WIPS « Sea Me Sparkle

I think it is about time for an update on all my WIPs. Blogging is just not what it use to be anymore. I have sat down intending to write a post so many times and then just started doing something else. I am really getting into the Instagram as far as keeping up with people that share my interests. What I like the most about Instagram is how much time I save compared to blogging. It really is instant. It is nice to get immediate feed back and to know someone has seen what you have posted. If you are on Instagram and want to see what I am up to use the link on my side bar or look me up under tiki_tami or click this link http://instagram.com/tiki_tami I think I will continue to post to this blog to keep track of my projects, but can see the posts being few and far between. Anywhoo, lets get to the update. First up is my Designer Mystery Block of the Month 2013. Yes This started back in 2013 and I am just now getting started with it. I decided to make 2 quilts at the same time. Here is a photo of the first three months for the quilt. The top three are made with the fabric they sent with the pattern for each block. It is Avalon by Fig Tree. The second quilt I am making with 30’s reproduction fabric from my stash. For the back ground on this one I am alternating between Baby Pink & Pastel Blue by Bella solids. The very first block in the top left corner I need to pick apart. I did not realize that the back ground cream has a definite front and back. The back is slightly darker than the front. So I sewed a few of the pieces facing the wrong way. It is not as noticeable but I think since I am aware of it I will always know it is wrong and it is just easier to fix it and move on. I am just glad I realized it on the first block and did not continue with all the blocks wrong. I have already received my last month so I am completely behind on this one. The final quilt is amazing and I just love the Avalon fabric.

Here is my quilting bee blocks for June. Our queen Daisy from Ants to Sugar requested blocks with a butterfly theme and also wanted a bit of low volume fabric in the mix. I loved having so much creative control on the blocks, plus a butterfly theme was perfect sewing for summer. I am looking forward to see how she puts all her blocks together.

I have completed 16 of my six point star blocks. This is all the diamonds I had cut out. So now I am back in my stash and have pulled out a new stack of fabrics and am currently cutting out diamonds. I think I might go ahead and sew these 16 together and then continue to sew the new ones on in small groups. I think if I waited till I had enough 6 point star blocks to make a whole quilt I would be overwhelmed and never sew them all together. Still in love with this project and it gives me something to do while my husband has control of the TV remote control in the evenings.

Still chugging away on my Mirabilia cross stitch “Under the Friendship Tree”. I completed the chart on the top all the way across. It will be nice when I can get down to some of the other colors.

I took a local Hawaiian Quilt class and had a blast. It seems like this is the first time I have done something like this for myself since before Chloe was born. I love Hawaiian quilts and even have several Hawaiian quilt books. I just have never taken the plunge and tried it on my own. So when I noticed the local shop was having a class I did not hesitate and signed up. The class was like 6 hours and had a handful of ladies and none of us had ever made a Hawaiian quilt block. I learned so much and feel confident that I could possibly make a quilt. My block is the top left blue and white one in the turtle motif. I did not get a photo of everyone’s block but was able to get these few. They all looked amazing. I liked the red and white one and thought it would be cool for Christmas. There was a pineapple motif example quilt block the instructor brought that I think Might be one I will try. I have a zillion mistakes on mine and I might start over using what I learned. Overall so glad I took the class and pretty confident I will be making up some Hawaiian blocks some time soon. We are taking a family vacation this year at the end of summer to Maui and I plan to take a bunch of photos of any Hawaiian quilts I see for inspiration.

This is what I am working on right now. This is a kit I bought several years ago I recently found called American Wave. It is a wall hanging that comes out at 19″ X 27″. When I bought the kit I did not realize it had curved lines. It was one of those moments where you look at it and say what was I thinking, I don’t know how to sew this. On my want to make quilt list is the Single Girl quilt by Denyse Schmidt and it is all curved lines. I thought if I tackled this wall hanging it would build my confidence so I can finally make the Single Girl quilt. Summer Time I always feel like sewing patriotic stuff so I am feeling this at the moment and hope to get it done before the end of summer. If you have any tips on sewing curved lines let me know.

Now for the thing I am most looking forward to. This is my next Block of the Month Quilt I recently signed up for that starts in July. The quilt is “Amish with a Twist II” by Nancy Pink in Marcus Brothers fabric. I don’t know what it is about this quilt but I could not get passed it. I would never pick out these colors or think of putting it all together like this. I am star struck and would totally hang this up on my wall. I am so excited for this BOM to get started next month. This is a mammoth beast and will consider myself to move up a notch on quilting experience after this one.

Well that will wrap up my crafty creative stuff at the moment. We have been in full swing summer around here. Never a dull moment with a five year old.

I have several works in progress or shall I say a few I am actually working on at the moment. I decided to take a reality check this year on my long list of incomplete quilts. I printed out a photo list of all my wips listed by oldest to newest and hung it up on my cork board. This quilt is my oldest wip. It is the first quilt I ever made. I made this quilt top in 2003 after I lost my beloved cat “Pusskins”. It was kind of my therapy at the time. I had no pattern all I had was a few books on quilting and I also watched a few shows on PBS. One of the shows was on applique and that is how I got the idea to use a cat and heart motif and applique them onto some of the blocks. My cat Pusskins was a black cat so naturally I wanted the cats to be black. All of the fabric in the top I found at JoAnn fabrics. I just kind of made it up as I went along. I set up my quilt station in my kitchen on the little table in the corner. This is when I discovered the rotary cutter and mat. Little by little I pieced this thing together. Then when I got to actually making it into a quilt is where my troubles began. I bought a big thing of acrylic high loft batting. I also was not confident in my quilting so I bought clear acrylic thread. When I made my sandwich I just laid it out on the bed and pinned it all together, not knowing I should have secured the backing on a surface before putting the batting then top down to pin. I did my quilting by stitching in the ditch around the square blocks. What a nightmare. It was a total mess. It was so thick from the batting and the thread was awful. I ended up rolling it up and putting it in the closet for the next 10 years, always thinking I would fix it. Now I know a little bit more about quilting. So fast forward to 2014 and me finally deciding to clear out all those old wips. Last week when we were all kind of iced in from the big winter storm of the south, I pulled out this quilt and began to hand pick out all the quilting and separated the top from the batting and backing. It took me three days and it is ready now for some proper cotton batting. I am going to switch up the backing fabric a little too. I am so excited that this quilt is on the mend. It looks like Cosmo is already staking claim to the quilt once I finish it.

Still working on my nephews quilt made using the economy blocks. I plan to make another strip of bricks for in between the last two rows using a few of the fabrics from the top row of blocks. I am using a light tan as my neutral for around the blocks and outside border. I am thinking of appliqueing my nephews name onto the top border. His 1st birthday is tomorrow so I should deserve a few spankings for being so slow on this one. I blame my design board. Every time I make a block or complete another stage of the quilt and put it on the design board, I sit and stare at it. Seriously long moments just staring at the board and thinking about how I might put it all together. I love how this is turning out.

Here is the progress on my Woodland Sampler cross stitch. I just have the last month left. I ran out of the brown floss that is used to outline each block. I ordered some and just received an email that the floss has shipped. My goal is to get this one done by the end of the month. My fingers are itching to start a new cross stitch pattern.

Here is the biggest Work in Progress in the house. Koda is 9 months old and is as big as a horse, or at least it feels he is that big. He is lucky he is so adorable. He is all puppy and bad dog rolled into one, lets just say he is a work in progress.