Lucy & Norman View RSS

I'm blogging! I can hardly believe it myself. It's been a whole year since I've written a post. I'm not certain whether I'll be back often or not, but I've listened to all of your sweet replys on Instagram and I'm going to at least try to get back to this space to record the bigger crafting events of my life. And if there was ever a 'big' crafting event, this is one. This quilt is FOUR YEARS in the making!

It was 100% inspired by this beauty by the talented Aneela Hoey. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to cut into my stash of Denyse Schmidt fabrics and use all of her lines in one quilt - which at the time was just Flea Market Fancy, Katie Jump Rope and Hope Valley. I love how they all work together. You can find a great Spiderweb tutorial here.

This quilt is pretty big - about 60 x 72. Originally I had intended on making it big enough for our king sized bed but honestly I ran out of steam and just decided that finished was better than ginormous. Plus I really wanted to quilt it myself.

I went for an echo of the stars on the background fabric and a big loopy flower motif on the spiderwebs. My quilting is far from perfect but I'm getting better and gaining more confidence with every quilt.

As you can see my piecing is far from perfect too. Accuracy is another thing I get better with as time goes on but after five years of quilting under my belt I've realized it's never going to be my strong point. And you know what? It's not important. I get fussed over many things in life, believe me, but in my sewing I'd rather spend my time pouring over exciting fabric combinations and learning new things than trying to attain perfection. I'm calling it "handmade charm" ;)

I love, love, love this quilt. Definitely one of my favorites I've made to date. 

Thank you all so much for taking the time to come over and visit me after this long hiatus. As a thank you, I'd like to do a little giveaway! Just leave a comment here and on Friday I'll randomly choose someone to send a big scrap bag of some of my most beloved fabrics (I'm talking rare Japanese imports, Liberty of London, out-of-print Heather Ross here people!) and a skein of yarn from my very favorite dyer, The Plucky Knitter. Please make sure I have a way to contact you! Happy Sewing and see you soon (I promise!)

The moment I saw this quilt in Alexia Abegg's new book Liberty Love, I knew I would have to drop everything to make one. The quilt is called the Marcelle Medallion and it just has such a fun, fresh feeling. I'd been craving a new design with some challenging piecing that would enable me to delve deep into my stash, and this pattern fulfilled all of those needs.

I've seen some other gorgeous versions with really original color schemes, but honestly I was so in love with Alexia's version that I didn't stray too far from the colors of her quilt. I had a ball stash-diving for prints old and new, brights and neutrals, Japanese treasures, beloved Liberty and favorite designer cottons. This quilt really got me to cut into my ever-growing cream and white stash too. Please don't be fooled into thinking I used a lot of scraps for this quilt - I actually cut into many fat quarters and yardage for the first time.

The center star is a bit tricky with it's set in seams but from there it's pretty easy. And fun! Lots of triangles, flying geese and crosses. One of the toughest parts is choosing the border fabrics - especially that really thick one. I'm very happy I went with the Tsuru print. 

The only major changes I made to the original quilt was to add the two outer scrappy borders. The inner bright borders was just comprised of 5.5 inch squares and fit perfectly. Then for the outside border I cut random lengths of 2.5 inch wide neutrals and added corner squares in a Liberty print.

Just in time my backing and binding fabric arrived! I'm still trying to figure out how to quilt this one. I want to do something that will be worthy of the design and challenge me without screwing it up! I'm getting more and more confident with my free motion quilting skills and this I'm sure will be another great one to practice on!

If you'd like to see some more gorgeous, inspiring versions of the Marcelle Medallion, be sure to pop over to Instagram and search under hashtag "medallionalong".

Oh hi! Yep, I'm still here. And if you're still coming despite my lags between posts, thank you. I've been sewing just a little bit every day, but between a very active toddler and a pre-schooler who isn't wanting to nap these days, time is precious. So I get a little lazy with the blogging and do most of my daily WIP sharing on Instagram. 

I have been feeling quite productive the last few weeks and now I have a new, shiny quilt to show you! When Liberty of London released their first-ever quilting cotton line, Bloomsbury Gardens, it was love at first sight. I've been a Liberty fan for awhile now so this was just a dream come true for me. I ordered a gigantic half yard bundle of the stuff, and while it was a true splurge, I'm still glad I did because these prints feel right at home in my stash and lots of patchwork projects. I haven't been feeling much of an urge to stitch up 'one designer line' quilts lately, but I had to make an exception here. 

The colors and prints in this line are so vibrant and beautiful I knew I wanted to set them off with pure Kona white for a more classic touch. The block I used, though sometimes looks like a pinwheel, is just a simple hourglass. You can find a great tutorial for the block on Ayumi Mills blog. This quilt is pretty big, I think around 75x75, and the blocks are just 4.5 inches, so it was a lot of piecework. Chain-piecing was my friend here.

I quilted this one on my own and I must say I think I'm more proud of this work than any quilting I've done yet to date. Once again I used a design from Angela Walters Free Motion Quilting - I've been getting a lot of bang for my buck with that book! This time I used the Paisley design. Luckily it was fun  to do because it did take me nearly six hours to complete over the course of a week. I went with good old plain white for the back too, and I'm glad I did because the quilting pops.

So that's that. I'll see you here again soonish with my Marcelle Medallion!

The Japanese x & + block can no longer be denied. I've been dreaming of making one of these quilts for a whole year and the sheer joy of the Scrappytripalong has gotten me to fall more deeply in love with scrap quilts than ever. This first block just sort of made itself yesterday afternoon. And let me tell you, they are just as addictive as the scrappy trip blocks.

Nevermind that my current design wall occupant is still in need of 23 more blocks (and I think I swore I'd finish it by the end of the month?)

Or that my Scrappy Trips top is hanging out just begging to be basted, quilted and bound.

The first four blocks have been made and a gigantic pile of scraps have been pulled. And so it looks like our new informal interweb quiltaverse sewalong has been born! You can find us under hash tag #xplusalong on Instagram and there is a new Flickr group too. Please come over and play, whether you are just starting out or want to finish the blocks you started when it became a sensation last year.

You can also find Amy Badskirt's fabulous tutorial for the block here and the original beauty by Setsuko Inagawa that started it all here.

I can hardly believe how this pattern his taken the online quilting community by storm! It's been wonderfully amazing to see all the gorgeous Scrappytripalongs pop up all over Instagram, Flickr and the blogaverse. They have all been so different and unique, and I love how this quilt really expresses the individual personality of each quilter - so much so that I could easily pick the creators of many of them out before even knowing who made it.

And this is my finished top. I think it is totally 'me'. I am pretty much smitten with the chaos here and I think it is going to be a great companion to my Scrap Hoover quilt. This one started out as a scrap bin buster, but soon I ran out of scraps big enough for the pattern. After that, I raided stash. I love how this is a blend of scraps I may not have otherwise used and many of my most treasured prints.

I'm just awaiting an order for some backing from Pink Castle Fabrics (Brenda, if you didn't know, was one of the other original firestarters of this whole craze!) and then I will be quilting this one myself. I'm thinking big swirls, but we'll see. 

I want to thank each and every one of you who has jumped on this Scrappytripalong! As fast as this quilt is to make, given my track record for speed this would've taken me weeks to complete if it hadn't been for all of you inspiring and encouraging me along.

So what do we make next? 

I didn't really mean to do it, but I started a new quilt this week. I have a zillion WIPs I should finish, but the stress of the holidays and the big finish of my Swoon and Field Study quilts made me cave. And I've been longing to start another super scrappy quilt. This design has been on the front of my back burner for almost a year now after seeing this one and this one and this one.

As soon as I began, I was possessed. These blocks are addictive! And apparently contagious, too - suddenly everyone is making a Scrappy Trip Around the World! Katy, Rita, Lindsay and Brenda are all making one - Brenda has even started a Flickr group. There are also rumors that Amber, Ashley, Heather, Laura, Dana and too many more to name are joining in! I'll be posting my pics on Instagram too. I'm lucyandnorman there if you'd like to follow me.

This is what a finished block looks like. You just need 2.5 by 16 inch strips, six per block. Put them together, and they look like this-

I used the tutorial over here. It's easy, a ton of fun and so satisfying to use up all this scrappage and stashage.

Obviously I'm going as scrappy as possible but specific color combinations are pretty too if this is too wild for you. But I've got a stash to bust so scrappy it is for me.

I hope to see you over on Flickr and IG. And Happy New Year to all - let's send 2012 out with a scrappy bang!

Is it really almost Christmas???? This year has gone by entirely too quickly. I haven't accomplished near the amount of quilting I would've liked but I did finally finish my Swoon! Though the only reason that happened was because it needed to be done in time to gift for Christmas. I'm taking a risk posting it in case the recipients are lurking around my blog, but I'm just too excited not to share it with you now!

Of course you've seen a million finished Swoons by now and there is nothing terribly unique about this one, but it did turn out beautifully if I do say so myself. I used an old collection from Amy Butler called Belle that I had buried deep within my stash. 

I think the large-scale prints and bright colors play well with the Swoon block.

And I know you are all wondering about the absolutely gorgeous quilting, right? This was done by none other than the fabulously talented Krista Withers. Krista's work is breathtakingly inspirational. We decided on a simple baptist fan pattern for this one just like the original Swoon. I will be bribing Krista soon to do some free-style on my hopefully soon to be finished Colorwheel Spiderweb. 

So that's my Swoon! It will be a bit difficult to part with but I know I can still visit it. I hope you are all able to find a bit of time to relax during this hectic season - I know I'll be glad when all of my ninth hour crafting is done. I guess I had better get back to that. I'll have my finished Field Study Diamond quilt to show you soon.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I've been working on a Swoon for the better part of the year, but as usual I forget to share over here. So here it is, all nine blocks ready to be sashed for a queen size quilt top.

I used an old, out of print Amy Butler collection, Belle, and I think these bright, vibrant large-scale patterns work really well in the Swoon.

One of my favorite blocks.

These will be all ready to be sent over to the wonderfully talented Krista Withers, who has agreed to long-arm it for me. I'm pretty excited.

This will be a gift - for whom I cannot say in case there are spies lurking. It would be hard to part with but I know how loved and appreciated it will be, and besides, I'll still get to visit it. I promise to post some pictures as soon as it's done in all it's quilted glory

We've been busy around here with pre-school, Halloween, winery stuff and seemingly endless bouts of viruses and flus. Oh, and this girl FINALLY decided to walk!!! Only took her sixteen and a half months!

New little jacket knit by Mama. Using some luscious Plucky Knitter Bulky. The pattern is Tiered Baby + Toddler Jacket. I even made some Liberty of London buttons for it from my favorite print Tatum.

Here she comes!

Here we are - Princess Leia in a janky wig, pretty little Cinderella and an uncooperative cupcake.

One of my favorite things about fall is breaking out all the comfy cozy sweaters. Now that I know how to knit my own it's just that much better.

My newest finish is the Solstice Cardigan by Cecily Glowik MacDonald knit up in some lovely Plucky Knitter Rustic. This was such an enjoyable knit and I think this one will get lots of wear on cool, crisp days like this. You can find a link to the pattern and more of my own thoughts on my Ravelry page.

This one I actually started LAST October but just finished a few weeks ago. Let's just say it wasn't the most pleasurable knitting experience, but in the end I'm glad it's finished and I didn't torch it the way I had fantasized about so many times during the knitting process. The pattern is called Coastal Hoodie and I used one of my favorite yarn bases, madelinetosh merino cashmere nylon sport weight. 

I am loving the finished sweater so I guess all of the headaches were worth it. It's soft and squishy and perfect for throwing over a tee and jeans. Not the greatest photos, but you get the idea.

Are you knitting anything fun right now?  I have another sweater or two on the needles but right now I've got the urge to cast on every hat, cowl and pair of mitts I see!

I'm home now from an absolutely fabulous weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah at the second (annual?) Sewing Summit. It was a tremendous experience to finally be able to meet so many kindred sewing spirits in the flesh. So many great classes were offered, I got in lots of knitting time and my first "me" trip  away from my family was a great success. Olivia and Lucy missed me but they were good girls for their papa and I'm pretty sure he missed me too. My mom helped out a lot too so I even got to come home to a clean house with fresh folded laundry. Ahhhhhhhh.

In case you hadn't been bombarded with my spamming of this bag on Instagram or seen me parading it shamelessly around Sewing Summit, I wanted to share my Weekender. I am really quite proud of it. It was of course completely inspired by Elizabeth's magnificent quilt-as-you-go version, which I coveted the moment I lay eyes on it. I'd had the pattern by Amy Butler in my stash for years but had heard all sorts of nasty things about it's difficulty so I avoided it like the plague. But as Sewing Summit approached I started feeling a little lame for not making anything handmade to travel with. Then I saw Amber's awesome version and I decided to take the plunge.

I won't lie. It really was hard. Now that it's done and I love every bit of it, I'm so happy I decided to go through with it. It served me well on the trip and now I think it's going to be the perfect knitting tote, with lots of room for a sweater WIP as well as needles and notions. 

I followed Elizabeth's modifications of using cotton duck and batting instead of all that scary interfacing. The only thing I did differently was to sew together simple patchwork panels and straight-line quilt it all together. That's the simple and fun part. Attaching the piping and zipper wasn't so bad either, even for someone with zipper-phobia like me. But when it came time to sew it all together - that's when the expletives came out. I think I broke about ten needles? I also didn't love the lining assembly.  It seemed like too much extra fabric and other Weekender veterans seemed to have the same issues when we compared notes. But all in all I feel like it was a sort of sewing rite of passage and a completely satisfying project that will get lots of use and love.

The moral of this story is that if you've been contemplating making a Weekender but haven't yet - do it.

And if you're thinking about going to Sewing Summit next year? Do that too.

First of all, I just wanted to thank you all for the kind comments on my Scrap Hoover quilt. It is getting tons of love at our house.

My newest finish (I finished it weeks ago, alas the lazy-blogger syndrome is still in effect) is the first quilt I've ever made that will go on an actual bed. Lucy has been in her own big-girl bed for a few months now and loving it.  Of course I had to mark the occasion with a special quilt just for her. When I saw Amber's Crazy Nine Patch, I fell in love and knew it would be the perfect pattern.

This was such a fun and satisfying top to piece. The tutorial can be found on Elizabeth's blog - easy breezy. I just chose lots of prints from my stash in bright, sunny colors that coordinated with the sheet set I bought for the bed and matched my girl's spunky personality.  For the quilting I used a flower design from Angela Walter's awesome book. 

The backing is a plaid from the DS Quilts collection, and the binding is a sweet Aunt Grace lavender dot.

Lucy and all of her friends love the quilt.

I'm posting and running today! Gotta get on that travel-handmade Sewing Summit fun - only a few weeks away!

Enough teaser photos, already! My Scrap Hoover is finally bound and photographed! This quilt is my biggest and most proud finish yet so please bear with me during this heavily-pictured post. And as a side note, if you've never seen the film The Full Monty, you should. Anyways, back to the quilt.

I started this way back when sometime last year after I received my copy of Material Obsession 2. I fell hard straight away for Sarah Fielke's pattern Maple Leaf Rag and knew it would be mandatory for  my overflowing scrap bucket.

This was a very long-term project, but the piecing was so much fun it kept it interesting. Every time I worked on it I loved digging up new combinations. It's essentially a spiderweb pattern with crazy-pieced background pieces as opposed to the usual solid negative space. The beauty of this is that you can use every tiny, weirdly shaped scrap in your bin. Something about finding a home for trash-bin worthy miniscule scrap of a favorite fabric was quite thrilling.

Lucy approves of the quilt too.

I will say that the piecing of this top is most imperfect, but adds to the charm I think. Lots of bulky seams made accuracy difficult so I just had to squelch my inner perfectionist on this one.

The most special thing about this quilt for me is that it has because it's a made from all scraps of previous projects it has become a journal of everything I've done up to this point in my sewing career. I love seeing the bits and bobs left over from Lucy and Olivia's baby quilts, or a small piece of a fabric I no longer have in my stash.

The backing is one of my favorite prints from Anna Maria Horner's Loulouthi line called Summer Totem. And that drop-dead gorgeous quilting? I can't take credit for that. This was done by none other than the fabulously-talented Angela Walters. Angela's work is even more stunning in person and makes me aspire to be a better FMQer.

Finally the weather has cooled down enough so I could finish hand-sewing the binding down. This is another AMH print I'd been hoarding from her Chocolate Lollipop range.

So that's it! I hope this quilt will become a family heirloom to be loved by my children and grand-children. 

I hope you all are enjoying these last few days of summer. I'm a little excited for fall and all of the wool sweaters and cozy quilts that come with it :)

I'm going to have three big finished quilts (and a new sweater) to show you soon!

Happy Monday!

Well, it would seem that I forget to blog almost all of the time lately. Sorry for that. I love this space and sharing with you all, but I guess these little people are keeping me so busy that this is taking a backseat for now. Thanks for still popping in to see what I've been up to.

So what have I been up to? I've been squeezing in sewing when it feels right. Besides working on a quilt for Lucia's new big-girl bed, which I'll share soon, I finished this Summersville Strings quilt top. Wow, string quilts are a ton of work, and frankly this one burnt me out for awhile, but I love all the juicy, summer-y colors in this one and I promise to baste and quilt soon so I can share the whole thing! 

I also had to drag this one out of hibernation. This is my Ode to Denyse Schmidt color wheel spiderweb. I started this one over two years ago, but being a king size it just gets a little daunting and gets pushed aside again. And yes, I have no idea what I was thinking when I decided to go for a king. It's not likely my husband is going to let me use this for our bed quilt ;)

And while the sewing is a bit slow-going, I've still been knitting like crazy. I finished my Urban last month,

More details on my Ravelry page, here.

And yesterday I just finished blocking my new and most favorite knit yet, Raiun. It's the perfect basic little cardi in a lovely neutral color. It seemed to take forever, but well worth it I think.

I hope you all are enjoying your summer! I'll see you soon(ish), hopefully with my completed Scrap Hoover to show off!

Remember this quilt? My Scrap Hoover? It is back from it's spa treatment at the studio of none other than the stellar Angela Walters.

It is beautiful and I can hardly wait to show you the whole thing. But first I must bind, bind, bind. Full reveal soon.

I hope you all are well. In other happy news, it seems my sewing mojo is returning :)

I'm not sure what's going on with me but sewing has still been sporadic at best lately. But I'm staying busy and happy so I guess that's what counts. I do have a project to share with you, though! It's an oldie but a goodie - my newly quilted Flea Market Fancy Wonky Log Cabin quilt.

You've seen this before, right? So why am I showing it to you again? Well, this one has spent the last two years in hibernation while until I finished the very tedious job of unpicking all of the horrendous quilting. I made this quilt at the very beginning of my sewing career, before I had any idea of what I was doing. I jumped right in to my precious FMF stash and started slicing and dicing. I still love the piecing of this quilt top but when it came time to do the actual quilting it was a mess. I free-motioned it on an old cheapo Brother and let me tell you, the stitched were ugly and uneven. After I got my Bernina 44QE and quilted my first project I couldn't even stand the sight of this one, so the ripper came out. Little did I know what a job I was in for!

Anyways, I thought this would be useful information to share with any of you who have a quilt lying around that you love but detest the quilting on. Unpicking a million little stitched was not the most fun I've ever had, but the end result was worth it.

I left the binding and backing in place and just pinned every so often as the stitched came out. When I was finally all done, I FMQed the original stipple but this time with pretty, even stitches in the correct tension. After a spin in the washer and dryer, VOILA! All the little holes from the original quilting disappeared and the makeover was complete! 

This one is back in regular snuggling rotation.

In other news, someone just turned one year old! Check out the cake moustache! Olivia is getting sweeter every day.

If you follow me on Instagram or Flickr, chances are you've already seen my newest finished knit, but I wanted to show it off here on the blog too. It's the Delancey Cardigan, and I think it's my favorite sweater to date.

I knit this as my entry for the big MadMay madelinetosh knit-along on Ravelry. What a fun pattern to knit! The construction is really interesting so I chugged right through it. I'm so happy with the fit.

I used the DK Twist base in the colors Ink, Oceana and Ultramarine Violet. It's still cold here in Seattle so it's already getting lots of wear.

I'm very grateful for my knitting right now. I seem to have misplaced my sewing mojo so it's nice to have another productive hobby to fall back on. Knitting is portable and just so much easier to work on when my girls are awake. I miss my sewing machine but for now rolling around in my stash will just have to suffice.

Wow! I've been a really bad blogger! I don't know how entire weeks and projects go by without me even taking a moment to share them, but that's how it's been lately. I suspect it's because I've been using Instagram to take my photos with lately since getting time to use my real camera in good light has been alluding me. Instagram is such a fun app but the photos are pretty low resolution so I don't like to use them here. But there has been a lot going on I haven't shown you so please forgive this one post of some IG photos from the last month (and if you haven't joined Instagram yet, you should. There is a great community of crafty folks having a lot of fun over there).

May has been busy! We celebrated Lucia's 3rd birthday with a huge bash at our house, and then left the next day for a road trip to wine country in Walla Walla, Washington, where we are soon to open a second tasting room for Mark Ryan Winery. Fun times! I got some knitting done and I've been attacking the sewing machine ever since we got home too.

There's been garment sewing going on! I'm starting to feel more confident in this area. So far I've made two Wiksten tanks, this one from the Liberty of London Umbel print to go with the Wispy Cardigan I knit last summer,

and the Liberty Fairford print to go with my newly finished sweater,

Audrey in Jade!

What a great pattern. You can find more info and notes over on my Ravelry page if you're interested.

And I can't believe I haven't shown off the Wiksten Tova top I finished earlier in the year. The fabric is a lovely, soft Nani Iro double gauze.

I'm really loving this whole DIY wardrobe kick. Next up is Megan Nielsen's Darling Ranges dress.

There's been sewing going on too, when I get the chance. I was lucky enough to get an early bundle of Thomas Knauer's super cute new Savannah Bop line to play with, and finished this baby quilt top. I'll get some real photos up as soon as I finish the whole quilt.

I also had to jump at the new Summersville line, of course - 

A brand new quilt coming soon:)

Whew! It's been a rough couple of weeks around here. The flu bug that hit our house has been making the rounds though luckily I have been spared so far. This hasn't left much time or energy for sewing, but I did finish Olivia's Made in Cherry quilt! It's actually been done for awhile but for some reason it's taken me forever to sew on the binding.

I loved all the quilts I was seeing in the Made in Cherry Quilt-along, but I had already started a Swoon and didn't think I had time. So I'm a little late to the quilt-along party but this ended up being one of those quilts that just had to be made.

This was a very fun design to choose fabrics for and to piece, and came together fairly quickly. I chose lots of bright, spring-y prints, choosing many of my favorites from the Pam Kitty Morning collection and from Aneela Hoey's A Walk in the Woods for Moda.  I combined those with a few Denyse Schmidt, some japanese cuties and a few more from the old stash. The background is a pink Sketch print from Timeless Treasures and the binding is another Aneela print - cute little mushies on blue. I wish I could show you the back too, but I forgot to take a photo - it's the Little Red print on blue from A Walk in the Woods. So flippin' cute.

For the quilting, I did some free motion cathedral circles for the patchwork area and mimicked the star points with straight line on the pink background. Which took forever and confirmed my lack of patience with straight line quilting. 

I think this is going to be a wall hanging for Olivia's room. 

Wow! I really didn't mean to stay away for so long but life seems to have just gotten away from me lately. Lucy and Olivia have been keeping me busier than ever. This week has been particularly rough with two doctor visits in two days - Lucy came down with a flu and we had to take her to urgent care when her fever spiked at 104.5! Scary stuff! Then yesterday I was picking up Liv when her little fingernail scraped right across my eyeball, tearing off 20% of my cornea. Needless to say, it hurt - a lot. I'm happy to report that we're all on the mend now, although I still look scary enough to avoid the public for a few more days.

I've been knitting a lot lately, and my current love is this WIP. The pattern is called Audrey in Unst by Gundrun Johnston. Just a little more of the back and the sleeves to go! This yarn is a sportweight merino/cashmere blend in the color Jade by madelinetosh. I've had it in my stash for a year and I'm so glad to finally be knitting it up.

So you may have noticed my blog has a new look! What do you think? I absolutely LOVE my new header, which was designed for me by the talented Miss Kayanna Nelson of Junecraft! Kayanna whipped this up for me and it's almost as though she could read my mind by coming up with this, since I couldn't really do a very good job articulating it myself. I highly recommend her services if you're also looking for a little blog face lift. And did you know she also has her first fabric line coming out with Cloud 9?  How cute is that?

Hopefully I'll see you all soon - I've got a few things to show you that I've been too lazy to blog about and I'm plotting a fun giveaway soon too :)

Remember yesterday when I told you there was a fourth quilt project I started? This is Block #1 of Camelot!

Sometimes when I'm feeding Olivia in the wee hours of the morning, I'm surfing the web and "accidentally" buy things. After viewing some absolutely drop-dead gorgeous quilts and blocks made from this pattern, one hopped in my etsy cart and travelled all the way from Australia to me.

Camelot is quite a ambitious pattern by Trish Harper which includes templates for sixteen unique circle blocks which are meant to be hand-pieced. Pretty crazy, right? I jumped right in, cut all my fabrics for block one, started the hand sewing and decided I wouldn't have a Camelot quilt of my own for decades with this approach. So I took it to the machine and voila! I think it turned out okay! It's definitely not perfection, but as with most things, I'm trying to take this as a learning experience. And my Y-seams actually lay flat. After finishing Block One, I started looking through the rest of them, and let me tell you, this one is child's play compared to the rest!

But I figure, if I can conquer Camelot, there is not a lot of other piecing in the quilting world I can't accomplish!

If anyone else is as crazy as I am and would like to Camelot-along, there are a few of us in a Flickr group here and you can purchase the pattern here. The more the merrier!

Yep, I started another quilt. Erm, I might have actually started FOUR new quilts. What is wrong with me? This is a rhetorical question of course ;)

So I'm Swooning again, but I've started the project over with an entirely new idea. My first Swoon block was done scrappy-style in pretty Pam Kitty Morning fabrics, and while I loved it, I realized I needed a pattern for a queen sized quilt to give as a gift soon. Swoon seemed like a great solution, but the fabrics and design weren't right for the intended recipient. But I think these vibrant patterns from the old Amy Butler Belle collection will be perfect and work really well with in Swoon block. I'm excited to see how it comes together. And it feels really good to sew with fabrics I've been hoarding  saving for years.

Phew! It's finally finished! It's sort of a bittersweet ending to piecing this top - I'm happy to move on to new, shiny projects but at the same time I'll miss scrap bin diving and coming up with wild, random fabric combinations for this.

So here it is. I wish I could have gotten better photos but the grey Seattle weather is not going to cooperate. The whole thing measures in at a nice 80x80 size. If you haven't been following any of my progress on this, the quilt is a pattern from Sarah Fielke in Material Obsession 2 called the Maple Leaf Rag. It is essentially a spiderweb with crazy-pieced "kites" instead of the traditional solid for the background of the webs, making it the perfect way to use up all those too-tiny scraps. It really has made quite a dent in the old scrap bin, although I think I may be in the minority when I confess that such a lack of scraps on hand makes me nervous.

As long as we're on the subject of confessions, I must also confess that my piecing of this thing is atrocious. If you look closely, you'll see that almost none of the rings on my webs match up. As soon as I started sewing blocks together and I saw that this was going to be a problem throughout the quilt (most likely due to my inaccurate cutting, trimming and then stretching of the bias-cut muslin triangles) I threw a miniature internal tantrum and walked away from it for a day. After calming down I then realized that it really didn't matter - it's such a riot of color and pattern it hardly detracts from the whole thing once all together. But, if you're a bit anal in your piecing and want to attempt this pattern, consider yourself warned. 

This quilt, even with all it's imperfections, is going to be very, very loved. And I'm happy to say, it will be shipped off next week to the most talented of quilters - my very first professionally quilted quilt. So look for it again in a few weeks after Angela works her magic on it. I can hardly wait.

Sometimes I need to remind myself how satisfying it can be to finish a small project. I tend to gravitate towards things on a grandiose scale such as big quilts and entire sweaters, but breaking up the pressure of these with knitted hats and quilted bibs can be so rewarding.

I finished this hat last week and I'm really so proud of it even though it's sort of big and I screwed up the chart in a few places. It's my first time doing color work, or knitting with two colors at once, and I am pleased to report that it's not near as difficult as I thought it was. I see many more colorful hats, mitts and sweaters in my future. In case you were wondering, the hat is a free pattern on Ravelry called Baikal, and I used madelinetosh chunky in Mica and Cousteau for this.

As I was slipping a crappy store-bought bib over Olivia's head awhile ago, it dawned on my how pathetic is was that a child with a quilter for a mother should not own a sweet patchwork dribble catcher.

So I dug into my scrap bin (which is bottomless, I've decided) and pieced this little number. Much cuter than the Target version, except now I don't want to get baby food stains on it.

The Granny Squares are still rolling right along. I'm up to these nine now with one more today. If you haven't seen this yet, Dana just started a Granny Square quilt-along on Flickr. You should join us!

Most of my sewing time is being devoted to finishing this growing beast. I've only got a little more than one row to go and it needs to be done soon in time for it's date with the long armer.

I'm excited to finish it up but also a little sad. I think I'll really miss working on it!

Yep, I've got it bad. Of course the last thing in the world I needed to do was start another quilt, but after seeing Jolene's beauty, I knew it was a MUST. MAKE. NOW. It seemed only fitting to pair this block with my current fabric obsession -

Suzuko Koseki. I want to marry these.

Here was the test block.

The next day I made another,

and yesterday another,

And one today. 

A Granny Square a day!

That's about all this little lady is letting me accomplish!