WIP: My first kit quilt

As I mentioned in my end of 2014 planning for 2015 post, I'm making a wedding quilt for my friend using the True Colors quilt kit. As I want to make two wedding quilts in the first half of 2015, I'm getting started ASAP. So far, I have finished all the cutting.

I have never really done fussy cutting and it took me until the last 2 fabrics (out of like 7 requiring fussy cutting...) to really get a good technique. Depending on how they look when I start sewing the corner triangles on, I might end up re-cutting a fair number of them. Luckily, the kit seemed to foresee this problem and there is definitely enough spare fabric to cut out some extras. Good job kit.

The plan for this week will probably be corner triangles/HSTs and then flying geese for last.

Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

A Christmas Finish

I got in a last minute finish in 2014: the trinity celtic knot wedding quilt. Originally, this quilt was supposed to be professionally quilted and sent to Germany for my friend's wedding in August. That didn't happen. If I remember correctly it was basted and marked for quilting by the time the wedding rolled around.

This was my first time using a stencil and quilt ponce. It went okay.

I didn't really start working on the quilting until earlier in December. In retrospect, I wish I had gotten a larger template because Dear God this took FOREVER! It probably took me over 30 hours just for the quilting. 

I had a lot of kitten shaped help with the quilting. This is one of my new kittens, Sonar.

Her sister, Shishkebab, was also extremely dedicated to helping me...

On Christmas Eve I frantically hand sewed on the binding and washed it 3 times with color catchers. The color catchers were definitely a good call because all 5 of them came out nice and light purple. The 3 washes were because I couldn't get the darn chalk lines off. I guess I left them on too long or something because they refused to wash out. I ended up doing a long soak with baking soda added to get them out. 

Woo its done!

It was all worth it in the end though because I was able to deliver the quilt (with label!) in person on Christmas Day and, as far as I can tell, they loved it ^_^

My first ever label! I had my mom make it on her embroidery machine.

Even though this is an old finish, I'm linking it anyway: Finish it Friday

Recap and Regroup

Oh hi there. Long time no blog. My non-quilty life has been busy the last 6 months or so. Here's a quick recap of non-quilty things:

      May - moved into new house, got engaged
      June - got a puppy
      July - went to New Mexico for a week, lab moved to new building, shop hop with my mom
      August - submitted journal article, TAing 2 classes & taking 1, finished and gifted Swoon quilt
      September - sister stayed with us for 3 weeks while she was on rotation
      October - other sister moved to Australia, Halloween, made some placemats
      November - cat died, went to science conference, got 2 kittens to fill hole in heart, Thanksgiving
      December - final exams, writing grant proposal, getting serious about wedding plans, Christmas

Unsurprisingly, I haven't sewn much since moving. I do intend to make a quick post about the finish of the Swoon quilt and also my placemats. Fair warning, I'm a little overly proud of these placemats ^_^

My list of quilty project for the new year is lengthening on a seemingly daily basis. This year I'm going to try my hand at quilt kits, which is something I have never done before. I have such an inability to even follow a pattern exactly (see Swoon quilt) that it will be interesting to see if I can reign myself in and make a quilt from a kit. I did a little Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping so I already have a couple kits in hand. I also have a few patterns that I've collected this year and am planning to make in 2015. I also did my first ever shop hop with my mom this summer and have a couple of treasures from that adventure that I've been plotting and planning with.

So here it is, the Quilty Plan 2015:

Paris Flea Market Find Quilt Kit in Red - I ordered this on Black Friday sale from Connecting Threads and it will be for a friend of mine getting married in June (the week before me!). This is an incredibly simple pattern so I don't anticipate any difficulty whipping it up. I might add a few extra reds from my stash to spice it up a bit...

Hexagon Quilt - I bought a set of those honeycombs (precut hexagons) that Moda makes while on shop hop and I am planning to do a baby blanket with them. Potentially, this quilt will go to my Danish friend who is having her first baby in April.


True Colors Quilt Kit - I bought this on sale at Craftsy and it will be for another friend getting married at the beginning of May. I'm planning on potentially modifying this one to make it a little bigger since the pattern size is only a large twin or maybe full not really a queen. It's a little difficult to modify though because of the way the print on the fabric is used to make the pattern also with the whole "a kit only comes with so much fabric" thing. It just seemed so her when I saw it that I didn't think I could possibly design something better/more fitting. Luckily, if I make this first I should still be able to get more of the fabric so modification would be possible. In any case, this kit will definitely be an adventure.

Wishes QAL - I downloaded all the pattern parts for this but didn't participate in the QAL (obviously). I have a fat quarter bundle of ocean colored solids that I've ear marked for this project. It will be interesting for me as I've never really done a sampler and I don't think I've ever made any of these blocks. It also has a lot of triangles which are sort of not my forte. There's a pretty good chance that I'll donate this one, which was kind of the point of the QAL!

Fair Isle QAL - Again, I bought this pattern but did not participate in the QAL. My plan is to give this one to my in-laws next Christmas. I have no idea what sort of color scheme I'm going to use as I love the original, the QAL version, and the ones in the link up. Maybe I'll have to make 2...

Christmas Accessories - My fiancé and I need stockings. He said he wants either Pac-man or a dinosaur fighting a penguin, so we'll see what I can do. We also don't have a tree skirt so it might be nice to try my hand at that.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Good Luck with your own Quilty Plan 2015!