January Le Petite {un}FINISH{ed}

January's Le Petite project was Mon Ami by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co ...

Despite hitting a brick wall with my first fabric choice (1974 by Moda), I was making great progress with my quilt once I decided to switch over to Aston Manor by Moda. 

This is another fabulous Carrie Nelson pattern ... however ... it requires about 400 little half-square-triangle units  With my niece arriving early and my iron deciding to crap out on me Sunday night, I just couldn't pull off a finish this month.

I'm really excited to have this one finished to hang in my dining room in time for Valentine's Day, and with the beautiful colors in this line, I think I'll be able to leave it there all the way through Easter.

I'm hoping to be able to finish sometime this week and will post pictures soon, but in the meantime, head over to The Pink Pincushion and A Quilting Life later today to check out the parade of finishers.  Can't wait to see all the projects!

{Raspberry Noises}

So, Saturday morning I was all excited to unveil my new posting strategy for 2011 - my Weekend-WIP, or "Weekend Work-In-Progress."  In an effort to spend more time working on my Process Pledge this year, I'm trying to make a weekly effort to take a picture of whatever is on my new design board (thanks hubby!!).

First project of the year was the January Le Petite Project: Mon Ami (Schnibbles patter by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co).

To be 100% honest, this isn't a pattern I would have chosen to make on my own, but part of the whole point of joining a club like Le Petite is to branch out and try new patterns, methods, and fabrics.  I had a Moda 1974 by Urban Chiks jelly roll in my stash ...

... and since I love the colors and they have some great coordinating light and dark prints, I thought I'd do some early stash busting and use it for this quilt.  Before even untying that precious "Moda" band from the jelly roll, I took the time to plan everything out in EQ6 and even went so far as to order two matching prints off Ebay for the border and binding ...

... I'm sure you can see where this is going.  I spent a lot of time on Saturday and Sunday putting together about 15 blocks in four of the six color-ways ...

... and I HATE it!  I've tried most of my usual tricks: walking away for the evening and starting with "fresh eyes" in the morning, playing around with the color combinations, making a few more blocks to see if it makes a difference ...

I just plain old don't like it.  I think that the colors appeared softer in the EQ6 mock up, but on the board the lights and darks blend together and the quilt is just too ... noisy.

After sitting and staring at it for probably a half hour, I even asked my hubby who stopped in my sewing room to iron a shirt.  He suggested that rather than staggering the colors to just have rows with all the same colors ...

... so I rearranged the blocks for the 100th time (PS - hubby says I exaggerate all the time, so he takes any number I tell him and either multiples or divides by three.  I guess in all honesty you could say that I rearranged the blocks for the 33.33rd time) ... slept on it again last night,  didn't even look at it before I went back to work this morning, came home hoping to see it with "fresh eyes" ... and still HATE it.

I really hate doing this, but I think I'm going to scrap the project and start fresh, or at least put the blocks aside to be pulled apart later and used for something else.  What do you think?  Is is salvageable?  Would you scrap it?  Would you do as hubby suggested while I was complaining about it earlier and re-purpose them as individual mug rugs so as not to waste anything?  What would you do?

For now, I have to put them away 'cuz I can't stand to look at them.  After playing around in EQ6, I came up with this design, using Moda's Aster Manor by 3 Sisters, which I already have in my stash.

I'm thinking it's a much better alternative, and it definitely looks a lot more like something I'd do, but at the same time, I'm disappointed because the 1974 line was a different color palette and I was hoping to love it ...

{Raspberries, again}

Ok - thanks for listening to me whine. :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope all of you enjoyed a fantastic holiday season with family and friends!  We've had a busy couple of weeks here, but have loved every minute of it!

The December Le Petite parade will be happening over at the Pink Pincushion and A Quilting Life tomorrow.  Be sure to swing by and check out all of the fabulous projects.  This month, our project was Moda Bake Shop's Prairie Point Christmas wall hanging:

(The original by Cara of CaraQuilts)

After purchasing so much fabric recently (and getting a bit of a light-hearted scolding from my hubby about my growing stash), I was bound and determined to make December's project using only what I had on hand. After some hemming and hawing, I finally chose to use some fabric from one of Debbie Mumm's Christmas lines from a few years back.  I had to use a smaller square for my prairie points so that I didn't run out of fabric, and unfortunately that resulted a very squat tree.

I half-way considered mixing in some other prints and adding some rows to make the tree a little taller and even things out a bit, but it grew on me over the holidays and I decided to leave it as it was.

As always, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's projects tomorrow morning, and I'm hoping to have the rest of my holiday project photos upload to share tomorrow as well.

Hope you have a great New Year's Eve and that your New Year is filled with wonderful family and friends, much happiness, good health, great wine ... and lots of fabric!  HAPPY 2011!!

Le Petit Project for November

Hooray!!  Today is the Novemeber Le Petite Parade over at The Pink Pincushion and A Quilting Life.  As always, everyone did a beautiful job.  I love seeing all of the different results that come from the same pattern. 

This month's pattern was Butter Churn by This and That Patterns:

I really liked the "Greek Square" and ribbon ends blocks, but for some reason, I just wasn't feeling the HST blocks around the border.  After playing around with the blocks in Electric-Quilts-6, here is my take on the quilt:

I just mirrored what were the "Ribbon V's" so that were "X's" instead, and then added a couple of extra Greek Square blocks so that everything was symmetrical.

I had originally planned to use the cream color background print in the middle of the Greek Square units again, but my Awesome layer cake came with so many great cream prints that I decided to include a few to offset the squares and break up the white a bit.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to quilt and bind it before today's submission deadline ... (hopefully this isn't going to become a habit with all of my Le Petite projects!!!!), so I can't count it towards my stash busting.  Bummer! Especially since my stash report is about to get out of control with all the post-Thanksgiving-Day sale fabric that is headed my way this week.

I'm taking a little break from my sewing machine this weekend, before I have to hunker down and finish all my super-secret Christmas gifts, but I'm hoping to start a new knitting project today (or two ... darn Ravelry has way too many cute projects!!!!), so maybe I'll have some new pictures to share soon.  Until then, happy sewing!

Le Petite - October 2010

Today was the first Le Petite parade.  You can view all the submission at The Pink Pincushion or at A Quilting Life.  It was so much to see all the different interpretations and fabric choices come together from a single pattern.  We all started with Carrie Nelson's Paganini Schnibbles pattern.

The pattern included directions for four different piecing options, but I had had my eye on the pattern cover quilt for quite awhile, so that's what I opted to make, myself.  There was just something about that scalloped border!!

I purchased two Eden charm packs last spring and they seemed to be just the thing for this particular quilt.  I used the pink, yellow, purple, and white colorways, along with my favorite white-on-white floral background and came up with this:

I love how the brightly colored charm squares make the white background POP!

My initial plan for this quilt was to add a scalloped border, in white, just like Carrie's ... but once I had all the squares put together, I suddenly was having a hard time picturing the curvy border, but kept seeing a square, white border instead ... possibly with some multi-colored embroidered daisy-like flowers with a scrolly greenish vine -- perhaps a fantastic variegated matching thread?  This is just a really basic mock-up, but I think you get the jist of it.

I'm still playing around with ideas ... so this quilt top may go into hibernation for awhile until I'm sure of exactly how to finish it.

November's Le Petite project is Butter Churn by This and That Patterns. I'm think of using Awesome by Sandy Gervais to make a cheerful autumn wall hanging.  Please click on the Le Petite button on my side bar if you're interested in joining up in time fore the next parade.  Quilt pictures have to be submitted no later than November 30th.

Paganini pattern review, stash and 5 boxes update, plus new patterns should all be posted soon!!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  Hubby and I had a great day with my family.  We carved pumpkins together, stuffed ourselves with homemade goodies made by Mom (Thanks Mom!!) and celebrated our nephew's first Halloween.  Hubby's pumpkin was Baby Stewie from the Family Guy and I gave myself carpal tunnel carving out a witch sitting in her cauldron.

(We couldn't get Luigi out of the picture ... poor little guy just wanted to lick the pumpkins)

Hope your Halloween was just as great!!

Don't forget!  Today is the last day to submit your Le Petite quilts for October to either http://pinkpincushion.blogspot.com/ or http://www.aquiltinglife.com/.  Can't wait to see the parade of quilts tomorrow.  Here's a little sneak peak of mine!

I joined "Le Petite!"

One of my favorite quilt clubs last years was "A Year of Schnibbles," hosted by Sinta of Pink Pincushion and Sherri of A Quilting Life.  While my schedule was way too hectic to join in the fun, I enjoyed the monthly parade of beautiful Schnibbles quilts - wow, are you ladies talented!!

Well, September was the last of the Schnibbles months ... but Sinta and Sherri are starting right back up in the month of October with a new club: Le Petite: A Year of Small Projects.  The first project of the month is ... The Paganini Schnibble.  I've had my eye on this pattern ever since it came out ... so I'm thinking that this must be a sign from the heavens that I should join Le Petite!  Plus, since the number of expected babies among my friends and family has just risen to 6, I'm in need of lots of little handmade gifts!

If you're interested in joining too, sign up with either Sinta or Sherri first, then grab your Paganini pattern and have pictures of the completed project submitted no later than October 31st -- you still have almost three full weeks, so it's not too late!


If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a big fan of Carrie Nelson's patterns and am really excited to start Paganini.  One of the beautiful things about this pattern is that it is really four-patterns-in-one, so it may take me a little while to choose which one to make!

Version #1 (shown belown) was made with Figtree & Co's Fresh Cotton and has a beautifuly delicate scalloped border.  I'm also a fan of quilts that use my favorite fabrics offset by a crisp, white background, so right now, this is the forerunner for me!

... Version #2 is very similar to #1, but made with solids and squared borders ...

...Version #3 uses quarter-wheels instead of eighth-wheels ...

... and Version #4 has more of an "X" shape, rather than the wheel, and has that great scalloped border over a square one.  Love it!

Are you participating in Le Petite too?  If so, which pattern did you choose?  I can't wait to see everyone's results!!