adventures in quilting

I officially love the curved quilting safety pins. I laid out a nice piece of lavender flannel on the carpet in the office (just the right amount of friction to hold everything in place!), then a crib-sized Warm & Natural batting, and finally my little quilt top!

I decided to try stitch in the ditch, but did one strip down the middle and decided I didn't like it much. The solid back showed the flaws too well, and my aim sucks. Also, my square lap quilt was wider than either the quilt back or the batting, so I took off a strip of big squares, re-pinned, and bravely decided to try stippling!

I was so enchanted with the results that I sat under my new lap quilt (minus binding) all evening and totally forgot to take pictures. So, a little more random inspiration.

On the way home from the farmer's market:
The view from my favorite lunch perch:

A rusty grate may not be everyone's idea of beauty, but I just love the browns:
Some interesting glass panes on a parking structure:
May you find inspiration wherever you go!
~Phosphorelated

laying out the pieces

Time to play with last weekend's disappearing nine patch squares:

I think I like them!
Now to put them all back together again!
~Phosphorelated

a test quilt

I don't want my first experience with quilting to be on my sister's quilt, and am using this as an excuse to start another project. I've been curious about the disappearing nine patch pattern, so I pawed through the "stash" (I've been buying fabric for a month, and there isn't much there yet) and picked out some green, purple and blue fabrics.

I used the greens for the corners, purple for the inside squares and blue for the centers.

I didn't really have a plan in terms of size or anything. I tried to find the strip width between 3 and 6" that would make the most efficient use of some fat quarters, and decided on 4". I cut some strips, pieced them together, and so on, until I had a stack of 25 squares and very few scraps:
And then I got out the rotary cutter and cut them up!
OK, in the interests of full disclosure, after I cut them, they didn't look like they were going to go together too well, so I went back and squared them all up and made them all 5.25". Yup.

Now to lay them all out so they look nice...
~Phosphorelated

a pause

As much as I've been enjoying the full-tilt progress on my sister's quilt top, a little time for reflection never hurts, either. That's what I'm telling myself, anyway!
When I heard there was going to be tiling happening in the kitchen, I knew it was time to fold things away to keep them clean. I hadn't anticipated the extent of the mess, but at least I took precautions.



I'm sure it will be lovely when it's done.



~Phosphorelated

scraps + inspiration =

When the strips were cut into blocks, there were some leftover 6" lengths left over. I sewed them together in pairs, and added some more scraps in a design inspired by my kitchen floor:

I think I have the beginnings of a mini-quilt! A perfect chance to figure out how this quilting business works before I try it on the big one.

Happy quilting, everyone!
~Phosphorelated

a square is a rectangle, but...

Note to self: squares are supposed to be square. That means that when you cut strips into blocks of a certain length, they should be trimmed to the same width as well. Otherwise, they become strips of blocks that can't all be matched up at the corners:
So, I disassembled all my strips, squared up the blocks, and put them all back together again. That's a lesson I won't soon forget! But in the end, my blocks became a quilt top, with a spare row of blocks for the back:
It's starting to resemble something that might really be a quilt for my sister someday!
~Phosphorelated

a little random inspiration

Ever since I got interested in quilting, I've started to see interesting patterns everywhere. Perhaps someday they will find their way into quilts!

A bathroom floor:









The staircase at work:









My kitchen:












I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
~Phosphorelated