Wednesday, January 11, 2012

WIP Wednesday #4 - Star Wars, Froggin', RSS

Oh linkups, how I have missed you! I meant to join back in last week, but life got in the way. This contains everything I have done since my last WIP Wednesday on December 13.

Started - Sweet Star Wars
Full disclosure: I have never done applique before in my life. This has not stopped me from deciding that since there is a decided shortage of adorable baby-themed Star Wars fabric (or really, any new Star Wars cotton in general) I should learn applique and make my own. However, since said fabric is for a quilt that is going to a friend who is currently six months pregnant, "Learn" has kind of turned into "jump in with both feet and hope I don't drown."



I have found pictures of adorable, sweet Star Wars Characters online. I have bought Kona solids in a number of Star Wars appropriate hues. I have backed said fabrics with wonder under, and made liberal use of my scissors. And so the saga begins. I have made one block so far, and I haven't been brave enough to try the blanket stitching bit yet:



Cutting out several characters at once has been a fairly significant time sink, but I am hoping it will hasten the assembly portion later.

Pieced - Froggin'
I'd had my eye on this fabric for a while, but it didn't become commercially available until December 1. It's for a friend whose baby shower is Jan 28, so I zipped through piecing it.


Right now it is with my Pro Quilter of Extreme Awesomeness, and I am counting the seconds until it returns in a fully quilted state and I can start binding it. It's from a simple Fat Quarter pattern by Carlene Westberg and uses Froggin' fabric by Sue Zipkin.

Partially Pieced - Christmas Traditions
I finished paper piecing all the individual blocks before I put this one away in November, but when I had a few spare moments I dragged it out again for assembly. It is far less messy than my Star Wars project at this point!



Quilting Completed - Ready, Set, Snow
This quilt has had many lessons in store for me, ranging from "you're obsessed with light sashing - don't be" to "the throat of your machine? It is not as big as you think it is," with perhaps a little "squaring a layer cake is HARD" in there for good measure.

That said, the Beast is quilted!



In addition to the squiggly lines and stenciled trees I showed last time, I put rolling waves along the outside, and snowflakes in the corner blocks. Now I am maybe 1/3 of the way through sewing binding on what I think may be the second-largest quilt I have ever made.

No Progress:

Planning
-Trick or Treat

Binding
-Eclectic Garden

And, for proper linkage:

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

4 comments:

  1. Wow!! you are very busy there..loving the Star Wars...just jump right in on the blanket stitch.....you'll do great.

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  2. Omg! You are not making a Star Wars quilt, lol. I love it! Your first block looks great. Even if your blanket stitch is not perfect, which it will be, the characters will look great.

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    1. Hee hee. I totally am! I figure even if it's not perfect (which I just started my blanket stitch and I ah, have confirmation it won't be) the uniqueness will make up for the imperfect craftsmanship.

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  3. I love your Star Wars quilt! Machine appliqué is one of my favorite things to do! Good luck and I will definitely be back to see the finished project!

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