Quilting progress and hexies

I've been working on free motion quilting on my Liberty Fields quilt (pattern by Material Obsession):

And it's hard going! I usually love FMQ but this quilt is large and because the blocks are on point and I wanted to stabilize it by stitching in the ditch around each block, it's been a biitch getting the quilt thru my machine.  I'm now on to quilting swirly shapes on the white background fabric and my darning foot keeps on getting caught up on the applique and embroidery AND I'm also outlining the star shapes, freehand, which isn't so easy.

Hmmm, I wonder why this particular quilt seems like so much trouble?  Hopefully all of the hard work will pay off in the end.  I'm not even halfway through, but with a 3 day weekend right around the corner, I hope to make some significant progress to share with y'all soon.

My flickr friend Melinda (Quirky Granola Girl) has inspired me to make some new hexagons.  On Sunday, I pulled my old hexagon project out and before long I had these:

and by this morning, my pile had grown considerably.

Fun, huh?  Definitely addictive.

'Bye 2012, Bring on 2013

Looking back at 2012, it wasn't a hugely productive year in quilts for me.  Most of the year was spent piecing my Farmer's Wife Quilt.  I guess one could say this was a good year for perseverance more than anything.  Here is the completed top in all it's glory:

Now all I need to do is win the lottery so I can afford to by about 9-10 yards of backing fabric!

So sorry it's been so quiet on my blog as of yet.  I'm always completely overwhelmed with the onset of the holidays.  It's a very busy period at work as well in addition to the usual holiday stuff.  I took 2 weeks off work to coincide with the kids' school break and once we were over the Christmas "hump", I've had a wonderful time relaxing and doing not a lot of anything (i.e., catching up on Downton Abbey and Breaking Bad).  I've also spent some time sewing.  I finished an old WIP that started off as a Flickr sewing bee.

I quilted with an all over meander in the background, an orange peel design and pebbles quilting on the stars and a natural open feather pattern in the borders.

I'm not sure why this photo looks so blurry, but you can see the original image on flickr.  I had fun experimenting with different free motion stitches.  I used Superior Threads Brights for the green border and a polyester embroidery thread for the rest of the quilt.

This is what happens when I go fabric shopping with my daughter.  She HAD to have the mustache print fabric and I suggested we make a case for the ipad.  The tutorial is from One Shabby Chick.  It's an easy project and came together quickly.

Wishing all of my readers a happy and healthy New Year!  Happy sewing!!!

Finishing up the Farmer's Wife

Just a quick post to say that I'm still here ... and still farming.  This weekend, I added the final borders on my FWQ.  It's now officially a completed top (squeal!!!) and too big to photograph in the house.

FWQ @ Armchair Quilter

Here it is sans final borders, which are 6" strips out of the blue yarn dye - same as sashing fabric.  The quilt measures 106.5 x 96 or so.  I will have to find my notes to be sure.  I was a bit surprised it turned out so large, considerably larger than the measurements for the queen-sized quilt in the book.  I wonder if anyone else encountered this issue?

Even though I was super careful with starching and handling, I had some issues with the bias pieces on the edges of the quilt.  The sides measured 1 inch wider at the ends of the long sides vs. the measurement through the center of the quilt and an half an inch variance on the crosswise edges.  I cut my borders for the average length, calculating the difference between the center and end measurements and easing with pins.  Hope that makes sense?  Anyway, I'm hoping the quilt lies flatter and I won't have any issues quilting this behemoth. 

FWQ @ Armchair Quilter

FWQ @ Armchair Quilter

I'll be back later this week with some outside "vanity" shots.

*******
Claudia
Armchair Quilter

Sashing Away

I've had to limit both my sewing and online computer time due to some back/shoulder/arm issues.  It's challenging, but slowly the FW quilt grows ...

It's about halfway sashed and I'm hoping to finish it up this weekend!!


Even though we don't experience much in the way of the changing leaves of Fall in the City, I love this time of year! The light is softer and the fog stays away (well, at least half the time).



Bento Box quilt




City Hall, San Francisco

-- Claudia