Chevron Top Finished

I had all of the HSTs put together for the baby quilt, so after pressing them I sat down in front of the TV Monday night to trim them all to 5 1/2" square while watching Defiance and Teen Wolf.  I'm not sure why science fiction and quilting go so well together, but it works for me.

I usually like to have something playing in the background on TV while I'm sewing, especially if I'm going to be ironing a lot since I can see the living room TV from my ironing board.  I got all the blocks together in rows then pressed the seams open before sewing those together.

I keep my sketch handy while I'm putting everything together and refer to it often.  It's really easy to turn something the wrong way or get rows out of order.  I got it all put together today and pressed the seams open again between the rows.

It started to rain just as I finished up, so I hung the top right in the window for a photo.  I love how it looks like stained glass since you can easily see the seams while its back lit.  This top is 8 blocks wide by 9 tall.  That works out to roughly 40" x 45".  Next step is basting and deciding how to do the quilting.

Prep Work

I've started working on the orange, grey, and blue crib set.  I'm using Medium Grey Kona for the cording on the bumper pads and for some of the piecing on the quilt.

I made sure to get the cording finished first.  I didn't want to accidentally use to much of the fabric on the quilt and end up having to order more, especially since fabric has to be bias cut for cording.

Then I did a rough sketch of the quilt design, deciding about how big it would be, and how many squares I needed to cut.

Those fabrics are Kona White, Kona Robin Egg and Kona Orange.  Lots of 6 inch squares.  I know typically 5 in squares are used since they are sold in charm packs, but I most often use a 6 inch quilting ruler. Six inches just seems like an easier size to work with to me.  I'll be chain piecing these into half-square triangles.  I've matched the pairs and marked the diagonal lines.  I've also cut the pieces for the crib skirt.  Once I get these blocks pieced, pressed, and trimmed it should all start coming together pretty quick.

A litte progress...

I finally got my craft room reorganized after having torn it apart in preparation for the booth we set up the weekend before last.  I ended up having to take the folding table I normally use as a work space, so for the past week you couldn't even walk in this room.  It's hard to visualize the room with these photos, half of it is used for storage and I can't actually take photos inside the room with my 50mm lens, other than tight detail shots, because the space is so small.  But look, you can see the carpet in the after photo!  And I actually made space and cleared the floor enough to run the vacuum!  I may have totally filled the bag with threads, lint, and fabric scraps.

There weren't many tourists at the festival, it was more locals than anything.  Not many of the art and craft type booths did very well.  I think the booths selling hot dogs and homemade ice cream made the most profit.  I made enough to cover my expenses and pay for our food for the day, gave out a few business cards, and we had fun so I'm calling it a success.  I'm going to wash all the items that didn't sell (they probably smell like hot dogs right now) then get them photographed and stock them in my Etsy store...hopefully this week.

Right now I have a ton of works in progress.  I took time today to box them all up separately so I don't lose, misplace, or misuse any supplies.  There is a very tall stack of those boxes currently on the card table.

Fabric for crib bedding, baby due in September.

The welting I ordered was about 5 times the size I actually need.  Seriously, its like the size of marine rope.  I finally found the right size in my local store, so making the piping for the bumper pads is up next To Do list.

Fabric for a few aprons.

The request was for a couple of grill aprons and a frilly red and black one.  I love polka dots; I think a ruffly apron just calls out for them.

My sister has requested one of the appliqued patchwork WV pillows to match her bed room.

Yellow and black is such a popular combination right now, I think I've finally used the last of some of these Joel Dewberry fabrics.  It's pretty amazing how far I stretched that fat quarter bundle.

A quilt in progress that's been on my design wall since spring break.

My aunt picked out a lattice design quilt from my Pinterest and we found a line of Michael Miller fabrics that match her bedroom.  The finished blocks will all have cream X's through them, which will make up the lattice.  Fabric.com ran out of the original fabric I ordered for the X's, but I got all of the 9 patches done while I was waiting for it to come in.  I've been pretty busy with orders the past few weeks, so its been at this point for a while.  I now have all the fabric I need; if we get a few more rainy days I may get caught up on everything else and back to this soon.

And then randomly one night I decided to bust into some of my vintage sheets.

My intention was to get a few small lap quilts done prior to the recent festival, but that was just a bit overly ambitious of me.  I'm dying to make something with these, I love vintage sheet projects.  But once you use them, you'll never find more of the fabric again, so I try not to be hasty.  A friend of mine who thrifts frequently has been hoarding some for me, so I think I may wait to see what she's found before I make any decisions.  I think have have plenty to keep me busy in the meantime.