Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Working on a New Quilt!

I just realized that it seems like forever since I posted.  I've been working hard on a new quilt design and I'm so excited that I get to use these Riley Blake dots.  Tone on tone red and aqua, and gigantic red and aqua dots for the back.  I am seriously in love with the giant dots! Oh and the chevrons. They're all so happy!


Last week, I finished the cutting.


And this week, the flocks of geese have been flying.  


And hopefully, by the end of the week, I'll have an 80x80 in. quilt top ready for quilting.  Won't be long now.  Chain piecing has been my best friend!

Linking up this week with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

xoxo

Thursday, January 16, 2014

An almost Friday Finish

The other day I grabbed a jelly roll and just started sewing.. I had been intrigued by the Jelly Roll Race technique.  And a couple of days ago, I finished the quilt. I started and finished a quilt in about four days!  A total record for me!  I'm still in disbelief. It was so easy. I really like the addition of the dots and checks jelly strips around the edges and for the binding b/c it makes the colors in the middle stand out more.  Prior to adding those I was really regretting those gray borders.  But now I like it. And the only thing I had to purchase for it was the backing fabric. :)




I'm thinking it might be a gift, but my son thinks it should just stay here on the chair where I put it to take a picture. ha!  


I just did straight line quilting, about an inch apart, with a lavender-ish Aurifil thread, and I love the colored thread, and Aurifil.  



That's the first time I had used it.  And usually I quilt everything with white.  But it turned out well, and... I didn't even make any tucks in the backing!  I think that's a first, too. ;)  I'm not so good with the basting.. sigh.  Instead of using spray, I used pins this time. 




It's now all washed and crinkly, and waiting for a destination.


I hope to have more finishes soon, especially in February.  I'm going to be joining in "Drop and Give Me Twenty" over at my friend Beth's place, Quilting Hottie Haven. It's a yearly event, and I think it might be her third year running it now. Go check it out. :) If you'd like to pledge to sew for 20 min. every day in the month of February, you can be eligible for all sorts of prizes, and there are all sorts of ways to increase your chances of winning!  

So here's my entry pledge: "I, Kelli Fannin, pledge to sew, quilt, stare at or roll around in fabric, instagram about sewing or quilting, online fabric shop, daydream about finishing a quilt, or any other quilty-like activity for at least 20 min. every day for the month of February." ;)  But really, I will sew for at least 20 min. a day. :)


Thanks for dropping in! Happy Weekend!


Off to work on something else.. maybe a new pattern coming soon! Some ideas are cooking! :)

xoxo

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Jelly Roll Racing


I was so happy to finally get my machine back today after six weeks in the shop, I just wanted to SEW something.  The kind of mindless sewing where you just sit and let the machine hum along. Especially after the whole family had the flu all week. :/






So I grabbed a jelly roll that I picked up at Sample Spree last May in Portland, and decided to start racing with it.  It's called Ashbury Heights.  Look at the fun phone print..



I have never made a jelly roll race top before.. it ended up being just the kind of sewing that I was in the mood for.  In just a couple of hours, between coughing fits and with some resting thrown in, I had sewn through the strips and then decided to add a border to make it a little bigger.



But I still wasn't feeling it.. I am usually drawn to brighter colors, and the gray wasn't really doing anything for me and it did need to be a little bit bigger still for a lap quilt..  Hmm. I really wanted to use fabric that I had on hand, and not buy anything else to go with it.. so I found some strips from another jelly roll that I picked up at the Riley Blake booth in Portland last May, this one is of their basics, dots and checks.. I pulled out all of the coordinating colors..



..and raced my way around the edges with them. They kind of pull out some of the colors in the main fabrics and give it a scrappy feel.  Excuse the end of the ironing board sticking it's nose into the picture there..  The lighting was so bad, too.


I think I'm going to do the quilting on it using some of the Aurifil I won in the Make it Right Challenge.  I haven't sewn with Aurifil yet.. looking forward to trying it out..  But I sure hate to break into the box though.. it looks so pretty in its natural state.. But I can't hoard it forever. Or can I? ;)



This is the first time that I have ever made a quilt top in one day.  (and while recovering from the flu) There is really a first time for everything!

And while I was sewing, A. read three chapters of this book that he got for Christmas from my bro and SIL.  Leave it to toilet humor to get a first grader reading on his own. :) His first independent reading.. my little reader. :)  Growing right up! 



Happy Weekend! Keeping fingers crossed for good health this week.

xoxo

Friday, January 3, 2014

Patchwork Punctuation: 2014's first finish!

I've decided that I should have a quilt *almost* done at the end of every year.  That way, during the first week of January, I can finish something and start the year feeling super productive, when I really did most of the work in 2013. ha! 




Patchwork Punctuation is all DONE! YEAH! It was a beast to quilt on my 20 year old machine with 6" of throat space, but it is all done, bound and ready to be sent off to my nephew for Christmas.  *ahem--a little late* ;)  I can't wait to get my other machine back from the shop! 







I spent the better part of the last three days quilting and binding it.

This is the quilting I was able to do before my machine went into the shop.  I was having fun playing with FMQ for really the first time on a big quilt.  But it started skipping stitches and catching.. which they are still trying to figure out.. everything else is checking out perfectly on it, but it's been FIVE weeks!  Hopefully they figure it out soon. :(  Anyway, I finally decided to just do straight line quilting on the rest of the quilt so it's mostly straight lines with just two or three areas of FMQ.




And then onto the binding made of all of the leftover scraps.



The design is something I sketched out onto graph paper last April when I was trying to figure out what to make for the AG Make it Right Challenge.  I hope my nephew likes it.. he's a freshman in HS this year.  Hard to believe! I figure he probably likes to text his friends a lot so hopefully this one suits him. :)



Today wasn't the best day to take pics outside.. :/  The back is green polka dot..



It's about 84 x 84".  And now it's all bundled up and ready to be boxed and mailed.  Whew!  Glad to have that one all done!



Oh, and someone else wanted me to send a New Year message to anyone who might happen by. :)



xoxo,


P.S.  Thanks to Jeifner for commenting and telling me about this.. hehe



linking up: six sisters' stuff, TGIFF, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finish it up Friday, Creative Connection, Anything Goes, Friday Favs, LAFF, Showoff Friday, Link Party Palooza, Flaunt if Friday, Freedom Friday, Weekly Creative, Farmgirl Friday, Diana Rambles, Creativity Unleashed, Showoff Saturday
Thursday, January 2, 2014

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!!

2013 was such an eventful and busy year filled with lots of family things, and lots of sewing fun as well.  When I went looking back at pictures, I realized that a lot more sew-y things happened than I remembered!


There are still those blocks, and unfinished projects that need to be worked on, not everything was a finish,  but it still counts as sewing fun.

My machine has been in the shop for almost five weeks now.  Ugh!  
I can't wait to get it back.  For some reason it is skipping stitches in the quilting mode. Hopefully I can get it back soon! 

Here's to a happy, healthy, quilty and scrap littered 2014!!  Thanks for all of your 2013 visits and comments.  They make online journaling WAY more fun! :D  

xoxo
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