Losing Thread Chicken {Quilting in Progress}

This weekend I had *big plans* for knocking out some finishes. During the week I layered and pinned both my Ohio Star quilt for this month's Island Batik Ambassador project and my Four Square quilt top that I made on retreat.

I had no issues quilting my Ohio Star quilt -- hooray! I used a gold thread for the quilting and did a simple meander quilting motif for this quilt. It is trimmed, but I need to prep the binding. Here's a sneak preview:

I had a two yard cut of this pink print with flowers in my stash that I thought would be perfect for the backing of my Four Square quilt. It was *just* wide enough! I decided to use my mint Aurifil thread to quilt this quilt. I thought that since it was a baby quilt, I had enough thread on my partially used cone of thread.

You can guess where this is going -- I lost thread chicken on this one.

My penchant for dense quilting really came back to bite me because had I quilted my swirls 10% larger, I would have been able to squeak by with the thread that I had. Just 10%!!

Here's the sad corner of the quilt that is waiting to be quilted:

Of course, this happened on Sunday and I live no where near anywhere that sells Aurifil thread, much less a place that sells Aurifil thread that is open on a Sunday. So I ordered a small spool of thread (and four yards of clearance fabric for a backing) and hopefully it ships this week so that one night I can spend a grand five minutes finishing the quilting on this quilt.

I went ahead and trimmed the quilt, and in the meantime, I'll be using the rest of the backing fabric to make a binding for this quilt.

I have lost thread chicken before (very notably on my Summer Patio quilt) but this time it really grinds my gears.

Sharing at Wednesday Wait Loss!

Stars Align {Ohio Star Quilt Top}

The blocks I made on retreat are now in a top that is ready to quilt!

I decided on a very simple sashed setting for this quilt without cornerstones. I have a 60" square batting from Hobbs set aside for this project so I used that as my "maximum size" when deciding on how wide to cut my sashing strips. I settled on cutting 1.5" strips, so my finished quilt size will be 53" square.

Sometimes a quilt just needs a very simple setting.

I also put together a pieced backing for this quilt using some of the Quiet Shades yardage I received and some of the remaining 10" squares.

Now this quilt is ready to quilt! What sort of quilting do you think I should do?

As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics, Aurifil thread, and Hobbs Batting to use and share with you!

Sharing at Wait Loss Wednesday and Needle and Thread Thursday! And Moving it forward Monday too!

Child's Play {Baby Quilts with Island Batik and AccuQuilt}

It's time for another Island Batik Ambassador project!

This month we have been tasked with making baby quilts that use the "block on board" dies from AccuQuilt we received in our summer goody boxies.

The die I received was an Ohio Star die and I decided to use the Quiet Shades fabric for my quilt.

I used mainly fabrics from the layer cake for my block parts and some neutral sprinkles fabric for my background. The cutting for this was lightning fast using the die; this made it so easy to transport all of my block parts to retreat a few weeks ago!

I did a sneak preview of my blocks a in my retreat wrap up:

Here are my 16 blocks for this quilt!

Next up is sashing my blocks together!

As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics, Aurifil thread, and Hobbs Batting to use and share with you!

Sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday!

Quilt around the Clock {Quilt Camp Review}

I'm back home after a wonderful few days sewing my heart out!

Let's review my project progress:

My first project was to make two quilt tops using our Hip To Be Square pattern and Island Batik fabrics for my November Island Batik blog hop project. I won't show off the full tops until the blog hop, but here is a sneak peak:

As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics, Aurifil thread, and Hobbs Batting to use and share with you

My second project is my September Island Batik project -- I cut all of the pieces using my Accuquilt cutter to make Ohio Star blocks. I finished all of the blocks, but haven't set the blocks into a quilt yet.

My other projects were my "just for me" projects!

My Moxi charm packs were turned into this darling little quilt top. It is 40" by 48" -- perfect for a little baby quilt.

I also started working on my Marigold quilt. I realized that unfortunately, I can only cut two leaf arches per 10" square, which means I need to order more green fabric. I made my test block and am extremely happy with how it came out. I will need to add the applique sections at another time.

I'll take a little diversion here before I show off my last project. In the first two years I went on retreat, I worked on rather time consuming projects and only got through a few things. This year I knew my projects were not as labor intensive and I actually seriously underestimated how fast those projects would go!

So on Tuesday morning, I took a quick ride to one of the local quilt shops and picked up some fabrics for a totally new project. I had actually brought my Pave the Way pattern and I picked fabrics to make that quilt! I started working on the flying geese for the different blocks.

I made a lot of progress on my projects and had a wonderful time with my mom! Hopefully these new projects will become finished projects before too long!

Sharing at Wednesday Wait Loss and Moving It Forward!

Into the Wild {Quilt Camp Prep}

I am so excited to head back to "Quilt Camp" aka quilt retreat with my mom next week!

As I have done the last two years, today I'm sharing about the projects I am planning to work on while I am off in quilting land next week.

My first project is actually two projects. For my November Island Batik blog hop project, I received a very large bundle of fabric and split it up into two colorways to make two different versions of our Hip to Be Square pattern. I've actually never made our Hip to Be Square pattern before (shocking!) and this collection's larger prints are going to be a perfect fit for this pattern.

As an Island Batik Ambassador, I am provided with samples of various lines of Island Batik fabrics, Aurifil thread, and Hobbs Batting to use and share with you

My second project is my September Island Batik project -- another baby quilt, but this time using the new block-on-board die I received recently. I will be using the Quiet Shades fabrics to make some sort of Ohio Star block quilt, final design to be determined. I cut enough block parts for 16 blocks, but I'm going to take some of the fabrics with me so that I can decide on the layout and setting once the blocks are complete. Here are my fabrics, prior to cutting:

My third project is turning these two charm packs into a smaller version of the older Moda Bake Shop pattern, Four Squared.  The original quilt is larger -- 56" x 64" -- and I am hoping to just use up all of the charm squares to make as big of a quilt top as I can.

My fourth project is making a small version of the Marigold quilt using some fabrics I have been hoarding for years from the Joel Dewberry Bungalow line. (I have the purple colorway of the line set aside to make an epic Double Wedding ring.)  I have used this pattern before to make a mini quilt, but I have always wanted to make a larger version.

Let's see how many of these projects I actually accomplish and how many tops that I finish!