sneak peek :: dark night wonky stars

since i made these wonky stars about a week ago, the technique and the idea of a dark night sky filled with little (wonky) twinklers have been dominating my quilting brain lately. i started with eight yards of cotton solids, mostly white or charcoal with an ashy grey in between. i dyed the white using basic rit powder dye in shades of blue, purple, and teal and orange, yellow, and grey. from there, tiny stars are being made with my custom yellow and galaxy blue, plus the addition of a few sky and star prints from my stash.

i did a little internet research after deciding that this would be a massive quilt - one that could live on our bed forever and more than adequately cover a family of four. i know that no matter how hard i try i would never be able to fit a king size quilt in my tiny singer. it just can't happen. my first thought was to send a finished top, batting, and back sandwich to a professional long arm quilter. oh how beautiful it could be - just think of the possibilities!

but i know my budget would never cover something like that, at least not now. so back to the drawing board. i quickly found a few tutorials and ideas for 'quilt as you go'. and so an experiment has begun: with an ever-changing collection of wonky stars and improv strips, i will be making various quilted blocks that will eventually come together for a finished king size quilt.

with one 20" x 20" quilted wonky star block done, i feel like i could be venturing into a collection of mini quilts. and i am very excited.

and with the return of cool air comes the return of my inspiration/motivation/creative brain. let's face it, summer time just isn't my thing. besides enjoying the occasional frozen yogurt and a farmer's market here or there, humid air, bathing suits, mosquitoes and i just do not get along. 

but now - oh now! - there are craft fairs right around the corner that require planning and preparation. there are cool, quiet nights that are just screaming for quilts that need to be bound (and therefore snuggled underneath). and finally a sewing table that is tidy - i won't say clean - enough to stack fabric and sort scraps and sew sew sew!

the next few weeks (and months, perhaps) around these parts will be spent:

:: making piles of triangles to sew onto my new bunting bags. 

:: cooking casseroles and baking muffins.

:: rekindling my love for this little island that has been our home for five months now.

:: digging into my giant pile of works in progress.

:: knitting up some beautiful alpaca that has been in my stash for far too long.

and a sneak peak of another project that is so close to being done i can almost taste it. i can't wait to share.

it took me a long time to cut all of the pieces for this enormous (twenty four by twenty four inches!) quilt block - let's just say that miss frances mae is not the best helper. she very much enjoys sitting her little bum down right in the center of my cutting mat and kicking and twirling and screaming. she also wants nothing more than to sit on my lap while my sewing machine is going. while i love that she wants to watch and occasionally help, it takes a lot of energy to stop those quick little fingers from going under the veryveryvery fast needle.

anyways: after about three hours of work, here's the first swoon block made by my own two hands. and while this one is not destined for a full quilt, i can't wait to get started on more and more!

my 'catch me if you can' quilt seems to have stalled for the time being. i'm half way there, but i have to admit that the sheer amount of half square triangles (352!) that i have to trim is a bit daunting, and its just too beautiful outside to fret over!

and this can be a little distracting, too:

i mean, really. could she get any cuter!?

and then she was back.

i must say the silence on my end was not so deafening - it actually felt good to learn what is necessary in my "digital life" and to learn what is a distraction. in the meantime, i've started multiple projects, unpacked dozens of boxes, visited the mainland, and dipped my toes in the sand a few times, too.

besides all of that, i am most excited to share the beginnings of a project that has been dominating my free time and attention lately (i don't have very much of either). a month or so ago i was browsing for my usuals on etsy - vintage quilts, ceramic mixing bowls, canvas totes - when i stumbled across a listing for a slightly deteriorated, bright pink quilt. i didn't like the quilt (which is why i didn't bookmark it, and can't find it now) but i loved the pattern of the blocks. and so my project started with a mini quilt mock up. and now i'm on to piecing the real thing.

it's taken some fiddling around with steam setting on my iron, but as i continue to sew and press, the ripples have become fewer and farther between. my points are starting to match up more and more often, often lining up so perfectly that i have to pat myself on the back.

i guess the point is this: challenging myself to a new project, with many components and steps, has made me focus on refining my skills and mastering my machine. i've learned to pin and adjust and pin to get that perfect match, i've learned how important it is to find the straight of grain, i've learned to be patient with the process.

a quilt isn't born over night, y'know.

and now i will promise you this: i'm already compiling some new etsy finds, i have four blocks done for my farmer's wife quilt (part of the fwqal that i am taking part in) and a few other goodies up my sleeve. i will never leave you again, i promise.

just a little update before its moving time again:
well actually, today is moving day but i needed a moment, so i'm stealing one.

in the few spare moments that i have had and in a few wee evening hours, i've managed to piece together a quit top (later to be quilted and bound) - it feels good to buy fabric and immediately use it. no more of this piling it up, looking at it, wondering what it could turn into to, timidly cutting into it...and so on. i've even managed to save some cuts of this dsquilts collection for the binding. hurrah!

i miss my huge bins of fabric so much. at this moment, all of my scraps and bits and pieces, and thrift store sheets and pillowcases, and beautiful yards of quilting cotton are sitting in a barn in maine. i am two states away, patiently waiting for the day that they will make it on to the boat and on to my island and in to my hands. only a few more days.

in the meantime,
i will be trying to put together a back
for this with not even close to enough fabric.

see, i received a scrap pack from hawthorne threads for winning the spring runner sew-along at stumbles & stitches (by the way, jenny and angel are running a fantastic fundraiser for the tornado disaster relief in alabama - awesome work, ladies!). i have been living off of the beautiful little pieces of fabric that came in the mail. patiently waiting and waiting, biting my nails until i can get my hands on my stash.

i have two quilts (one bed size, one picnic) planned that i must make now.

new mini quilt in the works -

i'm trying to decide if the bed size quilt i have planned would really work.
although it seems that i've taken this mini mock-up in a different direction than intended.

so far all of my triangle points are matching up (!!!) and even though i cut the wrong number of triangles from one specific fabric, i'm pretty excited to see how this one comes together. and the nicest thing about making a mini quilt? i might be able to get it made in a reasonable amount of time - considering i have a wild toddler and a full time job.

this afternoon i started a quilt - from scratch. that is to say, i drew nine little squares in my notebook and started cutting, without thinking about where i wanted to end up. i've been adding to a small stack of scraps and favorites that i knew would end up as a quilt project, and this afternoon seemed a perfect opportunity to jump in.

(our family has been doing nothing but packing and sorting and
donating and dumping everything that we have. its exhausting but we seem to be
getting somewhere. however, the exhaustion did me in this afternoon -
i was not paying enough attention while cutting fabric and slice! off came the tip of my finger.
please be careful with your rotary cutters. operate only when clear headed and bright eyed.)

after some bandaging and swearing, i got:
eight squares from that vintage pillowcase and
eight squares from that scrap left over from the zig zag quilt.

and now there are five blocks sitting on my sewing table. they've become a play on dark and light and an experiment with prints. i don't really know what's happening yet but i have a few ideas.

let's not put the cart before the horse, right?

and so, a simple collection of inspiration for a quilt that is happening:

1. Quilt 1, 2. Untitled, 3. sheep, 4. Untitled