My First Commissioned Quilt

I'm excited about this quilt for so many reasons. It's the first one I have finished by request and the first one I got paid for. Ok, well... bartered for...but I still consider that payment!

My friend Jenn is an awesome photographer. We've been friends for a while now and she did a photo shoot of my family last fall. I had been wanting non-studio pics for quite some time and she did a great job. We went to an old colonial settlement nearby and spent a wonderful afternoon with her. Here are a few of my faves:







Earlier this year, Jenn quit her full-time job and really began focusing on her photography business.  So, when she contacted me about working out a deal for a quilt, I was all ears.   She offered a free session and some prints for a hand-made quilt she could use in her shoots...especially baby shoots.  I think it took a third-of-a-second for me to agree to that deal!

The quilt is a Sudoku kit by Moda and it was both easy and fun.  It's basically a simple nine-patch, but worked in the way you work a Sudoku puzzle.  I chose a soft Moda Marbles color for the sashing and border, a neutral from the Oasis collection as the back, and a soft teal for the binding.  I keep the back plain and simple this time, because I wanted to get it to her quickly.  All in all, it took a little over two weeks, and that's with taking for other projects, too.  Of course, that makes it my fastest quilt ever, too.  :)

Quilting was a simple meander, which I think softened the angles quite well.




I took pics of it on the ground, which was a first for me.  I usually just hang my quilts, but I liked how it looked in the grass. 




Apparently, my assistant liked it, too. 




Lastly, here's one final photo from yesterday morning, all washed up, fresh out of the dryer, and krinkly. What is it about a krinkly quilt that makes it so fabulous? I just love it!




I was able to give the quilt to Jenn last night and for a a few seconds, I actually thought she was going to cry.  Maybe it was my imagination, but her appreciation and excitement were more than obvious.  She was very, very happy, which, in turn, made me very, very happy.   We even talked about possibly making another for her to use in her high-school seniors shoots.  :)

I can't wait to see my quilt in use on her blog.  I'll be sure to share them when I do.  :)

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for the first installment of "Finished it Fridays!" Hope too see you there!

WIP Wednesday - another great week!

I'm guessing I should start numbering these, huh? :)

This has been another wonderfully productive week.  I have to say that it is such a relief to have the projects slowly whittled away.  I feel much less stressed about my to-do list, which is great considering quilting is supposed to be my stress reliever, not a stress creator. 

OK, enough babbling you say?  On to the stuff you're here for... progress reports!!!

Jenn's Sudoku Quilt - ladies (and gentlemen)... this baby is DONE! Come back Friday for a full report.  I haven't presented it to the owner yet, so I don't want to post a lot of pictures here.  I will give you a little teaser, though.  :)





I'm also going to start a Friday linky-party this week, called Finished It Fridays.  So...really...come back, check it out, and link your own finished projects!  :)

Sierra's Quilt - I finished up the blocks on this one last week, and finally got around to piecing the top.





And here they are auditioning for the layout...





These are the first pictures I've posted on this project. It's become one of my favorites. The pattern is Alice by the fabulous Rita of Red Pepper Quilts. The fabric is Kona white paired with a Fabricworm half-yard bundle I purchased back at Christmas. (Yes, shameful to take this long...I know.)  I managed to get the rows together last night.  I'm thinking of straight-line quilting this one, in true Rita style.  :)

No Progress this week:

• Mexican Star Quilt
• Bethlehem Star Quilt
• Jane's B&W Quilt
• Flipside Quilt
• Guitar Quilt

Since I've finished the Sudoku quilt, I'll be working on the binding for the Guitar Quilt.  Trenton's birthday is August 31st, so I need to have it ready.  

New Projects:

Yeah, I know - I wasn't supposed to do this, but I couldn't help myself.  I'm in the midst of a bow tie block swap, and have signed up for 40.  They are too fun and too easy!  (And there is still time to sign up if you want to jump in - check out our flickr group.)

Here they are, all chain pieced.  Next up - trimming.





And finally, for kicks and giggles, I've jumped in to the We Love French Knots craze. But more about that next week.






Don't forget - One of my followers will win a Flurry charm pack on August 1st. Will it be you?
(No comment required - all followers are automatically entered.)


Happy Wednesday, y'all - enjoy your week!

WIP Wednesday - making progress

This past week has been wonderful for making some serious progress in my WIP-busting.  I've been able to spend some significant time at my machine, and a few hours at the long-arm.  In fact, I'm going there tomorrow with another project... yay!!

Here's a run down of my week....

Guitar Quilt:

On Thursday, I finally got to quilt my son's guitar quilt.  You may remember from this post that I was supposed to quilt it before vacation but wasn't able to.  This time I made an appointment that coincided with two of their classes so I made sure they were open.  Here it is mid-way through the session.  It took about 2-1/2 hours to finish, set up included.  Not too bad. 






The binding is now on and about 30% stitched down (I do that part by hand).

Suduko Quilt:
I have finished the top on this one.  I took a couple of snapshots but, honestly, I don't like how any of them turned out.  My appointment tomorrow with the long-arm is for this one, so stay tuned to see it.  It's using Oasis by Moda and turned out just beautiful!

Bethlehem Star Quilt:
I've managed to cut all my strips out and put together four sets that will be used to build diagonals.






We also had a class this week and started to piece the glows together.  It was my first paper-piecing session in over three years and I had forgotten how much I loved it.






The points you can obtain with paper piecing are just amazing...must keep this up!

Sierra's Quilt:
All the blocks are finished on this one, and looking oh, so cute.  Pics will be up very soon...I thought I had some to post some today, but can't find them so I'm guessing I never took them.  


Not touched this week:

• Mexican Star Quilt - still sitting in my bucket.  It's a wall hanging for my office, so probably lowest on my priority list.
• Jane's B&W Quilt - All the blocks are done and trimmed.  Putting this one together won't take long as the blocks are large and few, comparatively speaking. 
• Flipside Quilt - No movement in months.  I'll probably have to dust the fabric off at this point.  This one is also for me, so low priority. 

...and finally:
I was able to give Molly her quilt last night. So stinking cute.






I also busted hubby sneaking a nap under his coffee quilt.  He says it works well.  :)






I love, love, love seeing my quilts in action.  Warms my heart and makes the time and effort so worthwhile. 

Don't forget to link up with your progress report!! And, if you're busting out some WIPs - why not join the Sew Shine WIP Challenge?? It's really kept me on my toes!

packages

I love packages. Some I order and anxiously await, some come full of wonderful surprises. Both are fabulous.

Before I left for vacation last week, I received two such packages.  One was a packet of 4-inch squares as part of Crafty Tammie's Swap a Rainbow that I participated in.  I forget how many people were involved - 20, maybe? - but we each sent a pack of 20 4-inch squares in each of 10 colors.  200 squares.  I sent mine from my current stash-on-hand and this is what I got back...



Plus a few extra charms from Tammie and a wonderful key-chain she made.  Here's a closer look a the squares.

The colors were yellow, blue, purple, orange...




...brown, black, green, teal...



... red and pink.




I've got a couple of ideas brewing for these...mostly involving half-square triangles.  I'm really happy with the fabrics that I received - high quality and a lot of fun.  I'm still new at this swap stuff, so sometimes I get a little nervous that I'll receive rejects.  Not so with this swap.  Of all the fabrics - over 200, remember - there was only two that were repeats.  Not bad, not bad!

Now, my other package was expected, but exciting none-the-less.



The package was from Fat Quarter Shop, and represents two quilts I'll be working on soon. The first is for my friend Jen, and is my first commissioned quilt. She is an excellent photographer and asked me for a quilt to use in her photo shoots. I had her pick out a few favorite collections, and she chose Oasis as her top pick, along with several other Moda collections. I chose the beige for the quilt back and the teal (or is it aqua...what's the difference?!) for the binding.




The remainder of the package is a collection of Stonehenge fabrics that I toiled over for days.  They had several pre-chosen collections, but none seemed to fit the bill for me.  Plus, I needed a yard of each color, so precuts wouldn't work.  I wanted blues and greens but with an earthy feel to them, so I added the grays for a granite look.




The tan/beige (next to bottom) is the background and the green/beige on the bottom is the back.  The remainder of the colors will be the diamonds in a Star of Bethlehem quilt.

The pattern is by Edyta Sitar and my church group is working on it through the summer.  I am behind already (there's a surprise!) because I forgot about the prep work and didn't have my fabrics in time for the first class.  I'll start working on cutting the fabric immediately after I get home and try desperately to catch up.

Once finished, the quilt will be 78-inches square - the biggest I have ever made.  It will be for my father-in-law.  He's the one who made my quilt table for my sewing room as well as doing countless other things around the house for us - including coming to my rescue at 5 AM one Saturday to free a possum from my dog lot.  If anyone deserves a quilt, he does.  But...shhhhhh!... it's a surprise.  (And right now, I'm glad he doesn't have internet!!).  :)

As far as current projects, I'm sewing the binding on Molly's quilt and Matt's Coffee quilt.  I'm missing my sewing machine terribly, but making do.  Today was an inside day with a lot of storms and rain.  Otherwise,  we're just not inside much - the rest of the week looks much better.   The guys and a couple of the kids went fishing, but only caught one Spanish Mackerel each.  Not a good fishing day.  Since we were stuck inside, I worked on the binding, made a few more hexagons and did some computer work.  I'm nearly halfway around Molly's and hope to be done by Saturday.  I also started on a new blog/group that I'm starting up - more info on that in another post...but if you are paying attention, you'll see a new button in my sidebar.  :)

Hope you're all having a great week!