WIP: A Whole lot of EPP

First off, a big thanks for everyone that reads my blog regularly (and for those that just read now and then, and those who are reading it for the first time today, and really everyone who ever read it).
I checked my page views this week and I am at 10058!!! I think that I pretty exciting and I had no idea that I would ever make it that far. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Summer has been great for hand stitching while my kids play in the yard. It has been a super hot summer so we are all getting in lots of time outside and if we are at home I almost always have my hand sewing with me. It lives in sandwich sized plastic bin on counter so it is always ready to go.

Over the last couple weeks I have completely the third block of Project Seventy-Two, which was made with 72 half-hexagons.

 Project Seventy-Two is coming along nicely (I think). I would love to say I have a clear game plan for it, but I don't and I am not in any rush to get one. I knew I didn't want the blocks to touch one another so I chose to separate them with setting triangles of a fourth contrasting colour. Here are the first two triangles, also make with half-hexies, sewn onto 2 blocks.

I am also playing catch up on the Hexie Block of Month hosted by The Hexie Blog.
Here is the June BOM

The July BOM

And the August BOM


As if that wasn't enough stuff on the go outside and away from my sewing room, I also finished 2 wedding gifts (read about them here, and here).

And made a dress for Monkey to wear to the second wedding (which I finished sewing in the truck on the way out to event)

And finally, I felt it was time to sew something for me (or rather, work on a project for me that I started back in the spring). The main piece of it almost all quilted, and I am still trying to decide on the rest of the details.

Sorry for the post overload today, and thanks for sticking around to the end.
Linking up with Sarah at Sarah Did It! for HeLP for Hexia-aholics,  Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP:Wednesday and Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social.

Leatina

Snapshot of skiers - Quilted Pillows Finish

A whirlwind project. Started and finished in 3 weeks. Finished just in time for my cousins wedding.

It started with a very large number of very tiny pieces.

Slowly they came together.

When my eyes got tired from staring at the tiny pieces I made some patchwork envelope style pillow backs.

I did some stitch ripping after assembling some pieces in the wrong order.

But eventually I had a skier pieced and ready for a border. But due to some miscalculation and lack of planning, I did not have enough purple to do square borders

So I extended the mountain range.

Backs were quilted with simple straight lines and the lines of mountains were echoed on the front. 

Ski poles were added using the variegated purple thread that most of the quilting was done in. 

Envelope backs were stitched to the quilted fronts, and then a pretty binding was added by machine.

And then 2 pillow form were stuffed inside!

One for my cousin.

And one for her new husband.

Now for a few details,

Quilt Stats:

Name: Snap of Skiers Pillows

Size: 20" x 20" (each)

Pattern credits: Amy Friend from During Quiet Time for her Vintage Skier Paper Pieced Block, the rest of the design is my own.

Piecing: Skiers, paper pieced using 60wt Presencia Thread, Patchwork and borders, pieced using 60wt Presencia thread

Batting: Quilter's Dream Select (pieced together scraps using batting tape)

Quilting: Quilted on my Grandma's Husqvarna Viking Sewing machine. Thread used white 60wt Presencia, light green 50wt presencia and 30wt Wonderfil Mirage variegated purple thread. 

Binding: Machine stitched. (The machine wasn't super happy about going through 8 layers of fabric and 3 layers of batting on the overlap of the envelope, but it survived)

Notes: I would have loved to make a quilt for my cousin and her new hubby as their wedding gift, but with both time and budget constraints pillows were a much better option. They are both great skiers, so when I saw the Vintage Skier Block by Amy Friend I knew I would be perfect. I was slightly intimidated by the tiny pieces but I went slow and used lots and lots of sewline gluestick glue to keep pieces in place while I stitched and finger pressed all seams really well. I am so excited that it worked and I am pretty sure I built my paper piecing skills by leaps and bounds. It was a super fun project and the wedding was beautiful.

Skier pillows at Mt. Norquay where the couple was married. Congrats!!!

Linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social and Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday

Thanks for having a look
Leatina