It's Not What I Thought

I have so many projects I am juggling, that I often put something away for a while, and when I come back to it, it turns into something totally different. Does this ever happen to you?

Don't get me wrong: I love the transformative effect of time. It usually improves my plan! (Now there's a great reason to keep that list of WIPs to juggle nice and long!)

Case in point: I made this Triumph Star top back in March. It was okay but I didn't love it.


I took it out today to start quilting it and realized: it wasn't done. A few borders later and voila!


It turned out to be so irresistible that my quilt photography assistants had to give it a test run. It checked out to make awesome forts, tents, curtains and capes. Excellent!


I pieced a fun back for it (it was just crying for a pieced back, don't you think?) so now it is all ready to quilt. For real.

We're supposed to have the nicest weekend of the year (the forecast says 80 degrees! Hooray!) so the quilting will have to wait. It might not be this nice again until August!

Giants!

I finished the Houses quilt last night, and it now takes the title as the biggest quilt I have ever made. It's GIANT! When I started making quilts, I resolved to only make baby and throw size quilts, since my house is small and full of a family, and my sewing space is limited. This one is a queen size and definitely taxed the limits of my "design bed" (which happens to be my actual bed, too.) I'm so happy with it!


I had previously put on a different border, which just didn't work, but the time spent with my seam ripper removing that mistake was worth it. Even with queen size seams.

I also found this to be a satisfying challenge as the small calicoes I used were the "uglies" in my stash, and to find a way to enjoy working with them and like the outcome was a stretch.

It also made a huge reduction in my stash- I'm down about 3/4 of a stack (of 6 stacks.) Whooo!

This quilt inherited the pieced back I made for my Gypsy Madness quilt. It fits perfectly and even has some of the same fabrics as the Houses top.


Gypsy Madness had to have this fabulous vintage sheet for a backing instead.


Working with the Houses top, I realized that Gypsy Madness is too small- it was previously the holder of the Biggest Quilt Ever title, but it barley hangs over the edges of the bed. I am going to add another row of 9-patches around the edge, that should be perfect. It is going to be giant too! Basting these babies is going to be a bi***- I'll have to move all the furniture out of the living room and hope I have enough pins!