Getting Back on Track

I woke up today thinking it was Monday and dreading going back to work.  After two long weekends and a 3-day week of only half-assing it, I don't think I could handle a full week of work.  Oh wait, it's WEDNESDAY!  Everything is instantly a little shinier.  Oh and did I mention I saw a brief glimpse of the sun as I got to my parking space?  Score.

That means I need to write up a WIP Wednesday post since I've been neglecting the blog for so long.  

So for the past couple of months, I was just working on cranking out Christmas gifts and working on my Swoon quilt.  Now Christmas has passed and I've got my Swoon blocks all finished.  They still need to be sashed.  I'm debating whether I want to just put them into storage and finish up some older, more spring-like WIPs or just get the top done and wait to baste/quilt it when I'm feeling more Chirstmassy.  On top of that, I used my Flurry scraps to make a zig-zag baby quilt (with those bonus HSTs you cut off while making the Swoon blocks) and started an EPP project with diamonds and hexagons and jewels. Although staring at Flurry prints is getting old (it's been a few months now and Christmas is over...but I do LOVE the prints, it's just time for a change!)

EPP Flowers/Stars... however you want to look at it :)

The EPP project is great because I can work on it whenever.  Tomorrow I am in the field for work - I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of time "watching" from my heated car (it's only going to be 15 degrees!) and it's nice to feel like you're accomplishing something while avoiding being cold!  It occupied most of my down time when I went home for Christmas.  

Sophie Fangs is less than thrilled that I'm sewing and not petting her.

The only thing I'm regretting is using white thread - it shows through a little bit, especially on the darker colors.  But whatever, it's hand made and that makes it obvious :)  Perhaps when this is finished some day, I will try hand-quilting it.  We'll see.  I'm also playing with layout ideas in my head.  The fabric scraps are only going to go so far.  I might try floating the flowers in more white rather than connecting the points.

The white stitches show through on the seams... oh well, too late now!

 My biggest project for the past week has been the Madrona Road Challenge.  A few of us from the Pittsburgh MQG are participating.  Our theme is "roads and bridges" based on reading the cute little story that accompanies the Madrona Road collection.  A friend of mine (who just happens to design bridges for a living) helped me come up with an awesome sketch which I turned into a pattern.  Then it was off to AutoCAD to draw it all up neatly and dimension everything out.  And then I figured out how to tile patterns in Photoshop (what a proud moment for me!) - that way if you just scan the fabric, you can tile it and see what it's going to look like.  The scale wasn't quilt right though.

FMQing some echo paisley on my City of Bridges Quilt!

So on Saturday, I got together with a fellow challenge participant and we brainstormed and planned out our quilts (it's always nice to have feedback from someone to help smooth out the sections that are bothering you!).  The top was finished basically in an evening and then I got ambitious and sewed batting scraps together, cut and ironed some backing fabric, and found an almost-empty spray basting can at like 10 pm and got it all basted.  Then I couldn't stop and quilted about 1/4 of it before finally deciding it was time to go to bed.  New Years Eve day I got about 3/4 of the way through the quilting.  Anyhow, I will give you a little sneak peak but I'm going to wait until later to reveal the full quilt!  Plus it still needs to be finished up! 

So that's my first WIP Wednesday post for 2013!  I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced as usual - take a look and get some inspiration for your 2013 WIPs!!

-Melissa