Blogger's Quilt Festival: Whirlygigs!

I'm back after a long (almost two weeks!) absence. I've been trucking away on my Whirlygigs. I finished the quilting during the Friday Night Sew-In but didn't post Saturday, because I wanted to show the finished product, so here it is!

This is my quilt for Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival. This quilt is special to me because I made it just for me! It's the perfect sitting on the couch quilt, and it's a fun design I had been wanting to try out. I started this quilt about two months ago, and it sat on a shelf for a long time while I was distracted with other projects. One of the main reason this project was shelved for so long is that I was rather frustrated when I failed to include the seam allowance in the width of the strips I cut for the sashing. Rather than toss the strips and start over, I decided to run with it, and I'm so happy with how it turned out! I think "fudging it" is part of the beauty of quilting, you can break the so-called rules and still wind up with a fantastic finished product!

I especially like the back of this quilt. I used my few remaining charm squares to make some 4" square whirlygigs (the ones on the front are 8" square) and bordered them in ½" of the pink Minny Miu border print. All it needs now is a label...

I also learned that straight-line quilting is sooooo much quicker and less stressful! I used a programmed stitch on my machine through the center of the sashing. Then I just stitched straight lines a quarter inch away from the outlines of my whirlygigs to make them pop a little.

The biggest achievement for me, though, was the binding. I've been wanting to do a striped bias binding for a while, so I found some pretty yellow 100% seersucker at Jo-Ann. The achievement is that this is my first quilt with hand-stitched binding! I finally broke down and gave it a shot. I used Amy's fabulous tutorial, and it didn't take nearly as long as I thought. My favorite part about hand-stitching the binding is that I can include some extra batting in there (I trimmed a half inch away from the stitching instead of a quarter), so the binding is nice and puffy, not flat.

I've really enjoyed reading the posts so far in the Blogger's Quilt Festival, and can't wait to read more. As I write this, there are more than 500 participants! Please click the button up top and check them out!

grumble, grumble

Well I was on a roll yesterday after basting Happy Campers, so I decided to get to cutting the sashing strips for my whirlygigs. I got everything cut and sat down to start sewing, when I realized I forgot to include seam allowances on the width of the strips! I cut 25 8½" x 2" strips. I want them to be 2" wide finished! I also cut six 2" x WOF strips for the horizontal sashing. This wound up using ⅔ of a yard. Now I have a decision to make.

• I could go ahead and use what I cut, losing 3" from the height of the quilt and 2½" from the width. If I stick with 4" borders, this will give me a finished quilt measuring 47½" x 58" (which is a bit awkward).
• I could make up the difference by making a wider border, probably 6". This would give me a finished size of 51½" x 62". Still awkward, but big enough to cuddle under on the couch.
• I could go ahead and cut the strips out correctly, and toss what I have aside for future days. With 2" finished sashing and 4" finished borders, the quilt will measure 50" x 60". Nice, even measurements, and the perfect size for laying on the couch.

I'm torn, because this was supposed to just be a fun, easy lap quilt. I don't want to over-complicate it, but I still want it to be visually appealing. I think 8" blocks with 1½" sashing might look kinda funky. I also don't want to waste what I've already cut.

What would you do?

Inspiration from Flickr

It's been a few days. I haven't posted because I haven't gotten anything done since the Friday Night Sew-In. I've been taking care of a sick boyfriend and a sick puppy with my free time this week. I have about 8 days until I can buy more fabric and thread, so I need to make do with what I have. But I have been practically drooling over the Modify Tradition blog and Flickr pool. These are a few of my favorites:

(each photo is a link to the Flickr page, hover or click over for details)

I've been doing some online window-shopping for a FQ bundle or layer cake, because I am absolutely dying to make my very own Modify Tradition-inspired sampler quilt. They're doing a quilt-along over there, but I think I want to do this at my own pace. I'm already behind on Rachel's pinwheel sampler — I caught up for all of one day!

So here is my to-do list before I can buy more fabric. Hopefully posting it here will keep me accountable...

1. pinwheel sampler quilt-along block five
2. put together backing for Happy Campers
3. baste Happy Campers
4. work on sashing for whirlygigs
5. get paid

The last item on that list is probably the most important :)

In sale news: QuiltHome is giving 20% off Valori Wells fabric, patterns and books through March 29 with the code vwf20.

Fabric.com is giving an extra 30% off sale (which is already 30%-50% off) through March 29 with code CLEARANCE323.

ps: I am also completely addicted to the Fresh Modern Quilts Flickr pool. Inspiration city.

National Quilting Day and Friday Night Sew-In results

Happy National Quilting Day! Today is also my the first day of Spring and my half-birthday, which means I'm six months away from the big 2-5. I'm still getting used to being 24. Weird.

I got a ton of stuff done yesterday! It was the Friday Night Sew-In, but I sewed pretty much all day. I think I spent about 8 or 9 hours cutting and sewing.

I got all caught up on the pinwheel sampler quilt along. (Of course, Rachel posted a new block today!)

block three


block four

After that, I switched to whirlygigs:

I managed to cut fabric and piece all twenty of my whirlygig blocks! I'm incredibly pleased with how they turned out. They were remarkably simple to put together, which was surprising because not only had I never made one before, I wasn't following a tutorial. They will be about 8" finished.

For the second block of the Pinwheel Sampler Quilt-Along, Rachel included an amazing tutorial on taming the bulky seams in the center of the blocks. I honestly think I'm addicted to it. The way you press the seams gives the blocks a pretty cool effect. I used it for all my whirlygig blocks.

If you participated in the Friday Night Sew-In, what did you get done? How are you celebrating National Quilting Day and/or the first day of Spring?

In sale news: Natalia at Piece N Quilt is giving you 25% off your purchase using coupon code "Nationalquiltingday" through midnight tonight.

Leah at Burgundy Buttons is offering 10% off with the code "NQD" all weekend.