It's inevitable. You finish a project or 2 and the next thing you know you've started 4 more. It's like there's some sort of allergic reaction to 6" of empty space on the project shelf. I'm trying my best to not start another project but it's not working out so well. 

This pattern has been haunting me for a while. I absolutely love it and finally ordered it.

It's awesome in grays too. The problem is that the finished size is 74" square and that's a pretty useless size for me. I need closer to 94" square. I could add a gigantic gradient border but I've also been playing around a bit with the strip sizes.

The pattern is designed for Jelly Rolls (2 1/2" strips) but I'll want to use my gradient fabrics so that 2 1/2" isn't a limitation for me. I'm thinking of scaling up the strips. If I make the finished sizes 2.5" and 1.25" instead of 2" and 1" the quilt will finish about 92" square. If I need it 96" for the guest house bed I can add a 2" border all the way around.

If I used my Woodlands Gradient it will be perfect for the guest house bedroom.

If I use Summer Sunset it will look great in my bedroom. 

I did both of these blocks in EQ using images of my fabric but the images that export look nothing like the image as it's displayed in EQ! I've never had that happen before. In the real quilt the colors would be much more random.

For now I'm going to set aside my notes and hope that doing a little planning will be enough to soothe the new project itch.

Some day I will stop making crumb blocks from leftover fabrics. At least, I hope that I will! But all those fabric bits are still "good" and it pains me to toss them out. These blocks were made from the leftovers of the Fractured Fragments Quilt that I made in 2015. That quilt was made from the leftovers of a king sized Fractured quilt that I made in 2013. These crumb blocks have been laying around for a while.

After I finished the postage stamp quilt top in July I needed another project for sewing weekend with my quilt club. We meet once a month on Friday and Saturday to sew all day and I like to have a separate project that I can keep packed and ready to go there. These crumb blocks were next in line. I even had some yellow and purple fabrics in my stash to go with them.

I started with this design but when I got to sewing Friday morning I soon realized that I didn't have enough purple fabric.

So I changed the design to this. Where this quilt is going this smaller size will work just fine.

After lunch I had all of the cutting done and started making star points. I made 8 blocks before I realized that I was bored out of my mind. I decided to quit for the day and head home and finish up my Paula Nadelstern quilt top. 
While working on my sample quilt I realized that I did not want this crumb block quilt to take 2 months. My next sewing weekend quilt will be the Maine quilt made from my sun prints and I'd really like to get on with it. I came up with a much simpler plan and even with a ton of new cutting, mis-cuts, patching blocks back together I finished the top.

It's not going to win any awards but I kind of like it! Most importantly it's done and ready for quilting and I can start my Maine quilt next month.

We've all had those days and yesterday was mine.

Yesterday I got inspired for a second Paula Nadelstern quilt for this year. I've never made 2 quilts before but the first one was so simple and I was still entranced by the fabric that I decided to make another. I picked this Lone Star block from EQ and sized it for 36"

When I make a symmetry quilt I follow the method that I was taught by Paula. I draw the finished shape on to gridded plastic and then add seam allowance on the plastic and then cut out the template.

Soooo, I thought I was so clever to use EQ and print the rotary instructions and I got these measurements for my diamonds. I drew the shape on the plastic and ADDED 1/4" seam allowance!
Then I cut out the whole quilt and sewed half of the star segments together. 

Last night with my audiobook on I did this and re-cit all of the star pieces.

Here's your official sneak peek at Paula's new fabric line.

Everything is re-cut and I'm ready to start sewing again. This should go together really quickly and I should be quilting both quilts next week.

It's done! All 4836 square inches of scrappy goodness is done.

When I started putting all the Rainbow scrap fabrics together into crumb blocks I had intended to make some placemats but you can see that got totally out of hand and now I have this cute quilt. I also intended to donate this quilt to QOV or somewhere else but I'm kind of loving it too much to let it go quite yet. So I'm going to save it for a friend or family member who might need it in the future.

I created a page on the website for this quilt and you can see lots more photos on the Rainbow's End page.

I have my first finish for August!

I started this quilt several years ago when I hosted a half-square triangle quilt-along on my old blog. We called it HSTeria. last month I finally took 30 minutes to sew on the borders and planned to quilt it. I didn't have a plan for the quilt but Alycia saw it and said it would be perfect as a QOV for a female PTSD group that she works with in Colorado. Well that was all the incentive I needed to get this one wrapped up. It will join the Rainbow Lap quilt to be shipped to Alycia this week. I have a soft goal of 2 QOV quilts a year and this will make 3 for 2017 so I'm good for the year!

This is a real girly-girl quilt and isn't me at all! But I do like it and I made it even more girly with pink quilting thread and my favorite quilting motif, wavy crosshatch, keeps it really soft. The batting is Hobbs 80/20 and it's what I use on any quilt that I want to become a cuddly blanket.

Well, one I decided to go pink I went all in with a pink quilt back. While the quilt isn't "me" I do think it will be loved by someone.

With FloMo on hiatus I was finally forced to do binding and here's my second finish for the month! This is the lap size Rainbow Quilt. I finished the king size version in May. This one is going to Alycia for Quilts of Valor in Colorado. 

I quilted it with a quick and easy continuous curve design. This one will stay soft and cuddly as a QOV should be.

I love the back. This is based on the Abundance gradient and I used the purple edges of the backing fabric for the binding. It just needs the QOV label and it will be ready to go!

This is the quilt that the Misty Morning gradient was designed for. You can read all about it in my 2017 gallery.

Here's another of the back with the color better.

​It's washed and dried now and all that's left is the Zentangle label.

It was my sewing weekend with Country School Quilters this weekend and, of course, I worked on the postage stamp quilt. What I didn't expect was to actually get the top finished! I cannot believe that this behemoth is finally done....well, except for the quilting.
Here are the answers to some questions I expect to hear:

Yes, the postage stamps are 1" finished
There are approximately 3970 pieces (including the black pieces)
Once quilted it will probably be about 94" square
I stated it in 1998 right after we moved into this house
Quilting it will be a lot more fun than piecing it 
I freaking LOVE this quilt.

​You won't see it again until I start quilting it but hopefully it will not be too long now for that.

I always have a dedicated project for CSQ sewing days so when I came home I searched out the next one. I'm happy to report that my UFO shelves are getting a little thin!  I did find a box with these crumb blocks. The are leftover from the Fractured Fragments quilt which is leftover from a king size Fractured quilt. 
At least I'm consistent!
Anyway, I found a big piece of purple and a piece of yellow and found a wonky star pattern in a book. I put it into EQ and adjusted for the size I needed. I'm ready for the next CSQ sewing weekend (in September). This will probably be a donation quilt.

The Rainbow's End top is done! I really love this quilt. I love it a lot more than I ever expected. I love the pale blue background and the effect of the Color Wheel Warm Gradient border. On Monday I showed the blue backing that I dyed for this quilt and I just need to pick a binding color and get that dyed. 
​This makes 2 Rainbow tops that need to be quilted and I've decided that these will get done by the end of July.

With that in mind I dyed this backing for the other Rainbow Quilt.

I'm going to quilt the wedding quilt and these 2 quilts with simple all-over designs. These need to get done. I consider them "blankets", not "quilts" so the sooner I get them done the sooner they can bring comfort to someone. 
I am very excited to have the Rainbow fabrics finally at the end....except for the blocks I saved for placemats! I'll try to get to those soon.

Since before our vacation in May I have been dealing with tendinitis in my left arm/neck/jaw. It's nothing serious but something I deal with all of the time. I seem to have some tendon/muscle pain somewhere in my body all of the time. Usually it's jut an annoyance but this time it's gotten out of hand. As a result I had only 2 goals for this weekend. The main one was to be more attentive to icing my neck and using the TENS machine. The other was to make some serious progress on the Rainbow's End quilt.

I did both! The tendinitis is getting better  and I made lots of snowball blocks for the Rainbow's End quilt.

I got the first 2 borders on and am working on the last set of snowball blocks. I am seriously liking this quilt.

I feel so confident that this quilt is going to be done soon that I dyed the back for it this week too! I hope that doesn't jinx me.

I added one more goal for the weekend and got the Misty Morning wedding quilt loaded. 

The backing is a gradient and I wanted to center the top. I do that by starting loading the quilt in the center. If you ever need to load a quilt centered on the back I have a tutorial here.

​Hopefully I'm all set up for a very productive week!