Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Multi-tasking

It's Wednesday and I haven't blogged much lately...but I wanted to get something out for WIP Wednesday!  I've got plenty of WIPs, just not much time to blog about them if I want to get any work done on them!  And sorry the photos are a little dark or over-exposed.  I'm not very good at photo editing and I took these this morning before the sun was really up since the sun was already down when I got home last night!

I've been working on cutting out blocks for a memorial t-shirt quilt for a friend of mine.  He lost his brother to cancer a year and a half ago and wanted a quilt made with his brother's shirts.  I made some t-shirt quilts in high school (before I knew ANYTHING about quilting, I just made it up as I went along) and they turned out pretty bad.  And I swore I'd never make another one.  But I didn't know about fusible interfacing!  It's really stabilizing the stretchiness of the t-shirts.  I have yet to see how it performs while sewing, but it's making the cutting much simpler!

My workspace littered with cut t-shirts, wrinkled t-shirts, interfacing, and cutting accessories.  I need a bigger table!

It's so easy to get a perfect (not stretched!) square with the interfacing.  I love it!

I've been slowly progressing on my pebble quilting.  I'm about 1/3 through the quilt and I've gone through at LEAST 1000 yards of thread so far.  I'm almost through a 1200 yard spool.  It's certainly a thread (and time) hog, but it'll be worth it.

Adding texture to the gray areas really helped to liven-up the quilt! 

A close-up of the pebbles.  As I go along, you can tell they're "evolving" - I'm using a greater variety of pebble sizes (it's a more fractal distribution - determining the fractal distribution of stones making up ancient walls for my master's thesis will haunt me forever!) 

I'm also nearly done with my Charming Stars quilt featuring Good Fortune!  Over the weekend, I finished all the quilting and sewed the binding on - now for the hand sewing part.  I'm going camping later in the month and I think I might take this along for some hand sewing.  I'm just afraid it'll rain (because it rains on this camping trip every year) and then the quilt will get muddy and destroyed.  It has to stay in the car, in a plastic bag, unless I'm working on it.  Right?  

Again, the color is a little funky - it was too dark out to get a good picture then I tried fixing it on my computer and I'm terrible at that sort of thing.  The binding is Kona Tangerine.  

 It's tough to see, but I LOVE the quilting on this!  It's simple, but adding some curves really gives it a nice touch.

And finally, my Circle of Geese block!  I also finished it up over the weekend and decided that since it had a few imperfections, it could just be a potholder.  It's just a practice block!  

Christmas in July... it just doesn't feel quilt right to be playing with red and green fabrics yet!

I quilted in the ditch around the triangles - nothing fancy!  I've been out in the field for work this week watching some guys build a retaining wall I designed.  Sometimes, there's not a whole lot for me to do or watch, so I've been hand-sewing the binding on while sitting on a manhole cover.  I'm sure it's a sight to see for the neighbors.  "Is that girl wearing a hardhat and sewing?!"  Yes.  Yes, she is.

7 comments:

  1. Your pebble quilting looks fantastic, I haven't tried that type of fmq yet but it is on the list. Good luck with everything on your plate!

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  2. Wow! You have been busy. The pebble quilting is amazing! That quilt is going to look fabulous when it's done. I love your Charming Stars quilt. Is that a pattern or all your own?

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    1. Thank you! I actually found Charming Stars on Moda Bake Shop. It is super simple, too!

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  3. Found your blog through WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced! I love your Charming Stars quilt - the colours are fantastic and that binding really pops. I downloaded that design from the Moda Bakeshop a while back and I meant to do it, but now that I've seen yours, I'm definitely adding this to my to do! Oh and thank you for the tip about the interfacing. I've been asked to make a quilt out of shirts that used to belong to my hubby's uncle and cutting accurately was so difficult, I basically gave up. I might try with interfacing and see if it gets easier.

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    1. You should totally get cracking on the Charming Stars! You'll have the top together so fast, you will wonder why you waited so long :) good luck with the tshirts! The interfacing will make your cutting and sewing a dream compared to before!

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  4. I love the mental image of a hard hat and sewing! But why not?

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