Part 2: Mini Quilt : Panda-monium

The number of pieces in this pattern -- 26 sizes, totaling pieces is 79 (I think) -- is a little overwhelming. And I don't have the greatest history of keeping things straight when I follow a pattern this complex -- but I am not going to let this pattern intimidate me.

My experiences with Hazel Hedgehog did teach me I do better if I have this complex a patter printed off instead of trying to keep track of everything on the computer. It also helps to read the entire pattern before you start. Maybe that's obvious... but I usually like to start working right away. So for this mini, I made myself slow down and take my time.

Those are all the pieces (I hope!) cut and labeled. It's still a little overwhelming... but unless I made a mistake, I should be ready to proceed with caution.

-- much later --

Some of the top assembly was actually accomplished back in July, the night before I went to the hospital to have the baby, but most of it happened in very small, one or two seams at a time chunks during tiny baby naps.

I thought I had been very careful, but this afternoon proved that I need some work on that level. Or I suppose we could put some blame on pregnancy and/or post-pregnancy brain... There were a few issues, some with cutting (I was a few pieces short, and at least one was the wrong size by a significant part) and of course the usual issues with imperfect seam allowances. Ugh. I need to make permanent guides on my machine!

But --all imperfections managed and included, I finished the little top at last!

Yes, this was a lot of work, and a lot of pieces, but I kind of want to do it again. Someday when I have a lot more time that is! It was very time consuming for me, and the kind of block that requires a pressing station near by, but I love my wonky little panda.

Part 1: Mini Quilt : Panda-monium

This is another post that I intended to share in July and never managed to come back to hit 'publish' on. I thought about deleting the time-specific comments, but I kind of like having the record of how things were going there towards the end of the pregnancy. For what it's worth, this was written on a Wednesday night and I checked into the hospital on that Friday morning. So, you all can ignore those comments -- because baby is already long here -- but indulge me in my moments of sentimentality. 

Okay, I know I'm supposed to be finishing up projects I already have in motion.

Or possibly getting ready to have a baby. You know, like any day now?

And I really was going to work on something. Or sleep.

But then a picture of the Fat Quarter Shop's free pattern called Panda-monium came through my feed...

Seriously, check out how cute it is here (links through to the free pattern on the Fat Quarter Shop site) and here (a blog hop example I found via pinterest, seriously, adorable version).

How can I resist?

So, since I was supposed to go to bed early last night, I only let myself look at fabric choices -- and I'm only going to let myself use stash fabrics.

Obviously that's more greens than I'll need for the few tiny pieces of bamboo... but I thought I'd start with a short list and narrow it down as I work. Two of the greens were used in the Hazel Hedgehog mini hanging in the nursery -- and the coordination might be nice. That tiniest scrap of green is leftover from one of the co-sleeper mattress covers, and it could be a sentimental inclusion as well. Then again, I might need something really dark for contrast, and well... the other one is just cute and has never been used (it does have little silver butterflies though, so that might not work in such tiny cuts). I like options.

I would really like to use the brighter/bolder orange as the background -- but I don't think I have enough. I'll measure in the morning, but if not, I have more than enough of the lighter orange. Or I might do something a little off-pattern and use both since it looks like part of the background is just a 'frame' -- I could do that in one and the rest in the other. We'll see tomorrow!

Um... unless I go into labor...

It's now September  October. And I'm still picking away at this mini quilt, but I'll share where I am next time I can carve out enough moments to get on the computer! 

September Wrap Up and October Goals

Um, woah. Is it already half way through October? Whoops.

I did little to nothing in September. Actually, I started a project that is now back-burnered for a while, and I managed to read one book ("The Viscount Who Loved Me" by Julia Quinn) -- unless you count children's books! Otherwise, I think I managed to survive and that's enough of a win right now that I'll take it with joy.

October is looking to be more of the same, minimal progress and minimal crafty success, but I am already one book down (and part way through several others).

The local quilt group is back into the swing of things, but I won't be working on my own projects there for a while. We've challenged ourselves to make a gift/donation quilt by Christmas -- which sounds totally doable right now (it's only October, right?) but is going to seem overwhelming and impossible before we're done (or so I fear).

I need to set aside some time to work on the test blocks for that quilt today, and if I'm very careful I might make enough more progress on the mini quilt I started the week before the baby was born that I can share some of it... so I'd better stop typing and get to sewing!

Another Home Update

This one is probably even less interesting to anyone else, but I have to brag a little and I don't think I've done it yet.

Our little house is on the lot backwards, so instead of walking into the living room, guests have no choice but to enter at our laundry room. This is not ideal, but it's nothing we're able to control right now.

Initially, the laundry room was two side-by-side machines and a single open shelf -- which collected a bunch of our stuff, but was disorganized, ugly, and just a mess to welcome people.

Before:

Ugh. I do not miss that look.

For a few months, we lived with a temporary fix that in retrospect wasn't too much better...

Yeah. We just covered it with a curtain. Okay, it was a little less messy to walk into... but it still wasn't good.

After a few months of hunting, we finally turned up some stacking machines in our price range (thank you craigslist) and did a machine swap. This gave us basically half the laundry room for machines, and half for a new storage cabinet.

After/Now:

My amazing father built this storage unit from one of my rough sketches and it is perfect. The three upper cabinets each are just large enough for a laundry bin (one for baby stuff, one for towels, one for our clothes), with room to store things on one side as well as behind the baskets. There table portion you can see just at the bottom of the picture is on glides and actually rolls back into the cabinet when we're not using it for folding or stain treating. Under that is a big cubby that holds the litter box and a trash can.

(True, entering the house to a litter box isn't the nicest feeling either -- but this means we were able to get a dining table, so for us the trade off is worth it. It also means we clean it more regularly, which I'm sure the cat is appreciating too.)

I'm in love with the storage unit -- and I'm managing to fold the laundry directly from the dryer, so no more massive piles of clean laundry just waiting for attention. This has been a complete change in how we do laundry, but it is such an improvement. Thanks Dad!

Later
Having lived with this a few more months, I'm even more in love with it. The clean laundry isn't getting folded quite as quickly as it should be, but this still keeps us organized, and gives a central place for keeping clean spit rags and swaddle blankets for the babe. The curtain is still balled up at the top of the shelves -- only because I haven't had the time to take it away. There is just enough room between the machines and the shelving unit to store our air drying rack -- on the rare times when we put it away; these days it spends most of the time outside drying diapers! 

I thought I was making the laundry room better for the sake of our entryway looking better, but now that I'm doing 2+ loads of laundry a day, I realize that I did it for me. Fortunately, it worked out for both looks and functionality. Woohoo! 

Wonky Star Compilation -- Celebration

I thought I had shared these a couple weeks ago... but I don't see them now. No surprise -- these days I don't know if I'm going or coming or somewhere in between. I can hardly keep track of myself, much less anything I'm supposed to be doing.

After way too much time, the Wonky Star quilt my local group made blocks for is quilted and washed and ready to be given away in November.

Everyone in the group contributed at least one wonky star block to the top -- with some people stopping at one and others contributing several. It's a lot of fun to look at the variety of degrees of 'wonk' -- and the variety of fabrics -- and try to guess who made which star.

I took on the process of puzzling it all into one quilt, as well as quilting and binding. Those two steps got a bit of a short-shift, since my free time took a big cut recently -- but the end result still looks good to me.

The quilted lines are a challenge to see, but I chose to go with 'random' lines across the body of the quilt, and rather than using a stark/contrasting white thread, I chose a red/blue/green/yellow thread for both the top and bottom of the quilt. The result is nice, but actually more subtle than I'd intended.

I had planned to do a thicker binding, but I fell into the familiar pattern and wound up with the same width I always use (a 2.25 piece folded in half) -- something I only noticed when I had already ironed it and attached it to half the quilt. So, although it wasn't quite as intended (and as usual, my ability to 'catch' the binding the second time around wasn't good), life is too busy to undo it now.

We've come a long way since October/November 2014 -- from a stack of blue fabric and a bunch of scraps, to this beautiful quilt:

It was a blast to see come together, and like I said, I love seeing all the different stars and different personalities working together in one gorgeous quilt.

This one took longer than any of our previous quilts -- mostly because it was waiting on me to get things done! -- but I can't wait to see what we come up with this year. The first couple business meetings are out of the way and we'll be getting back to sewing and quilting in October.

Progress

Wonky Star Compilation Quilt -- CQG

Recent Progress: bound
Now: in the washing machine

Our Bedroom Quilts (take 2)

Recent Progress: Top 1 is finished, Top 2 is finished
Yet to do: Make 1 back, baste, quilt, bind,

Scrappy X Plus Blocks / Quilt

Recent Progress:
Yet to Do: baste, quilt, bind, wash

Half-Square Triangle Quilts (Saturated/Black and Muted/Brown)

Recent Progress:
Yet to do: Cut solids (half done), piece tops, make backs, baste, quilt, bind, wash


Embraceable Quilt

Recent Progress:
Yet to Do: bind, wash, give away

Black and White and Panda All Over Quilt (for Baby)

Recent Progress: basted
Yet to Do: quilt, bind, wash

Waiting to Start:

• Selfish sewing project

August Goals & Wrap Up

August Goals & Wrap Up

Continue surviving. -- Obviously accomplished. Some days are much easier than others, but we are all still here, and managing to eat and shower (most days) so I think that's about as much as I can hope for right now. 

Hopefully:

• make some progress on quilting the Wonky Stars quilt for CQG -- I'm cutting the binding as soon as I'm finished here, and hope to get it attached tonight. 
• make progress on the new mini quilt -- I managed 3 more pieces. If I can print off the pattern, I'll take this as my project for Thursday's quilt group. If not, I have another plan in mind. 
• start cooking meals (at least 1 meal a day) -- Hahaha. No. Partly because it is hot. Partly because the moment I start something un-stopable (like a work phone call) is the moment baby transfers from sleeping to screaming. 

Pack a couple lunches for Greg on long work days
2+ doctor's appointments -- One accomplished, but not the one I intended to have. Hurrah for (what the clinic tells me is) De Quervain's tensoynovitis. 2 weeks of thumb brace. So far, I'm doing a bad job at keeping it on, but there are just some things that are more important and can't be accomlished with it on. Yuck. So, still need to make and attend 2 more appointments. I'd better hurry up and get those on the calendar. 

Also managed to read 1 book (a reread from earlier this year), and am close to finishing 2 more. 

In less exciting news, we also took baby out of state for the first time, attended 2 family reunions and a funeral (thus the out of state trip), and are full time cloth diapering. 

I hope that as we get more used to being parents and baby gets more used to being here, we'll be able to find some kind of schedule and I'll be able to do more than just take care of baby and self -- but I think that's probably another month or so away from being more than a fond hope. Still, I'm doing better with sleeping (or not sleeping) than I was last month, so I'm optimistic for the future. 

July Wrap Up

Let's see... I know my goal was more or less to survive, but I did accomplish a little.

Except apparently I didn't hit 'publish' on this last time I was logged in -- about a month ago! Whoops! 

July Reading List:

• "Ella Enchanted" Gail Carson Levine
• "BeastKeeper" Cat Hellisen
• "Beneath a Marble Sky" John Shors
• "The Sin Eater's Daughter" Melinda Salisbury
• "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" J.K. Rowling 

Basted the panda quilt 

Started on a mini-quilt -- but haven't finished (more on this later, I hope)

Baked a blueberry upside down cake

Cleaned my house (except the 2 bathrooms)

Got back into some pre-pregnancy pants

At this point in my life, accomplishing a load of laundry each day is about as much as I manage, but I am not only surviving, but managing laundry and a few other things -- so I'll call that pretty good! 

Arrival and Survival

You might have guessed from the silence around here, but I thought I would make an official announcement: baby is here.

Things are both easier and harder than I expected, but I am taking life as easy as possible while we all try to figure out this strange new world.

So far, Momo seems to be adjusting well. I don't see friendship between them any time soon, but at least Momo isn't hiding in his cupboard all the time like I'd feared. And, no signs of a cat allergy either. I think my two biggest worries are going to turn out to be non-issues! What a relief.

The pediatrician says the first two months are all about survival, and we should do whatever it takes to get through them, and worry about schedules, styles, and the like after that. I don't know if that is true, but I like the sentiment. So, we are in survival mode around here, and quilting will happen (or not) around everything else that has to happen.

Partial Package...

Okay, so I'm not sharing everything from this Welcome Baby package -- but here's a little bit of what's going to Florida along with the Oceans Quilt.

Although I always knew I wanted to send something to this friend when her family grew in this way, I had been procrastinating on it a little bit. When I wound up with two copies of these wonderful books, I knew I had to jump and get it moving before my maternity leave started!

The books:

"What Do You Do With An Idea?"
and
"Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel"

The Oceans Quilt:

and a John Deere / Minky blanket

There are a few other things I've collected to go with -- but not much since gender is a surprise and I couldn't get too specific with things like outfits...

I tried not to go too all out -- having been on the receiving end now, I know how overwhelming some of these outpourings can be, especially when so many come at once -- but I have been waiting and hoping for this friend to make this kind of announcement for a long time, so I had a little more stocked up for her family than I knew. I also was inspired by some of the things we received -- though I have yet to be able to test ours and see if that was a good inspiration or not! I'll know so much more in a few months, but for now, I'm happy to be celebrating for my friend and hopefully I haven't included anything too utterly annoying or useless!

Some House / Nursery Updates

I think it's been a while since I've posted anything about the changes we've been making around the house... and since I'm still not up to basting that panda quilt, I guess this is about all I've got to share for the moment!

Master Bedroom Changing Area:

Finding frames for these two pieces of art (okay, a piece of art and a puzzle) was a bigger issue than it should have been -- and we wound up going with things that don't quite fit because we didn't want to bother going custom -- but we've finally got the changing area set up finalized. I'm sure this will change somewhat as we actually use it, and at some point it'll move out of our bedroom, but for the moment, one more thing crossed off the list!

The art, Purrmaids print by ArtbyVW via etsy, is something I bought pre-pregnancy. So whether it's for me or the baby is still up for debate, but I'm still so happy to finally have it up on the walls. It reminds me of my favorite kids' book, The Color Kittens -- which I'd always hoped to use as inspiration for a nursery back when I thought I would have lots of time and space and energy to make one work! -- and the print just makes me happy every time I see it. The puzzle -- which I couldn't get a great shot of thanks to all the glare pouring in from our bedroom window -- is a Ravensburger puzzle called the College of Magical Knowledge which was a gift to my husband. We knew we wanted to assemble it and hang it in the nursery, but for the moment, it looks pretty good over the changing table.

My homemade mobile -- which has not held up to this spring and summer's massive humidity uptake -- is looking a little wilted from the side, but the important view still seems to be working:

I've read that high contrast simple shapes will be interesting for the first few months, so for starters, we're trying this. I figure the height needs adjusted, but again, that'll happen once we're actually using the space.

The two open shelves are actually vertical planters we're stacking diapers in... but I think they work -- and they aren't too heavy, good news for both our walls and any future incidents! Hidden just over Momo's head is the very first thing we intentionally bought for the baby, about the time we decided we would try going on this adventure:

A rather rustic looking winged pig lamp. It's sort of our way of acknowledging my old answer of 'when pigs fly.' It's another thing that might never make it to the actual nursery, but it makes me laugh -- and these days, laughter is pretty important.

Quilt #29 - Oceans Quilt

If I'd been thinking when I started on this one, I might have called it something a little more beautiful, like "Sea Glass" or something... but it's always been just "Oceans" in my head, so that's what I'm sticking with.

The early steps were a challenge -- piecing the top, getting my math to turn out anywhere near where I thought it should, and I thought I would never get this one basted.

Fortunately, the later steps came together fairly smoothly. Quilting it went as quickly and smoothly as any project I've worked on, and the binding (despite being non bias style) went on quickly as well.

Since I'm not too familiar with the temperatures in Florida, I went with a really light weight batting, which makes this quilt light and something I'd consider more summer weight. Hopefully that lightness means it has a greater chance of being used year round down there -- though I'm sure there are times that are actually cold too.

Although I started with a plan for the quilt top -- and eventually grew that plan into the size I needed -- the back was more of a surprise to pull together. That said, I really can't decide which half of the quilt I like better! I think if absolutely forced to choose, I would probably go with the front, but I also know I'm not alone in being fond of the back; last night I showed it off to three people, one of whom thought the back was much better than the front.

I think the quilting is a lot more 'fun' when viewed on the back side of the quilt, while on the front it is more about the pattern of the blocks. Which are also lovely and a lot of fun, but the back is just a little more unexpected. I don't know. Either way, I love both sides, and hopefully the recipient will too!

I had high hopes for perfection on this one, hopes that were repeatedly dashed. But it still turned into something absolutely beautiful, something I'm still proud to offer to my friend as a gift.

Oceans Quilt - Bound

Disappointingly, I didn't quite have enough yardage left over to bind the Oceans Quilt bias style, but thanks to a few leftover cuts, I did have enough to go with a straight line binding. It's not my favorite to apply -- though so far I've seen no difference in the wear -- but I just couldn't patch in another color for a quarter of the binding!

It's a little hard to pick out amid all that long grass, but I think the final touch of grey was exactly the right choice. It feels like it brings the whole thing full circle. I love it.

And fortunately, the grey solid binding goes well with the backing too. As I'd mentioned earlier, I'm really pleased with the way the batik on the back coordinates with the grey solid, as well as playing nicely with the more colorful pieces.

Oooh, I just love the colors. I'm in very serious danger of loving the back more than the front. And that's saying a lot.

Yep, it's a beauty. It's not perfect, but assuming it comes through the wash well, I will be proud to send it off to my friend.

Oceans Quilt -- Quilting is done!

I didn't quite stick with my sketched up plan for quilting the Oceans quilt -- but I think I'm even happier with how it turned out than I would have been if I had stuck with my original plans.

Instead of going with 'wave inspired' lines through the two outside borders, I stuck with the straight (ish) line theme I'd used throughout. Mostly this choice had to do with worrying that the sudden change in quilting style would feel awkward after so many straight-ish lines in the center of the quilt, but yes, a little bit of it had to do with the time I had left to work on it.

You can see that things aren't quite perfect -- as if I could ever make a quilt that was! -- with a little bit of puckering in the center and a little bit there on the right side, but all in all, I'm incredibly pleased with how things turned out.

It's a little subtle in this picture, but I am absolutely in love with the way the quilting shows on the backing. It really dresses it up in an interesting way, especially for having nothing to do with the pattern of the backing materials.

Oh, and you're right, the backing does look a little different from the last time I showed. Backs are usually made slightly larger than quilt tops, then trimmed to size after quilting. I realized just before I started basting that if I didn't change my backing a little, that meant I would be losing out on some of my pieced section. That wasn't what I wanted, so I stitched the top and bottom sides together, chose a random spot to fold and cut and ta-da, wound up with a quilt back with the batik style fabric on both the top and bottom. I still lost a little of the pieced parts from each side, but this wasn't as hard to swallow as, say, losing the whole bright green/mustard Tokyo piece would have been.

Here's a slightly closer view of the quilting on the back side:

I just think that looks so cool. Maybe even better than it does on the front where I more or less tried to echo the pieced design.

I had to take the quilt all over the place to get some pictures of it. I just like the contrast of something that to me seems so 'ocean-y' lined up with all this grass and farm equipment and such. I'm also a big fan of green/blue/grey color combination, so to me these are very soothing pictures.

Sadly, the mountains are a little too hazy today for good pictures with them as a focal point, but for my friend the once-Colorado-gal, I thought I'd try.

I didn't get a good picture showing the way the top and back work together, but here's a small idea:

I think the batik piece that makes up the largest portion of the backing coordinates well with the grey solid, without being too much the same. I'm really thrilled with how well these came together -- and even more thrilled that it was a happy stash busting accident.

Some grey bias binding to make and apply, then a trip through the wash and this one is ready to go off to it's new home, farther from mountains but closer to the real ocean.

Quilting in Progress

I feel like I've spent the day quilting away, but at least I'm making good progress!

The lines are a little bit organic by necessity to line up with the less than perfect seams, but when I step back I'm fairly happy with the way things are turning out so far.

I did go with straight lines through the larger triangles and the pinwheel. It would have been nice to see the whole thing in a meander or something less linear, but I think it is turning out well so far.

I've only managed the interior star block, including the outline there. Two lines on the grey border and some kind of wave-like lines going through the outer two sets of blocks and I'll be done. I'd like to finish it up yet tonight -- but I've got three more miles to walk tonight and I know from experience that I won't be able to sleep (thank you restless legs) if I don't hit my goal. So, sounds like finishing up is a project for tomorrow.

The goal is to be completely done, washed, and ready for packaging up by tomorrow afternoon. As long as everything keeps going this smoothly, I think I just might make it!



Moment of full honesty here: I'm actually posting more than a week behind real time. Which is good, because in reality I did something awful to my back on Thursday and have been utterly helpless most of the long holiday weekend. Sunday was the first time I could get onto or off of the sofa without help, and today is the first day I can breathe fully without excruciating pain. Today I might be able to work the sewing machine on a small or light project, but wresting with even a baby size quilt is beyond my capabilities. As is lifting a full 24 oz water bottle. Good times. Here's hoping for a very quick recovery, and that I can find some cleaning / nesting projects to keep me sane while allowing myself to keep resting and recovering as much as possible. 

Thinking about Quilting

I did a quick sketch of the quilting I think I want to do on the Oceans Quilt -- a very quick and ugly little sketch, but it gives you an idea where I think I'm headed.

My thought is to more of less 'outline' the pieces of the central star, a line on both insides of the grey border, and a set of wave-like free-motion-ish (because of course, my feed dogs still don't drop properly) lines through the outer borders. This leaves the little border of half-square-triangles without any quilting. The batting suggests this is an acceptable amount to leave without quilting, but I wonder if the HSTs will be stronger and safer if there's a little more quilting over the top of them.

My major issue is still the large grey fields in the center, both around the outside and the pinwheel. I need to put something inside them, but what will work? I sketch tested a few different options, mostly various straight lines building off the patterns already existing -- copying off the lines near by or in-lining the pinwheel triangle. Nothing felt right.

I've debated trying to freehand some stars in the four outside open spaces, similar to what I did on the Christmas Quilt -- but prettier, I hope! That said... I'm not confident in my ability to make those turn out as 'perfect' as I'd like. I run into the same problem with adding other shapes to these open spaces... Hmm...

Searching the internet for ideas is a lot of fun --

Something like this incredible quilting (found through Pinterest, but link goes to the post at QuiltingBoard.com, a site I've never seen before but will be checking out in detail tonight when I give up on this project for a few hours) would be ideal -- but well beyond my limited abilities, and my limited time schedule.

-- but not much help.

All the 'fillers' I can find require real free motion abilities. And while I do dream of having that ability, I haven't got the time or money to invest in a new machine, and so far no one has been able to fix mine to make it work as it should. So, back to the sketching board I guess... I'd like to start on this asap, so hopefully inspiration will strike soon!