Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Seuss on the Loose part deux

I've gotten this one quilted, and I love it!

I just lack tacking the binding down on 2 sides and it will be finished up.  
This is the fabric for another I'm working on. 
It's a commission, and the theme is "muted nautical"
I wasn't sure I was going to like those boats, but I really do once it's laid out.

I'm using the same block I used for this quilt, but it looks so different in these colors and layout!
These quarter-circle blocks are so easy.  
Really.  
They are a joy to put together.  I highly recommend that pattern.

Linking up to
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Eclipse quilt

I finished a quilt I've been working on.
It's made with this pattern:  Eclipse by Sandy Brewer of Quilt Country
It's a good pattern, comes in 2 sizes, I made the larger one.

It's the first one that I have gotten tired of quilting before I got finished.
I love machine quilting, and usually I'm sad to get finished with a project. 
Not this one.
I used 1500 yards of thread in the quilting, and it's just a twin-size quilt! 
I love the finished product!

And the light was really neat to take pics.  There's 20 different batik prints in there.

There are 4 full circles in the quilt, and they are done in spirals. 

The rest is done in a chaos texture, which made it really shrink up pretty.

You can see it better from the back of the quilt.

So here's what I learned from this quilt:
1.  I really like curved piecing
2.  This is a quick quilt, even though it doesn't necessarily look like it
3.  I am always glad when I take a chance on more daring quilting!

Linking up to 
Anything Related

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Some quilting work

Today I got to work on something I HOPE to do a lot more of:  quilting other's work!

These were for my dear friend Jessica who is a doll for trusting me with her creations!

The pink is made from her daughter's receiving blankets!  I love that!  
They are all flannel, so it has a wonderful soft texture. 

I wanted very much for my quilting to reflect Jessica's vision for these pieces. 
I added loopy hearts in a spiral in the squares  
and some loopy free quilting on the border.
I had to put in at least one special detail.  The double heart is for Jessica and her daughter, and I put the daughter's first initial (M) in the border quilting.

Such a neat piece!  I'm so thankful to be a part of it.

The other is a wall hanging for her daughter's room:
And I love the colors and how it turned out with the echo quilting.  
The binding is a yellow and black print that really frames it beautifully.

Do you have quilt tops you'd like to send me to machine quilt?  
Send me a message at wendyleep {at} gmail dot com and I'd be glad to talk to you about it!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Seuss on the Loose

I love making samples for my local quilt store!

This week I'm working with Robert Kaufman's new Dr. Seuss line.
I put this...
together with this....
to make this....
It's very loud.

But I like it!

Linking up to 
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Friday, April 15, 2011

Nervous as a cat in a car.....

Friends,
I have something great coming up tomorrow. I get to teach a quilting class.
And I'm thrilled.
And a teeny bit terrified.

You see, my profession is teaching.  Math. In college.  So I'm home in front of a class.
So this is the first time for me to teach stuff people actually want to learn from me.  By choice, you know?
That's TOTALLY DIFFERENT!

I want my students to be more excited about quilting when they walk out of the classroom than they were when they walked in.

So I'm going to do my very best.  I'm going to learn names.  I'll be encouraging.  I'm going to speak clearly and have good visuals that will help everyone follow along and feel comfortable.  I'll be approachable, yet I'll make sure that we accomplish our goals in the set time frame.  I'm going to be flexible.
And I'm bringing homemade cookies.

Any advice to share with me?

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

My work in progress this week

This week I'm working on this colorburst block.  Block isn't really accurate... since it's about 2 feet across at this point!  Next it's going to get a layer of dark purple fading to black, then fading to grey then white.  I think.  It's all improvisationally pieced, which is lots of fun.  Same technique as this quilt.

What do you think?

I'm linking up to
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and
sew many ways

Be sure to click over and see all the lovely projects in progress!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

The 80's called......

"The 80's called....and they want their quilt back."
{Quote from my friend Bonnie when she saw this quilt}

I'm currently working on a quilt from a pattern called Eclipse.
It's all done in batiks, and there are 20 different fabrics in this quilt.
Choosing 20 was challenging.
That's a heckuva lot of bolts.

I'm working on this one as a special request from my quilt shop, 
but I chose the fabrics, 
and I'm choosing the quilting style.

Here's how I'm quilting it:
I'm hoping it's going to give a really good mesh across the quilt and tame it a bit...

I'm about halfway through the first pass (takes 2 to make the pattern)
and so just for comparison, here's part that's quilted:
and here's part that's unquilted:

So what do you think? 
Is it headed in the right direction?

Monday, April 4, 2011

250 followers celebration! and a giveaway too....

So I'm thrilled to announce that The Wendy City has reached 250 followers... not counting the anonymous followers, or the Google Reader followers. 
I can't tell you how much joy it brings me that people care about my thoughts or my projects!
I started this blog just about 2 years ago, thinking that no one but my mom would read it.  (Hi, Mom!)
And now I am blessed to have become friends with many of you guys!

So to celebrate, I'm sharing some of my stash with you.  
It's 5 fat quarters from Riley Blake.  From the same collection that I used for this quilt-along.

To enter:

1.  Go vote for my sis-in-law's fabric in the Spoonflower contest (instructions here)
2.  Come back and tell me you voted in a comment.  
If you want, also tell me your current favorite fabric. I'm just curious and would really like to know.

I'll leave it open until midnightish on Thursday the 7th.

And while you're at it... leave a comment at sis-in-law's blog... she's having a giveaway as well.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Check it out! A congrats and a giveaway.....

So I'll confess that I "strongly encouraged" my sister-in-law into entering a contest.  And I encouraged our cousin to "strongly encourage" her as well...... cause I knew she had it in her to do a great job!

She's made it to the top 75 entries in the Michael Miller / Spoonflower design contest.

The top 10 are decided by VOTES, so that's where she needs your help!  And if you vote and tell her about it, she's giving away a fat quarter bundle of Riley Blake Love Birds.

To go to her blog, see her entry, vote for her and enter her giveaway, click this link.

Thanks!