WIP Wednesday #11: Star Wars Bound

I'm still a preggo who goes to bed 2 hours before she used to, but I am pleased to find that during waking hours, I am progressively able to be more and more active. Here's what I've been up to the past 2 weeks.


Bound! - Sweet Star Wars
Just one more step! Fortunately, Star Wars is pretty small (38 x 42 at last estimate) so after a marathon basting session while my husband was out of town, I was able to do a quick meander and get this quilted in about 2 sittings.

I tried my mother's trick of machine-sewing the binding on the back first, and then wrapping around and machine stitching the front. I have to admit, I was not terribly pleased with the results of this, because then all my mistakes were ON the front where usually I can hide them. But, live and learn. I may yet make an overlay for the corners to see if that helps any.

But while usually this would be the final step for making a quilt, in this case I have 2 more:
1) I need to attach a pocket for a rod on the back, for the wall-hanging option.
2) I want to hand-stitch "May the force be with you, Young [Baby S]" in the lower right hand corner.

No, I haven't actually hand-stitched lettering on anything before, ever, but I feel this particular opportunity is too good to miss.

FMQ Planning - Trick or Treat
Trick or Treat is basted and I am very excited to start the FMQ part, but first I need to make a couple of stencils: the current plan is to try to take elements from the featured fabric (shown in orange in the picture) and place them in each of the squares.

I think I'll probably spend longer making stencils than quilting, but hopefully the results will make the prep worth it.


No Progress:

Piecing
-Christmas Traditions

Binding
-Eclectic Garden

Repair/Troubleshooting
-Ready, Set, Snow

And, for proper linkage:

Star Wars: Character Details

Here are my completed Star Wars Characters, in much better detail. Everyone was assembled Fusible applique with Free-Motion Quilting for the details, and based on/inspired by artwork from Jeff Victor of Wicked Crispy. As always, click on the photos to enlarge.

Chewbacca

Jabba Fett

Jabba's Twi-lek Lieutenant

Luke in his X-wing Flightsuit

Han Solo

Princess Leia, with a few strings I missed :-)

WIP Wednesday #10: Big News, and SO Behind

The big news!
I am pregnant! Baby RLQ is 18 weeks along and Due October 9, putting me solidly in the second trimester. Mr. RLQ and I couldn't be happier about this development, but pregnancy has definitely managed to take a big bite out of my quilting time.

My morning sickness hasn't been too bad, but I find am very, VERY exhausted, all the time. We're talking waking up tired after 12 hours sleep, and needing a three-hour nap after strenuous activities like "doing the dishes" or "going crib-shopping for an hour." I've gotten a *little* better about such things in the past month, but it's looking like "crazy tired" is probably going to be my companion  for the long haul.

That said, I did get my quilt on this weekend a little bit, for the first time in almost 2 months. Here's where I got: And yes, I needed a nap afterwards, but it was worth it.

(Ever) In Progress - Sweet Star Wars
Baby S, my friend's baby and the eventual recipient of this quilt, is almost two months old now. 1) My, how they grow and 2) Ooops!

Anyways, here's what the quilt looks like this week (click to enlarge):

To get to here I FMQed little noses and mouths onto the human characters + Twi-lek, tacked um, not-Boba Fett's gun blasts down with a little orange stitching, and started work on the sashing. My goal was to complete the assembly on Sunday, but I'll take what I can get.



No Progress:

Piecing
-Christmas Traditions
-Trick or Treat

Binding
-Eclectic Garden

Repair/Troubleshooting
-Ready, Set, Snow


And, for proper linkage: