Monthly Archives: November 2014

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October is over. Heck, so is a whole lot of November. It's about time for an update on what I got done last month. I finished a philanthropy quilt and made some progress on my IG Mini Swap quilt, but I also made progress on some other projects. Here's a quick glimpse of some of my quilting progress in October.

Car Baby Quilt

I think I got excited about baby quilts because the size is so nice. I pulled a few fabrics from my stash and made this fast little quilt top. (Purchased the border fabric at PIQF.) I don't have a baby in mind to give this to. Of course, it also isn't finished yet. I'm thinking it might be my first quilt for sale on Etsy.

baby quilt

 

Little Letters

I thought this project by Temecula Quilt Company was adorable. I've only got A through F done (in two color ways), because I'm not loving the design of G. I thought I would redesign it, but now I think perhaps I should get over it and just piece the G block. I did, however, pick my fabrics through N. That put me ahead of the game when I did it. Of course, with two letters a week coming out (they just posted U) I'm now sorely behind. little letters

 

2006 Mystery Quilt

I made some really decent progress getting the quilt top together, but I didn't quite finish it before something in life dictated that I not have a bunch of fabric laying all over the floor. Just need to piece together a few rows and add on a border and the top will be done! Perhaps I should get this one down in time to be a Christmas gift. 2006 mystery quilt

 

Block Party Blocks

The Block Party block for October in my guild was Birds in the Air. I made two of these blocks to participate. I'm not a particular fan of half square triangles, so I like that this pushed me to just do it. I think the tip of squaring up individual blocks is key to things going well with HSTs. I like how the Block Party pushed me outside my comfort zone. It reminds me of the first time I came to a meeting. I had been stalking the website before I joined and was excited to participate. Then the month that I was going the block of the month was applique, which I totally wouldn't have tried at the time if not for that push.

birds in the air

October was busy with running my first 10k, a foot injury, a family vacation to Disneyland and the kids and I being plagued by illness. Looking back I'm surprised I got any sewing done. Last weekend I threw my husband a 40th birthday party, so I had to break from my sewing for at least a few days. I really need to focus on some of these works in progress... but I'm already queuing up stacks of fabric for new projects. New fabric is so fun!

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Despite my lack of posting, I have been sewing. (More on that in some upcoming posts.) However, I was doing some serious procrastinating on getting started on my IG Mini Swap. I think it was a bit intimidating to see everyone's amazing mosaics of design inspiration as well as the beautiful work that the early birds were already turning out (see #igminiswap on Instagram). Oh, and I'm also just a procrastinator at heart. :-)

Last month at my quilt guild meeting the speaker was Rita Hutchens. I was amazed by her "Totally Tubular Technique of strip piecing" and bought a couple of her patterns, including the one for making flying geese, so I decided to try it out. I picked out a blue and an orange blender and used the same light grey background fabric to start two sets of flying geese. I had no idea what size they were going to end up or how or if I'd use them for my swap mini quilt. Here's my first tube:

strip pieced tube of blue and grey fabric

About halfway through the process I decided on alternating blue and orange geese. When I was done (using half of my geese) I had a three foot strip of little geese. They each measure about 1 1/8" tall and 2 1/4" wide finished.

alternating orange and blue flying geese strip

yellow, grey, lime and sea green sample fabrics to potentially pair with orange and blue geese
some of the fabrics I chose from

Okay, now what? I knew I needed to add some more fabrics and decided I would use the geese as a first border around a center block, so I went to work choosing a 9" finished center block.

9 inch green and blue start block in progress

Here's where I'm at now. I'll add one or two more borders to bring it to between 18" and 24" square finished.

mini medallion quilt in lime, blue, orange and grey with first border on

My ALYoF November goal is to finish piecing the quilt top, which will leave me a week to quilt it before mailing. I'm really enjoying a bunch of firsts: first swap, first flying geese, first tube piecing, first medallion style quilt.

Thanks for visiting!

Linking up to ALYoF November Goal Party and WIP Wednesday.