Little fox

Happy Halloween 
from the foxiest little fox you've ever seen!

Lots of candy and good-natured scares to you all!

 

WIP Wednesday #50

Howdy, Wednesday. This week, I finally have a big finish for you, not to mention a few other things. It feels good to get a little sewing time in, especially as I'm about to start heading into several weeks of guests and busyness, which is going to make the sewing scarce, I fear.

Completed: 
The Oxford Comma Quilt!

I finished this baby up on Sunday, and the hubs was nice enough to help me get some photos of it out in the fall leaves.

It's now at his office just waiting to be hung. You can read all about it in this post.

I also finished the coordinating open-wide zippered pouch for my new Go Anywhere Bag! 

It's the perfect addition to the bag, just to keep my lip glosses together. I adore this pattern and am so glad I finally had time to sew one for myself.

Finally, I made a quick little embellished dish towel for B's kitchen.

Before, I'd just given him a worn out old dish towel we weren't using, but that seemed too sad, and every time I looked at the kitchen, I wanted to change it. Boom! Ten-minute project done. I'm sure he hasn't even noticed the change. :) Ha!

In progress:

I finally cut into the Waterfront Park bundle! Well, I got all of the fabric ironed and ready for cutting, then I spentwasted several hours considering whether I should change my pattern (Grrr...). Originally, I was planning to use the Mod Circuitry pattern from Don't Call Me Betsy, which I thought would really highlight some of the prints. But then I took a look at the finished size (duh) and realized it's smaller than what I'd like. Yes, I could just add more blocks or a border, but it made me start questioning the entire thing.

So I moved on to Pinterest and every quilting book I own for more inspiration. Now I'm thinking maybe this windmill block from Fat Quarterly Shape Workshop for Quilters. Help! Thoughts? Anyway, the engines are moving on the new quilt, and I'm so excited to finally be starting on this one! 

And, of course, somewhere in sewing land, I'm still working on my T-shirt quilt and Kitchen Window quilt. Sigh.

On the "to do" list: 

Secret baby quilt
Kindle cover for my sister
Pillows for the STLMQG Pillow Bomb Project
New tie for B
Kitchen dish towels
Superhero cape for B
Re-covering the downstairs chair

New pillows for the downstairs chairs
Christmas table runner
iPod workout strap
A mug rug for me
Ironing board cover
Another divided basket from the Noodlehead pattern 
Reusable snack bags
Living room quilt
Washi dress

This week, I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Marine Quilt

I'm sure everyone has heard about the Blogger's Quilt Festival over on Amy's Creative Side by now. In fact, I mentioned it yesterday when I premiered the finished Oxford Comma Quilt, which I entered in the Wall Hanging Quilts category. 

Anyway, since you're allowed to enter more than one quilt, I decided to show the Marine Quilt some love and enter it in the Baby Quilts category.

I still love, love, love this quilt, and it deserved another day in the sun. It's just so cheery and cuddly, and how can you resist those whales?

The linky's open through Oct. 31, and voting runs Nov. 1-7, so click on over to be inspired by the many, many wonderful quilts (hundreds of them!) that have already been posted! Happy quilting!

Oxford Comma Quilt finish

I'm so glad to have this one finished! Introducing the Oxford Comma Quilt! After I completed the Ohio Log Cabin Quilt a while back, Matt asked me if I'd make a wall hanging for his office. An excuse to sew something? Sure, no problem.

 

So we set about picking out the right fabric and pattern. He chose both with a little bit of guidance from me. The fabrics are all from the popular Comma collection (hence the playful name of the quilt; Matt's a professor) with a few Kona solids thrown in.

The pattern is a modified version of this Disappearing 9-Patch Baby Quilt from Janice Ryan on Craftsy. I made it smaller by leaving off one row and one column of blocks, and I used 4.5" blocks (instead of 5") for my starting blocks. The final quilt measures just shy of 30" square, a perfect size for a sizeable wall hanging.

For the back, I used up three leftover blocks from the front and combined them with strips of leftover fabric. I was originally planning on doing a scrappy binding to use up some more of my fabric (and to keep from buying more fabric because I didn't have enough of any one fabric left to do all of the binding), but Matt convinced me to use a solid(ish) color instead, and I'm so glad he did.

We didn't want to introduce yet another fabric since there were already so many in the quilt front, so we wound up back at my LQS and bought a little more of the gray and black comma fabric, which ended up being a perfect binding. I'm so glad Matt changed my mind. I also think the dark gray acts as a great border and really offsets all the busyness of the front. A scrappy binding would have just blended right in.

This was also the easiest binding job I've ever done, and I think I've finally got a good system worked out for machine binding. I used the method in Quilting Modern to create the binding and attach it to the front of the quilt using a scant 1/4" seam. Then, because I don't do hand stitching, I wrapped it around to the back and secured it with my fabulous new Wonder Clips (Why, oh why, did I wait so long to buy these?? They're amazing!), and then stitched in the ditch alongside the binding on the front of the quilt so the stitching caught the binding on the back. I've used a similar method before, but this time I definitely got the best results. Now that's a beautiful mitered corner!

 

I was really pleased with how the quilting turned out as well. I used green thread that matched the solid green in the quilt and then did a sort of wandering random maze pattern throughout. I used the lines in the blocks as my guide and spaced my lines about 1/4" inch out. I think the end result looks really interesting and compliments the craziness of the design, but it was also really easy to do (bonus!).

I need to hand stitch on some fabric in the back corners to create the pockets for the hanging dowel, and then I'll really be finished. The hubs is happy, so I am, too!

P.S. Have you guys heard about the Blogger's Quilt Festival over on Amy's Creative Side? It's a huge linky party for quilts in lots of different categories. I'm entering the Oxford Comma Quilt in the Wall Hanging Quilts category, so pop on over and check it out. The linky's open through Oct. 31, and voting runs Nov. 1-7. Good luck to anyone else who's entered a quilt!