Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday!

Welcome! Thanks for popping in for TGIFF - Thank Goodness it's Finished Friday!
If you're new to the blog, I’m Jenn and you're now A Quarter Inch from the Edge. Don't worry... it's not dangerous! I'm a modern quilter with a love of solids. Lately, it's been a challenge to make time to sew and blog about it, but the relaxation and creative outlet it provides is too important to give up.

This week’s finish is one I'm very proud of - my own version of Elizabeth Hartman's Honey (from Modern Patchwork). It was the last of five projects that I pledged to complete from my quilting library as part of Chezzetcook Modern Quilts' Library Project last year.

It's also special because I made this one just for me. When I sit at the desk in my studio and look up, there it is!

This quilt features some lovely Kona blues: Azure, Breakers, Caribbean, Lagoon, Peacock, Pool. The sashing is Kona Silver. Each hexagon features a wedge of low volume print. There's some Domino Dot, a little Botanics, and some SunPrint Text to name a few.

  The backing is Paris Flea Market by Moda. It's got just a hint of blue...

I echo quilted each hexagon, leaving the low volume wedges untouched.

I'm pretty pleased the ghost hexagons that I quilted in the upper corner/negative space. I often default to straight line quilting so this quilt is a departure for me!

Given that this is the last of my quilts for the Library Project, it's like a double Finish!

The Deets

Title: Honey

Size: 34 by 31 inches

Konas Used: Azure, Breakers, Caribbean, Lagoon, Peacock, Pool, Silver
Quilting: Free motion zigzags using Aurifil (Colour - 2600) and echo quilting in shades of teal (Gutterman - 601, 621, 670, 687) 
Binding: Kona Silver, Hand stitched with Aurifil

Backing: Paris Flea Market by Moda

Favourite Part(s): Finishing the last of my Library Projects and coming up with a unique way to quilt it!

Read about the process: here, here, & here!

Have you finished a project this week? We'd love to hear about it. If this is your first time at TGIFF, the rules are simple:

•    Post your finish using the linky tool.
•    Point your readers back to TGIFF with a text link or button.
•    Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

And don't worry if you've never linked up before, just click the "add your link" button and follow the directions. Easy peasy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Again, thanks for stopping by!


J

P.S Hope you'll come back on Valentine's Day to show how much you ♥ Kona! Need more details? Check out this post!

WiP - Working The List...

I carved out a little studio time whilst Double Trouble were napping... one must be prepared to drop the task in progress at any moment. Must work quickly.... so I opted to make a hanging sleeve for Honey. You know, my last Library Project quilt. Exciting? No. Smallest item on The List? Yes. Anticipating the cheap thrill of crossing out a completed item? Hell, yes!!!

I went searching on my Pinterest boards for the hanging sleeve tutorial I'd used in the past, but the link was dead. Sad, very sad. I ended up using a tutorial that Mr. Google helped me find - this one. It seems very similar to the one I used before...

With careful pressing, this sleeve tents up. It gives you enough slack to insert a rod or bar without it making a visible bump on your quilt when you hang it. 

Now it's all pinned and ready to stitch when TV time comes and I don't have a baby in my arms... whenever that is.

It really ticks me off that the edge of my quilt isn't straight. Nope, not a camera trick, people. I don't know why things don't turn out exactly square.... probably because I refuse to trim using a ruler. Hmmm... might be the reason. Anyway. It's not going in a show (at least not one where anyone would care!), so I've decided to practice embracing imperfection and move on. ☺


Annndddd.... since it's Wednesday, I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social organized by the lovely Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts and WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. Hi. My name is Jenn and I'm a link-aholic...for this post anyway.

J

No late fees incurred - The Library Project winds up!

Well, it's December. Time for all those posts summing up a year's work. This year, Adrienne over at Chezzetcook Modern Quilts challenged all of us to use some of those fabulous quilting books we have in our personal libraries. She even created a monthly link up (with prizes!) to keep us motivated. There's something about a link up that gets me movin'... alas, this month, some other projects took priority and I didn't make the deadline. Oh well...

But, I am undeterred. I will do my round-up post anyway! Feel free to pop over to the final link-up and read about some other bloggers' experiences with TLP! If you're interested in the books mentioned below, I've linked to the authors websites whenever possible.

My first quilt of TLP year was Oh Deer, made for Young B, one of Himself's good friends. Young B loves his quilt and claims to spend far too much time under it! It's from Boo Davis' Dare to be Square Quilting. So many clever designs in this book. Definitely worth a read!

Next up were the Christmas Candy Dish pillows that I made for the Rents for Christmas. I counted them as a half project since they were smallish! They're from a Jaybird Quilts pattern that had been hanging out (unused) in my library for some time. It uses that oh so fun Hex n'More ruler!

Then there's Go Your Own Way. I made this one for the MQG's Michael Miller Challenge using stitch n'flip triangles, a technique described in Jacquie Gering & Katie Pedersen's Quilting Modern.

Next up, J-Boy's Good Old Hockey Game quilt designed by Kristie over at Obsessive Crafting Disorder. I bought it as a digital download on Etsy when I fell in love with it on Pinterest. It's yet to get a Friday Finish Post of it's own but here's a fun pic taken of it by my dad! Post coming soon!

Once I'd finished J-Boy's quilt, I decided that it was time to make something for myself! And what I really needed was a wall hanging for my newly re-designed studio. I went for Honey from Elizabeth Hartman's Modern Patchwork. This quilt has also been finished for some time but hasn't gotten it's official Friday Finish post. Here it is in progress...

All that remains is to get a hanging sleeve on this one and it'll officially be done. If I can do that in the next five days, I'm calling it a 2014 finish!

My goal was to complete four projects and, though they changed over the course of the year and some haven't been fully blogged about, I did it! Yay me! I also kept my new quilt book acquisitions to a minimum, another goal of TLP.

If you're looking for more details (you, keener, you), you can read about my monthly progress here:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October

Many thanks to Adrienne for throwing down the gauntlet on this one. Like a hit BBC show, this project had a limited run and won't be doing a second season!

J

WIP Wednesday - More hexies and a heck of a lot of quliting!

Wednesday's rolled around again and my major WIP, Double Trouble, is well... still a work in progress. To distract myself from the discomfort, I've been sewing a fair bit. Isn't it amazing what some quilt therapy can achieve?

This past week-end saw me heading off to the October Sew In for MMQG. I've given up on taking my machine... though MANY of my guildmates offered to carry it to and from the car for me. Such nice ladies! I took advantage of the comfy couch and spent the afternoon handstitching the binding on Honey. Just a sneaky peeky for you today... finish post coming soon!

Our little (but growing!) guild has been asked to participate in a zipper pouch swap with the Victoria Modern Quilt Guild. I couldn't pass it up... I do love a swap! But I figured I'd better get moving and make something before DT makes their appearance! Of course, I decided to do something simple...

Yeah, right. Apparently all the work I've been doing on Honey has turquoise-y hexies stuck in my brain. And I couldn't make large hexies. Where would the fun be in that? These are ¾ inch.

Honestly, the biggest problem with hexies is knowing when to stop. I'm done now. Honest. I just need to quilt this critter and turn it into a zipper pouch!

I finally decided how I wanted to quilt my Global Scrap Bee quilt - which apparently I haven't blogged about since August when the blocks were just starting to roll in! I've been working on emphasizing negative space lately, so I quilted only the white sections. The blocks are so linear - I wanted the FMQ to work with that feeling instead of against it. That goodness for my Pile O Fabric Skill Builder blocks... I used this pattern on the Library Shelf block and it just seems to fit the Converging Corners block.

Sometimes I get into a project and realize that it would have been better to work on the dining room table. This quilt didn't seem so big until I sat down at my studio desk and got to it! A few needles were broken before I realized that the weight of the quilt was really pulling on my machine!

And then... thread-tastrophy! With only this small (one block, really) section left, I completely and utterly ran out of white thread. Progress stalled... oh well, it's not like there's a world wide white thread shortage or something.

An emergency trip to the LQS yesterday (and comments of "You're still sewing?" from the ever helpful staff) saw me finishing all that lovely FMQ today. Now I'm off to handstitch the binding... if the weather holds, I might even cram in a quilty photo shoot one day this week! There's a great location I've been eyeing up for a couple weeks!

Hope you found some time to sew this week - whether you needed it as quilt therapy or not! ☺

J

I'm linking up today with WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced and Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts. Gotta love a link up to get me motivated to post!

October TLP & WIP - all rolled into one!

Once again, I'm running a smidge late the monthly update to The Library Project. I only seem to really get my butt in gear when there's a deadline! ☺ The last couple days have seen me working along on my Honey wall hanging...

I was pretty stumped on how to quilt this one. Where it's small, I wanted to push myself and do something  different with the quilting, but I didn't want to take away from the piecing by doing an overall design. #quilterproblems To get things going, I went for zigzags in the grey sashing sections.

 

It took me a little while to figure out exactly what to do where the three corners meet, but I think I found a good solution! Then it was on to the hexies... I didn't have any suitable thread, so off I went to my LQS.... only to realize I had left the quilt at home. Swiss cheese brain... ugh. So I bought every colour of turquoise-y blue they had. How's that for problem solving?!

When I sought the help of my MMQG guildmates, it was suggested a couple times that I do some sort of echo quilting of the hexie shape... so I did. I can't stand marking complicated patterns... even on something this small... so, I measured and figured out roughly how far apart the lines needed to be to make equal sized echos.

For the large sections of grey negative space, I opted to quilt ghost hexies. I marked where the sashing would have been and zigzagged it and then did echo-style quilting where the hexies would be.

I'm pleased to say that I should have this one finished completely by the end of the week-end! My master plan is to hand stitch the binding at this Saturday's MMQG Sew In. I couldn't be happier to be almost finished my Library Projects. But I do still have another month or two... perhaps I'll try for a bonus round!

J

P.S Since it's Wednesday, I'm also linking up with WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced and Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts. Apparently, I'm a link-up-aholic today!

TLP - September "Killing two birds with one stone" Edition!

Alas, sewing has ground to a snail's pace around here... But there's nothing quite like a link-up/deadline to get one's butt in gear! Last Friday, September's link-up for the Library Project over at Chezzetcook Modern Quilts went live. 5 days late is better than not at all, right?

So, as I blogged about in the August Edition, for my last Library Project quilt, I've opted to make something just for me. It's destined to live in my newly relocated studio (some day I'll do a post on that, honest I will!). Though I've posted a little about this quilt, I will shamefacedly say that I have made nowhere near the progress of our fearless leader, Ms. Adrienne. Ack!

That said, the top is finished! I'm pleased with how precise my piecing turned out... those Kona Silver sections are ½ inch finished. Yikes! But then dear old Honey just hung out on the design wall for a while....

I admit it. I was afraid to trim it square. There's something about the step of trimming that is a "no going back" sort of thing. But today, in honour of getting my butt in gear for the link-up, I trimmed!

And I, and the quilt, survived! It's a little more rectangular than square, but I wanted to maintain the half triangles formed by trimming the sides.

Since it's trimmed, why not layer this bad boy in a desperate attempt to spur myself onward to quilting? Okay... done. I used a modified version of the Almighty Scrapmaster's Spray Basting Technique. She layers and sprays her quilts right on the design wall... which works for me since the floor seems to be long way down these days! I varied my technique a little... I didn't use a mask. Does it count if I opened the window and held my breath while spraying? ☺

I used Moda's Paris Flea Market print as my backing. Now the question - how to quilt this?! In Modern Patchwork, the author FMQed the finished project using a loop and line pattern. I'm pretty sure I want to FMQ, but want something a little more exciting, perhaps to emphasize the individual hexagon units. Suggestions welcome!

Obviously, I'm linking up with the September Edition of The Library Project. My goal is to have this one quilted and on the wall in time for the October Edition! Gotta have goals, y'all!And since it's Wednesday, I'm gonna jump all over the linking up bandwagon. WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced and Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts, here I come!

J

WIP Wednesday - Hexies, and triangles, and baby quilts! Oh my!

As per usual, this WIP Wednesday is all over the road. But tI think the post's title sums it up fairly well!

It occurred to me a while back that Double Trouble are going to need Christmas stockings. Wait. Before you scroll to the bottom to leave me a comment about PRIORITIES, you should know that stockings are an important tradition in my family - one that I plan to pass on to DT (even if they have no idea earthly clue what Christmas is this year). Given how long it took me to decide on patterns and make stockings for Himself and I, I figured I better get to it. Nothing says fun like hexies, right?

My inspiration for this fabric pull was the Ann Kelle Christmas Owls from her Jingle line. Oh no... she's adding more animals to the Urban Zoologie line in November 2014 - and there are foxes. I will be helpless to resist.

I found a stocking template on the Fabric Worm blog and am adapting it for my own purposes. To keep things simple(r), I'm doing hexies for the front of the stocking and using the owl print for the back. One will be lined with a Kona Poppy and the other with Kona Chartreuse. I've got one front done!

And another halfway there... I watch a lot of TV lately. I'm looking forward to layering these and quilting them... I'm tempted to FMQ. Thoughts, dear reader? If yes, what motif?

So that's the hexies part of this post. On to the triangles... which, along the way, will become hexies.

I'm moving a long on my latest selection from the Library Project. These are the second project to make their way onto my swanky new design wall. (Thanks to the DIY stylings of my fabulous husband).

So far, they're a little fiddly and I'm having a tough time figuring out just how many I need to make for my scaled down wall hanging. Currently it's way too big, but with all those triangles and seam allowances, I need to sew together a complete row to get a sense of things. But there's progress... so, yeah.

Now on to the baby quilts! Quilt A and Quilt B of the Plus Two quilts are finished! Okay, the tops are finished and the quilts are layered. But I'm a little stumped on how to quilt them. Luckily, our MMQG meeting is just a week away, as is a Quilt Therapy session with (all of) the Squares. I see quilt consults in my future!

I know I'm not being fair to all of you out in bloggy land, but I want to show them to you as a Finish (two actually)! You'll have to be patient... just like those pesky Squares that DESPERATELY want to know if Double Trouble are be boys, girls, or a combo deal.☺

I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced, as well as Let's be Social@ Sew Fresh Quilts.
Feel free to pop on over and see what some other quilters are working on this week!

J

TLP - August (What the heck have I been doing with my time?) Edition

Okay, it's summer. I'm not at work every day. I should be finishing a quilt a week here, people. Alas, that is not so much the case. I have been working on things, but not Library Project things apparently!

On the bright side, I have finally finished J-Boy's Good Old Hockey Game quilt. The binding is on (hand-stitched... one of my fav bits of any quilt). All that remains is to sew the label on and wait until Christmas to give it to him!

And yup, that's all I'm showing you of it. There's actually one more thing for this quilt... a proper quilt-y photo shoot. I just need to find the perfect spot (I'm thinking a rink... but one with good lighting) and a willing assistant!

Way back in January, I committed myself to completing four projects for TLP.  I'm sticking to the number, but I've switched things up along the way. Here's the report to date:

Project #1 - Oh Deer for Young B, from Boo Davis' Dare to be Square Quilting
Project #1.5  - Christmas Candy Dish Pillows (½ project - small project)
Project #2 - Go Your Own Way (½ project - uses a technique from a TLP selected book)
Project # 3 - Good Old Hockey Game for J-Boy (as seen above!)

So just one more project to go to fulfill my goal for the year. Back in the spring, I switched things up a bit and changed my projects to more practical ones (usually gifts), but for #4, I'm going back to my original book selections. Modern Patchwork was on that list... the projects in it scare the bejeezus out of me, but the cover quilt just keeps drawing me back.

http://makezine.com/craft/how-to_machine_applique_in_qui/

So there it is... I'm doing it. It's not practical... but it will be something special just for me. I plan to hang it in this spot....

... which is directly in front of my at the desk in my studio. This quilt, Honu (The Protector), will go to live in the nursery next door. Decision made. ☺ Time to begin the fabric pull! I'm thinking blues and teals with low volume prints.

Even though I'm terribly late this month, I'm linking up with Adrienne at Chezzetcook Modern Quilts for the monthly link-up. I haven't missed one yet and I'm not about to start now!

J