Works in Progress...

So you may be wondering what I am up to now. This week I almost-finished a quilt that I think I'll be donating to Quilts For Kids and it would actually be my 3rd for them. I just needs to make up my mind if that is where it is going because the only thing left is the label. I'll have to put it up and take a picture of it soon.

I have a quilt that is going to the Palo Alto Veteren's Administration hospital- it would be my 3rd to this cause as well. However, I have no medium or dark blue thread to quilt it with, so I'm waiting until I need to go to the store to pick up a spool.

I'm back to cutting my Garden Party quilt. This one may rank up there with the Tetris quilt.  It seems like there are a million teeny tiny pieces to this quilt, and I'm always worried with projects like that that it won't all come together when I piece it. This is a scrap quilt, so I'm even more concerned than usual. Back to cutting...

Last Quilt of 2012?

Working full time takes up so much time! By the time I get to the end of the day, I don't have a lot of mental energy to quilt, so I haven't been doing much of it this year. We took 4 diving trips this year and 3 of them were a week long and involved flying. The 4th was a 3-day trip to the Channel Islands. I also spent the fall season learning the sport of roller derby and playing a lot of Guild Wars 2. 

But the reason for this post is to share another quilt I finished. This is a Disappearing Nine-Patch made for a friend's soon-to-born baby. She is due on Christmas and the quilt was handed over tonight! 

I am also in the process of finishing off a child's quilt that may be donated and my 3rd Veteran's Hospital quilt. After those, I'm going to work on the nightmare that is the Garden Party Quilt and I have  a baby quilt to finish off sometime in the late-winter or spring. 

2 More Quilts

Only time for a quick post... finished 2 quilts in the past few week putting me over my goal of 11 quilts in 2011. I guess that means I should aim for 12 in 2012, but that could be quite challenging with a full time job...

This quilt is my first flannel quilt and probably my last for awhile. I'm not a huge fan of the material- it seems to shrink unpredictably and I think I lost some of the color in the first wash. This my 1st finished (2nd started) Warm Wishes quilt and was made for Cayden's first birthday! He is the first person to have 2 of my quilts, if you count the other quilt that was made for his baby shower.

This next one is made for a stranger named Gracie as part of the Reddit Secret Santa swap. I couldn't find much about her on the internet, but I did come across some youtube videos of her singing and playing guitar for an audience, so I made her a music quilt. This quilt is actually my first made entirely of leftover fabric from other projects so it was inexpensive and "green." It's my 3rd started but 2nd finished Warm Wishes quilt. I will not allow the next quilt I start to be Warm Wishes!

In other news...

My wedding quilt is back from the long-arm quilter! Yay! While I'll admit that I am not thrilled with the quilting, I'm not sure I'd be happy with anything except my own. It was simply too big to do on my machine. Some day I'll have a longarm machine!

Anyway, I'm super excited for it to be done and only have to do the binding. I'm not too sure exactly what I'll do with it, but it's been 18 months in progress. Eventually I'd like to hang it above our bed or maybe on a living room wall, but with all the work that'd be, it might be better to save it for when we buy a home.

Pictures to come when it's bound. I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to hang it on the wall because of it's weight, so maybe I'll lay it out on the floor or something :)

My First Quilt Show!

I just got home from seeing my first quilts in a show! This was a show of the quilts and other handmade items to be donated to the Palo Alt Veteran's Administration Hospital. I hung out near my quilts for an hour and spoke with some of the people that came to see the show and some of the other crafters donating items. Most were knitters and crocheters so they had a lot of questions about my quilts!

Here is a pic of my quilts on display:

Here is a pic of my 2nd finished quilt for this show. My first one is a few posts back.

I've actually started TWO new quilts in the past week as well. Really, I'm embarrassed to admit that I started a rocketship quilt for a little boy's 1st birthday and then heard he really liked trains and started a train quilt. The party is this Saturday, so I'm planning to finish the train quilt by tomorrow night and wash it. It's my first flannel quilt and I did not prewash, so I'm a bit scared of what will be the result after the wash. If it's ungiftable, I'll finish the rocketship quilt and give that instead. If the train quilt comes out well, I'll donate the rocketship quilt to Project Linus.

These quilts will complete my 11 in '11 goal!!! YAY! Afterward, I'm starting to work on my Garden Party quilt. I'd still like to make a quilt for my In-Laws, but really I just want to quilt for myself for now :)

2011 Quilt Progress:


1. Gram's Quilt- DONE
2. Joe's Quilt- DONE
3. Wedding Quilt- DONE
4. Sophia's Quilt- DONE
5. Raj's Baby Quilt- DONE
6. Veteren Quilt (Ribbon Star)- DONE
7. Veteren Quilt (Log Cabin)- DONE
8. Project Linus Quilt- DONE
9. Abigails' Quilt- DONE
10. Caden's Train Quilt- In progress
11. Cayden's Rocketship Quilt- In progress
12. Garden Party- Planning
13. Hanna's Quilt- Planning
14. In-Law's Quilt- Someday...

Abigail's Quilt

Another quilt went from cut to wash in under 2 weeks for a surprise baby shower for my boss. I went back and forth about making a quilt for my boss that I had only worked with for about 6 weeks, but in the end I decided I couldn't resist. She seemed very impressed that it was hand made so maybe she doesn't have a lot of crafty family members and friends. I've actually decided that I am going to make another quilt for her older daughter Hanna before she returns in January. Hannah's favorite color is purple so I am thinking about doing a purple Warm Wishes quilt.

Pic!!! This was a Disappearing 9-Patch made with the same fabrics I used for Sophia's quilt!

In other news, I think I might be gathering the courage to start on another large quilting project. My last was Gram's quilt, and before that it was Hannah's Tetris Quilt. I am going to be making a twin size quilt with the Garden Party Pattern. I have the pattern, just need to start purchasing fabric for it. I will not cut it until I am completely done with the vet quilts and they are due to the group next week!

Sample Garden Party Quilt:

And that will complete my 11 in '11 goal... if I can finish it!


1. Gram's Quilt- DONE
2. Joe's Quilt- DONE
3. Wedding Quilt- DONE
4. Sophia's Quilt- DONE
5. Raj's Baby Quilt- DONE
6. Veteren Quilt (Ribbon Star)- DONE
7. Veteren Quilt (Log Cabin)- In progress
8. Project Linus Quilt- DONE
9. Abigails' Quilt- DONE
10. Hanna's Quilt- Planning (Warm Wishes)
11. Garden Party- Planning


In other sewing news, I am taking a 3-week class in garment making. I'm making Jason a button-down shirt called an Aloha shirt. I have never really felt comfortable making clothing, so this is an attempt to improve my skills in that area. He picked out the fabric- it's brown and boring, but will hide any mistakes well. There is also no nap or pattern to match :)

I Haz a Job!!!

On August 2nd, I was offered a job and started on the 8th. This means I have a lot less time to quilt. For the first 4 weeks of my job, I didn't quilt at all. The sewing machine never came out. However, the guilt has gotten to me for a certain project and I started up again this week.

In May, I agreed to make 2 lap quilts for a new Ravelry-based crafting group that donates their projects to the VA Hospital in Palo Alto. The first quilt I finished quickly, having to only buy some off-white fabric and the batting. This 2nd quilt, however, is proving to be quite the challenge. I've never done a Log Cabin Quilt so I thought this would be a good excuse to give it a shot. Well, not only does it take much more work than I had thought, but I didn't have enough red, white, and blue scraps to give it a very scrappy feel. I turned to Ravelry and about a dozen people sent me scraps. Then I cut up most of them into strips and started piecing.


Then I got a job.

So I'm working on finishing the top- I just took my machine out for the first time in over a month- and TODAY I find out about a surprise baby shower for my boss in 2 weeks. Que the crazy quilt design wheels to turn in my head. So I think I'm going to make her a Disappearing 9 Patch (my all-time favorite baby quilt design) and I think I might be able to do it out of the fabric I originally bought for Mike's Baby (see Irish Chain quilt below.)

So, without further adieu, I present my progress with 11 in '11:

Just to update you on my 11 Quilts in '11 goal:
1. Gram's Quilt- DONE
2. Joe's Quilt- DONE
3. Wedding Quilt- DONE
4. Sophia's Quilt- DONE
5. Raj's Baby Quilt- DONE6. Veteren Quilt (Ribbon Star)- DONE
7. Veteren Quilt (Log Cabin)- In progress
8. Project Linus Quilt- DONE
9. Abigails' Quilt- Planning
10. Jason's Parent's Quilt- No idea
11. ???


And pics of my 2 most recent finished quilts-



A Project Linus Quilt (http://www.sjlinus.org/) in a 4-patch pattern:

And this is Veteren's Quilt #1. The pattern is called Ribbon Star: 

Another quilt finished!

We just got home from vacation and I just now have time to post some pics of the last quilt I finished before we left. The couple that owns the scuba dive shop Jason and I use are having a baby later this summer. Seeing as they own 3 boats and a dive shop, I felt an "under the sea" quilt was most appropriate. While they are having a girl, I snuck a peek at their Babies R Us registry and saw they are doing an blue/ocean theme baby quilt so I didn't feel bad making a blue quilt. I did add the purple for the borders to make it more gender neutral :)

The pattern is called Arcadia and the fabric is from the Bernatex like called Go Fishing.

I have enough fabric left over for a quick charity quilt for Project Linus  ... if you want to get involved let me know... quilters, knitters, crocheters and people who want to learn are welcome! 

And since I'm on the topic of charity quilting, I'm also going to be quilting for the Palo Alto Veteren's Hospital this year. If you'd like to get involved with that project, let me know!