Second Swoon

For several months, I've been working on my second Swoon quilt.  The first one isn't finished.  The top is together, there was some unpleasantness with fabrics not matching, and I don't feel Christmas-y enough to work on it.

I started on another, using fabrics from Timber & Leaf.  Again, there are some issues with having the "same" gray but it's two different colors (one from a local shop, the other from an online shop, but they're the same color, same manufacturer, just different bolts - it's only really visible in sunlight, so it was too late when it was finally visible.  sigh).

The top is all together and I'm working on the quilting!  I started by stitching in the ditch around each star.  Then I added some loops in the triangles - something I've always wanted to try.  Not bad, for a first try!  There's room for improvement, but overall, they're fine.  I did have to use my chalk marker to draw the lines on first...  So the photo is of the back side - the chalk isn't visible.

First try - not bad!

Then I started with the REAL free motion quilting!  There was an opportunity to do some really neat things in the negative space between blocks, but I chickened out and decided to keep on with the paisley pattern - I'm getting pretty good at it!

Paisley in the negative space

There's still a lot of quilting left to do, and I need to figure out what to do with the stars themselves -  straight lines to contrast with all the curvy quilting and accent the straight lines of the piecing?  

It was windy... but you get the idea!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!  

-Melissa

Bangles

I've been M.I.A. for months now...  Things have been busy and I felt like I'd rather be sewing than blogging about sewing.  I've still got a huge pile of incomplete projects, but I started on a new one that I'm really loving! 

Bangles!

This is my it's-too-nice-to-sew-inside or it's-too-hot-to-be-under-a-huge-quilt project.  English paper piecing is just the perfect thing.  I even took it camping over the weekend!  The quilt is inspired by Sarah Fielke's Bangles quilt in her book Hand Quilted With Love. 

Photo borrowed from Sarah's website where you can buy templates.

I still haven't decided how big the quilt is going to be, but I'm thinking I would like to get it to be a good lap-size couch quilt.  Depending on how long it takes me to tire of making bangles. 

Back in the fall, a half-yard bundle of Simply Color made its way into my stash.  A lot of it will be making its way into this quilt.  Perhaps Simply Style will make it in there, too!

-Melissa