Cheshire Cat Wall Hanging - Completed

I do have to admit that the quilting did not give it quite the effect that I wanted. I have alternating moments of liking it and not liking it. I have to just chalk it up to trying something new :) Maybe next time using a more matching color? I was trying to go for a back-stitching effect like in cross-stitch. Unfortunately the back got a little wrinkled in the quilting so I still need to work on that.

Solo and the Wookie Finish

 

I have to admit that I got in a bit of a sewing slump for a couple of weeks. My Project of Doom is a couple weeks behind. Dear Jane is just hanging there. BUT Solo and the Wookie is now officially finished. On a technical level, I think this may be my best one yet. It is actually square (yay for the boyfriend's T-square), the quilting is decently spaced and didn't cause any buckles and the binding looks soooo pretty. I am considering entering it into the Pacific International Quilt Festival this year. 

County Fair

 

It has been a year and a half since I showed a quilt in the Pacific International Quilt Festival. Today my Grandmother's Flower Garden EPP quilt made another appearance at a county fair along with my Harry Potter at Hogwarts Quilt designed by Owlsea (with some substitutions. Sadly no ribbons but I did enjoy seeing them hanging.  Upon seeing the Harry Potter at Hogwarts quilt actually hanging I realize it had some serious technical errors. It really doesn't hang straight, the words aren't centered and the sides bow in. I love it anyway.

These two quilts will probably be shifted over to actual use and new show quilts will be taking their place. I do separate which quilts are serving each purpose. Ones made for home use and cuddling usually backed with fleece (better for cuddling) and I worry less about them being perfect. Ones that go to show, I worry more about perfection. They get a bit more quilting (even though I prefer less quilted quilts) and a cotton backing.

A break from Paper Piecing

As much as I do enjoy paper-piecing, every now and then I need a break from it. Maybe a month or so ago I picked up these two awesome Doctor Who fabrics:

And I've also been wanting to clear out a bit of my blue scrap stash. I had quite a few blues from when I was trying to make a blue and white Christmas-y Dear Jane. Seeing as I've gone over to rainbow Jane and really just don't want to work on it anymore I needed to do SOMETHING with the blues.

After some digging, I rediscovered Bonnie Hunter's Jared takes a wife. Perfect pattern for my needs! And I've made it before several or so years ago. Here's some progress pictures (the Daleks will be the star centers):

Modified 9 patch

Working on the stars

Project of Doom Week 23

Today I bring you week 23's block of the Project of Doom. Read more about it here.

 
First off we have Rita Skeeter's acid green Quick-Quotes Quill. Beside the quill I added Rita Skeeter in beetle form stuck in Hermonie's Unbreakable Charmed Jar. I would love to claim credit for this idea but it came from a member of the Project of Doom's Facebook group. This took a little bit of block tweeking to make happen.

Next I pieced a fairly generic quill block for the Dark Arts' quilt. Loving that zombie fabric - also from a member of the Project of Doom's Facebook group. Can you tell I was trying to use up some of my blue stash in these blocks?

Bring me Solo and the Wookie!

Quilting is one of the reasons I don't have much of a social life lol. I get totally sucked into projects and just HAVE to finish them. Also I tend to sit in front of the machine for hours and hours with out realizing it.

 

 However Han Solo only took me 2-3 hours to do compared to Chewbacca's 5-6 hours of sewing over 3 days. I'm really happy with how this top turned out. Now I just need to quilt it.

Chesire Cat Wallhanging Completed top

I swear that I didn't go run to the fabric store. 

The only problem I find with paper piecing is that I seem to often misplace chunks of fabric. In this case I managed to find just enough of the pink to finish the top. Now I just need to wait for this awesome fabric I came across on eBay. How cool is this?? I may need to pick up some extra at a later date to store for a future use. After the playing card fabric I had to remember why buying extra fabric comes in handy.....this sounds like a hoarding potential - good think I don't have the room or funds to make a giant fabric stash ;).

Now for the top. Drum roll please!

 

The game plan from here is to add in the details (whiskers, teeth, outlines) during the actual quilting phase. I think he came out pretty good.

 

Cheshire Cat Wallhanging.....

.....and the end of this weekend's sewing marathon. I pretty much kick back, do homework and sew on my weekends. I'm not much for social-ness on my off days.

After a quick run to Joann's, I really got on a roll with this piece. Up until 3 blocks from the end I ran out of the darker pink. How in the world I ended up 44 squares short I have no idea. It is rather frustrating though. Also I ended up discovering that the awesome card fabric I started with for the background was discontinued. In retrospect, if I had done all as planned it may have been a bit too busy. Cheshire cat is going on hold for a little bit until I get around to another fabric run.

In which the Cheshire Cat bag becomes a wall hanging

Last night and this morning I spent some time working on what was intended to be a Cheshire cat bag. What I should have realized much sooner was that 30" by 26" would end up being a rather large bag. This image shows the bottom row minus about 5 inches. I have been sewing this by breaking the design into 5x5 or in one column, 4x5 block sections.

Since I didn't start with quite enough squares I have been sewing chunks until I run out of the color squares that I need then I simply keep going but by working on the sections around it. This is actually a fairly quick sew.

I'll tell you all a little secret of how I can piece things together so quickly: I rarely press my pieces as I sew. What I do instead is start with unwashed fabric (its a bit stiffer this way) and finger press as I go. I press the seams to the side that I need them and run my nail over the top to get the fold over to stay. This does not distort the seams the way the iron can and it is much faster and this keeps me sewing instead of ironing.