• About Me

little and lots

~ little bits, lots of them

little and lots

Tag Archives: fire drill quilt

a tale of two quilts

20 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by Laura C in quilts

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

finished quilts, fire drill quilt, quilting, sewing, sparkle punch quilt

Warning: after three-ish weeks of not posting any real content, I’m about to overload this post with pictures. So, if you’re faint of heart, opt out…now.

Quilt #1: The Mother-in-Law quilt Back in October, I started what I knew would be one of two Christmas gift quilts: my rainbow Fire Drill quilt, pattern from Elizabeth Hartman’s Modern Patchwork, color plan inspired by totally copied wholesale from this pin. Again, I reiterate, I COPIED this color scheme. I didn’t come up with it on my own! I wish I’d had the smarts, but I’ll take this quilt however I came by it. Because it’s gorgeous.

SONY DSC

(You’ll please to ignore my husband’s pajama pile in the right corner. I’ve tried, and can’t really do anything about it, so now I don’t really see it anymore either.)

Piecing this one went quickly and fairly easily, though if you look closely, I had some moderate troubles making my diamond points meet. This is a shrug-and-move-on trouble, though, because when you pull back, all you see is glorious color.

SONY DSCAnd when you look closely, all you see is lovely texture, from hours and hours of careful outline hand-quilting. With Gutermann’s handquilting thread and a #11 Black Gold quilting needle, natch.

SONY DSC

This is also my first ever pieced-back quilt. I love, love, love it. Scraps from the front to make spectrum “drips” across the back. The neutral is actually a sand-and teal colored dot from a Riley Blake line that I picked up on clearance. It’s perfect.

SONY DSC

And the binding is Chicopee Bleeding Heart. It was *made* for this quilt. (I actually purchased a Kaffe dot to bind this, but the Denyse was so much more appropriate, in spirit and in coloring.)

Quilt #2: The Momma quilt It wasn’t quite fair to make a quilt for my MIL when I’d never made one for my own mom. My mom quilts, though she has primarily sewn garments. When I first started quilting she gave me a HUGE box full of pre-cut scraps to start with, including about 500 axe-heads that I hand-pieced into a queen-sized monster. As my second quilt project. Ahem. Needless to say, I owed her one.

SONY DSC

This is, coincidentally, another Elizabeth Hartman pattern, her Sparkle Punch quilt. I chose turquoises, light blues, tans, and browns to match my mom’s living room. I love this pattern. It’s a perfect marriage of traditional and modern, and I thought it was a way to make something for my very traditional mother while still expressing my own quilting style.

SONY DSC

The “first” for this quilt is that it’s the first machine-quilted quilt I’ve ever done. I used a walking foot on my new Janome to do “straight” line quilting. I assume my lines will get Red-Pepper-Quilts-straight with more time and practice. For now? Good enough to gift, I think. (Don’t tell me if you think otherwise.)

SONY DSC

The backing is a Denyse print from Joann’s, that I picked up off the red dot rack for less than $4/yard (I know!). It’s perfect. I chose not to piece the back because I ran out of time because I thought that might be pushing it just a little too much on the modern quilting. You know. For my mom. The binding is that brown Posie print from Flea Market Fancy Legacy, and it’s all I can do not to go and buy like ten more yards of that stuff.

SONY DSC

Thoughts: When I went to take pictures of these (inside on a grey Massachusetts day, sorry sorry), I thought I knew which one I’d like to keep if I were being totally bad. My heart, I thought, was totally with that Fire Drill quilt. But, as I spread out the Sparkle Punch quilt, I really appreciated the texture that the machine quilting created, and I found the color scheme soothing and easy to look at.

Really, I love them both. Just like I love both my momma and my mother-in-law. I hope these quilts are much-loved, too!

Edited to link up to Crazy Mom Quilts’s Finish it Up Friday. participa

crunch time

10 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by Laura C in quilts

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

christmas sewing, fire drill quilt, honey cowl, janome 3160, quilting, quilts, sparkle punch quilt

Christmas is two weeks from tomorrow.

SONY DSC

 

We leave for TN in 12 days.

SONY DSC

 

It’s crunch time.

SONY DSC

 

So, while I haven’t been here in 10 days, I’m certainly still trucking. I have a lot left to do, but on Saturday, I felt for the first time like I’m actually going to get it all done. Or…enough of it. I’ve finished handquilting my MIL’s Fire Drill quilt, and have chosen the binding. I’m halfway-ish through quilting my mom’s Sparkle Punch quilt–more on that in a moment. I have about eight rounds left to knit on MY honey cowl, and then two small half-versions of the honey cowl to knit for my sisters (in the awesome highlighter-yellow and shocking pink MadTosh yarns above). And I have two quilted tote bags to piece, quilt, and finish, using this tutorial. And one or two more aprons. And one makeup roll.

It sounds like a lot! It is a lot. You may be all, I’m not optimistic it can be done. But I don’t take “not optimistic it can be done” for an answer. Because I have a new sewing machine:

SONY DSC

 

It’s a Janome 3160 QDC, purchased in a sheer panic at Marie’s Sewing Center in Woburn after my old 1996 Target Singer (inherited from my great-grandmother) broke on the way to my guild’s SAL on 12/1. I’ve had it 9 days. I think I’m in love. It’s the reason I’m already halfway through quilting the Sparkle Punch quilt that I couldn’t even get put together a couple weeks ago. (Did I mention I think my Singer was on the fritz? What I thought was acting funny–the tension in the presser foot–was what finally broke, I think the spring gave–and, really, it was time for a “real” machine.)

I hope to write a more detailed review of my thoughts on the Janome after I’ve used it for awhile. And I’ll definitely post as I finish this pile of projects!

Good luck with all of your crunch times. Will you make it?!

storm day (and other hysteria)

29 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by Laura C in quilts

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

fire drill quilt, quilts, sewing

We’re OK!

NEB closed, like most MA businesses at the request of Gov. Patrick, so Nate was off work today. Happily, we had power all day. (knock wood for tonight.) More happily, and thanks to Lucy’s Halloween tutu and pumpkin (who knew it was so much fun to carry candy around while wearing a tutu? Seriously, hours and hours of fun), I spent a big chunk of my day at the sewing machine. I managed to finish all of my Fire Drill blocks:

I’m working hard to get this top totally pieced by the next meeting of quilt guild, so I can have a new quilt project for show and tell. Piecing this has been not a picnic, but it hasn’t been too awful difficult either. I look at this picture and think, man, it looks like I worked hard. Sure I did work hard, but…this wasn’t any kind of tricky, either. The result is so classic and lovely but also just a touch different. Prediction: more people will make this in 2013, and it’ll become a modern quilting classic a la wonky crosses or similar. Truth.

I also finished my “one-night, easy, seed-stitch cowl,” aka My First Knit. It’s LOVELY. Pics this week? This afternoon while watching Call the Midwife I finished tacking down the binding on my Spinning Stars quilt, so I also need to post a wrapup of that one. Preview: I don’t hate it anymore.

I wrote myself a little to-do list for this week, and it’s hysterical. In all senses. I just counted the weeks until the mail-for-Christmas deadline and I’ve got to make about 1.5 gifts (aprons/pillow covers) per week to make my deadlines! Plus, seeing as how the Fire Drill is for my MIL and I’ve never made ANYTHING for my own momma, I’d like to get her a quilt in the works for Christmas (I’m thinking the Grass quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts, only in teal/turquoise; I’ll call it “Sky”?). I’d also like to join in on the Value Added QAL by doing a version of Badskirt’s Bargain Basement. And there’s the issue of my quilt guild nametag. And my Tova. And the knitting, which is becoming a new, insane problem.

So if I’m not here, I’m either keeled over from exhastion. Or I am at the sewing machine. 🙂

piecing fire drill

19 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by Laura C in quilts

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

fire drill quilt, quilts

I’m writing this while the baby’s sleeping in and I’m enjoying some coffee-blogging-Honey Boo Boo time. (Sometimes you’re in charge, and sometimes you just put your feet up and watch Honey Boo Boo while eating things.)

I’ve pieced quite a bit of my Fire Drill quilt (destined to become my MIL’s Christmas gift) since Sunday, even though I’ve been pretty lazy and haven’t spent a lot of time at the sewing machine. I think this one grows quickly–my favorite kind of quilt pattern! Here’s what I’ve got so far:

I need to play with the layout a bit, and make a better effort at picture-making, but…really, you can’t argue with that, yeah? I think it’s bee-yutiful. And, once I was through cutting, it wasn’t all that hard to do! (Honestly, the hard part of this one was the cutting, by a long shot. It’s all the different-size strips you have to cut and count. BUT EH’s done all the real work for us, so let’s be grateful and rejoice.)

It’s not a sit-and-sew quilt, though. I joked to my husband that it was called Fire Drill because I’m up and down to the iron so often that it’s like doing a Fire Drill, over and over again. My ironing board is in the opposite end of my apartment from the sewing machine, though, so if you’re blessed with a better setup, you won’t feel like you’re all over the place.

Probably the up-and-down isn’t so bad. I’ll be glad to burn off some of these Honey Boo Boo calories.

Hoping to spend this Friday and some of this weekend making more blocks, and maybe I’ll start an apron or two. I’m setting a tentative end date for my Spinning Stars hand-quilting at…next Friday. I’d really like to have that one done so I can start using it! Hoping the fall weather brings you all lots of sewing time, and some lovely baked goods.

from a weekend

15 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by Laura C in quilts

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

fire drill quilt, quilting, sewing

Thursday into Friday, we had a little ol’ flu scare.

Not. fun. Especially for Momma, who cleaned-fed-clothed-laundered-Lysol’ed-consoled (Lucy did NOT understand why Daddy was shut in the bedroom by himself! Why no Lucy love?) for 48 hours, solo. There’s not enough wine in the world.

Saturday Nate woke up feeling better. So I dragged him to the outlets in Kittery, ME and spent a bunch of money at the J. Crew. And I made him go get Chipotle. And we drank a bottle of Pinot Grigio. And on Sunday, I put my foot down and I cut and sewed.

 

I rotary cut and then pieced and then hand quilted until my hands and wrists were stiff and swollen. I’ve never been happier. On the cutting board/in piecing: my Fire Drill quilt, cut using the templates I won in EH’s blog giveaway. “In quilting” is my Spinning Stars quilt which is looking MUCH better with some block rearrangement and tons of hand-quilting. No sneak peeks; you’ll just have to trust me. It’s going to be gorgeous.

 

I’ll post more this week about piecing the Fire Drill, but cutting it? Whoo dogies, this one’s intense. I chose a rather involved color scheme so it doesn’t really have to be this bad, but by the time I got all my little strips rationed into bags, I felt like some kind of drug dealer.

Eh, fabric. Drugs. Same diff sometimes. Digging in the stash certainly improved my weekend!

About Me

Recent Posts

  • around the world blog hop
  • finished: fancy fox quilt
  • finished: snake trail quilt (the cerise beast)
  • advice for new bloggers: community {plum and june 2014 blog hop for new modern quilt bloggers}
  • mathilde blouse: an all-the-hard-things finish
Follow on Bloglovin

No Instagram images were found.

Archives

  • September 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012

Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild

ScrapBEElicious

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • little and lots
    • Join 103 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • little and lots
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...