Category Archives: Works-in-Progress

In other news…

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I started quilting this orange-peel thing.  I’m calling it a coral reef, or maybe seaweed, and so I thought some seaweed-like tangled curves would look cool.  I wasn’t sure after I drew it up, I’m still not really sure- but  I’m just gonna go with it.   What’s the worst that could happen, right? 

In other news, it’s finally green outside-

My knees are dirty every day from the garden

My kids are dirty every day from who-knows-what- and I love it all

I’m working on pretty duvets for the girls beds, delving into my thrift-store treasures as well as the stash

Gus has his final homeschool review of the year (he made me so proud!) and now I’m dreaming big for 5th grade- and Kindergarten!  Yup, this fall Violet will officially start homeschooling and I’m so excited to be planning kindergarten projects for her!

If you ask Evelyn if she wants to put her flowers in a vase, this is what you’ll get.  Makes sense when you are Almost-Two.

My newest work in progress

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A week or two ago I found myself craving, literally craving, an applique project.  Like the way your hand can’t help but reach out to that bowl of mini Kit-Kats on your co-worker’s desk, my hands just needed to feel that comforting rhythm of hand applique.  So I started something new.

It’s going to be a pillow.  For a quilter/artist, my house is woefully under decorated, and I’m aiming to work on that this year!  We’ve been renters for a while, and moving around practically every year it seems, and for like the past five houses all we’ve done is plop down our furniture and open up the book and toy boxes, and call it done.  No curtains, no throw pillows, no art on the walls.  No settling in.  That needs to change.  Our home should be a reflection of who we are.  I’m working on it.

This little project has been living on my kitchen island so I can work on it a few stitches at a time, all day long.

Oh, and this stack of shot cottons and solids wants to be something.  It’s not even a work in progress at this point, it ‘s a work-in-pondering.  As in, what could I make from this.  I think it’ll just hang out on the island for a few weeks until I figure it out.

I Intend to Finish…

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I noticed that some of my friends are linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes, to encourage finishing what we start. I love the magic of setting goals, speaking goals out loud, writing goals down… It really makes it happen.  So here are my sewing goals for this month:

I’d like to have this in and out of the hand quilting frame.  I have it taped to the floor tonight so I can mark the quilting lines, and I’ll load it this weekend.  No Prob, right?

Back photo_1LR

Also, I need to hit Publish on my first pattern- The pattern is all done but I’ve been balking at filling out all the info on Craftsy.  So here, a public declaration, the pattern for my doll carrier and quilt will be available THIS MONTH!  :)

Work in Progress Wednesday

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I’m so excited about my two newest works in progress- because new projects are so much more fun than already-in-progress projects :)

I cut both of these out over the past week.

This one is all my own fabric in the green and blue colorways that I haven’t really used yet- plus lots of light solid triangles.  It’s going up on the design wall this week.

This one isn’t getting design wall-ed.  I like having something I can sew together without thinking right now.   The Heather Ross piggies were my jumping-off point when choosing my fabrics.  It combines a few of my fabrics with a bunch that I “had” to buy because they matched my fabric, but it still needs something… maybe a warmer reddish-pink?  I’ll look around next time I get down into the fabric dungeon.

Linking up to WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

New EPP project…

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I’m starting something new…

I was out of waiting-in-the-airport type projects so, (oh darn,) I had to start something new!  So excited about this one!  It’s my new favorite color palette: fuchsia, thistle, red, plum.  A little flash of tangerine.  So intense.  I’m thinking it will be a table runner, English paper pieced and appliqued.  Can’t wait to get started!

Because I wanted to

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And not because there was nothing else I should be doing :)

I indulged in a little improv patchwork with my growing pile of Jasmine Tea scraps.  And a little of the Fuchsia Echino birds that perfectly match my Fuchsia Tile print.  I set my machine up on the kitchen table and let Evelyn and Violet hand me scraps to sew together.  I finished it up this morning while Garrett vacuumed which was altogether a very pleasant morning.   I intended it to be a cushion cover, a one-and-done sort of project.

Echino Birds matched my fabrics perfectly- I was literally obligated to make the purchase :)

But since this 20×20 square did not diminish my pile of scraps at all, I am thinking it needs to become something bigger.  And so another quilt is begun.

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I’m ready to watch the playoffs.  I can’t sit and watch TV without a project to work on, so I’ve got this quilt all prepared for hand applique.  I pieced the background the other day, and last night I basted the flowers down.

As you can see, I was lazy and didn’t feel like calculating anything, so I just put up the old quilt on the wall and kept cutting pieces of the grey until the whole thing was covered up. Pathetic!  But it worked.

Now I am ready for some couch time with the family.

(We are from Steelers Country, but they had too many injuries to have a chance at advancing this year, so I’m rooting for the Seattle Seahawks.  Because  I have always loved the deep blue- green of their uniforms.  They kinda look like lizards.  Oh and because Gar and I both work for companies based in Seattle and we sort of dayderam about someday ending up there… )

Chain-Piecing Ad Infinitum

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My new fabric line, Jasmine Tea, is due out in stores next month!  So exciting.  I should have my preview yardage in hand any day now.  Tonight I’m finishing a pattern to go with the line.  Sewing up the test version in solids and I kinda like it this way.

Ad Infinitum

Ad Infinitum.

Back of Bringing home Dolly

I always love the backs of quilt tops.  Sometimes I love them more than the fronts. It’s like a puzzle.  Can you tell what the pattern is from the back?

Did I mention Gus and I are learning Latin together this year?  Homeschooling is cool like that.  My Latin name is Paula.  Pronounced Pow-La.  Kind of like a superhero name.  My girls already have superhero names.  Evil-Lyn and Ultra Violet.  So it’s high time I got one.  Lots of Girl Power in this household.  Lots.  Bringing Home Dolly Quilt top

Pretty Umbrella Girls Charity Quilt

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Just wanted to put out some quick pics of the charity quilt I worked on at today’s DC Modern Quilt Guild sew-in.  I bought the focus fabric because I wanted to use the red-pink-orange trees in some pillows for Violet and Evelyn’s room, and I didn’t have any plans for the little umbrella girls, but they are so cute and cheery so it seemed perfect for some charity sewing.  I picked a bunch of bright fabrics from my stash for the strips-

It’s an interesting balance finding fabric for a charity quilt, right?  They have to be fabrics that I’m willing to “give up” but I still want the finished project to look like it was made with care.  I want whoever receives the quilt to feel special.  So several of the fabrics are new and haven’t even made it into their intended projects yet, but I included them anyway just to make it extra-pretty.

Don’t mind my crummy cell-phone pictures.  It’s late and I have to get to bed so I can get up and drive to Philadelphia for a quilt show.

Umbrella Girl Blocks

I made some progress today but I would have made more if there weren’t so many interesting people to get to know at the meeting!  Life is rough, right?

I’m thinking of a young adolescent girl as I make this, so I probably won’t send it to the pregnancy center that the Guild selected this year.  Maybe I will send it to the Hershey Medical Center with the other quilt that my Mom and Aunt and I put together over the summer.

And because Elle made me aware that Evelyn Bea has grown quite a bit since I last posted pictures, here she is doing big girl things:

Big Girl Bea

Lest you should think that I am still sewing with a baby sleeping peacefully at my feet.  Not quite.

Hello World

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So turns out when we left the old house behind, we left internet connectivity behind too.  Who knew that it would take almost two months to convince Comcast that there is indeed a house on this lot and that we would happily pay for their services if they would only come out and connect us to the world…

But anyway, blasting the cable company is all too easy, what have I been up to?  I’ve been doing lots of English paper piecing,

I attended my first DC Modern Quilt Guild meeting a couple weeks ago and loved it,

been sketching new fabric designs like crazy.

(Violet helped me by coloring these ones in.  Thanks Sweetie!)

(The thumbnails usually end up being my favorite part of making a collection.  Everything looks so nice and crisp here in black and white.)

I checked out Denyse Schmidt’s Modern Quilts, Traditional Inspiration from the library, and it has me itching to make, of all things, a tied comforter our of just a few big pieces of fabric.  Perfectly simple, a weekend project, with something beautiful and a feeling of accomplishment at the end.  A September project I am hoping, still getting my little girls’ room together in my mind.

So that’s where I’ve been.  And now back to sketching is where I’m going.