WIP: Sunburst Parts 1 and 2

     Yay for progress!  This quilt has been fun to work on.  It feels kind of like improv, because I've been cutting each piece as I go.  Except that it's not improv - because I actually sat down and designed the whole thing before doing any cutting at all.  I hope it turns out okay.  Putting this quilt top together is making me feel very modern. :)

     There will be four sections.  I have finished the first two.  I guess I shouldn't call it the "sunburst" quilt, because it doesn't really look like a sunburst.  But the quilt is inspired by THIS quilt that I originally found on Pinterest...

     The original pinner commented that it looked like a sunburst and the name has stuck for me.
     The original quilt was made by Jacquie Gering (did you hear she has a BOOK out now?).  I have searched and searched for more info on this quilt, and THIS is all I have found - it's a photo blog of some of her quilts.  I guess her quilt is actually called "Outside In."  The quilt was quilted by the amazing Angela Walters.

     So anyway.  I took the idea and made it my own.  I've got two and a half weeks to finish it... wish me luck!

See previous post HERE.

WIP: The beginning of the Sunburst Quilt

I have some works in progress to report this week!  Wahoo!  Summer is so close I can taste it!  There are only two more days of school left and I took today and yesterday off because my babysitter had graduations to attend.  It has been so nice to stay home with my boys (they are getting so big and are tons of fun to hang out with!) and do a little bit of sewing during their nap times.

I have lots to do in the next few months!  We have a wedding, an anniversary, and a new baby coming soon.  Things are starting to move along on the wedding quilt I am making.  I originally thought about making a Sparkle Punch quilt using this awesome bundle of fabrics that I won from Kati.

(Picture borrowed from Brenda at PinkCastle Fabrics.com)

 I thought it would be perfect for a colorful quilt - my favorite!  But the bride requested something modern with green and brown.  So have something else planned.  It's going to be really cool - totally different than anything I have EVER done.  I can't wait to show you more as I make more progress!  Here is what I have so far:

I also did some work on my Fandango quilt.  I have *almost* three sections quilted.  Only two more sections to go!

AND I made a bunch of burp cloths over the past few weeks.  It feels nice to get back into things again.

I'm linking up this week!

Burp Cloths

I have been plunking away slowly on my Fandango quilt, but in the meantime I have been making burp cloths for several friends who have been having babies.
My inspiration came mostly from a pair of burp cloths that were given to me by a neighbor, although I did model Olivia's burp cloth after the ones in Natalia's Tutorial (except that I just did a straight stitch 1/4 away from the edges so that they will fray a little).

Here they are!

 

WIP: Fandango quilting

I've been a little MIA lately.  I had to go back to work three weeks ago and suddenly there is no time for quilting!  However, we are on Spring Break right now so I am trying to get some things done.  The boys have been really good lately, which helps!

I decided to quilt my Fandango quilt in sections.  I pieced the top into 5 smaller chunks and I plan to quilt each chunk, then use the quilt-as-you-go method to attach the larger pieces.  So far it is working out pretty well!  I have been quilting straight lines in all of the neutral spaces and all that stopping and turning would have been impossible with a bigger quilt.  I think it's going to work out great.

This is as far as I have gotten on section A:

 

Hopefully I can make lots of progress before school starts again next week!  I have another sister getting married and a nephew coming in August, but I like to do one project at a time, so it will be great to finish this and get started on something new! 

UPDATE!  I finished quilting this whole section.  I did some swirls in the border boxes and I traced the design of the fabric in the bigger pieces.  I like it!

Thanks to Lee for motivating me enough to have at least something to share for WIP Wednesdays!

Mini-Quilt!

Last week I made a commitment to Amy that I would finish this project.  I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it, what with the three month old twins and all.  But it turns out that all I had to do was step away from the computer and just work on it whenever I had a few minutes.  And I finished it with a couple of days to spare!  Wahoo!  To see what other people finished last week, check out the link:

And here's what I did last week:

I made a mini!

I'm thinking of trying the quilt-as-you-go method for quilting my Fandango quilt, since it is going to be another huge one.  However, I've never done it before so I decided to make a mini quilt to test my skills.  It was also a good chance for me to try a couple different quilting styles to see which one I liked best.  So I made mini "out of the box" blocks to practice on, using some fabric from my stash. 
I knew I wanted to quilt straight lines in all the neutral fabric, but everything else was anyone's guess.  These are the designs I tried:

Feathers and pebbles.  I really wanted these to work, but I think it is just too busy.

This one has wavy lines in the border box.  Then for the solid box I just traced around the design on the fabric.  I think I like this one the best.

Loops, meandering, and swirls.  

All straight lines.  Too poofy.

Here is the back.  I think it looks kinda cool.   Even though the four sections don't meet too well in the middle.  Oh well.  One can't be too picky.  I think I like the "wonky" look.

I bound it in this green because I just so happened to have a whole bunch of it already cut and folded.  I've been practicing my machine binding.  Check out my corners!

I found several tutorials for the quilt-as-you-go method.  Two of them were for attaching one block at a time - here and here.  One was for attaching larger sections - here.  And then I found this tutorial after I had already started - genius!  I'll definitely keep this in mind for next time.
I decided to try the first technique and attached each block one at a time, then attaching the rows.  One tutorial suggests putting the overlapping piece on the front, the other suggests putting it on the back.  I tried mine with the overlapping piece on the front, so I could stitch it down by machine and not have the front look funny.  Now that I look at it, I think I will put the overlap on the back next time and try stitching it down by hand to avoid the "strip of fabric sewn on top of everything else" look.  I don't know though.  I'm not too good with hand stitching.  It takes forever.  I think I might also try making my sashing strips just a tad wider, to cut down on bulk. 

The final product is 16 x 16 inches
Fabric is "Pumpkins Gone Wild" by Sandy Gervais - I THINK.  (This fabric was part of a giveaway I won a long time ago.  Who knew I had Sandy Gervais fabric in my stash all this time?!)

Now that this is finished, I have NO IDEA what I'm going to do with it.  What does one do with mini-quilts?

Diaper Pouches

I pinned THIS tutorial on Pinterest a few weeks ago.  Up until now we have been keeping those little 20 packs of diapers in our diaper bag (we got a bunch as a gift).  Now that the little packages are all gone and it only makes sense to buy diapers in BULK when you have twins, I needed something to keep a few diapers in.   I had JUST enough fabric left over from the crib bedding to make this:

It's stuffed clear full - we go through lots of diapers!

Right around the time I was thinking about making this, I found out that two of my friends from work were having a joint baby shower.  I'm still too scared to take two infants with me to Wal-Mart, so I knew my best bet was to make their gifts at home.  Luckily, I made my own diaper pouch first, so I was able to make a few adjustments on the pouches for my friends (specifically the strap).

One of them is having a girl:

And the other is having a boy.  I know that she has decorated her nursery in green and black, which inspired the colors for this pouch:

ALL of the fabric was from my stash (YESSS!).  I didn't have any fusible fleece, so I just used regular batting, but the lining is a stiffer burlap fabric left over from THIS bag.  And I didn't even have to do any shopping!  I finished three pouches in about two days of working off and on between feedings and stuff.  I hope they work out okay!

I can't help but link up with Kati - check out the awesome giveaway she is hosting this month!

Work in Progress: Fandango Quilt

The boys have given me a few days of good naps lately, so I have been sewing again!   Yay!   They seem to each take at least one long nap every day and if I'm lucky they will be at the same time.  ;)  Here's to hoping they can keep it up!

I finished making the blocks for the Fandango quilt I am making for my in-laws. 

This is what I started with (I cut these out back in, what - July?):

It's been fun to watch the blocks grow.  They went through a couple of phases.  You know.  Like kids.  They go through phases.  And they grow.  Okay.  Moving on.

Phase 1:

Phase 2:

And phase 3.  These are the final blocks:

They are huge!  16 inches square.  The finished quilt will have 20 of these.  Now I just need to sew them together with sashing and figure out how to quilt it.  I pretty much have no idea how to quilt it.  Any suggestions?

 This is a first for me... I'm linking up!  I want to be better at recording my progress (it's usually pretty slow, so I may not be able to link up every week), rather than just all my finished projects.  So I'm jumping on the WIP Wednesday bandwagon!  Yay!  I'm the kind of person that likes to see a project all the way to completion before starting a new one (for the most part - mostly it's my husband who encourages this habit).  So I don't really have any other WIPs or stats to report.  I did work on a quickie project this week, though.  I don't have pictures loaded up yet, but I'll post about that soon.

Check out all of the other WIPs at Freshly Pieced.