Works in Progress

It’s been a bit of a slow sewing week for me. But today, I woke up with a flurry of ideas and inspiration. I impulsively started two (2!!!) new projects today, and I feel like I had a hundred in the works already.

I thought I’d give you a peak into what I’ve been working on today…

I whipped out my scrap box to collect squares for this pineapple mini quilt. I found it on Pinterest a while back, and haven’t been able to get it off my mind since. My roommate and I are going for a bright, happy, yellow color scheme for our kitchen, and I think it would fit perfectly. Pineapple = food themed = great kitchen accessory. And also a little quirky, which I appreciate.

Speaking of quirky, I discovered Lori Holt’s Farm Girl Quilt Along and I fell in love with the woolly sheep block that’s included in her book. Ahhh… I want to cover my house in woolly sheep mini quilts. But that will have to wait, for now.

I also added a new favorite quilt blog to my list this morning. Juliet at The Tartankiwi designs beautiful paper piecing patterns. She has patterns for thirteen New Zealand birds in her online store, and I can’t wait to make the kiwi (free!) and the fantail. I found her blog through Pinterest as well, after seeing this adorable sock mini quilt.

Anyway — back to my works-in-progress. I’m making a zipper pouch for my coworker (the one who loved my penguin pouch!) In my post about my rainbow cats potholders from last week, I neglected to show you the backing of those potholders. My coworker fell in love with the potholders — especially the backing — and requested that her zipper pouch be made from that cat fabric.

She’s going to use the pouch to house her electronic cords, so I made it a bit bigger than I would for a pencil case. I cut two exterior pieces, two lining pieces and two pieces of fusible interfacing to 9in by 11in, and  then promptly realized that I didn’t have any zippers in the appropriate size or color, so I’m adding the sewing store to my list of errands to run this afternoon.

And finally, I have a Big Work-In-Progress to share with you. I’m working on a star quilt (I’m calling it Suns and Stars, for future reference), with a Christmas deadline. I was inspired by this quilt by a do. Good Stitches circle. (The stars themselves were created using this tutorial.) I loved the night sky-esque of the quilt, and I wanted to do my take on it in blue.

The stars on the lighter blue fabric strike me more as suns – thus the name Suns and Stars. I’m using a variety of yellows and dark and light blues. I’m hoping the end result will be cohesive but scrappy. Lots of fabrics from previous projects have made it into the blocks so far. The light blue swirly print on the lower right is from my very first quilt! And on the lower left, the lighter aqua print is from my sister’s Garden Squared quilt. I love using leftover fabrics in new projects, it makes me feel like all my creations are related to each other.

I have 5 stars finished so far, and I’m planning to make about 25 in total. I’m plugging along, slowly but surely!

That’s all for now! I need to head to the store to stock up on some supplies (food & sewing!)