Messin' me up...

What is wrong with this picture?

March in Chicago is supposed to be MISERABLE.

We are supposed to spend March battling 50mph winds, sleet stinging our faces, and wrestling inside-out umbrellas. We're supposed to be wearing two pair of long underwear to the St. Patrick's Day Parade. It's supposed to be rain one day, snow the next, with no expectations of seeing the sun until mid-April if we're lucky. It's supposed to be 30 days of a damp, cheerless existence, huddled under blankets on the sofa.

Instead, it's glorious. And HOT. My daffodils have been in bloom for a week, and the lilac is budding out. And I had some guy dressed like a leprechaun on Spring Break throwing up green beer on his flip-flops and my front lawn on Saturday afternoon (hey, I live in the city).

March is also the month when I start quilting all of those tops I've made since Christmas, and now? I have gardening to do. And bikes to ride, and runs to take along the lakefront. Because in spite of the reports that these milder temperatures are here to stay, I'm not totally convinced that there isn't a blizzard lurking somewhere in Canada, just waiting for us to let our guard down completely and dump a foot of snow on next week's deck party. As such, I'm treating each freakishly warm day as a gift from Mother Nature, abandoning my sewing machine and using every free moment to take advantage of Summer in March.

It's really messed my project schedule up, but I'm OK with it.

A few random things...

This hexagon top is going very slowly. So slowly, in fact, that I'm afraid it's going to become a UFO.

In an effort to mix it up a little, I pulled out my "Not So Plain Spoken" top and laid it out to measure for the backing. But I didn't make much progress there either, as you can see.

Interesting article for all of you who are into Pintrest. I'd include a quote from her original blog post, but that's copyright infringement, so you'll just have to go read it yourself.

I am still singing "Honeycomb" all day and night.

The web design class I'm taking just made the turn this weekend from "isn't HTML fun?" to "how the hell am I ever going to wrap my head around this?" Shades of junior year Programming 101, which I dropped at the last minute because -- wait for it -- I couldn't wrap my head around it.

I happened to be at Jacquie's the day her preview copy of "Quilting Modern" arrived. Gotta tell you, this book is gorgeous (and at 176 pages, surprisingly heavy!), filled with beautiful photographs and stunning quilts. It even smelled good in that new-book-fresh-ink kind of way.  I had it on pre-order even before I saw it in person, and I can hardly wait to get my copy!

Happy Monday, and happy quilting!

On to the next...

For my next project, the recipient requested purple and pink, with emphasis on the purple. I've seen a lot of cute hexagon quilts in the blogosphere lately, and when Jacquie posted her nifty tutorial a couple weeks ago, I knew it was perfect timing to start this quilt and learn a new technique. So I sliced up a whole bunch of purples and pinks from my stash and made a pilgrimage to the Hexagon Whisperer herself.

I probably could have figured this out on my own, but Jacquie is a great teacher and made it SO easy to understand, it saved much gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair to have her show me in person instead. My hair dresser and dentist are eternally grateful.

It doesn't go very quickly (this coming from someone who thrives on strip sets, so "quick" is relative), but getting those first seams lined up and laying flat is incredibly rewarding. After avoiding hexagons for years because they appeared too labor intensive, this kind of feels like magic!

I echo Jacquie's advice on adding one hexagon at a time until you feel really comfortable with the process. Sewing two full columns together isn't horribly difficult, but it creates more room for error.  I'll be ripping out at least part of the top column I added to fix some puckers that couldn't be fought off with the iron.

One big downside:  I can't get Jimmie Rodger's "Honeycomb" out of my head. Been singing it all week, and don't think it's going to go away until I'm done.

Welcome to my madness!

Well, the verdict is in...

...and it probably isn't what you expected.

First off, thanks for all for the input on my border conundrum. When I posted about it, I was leaning toward just using white because I felt the black darkened it up a little too much. However, the black border with turquoise binding got a lot of votes, so I did what I should have done in the first place and pulled out the binding fabric for more auditioning.

I definitely liked the pop of turquoise against the black border. It brightened things up considerably.

Icky inside lighting. Sorry.

When I removed the black, I still liked the brightness without it. And then, Wanda made a point about the advantages of a darker border for baby/toddler quilts, which got the wheels turning again.

I really need to get new light bulbs in the kitchen

So I moved that top four inches up and to the left -- and decided I liked this best of all:

This keeps the quilt bright and happy, and I'll use the black for binding (already cut! hooray!), which will be functional, add more contrast and pull it all together. Three birds, one stone!

For anyone who thinks I flat-out ignored all your suggestions, it was quite the opposite. There were some great points made, and everything I heard was just what I needed to get me thinking differently and headed in the right direction.

Couldn't have done it without you. Thanks!

Border-line insanity...

In order to relieve some of the pressure from having to produce a gajillion quilts in three weeks (at least that's what it feels like), I am doing something I should probably be doing every time I face a deadline:  resorting to the Duffle Bag of Forgotten Tops, that dark place in my house where completed flimsies get abandoned and can only dream of making it to full-on Quiltdom.

This is one of the few lucky ones that got out ((I swear I heard little voices cheering "you have been chosen!" (yes, that's a Toy Story reference) as I returned the bag to the closet)) -- made a few years ago for a friend who put in a request for something girly just after it was completed (doh!), it's totally appropriate for a baby due this May whose gender will be a surprise for the first-time parents. This means I can complete a UFO and save time! Woo-woo!

All but six of the colored squares are Jan Mullen prints and finish at 1" (blocks are 2"), so it wasn't very big. I added the purple and white borders this weekend to make it a little less dizzying and a little larger.  I was going to add a third border of black, but I'm not sure I like it. Binding will be the bright turquoise by Archie's tail.

I've been auditioning it with and without since yesterday, and can't make up my mind. It really shouldn't be this complicated.

This kind of indecision can derail me for days, which I really can't afford at this point, so I need some objective opinions.

Whaddy'all think?

Where did January go?

It seems like I'd just started on my little batik project, and then all the announcements hit:  FIVE babies due this spring/summer and two weddings! Rather than spring into action, I think I was numbed at the prospect of all that sewing and spent the month in denial.

It's going to be a busy few months! I have a couple projects in the planning stages, one with fabric purchased and one in progress, but encountered a snag with it this weekend:  I didn't have enough coordinating prints for the tarragon Kona. But instead of going out to buy more fabric (because I really, truly do not need any more fabric in my house), I got out the PaintStiks and stencils and made some.

Cute, huh? I kind of wish I'd done these for the whole quilt!

A new year, a new start...

I have great hopes for 2012, though I think I said the same for last year -- and well, that could have turned out a lot better than it actually did. I wasn't nearly as productive as I'd hoped in 2011, so I thought I'd start this New Year out right by ignoring that tub of UFO's and starting something else.

I had Bali Pop leftovers from this quilt. It took me a while to find them buried deep in the stash, but I had an idea (and you know when I get an idea, I have to run with it) and needed to see how it would work. I did a little reorg/cleaning while I was digging, so it was worth the effort.

There was about 30" left of each strip, so I had a fair amount to work with. The middles are pieced however I felt like it -- it's a stretch to call it improvisation, but let's just say they're all a bit different. I also added some satin and shantung silks for a pop of shine. Blocks are 4" square.

So far, I like how it's turning out. This batch is only the first third of the pieces I cut, so I still have a ways to go.

Here's to new beginnings for a New Year!