Waving the White Flag- Two Color Challenge

I've made the decision not to complete the Two Color Challenge. I'm so sick of this quilt, I really need to take some time off and do something else for a while. While I'm bummed that I'm not going to have it done for a while, I'm ok with it- because when I come back to this project, I'll (hopefully!) be rejuvenated and ready to push forward. But for now, this project has been carefully packed away.

Progress

This quilt is killing me. I'm sick of working on it and I JUST WANT IT TO BE DONE.

I've done quite a bit since I posted about it last. The top has been all laid out, and is in the process of being sewn together.

Today is our anniversary- I'd wanted to have this finished (totally, completely!) because I was doing this quilt for us... I thought it'd be nice to have this finished by now. Oh well, getting closer I suppose.

My Spoonflower Fun

A few weeks ago I got my email from Spoonflower, allowing me to try out their new site. I'd registered a month or so ago, and they're sending out these emails so that they don't have a barrage of new orders all of a sudden- it's a new company and they'd like to be able to keep up with demand.

I wasn't ready to place my order when I got the email from them, but just a couple of days later I noticed their blog entry, asking for all orders by the next morning if I wanted it mailed that upcoming week. And I did. So I sat down and worked up a little order, stuff that I'd been thinking about- labels. I made labels for stuff that I make for myself and my family, labels for the internets (these say "BlondieSpeaks"), and a quilt label for that massive quilt that will be done soon. I followed all of their directions for colors and pixels, etc, and uploaded my order- just an 8x8 swatch. A mere $6 later, I had my order placed and it was "in process". According to their blog, orders from that week shipped the following Friday, my order arrived the next Monday- so about a week after I placed it. Not too shabby!

I opened the envelope and all of this was in there:



I ripped open the nicely wrapped package of tissue paper to reveal my first-ever custom fabric:



Kim included a personal note, which I thought was a wonderful touch:



Here's a close-up of my quilt label and some of the Blondie labels. Photoshopped to protect my anonymity.



The white writing (which I used on all three designs) didn't turn out quite as well as it showed on my computer screen. The quilt label looks pretty darn great, except the smaller white writing on the bottom- which is kinda hard to read.

I love this method of creating a quilt label, and will likely plan ahead and use Spoonflower for future quilt labels. This particular one has already been sewn into a block and will be used as a part of a pieced back, but I'm sure that it could be appliqued onto a quilt without any problems.

My biggest complaint/concern? Shipping for swatches is $1 during their beta testing period... regularly close to $4. According to the postage label on the package, shipping cost Spoonflower $0.59. While I understand about "handling", this is likely to upset some people. Good to know in advance.

Progress

I've sewn some of those white blocks and couldn't wait to lay out what I've down and show off my progress!





Right now it's about 70" square... when it's all sewn together, it will be about 110" square- so I have a way to go.

I'd planned on doing this on point (like the top photo), but I kinda like it just as squares. What do you think?

Cutting and Sewing and Cutting

More progress on my blue and white quilt. Today my niece and nephew were here and played with my kids for quite a while, then the Prince had a friend over all afternoon- so I had some time to cut more strips. I have 20 white blocks completed and sewn, and my most recent calculations indicate that I'll need 64 of these blocks... and I've just finished cutting out the remaining 44:



Hopefully I'll get a good start on sewing those in the morning. I'll need about 40 more of the blue blocks, then I've decided that I'll do a border of solid white (no blue interiors) blocks- I'm not going to start on those border blocks until all of the "regular" ones are done.

Goals, Weather worries

My craziness has subsided a bit, and I'm home again for a while. I have some WIPs that I really want to get finished... so I have a couple of goals.

First, I'd like to finish up the top for my two-color quilt. I finally finished those blocks this weekend, but I'll wait to lay them out and post another picture until I have more whites finished (the ones that I did had a blue border). I'm waiting on that picture because it'll be easier to see progress with more equal numbers of blue and white squares.

Second, I need to get prepared for the Prince's birthday party. We have several 5-yr-old boys coming over on Saturday and I'm not sure what to do for party favors. I sense a Target run in my future. Provided the weather cooperates, the boys will be outside most of the time...we've asked them to bring their bikes!



My third goal is to get caught up on the SQAL. It isn't as much of a priority for me and may wait until the two-color top is finished. Don't get me wrong, I want to finish the SQAL, but I need to do the other things first.

Speaking of the weather, it's been nasty. Tornadoes, flooding, fun stuff. 15 years ago we were under water... many without power as well. Our water works was under water and the area was without running water for 12 days. Yes, folks, a large metro area without running water for almost 2 weeks. Drinking water was brought in from all over the country. It looks like we're on track for the same situation again. Thank goodness my house is on a hill, though my backyard isn't so fortunate. The creek in our backyard has seen lots of heavy water lately, flooding so much that the terraces and retaining walls that hubby built have been washed away.

The prince and princess aren't sleeping very well lately with all the thunder, and the prince is old enough that he's been freaked out recently by the weather radio's alerts- and when we had to go to the basement because a tornado was in our area. Several times in the past week or two we've awoken to find both kids sleeping in our bed with us- good thing we've got a king!

More Cutting

I finished sewing all of those strips that I'd so carefully laid out, and almost immediately began cutting more strips.



That picture is 25 more blocks, all ready to sew... this project seems so huge now, I'm glad that I'm doing this challenge to keep me on track. Also my hope to have this done soon so I can bind on vacation seems to be helping, but goodness- I have a LOT more of these blocks to do. I can already tell that I don't have enough white fabric and I'm not sure about the blue... but I'm going to use up all that I have before I worry about having to get more. I sat down yesterday and did some figuring, I'll need 81 white squares (white outside border) and 81 blue squares (blue outside border)... when these 25 are sewn, I'll be halfway done with the blues.



At this point, I just want to work on these blocks as much as possible and finish this top! I have a feeling you'll be seeing updates on this quilt pretty often for the next week or so...

Cutting and Sewing

I've spent quite a bit of time today cutting and sewing strips for my Two Color Quilt.





I'll be doing lots more sewing the rest of the evening.

WIP Week

This week I'm focusing on making progress and finishing some unfinished projects.

Being a bit of an overachiever, I'm almost done with all 12 setting blocks for the SQAL. They just need to be stitched together (each block is currently in 3 pieces, I'll chain-stitch them and it won't take long to finish):



This week's block for the SQAL is done; but I didn't like how the last row looked, so I'm ripping out the seam and I'll re-stitch it.


I have a shirt that I started at least a week ago, I'm hoping to get back to it and finish it tonight or tomorrow.


The prince has a project he'd like me to do. He wants a tower to go with the rocket that I made a while back... please don't laugh too hard at my slightly-abstract rocket.


I'd like to make several more blocks for my two-color quilt. I really would like to be making at least 5 blocks every day. The strips are cut, they just need to be sewn together. Unfortunately, I've put this project on the back burner and haven't touched in in at least 3 weeks. Still have a goal of having the top done by the end of this month.... fingers crossed, nose to the grindstone.

Progress and possibly pants

So I'm making a bit of progress on this quilt-



These blocks seem to take forever to make. I don't know how some people can just churn them out as fast as they do! I think my goal of getting the top done in a few weeks might be realistic- it will definitely take a while!

I bought a pattern and am going to try to make some lounge pants. I'd love to make Amy Butler's Wide Leg Lounge Pants, but I don't want to shell out the cash for the In Stitches book just for the one pattern. It's been years since I've followed a pattern (mainly because I'm terrible at it) but I'm going to try this... I'd love to be able to make pants for Hubby, he wears them every night.

If the pants project goes well, I have some nice fabric that I'm going to try to make some dressy pants with- following the lounge pants pattern. I have another dressy pair of pants that is that style and I adore them... why not try to make my own?

First Block Done

After I posted (late) last night, I played with Excel and created a new plan. I'm not sure how to show you an Excel spreadsheet, so you'll just have to wait and be surprised with how this looks as more progress is made.

This is a variation on the Log Cabin pattern. I know that just because I've seen the Log Cabin pattern mentioned all over the internet, but I've never tried it before- I've really never used much of a pattern. This is the most detailed block I've tried, and I think- after a little more practice- that I'll like doing this block.

New Quilt WIP

I've finally begun work on a quilt that I've wanted to make for a long time. Last fall, Hubby and I agreed on a pattern for this quilt, but honestly I was scared of the pattern (CURVES!) and procrastinated. I've been buying fabric for this quilt for months and months- every time I go to a fabric store, I buy at least a 1/4 yard of something to use for it. Our bedroom is a deep royal blue, decorated with pictures of Santorini (Greece), and accented in white... I was going for a cool, modern, Mediterranean feel. It's kinda hard to find a pattern that I think will be easy enough for me to handle, yet fit in with the decor of our room. I ended up designing my own pattern, based on several that I've seen before. I made a prototype by sewing one square (using scraps) and making some color copies of it:



I recently washed most of the fabric that I've stockpiled for this quilt, and today I attacked the pile with the iron.



Then I began cutting strips. I'll be cutting strips for at least another day or two, as this quilt will be about 110" square when finished.





I would love for this quilt to be ready to bind by mid-July. We go to family camp here every summer. They have a speaker for the adults every morning (breakfast until lunch), and the ladies- and even some guys- usually spend this time crafting while they listen. There are several knitters and embroiderers, mainly the crafting is all fabric/thread based... I'd like to spend my time this summer doing the binding on this quilt.

The problem? I can't free-motion quilt! I stitch-in-the-ditch, and that's the last thing I want to do on this project! I'd love to learn how to free-motion quilt on my machine, but my machine is giving me some stress lately... so although I'd love to take a class and do my own quilting, I'm thinking about asking a fantastic quilter if she'd consider helping me out (for payment, of course!) The quilter I have in mind is one of my favorite crafty bloggers, she does a beautiful job and every time I see a new project of hers I am inspired to be more creative.

Ok, so I know that was a bit linky, but it was also kinda fun to go back and check out some of her older stuff!