WIP Wednesday: All the things

January's almost over, and this is my first WIP Wednesday post of 2015 -- what is wrong with me? Turns out I'm in fabric-pull mode, slightly more interested in planning and pulling fabrics for new projects than in actually starting them. I think it's because I want to make all the things right now, so I'm having trouble actually committing to a single project and instead just keep making new piles. Hmmm. Anyway, here's what's in the works:

I started working on my pincushion for next month's STLMQG swap. I'm using this fun tutorial from During Quiet Time and loving how it's coming along. I might even finish this one tonight!

I've pulled fabric and cut the low-volume squares for a Sorbet baby quilt I'm making from Vintage Quilt Revival (I can't get enough of that book). I am in love with this fabric pull, which was inspired by this darling print from the Wee Wander collection. I picked it up at Urban Spools, a lovely modern fabric/quilt shop in Dallas that I finally checked out when I was home last weekend.

I've also pulled fabric for a zipper pouch that needs to be finished before QuiltCon, as it's coming to Austin with me as a gift. I'll be doing one of Elizabeth Hartman's perfect zip bags, though I haven't committed to which one yet. And I can't decide on the strap -- do I really need/want one?

Finally, I pieced the strip for my QuiltCon lanyard strap. I'm using this tutorial from Procrasticraft, but I'm in a holding pattern until I can get to the store to get a clasp.

Other than that, I need to start thinking about pulling materials and cutting pieces for my QuiltCon workshops because it's only like three weeks away! February seemed so distant when all the QuiltCon hubbub started, but now it's finally almost here! Oh, and I have this list staring my down....

The neverending (and usually growing) to do list:

Pincushion for STLMQG swap
QuiltCon zipper pouch
QuiltCon lanyard
Sorbet baby quilt
Hazel the Hedgehog baby quilt (I'm planning to follow along with Gnome Angel's quilt along starting in February.)
Pillow for B's bed
Superhero cape for B
Sorbetto shirt (in time for QuiltCon??)
Mini quilt for the Cotton + Steel mini quilt swap (I finally signed up for my first IG swap!)
Aviatrix Medallion quilt
Swoon quilt
Patchwork City sampler quilt
Quilt for guest bed (maybe the Spiced Chai quilt from Vintage Quilt Revival??)
Sunset Tiles quilt (from Scraps Inc.)

T-shirt quilt
Sewing circle tote
Re-cover the downstairs chair

Ironing board cover
Reusable snack bags
Washi dress/tunic

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

State quilts roundup (or Texas Forever, part two)

I finished my own Texas Forever quilt back in December, but of course, as often happens with these things, as soon as I finished it, I started discovering a whole host of other Texas and state quilts (designs, patterns, and quilt alongs!) out there. If only I'd known about some of these before I started mine, I might have saved myself a lot of time and math. Ha! But at least mine is still an original. Still, I thought others might be interested in a roundup of sorts, in case you're looking to start or be inspired to create your own state quilt.

As I mentioned in my original post, I was inspired by my own I ♥ Texas pillow, the Texas Forever quilt created by Corinne of Must Love Quilts (you can find the pattern here), and this awesome Texas quilt by Dana Michaelson, which was featured at QuiltCon 2013.

Image courtesy of Must Love Quilts

Image courtesy of See How We Sew..., quilt by Dana Michaelson

The real killer was when I discovered this Texas Roadtrip Quilt Along hosted by Melissa of My Fabric Relish and Cristina of Pretty Little Quilts this past summer. They, too, were inspired by Dana's quilt above and, along with several other bloggers, created their own version complete with special blocks celebrating some of the big cities in the state. I'm particularly fond of this Texas Star block created by Ashley at Urban Spools for Dallas. You can check out several versions of the quilt here, but I think this AMH version of the quilt by Hilary at Young Texan Mama is particularly fabulous.

Image courtesy of Young Texan Mama

Finally, I stumbled across this lovely Ohio quilt from Devon at Miss Make. This is the second of two Ohio quilts she made (the other one is here), and she created a tutorial for how she made them, which could easily be translated to make quilts of other states if you're handy with Photoshop.

Image courtesy of Miss Make

And if Ohio's your thing, Nancy of The Fabric Studio created a pattern based on the Miss Make Ohio quilt, which can be purchased here.

So what about you? Have you made a quilt to celebrate your favorite state or know someone who has? 

Holiday recap: Part 3

Here it is, the third and final holiday round-up post (earlier posts here and here). At least I squeezed it in before January finished up. Anyway, we left Louisiana on Christmas morning and headed back to Texas to celebrate with my mom's side of the family. After some feasting and visiting with friends, we closed the evening with more presents!

Everyone had a good time hamming it up for the camera, and B whipped through his presents as fast as we'd let him.

After Christmas, we stayed in Dallas for about five days, which left plenty of time for relaxing and hanging out with friends and family. We took several walks down to the lake, visited the giant nutcrackers, rode the trolley, and had lunch with old friends.

On our last night, we celebrated my little sister's 25th birthday (how is that possible?!?) with a family dinner out. She's getting so big!

By the end of it all, we were exhausted but happy. We drove home on New Year's Eve and spent an exciting evening sitting on the couch watching Scandal. Our holidays wrapped up with one final tradition: black-eyed peas (in the form of hoppin' John) and cornbread on New Year's Day. Another wonderful year!

Love Plus baby quilt: A finish!

I'm so excited to finally get to reveal my latest finish, which I'm calling the Love Plus baby quilt!

This quilt was gifted to my wonderful cousin, who recently had her second child, a little girl. The quilt was already going to be a bit late, but then the little lady decided to arrive a few weeks early (on Christmas Day, no less), so I was hurrying to finish it up when we returned from our holiday travels.

The colors were chosen to match her nursery, and though they're totally outside of my normal color scheme, I really love how they turned out. This quilt was completely sewn from my stash (bonus!), including the big Amy Butler lotus print I used on the back, which was one of the first fabrics I bought when I started sewing five years ago.

I adapted the pattern from the "Dream Big" quilt in Camille Roskelley's book Simplify: Quilts for the Modern Home. Basically, I got rid of the borders and deleted several rows and columns to make it a more appropriate baby size. If you're looking for something similar, I came across this pattern, which uses the same technique to create the pluses (rectangles + squares) as the pattern in the book. Also, this free tutorial from In Color Order uses an all-squares technique to make the pluses. (She also has a pattern for sale that includes more sizes.)

I quilted it using a cream thread. It's pretty hard to see in these pics, but I used horizontal lines in varying distances. I was originally planning to also do some vertical lines in a sort of crosshatch, but some of the horizontal quilting caused some of my piecing to get a bit wonky (ugh! I was so annoyed. My piecing had been almost perfect, which is not always the case for me. I'm hoping it won't be too noticeable once it's washed, but still.), and I was afraid adding the vertical lines would only make it worse. It's bound in a mustard crosshatch, which I particularly love against the all-red backing.

This baby's in the mail and will hopefully soon have a baby snuggled up inside!

For kicks, I'm linking up to this month's Sew the Library over at Fabric Mutt and Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

Ice Parfait mosaic

We're experiencing a brief respite from the cold temperatures today, and while I'm not counting on an end to winter anytime soon, I'm enjoying the warmer weather while it lasts. Still, when Rachel over at Stitched in Color posted her latest mosaic contest, Ice Parfait, I couldn't help getting into the winter spirit. As she says, "Let's welcome winter's colors pure and true, cold and still, fractured icy perfection at its best. Just make sure to include icy colors in a way that feels still and wintry to you." So here's winter to me, icy and cold with just a hint of soft colors:

The fabrics are (left to right from top) (1) Architextures Script in charcoal, (2) Architextures Crosshatch in gray, (3) Doe Lightning in gray, (4) Prisma Elements in pearl and gold metallic, (5) Pearl Bracelet in isolated shower, (6) Oval Elements in powder blue, (7) Pearl Bracelet in ice skate, (8) Calico in pink, and
(9) Minimalista Prisma in watermelon.

 Check out Rachel's post for the other mosaics or to add one of your own!

Holiday recap: Part 2

Now that we've covered Thanksgiving (finally), we can move on to our Christmas travels. I'm going to break this into two posts because it was a long trip. For the first half, we headed to Oklahoma and Louisiana to see my dad's side of the family. We have some extended family in small-town Oklahoma who had never met B because we could never time our holiday travels with their get-together, but this year it finally worked out! It was so good to introduce B to his great-grandmother, great-aunts, and other family.

And he got a light-up Spider-Man watch, which, if you ask B, is the BEST.PRESENT.EVER.

 

Afterward, we continued the drive to Louisiana, where we got to spend several days with our family there. Ugly sweaters might have been involved.

Our present exchange was crazy, as always, with three dogs running around and lots of people. I wouldn't want it any other way. Love these people.

B really got into opening presents this year, and he was so excited every time he opened something new. This year, he also discovered the wonder of candy canes.

And he helped Papa and Nana test out some of his (and their) new toys.

After all the chaos, we packed up our goodies, said goodbye, and headed to Texas for Christmas, part 2. But that's a story for another day.