WIP thursday and exciting new fabric!

i hven't done a WIPs post in awhile, mostly because i haven't had anything to update. as i said a few posts ago, i've been lacking in motivation lately. i have six million projects on the go, but none of them are really grabbing me at the moment, you know? i've been spending way too much time searching flickr, and not nearly enough time sewing.

i DID finish my sample blocks for the September VMQG meeting, for the halloween challenge. i finished something!

i've also done some work on plotting out my Billboard quilt, and i've pulled out all of the fabrics for it, but that's as far as i've gotten.

i gathered my fabrics for the FVMQG's Mod Sampler Quilt-a-long

but i haven't started cutting yet - apparently that's the hardest part.

i cut and sewed all of the blocks for the front of the Across the Sea Quilt-a-long, but i still need to trim them. i'd lent my 12.5" ruler to a friend, and even though i now have it back, i still haven't gotten around to it. nor have i cut or sewn the blocks for the back...

i also started a new project using a prize pack of fat quarters from Pink Chalk fabrics. i realized that i'd won the pack in APRIL, and it was completely ridiculous that i hadn't even touched it yet. and even though i have a million WIPs, i thought it might be a nice break to start something small and actually finish it soon. that totally isn't what happened!

(the pack together was called "Little Boy Blue")


i chose the fabrics that i wanted to use (the ones above), i decided on a pattern, i cut, and then i sewed, and then i cut again. and then i laid it out on my design wall (pre-picnic, obviously). and i'd done it COMPLETELY WRONG. seriously! so then i had to rewrite my plan, cause i sure as hell wasn't gonna unrip it all. so, new plan! i figured it all out, and started cutting out small chocolate brown squares. i cut out a whole bunch and thought, yay, now i'm ready to sew! except... i can't do math, and i'd only cut out half as many as i needed. and i couldn't find my chalk pen to mark the diagonals for the HSTs. so much for a quick finish! that quilt is now in a ziplock bag waiting for more patience.

i did finish my Sherbet Pips quilt, but that doesn't count, because i said that i'd finished it in my last WIP post. i just haven't taken photos of it yet. the fabulous Krista offered to help me take pictures at the last guild meeting, but because i was all preoccupied and can really only focus on one thing at a time, i turned her down, hopefully nicely, considering how preoccupied i was, and said i'd get my mom to help. as if that's happened! meanwhile, there is still a baby Sherbet Pips to come, and the strips are all pieced and labeled and ready to sew together... this weekend maybe?

and yesterday i decided that it had been much too long since i'd sewn anything, so i sewed up the rest of the bowtie blocks for the smaller baby quilt. as soon as i find the new tablecloth that i bought for a design board (i took my old one on a picnic - it worked fabulously to protect the blanket from the wet ground, but it's a bit dirty now!) i'm going to lay it all out and see if it looks as fabulous as i've been imagining.



other projects on my WIPs list - Unscripted blocks, the RSR pouches that are ridiculously close to being finished, the binding on my green kona quilt, that blue and black half-quilted monstrosity that's holding half my favourite basting pins hostage, the blue modern traditional quilt

on the quilts to come list - my ghastlies quilt, my far far away II quilt, start a portrait quilt, the housewarming pillow, the black and red circles quilt, start one of the art quilts floating around in my head....


and in other news - i think my motivation issue has been solved! i went into Spool of Thread today to pick up a metre of a Kona solid for the FVMQG fq swap, and LOOK WHAT I FOUND!!!!
(if you're on their e-mail list, you'll know - i was buying mine as Henry was sending that!)





apparently we're among the first in north america to get our hands on it (that never happens!)!!

i'm completely in love with the Wisely colourway, and immediately grabbed my favourites and found some Konas to match.



but as soon as i saw the Smartly colourway, i thought FALL!! and since i'd been contemplating a project for Stitched In Color's Celebrate Color contest, they seemed perfect for it. so i piled them up too, along with more Konas. (i totally did not remember that the Outfoxed line was one of the prizes for this month, and now i feel kind of ridiculous. it's still okay to use them for the challenge, right? is that too much like wearing the band tshirt to their concert? i always thought that was a stupid rule anyway....)



guess what i'll be working on this weekend? i'm thinking improv... maybe.

the Cleverly colourway is also super gorgeous, and would make such a lovely baby quilt. hopefully there's still some available once my budget recovers from today!


you should note that those links don't actually show the full colourways... they're all missing the Jewels prints, which you can see in my photos. funnily enough, i've been loving the Pearl Bracelet print in quilts and patchwork that i've seen on flickr, and totally regretting that i don't have any in my stash, but now that it's available again, i'm just not loving them. it's the colours i think, because if the pearl bracelet prints were the same shades as the jewels prints, i would LOVE them, but they're all lighter tones. maybe next time!



also, i may be willing to concede defeat (yes Henry, you were right), now that i've checked Lizzy House's blog, but i still think that porcupines make more sense. foxes and rabbits live in the forest, with porcupines! do we even have hedgehogs in North America? for some reason i picture them in South America, like guinea pigs, but i guess a lot of English children's books have hedgehogs as characters, so maybe they're a European thing... hmm. must google this.