Fightin' Irish Chain Finished

So I did manage to complete the Fightin' Irish Chain I made for my Dad for Christmas this year.  I showed progress (and my doubts about finishing in time) before, so here's the nitty gritty details and some pics to show it off.

I used Dana's EXCELLENT tutorial for a Double Irish Chain quilt except I made it smaller with only 56 blocks in the quilt.

I ordered the navy for the solids and it's actually Kona Nautical but the greens and yellows (on the front and back) are all from my stash.  It was kinda neat to use all of these fabrics that I'd used to make things for people in our family or friends and show them to Dad. Another connection through quilting.  ;)

The quilt measures about 70" x 80" making it one of the biggest quilts I've ever made.  I almost gave in and made it smaller a few times, but Chris reminded me every time that big guys need big quilts and my Dad wouldn't want just a little lap quilt.  And he's right, I'm glad I stuck it out and finished this one at the planned size.

 

For the back I just pulled a bunch of green and yellow scraps.  I'd accidentally cut a few too many navy and yellow strips and squares for the "B" blocks of the quilt so I pieced some of those together and then just filled in with yardage and pieces of stash.  You can't necessarily tell in the picture but most of the yellows on the back aren't solid but small patterns.  I really loved the back.

I machine-embroidered a little shamrock to one of the open squares.  I just wanted to add that little extra touch.  

For quilting, I just sewed diagonally through the green and yellow blocks.  It actually shows up better on the back, making a diagonal grid.  Because of my deadline (I had to have it finished by December 20), the lines aren't quite as straight as I might like but again Chris reminded me that my Dad didn't give a hoot if the lines were straight or not.  Again, he's right.

I used a navy binding and hand-sewed it to the back of the quilt in the car during the 16-hour drive (over 2 days) to my Grandparents' house for the holiday.

My Dad did love it and my hope is that it brings him comfort and warmth.  May he know how much I love him and appreciate all that he's done for me in this small gift I've made for him.  :)

I would definitely make this pattern again.  Double Irish Chains are both classic and visually stimulating.  The simple design makes it great for using up scraps and the way the quilt comes together almost magically makes all the strip piecing and pressing and cutting seem worth it in the end.  Definitely check out Dana's tutorial if you're interested in making this quilt.  And she is by no means compensating me for my raves about it, I just like to pass on good tips and tricks when I find them.

I'm linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it Up Friday.

Wordless WIP

Nearly wordless...I'm making progress!!

This is a little shamrock I embroidered in one of the big navy sections.  I just thought it would add a little something.

 I'm busy baking and packaging up teacher Christmas presents along with our normal schedule of pitching and karate lessons so I've gotta run...

I'll be back tomorrow to show off some of what we've been up to!

OH!!  And congratulations to Jenny and Stephanie, winners of my SMS Giveaway Day Etsy Gift Cards!  They've been contacted, cards have been delivered and spent already!  That's my kind of shopping.  :)  Thanks to all that entered and especially to those who decided to stick around and make friends.  :)

WIP Wednesday

It’s been awhile since I was actually working on something to show off a work in progress on a Wednesday.  But deadlines will do that to you…

So, I’m busy working on the quilt for my Dad.  I mentioned before that he’s a Chicagoan with largely Irish roots.  So I knew that I wanted to make him an Irish Chain quilt.

Then my friend Dana decided to do a tutorial on a Double Irish Chain quilt and I knew immediately where I was headed with Dad’s quilt.

Dana’s quilt was full of pinks with a navy background but I could imagine swapping those pinks for some golds and greens and making my Dad a “Fighting Irish Chain” to honor both his heritage and his love of Notre Dame football.  J

How’s that for a nifty name?  It should be one of those before and afters on Wheel of Fortune!

Here's a quick mock-up that I made in EQ5.  

 Dana’s tutorial is great for laying out exactly what you’re going to need and how to get started.  I was using scraps instead of new fat quarters, so some of my piecing was a little more complicated but no harder--it just required me to think and count instead of blindly following directions.

And after seemingly forever while I waited for the navy fabric I had to order and cutting strips and sewing and pressing and trimming and sewing and pressing and sewing and pressing I’m finally getting some blocks made!

I’ve got 12 made so far and they come together so quickly that I should have most of the rest done by tonight.

These are Block A for the quilt and will not be set together like I laid them out here just for a quick shot.

They’ll be off-set with Block B which is mostly navy with gold corners.  I haven’t even started cutting them yet—one step at a time.  J

So, that’s what I’m working on today.  I just keep reminding myself that I’ve got to keep working—Christmas isn’t very far away!  Yikes!!

What are you working on today??

Up, Up and Away

I mentioned yesterday that I'd finished up my nephew's quilt that I agreed to make for his nursery.  My sister fell in love with the balloon prints from the amazing artist at Trafalgar's Square.

She ordered 4 of the prints, all with different colors and different animals long before she knew when there baby would come or what gender he'd be.

So when baby James arrived, she asked if I could make the crib quilt coordinate with these prints.  We batted some ideas around and I took her to JoAnn's to pick out the fabrics she wanted.  The nursery is gray, so she wanted that for the background.  We agreed on good old Kona Iron as Coal was way too dark and Ash seemed a little too light for the room.  She wanted navy accents in the room, so that was the perfect balance to the gray and then she picked 4 solids to match the balloons.

I apologize for the pictures.  I didn't take any before the shower so I had to rely on my non-quilt-blogger sister to take these for me!  And she does have a newborn to deal with too...

Her directions to me were gray background, navy border (she meant binding), and a big version of the balloons floating with James' name embroidered like I'd done on a few other baby quilts.  Other than that, she told me to use my judgement.  We considered adding one of the animals like he was holding all of the balloons, but she decided she didn't want that.

So I first embroidered James' name.  I just did a simple outline stitch and had it done in a day or two of watching TV at night with Chris.  Then I made the back.  She gave me no direction for the back whatsoever other than to make it match the colors from the front.  I wanted to try and use up as much of the fabrics we'd bought and the navy I had here, so I played on my EQ5 and came up with this basic design.

I actually really love the back and think it would make a great quilt top all in itself.  Like, I seriously want to throw my to-do list out the window and just make a giant version of the back.

I used the rest of the quarter-yard sections of the solid colors and then incorporated coordinating prints in each color to add a punch of fun.

Up next--the quilting.  I told her I thought it would look best to quilt the layers together before adding the balloons so the quilting really became part of the background.  I had it in mind that I'd quilt clouds all over.  But my machine did not agree.  Numerous times.  Seriously--my machine had NO interest in free-motion quilting clouds this past weekend.

So instead of giving up, I decided to go with a looser interpretation and quilt random lines across the quilt like wind maybe.  It was that or hand stitch the clouds and I really considered that option, but time waits for no man or baby shower so I went with the "wind."

Up next were the balloons.  I drew a circle onto Heat N Bond and then ironed that to my solid fabrics.  But then I cut out each balloon a quarter- to a half-inch bigger than the adhesive.  I wanted the balloons a little bigger than I'd originally thought and I thought the raw edge might add a little more whimsy.

So I sewed them down individually and then sewed down their strings.  Carrie wanted them to come together in a bunch but that was her only direction.  So I thought a lot about how to do that best and then just sat down and did this in 20 minutes.

Sometimes you have to plan things out and sometimes you have to just let creativity be in charge.  As I had to use my presser foot (remember my machine said NO FMQ) the balloon strings are a little pointier than I had envisioned, but you know...

Again--sorry for the pic quality.  I swear, that balloon is navy and not black!

My sister said she loved it at the shower and I can't wait to see it in the crib.  With school starting our baby visiting is definitely being cut short, so Emma and I are anxious to get some more sweet love for our special boy.

What are you up to this Tuesday afternoon?  We're off to Oren's Open House...  Ahh, the busy life begins again!

Finish It Friday

2 Fridays--2 finishes!  And this is a big deal with as little time as I've had to sew lately.  And all of those giveaways to enter!  ;)  There's still time to enter my giveaway.  I'll close it at 8 p.m. EST tonight and announce the winner tomorrow hopefully, but will for sure email the winner by tomorrow.

Wednesday I said I was working on bee blocks for our Rad {Empower} circle.  Shannon asked for low- to medium-value x-plus blocks from Amy's tutorial.  Only bigger to finish out at 12" finished blocks.  There were no restrictions on colors or color placements.

I found that I usually sew a little louder than low-volume prints, so I ended up just pulling some fabrics and cutting and sewing without thinking too much.  After finishing, there might be a few things I'd change had I planned it out, but they're done, they're certainly quiet and they'll help someone be comforted and that's what matters most.

But I also finished up the baby gift I was making for a yet-to-be named friend.  I don't want to blow the surprise until she gets it (although I'm not sure she reads this blog much, lately anyway since she's got a lot going on).

Anyway...a few of us decided to send a friend a few things for her upcoming baby girl's arrival since we live all over the country and I LOVE the Infant Peasant Dress tutorial from Sew Much Ado.  It goes together so quickly and the result is darling.

I used this Honey Honey fabric I bought from Jennifer awhile back.  As I was cutting into it I thought Oh man, I should have made myself something out of this...so I may be on a hunt for more soon.  :)  I added vintage ric rac (from my Great Grandmother's stash) to the hem since I love to add something from my past to baby clothes and gifts.  I just feel it adds a little more to mix the old with the new.  :)  When it was finished, I thought the dress needed just a little more pizzaz, so I added a few rhinestones along the front of the dress. For that added baby bling, you know.  :)

We've got a busy weekend ahead, but I want to wish each of you a good weekend and a Happy Mothers Day to all the Mamas out there.  And for those of you that aren't yet, I wish you love and luck and a heartfelt hug.  I pray your day will come.

Linking up with Amanda Jean.

WIP Wednesday

**If you're here for the giveaway or looking for it--click here.  And if you haven't entered--what are you waiting for???**

Today I've just got a minute to pop in.  This is Teacher Appreciation Week, so we've been busy making our teachers feel as special as they are by serving breakfast on Monday and lunch today.  When you add that in with our normal crazy schedule of softball, karate and everything else--this Mama's ready for some summer vacation!!

Anyway--quick pic of what I'm working on today...
My April (hangs head in shame because I'm NEVER that girl that's late with bee blocks) X+ blocks for Shannon and our Rad {Empower} circle of do. Good Stitches.

Here's one done:

Shannon asked for low- to medium-value prints in any order.

And here's one in progress:

And here's a little sneak peek of something getting made for a special bebe on the way...

Picking the fabric is always the hardest part for me...now to sew!

I will HOPEFULLY be back Friday with some finishes to show off...

What are you up to on this wonderful Wednesday?

Link up with Lee and show us all...

It only felt like...

A Trip Around the World.

Chris' cousin and his wife had a baby in December after years of trying and complications.  We were all over the moon happy for them and Chris and I wanted to make something special for them.  He's still trying to figure out what to build them, but I FINALLY finished up the baby quilt I made for sweet Izzy.

After finishing the blocks, I machine-embroidered her name on the quilt and then attempted to machine-embroider a flower only to have it tear a hole in the quilt top.  So, I found this little satin applique at Walmart of all places and added it over the mishap.

 When it came to quilting I wasn't sure, so this project took a little nap for awhile while I thought.  I wanted to do straight lines along the diagonals, but Izzy's name was in the way.  So I thought I'd meander-quilt it with hearts or flowers included but still her name was there and bugging me.  So I decided to just draw a circle around her name and go from there.  But then I liked the idea of circles (because I just do) so I traced both a plate and a saucer all over the quilt and machine-quilted over them.

I tried to use my free-motion foot, but my machine kept jamming up, so these are with just a regular foot and lots of pivoting and moving.  :)

For the back I just grabbed fabrics in pink, green, or brown and slapped them together.  I'm not a big fan of the back, but the quilting does show up nicely.

So, honesty time--This quilt is not my favorite.  It seems like this quilt fought me at every turn and it seemed like a battle to get it done.  But I was trying to marry my style with someone else's who has very different tastes to me.  She is very traditional, elegant, etc.  I'm whimsical, bright, and eclectic.  So I guess I'm not surprised.  A few times I really considered just starting all the way over and doing something different, but with Izzy embroidered on the front, it makes it kinda hard to re-tool the project and I hated to trash something I'd worked on and was so near completion.

I plan to give it to them with the understanding that it's not an heirloom quilt.  Izzy can roll, spit up, play, and nap on it.  She can drag it around, make a fort with it, keep it in the car/stroller/etc. Whatever floats their boat.  I hope it will get much use out of it and that they'll know we love them and wanted to make them feel special.  I guess that's all you can really ask for with a gift.

I am glad to be done with this project and hopefully they will love it.  Not all of our finishes have to be favorites, sometimes we can get bogged down by what we see as negatives.  I'm not going to--I'm going to see this as a finish that will hopefully provide comfort and love to a family I care about.  And now I've got time to work on a project I do love, so it's a win-win!

Have you ever made a gift that you weren't overly fond of?  Did you go ahead and gift it or start over?

Random

My first random fact today--I'm blogging from my phone today.  so...any weird areas and we'll blame it on that.  I'm running errands with my sister today and so i'm blogging away from home.

I spent some time with some strips of fabric today and have 6 of my 12 scrappy trip blocks completed.  i only took a pic of 4, but i have 6 done and 6 more ready to sew...

I'm glad I'm only making a baby quilt because I'm already wearing out on these...

Winter Storm Nemo is dropping a lot of rain on us today, but the temps are still nice.  Prayers to everyone who will be caught in that storm tomorrow and this weekend.

My race is in 2 weeks.  2 WEEKS!!!!  i feel ready and woefully not ready at the same time.  but i am hoping to meet up with Meesh, so that sounds fun.  Meeting online friends kinda feels like a blind date or something...

I've moved some stuff around in my sewing room and think I like it.  If I can ever get it cleaned up, I'll take some pictures to show it off.

And last before I sign off, I'm skating on thin ice with my internet till the 10th.  We got a MiFi over the summer for internet because we were still on dialup...yep still on dialup, and we only get so much data a month.  So...if you don't hear from me over the weekend know I'm having withdrawls and waiting on Feb 11 to bring me a new month of data!  ;)

WIP Wednesday

Hi all!  Short and sweet today as I'm writing on my "lunch break" before I get busy again.  This week, I'm working on Oren's Star Wars quilt and a baby quilt for our sweet new cousin that was born right before Christmas and I somehow completely forgot to make a quilt for.  Duh...

As I mentioned before I promised both kids a quilt for their 5th birthdays that represented the theme of their parties.  Emma's used Mendocino by Heather Ross since she had an Under the Sea theme and Oren chose Star Wars (he's still obsessed...) so I am making him a star quilt using blues, blacks, whites and grays.  And yes, he is almost 7.  I'm putting the pedal to the metal on this one to get it finished before March 2 when he'll turn 7.  WHAT??  How is that even possible?

I decided to just do a mix of stars and make one easy one and then one more complicated one so as to "even out the load."  For my first block, I went with an Ohio Star which is easy-peasy and a great one to start out with.  I didn't use a tutorial since it's pretty easy to figure out and that was my mistake... See, math has never been my strongest area.  I'm more of a right-brainer and logic, math, etc seems to escape me at times.  Then you add in the fact that I've had a monster head cold all week and yep--I completely messed up.

I  cut the quarter-square triangle pieces at the same measurements as my whole squares and then they were obviously too small.  Guess when I realized it...

Yikes!  Time to quit for the night...

But yesterday I got them cut out again at the right size and this block went together in no time.

Next up--a free block tutorial from Aurifill.  They called it the Jumping Jack Flash block and their coloration was VERY different than mine.  In fact, if I hadn't seen this block made somewhere else in other colors I probably would have never chosen it.  But, I think it turned out just fine in the end.

Notice a problem here?  I didn't either at first.

Ahhh, better.

Still needs to be trimmed up...I just get so excited I forget!

Next up I've got probably the Evening Star and a Wonky Star.  I did the Evening Star in the Summer Sampler a couple of years back (in the WIP basket...) so I'll probably reprint those paper piecing templates and go from there.

Now on to that baby blanket.  I never jumped on the Scrappy Trip Around the World that hit Instagram and Twitter so big because I was working hard to finish up some old WIPs, so I think I'll hit it up now.  Baby Izzie's nursery is in light greens, pinks and browns so I'm using those colors to make my Trip.  Mine will be a little more planned because I know the Mommy would prefer that to a scattered scrappy layout.

Here are my fabrics ready to cut and sew:

What are you up to today and this week??

And as always, I'm linking up with Lee:

A cutesy finish

Another quilt top is done!!!  This one, as I mentioned on Wednesday is for a dear friend of mine and her third little bundle of joy.  Little Miss Hayden is a well-loved baby girl already and I wanted to give them something to show our love for her too.

So, I took Holly's Colorblock Pattern and made some adjustments.  I cut the top down from 6 horizontal strips to 5 since that's how many fabrics were in my bundle.  I also cut down the dimensions of the blocks to make the quilt a little smaller.

Then instead of adding another fabric for the vertical strip, I used a solid brown and hand-embroidered Hayden's name to add a personal touch.  I just put a layer of thin batting behind it while embroidering it to give the fabric more weight to hold the stitches.

So this morning when I went to cut away the extra batting--yep, I did it.  I cut right through the brown fabric too.  :(  Like a quarter of an inch away from the E in Elizabeth!  But rather than toss it (since I don't have enough of that brown left over and really didn't want to re-embroider the name anyway!!) I decided to just trim down both sides even and add in some extra brown.  Hopefully it won't be too noticeable.  I did some careful sewing around the E and I don't think it looks too bad.

I am considering doing different fmq stitching in each of the 5 fabric sections but I'm not sure yet.  I may just do an all-over design.  Suggestions??

This was such a quick and easy quilt top to make, I'd highly recommend it to anyone wanting a baby quilt quick.  And it was all from stash--so that makes it even better right??

Since I finished this on a Friday, I'm linking up with Amanda Jean and her Finish It Up Friday.

WIP Wednesday

One of my dearest local friends had her third child on New Years Eve.  Her oldest is 3 weeks younger to the day than Emma and they've been friends their entire lives.  Her son is a year and a half younger than Oren and thinks Oren hung the moon.  When I asked him if he wanted the baby to be a girl or a boy--he said he hoped it was an Oren!  haha  I was rolling on the floor laughing.  :)

So when baby #3 arrived, I wanted to make her something special.  But they didn't find out what they were having, so I waited until this week to get started on making them a quilt.  I pondered a few ideas 2 nights ago and decided to finally make Holly's Colorblock Quilt.  I've loved this one for a long time (like since she introduced it) but I'd never bought the pattern.

So I did.  Then yesterday afternoon I went through my fabric stash and decided on a bundle I'd bought at JoAnn I don't even remember when and pair it with some Kona solids I had laying around.  Only one problem--the pattern called for 6 fabrics and my bundle only had 5....  So I altered the pattern.  I removed the bottom stripe (the orange one in the above picture) and then altered the dimensions of the other blocks to make them a little smaller.  I wanted this quilt to be more like a lovey that she can carry around once she's walking, so I graded everything down a little.

Night-time pictures are the worst, aren't they?  

Yesterday evening while Oren was in the bath I managed to get the quilt almost 3/4 of the way done.  This pattern is so easy to put together and so well-written.  Holly did a great job explaining--even though it's simple she didn't assume you know what to do just based on the picture.

But, I'm adding a twist to the quilt.  Whenever I do a baby quilt, I love to embroider baby's name on it. It makes it a little more personal.  So, that's where I'm at this afternoon.  I'm hand embroidering and then I'll just need to sew the sections altogether and call it a quilt top.

Hopefully tomorrow I can baste and quilt this one.  A baby quilt delivered before the baby is a month old...is that even possible from me??  We shall see.

Make sure to head over to Lee's to see what everyone else is up to on this fine Wednesday.

Not one but two

Finishes that is!

So as I've been going on and on about, I promised my sister a quilt last Christmas.  Each year I make one person in the family a quilt and it was her turn last year.  (No one got one this year...)  Anyway, I let her choose the fabric she wanted and she went with the Chelsea line from Windham Fabrics. (I found some still on Etsy.)  My sister's style is somewhere between traditional and modern.  Meaning she likes clean lines and bold colors, but she also likes symmetry and objects with a lot of visual weight to them.  Does that make sense?

 Anyway, I looked through the book Cozy Modern Quilts by Kim Schaefer and decided to go with The Carousel Lap Quilt.  After looking through my stash and weighing some options, I decided to border the rectangles with a dark purple cotton sateen that I had from JoAnn.  Mistake.  I didn't have enough and have been fighting to get enough ever since.  They were consistently out of it when I'd head to the big city and check and then I got what I thought was enough and ended up being probably half of a yard too short in the end for the back and binding.

The quilt top went together with no real problems other than the trip to buy more purple.

So I decided to just piece together the back out of the leftovers from both the fat quarter bundle and the purple.  It was more abstract and not her cup of tea necessarily, but for the back...

And then I ran out of purple and couldn't get my hands on anymore.  So after delaying for some time, I whined incessantly mentioned my problem to Chris and he said "Why don't you just use something else for the back?"  And when I said "But I've already got this back made what am I going to do with it???"  He said "Why can't you just make 2 quilts??"  Ummm....duh!  It hit me like a ton of bricks.  Yes, he's the logical one in our marriage.  Yes, he pays the bills and keeps us all in line.  I thank God for him every day.

So, I ran off to Walmart, bought a tan colored sheet (the options were limited to say the least) and let it sit till Christmas was over.  But in the last week, I've run to Walmart for another sheet, basted both quilts, struggled with quilting top #2 and finally decided to hand quilt it.  I got over my fear of machine binding and went for it on both quilts.  For the original quilt top I machine quilted curved lines going across the quilt in both directions.  It's not what I originally had planned--but with this one, all original plans went out the window.

So...this experience taught me:
1.  How to just go with it.
2.  How to improv piece a back quilt top.
3.  How to hand quilt.
4.  How to machine bind.
5.  How to make a year overdue present okay because you doubled it!

I dropped off both quilts to my sister today and I think she really liked them.  They are very different, but different is good.  One appeals to her sense of order and direction.  It's neat and set in a pattern.  One is crazy and thrown together, but the quilting is whimsical and stylized.  And now she and her hsuband can cuddle in matching blankets on the couch!  haha

I'll leave you with a certain little hand waving bye.  He can't help it--he's a total ham.  ;)

I'm glad to have this project done and where it should be.  With my sister.  May it bring her comfort on a cold night or when she needs reminding how much we love her.  May it lead to a year filled with many finishes for me and an empty WIP basket.  ;)  A girl can hope anyway...

Balance

So I'm working on balance, if you'll recall. It's a lifelong work-in-progress, but I am working on it.  This weekend is a perfect example.  I left you Thursday all ready to quilt the one quilt that became two for my sister.

And I got started quilting Friday.  I went for wavy organic lines.  Then I hated it and ripped it out.  So I tried again and I hated it and ripped it out...  So I went for straighter organic lines...  Guess what?!?  I hated it and ripped it out too.

At this point I was running low on matching thread (see, the purple in this quilt has been enough to cause me to go gray!)  so I had to wait till Saturday when I could get more thread to even think about continuing.

But in the meantime I held a brand new baby girl born on NYE.
I played Mancala and got beat by every member of the house.

I ran (poorly, but still...).

And I had a new idea for quilting this first one.  I decided to hand-quilt this one.  My original idea was to combine hand quilting and machine quilting, but I decided I liked the weight of this quilt already and wanted to leave it a little looser.

So I got busy...

I finished up the hand quilting last night with very sore fingers and was ready to bind it this morning and show it off on the blog.

But instead I ran an hour with my favorite 8-yr-old, and partly with my favorite 6-yr-old and our favorite dog.

And remember that new baby I held the other day?  Her big brother who until last week was the baby of the family came over to play for awhile this afternoon.

And I taught a special someone how to knit.  She wants to make something for baby and since she was home with nothing to do since the boys totally ignored her, we had a knitting lesson.

So, it was late this afternoon before I got binding strips cut and sewn on.

I'm debating on machine or hand sewing the binding down.  Maybe I'll have time tomorrow since the kids go back to school.  Ahhh, balance.  Hopefully I'm getting there...