Snippets of Sweetness: WIP Wednesday

Showing posts with label WIP Wednesday. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Work in Progress Round Up and 2016 Goals

Welcome to the third annual Snippets of Sweetness Work in Progress Round-Up and New Year Goals post! At the start of each year, I like to reflect on my current pile of WIPs, as well as my goals for the coming year. This time last year, I had seven WIPs. This year, I have six. Here they are, for your reading and viewing pleasure:

Cuzco Days Quilt

I haven’t worked much on this quilt this year, although I have made progress. Last time I worked on it, I realized it needs more solid fabrics than I had set aside for it, so it has been pushed to the bottom of the WIP pile.

Christmas Scrap Quilt

Poor Christmas Scrap Quilt! It seems I only work on this one during Christmas break. This year, I sewed together all the segments for the next three rows. I really enjoyed working on it, but it lost its appeal as soon as the new year started.

Unvalentine Quilt

I started this quilt at the beginning of 2015. In preparation for Lee Heinrich’s Alternative Gridwork class at QuiltCon, I cut up a bunch of blocks I didn’t like, sewed them back together and got…more blocks I didn’t like. I finished the top during the class, and started quilting it once I returned home. The quilting wasn’t speaking to me, so I put it aside until I figure out how I want to quilt it.

Seattle Modern Quilt Guild 2015 Block of the Month Quilt

This is my current favorite WIP. However, I got stuck when I decided to replace one of the boards with hand appliqued circles a la Carolyn Friedlander’s Ariel Grove quilt. I really want to finish this one so that I can start the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild 2016 Block of the Month Quilt guilt free. I just need to set aside my crocheting and start hand sewing!

Scrap Vortex Quilt

I love this quilt, but a hot summer and nebulous pattern sidelined it before I could complete the top. I would love to finish it before this coming summer.

Four Patch Scrap Quilt

This quilt was started just before I learned about the Scrap Vortex sew along. I may cannibalize it to speed up my Scrap Vortex quilt.

Astute readers will notice that two of my WIPs from last year are not on this list, and have not been finished. The Low Volume Hexagons and Sashiko Waves projects are officially abandoned. I am trying to figure out if I should pass them along to someone else, or if they are destined for the trash. Either way, I have too many projects that I’m passionate about to spend any more time on projects that just don’t speak to me anymore.

2016 Goals

Last year, I had six really big goals. This year, I have one main goal for my creative pursuits: Spark Joy. Yes, I got that from the uber popular book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. In 2016, I want to focus on making room in my life for the things that truly bring me joy, and let go of the things that don’t. I’m purposefully not making more specific goals so that I can see where this new mindset takes me. This month, it means I’ve been binge sewing garments from my apparel sewing stash. Turning stashed fabrics into wearable garments has freed up a bit of space in my sewing nook and has lifted a weight from my shoulders and has brought me joy. Once I run out of steam (or fabric), I may finish a quilt, or start a new one for a friend. Who knows! What I do know if that I am looking forward to doing lots of sewing, quilting and crocheting this year.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Work in Progress Wednesday: October 28, 2015

I haven’t had much time to sew lately. Whenever I can find time, I’ve been focusing on hand quilting my QuiltCon Compilation Quilt. It started as improv blocks from the Gee’s Bend class and has evolved to include elements of all the classes I took at QuiltCon this year. Since I’m planning on entering it in next year’s show, and the deadline is the end of next month, this is the only quilt I’m working on right now.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Work in Progress Update: Seattle Modern Quilt Guild Block of the Month Medallion Quilt

Last month, I introduced you to my version of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild Block of the Month Medallion Quilt. Since then, I have successfully added the March border and the April border. As previously mentioned, the March border gave me some trouble, between my uncertainty about the wonkiness of the triangles, and my inexperience with inset seams. I worked on it little by little until it was done, but don’t look at the back! The corner seams are lumpy and the seams are less than 1/4 inch in a few spots, so that the points of the triangles were not chopped off. Still, I like the overall effect and am glad that I persisted. I was relieved when the April border was revealed, because I really wanted something simple this month. For some reason, my quilt was smaller than it was supposed to be, so I used 2.25 inch strips instead of 2 inch strips. I can’t wait to try my hand at next month’s border!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Work in Progress: Seattle Modern Quilt Guild Block of the Month Medallion

Come meet my current favorite Work in Progress. I had never seriously considered following along with a Block of the Month series until I heard that the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild’s 2015 BOM challenge was also going to be a medallion quilt. One border a month seemed more than manageable, so I was excited to dive in. Over the past few months, I have amassed quite the collection of Cotton + Steel fat quarters, so I plan to use up some of them in this project. I’m really enjoying this quilt so far. It is challenging me on several levels, but in nice small chunks.

For January, the assignment was to choose a center block. Since I did not participate in the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild BOM last year, I liked the suggestion of using one of 2014’s BOM blocks as the center for this quilt. After reviewing all the options, I decided on a churn dash block. Even though it’s a simple block, I stalled while I contemplated my fabric choices. One day, I realized that the mustang from Melody Miller’s fabric was the perfect size for the center of the block. After I figured that out, I was on a roll!

For February, I simplified the assigned border. I just was not feeling the 1.5” squares for my version, even though I like it in other people’s quilts.

For March, the border consists of improv triangle blocks, which I have been struggling with. The tutorial is easy enough to follow, but I’m questioning whether my blocks are too wonky or not wonky enough. I also ran into an issue because I am using fat quarters for this project, and to make all the blocks the same, this border requires yardage. I decided to go the deliberately scrappy route and hope to have this border finished before the next one is announced in April. Depending on the pattern for that border, I might have to break down and buy some yardage. So far, I love this quilt and plan to keep it for myself.

If you’re interested in more examples of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild Block of the Month Medallion quilt, check out the #seamqgbom hashtag on Instagram, or the relevant posts on A Quilter’s Table and I’m Feeling Crafty.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Wordless Work in Progress Wednesday: February 4, 2015

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Work in Progress Round-Up and 2015 Goals

Welcome to the second annual Snippets of Sweetness Work in Progress Round-Up and New Year Goals post! At the start of each year, I like to reflect on my current pile of WIPs, as well as my goals for the coming year. This time last year, I had five WIPs. This year, I have seven. Here they are, for your reading and viewing pleasure:

Low Volume Hexagons

This is my oldest WIP by far, as I started it in October 2012. I only work on it when I am away from my sewing machine for a while, which isn’t often. I now have nine flowers finished and am halfway through the tenth one. It would be nice to at least have a plan for these by the end of the year.

Cuzco Days Quilt (formally known as Cuzco Improv Quilt)

This next WIP, I do have a solid plan for. I ditched the improv idea that I was using in 2013, and in 2014 switched to using the Sunny Days pattern from Creative Quilting magazine instead. I also removed the warm colored fabrics, as I prefer a more limited, cool palette. So far, I have about a quarter of the blocks completed. This quilt is low priority and I only work on it between projects when I’m waiting for inspiration or materials, so I don’t expect to finish it soon.

Christmas Scrap Quilt (formally known as Christmas Improv Quilt)

My Christmas scrap quilt is the WIP that I want to work on the most. Last year, I made three rows and then ran out of long enough strips to continue. All year long, I’ve been throwing red and green scraps in this WIP’s box, hoping that by the end of the year, I would have enough to continue with it. Now that Christmas is over, I just might.

Sashiko Waves

In January 2009, I bought a Sashiko kit in Hawaii, but I didn’t start working on it until 2014. I actually forgot about this one until my husband recently found it tucked under the passenger seat in his car and reminded me of it. Once the embroidery is done, I’m thinking of surrounding it with improv borders to make a quilt top.

2015 Christmas Gift Bags

I still have some yardage, scraps and jelly rolls strips left over from my previous Christmas bags. I’d like to use up what I have to make way for new yardage. I’d also like to have all my Christmas gift bags done earlier this year. (I say that every year.) We’ll see how it goes. I currently have one in progress.

Geese Above Field

This mini quilt touches on several of my goals for 2014 and 2015. It’s small, uses up scraps and stash, and I intend to submit it to a show. When I made my Swoon Baby Quilt the First, I trimmed off triangles that I promptly sewed together into half square triangle blocks. Like my Scrap Migration quilt, I turned those blocks into flying geese and set them against a background of other scraps from the same quilt. I’m in the process of quilting this one.

Aerial Grove Table Runner

This WIP was born when I realized that I wanted something new to hand sew on vacation. Since I had received Carolyn Friedlander’s Savor Each Stitch book and a mini charm pack of Kate Spain’s Horizon fabric for Christmas, I grabbed some linen from my stash and quickly machine basted the tree shapes so that I wouldn’t have to travel with a bunch of pins. I enjoyed working on it while on vacation. Actually, I’ve already completed it, but I’m including it in this list because it was a WIP as of January 1. I’ll post about it soon.

2015 Goals

My 2014 goals have served me well, so I’m going to roll them over into 2015. In addition to Use My Stash, Use My Scraps, and Keep It Small, Silly, my 2015 goals are:

Declutter My Sewing Nook: I am grateful that I have a dedicated sewing space, but it’s a bit of a mess right now. Since my sewing nook is part of our upstairs hallway, this is getting to be a problem. In 2015, my goal is to go through all of my boxes and bags, and donate what I’m never going to use, so that I have sufficient space for what I will actually use.

Submit a Quilt to a Non-Guild Show: As a member of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild, I have the good fortune to be able to share my work in the exhibitions that the guild puts on periodically. In fact, my Scrap Migration quilt is in the My Modern show going on now at Island Quilter. In 2015, I’d like to submit a quilt to a show outside of the safety of my local guild.

Participate in the Wardrobe Architect 2015 Challenge: The more that I sew my own clothes, the less I like wearing ready-to-wear. Last year, I only bought clothing a handful of times, usually when I realized that I didn’t have what I needed to face the current weather. In 2015, my goal is to use the Wardrobe Architect Challenge to guide my garment sewing so that I have a “me made” wardrobe that meets my needs each season.

What are your goals for 2015?