Midweek Project Check-in (WIP)

I haven't finished anything, but I do feel {finally} like I have made a fair bit of progress on things this week!

--ONGOING PROJECTS--

{Insert Name Here}: Bottled Rainbows {ticker tape quilt-along}

{I need to take a finished picture of this one to share with you.} 

I adore working on these blocks.  Each one is like it's own little quilt or fabric mosaic.  I spent a ton of time fiddling, cutting, arranging, and re-arranging scraps of fabrics.  I even created some scraps to get the look just so. 

Heavenly!

When I started this quilt along I thought I would just be learning how to ticker tape quilt... using the quilt as you go style.  And maybe it would be a good way to use scraps.  I had no idea how utterly enjoyable and relaxing it would be.

Pure bliss!!  It's one of those projects I can do half tired or half playing with the dog which I appreciate also.  So easy to pick it up for a bit and put it down again.  Certainly my new go to project if I have a few minutes.

I started putting a few more blocks together.  I decided a break from green was in order and jumped to orange, lilac, and sky blue (my names for the colors... not the official Kona fabric color names).

You can almost bet I will have a few more to show you next week.  To date I have finished just the two greens, but I am sure I will be catching up with the larger group rather quickly!

Oh, and I had been asked a question about the citrus fabric I plan on using with one of the orange blocks.  And the secret is that it's from an old skirt that I have been hanging on to.  Fun to reuse from unexpected places!

 

 

Flourishing Happy Garden (king sized)

 

Aside from renaming this quilt... I also pieced the backing!  It's a mix of deep blue/navy (not pictured), khaki, and this golden animal outline print.  Here is a closer look at the golden animal print.... I don't know it's name, but I feel in love with it pretty quickly -- and it was only $2 a yard!

Remind me again why I thought it was good idea to make a king sized anything?  I know it will look nice on my bed.  I know it will better assure equal quilt distribution while we are all snuggled in leaving no cold anythings... but oh. my. word. this is a big quilt.

Did you hear my moans and groans the last few days from there behind your monitor?  That was me trying to sandwich this giant.

Let's recap how making the quilt sandwich went... backing, batting, and top.  Smooth, smooth, smooth, smooth.  Pin, pin, pin, pin.  Cut a ton of threads.  Remove all dog hair.  Roll up with a grin of triumph only to find a major wrinkle/bubble in backing after pinning the whole quilt.  Un-do way to many pins to count.  Re-smooth, smooth, smooth, smooth.  Re-pin, pin pin. -- you get the picture... a few tears may or may not have been shed.

Hold on.

What's that? 

Why yes, it's the quality inspector (Katie) come for a closer look.  And it looks as though she has brought her inspection tool: one large fuzzy orange monkey. 

I know... but once she had already done the home run slide on the quilt and plopped down (looking adorably cute) I could only take pictures and then just keep pinning like it was a normal occurrence. 

Because ... well... it is a normal occurrence for this quilter. 

She's the butter on my toast. 

The milk in my cereal.

The peanut butter in my oatmeal... yes that really is a good combination...

What I'm saying is that we need each other. Like, a lot. Yup.

After nearly two hours of wrangling with this monster (the quilt, not the pup) I had passed Katie's quality inspection for comfort and snuggle-ability and the basting was completed too.

Now, I wanted to "stitch near the ditch" through some of the major lines to hold everything in place and give this quilt a bit more strength since I plan to use it everyday on our bed.  Yes.  I said "stitch near the ditch."  As in why fight it... so just roll with it and I also wanted to be able to see the stitches for these lines on the top.

To prep for quilting I cleared off most of my desk to maximize my space, filled a bunch of bobbins, and told myself that I could do this.  Yes, I could!

To fit the quilt through the neck of the machine I used a rolling technique I read about in one of your lovely blogs.  It's as simple as it sounds.  You roll the part of the quilt that needs to be stuffed through the hole.  I give it an A+ rating for working.  Made this seem more manageable. 

There are six lines across I am doing both vertically and horizontally.  I finished the first set of six and finished two on the other side.  It's been doable so far.  I still want to do some fancy quilting in the sashing diamonds -- might get to start on that tonight.

I'm still not really looking forward to taking all the pins out, but it will signal that I am one step closer to saying that I made a quilt for my own bed... what a happy thing that will be -- I can only imagine the sweet dreams we will have in this Happy Garden!

--STALLED--

Crewel Spring Flowers

Only a very small amount of progress on this one. 

X Marks the Spot

No action here and I have to admit I am getting a bit stress still seeing this one on the design wall.  Once my king size is done... then this is the next one up at bat!

Katie Fiber Art

No action here.

This Week's Work in Progress (WiP) Stats 

Last WiP Wednesday Total: 5
New Projects: 0 (I'm still being good and focused!)

Finished Projects: 0
Total WiP's: 5 (same as last week)

 

---Linking to W.I.P. Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced---

日本のための多くの愛
Much love for Japan