From A - Spoolish Quilt

Just over a week ago, I headed into the stash closet to dig up some fabric for the Quilt the Book insanity that Rachel talked me into joining. After not immediately finding what I was looking for, I instead grabbed a long forgotten quilt kit that I bought on a bright pink induced whim and set aside for a day when I would be crazy enough talented enough to actually take it on.

Coming in at 612 triangle pieces for a twin size quilt or 52 pieces per pieced spool block, this is the kind of project where you want take a bit of time to work out a proper 1/4" seam allowance. A lesson I only learned after my first block ended up a little wonkier than I might have liked.

Seam allowance issues resolved, things have begun chugging along nicely enough and my blocks are starting to lay flatter and be more uniform in size. I managed to wrap up block 5 of 15 this morning and am actually enjoying the process enough to be excited about the 10 remaining blocks.

Quite a change in attitude when you consider that when I bought this kit, part of me thought that I would never actually work up the courage to make it. Turns out it wasn't the scary green eyed monster in my (stash) closet that I'd made it out to be...

Linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

From A - Donuts Quilt

Back in the early part of this year, things were really really busy. I had virtually no sewing time and needed to find other (less time consuming) outlets for my crafty inclinations. I started pulling fabric stacks for quilts I would never get around to making as a stopgap until things eased up.

Surprisingly, the act of planning the quilt was enough and by never aiming to actually make the planned quilt, I avoided the stress of overloading my to-do list. A few of the stacks got posted to Instagram but that's really where things ended off.

Now that I have a little more time, I keep thinking about actually making some of these "planned quilts" and have finally started doing just that.

The first stack I grabbed started from one of my favourite prints in Liberty of London's Bloomsbury Gardens collection, Lytton in Magenta.

The mix of magenta, chartreuse, teal and navy in a varied bouquet of flowers just makes my heart sing but when I started pulling fabrics for my quilt, I ended up substituting the magentas in the original print for corals. The final stack of prints is reminiscent of the original print but definitely stands on its own.

A couple of weekends ago, I got to cutting out my fabrics and perfecting my Donuts Quilt layout.

 

The quilt top got finished last weekend and I sent it off to be quilted earlier this week. I'm hoping to share the finished quilt soon!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

From A - Finished Chevron Quilt

Kelsey's brother was engaged last year. As soon as Bree's wedding quilt was gifted, we agreed that we would make another joint quilt for Kelsey's brother and his new wife.

Predictably, months passed, we got busy with other things and we never actually took the time to plan anything . In about March of this year, I asked Kelsey whether she thought we still had time. A few text messages later we had a plan.

We had agreed that blue was a good choice and that it would make sense to keep the quilt mostly monochromatic, moving from white to black through shades of grey, aqua, teal and navy.

Kelsey pulled three different fabric stacks from her stash to find a range that had the feel we were looking for. The first selection ended up being the winner since it had the most contrast while still shifting nicely between the different colours.

Since I was mid-move, she Kelsey cut all of the fabrics into squares and grouped them by colour family before popping them in the mail with her half of the quilt and some short instructions scrawled onto a scrap of paper.

A nerve wracking week later, the fabric arrived and I got my half of the quilt laid-out and sewn together before sending it off to be long-armed by Sarah of Crinklelove.

The quilt came back from Sarah a few days before we left for the wedding. I happened upon the same fabric I used to bind my White Star quilt while digging through the stash and decided that it would be perfect.

It took me a cab ride, two flights, a pub lunch, the tail end of a late-night Harry Potter movie and the drive to the wedding to get the binding stitched down and a label attached. Luckily, the quilt got done on time and I even managed to talk the Mr. into holding up the quilt for a few quick photos on the way to the ceremony.

Finished Quilt Stats:

• Quilt Name: Chevrons

• Finished Size: Large Lap (78" x 68")

• Fabric: Various prints in white, grey, teal and navy

• Pattern: 5.5" squares inspired by this quilt by Bonjour Quilts

• Quilting: Retro Graphics design by Crinklelove

Linking up to Finish up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.