WIP Wednesday

I had so much fun hosting TGIFF! last week and seeing all the great projects that linked up.  It's fun being connected with so many talented quilters out there.  Since hosting, I've have been moving full steam ahead.  Friday night my kids had their first belt tests for Karate.  We are now yellow belts!

Saturday was filled with a picnic by a pond and college football.

 

Following the GameCast is just not the same as watching the game on TV, or watching the game in person.  Oh, how I miss going to college football games...sigh...

Sunday, we went to the Memphis Air Show and had a blast.

  

Crawling in and around of the planes on display was so much fun, and watching the planes in the sky brought back lots of memories of attending air shows as a kid.  My daughter informed me that it was boring when we left.  I guess it will just be me and my son next year while my husband (who didn't have as much fun as I did) can find something much less fun to do.  :)

In the midst of all this weekend excitement, I did manage to start working on 2 new WIPs.

I finished piecing all the columns and am now attaching the columns together for my second Christmas quilt gift.  I'm going for a masculine feel for this one.   Once I get the flimsy done, I'll share with you the whole top.

My other WIP is a scrap-crazy quilt.  I'm clearing out my scrap baskets one color at a time and sewing them into strips between 12 and 14 inches long.  I can't wait to see this one come together.  I have this vision in my head of what this quilt is going to look like, and I'm really excited about it.  I hope I'm not disappointed after all this work.

 

The pink, red, orange, and yellow scraps are finished.  I'm currently working on green, which leaves me with aqua, navy, purple, and gray to do.  My goal is to have all the colors in organized strips before our local quilting guild's Sew-In on November 1st.  I would love to start assembling the quilt top on that day.  Wish me luck!

TGIFF!

Hello Everyone!  It's a beautiful Friday and time to show off what you've finished this week!  I've been working hard this week to finish this quilt top I've named "Garden Lattice."  I had 11 Flea Market Fancy prints hoarded in my fabric cabinet for the last couple years and it was time to pull them out.  I added some bright coordinating solids into the mix, and I think I've created a pretty happy quilt top.

I initially wanted to center the diamond affect given by the HST, but I've decided I really love the offset look much better.

Now it's your turn to link up those fabulous finishes here.  Don't forget to tour the other finishes and spread the comment love! Please include a link and/or button for TGIFF! so your visitors can see other fabulous finishes.

An InLinkz Link-up

X-Plus Quilt Feature!

I'm excited to announce that my X-Plus Quilt is being featured on Quilt Story! Head on over and check it out!

Hosting TGIFF!

This weekend was filled with lots of activities, including a wedding for a co-worker of mine.  It was a beautiful ceremony/reception at the Memphis Zoo, which is one of the top zoos in the country.  It's always nice to have a reason to get a sitter for the kids, dress up, and dance the night away in celebration. 

This week should be a busy one quilting wise.  I will be hosting TGIFF this Friday.  Hurry up and finish those projects so you can share with everyone.  Here's a sneak peak of what I will have finished to share on Friday.

I still have some rows to connect and a possible border to attach.  I haven't quite decided on that one yet.  See you Friday!

WIP Wednesday

Christmas projects have commenced in my home.  I have 2 quilts to make for Christmas gifts and then several other Christmas projects to complete between now and December 25th.  LOTS to do!

Here is the start of the first quilt I'm making.  I'm using 11 Flea Market Fancy prints along with some coordinating solids.

I've finished all the 16-patches and 4-patches for the top.  Now it's time to cut and assemble a bunch of HST to fill in the gaps before I can start to piece the entire top together.

This should be a cheerful quilt top that I hope will bring lots of cheer to the recipient.

Scrappy Explosion

This quilt started as an idea to utilize all the corner scraps left over from the X-Plus quilt.  One day I just sat down and started sewing triangles together from the trimmings.  I kept the fabrics together with which ever fabric it was already paired with when I trimmed it off the X-Plus quilt blocks.  There were well over 300 HST created and they were trimmed down to 2 1/2 inches. 

I used random selection to start sewing them together.  I didn't pay attention to the direction of the HST.  The only thing I kept track of was making sure I didn't put the same fabric next to each other.  The results were amazing.

I added the teal border to frame out the piecing and contain the randomness.

For the back, I ended up purchasing some of the plaid fabric from the DS collection to give it some visual interest.  I utilized some scraps of the solid navy and teal used in the front to add some detail.

The quilting really shines on the solid fabrics.

I had some leftover binding from another project just hanging around, so I utilized it for this quilt.  You can find the gray wood grain fabric within the quilt, too.

I haven't decided what I'm doing with this quilt yet, so it's just hanging out on my quilt rack for everyone to see when they come over.

X-Plus Masterpiece

The anticipation of finishing this quilt has been such a motivation for me.  It was always a side project since it didn't have a deadline and it was a personal quilt for myself, but I was determined to finish it up before the Christmas projects started.

For this quilt, I used every single Denise Schmidt collection fabric I could find at Joann's within this color scheme.  I slowly started collecting these fabrics over a year ago in 1/4 yard increments.   Every time I stepped into the store, I would swing by the DS collection aisle and see if there was anything new and snatch it up.

I knew I wanted a scrappy feel for this quilt, which the x-plus quilt pattern lends itself to nicely, but I also wanted to create a sense of order.  I wasn't sure if using the oranges and yellows to highlight the plus signs would work out, but I was blown away once I saw the blocks come together.  

The various shades of blues and grays also add a lot of texture to the quilt top.

The quilt back is all the scraps.  I just started piecing everything together and this is what I came up with.  I didn't really have much of a plan when I started, but I really love how it turned out.

The binding utilizes the orange and yellow fabrics to tie it all together.  I thought about going with a solid binding, but the patterned fabric was just too much fun to pass up.

This quilt simply makes me smile.  I've already snuggled under it on the couch and it is proudly displayed on my quilt rack in my sewing room.