finished triangle quilt

I finally finished my first full-size quilt, hooray! I made a whole bunch of bias-tape with the black fabric in order to bind the edges. It took forever, but I think it's worth it to have the fabric match. I'm going to do some more sewing, including another Colette pattern - this time the Beignet skirt. I love the high waist.

more pinwheel quilt - basting

So, I've finally finished basting the layers together and have started quilting! First I taped the quilt back to the floor, wrong side up, then I put down the batting (Warm and Natural - doesn't it look cozy?) and smoothed it out. Next I lay down the quilt top and pinned the whole thing together. After it was pinned, I basted the three layers together with red thread in a grid pattern across the whole quilt. Phew! I am actually sore from crawling around on the floor for four days. Listening to Cadfael helped, but what I just did is probably my least favorite part of making a quilt. Now I have started to quilt by hand, using black cotton thread, a plastic frame, and 1/4 inch tape to mark out the distance from the seams where I want to sew. This is my favorite part.

pinwheel quilt top

Finally finished the quilt top, yay! Next I will piece the back, then put all the layers together.

quilt backing

I found a lovely print at The Needle Shop for the backing of my pinwheeel quilt. It has all the colors from the patterns on the front, plus a zig-zagging gray design that intersects the organic elements. Yay!

Pinwheel Quilt Progress

Here is the progress I've made on my new full-size quilt. First the quilt blocks ready to be sewn, then the first finished block. There will be 72 of them! So glad to be done cutting out tiny bits of fabric and on to the piecing. I ran out of black fabric, so some of the blocks will have a different pattern on the dark triangles. This doesn't bother me too much, as I think mismatching is part of the charm of a patchwork quilt. I hope!

Plans

So, for a while now I've been wanting to start a larger quilt with a kind of pinwheel pattern using black and pastel colored triangles. Now that I finally finished the lap quilt, I am starting to cut about a gazillion small triangles. The second picture shows the fabrics I plan to use. The orange one on the left is by Heather Ross for Kokka, bought at the Needle Shop in Chicago. The three in the middle came from fabricworm's shop on Etsy, so pretty! The black/gray fabric came from Joann's. Lastly, I also bought a yard of this gauzy unicorn print (another Kokka) at the Needle Shop. I love this kind of bright orange and the hand-drawn style of the unicorns. I thought I might make a pillow using this and some wool felt I usually use for hooked rugs. I cut out a unicorn from the white to sew on top of the dark green...We'll see how it turns out.

First Post and First Quilt

So, I thought I would start taking pictures of the things I make and start a blog, both to keep a record as I go along as well as to motivate myself to stay creative. The last picture is actually just my breakfast, but I wanted to share a picture of the beautiful marmalade my dad made. He and my mom received a minature orange tree as a wedding gift 29 years ago and it is still going strong, producing tons of tiny oranges every year. Recently, he decided to make use of all that fruit and has been making this heavenly marmalade. It is not at all bitter but has a nice floral kind of a flavor. Super yummy with some fresh goat cheese from Prairie Fruits Farm in Champaign, IL.

Also, I finished my first ever quilt (a Sea Creatures Quilt) yesterday. It is a lap quilt, measuring about 44" x 60". There are 6 blocks, each a different traditional patchwork pattern. All 5 fabrics I used have sea creatures on them, hence the name. I especially love the school of fish pattern which I also used for the backing. (first photo) All these wonderful fabrics came from the Needle Shop here in Chicago. I made this almost entirely by hand, including the piecing and quilting. I did use the machine to attach the lattices etc. once the blocks were done. I loved making it and I can't wait to do another...a big one this time!