#floatingcolors

The longer I quilt, the more I find that hand-piecing is my true love.  I love the rhythm of it - having a bunch of teeny pieces of beautiful fabric always near, the feeling of the fabric and the needle in my hand, my little leather thimble...

When I first started quilting, hand-piecing took too long.  I needed to make, to complete, to finish.  I would find inspiration in beautiful hand-sewn quilts, but I didn't see how I could possibly spend so much time on just one top!

But now... well now I am sewing these teeny tiny pieces of fabric together with the plan of making a king-sized quilt.  Because I love them.  And because not everything in life needs to be rushed.

my new obsession

Recently on Instagram Paper Pieces posted a photo of "Floating Colors" by Willyne Hammerstein and I knew it would be my next quilt.  Since I finished HexyMF, and since I'm almost ready to piece the top of my liberty hexy stars quilt, I figured it was ok to start another hand-pieced top.  I like to have things in various stages of progress so that I can switch between projects as the mood strikes.  And then of course a day later paper pieces had a 30% off sale... so I bought the pack, made some templates, and got started fussy-cutting my AMH stash.

These pieces are TINY!  My plan for the quilt is to use the AMH prints for the flowers and to make them "float" by setting them with low-volume crosses.  Fussy cutting is really fun but really time-consuming, so I'm cutting a bunch of the flowers in one sitting, working through my AMH in color order.

it is SO FUN to see the patterns emerge as I sew the flowers together.  I haven't done much fussy cutting, and it's fascinating how some of the fabrics that I like least end up making designs that I completely love.  It's definitely changing the way I look at fabric!

Once they are cut, these flowers come together fast!  Hah I guess that's the advantage of tiny pieces -- tiny seams!  

I actually used my sewing machine!

Although I've been on a HUGE hand-piecing binge lately,  I decided it was time to try to finish some old WIPs and actually use my machine for a change!  My Juki was my graduation gift when I finished nursing school, and it is such a joy to sew with.

My Juki - look at that throat space!

I love starting new projects - the excitement!  the possibility!  the excuse to buy more fabric! 

But I can also be kind of terrible at finishing those projects.  So I've decided to start a system where I have to finish two quilts for each one that I start.  I got the idea from Jodi at tales of cloth and I'm hoping it will work for me - so far, so good!  Especially since I really only started this plan last week.  hah.  

So I got out my bin for my Christmas scrappytrip quilt, finished sewing the blocks and put the top together!  I LOVE this top - a collection of ugly Christmas fabrics that all come together in a riot of color that I affectionately call my christmas on acid quilt :)

My goal is to have this basted, quilted and bound by December 1 - time to sort through the leftovers to see what I can piece together for a back!

some progress and a sewing space update

I've been plugging away at my Liberty Hexy Stars quilt in between other projects (I may have started another EPP project that I am completely obsessed with) and I'm thisclose to being done with the individual blocks!  So far along that I actually started to work out layout - 6 or 7 more blocks should do the trick to make it a nice lap-size.

Home stretch! 

In other news, I got a beautiful new cabinet for my fabric and supplies!  Our second bedroom had been slowly taken over by my sewing stuff, so I did a HUGE reorganization and clear-out - there was so. much. dust.

I decided to sort all my precious Anna Maria Horner fabrics by color - they've been hidden in a closet and it's time to put that beauty on display!

Such a pretty mess

My cabinet isn't completely organized yet BUT I did successfully put it together - I've never had to put on doors from IKEA before but it was really easy!  Now to finish sorting and organizing my display!

HexyMF (or: the reason I learned to english paper piece)

About four years ago, I saw Katy Jones'  HexyMF quilt and fell in love.  As luck would have it, Katy decided to host a quilt-a-long for the quilt.  So I bought fabric, and paper pieces, and went at it with gusto - I remember sitting in a two-day long orientation for nursing school and surviving the boredom because I basted my hexies the whole time :)

I finished the main portion of the top fairly quickly, and then when it came time to add the outer vines I lost steam.  So the almost-finished top sat in a corner untouched for more than two years.  

But this quilt is too awesome not to finish, so I pulled it out this summer and finally finished those vines.  

At some point in the process, I had decided that I would send it to a long-armer for quilting -- I knew I wanted it to be swirly-whirly-girly, and I am not good enough at free motion quilting to do that myself.  So I found Sarah on Instagram, chose a pattern and mailed it off (which was terrifying.  Trusting the USPS with this beauty? OMG)... and when I got it back it was perfect.  Exactly how I had envisioned it.  

And now it is bound, washed, and on my lap at every opportunity - it almost makes me wish we weren't having such a warm fall!  Almost.