WIP: Farmer's Wife and a Ipad Mini Cover

Last week I managed to take the whole week to finish sewing the new cloth diapers for LB, but now I have 8 covers made and in use. It was nice to get back sewing with cotton afterwards. Took a bit of time to sew for myself, and made 2 more Farmer's Wife Blocks. These ones were both paper pieced and pretty quick to put together. I now have 29 in total.

Block 5- Bat Wing

Block 1 - Attic Windows

I sort of gave my brother the shaft at Christmas, I had purchased fabric to make him an Ipad cover, only to find out that he sold his Ipad a few days before Christmas. I packed the fabric I picked for him into a box with a note saying I would make him the item of his choice. His wife bought him an Ipad Mini boxing day and he decided it would need a cover. So this past weekend I got going on that. I am using Terry Atkinson's Reader Wrap Pattern, with a few changes. I thought I would like to get this project done in time for his birthday, but that didn't happen.

Inside of the wrap

Lastly for the week, I have my last fat quarter and 0.4 m cut of white on white fabrics. I am declaring the white on white hexies close enough to done when I get through basting 56 hexies from FQ and 96 from the 0.4 m cut. This should bring the total to over 1500 and I can get to sewing them all together!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced for Work in Progress Wednesday. Thanks for stopping by.

GeoMama

WIP Wednesday: Odds and Ends

Starting the year off by finishing a quilt is a great feeling and I have been feeling super motivated in the sewing room. I spent some time on the weekend doing some cleaning and organizing. I put some nails in the studs of the unfinished walls to hang my rulers, and hung a small cabinet I had just above my ironing board so that I have a place to keep my iron where it won't get pulled on by little hands or be in the way on the cutting table (which is where it normally lives). I found a small set of 3 drawers and moved fabric bits for current project into 2 of the drawers and the third is filled with thread and extra pins and extra blades for my rotary cutter. In the process of doing this I also reorganized and stashed GeoDad's tools into a small cabinet and put all my work stuff for Discovery toys in cabinet. Then I had had enough cleaning and wanted to sew again, so the desk didn't actually get cleaned.

I hung my power bar too

The blue tote is screwed to the wall to hold scissors and cutters and my other pin cushion

3 organized drawers hiding in my mess that grew when I finished cleaning

So in between cleaning and playing with kiddos and work, I also made a couple things from start to finish. I made 4 more diaper covers for LB, as he has outgrown the ones I made in the spring (see info here). I made 10 of the medium size and took weeks and weeks because I was slow with having to sew at the dining room table. Getting 4 done in a week feels good, I think 4-6 more will be enough to get us through 2 days before I need to wash them.

I used the dino fabric for the other size, but the ducky print is new

Lastly, I took a break from basting white on white hexies when I saw that The HEXIE Blog was hosting a Block of the Month (BOM). Since I have totally caught the hexie bug and I would like to do something as a quicker than my queen sized hexagon quilt once in a while I thought I would dig in my stash and make the first block. The navy is something I got at the awesome fabric sale last spring in Red Deer, where everything was $1/m and proceeds were going to charity. I laid it out on some Micheal Miller Fairy Frost in Silver which I have saved for another project, but I really like it as the background for the snowflake. 

I have basted more of the white on white hexagons and the approximate total is 1300 (unless I have misplaced some, which is entirely possible at this point because it is a mess in the cabinet where I keep the finished ones).

Linking up to Freshly Pieced. 

Thanks for stopping by to have a look.

GeoMama

 

2014 Starting with a Finish

Happy New Year,
I am pleased that I made my goal of finishing one more project before the New Year. (While technically I finished this morning, it was 99% done when the clock hit 12 last night and 2014 started). So without further ado,

My Oink-A-Doodle Moo for Baby P Quilt is done. I made it for my best friend's new baby. Her due date is today, so I finished right on time.

The Front

The pieced back

Close Up

Oo... look at all that free motion quilting in the sashing and border. 

I'm loving the texture, hopefully baby will too.

Quilt Stats:

Date: Started Oct 3 and Finished Dec 31, 2013 (or really Jan 1, 2014)

Pattern: Original Design 

Size: 39.5" x 45"

Fabric: Oink-A-Doodle Moo by Moda Fabrics. Sashing is Henry Glass' Story Times Rhyme Yellow Dots. 

Thread: Pieced and quilted with 50wt Aurifil.  

Batting: Quilter's Dream Green Batting. This batting is made of recycled pop bottles which I think is pretty neat. 

Pieced: By me on my Grandma's Elna Sewing machine.  

Quilted: By me on my Grandma's Husqvarna Viking Sewing machine. Quilted using a walking foot, for stitch in the ditch around all the 2"squares and free motion quilted in sashing and borders.

Binding: I had lots of 2.5" squares left over when I got done making the top and backing, so I stitched them all together to make the binding. I love the pieced binding on this quilt. I also machine stitched the binding on rather than handsewing it on the back, I figured being a baby quilt it would be wise to make the edge as durable as possible.

Label: As of writing, I am undecided on label and placement. I think once the baby arrives I will add that as my final touch. 

Notes: This was my first big attempt at free motion quilting, I loved having the polka dots as a guide for spacing and turning. There is a huge difference between the first couple inches of sashing that I did and the last few. The stitches are way smoother and consistent in length, with the tension on the back getting more consistent as well. 

Thanks for stopping by to have a look. I wish you all the best in the New Year, with plenty of quilting, family time and fun. 

GeoMama