WIP - my 1st post on this linkup

Work in Progress Wednesday it's called over at freshly pieced, a cute modern blog that I've noticed over the last week or so and have decided to work on the Supernova Quilt Along. I've got so many things going on I really shouldn't add this one in to the list, but it just called to me!

As a long-arm quilter for my business (started Nov. 2009) I've always got quilts on my machine, today no exception. But, in this WIP I'll focus on my own initiatives rather than customer quilt tops that I quilt. I've also got a running list of things I'm working on, daily tasks, etc. to keep everything going. I've had an accountability partner (an old friend from grade school days) that I privately email once a week with my weekly accomplishments--this has been valuable. Making it public in this fashion will be an abbreviated list, but also has some 'truly in progress' stuff that I tend to easily forget about as I focus on my business activities most importantly.

So...being my 1st Wednesday post --I also do a Design Wall Monday post--here is what is I. P. !

New Projects

Supernova - participating in the quilt along -- using 'origins' basic grey. Here are my groupings. Top row and 1st pile of 2nd row I'll do two blocks each. The 'blacks' I'm thinking one block--the center one. The far right lower pile--pale yellow the outside border contrast and the whites as the background fabrics.

Psychedelic America -- this is Marti Michell's 2010 BOM 'American Beauty' program that our guild used last year for their monthly Block Lotto. I didn't participate, but I won a huge fat quarter stack in 2009 of psychedelic batiks that I wasn't sure what to do with them. When I realized there was enough fabric to make the 'American Beauty' quilt, I decided to challenge myself with the adaptation to the psychedelics (my word for them). The original was made with a line from Maywood Studio called 'wild roses'...mine will be WILD! :-) The challenge is to have it completed by April 12 --our next guild meeting. AHHH...I got a year late start ;-)

Active Ongoing Projects

a. EQ 2011 BOM - at least I'm keeping up to date on this one! I love designing with EQ (now on version 7) and they have a challenge to physically create a block that they publish each month and then personally create a setting of them at the end of hte year which will be judged for a prize of some sort. I'm making them as 6" blocks --they could be made at any size. I've chosen batiks and will stick with purples/greens/white/black colors.

b. Starlight-Flutterbright is a finished quilt, but perhaps not Finished ;-) I won Judges' Choice at Spring 2011 Trends (EESchenck's industry mini-market event) with this quilt, but would like to add crystals to it. I'm going to be teaching this pattern as a class this Sunday, so will dream about the crystals if I have a spare moment while the class is working on their own versions. Crystals on the front, crystals on the back. The back is black and you don't see any of the star elements because of the way I quilted it. Crystals might be able to add in the star. I'm very excited about how the secondary design of the on-point block emerged in the background almost in 3d--especially when it was hung at the show because there was opportunity to view it from a distance. This quilt was the result of a local shop asking me to design something with the panel fabric of the large butterfly and pansy blocks. It is also available in a blue/purple colorway.


Ongoing Projects on hold --I'll only post photos in the future if there is progress made, but this is so you have an idea.

a. Jinny Beyer BOM 2010 - doing this with my mother and hope to display both at a show in September. But probably won't get back to this until May.



b. Oddie's Wild Nature 2010- a personal stylization of June Jaeger's 'From the Wild' and 'Nature's Sampler' and one or two or more? McKenna Ryan blocks thrown in. (no picture today)

c. LoneStar wall hanging - 2009 WWVQG Annual Class (need to add borders and re-consider my Y-seams--the biggest reason for this stall)

d. One-fabric cut up and re-pieced table cloth - 2009 (need to finalize the borders) Not happy with this result, but wanted it to just fit the TOP of the table and not have any overhang, so this is what I ended up with. I had a limited amount of fabric to work with and decided this was the best I could make of it. There you go. Been trying to decide on the type of batting. I've heard to use a piece of flannel if you want to make a table cloth and not have a lot of bulk.

e. Vineyard wall hanging (need to sit and focus and figure out what is left before adding borders and quilting it) I really love this one, but when the challenge date passed, I got distracted with other things. It is meant to be a window that you are looking out of and see the vineyard landscape. Spring Release is coming up in May and I have an opportunity to display and sell items in a winery, so just might take the opportunity to wrap this one up and get it into the showing.

f. Writing several patterns ...stay tuned--as an engineer this is the part I actually like! I have several that have been made, just need to be written and several designed, but not made or written.

Completed Tops awaiting quilting:

a. Basket BOM from WWVQG 2006...just finished the piecing last month, want to do some fun quilting on this one. As I'm writing this post, I'm wondering what I've got here that is 'modern'. My influences around me are NOT modern, so I am wanting to push that envelope in my deveopment, so I'm here. For this one, I made the sashings the same as the background so that the baskets float. There is a daisy fabric used as the corner stones which also appear to float. I imagine this is a field of grass with an occassional daisy growing up and a whole set of baskets there to photograph. I'd like to believe that is more modern ;-) There is lots of good blank space on the sides which provides nice quilting space.

b. Tulip wall hanging (take out the quilting and re-do on the long-arm) 2009 quilt festival challenge entry domestically machined with really bad tension!

c. A duvet cover that I made in 2001 that I'd love to quilt, now that I have a long-arm. (no photo today)

This week's stats:
New Projects: 2
Completed Projects: 1--see my "Journey's" quilt blog post here
Currently in Progress: 12 -- good thing we're not counting all the fabric piles that represent projects sitting in cubbies that haven't been started ;-)