W.I.P. Wednesday ~ Farmer's Wife edition

I took a brief break from working on my Farmer's Wife blocks in order to complete some bee blocks and other small projects, but I'm right back into it now.  64 blocks down - I make them in batches of 4 blocks so that is how I have been photographing them.  You can click on the collage for a larger view.  I'm more than happy with how they are coming together, and am now well past the half way point!  Woohoo!

In other news, I have re-opened my Etsy shop, Winding Bobbins.  I currently have a few Family Passport Wallets in there (made using Amber's pattern) as well as a baby quilt, and I hope to add a few more items yet this week.  Fingers crossed that I'll see some sales!

Have a good week everyone!

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced

W.I.P. Wednesday ~ Farmer's Wife update

The farm is growing....

27 blocks finished and still enjoying myself immensely.  I've got a bit of a system now where I choose fabrics for four blocks at a time, then cut and sew.  Feels more manageable that way.  Some days I can actually sew four, and other days, like today, even though I had a lot of sewing time I only managed two blocks because they each had a lot of pieces.  New record today, block #27 (not pictured yet) had FIFTY-ONE pieces.  An accomplishment in itself.  ;)

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced

W.I.P. Wednesday

This is what I've been working on this week, in between a whole ton of spring cleaning...

I'm onto binding now so should be a finish very soon! 

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced

{almost} wordless update

{the front}

{the back}

Pattern:  Stack & Whack Wonky Block tutorial by Kati @ from the blue chair, 48 blocks to make a twin size quilt
Fabric:  Mostly Kate Spain 'Cuzco' with a few other prints thrown in for fun (note the Spoonflower owls, SO cute!)
Quilting:  Double loops overall meander in Aurifil thread.  About 1/3 of the way finished quilting.

Stay tuned!

Will be linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced

W.I.P. Wednesday

I don't usually have a lot of projects on the go at once but suddenly I'm knee-deep in W.I.P.s!  These three are finished tops awaiting backing/basting/quilting....

And this one is a new project but is coming together very quickly, thanks to lots of snowy days which has equaled lots of sewing time!  This is for someone special who is going through a tough time.  Purple/blue are not colours that I normally use very much but it is actually a nice combination (though difficult to photograph!).  I've followed this tutorial for Tula Pink's totally tubular technique which is a really quick way to make a stacked bricks type quilt.

  
So needless to say, I have enough to keep me busy for quite a while!!

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced
 

W.I.P. Wednesday

A lot of my sharing has been via Instagram these days but today I thought I'd pop in here at the old blog and show a few projects I've been working on that have me very excited!  I dumped out the scrap bin in the last few weeks and decided to do some scrappy improv.  First up, a rainbow block mini quilt, made using the crazy piecing technique from the book 'Quilting Modern.'

This was a LOT of work for me and I'm sure I over-thought a lot of it (straight, symmetrical stuff is what comes natural to me!!) but can I say how thrilled I am with how it turned out.  It's about 27" square and at this point I'm not sure what it will become, but for now it hangs on my design wall and makes me happy.  :)

Realizing that the rainbow blocks in no way depleted the scrap bin I jumped into another project, this time adding to the scraps bits of light neutral solids that I have, not enough for large projects and I don't remember what shades they are anyways so might as well use them up!

 

The picture was taken yesterday and I'm now up to about 30 blocks - these are small and quick, and will finish at about 4" square.  I'm using a tutorial by Faith @ Fresh Lemons called Butterfly Strands.  I was introduced to this tutorial through my bee this month and I love it!  Fast and fun.  :)  Another 'make me happy' project for these dreary winter days.

Looking forward to seeing what the rest of you have up this week!

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced

W.I.P. Wednesday

The wonky stack & whack quilt I started a few months ago for my friend's daughter sat neglected for at least the last month, with our trip and the Christmas holidays I just didn't have time or motivation to get going on it.  I had all of the blocks completed and some even sewn into rows already in December, but finally this week it all came back out and I got on a roll and finished assembling them.

This is half of the blocks, fully assembled (Well, as much of it as you can see, hanging over the curtain rod!  Each half is 6 blocks x 4 blocks).  I have another half finished as well which is not pictured.  Last time I made a large quilt I left the final seam joining the two halves until I was ready to baste.  This way I can press each half, then sew the seam and baste right away to avoid having to press an unwieldy fully pieced top.  It worked great for me last time so I'm sticking with it this time!

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced

W.I.P. Wednesday

My work in progress this week has been bordering and finishing the embroidery I bought while on holidays.  Thanks to everyone who gave input regarding the border fabrics - the majority said orange for the outer border and that's what I ended up going with.  I'm really happy with how it turned out and now need to figure out how in the world to baste & quilt it!  Obviously I won't quilt over the embroidery block, and probably some straight quilting lines in each of the frames would do, but we'll see!  Any ideas?

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced

W.I.P. Wednesday

Happy New Year everyone!  I have been away so am totally behind on things but I'm slowly catching up.  We went on the trip of a lifetime over the holidays, and I've hummed and hawed about sharing photos out of respect for our host's wish for internet privacy, so I've chosen a selection of nondescript/random photos of our time away just to give you a little taste and will leave it at that!

Now, sewing!!  I figured a good way to ease back into sewing would be to tackle my January bee blocks.  We've been asked to make two simple 16-patch blocks using 2.5" squares in purples.  Purple is one of those colours that I really do love, but have very little in the way of purple fabric or even scraps.  I've managed to squeak out one block and have some squares for my second but not quite enough.  I feel silly asking, but would one of you Canadians be willing to send me just 6 small purple scraps?  Big enough to cut one 2.5" square from?  I'd truly appreciate it!  Let me know....

And other than that, my big project at the moment is the wonky stack & whack quilt I'm making for my friend's daughter.  I have all 48 blocks finished and have half of the blocks sewn together, but I haven't touched it at all since before our holidays.  Hopefully this week I'll get back at it.

Have a good week everyone!

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced
 

WIP Wednesday

I've had two things in the works this week.  First up, the Stack & Whack blocks I showed progress on last week, for my friend's daughter's quilt, are now finished.  All 48 of them!  Really, they came together so fast I was surprised.  I haven't laid them out to start deciding rows, and all of the blocks will need trimming, but they are a nice finished stack of blocks now rather than a nice stack of fabric!

Also this week I started on a Have It All Wallet for myself (my first wallet, which went to Lucy in a swap, can be seen here).  I used a variety of cute floral fabrics and a nice bright red zipper!  It is finished except for adding a snap closure and top-stitching around the edge.

Now, about the top-stitching.  On the first wallet I made I didn't top-stitch.  It really doesn't need it and I wasn't sure if my machine would be able to handle the layers and produce a nice even stitch.  On this one, I gave it a try starting on the bottom edge, and it was a disaster!  I had huge skipped stitches almost every other stitch, and this was with a brand new denim needle suitable for thick layers and my walking foot.  So I cleaned out my machine and re-threaded the top and bottom and tried again.....same result.  Next, I took some scrap fabric and folded it into thick layers - I think it's 12 layers - and sewed through that and it worked like a dream!  No skipped stitches, and a nice even line.  Huh!!??

Do you think that the wallet having a combo of multi layers of fabric plus light and heavy interfacing could be the problem???  Clearly my machine can sew through many layers of regular cotton fabric.  Hmmmm.  Any thoughts??

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced

W.I.P. Wednesday

This week I started a twin size quilt for my friend's daughter Isabelle.  They chose a quilt based on the Stack & Whack tutorial from Kati at 'from the blue chair' and provided me with the beautiful fabrics from Kate Spain's Cuzco line, with a few other random fun prints thrown in.  

The quilt will have 48 blocks total and I currently have 32 finished - making 4 blocks at a time, this method goes SO fast!  And I haven't pinned a single thing which is so freeing.  After the Roller Rink quilt, where accuracy and precision were paramount, it's nice to be able to throw accuracy to the wind for a while! A few days ago, at the 16 block point, I laid what I'd finished out on the floor just to get an idea and I feel like it's really coming together nicely.  

Not sure why, but I'm particularly fond of this latest set:

Have you ever done a stack & whack style quilt?  It's perfect for a fast project, it produces very little waste, and it's a great project for directional prints because the cutting and sewing maintains the orientation of the fabric.  I think this tutorial would also be perfect for a bee quilt.

Speaking of bees, mine is taking a break for December so I'm finished bee-ing for 2013.  Crazy!  Perhaps I'll still get around to making myself a Have It All Wallet before Christmas, but if not I'm totally satisfied with plugging away on Isabelle's quilt.  

What are you up to this week?

W.I.P. Wednesday

Last week I was just finishing up the binding on my Roller Rink quilt, and I'm happy to report that it is finished and being well used and loved already.  It's SO big, which we love!  You can read all the details here if you are interested.

If you follow me on Instagram (@windingbobbins) you will already know that this week I took out my scraps of Notting Hill and put them together randomly into half square triangles.  TINY half square triangles!  Each one finishes at 1.5".  So obviously, this is a mini quilt project and one that will be finished quickly.  I hope to hang it in my little sewing nook. The super dense 'matchstick quilting' is inspired by some of Leanne's recent work.

P.S.  I find it kind of sad that my ipod takes better photos than my camera!!  haha  The above is an ipod photo.  :)

Upcoming Projects:

• Stack & Whack wonky quilt for my friend's daughter.  All of the fabric she ordered for it has now come in so I should be in business soon on that one.
• Family Passport Wallet (6-pocket version) for my sister's friend.
• Still planning to make myself a Have It All Wallet (my test version, which I've swapped with the lovely Lucy, can be seen here) but it's not high priority at the moment.

Also, I am currently holding a giveaway, sponsored by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop as part of Blogathon Canada.  The giveaway, which is open to everyone, will remain up until the end of week so if you are interested, visit this blog post for more info!

Have a great week everyone!

WIP Wednesday

Still the same work in progress here, Roller Rink by Elizabeth Hartman, but I'm seriously nearing the end now.  About half way through hand stitching the binding....that's how close I am!

The quilting itself generally went well, but I'll have more to say about that when I reveal the finished project. 

I'll soon be starting in on my next big project, a commissioned bed quilt for my good friend's daughter.  The fabric she ordered is slowly arriving in the mail, and now that Roller Rink is just about finished I'll be ready to jump in whenever all the supplies are gathered.

I still want to make another Have It All Wallet but don't have fabric plans for that yet, as well I'm thinking of putting together some kind of mini quilt using my leftover Notting Hill bits from the Octagonal Orb quilt.  

Hopefully I'll be back in the next few days with a newly finished quilt to share!

WIP Wednesday

My big project lately, as most of you know, is my Roller Rink quilt.  I worked so hard over the last few weeks to get the top finished and now I'm totally stalled out.  I even have it basted and ready to go but it has sit for 3 or 4 days now since basting and I haven't touched it.

I think I'm feeling nervous about the quilting.  My plan is to do a geometric overall design, like this practice piece....

....which actually wasn't too difficult but I'm nervous about starting in on it on such a large quilt.  This week....hopefully.

Also holding me back is that I was feeling like I should get my bee blocks for this month finished before I set the machine up for FMQ.  Jaclyn asked for two broken herringbone blocks, choosing one colour for each block and using different fabric strips of that colour to complete each, sashing with white.  I don't have much fabric stash at all, and my scraps aren't often conducive to cutting big enough pieces for projects such as this, so for this month I have had to make do with what I have and I hope that the blocks will be to Jaclyn's liking.  My pink block is finished:

And my light/medium aqua block is in the works (the fabric on the left is much more aqua than the photo shows....I think it was on the shadowy side of my picture...):

That's it for me this week.  Hope you are all doing well!

W.I.P. Wednesday

Last week I set a goal to have my Roller Rink quilt top finished by today, and I'm happy to say that I'm 99% of the way there.  Not quite 100% because of the last long seam that I have left for now - my sneaky plan is to leave it until the moment I'm ready to baste in order to avoid having to press the top in its entirety again.  This way I can press each of the two chunks really well, sew the seam and then get right to basting.

My local Fabricland is having a 50% members sale this weekend so I hope to pick up backing fabric and get down to quilting by next week.  Looking forward to moving into the next phase with this project, but a little nervous cause this thing is HUGE.  Not the biggest quilt I've made, but definitely the biggest that I've attempted free motion quilting on, if I decide to go that route.  Still waffling between some geometric FMQ ideas, and the good old walking foot.

Also today I started my first version of the Have It All Wallet - sort of a "test" version using some random yellow & gray FQs I have.  If all goes well I'll move onto a second wallet with fabrics more to my liking that I'll love to make use of every day.

Have a good week everyone!

W.I.P. Wednesday

Friends, I'm definitely feeling like a broken record with this project being all that I have on the go, but this week I am setting a GOAL.  I have all of the blocks made (let's be honest, they've been done for a while already....) and I am setting myself the goal of having the top finished by next Wednesday.  I'm almost halfway there so I think it is totally doable.  And maybe posting today will keep me more accountable.  :)

Finally, a couple of big chunks actually sewed together.  YAY!

Some more news, I actually have new projects coming in the near future....

• twin size quilt for my friend's daughter (same family that the Fussy Fairytales quilt went to) using Kate Spain's Cuzco fabric and this stack & whack tutorial
• 'have it all wallet' by Oliver + S - I don't own the pattern yet but I was so inspired by Kristan's recent version of this pattern, only to realize that it's one I had already pinned a long time ago.  Something about Kristan's wallet really spoke to me!  I love that the wallet has a zipped coin section, plus spots for cash & cards, and that's really all I ever carry around anyways.  Stay tuned for that!

I also need to remember (and am reminding all of you too!) that this Friday begins the fall installment of Blogger's Quilt Festival @ Amy's Creative Side.  It always sneaks up on me!!  Check it out, it's always a lot of fun.

Take care everyone!

W.I.P. Wednesday

The only project I currently have in the works is my version of Elizabeth Hartman's 'Roller Rink' quilt from "Modern Patchwork", which I first posted about last Wednesday.  Since last week, I've pieced together three strip sets and have cut up one of the sets and sashed them into blocks (long narrow rectangles, which feels so strange when you're used to working with squares!)

These blocks are all from the same strip set, which will not be the final layout and they will not all have that jarring black square right in the middle!  I just threw them up on the design wall, alternating the orientation of the blocks, to get a small idea of how it will come together and I think I'm really going to love it.  It's very geometric and busy, but I'm keeping in mind that it is going to be an outdoor/soccer/car quilt, and then crazy busy is okay!

The fabric is Zen Chic Comma along with Kona Steel and Kona Iron.

W.I.P. Wednesday

I've managed to whittle my pile of W.I.P.'s down to nothing, with a number of finishes this month and also finding a new home for some orphan blocks.  It's time to start something new!  I just finished unrolling and sorting my Comma jelly roll (incidentally, I just noticed on the tag that Moda Fabrics are on Facebook and Twitter before I am....and I'm okay with that. :)

I love this fabric line, but let's be honest - it's a bit crazy busy and doesn't really suit my decor, so this is what I'm thinking.  We often have to stand outside watching our oldest son play soccer in the winter - it can be cold, rainy, windy, foggy, etc.  The only thing it wouldn't be is snowy because then the fields close.  So I need a soccer quilt/car quilt/out-and-about quilt!!  :)  My plan for this jelly roll is a version of Elizabeth Hartman's Roller Rink quilt (see one of her versions here) from the book, Modern Patchwork, probably using shades of gray for the frames, maybe Kona Coal & Iron?

One more thing this week - yesterday I sewed my two bee blocks for September, for the do.Good Stitches 'Joy' circle.  Mary Catharine asked for low volume star blocks and this is what I came up with.  I haven't done low volume before so I hope I got it right.  The solid gray is Kona Ash, which is coming across a bit darker in the photos than it actually is in person.

Have a great week everyone.  We're enjoying some beautiful sunny fall weather so I absolutely can't complain!

W.I.P. Wednesday

Tired of seeing this thing yet?  I'm not.  :)

The Octagonal Orb quilt is still in progress and I've made some headway on the backing this week.  Like I've mentioned before, I had quite a bit leftover from the fat quarters that I used for the top.  So for the back.......I cut the fabric into strips as wide as I could for each of the colour groups and pieced them into looooong strips.  I had enough for two full strips of each of the colours, and then one more strip with the rest of the leftovers pieced together.  I used every last bit of my Kona Natural to sash the strips in a few places, and this is what I have so far:

This panel is about 28" wide, and I'll complete the backing in a similar fashion to how I made the Brrr! quilt.  After considering different colours for finishing off the two sides of the backing, I finally settled on the old stand by, Kona Ash.

And for the binding, I chose one of the new Kona colours from last year, Kumquat.  It's a perfect match for the orange that's in the print fabrics, and I think I'll be happy with my choice, given that I wanted something that would coordinate but didn't really want more pink or teal.

And can I say how pleased I am with my Kona colour card?  I was able to choose the perfect colour rather than just guess, and while a guess probably would have been "good enough", it's nice to actually have the colours in hand when making the choice.  Both of the Kona solids are en route from Marmalade Fabrics, so it's time for me to do some waiting again!