The Top is Finished!!!

I'm finally done. And I have to say, I love quilting, but if I had to make quilts like this all the time, I might implode. I don't regret making it because it was exciting to learn I could push myself like this and actually succeed (and also because I got a beautiful and symbolic wedding present for my friend out of the whole deal), but it'll be a long while before I attempt one again. I will make another (eventually) because it's a beautiful pattern and I'd love one for our home. In fact, I have some Good Folks cuts stashed away for that exact purpose. Maybe for our 10th anniversary...or maybe for our 5th next year...I'm wondering now if this quilt would seem so bad if I had a year to finish instead of a few weeks. We'll see...that's a big maybe.

I've already got it sandwiched, pinned, and ready to be free-motionized. The back is more Kona Charcoal (I thought that would be the most "sofa friendly" choice since I have no idea what colors they're decorating in) and the bias binding will be more of the lovely Canyon Stripe you see below.

Here's a shot with some decent lighting, even though I couldn't fit the whole top in the frame.

And this is me standing on a step ladder in our living room in an attempt to capture the entire quilt top.

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Three Down, One to Go

The 3rd row has been finished and added to the quilt, and I'm almost done piecing the fourth row thanks to the NOLA Modern Quilt Guild's free sew this weekend! A big thank you to Denise of Mes Amis who let us take over her shop for four hours this past Saturday (for free!), and also to her husband for running and getting us po boys from a sandwich shop down the road. I'm convinced quilters are about the nicest and most generous people in the world...I love being a part of the quilting community!

This Double Wedding Ring is probably my favorite quilt to date, but as much as I love it, it's really sucked the life out of me. My goal is to finish the top when I get home from work today, and then finish the whole shebang by Friday. I'd really like to relax and enjoy the long weekend!

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Fabric Friday

Remember aformentioned fabric rampage? Well here are the fruits of my internet order mania:

Little Folks Dobby Dot Pastry fabrics from Fabricpalooza on Etsy

Fabritopia had the Tula Pink Plume line on sale. I'd been debating getting these for a long time, but caved once I found them on sale. What resident of New Orleans can resist the siren call of the fleur de lis?

Little Folks voile solids in Water, River Rock and Froth. Can I just say what an awesome seller mountainofthedragon is on Etsy? There was a little mixup with my order, so she gave me a free half yard of the Echino print below.

Echino Flower Bed in Purple, courtesy of mountainofthedragon

Have I ever mentioned before that I LOVE Disney World and all things Disney-related? My husband and I visit every September for 10 days. I saw these adorable Kawaii Disney prints in thisandthatfromJapan's Etsy shop and went nuts. They're fairly expensive, but everything in the store was 20% off so I got a bunch of 1/2 yards and FQ's. These will join the "future children" fabric stash ;)

L to R: 1/2 yards of Toy Story, Minnie Mouse, Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh and Monsters Inc.

L to R: Fat Quarters of Chip N' Dale, Stitch, and Winnie the Pooh

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Two Down, Two to Go

As promised, here are the photos of rows one & two of the Double Wedding Ring I've been working on. It was raining and windy outside, so I apologize that I couldn't get a shot of it lying flat. The wind kept making the corners flop down...grr!

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Project Updates

I finished the second row of my Double Wedding Ring after work today and sewed the first two rows together. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait until tomorrow for pictures because there was no food in the house for dinner, so Ray and I ran over to Whole Foods for a soup, salad, and pretzel roll party. It was dark by the time we got home, hence the wait :(

On a happier note, my cousin had her baby (and it's the first grandbaby on the Fisher side of my family!), so I just put together some fabrics for a new baby quilt! I'm going to use Oh Fransson's Mixtape Quilt pattern and the fabrics pictured below. I'm usually not big on froofy, girly things...but as soon as I heard Baby Adalyn's name (pronounced add-a-lynn), it made me want to quilt something super girly!

P.S. I just had to throw in the little fleur de lis because they're the symbol of both New Orleans and Louisville, Ky (which is where my cousin and most of my family live). I think it kind of ties us together in a way since we live so far apart ;)

From L to R: Cloud 9's Blue Yonder, AMH's Candied Flowers in Key Lime, misc fabric from JoAnn's, misc fabric from Mes Amis, Joel Dewberry's Herringbone in Maple, Tula Pink's Circus Dot in pink, Tula Pink's Droplets in aqua, and Tula Pink's Fleur de Lis in pink.

I'll be using pure linen for the sashing on the front and the Moda Nouveau Rose in Teal for the backing.

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Kona Solids Giveaway

Wanna win a ginormous bundle of 22 Kona fat quarters?! Then go to this site and comment for a chance to win! Go! Go now!

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Better Together

Lately I've been getting a lot of different songs stuck in my head while I quilt. This time it was Jack Johnson's "Better Together" while I was laying out these blocks and taking photos. You never know what's going on in my head at any given time ;)

So I was puttering around eating my Kashi Blueberry cereal this morning (or "old people cereal" as I like to call it), when I looked over at my quilting station (aka the dining table) and realized I'd never taken any pictures of the test block I made for our bee. I posted photos of the second block a few days ago, but not the first. I threw together the test block because I wanted to make sure the instructions were good and the block required only beginning to intermediate sewing skills. I'd hate to throw a beastly, complicated block at people - bees are meant for fun, not stress :) Turns out it's a really easy block, and I think it may be my new go-to for quick baby quilts. It's the best of both worlds really - I can churn them out quickly for last-minute baby showers that crop up, and it uses up a ton of my scraps. Win-Win!

First block is on the left, second block is on the right.

Closeup of first/test block.

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Hello. My name is Kaelin, and I'm addicted to fabric

You know you have an addiction to fabric when you have to keep buying more & more storage space for it. *sheepish grin* Thank goodness I had an epiphany a couple months back and invested in some modular storage from Target. They have these Itso modular cubes you can arrange (and rearrange) however you like. I originally bought 6, but had to go back for 2 more today due to my recent fabric buying escapades. My latest relapse occurred when I saw a FQ bundle of Tufted Tweets on Etsy. Who can pass up precious little birds perched on fancy chairs? No one. And that's why it's backordered. It didn't help that the seller was offering the Heather Bailey and Sandi Henderson prints for $2/FQ. I was already paying for the shipping, so what was $4 more going to hurt? Oh you crafty Etsy sellers. You know how to reel me in. Tsk tsk.

Rainy Days & Mondays (1st three), Hope Valley (middle two), & My Mind's Eye (purples on the end)

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I'm walking into spiderwebs, so leave a message and I'll call you back

I want an even 24 blocks for my Spiderweb quilt (I'm Queen Bee for July) so I just finished my 2nd block. The entire time I was sewing this, I kept singing the chorus for that No Doubt song "Spiderwebs" over and over in my head (and I'm sure I unconsciously started singing it aloud a few times). Hopefully I can find a way to shove it out of my brain before bed. Otherwise I'll be sleeplessly staring at the ceiling for a few hours.

We have several international members in our Bee, so I mailed off all my fabric this morning to make sure it arrived by July 1. I've said it before, but I CANNOT WAIT until everyone gets their fabric and starts plugging along on my blocks! I was really nervous about going first in our Bee, but now I'm really glad because patience is not one of my virtues, and I would have been chomping at the bit for my turn!

And of course, here are some photos of my wee lil' Japanese fabric Spidey block.

Hope you enjoy my not-so-lovely shadow. I was in a hurry and failed to realize I was leaning directly between my light source and the block *sigh*

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Christmas in July

I'm first at bat as Queen Bee for the month of July, and I've chosen a Spiderweb block similar to ones I've seen (here, here, and here) on Flickr. The kite/center pieces will be natural linen, and since the focus of our bee is incorporating Japanese fabrics, about 30-40% of the scraps are Japanese prints. We'll be using this tutorial to piece the blocks.

We have a fabulous group of quilters and I couldn't be more excited to see what they come up with. Everything is packed, addressed, and ready for a trip to the post office tomorrow morning (and I'll probably skip through the door like a giddy schoolgirl)!!!

Hello tiny tree. I heart you.

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One down, three to go

Piecing curves was indeed much more time consuming (and frustrating) than I originally thought. If you heard the sounds of a crazed woman screaming yesterday, it was me ripping out yet another bunched up seam. I thought I'd be able to have this first row done by Friday at the latest, but I didn't finish until about 30 minutes ago! I'm so very happy I started sewing this early :)

As soon as I finished, I ran outside to take pictures while the sunlight was still good!

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Japanese Fabric Love (and Star Wars)

I'm still plugging along on my Double Wedding Ring quilt, which has been made a little easier now that I have a new sewing machine with a thread cutting feature! (*the heavens open and angels sing*) I can't believe how much faster I work when I don't have to keep stopping and snipping threads. Loose threads are the devil's playground, after all. Not to mention I'm saving a ton of thread and feel much less wasteful. I made sure to mention all these things to my husband to help soften the blow of an expensive new machine :)

I have most of the 80 arcs completed, and I hope to have the first full row (which is 4 rings) finished and posted on here by the end of the week - yay! I've been cutting out the melons and centers during my lunch break at work (in between reading the new Stephanie Meyers novella. I'm sorry, I can't help myself...her writing style is pretty terrible, but man can she tell a good story. I get sucked in like a giddy teenage girl every time.)

I just started a Virtual Sewing Bee on Flickr and our focus is Japanese fabrics, so naturally I need to stock up for when I'm "Queen Bee" in November July. It's like Fabricworm marked all her Japanese Imports 15% off just for me ;)

I think the "Robot March" fabric in the center is my fav.




This next picture has absolutely nothing to do with quilting, but everything to do with being awesome. My husband and I will be celebrating our 4th Wedding Anniversary tomorrow, and as we were walking around the mall after work today, I spotted these in Williams-Sonoma. Even though they were a smidge overpriced, the DH let me get them as an early Anniversary present! I'm not one of those fanatical "dresses up and goes to conventions" Star Wars fans, but I've been watching the movies since I was 5 and I've probably seen them in excess of 100 times. Plus the immature small child in me wants to take Storm Trooper cookies to work and see how everyone reacts.

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Doll Quilt Swap 9 (aka DQS9)

I finally made it into the Doll Quilt Swap (as you can see from my proud little button on the side)!!! I've been trying to get in for a very long time, but I always managed to show up too late for the party and it was full.

I haven't even gotten my swap partner yet, but I already have a strong idea of what I want to do. Hopefully when I receive my person and Flickr-stalk them, their likes align with my mad quilter plan *twirls mustache*. Below are some fabric clues, which may seem like I'm giving too much away...but trust me, I'm going to do some atypical things with this quilt.

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A little of this and a little of that

I brought a rainbow of scraps to share with my new quilting friends!

Yesterday was the first meeting of the New Orleans branch of the Modern Quilt Guild! After months of wishing and hoping that I'd see a New Orleans chapter pop up on the side of The Modern Quilt Guild home page, I finally decided to be spontaneous and start a chapter myself back in March. People slowly started trickling in, and we're up to about 10 members now!

Since I taught myself to quilt via the internet about 3 1/2 years ago, I don't really have a lot of "live" quilting contacts. I'd gotten used to being a lone wolf quilter and used Flickr as my source of inspiration. But no longer! I'm now a part of a quilt guild consisting of some of the nicest people you'd ever hope to meet. We met for casual chit-chat and gelato, with a side of quilting. A few people shared things they're working on, and one lovely gal brought fat quarters for the whole group :)

We've already got our next two meetings scheduled (including a Weekend Sew on the 26th!) and have a free place to meet courtesy of Denise of Mes Amis Quilt Shop. When I went in to speak with her after our first meeting, not only did she jump at the chance to host our meetings, but she even went so far as to ask what kind of fabric our group would like to see in her store, and showed me some pictures of the fabric lines she'd ordered for the summer.

And of course, I couldn't be rude and walk out with nothing...a large purchase of fat quarters was a necessity ;)

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Piece by Piece

Now that I have most of my other projects out of the way, I'm plugging along on the Double Wedding Ring quilt. I have until July 10, but I'd like to finish all 80 arcs by the end of next week. I have a feeling sewing the circular angles is going to take much longer than I think...and for once I don't wanna feel rushed to finish.

I tried out a few different Kona colors for the background, and I liked Charcoal the best. Robin Egg made it a little too bright and girly (remember, I'm going for "gender neutral") and I felt Coal was a tad too light.

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Quilting Against Time and a Visitor

I got my sewing machine back from the shop last Thursday and since the repairs took forever, I missed the Wedding Shower and Wedding Day deadlines for Roxanne's Brick Path quilt. I wanted to have it ready for her when we went back to work on Tuesday, but one of my best friends from college (she was a bridesmaid in my wedding) was flying in from NYC for the long Memorial Day weekend. Since I haven't seen her in four years, I thought it would be a tad rude if I whipped out my sewing machine while she was here, so my deadline for finishing the machine quilting was Friday night. I thought if I could get that part of the sewing out of the way, hand quilting the other side of the backing during her visit wouldn't be out of the question because a) it doesn't require a loud machine and b) I could sit on the sofa with her and watch movies while I did it.

After many hours of frantic sewing, I finished the machine part, cleared all my sewing junk off the dining table before the next morning, and spent several nights having quilting parties on the sofa with her while we reminisced and watched some of our favorite shows & movies from college (Sex & the City series, The Chipmunk Adventure, Duck Tales: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, and we even threw in Zombieland as a "new classic"). We also squeezed in some shopping/meandering on Magazine St. and lunch in the French Quarter at one of my favorite restaurants.

But back to quilting...here are some shots of the final product.













More tomorrow on my progress with the Double Wedding Ring quilt!

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