Charmed by the Sea

Late last year, AnneMarie at GenX Quilters hosted a wonderful Quilt Along called Charmed Prints. Finally...in April...I finished mine. Only four months late. *cough*



The QAL was focused on using a charm pack to make a simple quilt with sashing and borders.  I needed something simple, and I had a three quarters of a leftover layer cake of Odyssea.  (For those of you who don't know, one layer cake is the equivalent of four charm packs.)  Seeing a good way to use some stash, I jumped in.  There were four blocks featured, of which I chose three - the Star Block,  Diamond in the Square, and Pinwheel Block.  The remainder of my blocks are just the charms themselves, no additional cutting.  Easy peasy.

My boys had been bugging me for another quilt, and I wanted one that my family could share.  The Odyssea fabric was perfect as we are a family of beach bums, living for our annual Hatteras beach trip with friends.  So, I decided to call this one "Charmed by the Sea". 




It's my largest quilt to date - measuring 70-inches square - which makes it big enough to share and it's found a fabulous home on my living room couch.

With school going on and life being what it was, I had a hard time keeping up.  The top came together in late December and I pieced the back, making 9- and 16-patches out of my scraps and leftover charms.  My oldest son even helped with the block placement, which was fun.  :)



I quilted it in January - a simple meander on the LQS long-arm - and made the label, but then got stuck for some reason.  I hand-stitched the binding up until I had about 15 inches left and then stopped.  I don't know why. There it sat, in my living room, until April.  I finally picked it up to take with me on a beach trip with friends.  I finished it that night and took it out on the beach the next morning...without my camera.  *sheesh*.



So, despite the fact that it is a beach quilt, made for the beach, inspired by the beach, and in honor of the beach....I have no pictures on the beach.

Maybe next week...when we head to the beach.  :)

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Quilt Stats

Pattern: Charmed Prints Quilt Along by AnneMarie at GenX Quilters

Size: approx. 70" x 70" 
Quilt Top Fabric: Odyssea Layer Cake by MoMo for Moda and Kona White
Backing: Athena in Ocean Blue (from Odyssea line)
Binding: Ionia in Ocean Blue (from Odyssea line)

Pieced and Quilted by: Angie Kimel

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Linking up:

WIP Wednesday

Another Wednesday has rolled around...something tells me the next few will be just as quick.  Is it me or is time going by lightning fast lately?

My WIPs this week are nearly the same as my last check in, with a couple of additions.  The biggest of which is my new sewing room.  Hubs and I decided to switch places with my sewing space and the boys' school room, so I am now upstairs on the main floor.  Yay!

please forgive the graininess - lights weren't set up yet.  :)

I have a long way to go to make it work, but it will get there.  I'm going with a soft green (Jardin, by Sherwin Williams, to be exact) but have no clue when the actual painting will begin.  Mostly because I'm working on three new quilts.

That's right...three.   Though, admittedly not all must be done before Christmas.

Quilt #1 is for my dad for Christmas.  I bought some wonderful camper fabric a while back and have been wanting to make him one for a while.  Lots of teals, grays, and touches of orange.   All mixed with a good bit of white, of course.  I'm using Faith's Lemon Squares quilt tutorial...and love it.  I have four of the six block types done - well over halfway!

Quilt #2 is the Charmed Prints Quilt Along I talked about on Monday.  I now have all of my diamond-in-a-square blocks done and a few stars.  Hope to finish them tonight, which means I'd better get crackin'.  Of course, this is the one that doesn't really need to be done by Christmas, though I would love to have it ready for the boys that morning.  :)

It was a little of a bear to get organized, but that's mostly because I was dead-set on chain stitching similar blocks.  If I just went by the layout, I probably could have saved quite a few stickies...

Quilt #3 is a surprise.  Sorry.  I know s/he reads this blog so that's all you're going to see on that one.  Good news is that it will be delivered by Christmas, so you don't have very long to wait.  Blues, teals, and whites on this one.  :)

Other remaining projects really haven't moved much.  I need to piece the back for Sierra's quilt and get it ready to quilt.  Mexican and Bethlehem stars are still as they were.  One day, one day...

Happy Wednesday...don't forget to link up with Lee!

because i have nothing else to do...

I spent the day at home, sick - again - today.   I'm really getting tired of this.  At least, though, I was healthy over Thanksgiving.  The long weekend was just wonderful.  My mom had to work on Thanksgiving Day, so my parents had us all over for dinner the night before.  That pretty much meant that Thursday - Saturday was uninterupted free time at my house.  Oh, yeah, and they kept the kids, too!  (don't throw things at me!)

Lots of quilting and cleaning.  We're in the process of shifting my sewing space into the school room and vice versa.  The boys will have a much bigger space downstairs, and I'll be more cozy in my little area.  On top of all that, and trying to finish Sierra's quilt, I've started three new quilts.  One for my dad for Christmas, one surprise that I can't show, and the GenX Quilters' Quilt Along.

I know, I know, I needed the quilt-along like I needed a bump on the head, but I just couldn't resist.  I had half of a Odyssea layer cake left over from another project, which divides perfectly into two charm packs.  There are options to make a crib quilt with one pack, or a lap with two.  The boys have been bugging me for another quilt in the living room, so here it is.  Maybe for Christmas???  We'll see...

The quilt is mostly charms with a few "highlight" blocks mixed in.  Stars, Churn Dash (or Greek Cross), Diamond in a Square, and Pinwheel.  I finished a star and churn dash earlier this week and then decided to reorganize.  I shifted gears, cut all the fabric for my highlight blocks, labelled the devil out of them with stickies and pins.  Stopping to organize helped a lot, though, as I finished all the diamond ones tonight and will soon have the others.  They go so much faster when I can chain piece!

 

As soon as my room gets set up, I'll be posting lots of pictures.  I will be painting, decorating, and doing all that fun stuff.  I wasn't able to do all that in the basement for, well, lack of walls.  

Oh... and hubs has told me he'd help me make a design wall.  Eep!!

Happy Monday, ya'll!

projects

The new year has brought many new projects - some old and some new. 

After months of begging, Trenton is finally getting his quilt.  Here’s a little sneak peak:

This is part of a custom bundle from fabricworm.com with a bit extra Robert Kaufman solids.  Trenton picked out the guitars for the back, too.

I've also finally started a quilt that was planned nearly a year ago, using Moda's Odyssea. 

For a friend of mine...but not saying who just yet.  :)

And finally, because I have nothing else to do... I joined Rachel Griffith's Postage Stamp Quilt Along.

I'll be using an (old) Sunshine jelly roll I got when I first started quilting.  Paired with white kona cotton, it may just be a beautiful spring quilt.

I got the strip sets all bundled last night.

16 strip sets, 30 blocks, and an anxious six year-old. 

Think I'll have them all done by February?