I'm on a roll!

Apparently, I just need to take a break for a month or so from quilting every year or so. Because when I come back, I come back full force and ready to go! A lot has happened in the last two weeks. There were quilt starts and finishes, patterns being published, new patterns being written, the beginning of pattern testing for those and more.

So back to the beginning. I decided that I didn't like the quilting that I was doing on Good Fortune so I ripped out the stitching in the three rows that I had quilted. I don't know what I'm going to do instead, so it's been folded up and tucked into the closet. Aside from anything else, my wrist was bothering me a little bit. I think it might've been quilting on my old machine since the machine bed is smaller and so is the throat space. There was more tugging and trying to hold the quilt in place than on my new machine so I think I might leave the quilting for the new machine. Either way, I didn't want to aggravate it more and then not be able to even sew. So what was I sewing? I was pattern testing my newest quilt pattern, Ocean Waves. 

I needed to finish writing the pattern for it, so that came first, but then I was able to dive into my stash and start cutting and sewing. I wish I had more darker tans because my lighter tans ended up blending with the cream backgrounds a little more than I liked. But the blues and tans remind me of the ocean waves washing up onto the beach, and I have a recipient in mind for this one, but I need to finish a few others first. I have plans and secrets and on the off chance the recipient finds this page, I don't want to spoil the surprise. 

My original doodle for this quilt was to make it in Christmas colors, because who doesn't need another Christmas quilt. But sadly, my Christmas fabrics are lacking and I didn't think I would have enough fabric (?) but also because I wanted to make a quilt for this special person and they are a beach lover. Instantly, this pattern came to mind and I reworked the colors. But I still want to make Ocean Waves in Christmas colors. Maybe some day. 

In between the chain piecing of Ocean Waves, I also worked on two disappearing nine patch quilts for the two pregnant women at work. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to make them quilts, but then the one asked me if I could help her out with a milestone blanket that had the wrong name on it because it was ordered and then decided to change the name. So I might be working on that this week, that's going to be a bit of a challenge and take a trip to hobby lobby because I have a feeling it's screen printed, not appliqued. But I had some really cute baby prints and loved the excuse to take more onto my plate and fit more quilts in. I'm crazy, and I know it. But didn't they come out so cute?? I like the construction truck one more. Maybe I'm just a little tired of dinosaurs right now.

So not only did I finish three quilts in one day (it was a day of binding and PTO is an amazing thing), I was also working on my fiance's quilt as well. He just wanted blue and green squares and I'm not gonna lie, it kinda bores me. But because I love him, I'm powering through. I also started writing the pattern for my next quilt, Tennessee Tumble. I'm working with the same palette as Good Fortune with many of the same fabrics and I can't wait to start stitching that one as well. 

I also published the pattern for Play Date. This is one that I made a while ago and finally got the pattern written. I've made this one twice, once in Christmas fabrics from a lot of different lines in the king size. And twice in the baby size using one line of fabric. And both turned out beautiful. I kinda want to make a throw size one now too. I have a box of miscellaneous charm squares that don't match much at all, but would look great in this pattern. 

And Joy was gifted her quilt when I saw her this week. She was speechless and overwhelmed. And she cried. Which I didn't mean to happen, but she said she was so grateful for it and all the verses on the panel meant so much to her and she told me it was like God was speaking right to her. Which is exactly what I felt coming home from a massage a few months ago. I knew the remnant of a panel that I picked up at Hobby Lobby that I had sitting in my stash was bought for her and I didn't know that when I bought it. 

And that's what I love the most about gifting quilts I think. It's a tangible way to speak to someone in a way they aren't expecting. It's a hug when you need one and no one is around. A reminder that someone cares about you so much. And now I'm getting all teary just thinking about it. 

I hope your quilting can bring some blessing into your life as well as those around you. Happy quilting!

Still Here!

Ok, so I wasn't intending on taking such an extended break. Or really, any break at all. But life happened, in a good way! I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but my brother got engaged a few months ago and my future sister in law asked me to be a bridesmaid. And she needed to go dress shopping because their wedding is this summer. So that took up some valuable weekend sewing time (aside from it also being nice outside which also cut into sewing time). But then, the end of May, my boyfriend proposed, so wedding planning took center stage of all my free time, but I think we have all the big things taken care of so planning will calm down for a few months. So while I am extremely happy and excited, I think I did maybe 2 hours of sewing in the last 2 months. But I will probably end up disappearing again for at least a month early next year.

But I'm back! I turned on my sewing machine for the first time in weeks on Monday. And I have two finished quilts this week to show for it. First, I finished Rising Stars. I wanted to call this one Shooting Stars, but because I released this one as a quilt pattern, and auto bots can be dumb, I was afraid the shooting part would somehow be flagged by Etsy. So a rename was needed. 

Rising Stars has no planned recipient. It was inspired by the piece of brown flannel in the middle that was a remnant I picked up somewhere, most likely Joann's. The blue and the green came from my stash, those were also leftover pieces from another project or also remnants. I tend to pick up any solid remnants I see when I'm fabric shopping, mainly because I don't gravitate towards them but they do come in handy. Even the polka dot came from my stash, though I did need to go back to Hobby Lobby to get an extra quarter yard because that's how much I was short. 

So this was almost a true stash buster for me. I did buy backing, I don't have a lot of large pieces of fabric that I can use as backings. Most of my fabric is about a yard or less, but the binding came from my stash! As did the batting. This was a true frankenbatting because I'm pretty sure there are at least a dozen strips sewn into it. Which also explains the dense quilting. I didn't want any of it to move or bunch up if possible. 

Then, yesterday, I finished Joy's Stars. At least that's what I'm calling it. I believe the pattern is actually Ohio Stars and Courthouse Steps, but that's a mouthful and a lot to write on a tag. I did omit a few stars so I could use pieces of a panel that I had (also a remnant). I had a handful of fat quarters that I loved together and I wasn't sure what to use them in until I saw this pattern.

Joy's Stars is for my friend and massage therapist, Joy. And the original plan before I got sidetracked by wedding planning, was to give this to her as a housewarming gift. All I need to do was put the border on (already cut) and quilt and bind it. I had the backing, the batting, and the binding fabric, it was just put on hold and will now be two months late. But I can't wait to give it to her when I see her in a few weeks. 

I love the striped binding I used and it was only after sewing down the third side that I realized that since it wasn't a random stripe like I normally use when I use a striped binding, that it would be noticeable where I joined the two pieces since the pattern would repeat weird. As you can probably imagine, I squealed a little bit with delight when I got to the point of needing to join the ends because the pattern lines up perfectly. As do all the other joins, but I planned those that way. This wasn't planned, just a happy accident!

So what's up next? I think I want to finish quilting Good Fortune so I can take that one off my plate and I'm sure there will be some hand quilting going on again now that we're in the dog days of summer and it's not quite so nice to want to be outside. But also, because my schedule changed at work for the summer, I won't have as much quilting time as I did last year so things might be a little slow going. Maybe I'll work on pattern writing in the evenings. I have a few quilts that are already made that I could write up patterns for as well as some I've designed that I need to write the pattern so I can make it. So what have you been up to while I was away?

Happy Quilting!