Finish One, Finish Two!

I have not one, but TWO finishes this week! (Actually, I have three, but the third will get its own post next week--it is that awesome.) Both were overdue projects that I finally finished.

Dirty Bubblegum

This is a terrible name for a baby quilt, but once it popped into my head, I couldn't think of it any other way, so "Dirty Bubblegum" it is. I made this for a friend of mine who had a baby this summer, and who came back to visit a couple weeks ago, forcing me to finally finish it!

This might be my least favorite quilt I've made. I love the herringbone design (mine was inspired by Erica at Crafty Blossom) but I didn't end up digging the pink and gray. I based the color choice on the nursery of the recipient, but I just didn't love it. I think it would look nice with some white in it, but that just didn't work with this design.

Not sure why this looks so neon--it isn't!

I was happy with my idea to add the monogram (based on Amy Smart's tutorial). The nice thing about the quilt being late is that I knew the baby's name and could actually do this. :) I think it adds a bit more interest to the quilt, as well as personalization. My satin stitching could use improvement, but so it goes.

The backing is a print from Aneela Hoey's "Posy" line. I've seen the quilt pop up in numerous facebook pictures of the recipient, so I think it was well-loved, even if it wasn't my most favorite quilt of all time! And that's what ultimately matters.

Covet my apartment carpet, I know.

Joy to the Squares

I started this quilt for my brother and sister-in-law last Christmas. Then I didn't get it done. So I tried again this year, with success. They're as into Christmas as anyone I've ever met, so I wanted to get it done well in advance of Christmas so that they could enjoy it for several months. :)

I bought a layer cake of Kate Spain's "Joy" line last  year, and cut it into charm squares. This is half of the layer cake (I'll get around to making my own Christmas quilt out of the rest... someday.) The border fabric is some I found from Joann's that has blue glitter on it. I'm not sure how well it will hold up, but for a seasonal quilt, I thought it would be fine. Blue glitter sparkles fit my sister-in-law to a T, so I knew it was the perfect choice! I also love the red and aqua swirl fabric on the back--I believe it's Laurie Wisbrun's "Perfectly Perched."

I photographed this quilt on two different occasions, and got bad pics each time. Sorry!

Though it's a very simple design, I tried a few new things on this quilt. I did a dogwood quilting design in the squares, and I have to say, I loved it! Many of them are pretty wonky, but the overall effect is so cool. I also decided to go with rounded corners to spice up the squareness a bit, and really love how it looks! Consequently, this was also my first bias binding--it made doing the corners a dream! I'll definitely keep this in mind again.

My one frustration with this quilt came in the border--I used a variegated blue thread I got at my LQS, a 50 wt cotton, I believe. I just did simple loops (meant to evoke snow), but I had SO MUCH thread breakage! It was really frustrating. I tried all the usual fixes, to no avail. I think my machine just must prefer Aurifil for FMQ.

Linking up with Finish it Up Friday!

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WIP Wednesday: Dirty Bubblegum, Drunken Lucille, and a crazy little thing called Love

Hey there! I hope the three remaining readers I have are enjoying life and having a good time sewing and whatnot. I haven't been around much this summer, but such is summer sometimes. It's been good! I've had adventures in Michigan, Kansas City, and Nebraska, and I've enjoyed them all. Follow me on Instagram if you'd like to get a taste of them! (@  c m b husker --with no spaces)

I've actually been stitching up a storm this week. I hate when people have weddings and they just spring them upon you at the last minute. Wait, what's that you say? Weddings often have months and months of previous warning? I'm actually just a procrastinator, so it seems like they are sprung upon me?

I guess that's true. :)

I'm headed to yet another wedding where I will be a bridesmaid next week on the lovely island of Nantucket (fancy, schmancy!) I decided I should start the quilt a few days ago. Inspired by Kelly of Jeliquilts' LOVE quilt, I thought that was just the thing for this particular wedding.

It looks black in the photo, but it's actually navy and Nantucket red--the wedding colors.

I really like the fabrics I chose for this, even though I wasn't pumped about the Nantucket red at first--it's grown on me. My favorite fabric is the "Les Amis" on the left side of the "e". I also really like the salmon-colored camera print--the groom is a photographer, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to stumble upon that one!

The letters aren't paper-pieced, and this top goes together SO quickly (if you don't make three mistakes cutting the large pieces because you are terrible at math, like I did). It's a Tula Pink pattern, available here.

I also started cutting (optimistically) on a quilt I'm calling the "Drunken Lucille." Its real name is "Drunk Zebra," but the back is going to be done in a fabric line called "Spa" and if you're an Arrested Development, hopefully you can figure out how I combined those two. :) The pattern for that is available here. While the design of the quilt is stunning, I'm disappointed in the quality of the pattern. All four pattern pieces are shoved onto one piece of paper, and when it's printed, it cuts off the side of one of the pieces! Since lines are just a little bit important in paper piecing, it's disappointing to have to redraw 56 pattern pieces, especially when I paid $8 to NOT have to do that! Not sure why the designer didn't just use an extra piece of paper and make sure that the pieces had adequate room to breathe. Oh well. The world is an imperfect place.

And I finally finished trimming all of my Dirty Bubblegum squares. Here's the layout:

Not sure when I'm going to get this one done. The baby it is intended for is already a month old! Good thing she lives in Arizona, so she shouldn't be freezing quite yet. ;)

On a serious note, it's hard to believe that 9/11 happened twelve years ago today. It seems so long ago, and looking at the world today, it's had such far-reaching and negative repercussions on such a large portion of the world. It is amazing what an impact a few evil people can have. But I also remember the incredible unity and caring that happened in the days afterwards. All we can do is pray that we will someday see peace, for the wisdom of leaders, and that we will do good where we are able.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!


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WIP: Back in the Saddle

After a month of sleeping at my own apartment for a grand total of one night, I finally returned this past Saturday, and am enjoying having a place to myself again (though probably not as much as my cat is enjoying having an other-cat-free dwelling!) A couple weeks visiting the boyfriend and a couple weeks at my mother's house trying to help her move, and here I am, almost in August, feeling like I've done nothing this summer! But such is the nature of summers.

My mom's move was an immense project--she and my dad bought that house in 1979, so I'm one of the few people I know who didn't move at least once during their growing-up years. My great-grandfather built the house in 1921, so even though it is almost 100 years old, it has had only two owners! So it's been an emotional move--not to mention a difficult one in the physical sense, since houses tend to accumulate a lot of things in 34 years. :) It is really strange to see the house emptied out. Luckily, she is only moving one block away--to the house my grandparents built. I guess we are a family that prizes familiarity!

Last night I finally returned to the sewing machine for a bit. I've got a baby quilt I need to send to Arizona, since the baby was born, um, last week. (It's not like there's no warning on these baby things, yet I never seem to get them done in time...)

My first instinct was to name this quilt "Dirty Bubblegum" but I might have to rethink that one.

This is my first time using triangle paper. I think I like it, though I hate tearing off paper. Overall though, I do think it streamlines the process. I'll evaluate fully once I get them all done.

I've also started cutting for a quilt that is going to be the best, most amazing quilt ever. I'm really excited!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday.


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Blogger's Quilt Festival

If you regularly check in here, you have seen this quilt before, but it's my favorite so far and I wanted to have it done for the last Blogger's Quilt Festival, and I didn't. So, bear with yet another presentation of ye olde Partly Sunny Quilt!* If this is your first visit, thanks for stopping by, and I hope you like the quilt!

I made this for the wedding of one of my best friends last July. (Well, the wedding was in July...the quilt was finished in December. Oops. Explains a lot about the snow in the photos though, huh?)

I love this pattern (Chain Linked by Amy Smart) because it's very easy, yet has a great deal of visual impact. It's a fun way to showcase some favorite prints, and I could easily see myself using this pattern again.

Specs:

"Party Sunny" (pattern: Chain Linked by Amy Smart)

Finished size: 61.5" x 82.5"

Quilting: By me! I echoed the white "chains" 1/4" away from the edge.

First blogged here.

Check out the hundreds of other amazing quilts at the festival!

*So, the name is new! I'm trying to name my quilts more creatively than "gray and yellow quilt" or "hourglass quilt." The lame name syndrome needed to end!

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A Trip, A Blizzard, and A (Finally) Finish!

It's been a crazy month (ok yes, can anyone's December be described any differently?) As I mentioned recently, I was planning to move from New York to Nebraska later this week. Two weeks ago, I pitched that plan out the window! Long story short, my advisor's TA couldn't work at the last minute, and he offered the post to me for this spring. It's a great gig--no sections to teach, so basically just some grading and two classes a week, which should leave me a fair amount of time to do my own work. This means I know where my funding is coming from through May 2014 instead of just December 2013, which, as a fifth year grad student, is kind of a big deal. My first response to considering not moving was not a positive one, but as I thought about it, I realized it was very do-able. The only money I had invested was a one-way ticket for my uncle to come help me move, and my landlord extended my lease with no extra fees, which was great! I'm not very good at making major decisions, especially quickly, but this all happened within 18 hours, and I feel at peace with it.

Of course, with other recent unsettling events, it hasn't been a totally peaceful period. I was calculating final grades the day that the horrible shooting at Sandy Hook took place, and just kept watching as the news got worse and worse. I hope that this tragedy, horrific as it was, will spur some beneficial changes in the many areas of society that desperately need it. But more importantly, I pray that the families and community there are allowed to heal and that they will be well supported by friends and family in the difficult months and years ahead.

After a fun evening on Sunday decorating cookies with a few fellow grad students and watching "Love Actually," I headed back to Nebraska via a two-day drive with my cat as my (worthless, it must be said) co-pilot. It is such a long trip, and even though it's one we've made many times, I am always so relieved when I cross the Missouri River into Nebraska! It's equal parts great to be home, and to be out of the car. :) We got home a day before a massive blizzard came through. My mom and I made chili soup, drank wine, and I got her started on an addiction to Downton Abbey last night as the wind blew like crazy outside. There are probably not any better ways to ride out a blizzard!

Don't mind the crazy purple bunny on the left.

But my biggest news is that I finally finished a quilt! :) I know, miraculous. After deciding not to move, I found myself with a much more reasonable amount of free time, so I finally knocked out the gray and yellow quilt for my friend! I adore the binding I finally chose, and think it looks great! I took it outside this morning for some snowy photo goodness, and now I'll shut up and let you enjoy the photos. :)

The back is made from an Ikea duvet cover. It seemed just a shade short the long way, so I threw in a strip of blocks echoing the front. Something I need to learn to do is to line up a pieced back with the front, because as you can see from the quilting, it isn't quite square. Oh well. I still like the overall effect.

I considered outlining the dark gray squares in the same way, but I was sort of out of time and motivation after I got it bound, and I thought it would be tough to manage to not stitch on the binding if I went back and quilted post-binding. It would have looked nice though!

I really lucked out with my binding! I had saved some yellow from the beginning of the project and intended it for my binding, but when it came time for that step, I just wasn't feeling it. I wasn't happy with what I saw at the LQS, and then as I was just about to settle for something, I found this! And it is perfect. And I am a little obsessed over it.

So, the wedding quilt is finally finished, just in time for their five-month anniversary. :) I just know my friend is going to love it!

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WIP: Gray and Yellow, Revisited

I finally finished this quilt top! I don't know why it took me so long to sew those last four rows, because as you can tell, this is not a high-skill assembly and it only took an evening to finish the last rows and sew the whole top together.

Oh well. It happens to the best of us, right?

M's wedding quilt

Please pardon my photography. I wasn't able to take a photo in daylight, but I wanted to share it for WIP Wednesday anyway, as it's rather rare I have something substantial to show. I put some filters and crap on it to try camouflage the fact that I live in a cave, but to no avail. We'll all survive this assault of bad photography though, I hope. :)

Also: I would like to look into embroidering my quilt labels rather than using marker. I've never done much embroidery, so it's all a bit new to me. Anyone have any good beginner resources, or at least a hint of what kind of stitch would be good for someone to learn who wanted to "write" words? Thanks in advance!

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WIP: Gray and yellow, gray and yellow, gray and yellow

I read my post title in a Wiz Khalifa voice.Your mileage may vary.

Anyway, I thought I'd show my progress on my friend's wedding quilt. As you may recall, she got married last Friday. For my part, I just finished piecing the blocks. But she's known me since 2003, so she knows this is very much par for my course. And she's too busy enjoying sunny San Diego with her new hubby to care very much right now. :)

I think it's going to look great, if I ever get around to finishing it! Right now I'm busy hyperventilating because I have to teach my first college course three weeks from today! Holy crap! Also, it is harder to write a syllabus than it seems like it should be. And I'm teaching a college course. At Cornell. The gravity of the situation is catching up with me. :)

This will eventually be almost twin size, so this is only the first few rows.

Like everyone else, I'm completely digging watching the Olympics. I'm enjoying seeing Nebraska's only Olympian playing well in women's volleyball (Jordan Larson)--Huskers represent! And I really loved watching the women's gymnastics team win gold last night, even though thanks to NBC's much-maligned tape delay, the suspense was gone. It was cool to see them grow visibly more confident as the evening progressed and then to just see on their faces that they knew that they had nailed it. In the interview they did, Bob Costas pointed out that none of them remembered the last time the U.S. won gold in gymnastics (1996). Of course, that's true, but so hard to believe! Kerri Strug sticking the landing on a sprained ankle was so iconic, and doesn't seem that long ago!

Does anyone else find it strange to see NBA players at the Olympics? They just seem so out of place, especially when you see moments like the Tunisian player getting Kobe's autograph. I might be a terrible American, but I kind of want Team USA to lose in basketball. They just seem like such arrogant prima donnas who don't even care that they're there. I've felt that way ever since Kobe floated the idea that they deserved to be paid in spite of already earning $50 bajillion for being an NBA superstar. It just seems a gross contrast to a lot of these other athletes who are happy to be there and who work other jobs to support themselves while they train. So if they magically get upset, I won't really shed too many tears for them. :)

/sports rant

Anyway, Kobe aside, I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday and Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet!

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Of Pillows and Chaos

It feels like it's been forever since I've written a post or read anyone else's! The last week has been a complete whirlwind. More on that later, but I'll start with the "pillow" part of the title and then move on to the chaos.

Yesterday was the bridal shower of one of my very dearest friends. I have two best friends (even though I sound like a second grader when I put it like that) and they mean the world to me. I expect that I'll make many more friends throughout my life, but in these two, I believe I have my friend soulmates. They are amazing. I remember meeting the one who is getting married, M, my very first week of college in a Bible study. I also vividly remember that she seemed very quiet and thinking "She seems like she'll never talk. I guess we will probably not be very good friends." Ha. Wrong on both counts. :)

My dear M is an interior designer and has a very modern aesthetic quite different than mine, so I was a little worried about making her something, but I've decided to forge ahead anyway. I'm making her a quilt (she doesn't know about that yet) and I think it's going to be perfect for her. But I decided to use the scraps to make her a throw pillow:

I look super-awkward in this picture. Here's how the making of this pillow went down:

--Friday 5:00 pm: Decide I should start working on the pillow.

--Saturday 5:00 am: Leave to go run a 5k two hours away and then make food for the shower with a friend. Return home at 11:00 pm.

--Sunday 8:00 am: Begin working on the pillow again. With the assistance of my mother cutting out the back pieces and helping pin while I showered, finish at 12:45. "Wrap" the pillow in a pillowcase from Ikea (I used the other pillowcase as the backing for the pillow.) Shower is at 3:00, in a city two hours away. My mom snapped this quick picture of it as I was running out to the car to leave.

This is how I roll.

I used Oh Fransson's tutorial for the Mod Mosaic Pillow. It's a free tutorial, so download it and make one for yourself! This was my first attempt at anything improvisational, so it was nice to try that. It's not really my style, so I'm not sure how much place it has in my life, but it was fun to try. My sister-in-law stopped over on Sunday morning (add that to the timeline too!) and she loved it, so I'm sure it will be a good skill to have on hand for gifts and the like. The tutorial calls for it to be quilted, but I ran out of time to do that, so mine is simply pieced with a piece of muslin on the back. The world, alas, is an imperfect place.

Where am I looking? I have no idea.

Most importantly, the bride really liked it. She was pointing out all of the fabrics in it that she loved. I think she's going to be really surprised and delighted by the quilt!

This weekend was just the culmination of a crazy week. I spent all of Wednesday and Thursday driving from New York to Nebraska. It's about 23 total hours. I actually really don't mind the drive--it's kind of relaxing and a good chance to just zone out (haha, not a good thing to admit) and listen to music and audio books. I like to say that if grad school doesn't work out, I'll become a truck driver. My cat is also a total trooper when it comes to car or air travel, so that helps a lot too. And, my boyfriend drove down from Michigan and met me in South Bend, so it was wonderful to see him, even if just for a short time. We met for the first time in South Bend when I was driving from Nebraska to New York last summer, so it has a bit of a special place in our hearts.

On the road in western New York.

As I alluded to earlier, I ran a 5k. This is the first time I have ran anything, ever. I am not a runner. Emphatically not. But my sister-in-law isn't either, and she thought this Color Run sounded fun. So we decided to give it a shot.

Before

After!

You know how some girls look cute, no matter what sweaty, disgusting thing they're doing? That's not me. No, I'm the girl who ends up with a purple Hitler mustache at the end of the race.

I'm not sure I loved the experience, but I didn't hate it, and I would consider doing it again. However, I would not do one in July in Nebraska again.

Don't worry, my car is melodramatic. It was only 100 degrees.

 Anyway. I'm taking it easy today. :) Linking my pillow up with Plum and June, and checking out what others have been up to!

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