Kitchen Windows Quilt: A finish!

The Kitchen Windows Quilt is finally, finally finished! I started sewing about 4.5 years ago, and this was the first quilt I ever began, over three years ago.

It got put on the back burner so many times for so many reasons — I fell out of love with the fabrics, I got interested in other projects, my inexperienced and inaccurate piecing caused all kinds of troubles that I didn't want to deal with, and so on and so on.

 

This year, the STLMQG has been doing a project called the War on Works in Progress (WOW), and this quilt was at the top of my list. I was determined to finally finish it. About a year ago, I decided to switch out the original sashing I'd chosen (the green that made its way onto the back instead), and then it was just a matter of making it a priority.

I had to cheat A LOT to get these blocks to work, so don't look too close. Because my initial piecing (and, I suspect, my initial cutting) was so bad, the blocks finished at lots of different sizes (if you look closely, you'll notice that the width of the chocolate brown sashing is very inconsistent. I couldn't bring myself to rip it all out, so instead I cheated with the linen sashing and cut each piece individually so the final blocks would be the correct size.

When it came time to quilt it, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to finally try my hand at free-motion quilting. I knew I wasn't planning to give this quilt away because it already had so many problems, so I figured there wasn't much to lose if I messed up. I quilted in an allover loopy meander using cream thread. I'm pleased with the overall effect, and I think it definitely helped to hide some of the flaws, but it's not perfect by any means. Also, I ended up getting several large puckers in the backing toward the end of the process, but I didn't notice until I was done, and at that point, I didn't have the heart (or the energy) to rip out all the stitches and redo it, so they're staying. Character, right?

It's a bit hard to tell in some of the distance shots (The colors in this quilt were super hard to photograph, FYI. It's actually much cheerier looking in person.), but I actually used two colors to bind it. Half is bound in the aqua dot, and half is bound in the red dot. Just a fun little detail.

Final details: the pattern is the Kitchen Window quilt from Elizabeth Hartman's first book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork. Like all her work, it's a great pattern, and the problems came from my end, not the pattern. The fabrics are all from Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird collection (long out of print), combined with Kona Chocolate and an unidentified linen for the sashing. The green on the back is another unidentified Kona color (sorry, but I bought it four years ago, so you understand). It's so nice to have this one finally finished!

I'm linking up to the Craft Book Sew-Along at Live.Love.Create.

All tied up

Just to prove there has been some sewing going on between the illnesses and road trips, I wanted to show off these cute little toddler bow ties I made recently.

The coral one in front was for B's Easter outfit. After posting B's Easter picture on Facebook, my cousin committed how much she liked the tie, so I asked if she'd like me to make one for her little guy, who's just over a year old.

As it turned out, her husband is getting his Master's in a few weeks, and she wanted one to go with the suit her son is wearing to the ceremony.

 

Her husband is graduating from the University if Virginia, so she requested the orange one to match, and I threw in the navy gingham for future use. I used this tutorial, which is super easy and fits little ones perfectly (I used the small size option.).

Easter fun (just a month late)

Yes, I realize Easter was almost a month ago, but April got away from me and just when I thought I was going to jump back into blogging, I got strep. Who gets strep as an adult? Anyway, that had our house sidelined for a week, so now we're trying this again. I really wanted to get these pics up on the blog, even if they are woefully overdue.

Around here, most of the big Easter egg hunts are actually done the weekend before Easter, so after B opened his Easter basket, we met up with some friends and their twins at the botanical gardens for a pre-Easter egg hunt. They divided the hunters by age, and everyone lined up, ready to go!

Then the whistle blew, and they were off!

The kids were limited to 10 eggs each, which was probably plenty for a two year old. But needless to say, it didn't take very long.

Next up, visiting the Easter Bunny, of course. Unlike with Santa, B was SO excited to meet the Easter Bunny, although he got pretty shy once he got up close. Just trying to play it cool, I'm sure. Still, no tears were shed, so that's progress.

The gardens were just starting their spring bloom and looked gorgeous.

After the Easter festivities, the kiddos headed over to the children's garden for more fun — real bunnies, play food, and a trail ride. I love seeing these goofballs together.

On real Easter, we headed to church and then brunch at a friend's house. Because there were several kids there, she'd also planned a little egg hunt. B was the smallest one there (and therefore wholly outmatched), but her oldest daughter took him under her wing and helped him find more than enough. It was a lovely Easter!

Happy Mother's Day!

Just popping it to say a quick Happy Mother's Day to all the moms, grandmothers, stepmoms, and mothers-in-law out there, especially my own. I'm so lucky to have you all in my life and so lucky to be this special little guy's mom, too. Hope you all have a wonderful day!