Tuesday, September 18, 2012

W.I.P. Wednesday

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

**I am having a 1 year blog anniversary giveaway which will run until September 26.  You are all welcome to enter here**

Another week has gone by and my machine has been humming!  In the last week I have finished an {un}nesting block, a sketchbook cover, and a bee block.

Also as I posted earlier this week, I've been doing some free motion quilting practice, with pretty good success!  I'm not sure if I'm quite ready to try it on a "real" project yet (or maybe I should just jump right in!) but I'm having a lot of fun practicing and realizing that yes, I can do it.  :)

Clockwise from top left:  Loopy Flowers, Concentric Circles (from Angela Walters' book), Echo Shortcut, Pebbles

I also started a small quilt project using a charm pack of Cuzco by Kate Spain.  I was so inspired by this simple HST quilt made by Lu, so I decided to use my charm pack for a version of my own.  This will finish at about 32"x40".   A question - have any of you doubled up batting in a quilt?  I have some cotton batting that I would like to use up, it is SO very thin so I was thinking of doing a double layer for this quilt.  Any opinions?

cuzco half square triangle baby quilt

I also finally received the fabric that I ordered for the background of my "Joy" Christmas quilt, and I have to say I'm feeling kind of disappointed about the colours I chose.  I was going for a variety of neutrals for the background, similar to what Faith did on this mini quilt, however 3 of the 4 colours I ordered are pretty much indistinguishable from each other, and the 4th colour is very different from the other 3.  So I don't think it's going to work in the way I envisioned it and I will be reconsidering the background, but still it's great that now I have these neutrals to work with in other projects, and......I'm now the proud owner of this, which should make my decision making a lot easier in the future:

kona colour card

Have a good week everyone!

16 comments:

Debbie said...

so sorry you aren't happy with your neutrals!! Do they look different from the color card? (which is cool btw) And I must say I love your Cuzco! Very nice - I think you'd be find doubling the batt if it's very thin. Your fmq is looking really awesome too - good for you!!

Susan said...

Love the Cuzco project but I have never used a double layer of batting! Good luck, it should be fine!

QuiltNut Creations said...

Love your HST quilt. I've done double batting on a few small quilts where I want real definition; I like the look.

✾Jamie Lee Cooley✾ said...

Your fmq turned out great! I have used *everything* for batting including flannel and fleece when I've run out of batting and even skipped the batting entirely for an all flannel quilt. It will be just fine.

Kristan said...

Dude, you are SO ready to do FMQ on a real quilt. I would PAY YOU to do pebbles for me! I've never tried, but I am not as brave as you. :)

I've never doubled batting, but I'm eager to hear how that turns out if you do it.

I got my Zakka Style book last night and my first project from there will be the nexting boxes!

Unknown said...

Your fmq is great! you should definitely try a real quilt!

I have doubled up batting before, b/c my back was showing through to the front. It was fine, but I went with straight line quilting, b/c I was afraid that I would have a lot of trouble with free motion. :)

Jessica Kelly said...

Love what you've done with the Kuzco! I have never doubled up batting,but I'd think if its fairly thin and you basted well, it would work out ok?

LuLu said...

Oh my goodness, I use my color card all of the time! I'm glad you have one too :-) Your HST quilt looks so darling. I love that Cuzco. And your quilting is amazing! You should totally go for it and quilt a fabulous quilt :-)

Toni said...

Heather, your fmq looks so professional! You should totally jump into a "real" project! I haven't doubled up on batting, but I would imagine that as long as you basted well you shouldn't have any problems. Your HST quilt is looking great!

Katie B said...

You're definitely ready to try FMQ on a real quilt! Your quilting looks awesome! And I'm no help on the double batting--sounds like a good idea.

Becky said...

Love the quilts and the quilting. I also have 2 boys :-). You could always try to use teh doubled up batting in a scrap practice square first to see if it will work out. It' not your imagination... batting has definitely "shrunk" as cotton prices went up. It stinks. I have an old packaged "full" batt in my closet that I grab each time I'm looking for a queen, because it's the biggest one, even though the dimensions are smaller :(.

Chelsea said...

Your fmq is looking amazing! I don't think I need to quilt your sweetwater top for you, you can just come over and use the beast yourself!

I don't know how kaufman gets away with having such lousy online swatches - I guess they do it so that we all buy swatch cards.

Svetlana said...

Heather, I love your HST project, it's gorgeous! and your FMQ, wow!!! you totally rock!

Abby said...

So impressed with your quilting and love the new quilt you've got going. Fun colors!

Shontelle said...

Your FMQ looks amazing - well done! I love the cuzco quilt. The colours are divine. My mum is a longarmer and she doubles up the batting all the time for different reasons and it always works well. I'm not sure if it would be different for quilting on a domestic machine, but can't see any reason that it wouldn't work. Good luck!

felicity said...

Get thee to a charity quilt immediately! Practice on a "real" top - the FMQ is looking fabulous!!