Spring Sprouts update

I tweaked the embroidery designs again to include the quilting and decided to go with the 8" square with a cream background. I figured since I was already doing most of the work in the hoop, I may as well go for it and do the quilting, too! I really love the result. It's still Edyta Sitar's design, but it looks more modern.

I have 18 out of 25 blocks stitched. The finished quilt will be a 5x5 grid and about 64" square. After the blocks are done I have to start stitching the 4" sashing pieces, which will also be done in the hoop. In keeping with the modern+traditional mix in the quilt, I think I'll design the sashing with parallel lines of quilting in the background and a feather design for the star.

This quilt is slow going because I really only work on it during the club sessions at The Sewing Circle, and I'll have to step it up if I want to finish it before the end of the year. My goal is to have it finished to I can hang it in the front room of our new house in January.

Spring Sprouts quilt

The Sewing Circle (a quilt shop in Ft. Collins) is running a Spring Sprouts BOM club, which started last Saturday. This is my first experience sewing at a quilt shop, and it was a lot of fun. I was able to focus on my project, yet I also did a lot of socializing. I'll definitely do more!

I finished two applique blocks during the club session on Saturday, and then I got one more done at home (so far). I would have finished more, but I had to use a tiny pair of scissors instead of my Ginghers, which were out getting sharpened.

Since I mentioned it, I would be VERY cautious about having your nice scissors sharpened. The guy who did mine ruined the tips. I looked at new Ginghers at Joann, but the tips aren't nearly as nice. I'm not sure if something has changed. I am sick and more than a little upset about it. We'll see if he can make it right, but I seriously doubt it's possible.

I'm using various charm packs by Fig Tree & Co for the stars, and they will be scrappy (I won't attempt to make all points of a star in the same fabric). I bought a half yard each of Moda Bella solids in the warm pastels color collection (plus two additional greens) for the applique. Background fabric for applique is natural linen.

I used 6D embroidery software to change the satin stitch to blanket stitch, and I resized the applique down from 8" to 120 mm squares. The scale between the stars and applique will be a little different as my applique squares are smaller. I plan to make the sashing 3" wide, so the star centers will be 3" square. I'm also thinking about setting it on point instead of square.

Lots of new stuff on my Flickr photostream

summerssl's photostream on Flickr.

First finish of 2014

The quilt design is from Quick Weekend Quilts by Debbie Mumm, and I really did get the quilt top done in a weekend. I actually made three of these quilt tops, then decided to join two of them, add some more on the sides, and a make a queen size quilt for mom. The big quilt is nearly done, as well.

For fabrics I used the 2013 Hoffman Challenge fabric, its companion fabrics, and few other prints that went well. The solid is Moda Bella in Paper Bag.

I used my embroidery machine to quilt the large squares using the Bouquet of Sashiko designs from Embroidery Library. I love the precision and detail of embroidery machine quilting, but it takes too much time to do more than a throw size. The rest of the quilt is just quilted in the ditch along every seam and the queen size will just be ditched in rows along the horizontal seams (I skipped the vertical seams).

I did the binding using the Susie's Magic Binding steps from the 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks blog. I love this binding because it's done completely by machine and the little flange looks really nice.

Update: I finished and delivered the big quilt to my mom. She loves it!

Fall colors

Every time I try to make some progress on this painting, it evolves into something abstract. But I think maybe I've captured the essence of the photo.

This is what it looked like this morning. The trunks are still under there, somewhere.

Stage 2

For better or worse, I played with it more today. "It's going to change a lot" was an understatement.

Inspiration in progress

The beginning of a painting based on my dad's photograph. I forgot to lay down a base coat of extender, so you can really see my brush strokes. I think I like it in the lower left because it gives the impression of underbrush. This is just the first layer of the background, so it's going to change a lot before it's done.

I used hooker's green, raw umber, ochre yellow, and titanium white.