Two more pillow finishes

Managed to get two more throw pillows completed for my sewing room window seat.

The pinwheel is an orphan block that matches pretty well the colors in the room. I did some simple straight-line quilting on this one and just sewed and flipped. It has a simple envelope back.

I finished the yo-yos for the third one about a month ago. On this one, I tried free-motion quilting big loops around the borders. I marked where they were going to be so I wasn't so panicky. I think it turned out pretty well. I NEED to make myself practice free-motion quilting more so I can become more comfortable and proficient. It was on my list of things to overcome this year but I have yet to tackle that beast. :)

The un-fun part of making HSTs

I spent some time yesterday squaring up my half-square triangles for the warm/cool quilt along quilt that is my current leader/ender project. Man do I hate doing that. But there is such satisfaction when it's over! I laid out the squares I have done so far and I'm somewhat unhappy with my decision to use vintage sheets for this. I think it's a bit too blendy. I'm hoping the watercolory, Monet look will be okay. But I think you can still see the patern formed by the warm and cool color contrasts. It's definitely not going to be as big as I was hoping so I'm already thinking about border options for this one.

I also finished up this pillow a couple nights ago. I have a window seat in my sewing room with lots of naked pillows on it that I'm trying to cover. I've had these pillow forms for a very long time. I have no earthly idea why I purchased so many pillow forms over the years and never did anything with them! The center square in this one is a block I saw in a magazine and made at least 12 years ago. Glad to have it out of the "what am I going to do with this" pile!

A week or so ago, I went completely ga-ga over a picture of Joel Dewberry's new Heirloom prints in the Ruby colorway. I bought a half-yard bundle and have been working on this.

It's a variation of a free pattern JD has on his website but I'm taking a much easier approach to the design. The background is Kona bone, so a nice muted white that goes nicely with the rich, vivid colors of the prints. My plan is to quilt the white columns that develop between the colored lanterns and something inside the lanterns too but I'm not sure what. This picture really doesn't do those fabrics justice. They are so rich and yummy. This one is going together fast and I'm excited to have something finished very soon!

Mary and Olive and a Gift

This journal is named for two women who greatly inspired my love for sewing and crafting. My fraternal grandmother, Mary taught me to crochet when I was a girl. Olive was my maternal grandmother and a wonderful quilt maker. Both of my grandmothers lovingly passed their love of sewing to me and I am still inspired by their creativeness.

A couple of weeks ago I came across a free block pattern that I loved so much I immediately ran home to make it. Two days later when pondering what I could gift to my lovely neighbor who was hospitalized, I thought of a pillow.

I was super happy with how it turned out and she loved it! Win, win!!

The pattern for this intricate but easy design can be found at theparfaitcafe.com under the 'Patterns' link.

An experiment

Well...here goes! I hope this will be a fun way to journal my quilty pursuits and maybe even guilt me into finishing more projects than in the past. We'll see how that pans out! If nothing else, this will at least encourage a photographic history of my completed projects. I've made baby quilts or other quilted gifts for people and completely forgotten to photograph them before I've let them go...no more!

I'm not sure what is more perculiar about this new adventure...writing posts that no one is reading or sharing my goals/attempts/progress/failures with complete strangers.

I'm excited to get started!! So here's what I've been up to lately...
1. I'm slowly but surely working on the Bottled Rainbows Quilt-Along hostessed by Rachel at Stitched In Color. Here are the blocks I've completed so far. 6 down...

And last night I got a few more ready for the "ticker tape" process. 10 to go!

2. I also purchased some vintage sheet charm packs from Jen at In Color Order and joined the Warm/Cool Quilt-Along. I'm working on this slowly and surely as a Leader/Ender project.

3. Last but certainly not least, I finally got sucked into the ginormous Farmer's Wife Quilt-Along. This Flickr Group is 774 strong as of this post. 774 people joined up to a virtual sewing bee from all over the world...cool! The day I got my book in the mail, I made the first two blocks. And within a few days I was caught up to week 5. I've stalled a little bit but hope to get caught up to everyone else soon (currently on week 9).

I have many more works in progress -- I'll share more tomorrow.

If you're reading this, thanks for joining me on this journey!! I look forward to getting to know some of you over the coming months! Cheers!