At Long Last...

If you've been following me here for a while, you may remember the first glimpses of this quilt from back in  2010. Um, yeah, so that's kind of embarrassing. Life happens though and you get frustrated with the progress and then make a mistake that puts you off it for a while and then you start grad school and then you start working three jobs and then you decide to do some crazy laborious embroidery on the back...you know, the norm.

I centered the embroidery right at the top so she'd catch a glimpse whenever she snuggles into bed

Well, I managed to finish the binding by hand in one long car ride yesterday that my husband and I just made from Massachusetts to Michigan to visit family. I was bound and determined to be productive as long as I was just going to be sitting in that car for 12+ hours! I finished it just as we came across the border from Canada (having driven about half the distance too and maybe with a bit of a lead foot so that I could get back to sewing...) and GOOD GRIEF was I elatedproudexcitedestatic to say the least. Today I gave it to my three year old niece, as I'd planned all along, and have to admit it was a little hard to let the thing go after all this time. I've done several doll/lap/baby quilts over the years, but never a big one like this, hence all my squeals of joy at having finished it. Definitely enough of a good feeling to spur me on to finishing other projects!!

I know the cool blogger thing is to just show the finished quilt, but my granny, who taught me to sew, always takes one of her with it and I feel that is a tradition well worth honoring so here I am in all my nerdy joy:

The quilt is twin sized for her big girl bed and is made with Heather Ross' Far Far Away II line in the plum colorway. The backing, sashing, and binding is kona cotton while the purple border is a cotton sateen. I machine pieced and quilted it, but did the binding by hand. You can see the full progress here, from design to quilt top:
Beginnings
Design and progress
Another iron in the fire
The quilt top

All Quilted Up

Once I get the binding done, I'll post a photo of the whole completed quilt!

I've finished the quilting on my FFAII quilt! A very exciting day for me, indeed. I did some simple outline quilting using my machine and was surprised by how quickly it went, having never worked on a quilt of this size before (a twin size for my niece). I am happy with the pink thread contrasting against the deep eggplant color as it lightens it up a bit and brings the whole thing together.

I do think I have some practicing to do on my machine quilting skillz though...I'm probably being more critical of my work than anyone else, but there are a couple places where the fabric bunches up or my stitching isn't quite straight. I suppose practice makes perfect, right?!

I also finished the embroidery on the back and now just need to bind the whole thing off and put it through the wash. One sticking point...despite my best efforts, I didn't quite manage to line up the embroidery with where the lines of quilting have ended up so I've got to make up my mind as to whether I should just go right through it and not worry about it or quilt around it and then tie off that area. I was planning to do some tie-offs in the middle of each big square anyways, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad....what would you do?

(see the full quilt top here)

Back in the Studio

I decided to make a simple pillow of scraps to go with the FFAII quilt and now just need to attach the back. I like how it turned out with additional bits from Anna Maria Horner collections and some scrap sari silk.

I've got my work cut out for me this weekend. Well, literally in some cases. In the first time in a long time, I have one whole day to work on personal projects (goodgravyhoorayfinally!) so I am revisiting the Far Far Away II quilt for my niece that has had to take a backseat to so many other projects this year. It's embarrassing really as it has been sitting in a corner of my studio all this time, silently taunting me from it's perch and reminding me I could be working on it if I would just stop stretching myself so thin. Well, no more! At last it is all ready to be quilted minus some last minute embroidery I decided to add on the back. More on that part later, for now, let's just revel in the first sight of fabric to grace this here blog in way too long:

Is it possible to lay out a quilt sandwich without having furry little helpers coming to judge your handiwork? Zoë approves *I think* but is a brutal task master.

As I work today, I am already thinking of the other projects that await me on the horizon: A couple items for friend's that have had babies recently/soon and some pillows for our own living room (A project I get to keep?! someone see if there are pigs flying outside your window, quick!). I've made some progress on a few pillows for us but my thoughts on the final look have changed a bit since then in terms of color and we need more than originally planned due to a new (rather massive) couch.

So many plans, so little time! I should get back to my sewing now because tomorrow I'm off to visit another museum for a paper that needs to be several pages longer than I care to think about at the moment. Sigh...it seems I must learn to embrace moderation and not just admire it from afar. Do you have a laundry list of grandiose things you'd like to make? Maybe we can each pledge to finish just one of them by the end of the month! I know I'm just the kind of person who's going to keep biting off more than I can chew so I'm all about making lists and enforcing manageable timelines on myself that include downtime. What kinds of things do you do to keep yourself productive but sane?