February Sewing Goals: Accomplishments (and my cats!)

Wow, February went fast.

So, time to round up some of my sewing/quilting goals for the month.

(oh and warning, I'm bombing my blog today, lots of posts).

First up are a few things that were technically for swaps but since they are quilting related I'm filing them under "quilting goals" as well as swaps.

There was a run of basic 9 patch swaps. You made two blocks per swap and they had to be opposite patterns.  So these count as generic quilty practice.  (I also learned I need to get a bit more white/white fabrics, most of my white based fabrics were a bit strong in color for this swap and we couldn't use solid white).

Next up is an actual goal completion.

For February I wanted to complete another flimsy.  I wanted to use the fabric I won from the Pets on Quilts contest (over at Lilly Pad Quilting) last year to make a kind of in memorium quilt for Olive (she was featured on the mini quilt I used for my submission and sadly she died only one year after we adopted her and I miss the hell out her rat tailed ass. . .but I digress).

I won a jelly roll of Bali Pops batiks in the Lorikeet color variety.  Which was perfect to do a jelly roll race quilt top.  It seemed super easy and fast which is what I need since I'm still a beginner (and February was coming to a close so I needed to get my butt in gear).

I give you the Olive Green jelly roll race in memorium quilt top!

It's actually really pretty.  As I was stitching it up I was worried I was creating the world's fugliest flimsy but the colors really do go well with one another (it's a big brighter than the pic shows--it looks kind of pastel there but it's bright batiks).

Of course, the minute I stretched it over the couch. . .

Aww, Gene, sitting on you sissy's memorial quilt top.  *sigh*

But that beautiful moment was short lived when THIS happened.

THIS meaning Murray (the white blur in the foreground).  He burrowed up under the fabric and was proceeding to grab at it with his claws.  No, thou shall not claw the quilt top.  Hell, I almost destroyed a few of the strips when I was making it because I was having a mental breakdown and just COULD NOT figure out how to properly join the strips so the made the angle.  I kept getting a mitered style corner to my join and I had to go back and check the tutorial (Missouri Quilt youtube for the win!).  That was after I had a not so dignified hissy fit that was *this close* to ending in tears.  I blame it on the shitty weather lately (and my not wanting to fail at such an easy project).

I let the cats enjoy the quilt top (no claw!) for a bit before folding it up to store in the craft room.  One of my yearly goals is to complete a full quilt and this top is going to be my sacrificial lamb.  Since it's so basic in design, I should be able to do some basic free motion quilting (I'm thinking squiggly lines in the middle of each strip) and have it look ok.  But for now I'm sitting it aside.  I need to measure it and trim it up a bit then decide what fabric to use for the back.  But I have time to get that done.

For the record, the jelly roll race quilt top is easy if you're not being dumb as a rock and get the angled join figured out immediately (it was easy once I got it right, it was just figuring out what I was doing wrong that about made me crazy).  Just make sure to wind a few bobbins before hand.  I went through two full ones (almost three).

January Goals Met: Flimsy Finish and practice with HSTs.

I wasn't joking.  I sewed like a crazy woman yesterday.  I just got in the zone and wanted to get a ton of stuff done and I did it.  BAM, just like that.

My list of accomplishments included finishing the Briar Rose flimsy, one of the goals I had for January.

Murray approves.

All the pics are kind of craptacular but it was snowing like crazy yesterday so there was no way in hell I was going out there to take natural light pics.

So here it is in my dim-ass kitchen, hanging over the ironing board.  *yawn*

Then I spread it out on the couch to get a better idea how big it is (and get a bit more light on it, but then it was too much light and I'm an impatient photographer so then I just said screw it and put it on the cat and took his picture because cat pictures are always fun, even in poor lighting)

Some detail shots:

I used a Briar Rose layer cake and a free tutorial (Double Slice Layer Cake) from Missouri Star Quilt.

It was SUPER EASY.  If I wasn't so lazy I would have finished it a lot sooner. As it was, I made all the blocks and then let them sit for months before just putting them together.  Now I'm all obsessed with using pre-cuts to make quilt tops.  I have two jelly rolls that I want to get stitching now.

(oh, and this counts as finishing a UFO for my UFO challenge!  double woot!)

My long term goal for 2015 is to make this flimsy into a full quilt.  But I want to practice a bit more before I go for it on this because I like the fabric so much I don't want to ruin it by quilting it all crappy.

While I'm talking 2015 long term sewing goals, another one is to try my hand at more beginner block styles.  So far I've only played with basic 9-patch, wonky 9-patch, and log cabin.  I'm long over due to try half square triangles.

So these happened.  I guess they're not half square but quarter square?

I took 4 different prints and cut and sewed them back together in pairs and then cut those in the other direction and then sewed them back together.  SUPER EASY.  I don't know why I was so scared of these.  I think it's the math aspect of calculating them.  By using some pre-cut charms (and not caring what the finished size was) I got rid of the anxiety over them and they turned out super cute.

I used one on a patch and I'm not sure what I'll use these for.  Maybe I'll make some more and make practice sandwiches for free motion quilting practice (another of my long term 2015 goals).