Finish Along Quarter 2: The Hopeful List

And the list making has begun!  It's time that we link up with Miss Katy and state out our goals for the next quarter.  I have been working from a relatively small project list lately, which has suited me incredibly well.  I love that I can see progress in each project, that I know what I should be doing the next time I can sit and sew AND that I have an actual hope of finishing these quilts before the quarter is out.  Stars all around.

1. Swoon

To not bore you with the same Swoon photo of my 9 finished blocks
on the line, I mixed it up a bit.  I just don't have a photo of my finished Swoon top.
It's so HUGE!

My swoon top is finished including sashing between the blocks and two additional borders to bring it up to size for our guest bed.  I have chosen the main backing fabric, but need to piece the back together.  This is going to be long armed (no way I'm quilting a 96x96 inch quilt in my machine!) in Cork and returned to me for binding.  That's the plan, anyway.

2. Twinkle Twinkle

This quilt is (lobby) layered and I am currently hand quilting in each of the stars.  Through the quarter I will need to finish hand quilting it, bind and wash.  Here's hoping my quilting will hold it together!

3. Medallion

I don't have a name for this quilt yet.  I guess that's on the Q2 to-do list as well!  My medallion needs this border to be finished (have 2 sides done, 2 to go with 4 corner stones) a small, thin "bonus" border to correct a few size issues (clearly a theme, there) and then one final 6.5 inch border to be added.  I have the backing sorted, so it needs to be layered, hand quilted and bound.  I know its quite a lofty list for myself, but I am so in love with this quilt I just may pull it off.

4. Spoolin' Around

Now here I have a quilt name (from Miss Anna) but not a quilt top.  I have piles and piles of spool blocks that have arrived from my bee buddies, so the top needs to be assembled, quilted and bound.  This is VERY lofty, but I can't be in the run for Katy's winnings if I don't list it here!

Katy, once again you're brilliant for having organized us.  I am hopeful this quarter, so let's get stitching!

I Can't Get Enough...Aurifil

I have spools on the brain.  I spend my lunches at work searching Google Image for spool quilt blocks.  I have collected a little list of Chorme bookmarks for spool quilts I dig and made a mini spool mini quilt.  I even tried a few (semi-successful) spools myself, but they were not for me.  It's still not enough.

But when I found this tutorial, my search was over.  I fell in love with those little Aurifil spool blocks and have not looked back since.  I am hoping to ask my Modern Irish Bee buddies to make blocks like these next month, so I wanted to give them a little test run.  

There are super easy to follow instructions for three block sizes (small, medium, large), so I quickly cranked out 4 of each spool. I dug through my trusty basket and pulled out semi-monochromatic fabrics for the thread colors and then red and orange solids for the spools/spindle.  I would love to include Aurifil grey and green spindle/spools in the final quilt.  I'm working on that right now. 

Anyway, you know how it is with these trial runs. It takes nearly as long to dig out the fabric and cut as it does to piece, so why not make 4 in the time it would take me to make 1?  I dove in.  

I think the medium sized spools are my favorite.  They're large enough to show off a print (5.5 x 7.5" unfinished), but small enough to be pretty darned cute.  I went for grey, navy (above), pink (below) and DS yellow.  Each one of them made my heart flutter.  I know their base and spindle look a little over exaggerated, but mentally just cut off 0.25 inches of each in the seam and they're right back in (super cute) proportion.

I also made 4 large spools (10 x 14.5" unfinished). in red (below), orange (below again), yellow and aqua.  It's funny.  In real life my favorites are the red and orange spool, but they didn't photograph as well as the aqua one.  So it goes.

 I found the smallest spools (4.5 x 4" unfinished) to be the most difficult to pull fabrics for. It was nearly impossible to use anything with a print they're so tiny.  I do love them in combination with the other spools, though.  I think they're going to look super.

This little corner of my design wall makes me want to stop everything I'm doing and make more!  I will resist, though.  Just have to wait a few more days and then I can strike out as Miss February in our bee.  The shortest month, but these are so quick and easy I don't think the ladies will complain.