Weekend Progress Report

I had a really productive weekend, quilt-wise! I spent a big chunk of Saturday fabric shopping with my husband and Ellen. I got a bunch of new fabrics for birthday and Christmas surprise gifts, which was fun but also a little scary, because now I'm committed to actually making the gifts: 5 quilts. By December. Whew.

I also spent my birthday gift certificate on fabric. I got a big stack of Kaffe Fassett fat quarters in ridiculously vibrant colors and incredibly cheerful patterns. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them -- it's the first time I've ever bought fabric without a plan for how to use the fabric -- and the patterns are a little bolder than my typical style, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to throw caution to the wind just this once and buy something on impulse.

To top it off, I also got a bunch of watercolor-y, wildflower-y fat quarters (had to spend the whole gift certificate, you know!). Again, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with those fabrics, either, but they were so cheerful, I had to have them. Ellen said she was glad that my taste is so different from hers because she can watch me buy all this outlandish fabric and see what I do with it without having to buy it herself!

I also got a ton of sewing done over the weekend. I now have 6 finished blocks for the Clay's Choice quilt (that's 20% of them!). I decided to stop assembling the quilt 1 block at a time and instead chain-piece the component parts, which will then be used to make the final blocks. Each block is made of 16 squares, which combine into 4 identical quarters. I can sew 16 squares together into 1 block, which takes me nearly an hour, or I can sew a pair of squares together, as many times as I want, which takes as much time or as little time as I have available. The 2 squares combine to make a rectangle, and 2 rectangles combine to make a block quarter. Then, when I have a bunch of the block quarters made, finishing the blocks goes a lot faster.

This weekend, I finished all of the red & tan rectangles (which make up half of the block quarter) and got going on the blue & tan rectangles (the other half of the quarter). Then I'll start pairing the rectangles into block quarters, and from there, it's pretty fast to sew the blocks. I went ahead and finished some blocks yesterday, too, because it's fun to see them finished, even if it is less efficient to do it that way.

I also washed, dried, and ironed a load of the new fabrics in betweeen chain-piecing the Clay's Choice blocks -- all in all, a busy and productive weekend!

New Quilt: Clay's Choice

Now that the sunflower quilt is finally done, I've started on a new one. This one is called Clay's Choice, and I got the pattern out of this book. The sample quilt in the book features navy blue, bright red, and white fabrics -- very patriotic. When my husband and I went to pick out fabric, however, we couldn't find what we wanted in that color scheme, so we went with a deeper red, dusty blue, and soft tan with blue flowers. The effect is a bit more muted but still lovely.

Here's the first block:

We scaled up the pattern so it will fit our queen-sized bed. When I say we, I mean my husband did it -- he drew out the updated pattern on graph paper and calculated how much fabric we would need for the larger size. He's a great quilting assistant!

There are now 30 blocks in this quilt plus 3 borders, and so far I have just 2 blocks done, but I'm hoping I can get this quilt finished in time for Labor Day. We'll see how it goes, but I'm definitely thinking this may be my last queen-size quilt for a while! I'm looking forward to making a nice throw or 2...

Sunflower Quilt

As promised, here is a picture of the quilt I finished a few weeks ago.

I really love this quilt! For one thing, I just love the fabrics. Plus, this is the first time I had done "real" binding, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. This is also the first time I tried free-motion quilting, and I'm fairly happy with the results I got. The large sunflower blocks are qulited around the flowers, and the pieced blocks are quilted in a large meandering swirl sort of pattern. The first couple blocks came out a little rough, but I'm really pleased with how the last blocks turned out. I think I'm getting the hang of it!

The sunflower fabrics, plus the dark blue and the blue-and-yellow stripe fabrics, are from a collection by Timeless Treasures that I found in my local quilt shop. I can't remember who makes the yellow and green fabrics, but I know they weren't part of the same collection.

The quilt is queen-sized. I used the Just Can't Cut It pattern from All Washed Up on the recommendation of the ladies in the quilt shop. I wanted something fast and easy, and I wanted to be able to show off the large sunflower print, and this pattern fit the bill. I did end up having to adjust it a little bit because I did not have enough fabric to make the outer borders as wide as the pattern called for; I cut them in half, which gave me plenty of fabric and still left the quilt plenty big to fit on my bed.

I'm so excited to have this quilt finished! It's so bright and cheerful. I just love it!

Penguins

The Galapagos penguins were one of the highlights of the trip (although, to be honest, there were a lot of highlights in Galapagos!). Here are a few more pictures of the cute little guys:

Isn't this a handsome little bird?

Time for a swim...

This busy parent had 2 hungry babies to feed!

I had so much fun watching the penguins swim, waddle, and take care of their chicks -- I am so glad we got the chance to see so many wild penguins!

I Got Tagged by Ellen

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:
1. Graduating from grad school
2. Finishing my new quilt
3. My 30th birthday this weekend with my family
4. My 30th birthday remix next weekend with my husband's family
5. Dinner out with my friends next weekend
6. Fall weather
7. Saturday (any Saturday, every Saturday)
8. Going fabric shopping

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1. Ate brunch at Neuhaus Cafe
2. Did laundry
3. Drove around looking at lovely neighborhoods we might want to move to
4. Took the dog for a walk
5. Did more laundry
6. Tried to write up a to-do list for the week (yikes!)
7. Paid bills
8. Read the Sunday paper

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
1. Tap dance
2. Sleep late
3. Enjoy getting up early
4. Paint
5. Make my own clothes
6. Speak Spanish
7. Work part-time for full-time income
8. Live somewhere with a milder climate (say, Oregon)

8 Shows I enjoy:
1. Dancing with the Stars
That's really about it... I can't even think of any others! Not so much a TV person.

Quick Recap

The last 2 weeks have been super-busy for me! Here's a quick update on what I've been doing:

• Started a new internship (I'm almost through with grad school -- graduation is in December!). I love the internship but it's been hard adjusting to a 40-hour workweek again -- it's been nearly 3 years since I last worked full-time!
• Finished a quilt that I have been working on for months (pictures to come)
• Went to Sushi Zushi for dinner with Anne and Cindy
• Made pillow shams to match the new quilt
• Started a new quilt (pictures of that to come, too)
• Had Craft Night at Ellen's house (worked on the new quilt!)
• Had a Fourth of July lunch with my husband's family
• Went to Cavalli's with Gladys and Ashley for yummy chicken pesto pizza
• Knitted with Katy, Debra and Reagan and took a break for brunch at Cafe Brazil

I've got lots of things going on the next couple of weeks, too, but I'll do my best to get back online and post some pictures of my latest sewing adventures (plus penguin pics from the Galapagos trip).