finishes as well. Why not. Ehmm. I did not want to bring it up but I failed with my October goal again. Third time in a row. But this time I'm telling you I'm going to succeed!

My goal is wall hanging. I was lucky to win jelly roll and I picked Cherry Christmas. Thank you Janeene (Fabric patch)! I searched for ideas and I decided on Scrappy Lone Star. Well mine is not really scrappy and I'm having trouble with being random as well. The side plan is to add advent calendar function to it. Not sure if that'll be success but you bet I got plan in my head already.

I did not wait to long to cut into it. There is no reason to stash and you'll see much more coming out of this jelly roll. Love it!

I'm just fine with 3 colors only.

I sewed the diamonds together and trying to decide which fabric I prefer for the borders.

Making Christmas list:

- Christmas theme wall hanging IN PROGRESS
- Christmas ornaments for local swap
- winter/Christmas theme house pouch
- vinyl pouches as gifts
- pillow covers
- 241 tote pattern by Noodlehead
- felted jewelry
- knitted socks
- mug rugs with pocket on the back
- Christmas Robin wreath by Kristy ADDED

Christmas Robin prep work done. Yes I'm using strip of jelly roll. Fits just right.

Linking up with Making Christmas and WiP Wednesday

MSBHQAL

Yesterday I linked up the picture above to the QAL flickr group. That's my broken herringbone still in progress. I received comment from Molly that I'm allowed to join the final linky even though it's not finished. Pretty cool, right. So I worked on it until I completed the third row.

This is special kind of project to me. Those fabrics I use are not mine. I'm making the quilt top for a friend that runs fabric shop. She'll have it displayed in her shop and plans to take it to local quilt show to her booth as well. This is a bit dreaming out loud at this stage as we are talking 2014 here.

Anyway the reason why I wanted to join the QAL was because I fell in love with those rainbow blocks made by Molly but at the end I realized I only like it when placed in ROYGBIV order. I'm not only matching freak but I also have some kind of disorder when it comes to color placement, lol. I'm not able to appreciate the look and drama effect when placed in different order. This project was and still is quite challenge since those fabrics don't really match. The bottom part was a bit easier since there is lots of Urban mod line so it went together without too much hassle. Anyway I'm still unsure about the whole thing. The usual doubts some of us have.

 

There are some adjustments to be made before joining each strip together into rows. I should also make it a bit wider. It measures around 39x73". The question is if I should add a little strip made out of leftovers to the side. I worry that it would twist to much and wouldn't be worth it at the end since part of it would disappear in the binding. The other option is to make the sashing in between the rows wider. That way it would end up as 45x73". We'll see.

Thank you Molly for sharing your sparkle and encouragement. Great to see all those different versions made. Check it out at the linky here.

And Sew On - Show and Tell

Welcome to my Show and Tell edition. I haven't made all 9 blocks featured during this BoM and let's face it if I haven't done it till now I probably won't do it any time soon. I have the scissor block printed and prepared but that's about it.

My first paper pieced block ever. I didn't know anything about paper piecing when I started. I didn't cut the seam allowances so it ended pretty messy on the back side. I wasn't happy about my fabric choice either and I got totally different idea later on. I knew from the very beginning that I won't have space for wall hanging consisting of all nine block so I decided I'll cover up my bookshelf which I use for storing fabrics and other stuff. I wanted to work with rainbow colors and create the blocks monochromatic. As you can see I got the orange and pink. I worked with some selvages in those blocks so I added some to create this shelf cover. I also had to add a bit of red to have the colors in right order. Yeah, I'm a bit color order obsessed.

Even though I don't like the other side too much I wanted to try out double sided cover. I had some eyelets on hand which I never used so I tested them as well. According to the handy man in the house I put them the other way round but that's fine with me. It works!

Here's the "before" photo. Not too bad and not too messy as I don't reach up there without a chair so I wasn't able to pile up things. I won't show you the rest of this bookshelf. Maybe one day if I cover it up or finally clean up. We'll see.

Paper piecing technique might not be my favorite one but I'm glad I gave it go. I'm pretty happy about the outcome plus I definitely learned something new. Thank you Kristy for sharing your passion with us!

I'm a bit late but I'm linking up to TGIFF and Crazy mom quilts as well. Plus