Finish-A-Long Q2 Round Up

Quarter 2 is wrapping up and I finished 3/5 projects. Not to shabby. For bookkeeping sake here is the link to my goal setting. My three finishes are the Melifera quilt, 16-patch wedding quilt, and Happy Pills. In true Marla fashion I finished a whole bunch of stuff that wasn't on the list. I wanted to tally them up here.

Finishes This quarter

place mats     4

pillows          2

Bags             3

Pouches        4

Mini quilts     1

                                Quilts            7 (3 were collaborative)

1. Melifera Quilt for Allie- Apiary pattern. The sub-blocks were assembled at goal setting.

2. 16-patch wedding quilt. Had most of the blocks made at goal setting time. Finished the top at the Stash Bash and quilted with overlapping arcs in a variegated thread.

3. Happy pills quilt. I had one block made and everything cut. I made the top and back at the Stash Bash. Clearly sewing retreats are great for productivity!

4. makeup rolls - Yeah I don't think I am making these anymore. So technically these are done.

5. Finish EPP pillow (still a giant maybe). But look how much progress I have made since January. Shocking. This barely got touched. Nope, nope it didn't get touched at all. When I pulled it out from the bottom of a project box it looks just like the pic below. Oh well. I think EPP is a winter only project for me.

Linking up with She Can Quilt. Check out everyone's progress.

PlaceMatStravaganza

Oh hello almost July. I finished these place mats in April. 

I've used this style before. Scrappy centers that are 6 x 12" (unfinished measurements) surrounded by 3.5" borders (unfinished). 

The backs are some home-dyed batiks my husband picked up on a business trip to Vermont. It's so cute that I have him trained to buy me fabric when he goes out of town. I was so worried that these would bleed onto the cream binding but the colors held beautifully. I know these prints were just perfect for my mom.

These made my way to my mom's for mothers day and she says she enjoys them every day.

Summertime Squares ~ AYoLF June Finish

Chirp Chirp. Hear the crickets? Sorry things have been quiet around here. Let's blame a summer blogging funk. I have still been sewing and I completed my June goal. My plan was to turn these 361 charm squares into a quilt.

Ta da! Introducing Summertime Squares:

size: 95" x 95" square.

The pattern is my own but heavily inspired by this pinterest post. I played with color pencils and graph paper.

The quilt was pieced and quilted by me on my home machine. I chose to do a cross-hatch design. It's not too much quilting so it drapes perfectly (over rocks).

The binding is scrappy AMH good folks voile scraps. I just love a voile binding, don't you.

The backing is this Ikea print. It's a seriously awesome print. And I got it for $2.99/yard. That is practically stealing it. My favorite doodles are the llama(?) or maybe the monster or the cheese grater/building. The pup and fugly fish are pretty great too. Actually I can't pick a favorite.

I love quilt burritos. They are yummy but don't get me fat.

Here it is on my guest bed. You can get a better idea of the scale. Ignore mismatched pillows or don't if you are into that kind of thing.

In 6 months I have finished 6 quilts! 

I hope I can keep it up for the remainder of the year. Now what to pick for July... For now, linking up with AYoLF oh and TGIFFFFFFF and Crazy Mom Quilts (So happy it is Friday!).

An old fashioned quilting bee (of sorts)

When my friend, Christine approached Kim and I to make a quilt for a wedding that was in two weeks we jumped to the challenge. The two of us helped C pick out the colors. We managed a red and green quilt that doesn't look Christmas-y. I love the gray we picked up at Hobby Lobby. It has such a beautiful sheen and feel. I am pleasantly surprised with the fabrics they have at that store.

hi toes!

C liked the shoefly block quilt from a recent post by Obsessive Crafting Disorder. This is the perfect layout for a first time quilt. Only HST's and squares. C was the pressing master. She was either the ironing goddess or our ironing bitch depending on your perspective. Kim and I did most of the sewing. It was so fast having the three of us work on it at the same time. The whole thing from picking out the design, to fabric shopping to binding was about 8 hours in two sessions. And I think it took us about 2 hours just to figure out the layout once we had the blocks.

I quilted it with my latest go-to quilting design - figure 8's. I think I banged out the quilting in about 45 minutes. That in combination with 30 day shred really worked my shoulders...

Her is the back. Again another print from Hobby Lobby. It is gray white and red and not too girly. We used a bunch of 10" squares down the middle flanked with more of the gray solid from the front. The binding is scrappy and green and happy.

C washed it before taking it to the wedding and I don't have the picture but I assure you it is the perfect state of crinkletude. We will be doing another old fashioned group quilting soon. I have a feeling C will want a quilt of her own. Operation bring more people to the dark side nearly complete.

Happy Friday Happy Weekend Happy Happy. Linking up with TGIFF.

Fabric Haul

I've been silent here lately. I don't have a real urge to write at the moment. Here is a late post on my latest fabric indulgences. Some from my trip to Atlanta, some happy mail and a gift. My craving for fabric buying has been satisfied for a while.

Atomic dots and math prints

Assorted yardage from Hawthorne Threads when they were having a $4.99/yard sale. Arrested Development made me buy the ostriches.

Notions and things

cotton couture solids for my bed quilt

Kokka, lime raindrops and some glow in the dark skeleton print for a new bag for me. Snagged all this at InTown Quilters in Atlanta

Gifty from Kim. We are both awesome people so we gift each other things from time to time.

Not QuiltCon

Last week I went to Emory in Atlanta GA for the national IRACDA conference (Read: Not QuiltCon) for work. The conference is the annual meeting for a group of postdocs that have a fellowship in research and teaching. I thought I would show you a few pictures of my adventures.

First, before I lose most of you in my science related musings. I drove down to Atlanta early on Sunday and spent some time with Ella (Throw A Wench in the Works). We went to InTown Quilters and to lunch at Radial Cafe. I will write a separate post on the goodies I got over the weekend.

Wall of solids at In Town Quilters

This was a great quilt shop. Big selection and friendly staff. 

The meeting was lots of fun. Got to meet lots of like-minded and goal oriented people from across the country. I go to play with bugs...

bean beetle lab for inquiry based learning

Drive around the greater Atlanta area...

Fancy mural

Bowl with other terrible bowlers in the hotel's personal bowling alley (this much be what the rich people do)...

Eat way too much...

A taste of Georgia buffet

Bring home lots of swag...

The meeting energized me for my last year in my research/teaching program. I also won third place for my poster presentation on my research (go go yeast genetics!) Next year the meeting is in Albuquerque, NM (aside: that is a HARD name to spell). I hope I can go.

A late Friday Finish ~ TGIFF

I finished my String-A-Hex quilt. Stitched the last of the binding on after work today. You can find my tutorial for the blocks here. For more information see this post when I finished the top.

Stats
size: 47" x 51"
pattern: String-A-Hex
piecing: 50wt white aurifil and used up a bunch of random bobbins
Quilting: free motion figure eight quilting with 50wt white Aurifil on my home machine

Close up of the figure 8 free motion quilting.

The backing is a print from Hobby Lobby. I thought it perfectly mirrored the pattern on the quilt top. I also added a strip of gray flannel along the side.

The quilting shows up beautifully on the back. The binding is Chicopee ladder dot in fuchsia. Love this print.

 Linking up with TGIFF and Crazy Mom Quilts.

WIP Wednesday - Hotel Room Sewing

I've been at a work conference since Sunday so not much sewing progress this past week. I did cut a boatload of charms and got some hotel sewing done.

 I also sewed together a mini quilt. Can you tell what it is? This is going in my office next year.

 I still need to bind it and I hope some of the wonk that was introduced during the quilting goes away when I wash it. Not sure why that happened. I used my walking foot and basted it pretty well considering it is small.

Check out what everyone else has been working on at Lee's blog.

ALYoF - June Goal Setting

Time to set my June goal. Hmm. This time around I don't have a deadline (how nice!) On a whim, I started cutting lots of charm squares out of over 50 different fabrics. Appa supervised me while I worked.

Tall stack! My June goal is to convert these into a fun quilt inspired by this pin.

Linking up with LYoF. Go check out the other projects.