La Passing Time

My La Passacaglia has been helping me pass the time for quite a while now.

I don't know how I would have made it through all Audrey's activities without something to keep me occupied.

I started this project Audrey's freshman year of high school so it seems fitting that I completed my last rosette at Audrey's final basketball game.  It's hard to believe I won't be watching her cheer anymore.

I was hoping to get this done in time for graduation but didn't quite make it.  It becomes a lot less portable as you start putting it all together but I started with quadrants and then kept joining.

I spent many road trips appliqueing everything down to the background this summer.  Those star points are tough.  If I did it again I think I'd take the time to hand baste around the edges before stitching it down.  Also, I didn't do a good enough job basting this to the background so it doesn't lay as flat as I'd like.  

It feels like the end of an era now that it's finally all together.  Of course I still have to quilt it...  we'll see how long that takes me;-)

Coastal Cabin

It's always sunny somewhere!

I became totally obsessed with these Sunny Isle prints as I worked with them for the Shimmer QAL so I was determined to use up every last bit.  Since I already had a lot of long skinny leftover strips it seemed like a fine time to tackle a log cabin block.

There are a million different ways to make this block but since I was working with such small strips I chose to paper piece them using this free template.

Rather than using paper I used this lightweight foundation.  It's printer ready so I could print directly on it and I didn't risk stretching my blocks (and my sanity) tearing out all the little bits of paper.  The finished blocks are a bit stiffer than normal but for a pillow cover it's fine and actually makes it feel a bit more polished.

4 1/2" blocks are no joke!  With 20 pieces per block this was a rather time intensive project.

It also didn't help that for some reason I thought I was making 12 blocks when I really needed 16.  Fortunately it's fairly mindless sewing so I got to binge watch a couple more episodes of The Great British Bake Off .

And as I hadn't gone insane so far I decided to do a densely quilted crosshatch.  What's a few more hours?

Totally worth it!

And since no scrap could be left behind I used up even more to make a matching wall hanging but somehow forgot to take a single picture of the process.  Now my foyer will always be sunny;-)

Dreaming of getting away to a Sunny Isle with this week's Brag About Your Beauties Pageant by Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty.

Pillow Stats:
Finished pillow is 18" x 18"
Pattern: Free templates for Paper pieced 4 1/2" log cabin blocks by Generations Quilt Patterns.
Fabrics: Sunny Isle bundle by Jennifer Paganelli for Free Spirit, Bella Solids in Ash.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient.
Thread: 50wt Aurifil in  Arctic Sky (2612).

Quilt Stats:
Finished quilt is 23" x 23"
Pattern: Adapted from this Broken Herringbone Block tutorial by Freemotion by the River.
Fabrics: Sunny Isle bundle by Jennifer Paganelli for Free Spirit, Bella Solids in Ash.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient.
Thread: 50wt Aurifil in  Arctic Sky (2612).

Shimmer and Sunshine

Things are about to get all Ghastlies around here but I'm still holding on to summer!  Back in January my dear friend Aimee invited me to join her for the Shimmer block-a-long hosted by Cluck Cluck Sew.  I figured this would be a good way to get back my sewjo and it worked (for me at least).

Since this wasn't a project I had actually envisioned I just dug around in my studio and found a bundle I thought would work, in this case Jennifer Paganelli's Sunny Isle.  Since this is a bright and busy (in the best way) collection I matched up solids from my stash for the center spokes to calm things down a bit.

The pattern is very clear and Allison also shared some great tips for making these blocks.  That said, these are rather fiddly and each block has a lot of pieces.  I worked out a system for batch processing them based on which foot I prefer to use.

This probably would have lingered in my TBQ pile but I had some free time and a credit about to expire at Burlington Electric Quilters so I was able to get in at the last minute to quilt this.

And since it's football season it made sense to slap a binding on to have something to keep me entertained and my hands out of the snack bowl.

I'm such a sucker for a striped binding!!!

Holding on to summer with this week's Brag About Your Beauties Pageant by Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty.

Quilt Stats:
Finished quilt is 56"x70"
Pattern: Shimmer by Cluck Cluck Sew.
Fabrics: Sunny Isle bundle by Jennifer Paganelli for Free Spirit.  Bella Solids Ash.  Michael Miller Cotton Couture: Kryp, Azure, Raspberry, Carribean, Isle.  Free Spirit Designer Solids: McCaw, Aqua.  Kona: Carnation.
Pantograph: Happy Times.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient.
Thread: King Tut Morning Sky #960