Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Work in Progress Wednesday; the new year begins!

I am resisting the feeling of having over committed myself.  I am also resisting the need to commit to tidying up my sewing space.  Frenzied sewing would be easier if I could FIND what I need but I don't have the time to tidy.  Let's forget that for the last six months I've been saying I would tidy in January...  But moving right along!

a quilt ate my machine
Taken this morning after Mr Husband removed the ironing board to iron his shirt.
I use the ironing board behind my machine as extra surface space when quilting

Today I finished quilting the sashing of Mr 6's Rainbow I Spy quilt!!  Holy moly I had a lot of tension problems which only got worse when I tried to use a 5,000m cone of Aurifil.  I'm hoping that the purchase of a good large cone stand will help with the tension problems.  But to get through the last bit of quilting I would some thread onto a bobbin and used that for the top thread.  Irritating but it did the job :)

close up back rainbow ispy

The sashing was funny to quilt   I went into it thinking a lot about planning your quilting.  It has worked out well but I don't think I will quilt this way again.  For example, I took the below photo just as I was finishing up.  I'm not sure if you can tell but because this quilt was really a bit of improve the sashing is all over the place.  It meant that I really had to stop regularly and plan where I was going to next (and not just next but the next 5 turns or so) so that I didn't quilt myself into a dead end.

planning your quilting


I've added a line to show you how I went about this last section (which was surprisingly difficult, so sorry it's totally dodgy!).  I guess I like logical puzzles and this was a bit of that :)

planning your quilting shows path

I still have to quilt 3 borders and I'm planing a mix of SLQ, hand quilting and possibly a little more FMQ.  Mr Husband has started to hint at finishing up and moving on to other things (I suspect he is thinking of things that other people might pay for LOL).  Despite the tension issues I love how the quilting looks, especially on the scrappy rainbow strip on the back.

back of rainbow ispy


Having finished quilting the sashing I promptly moved on to my first bee block for the year.  Jane is Queen Bee this month and she has selected this beautiful block from During Quiet Time.  Jane also mentioned that she preferred we use Spotlight homespun for the background material.  Knowing that I had a tiny bit left from when Fiona generously sent me some, I got cutting and was pleased to find I had just enough :)

use every last scrap

I have used one of my favourite prints for the main square and selected coordinating prints from my stash for the HST.  I'm not too familiar with HSTs and two of the prints are directional so I'll just put my head down and try my best.

janes bee block wip

I need to get on to Lara's bee block for Wombat Stew soon, but she has asked that we make the block from our favourite prints so she knows that it's us when she looks at the blocks.  So I've hit a wall trying to select my favourite print LOL  But I'll get there!

Speaking of selecting fabric.  I am joining in Kristy's awesome sewing themed BOM.  Because I want to turn the blocks into a quilt I decided I should start by selecting all the fabrics rather than just randomly choosing them each month.  Well, that was a fun morning :)  I came up with these prints and immediately realised that they match Cuzco perfectly.  So I went through my charm squares and selected a couple to order FQs of to use for this BOM.  What a great reason to order some Cuzco ;)  Thanks Kristy!

fabric for sew bom

My final WiP isn't really yet but I am thinking about it (including at 2am last night when Little Miss woke up and I signed up as registration had opened and then was so excited that I couldn't get back to sleep!).  I have signed up for the Curves Class over at Stitched in Color.  I can't wait!  I'm so excited!  Considering it's taking up so much thought space I figured it is technically a WiP ;)

One final WiP is my very first Dresden Plate!  I have signed up for the Dare to Dresden blog hop over at Sew We Quilt.  Not yet having selected my fabrics I can tell you that this will definitely be a cushion cover for that I can set aside with a future stash of cushion covers for when we move into our new house in 13 months.  I'm planning lots of quilty goodness and what better place to start than a Dresden?

Have you already got a WiP list for 2013 as long as your arm?  It's definitely a sewing themed year for me :)

I am linking up with Work In Progress Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

8 comments:

  1. I love your quilting on the I Spy quilt, I want to try pebbling but haven't yet. I have a few (okay - quite a few!)projects on the books for this year but I have also decided to join the 13 in 2013 UFO Challenge at 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks Blog. Not sure whether I'll finish a project a month but I'm going to give it a crack. I already feel more organised just putting each project in its own numbered bag to pull out when its number comes up! http://www.52quilts.com/2012/12/ready-set-13-in-2013-ufo-challenge.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your rainbow stripes on the back are great! I love how you turned "thought space" into a WIP--chuckled out loud on that one because I think I do the very same thing! The quilt will be amazing. Happy new year!

    ReplyDelete
  3. great projects, that little robot fabric with the pink and orange is absolutely darling! I am trying to not over commit as well. I have a tendency to do that :( I am stopping by from the WIP hop, I would love to have you come by and see what I have been up to :) http://domesticdeficitdisorder.blogspot.com/2013/01/wip-wednesday.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dresdens are fun! I did a couple last year as part of a BOM. I really like the quilting you did on the Rainbow. Your 2013 sounds a lot like mine :) Lots of stuff to do!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love the rainbow stripes on the i-spy quilt. What a great touch. And the bubble quilting that is so fun. I know it eats up a ton of thread but it is such a nice quilting touch.

    ReplyDelete
  6. So many fun WIPs!! Have fun with the curves class. Between bees, BOMs, and classes it sounds like a tidy sewing space may need to wait until next year at your new house!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I can't wait to see the finished piece!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for commenting, I really appreciate it! I am going to try and answer all comments via email rather than in the comments section as I have done previously. If you are a no reply blogger please leave your email address with your comment or check back for a reply here :) Happy sewing!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...