Finish! Blue Canary (Sliced Coins Quilt-Along)

Amazing! I actually finished a quilt-along, on time!

Friday Night Sew-In: Results!

Friday night was sew-in! And I managed to get that much closer to finished with my Sliced Coins quilt!

I got the back pieced together, with every last scrap I had:



And I got it basted! I ran out of pins in the last corner, so a little bit is basted with basting spray.





This little quilt even gave me its name while I was working: "Birdhouse in Your Soul"



Now I'm debating how to quilt it--I'm wanting to do some free-motion, but I'm not sure if I want to try stippling or what. I was at the Rock River Modern Quilt Guild meeting today (what fun ladies!) and I saw some wonderful loopy quilting that I liked a lot.

Ideas and suggestions are welcome! :)

Taking just a moment to say...

I don't generally go beyond quilting topics here, but I would like to take a minute to share a couple thoughts about what's going on in Wisconsin right now:

I'm a state worker. I teach at a state university, my husband works as a programmer here. And I listened to Governor Walker tonight--and I'd like to thank you, Governor, for stating very clearly that the people who were protesting deserved to be heard while at the same time you were very obviously not listening.

State workers have already, in the past several years, given up a lot--I've had a substantial pay cut in the form of furloughs, which doesn't change my workload or tenure expectations. And state workers are not necessarily angry that you're proposing additional pay cuts (the way you and yours are demonizing us and spinning this whole thing)--no, what people are protesting, and what people are really, truly angry about is your proposal to eliminate rights that are guaranteed to private sector workers by federal law: the right to collectively bargain with our employers.

What the governor is proposing is not about balancing the budget--if he really wanted to do that, why not eliminate tax cuts for corporations? What the workers are upset about is not about balancing the budget on our backs--well, that's certainly part of it--but honestly. Take away our right to organize, what's next?

I'm tired of being demonized for trying to do my job (to give kids a college education, to help make better citizens out of freshly minted high school grads--which, if anyone would like a stab at it, be my guest) and paying taxes just like everyone else.

And that's it for my off-topic-ness. Quilty discussion and fabric pictures will resume after Friday Night Sew-In, and thank you.

WiP Wednesday #14

It's that time again: WiP Wednesday!

I'm knee-deep in grading and other job-related stuff, so my sewing time has been reduced pretty drastically, but that doesn't mean I'm out of the groove entirely! I got the rest of the fabric for a quilt-along I'm planning with my MIL, as well as some sweet fat quarters (Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow) for a girl baby quilt:



Ahhh, Blissful goodness!! This jelly-roll quilt is going to be a Quilt of Valor, and I'm really looking forward to starting it in March. It also makes for an inspirational set of fabric stacks to decorate my sewing table!

Sliced Coins: Now With Sashing!

So now that the TweetyGigs is off the guest bed, it's time to catch up on my quilt-alongs! I'm less behind on the Sliced Coins, so this is where I started. I had less sewing time this week, as the first round of portfolios have come in for grading...

But today I put the last sashings on the Sliced Coin quilt!

New Fabric and WiP Wednesday #13

It's that time again! WiP Wednesday!


This weekend saw a major accomplishment (follow link to the blog post with details): I got the twin-size TweetyGigs all finished, de-cat-haired and trimmed, backing pieced, and the whole shebang delivered to a long-arm quilter!

It's a Block Party!

Hello, everyone!

Quiltstory is hosting a Block Party:


I've amazed myself, a bit, with designing a block! This one is inspired by one of the stained-glass windows at our church, which actually has three quilt-block-looking patterns together on one window. I present (and click for bigger):

Leaded Glass



Please do go check out everyone's blocks! Let's have a party!

Weekend Accomplishments!

Hello, lovelies!

I am beside myself with excitement! This weekend's sewing time was devoted to getting Z's TweetyGigs finished and ready to go to the long-arm quilter. I'd gotten the backing seamed together, a slice cut through to add the charm row, aaaaand...the charms sewed on the wrong side. So Saturday night was spent picking out 80 inches of stitching. GRRR, ARGH.

But! This morning went far better!

What I did Wednesday

This is what snow days should be! Lounging in the sunshine with the kitties:



And playing with fabric. I was toying with a block design to potentially enter into Quiltstory's Block Party next week, and I made it mug-rug size. It didn't turn out perfect, but I have a better idea of how I'd piece it next time around so it will look cleaner. What do y'all think? Should I enter this one, or make version 2.0 for the party (which is kind of where I'm leaning...)? Should I give this mug rug away, or keep it for myself?



Also, does anybody recognize this block? I was inspired by one of the stained-glass windows in our church, and I suspect it might be a published quilt block somewhere.

Snowpocalypse YAY

I'm sure everyone is posting about the SNOWPOCALYPSE, and I, for one, am quite pleased about the whole thing--classes at the university have been canceled tomorrow, so my girl Zoe and I are going to be camped out at home. Fortunately she really likes watching DVDs on the little portable player on the guest bed, so I will have some time to sew! (We won't spend all day in the sewing room. But more than I usually get on a Wednesday!)

So, even though I'm a little early for WiP Wednesday, here's an update!


Over the weekend, I got the Sliced Coins baby quilt stacked together (click for bigger):