Gatsby! (or, the quilt formerly known as Architextures)

TGIF and I go something finished!  The Architextures quilt has been finished and received its grown-up quilt name: Gatsby!  I know someone you are probably fans of that book. Supposedly it's great literature; an American Classic, but I just never "got" it.  Now don't get me wrong, I am a big reader. I love books! But Gatsby...  There were some characters, and some stuff happened, there were a lot of parties, but no plot to speak of.  (Just my two cents.)  So what does any of this have to do with the quilt?  Well, it's very colorful and flashy but there's not much plot (pattern) :)

I got the Architextures charm pack that served as the jumping off point for this quilt way back in March(!) and it's been pretty much in progress since then. Finally, I made myself stop rearranging blocks and sew the darn thing together.  It is made up of an Architextures charm pack, Architexures coordinating solids pack (both purchased on Etsy from here) plus some of the many blue solids I had collected.  Each HST finished at 4" square.

I decided on simple straight line quilting for two reasons: I didn't want to distract from the design, and I knew the crisscrossing quilting over the points of the HSTs would help tame bulky seams.  I chose a bright lime green for the thread and it might be my favorite part of the whole quilt.  The green doesn't fight with the craziness of the rest of the top, but it pops right out at you and holds its own.

Of course the binding had to be lime green, too.  The color of the binding is truest in the first and last pictures on this page; for some reason it looks a little dirty in the closeups.  The backing is, of course, the wonderful IKEA Numbers fabric. I've had some of it cut and set aside for this quilt almost since I started making HSTs.  I adore the simplicity of it and the way that a the stark black and white print looks on the back of a raucous, colorful quilt.

When I was first arranging this quilt on the design wall I tried to avoid having any solids of the same color touch each other. Later, I tweaked the design to allow matching solids to touch in quite a few places. I am glad I made the change; I think the larger shapes formed by the matching solids give your eye something to land on amidst the randomness of the design.

The quilt finished at 52"x 60" and will be staying at my house, to live in the living room as one of our couch quilts for ever and ever :)  If I ever grow tired of it maybe I'll move it someplace else, but I doubt I will.  I have already used it a few times and it is perfectly sized and snuggly.

Linking up to Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. Happy Friday!

WIP Wednesday: Finish-a-thon (with a binding tutorial)

Sometimes you lose your sewing mojo... and sometimes you find it! I made the most of my long memorial day weekend sewing. Somehow I've gotten into a state of having a ton of active WIPs and very few finishes (not like me). So, my goal this weekend was to finish something.

Toppled Coins + Bonus Quilt

Success! These two baby quilts were finished today (the one on the right now has binding).  The quilt on the left is Toppled Coins, which I've been working on for a while; the one on the right is a bonus quilt made from all the extra blocks I had accidentally cut for the first quilt!  Both will be shipping out to little boys soon.  There will be more details on these in this week's Friday Finishes post.

A pic of the final layout

The next project was my Architextures quilt. This one had been taken off the design wall and carefully stacked until I was ready to work on it again.  I made some tweaks to the layout to allow more of the same colors to touch before beginning to sew it together.  When I join lots of small blocks like these I don't like to do them in rows.  I find it's much easier to ease in those small inconsistencies and make all the points meet if I build them into larger and larger square blocks.  Hopefully I can get this one the rest of the way together tomorrow.

Crappy night time photo. Sewing the top together, in progress.

For binding the second baby quilt today I opted to use an alternative binding method that I occasionally use when I want to be frugal with my binding fabric.  I went ahead and took some pictures so I could explain it here.

To determine the width of binding to cut, take the width you normally cut your binding to (2.25" in my case) divide it in half, and add back 0.25".  This means I cut my binding to 1 3/8", nearly an inch of fabric saved for every strip of binding. 

Now the tricky part (but you only have to do it once.) Inset both ends of a needle in your ironing board cover so that the gap under the needle is equal to the first number you got above (before you added 0.25") or half your normal binding width.  Once you've got the needle in place you can leave it here and forget about it, it doesn't affect your normal ironing.

To make the binding you insert the end of the binding under the needle, rolling one edge over about a quarter inch so that the strip just fits in the space under the needle.  As you pull on the strip it should naturally roll over on that edge and you'll iron the crease in place as the binding comes out the other side of the needle.  I am right handed, so I pull from the left.  When I get in a groove I use my left hand to pull slowly and iron with my right at the same time.  It barely takes any longer than ironing normal double fold binding.

Attach the binding the same way you normally would, attaching the unfolded edge first.  I machine sew to the back, wrap the binding around and machine sew on the fold to the front.

I have heard people say that one of the important things about double-fold binding is that it protects the edge of the quilt, which receives the most wear in use.  It is true that this single thickness binding may wear faster; just something to consider when choosing a technique.  Like I said, I mostly only use this technique when I won't have enough fabric for binding cutting the normal width.

And some gratuitous pictures of my quilting companions.  These two are constantly in and out and around my feet while I am working.  This was the best picture I could get of the ferret.  When I try to take pictures of her I mostly get pictures of where she used to be.

Mr. Wilson, snoring away in kitty heaven.  His Kitty Kaps are holding up nicely.  I put the first set on well over a month ago and half of them are still in place.  We are definitely fans of this product!

Whew, it was a busy weekend!  In case you couldn't tell from all the pictures I also replaced my broken camera.  I was able to score a refurbished display model on sale from Best Buy and it's even nicer than my old one.

I am linking up to WIP Wednesday. Happy Hump day everyone!

Design wall evolutions

Slowly but surely the Architextures HST quilt is developing. Every time I walk by it I stop to look and move or flip a square or two. One of my favorite ways to look at a design like this is without my glasses. It really makes the trouble areas jump out. Photos are another good way to get a different perspective... In fact I see some blocks that need to be moved now.

Sorry for the crappy phone photos

The other thing currently going on is this pillow cover from a "Mama Said Sew" charm pack. The front is assembled and quilted, the back is cut out but not sewn up yet. In case you can't tell from the pictures, this pillow is going to be huge! I'm using a 26" pillow form and trying a zipper closure for the first time.

That's all I have going on this week. I hope for are finding time to sew! Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Architextures HSTs WIP

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Here's what I am working on this week.  I sewed up the rest of the HSTs I needed for my Architextures quilt and threw everything up on the design wall. It was gratifying to chop up the many, many odd size/shape scraps of various shades of blue I had amassed and turn them into something.  My blue solids collection is almost manageable now (but really, you can never have too many blues, right?)

This is just the first layout, I am going to be tweaking it over the next several days, but I really like the direction it's heading. You know I love to see how far I can stretch a charm pack :)  I'm expecting not to add any borders, so this one should finish in the 56" sq ballpark(there are 3 more columns that wouldn't fit on my design wall.)

Linking up to WIP Wednesday, where she also has an HST project going!