On Safari...

Couldn't wait to sink my teeth into that jelly roll as soon as I got back home...and use the new book! Still piecing, but thought I'd post a shot to show a bit of this week's progress:



Lovin' the Safari fabric, and the contrast of the brights with a really bright white. Also lovin' the speed factor of pre-cut strips.

Slightly concerned with the fact that nothing is pre-washed, especially because of all the colors (with white, for Pete's sake!). I gave everything a good steam press before I started, which should take care of the shrink factor, but doesn't calm my fears about bleeding.

I'm not sure how/when the habit began, but I wash all my fabric when it comes in the door -- which can be frustrating sometimes, because there's that coming-home-from-the-fabric-store-let's-get-started-on-that-quilt enthusiasm that can lose serious momentum if there are enough light/medium/dark purchases to warrant more than a couple loads. Then there's the ironing, and the folding...and now it's just turned into housework, which makes it seem like a chore. Which usually means I get it all done and stacked and go veg on the couch with a glass of wine and watch TV because now I've just been working way too hard. I'll cut into that fabric tomorrow, when I have more energy.

I can understand not prewashing for wall hangings, and I realize that dyes are much more colorfast than they used to be so running isn't as big of an issue, but I'm still very hesistant to break this habit. And besides the "loss of momentum" scenario, anybody have a good argument for not pre-washing your fabric?

Another satisfied customer...

Baby Imani on her new quilt

I love it when my quilts actually get used! Got this picture from Mama Nikki, who threatened to hang the quilt on the wall -- but it looks like she might get an argument from Imani!

What I was doing when I should have been doing something else

So instead of bringing my parents' quilt home last year and getting right back to work on it so they could have it by Christmas, I made a whole bunch of other stuff instead.

Two jelly roll tops...

Cotton Candy

Cotton Candy Cabins

An experiment with four-patches...I used some leftover Minkee for the sashing on this one. Not recommended unless you use a stabilizer with it!

Hopscotch

A Monkey'n Round flannel quilt for my goddaughter, my Monkey Girl...

There was a matching doll quilt, but I never got a good picture of it because of this...

Gershwin claims it for his own

My friend Nikki had held on to a stack of fat quarters that her mother had bought many years ago...and wanted to make something for her own daughter in Mom's memory. I got three small quilts, one for Nikki's baby (Imani arrived last Monday!) and one each for her two cousins, Maddy and Sawyer.

All wrapped up and ready to go!

These are 2.5" blocks. In retrospect, I should have made them bigger...

Find the Monkey

I love how quilts look when the light comes through them...

(that's Sears Tower in the background)

Another experiment with four-patches. The dark pink pieces are Minkee dot...stabilized this time!

A quilt for Bella, the new arrival upstairs...

Then my old neighbor had twins. These have yet to be quilted, but are on their way soon...

At least I wasn't procrastinating unproductively...

Checking one off the to-do list...

Auditioning the binding

At last! I can breathe a sigh of relief, I have finished my parents' 60th anniversary gift. Well, sort of. The top is done, and I'm leaving it with the longarm lady on my way up to northern Michigan in two weeks. I'd be more proud of myself for completing it if it weren't over a year behind schedule.

The Irish Chain is an easy pattern and this should have been a no-brainer, but several things made this a painful exercise to complete:

• Originally designed as an oversized throw, Mom decided last summer she'd rather use it on their bed. My fault for offering the option, but I wanted her to be happy with it. So it came back to Chicago to sit on the UFO pile. On the top, but still relegated to what's become the black hole of my kitchen.
• Making more blocks meant cutting into my backing fabric, and not having enough for a single-fabric back. Not the end of the world, but not what I had planned, either.
• One wedding
• One set of twins
• A baby girl on the way and her two cousins and grandma's fabric
• A new Bernina with BSR that warranted quite a bit of experimenting
• Several subsequent experiments
• Another new baby girl
• One deathly sick cat, slowly recovering
• New machine=different seam allowance, which means the new blocks were slightly larger than the old ones. I hadn't realized how off my old Singer and I were!
• I came up four inches (four inches!) short on the off-white fabric
• Discontinued fabric -- both the backing and the off-white. Thank you, quiltshops.com and your thumbnail searches!

So the lessons learned here are obvious:

• To begin with, I should just finish what I start
• Buy enough fabric (though in my defense, I did...originally)
• In the name of all that is creative, let some of those "ooh, I could make this!" moments pass and just get it done already!
• Start making their 75th anniversary quilt NOW.